"The Man Who Saved The World"

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Every moment counts. We are the spy guys, and this is the man who saved the world. Speaker 0 00:00:13 Hello, and welcome back to the Spotify guys or recover a spy fact spy fiction and everything in between I'm Zach and I'm Christian. And today we have returned to a nuclear near miss movie. Speaker 2 00:00:25 This one's a bit different because, well, not only is it a real life story, but it's a documentary, which I believe this will be our first documentary. Speaker 0 00:00:33 That's right. But don't run away. Audience don't run away. It's not like a history channel documentary where it's really stodgy and dull. It has a lot of reused footage from newsreels. Speaker 2 00:00:44 I mean, it does have that. Speaker 0 00:00:46 It does have that feel just a little bit. The movie is set up with two branching narratives. The first is about our hero. Stanislav Petrov traveling to the United States as an old man. And the second is a flashback using actors about the day that he saved the world. Speaker 2 00:01:03 Have you seen a documentary in this format? Like that sort of thing before you have the older person sort of telling the story or following his story, and then you have flashbacks to a younger, like an actor plate portraying a younger version. Speaker 0 00:01:13 Oh, that I have, but nothing jumps to mind immediately, unless you count band of brothers. Cause that has the interviews with the guys in the beginning. Really. Speaker 2 00:01:22 Okay. The only one I can think of is I think it's called becoming bond. It's a George Lazenby documentary, which I think would be fun. They'll cover at some point. Speaker 0 00:01:30 So they have an actor playing chores lays in the past. Yeah, that does sound fun. Speaker 2 00:01:36 And if you know anything about George Lazenby, he's a, he's a bit of a character. So some of his stories are out there, but let's, let's go back to this movie Speaker 0 00:01:45 So we can imagine that. Right. So last week we did the sum of all fears, which was a bout a terrorist group with unclear motives, trying to start a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet union. Those Speaker 2 00:01:56 Seem like pretty clear motives. Speaker 0 00:01:59 That's just a blow up everything this week though. It's about a near miss caused by an accident, the man who stopped nuclear Armageddon from happening. So here's the B plot summary, retired Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov who saved the world from world war three talks about his life as a retiree and shares his opinions on the cold war with actor, Kevin Costner and this melancholic mixture of documentary and reenacted footage. So Speaker 2 00:02:26 Like almost every movie that deals with potential nuclear war. This starts off with explosions. Yes. Speaker 0 00:02:35 And very confusingly. The names Dan Slav, Petrov like appears in text, I guess that's supposed to be he's acting as himself. Yeah. But it was very unclear why the texts were there. Yeah. So there was a lot of missiles shooting up to Nazis explosions, which reminds you the holy Polaris from Batman, the movie. And we meet Stanislav as an old crotchety man living in his apartment, Speaker 2 00:03:00 He opens a beer and foams over just to emphasizes how not great his life is right now. Speaker 0 00:03:06 Yeah. I say crotchety. Cause he swears about everything. Seems hate every, Speaker 2 00:03:11 We hear him listen to an answering machine. All these people asking him for interviews. So like, I can understand him just being annoyed with all these people, just wanting to have a piece of basically. Speaker 0 00:03:22 And we will be returning to that theme a lot as you're going through the movie. So yeah. He has the dances with wolves poster on his Speaker 2 00:03:29 Wall. I didn't catch that. Uh, Speaker 0 00:03:32 Yeah. It's Kevin Costner posing with the native American guy who I did not recognize. We also have flashbacks to him having sex with a hot wife. And then we learn that he's on his way to the United States of America. Speaker 2 00:03:46 So he's agreed to come and tell his story. Speaker 0 00:03:49 We get a flashback to Stanislav as a young Gish man. I think he's supposed to be in his thirties. There's news that a south Korean airliner has been shot down and tensions are rising between the United States and the Soviet union. He has a sick wife named Riah jumping back. He's constantly swearing, a hot blonde woman. Who's a translator on a journalist come to see him. They're talking to him. He's really crotchety. They bring them as parents. And he like loses his shit at them. Speaker 2 00:04:18 Yeah. Well, so it starts off. We start talking about like, just about when he joined the airline, they're looking at his photos of him as a young recruit, find out what he was like 17. When he joined the army and his parents sort of pushed him into it. They basically shoved him aside. And he like does not want to talk about it. But this guy, like this reporter just like keeps pushing about I'm like, Ooh, yes he did. Speaker 0 00:04:38 Does what? Like what? It's incomprehensible it. We'll talk about it more too. So eventually tennis level, like freaks out and yells at them to get out of his house. Speaker 2 00:04:47 Like throws them out. Yeah, Speaker 0 00:04:49 Basically. Yeah. Great way to start the movie. Cause there's interpersonal conflict and you're like, what's the deal with this guy? And then the text on the screen says a true story. Speaker 2 00:04:59 I knew you were going to point that out, Speaker 0 00:05:02 Move, you pull his pants down and put its balls right on the table and said, this is a true story. I love it. And I wish more movies would do that. More induced and test footage as we go through the credits, Speaker 2 00:05:13 Including like some news footage of the time in 1983, apparently there was a world series going on when this was occurring. I guess it's the 83 world series. I have no idea who was playing though. Speaker 0 00:05:23 Actually I think it takes place in Baltimore. Uh, I may be misremembering it, but if it is, that's a weird coincidence. Right, Speaker 2 00:05:31 Right, right. Let's see this other young woman in a car who's driving around her name is Gallia. He's like very adamant that he wants to make sure that he's not cheated out of his money. Doesn't want to be tricked. And the only reason he's doing this is because they're going to pay him for the documentary based. Speaker 0 00:05:46 Yeah. So again, he comes off as very abrasive and difficult to get along with. Also in this part, you can tell her in Basco cause there's lots of shots of it. St. Peter's cathedral, right? The one with all the onion domes Speaker 2 00:05:57 New in Peter's cathedral is in the Vatican. What's it called? Speaker 0 00:06:00 Um, let me look it up. I Googled Moscow onion building. Oh, I think it's called St. Basles. Speaker 2 00:06:07 Uh, Speaker 0 00:06:08 Okay. So I was close pure, then there's other flashback. Stanislav on the bus. He has to go to work. He doesn't want to, and there's a fellow Soviet. Who's basically a warmonger. Is that too harsh to say he wants to go fight some Americans. Speaker 2 00:06:25 I mean, he's just very enthusiastic about, about the war, right? Yeah. Warmonger is a little strong Speaker 0 00:06:32 And he calls us crusty Americans. I don't know what that means. Jumping back to the present they're in New York and they pass by the UN building and Kalia tells Deanna's love. Yo, you have to make a speech. And he gets mad and I am totally on board with him getting bad. Speaker 2 00:06:50 Um, yeah. I like, well, first of all, he has a very short fuse seemingly he's a sort of insisting that like he's just a regular person. He's not a politician. You can make speeches at the drop of a hat. Speaker 0 00:07:02 Oh, that public speaking is the most common fear. At least among Americans. Speaker 2 00:07:07 I believe you told me that before Speaker 0 00:07:09 And only to death. Yeah. There's that comedy bit that if you're at a funeral, you'd rather be in the coffin than making the eulogy. Ha ha. It's very old. So the point is I totally get where he's coming from where she can't just spring that on him. Yeah. That's fair. We had a scene of Ghalia talking on her phone to her friend. Her friend says, why don't you just punch Stanislav when it gets out of line. I wonder if he watched this movie and if so, what did he think about? Speaker 2 00:07:34 Uh, that's a very good question. Who knows the little behind the scenes. I think this documentary was filmed about 2005 or so. And Speaker 0 00:07:41 We'll get to it. I MTV says it's 2014. Speaker 2 00:07:44 Well that's when the w there was release, Speaker 0 00:07:46 But it was filmed earlier. Yeah. Ah, Speaker 2 00:07:48 Okay. There's one thing. That's a marker of why, of what, when it would be Petra is not sure what he's doing there. He been hammering that in that point that if he wasn't getting paid, he'd leave. And then he goes to the UN and apparently like they had to say that they don't have quite the crowd they were expecting. Apparently there's some sort of mix up with badges. I'm like, oh really? Wow. Okay. Speaker 0 00:08:11 Classic this scene where he's making the speeches sad. Cause it's just a bunch of bored looking like older people, Speaker 2 00:08:16 The person who was introducing him to give us a sort of background to the presentation, which means we get more flashbacks. Yup. Petrov arrives at the observation station. People like reporting to him saying, there's no, continue with the protocol. You know what this reminded me of, is it a golden eye? Speaker 0 00:08:34 It is golden Speaker 2 00:08:35 Eye with the bunker. And like they're doing the shift change and all that. Yeah. That's exactly what it reminded me of. Speaker 0 00:08:42 So basically he reports into work. Everything's normal. There's a brief scene where he's speaking English and I thought he could speak English, but apparently he only learned it phonetically jumping back to old Petrov. Speaker 2 00:08:52 Yeah. Because he's practicing part of a speech. And he's just saying that, you know, he's not a hero. He was just at the right place at the right time. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:08:59 He says he had doubts that he did the right thing and that the danger is still there. Speaker 2 00:09:04 Yeah. So he also gets presented with an award at the UN, which is pretty nice. And yes, he does a speech in Russian. And then yeah. He says his part in English, which has like a lot, a nice impact. I think on the crowd sees as a, you know, we were basically the closest to catastrophe in 1983. And as long as nukes exists, the possibility of nuclear annihilation is still there. That's true Speaker 0 00:09:25 Through this sort of time MacLease hangs over us all. We try not to think about it. Speaker 2 00:09:30 Yeah. And so then we get sort of footage of news reports and footage of North Korea is doing this or ran might have nuclear weapons by such and such a time. And then they feel pretty heavy on the nine 11 footage. Speaker 0 00:09:43 The nine 11 footage I thought was very unnecessary. Speaker 2 00:09:46 Yeah. Like there was a lot of it. I did not like it hammering in the point of cause like someone asks him, can you imagine if nukes ended up in the hands of a terrorist and he's like, I think it's inevitable. And so they're trying to hammer in the, you know, see what they could do with just some planes. What could they do with nuclear arms? I Speaker 0 00:10:02 Doubt that. Speaker 2 00:10:04 No, I agree with you. It was way. And they really went heavy on it. So here we get Petrov meeting, a lot of people, Robert de Niro, he has no idea who Matt Damon is to maybe laugh. Speaker 0 00:10:19 I thought that was weird. Cause I didn't think Matt Damon and Kevin Costa were that displaced in time. What Speaker 2 00:10:24 Do you mean? Oh, you mean like they look like they do now? Speaker 0 00:10:27 No, I mean, I guess Matt Damon is a little bit younger than Kevin Costner, but it's not like it's Tom Holland versus, Speaker 2 00:10:35 Okay. So how many of the Bourne movies you think played in Russia though or played? Well, Speaker 0 00:10:40 He does say that Kevin Costner is very popular in Russia and I suppose Matt Daemon isn't so maybe that explains that. Speaker 2 00:10:46 Yeah. But DeNiro apparently very popular. And so we also get gallery up talking on her phone with her friend again and she's conflicted about him cause he he's a crotchety old asshole, but he also is the man who saved the world. So he's like an interesting paradox. Yeah. Well what Speaker 0 00:11:00 Have you done for me lately status? That was 30 years ago. How much long are you going to keep milking? Speaker 2 00:11:07 So we get a scene where Gallia apparently didn't really know how bad it was in 1983 and like petrol takes her through it. And how you know, Reagan called the evil empire talks through how that Korean airline wandered into Soviet airspace and got shot down by Soviet jets, which heightened all the tensions. And then we go to a flashback at the observation station, they get an alert that there's a missile in-company, that's why they're trying to get verification. Everything seems to point to an actual launch. Headquarters is waiting for his confirmation before they do anything, Speaker 0 00:11:42 The level of verification maximum. And they say that a lot. So it says a missile's coming, but there are guys who are looking for it and they can't see it, but their computers are so shitty that it's like, how are you even know if it's there? Right. So I thought this was great, but he says, we need visual confirmation before I pass it up the chain. Speaker 2 00:12:04 So headquarters calls him and he answers and says that there is no missile. It was a false alarm. Pretty much instantaneously after he hangs up that phone. There's a second missile alert. This is my favorite part of the, Speaker 0 00:12:17 This is my favorite part because he calls, he sits down and like leans back and then the alarm goes off again. It's great timing. It really makes your heart sink. It's fantastic. Speaker 2 00:12:30 And then we flashed back to present day where Gallia is again, talked with their friend. Apparently they're going to go meet Kevin Costner. You see the galleon Petrov are getting along better. Now they go and like buy a copy of the bodyguard on VHS. Right? I couldn't tell it was VHS or DVD. I assume it had to have been DVD by this point. Speaker 0 00:12:48 No, there was. But there were VHS is in the background. It was made in 2005. That's kind of the transition period. Right? Speaker 2 00:12:55 That's true. That's around that time, they also go to a shooting range where he shoots a picture of Osama bin Laden. And like this first shot is like right between the eyes. Do you see that? Speaker 0 00:13:06 I couldn't really tell, but so I took their word for it. Been a lot of thing is like, again, like nine 11, again, if it were filmed in 2005, the specter of looming towers. So I get it. You also uses a desert Eagle among other gods. Speaker 2 00:13:22 So they go and visit, do we know where this site is? Where basically there's all these missile launch tubes for the Minuteman two missiles. Speaker 0 00:13:29 I would presume somewhere in the Midwest. Yeah. Based on that guy's accent also, like he has a ball on the side of his face. It's like big and red. I don't want to body shame anybody, but it was very distracting. Speaker 2 00:13:42 I did not notice that. So. Okay. I think there was South Dakota, which I was wondering, given that he's a Russian and you know where Russians in movies always want to go to Montana. It's right next door. I was hoping it was like, please go to Montana. Be the one who actually makes it all the way there. Speaker 0 00:14:02 The one in real life that would have been great. I didn't even think of that. That's Speaker 2 00:14:06 Yeah. Yeah. So he's talking to that park ranger. Who's giving him this whole schpiel about basically how effective these weapons are, what would happen with them. And then he makes a comment about how, you know, we were just building them for self-defense and that's what like sets him off then what do you think we were doing? We were building themselves with defense to Speaker 0 00:14:23 It's something that comes up in the movie a lot. And I wanted to mention this with the whole Reagan evil empire thing. I'll mention it now that without communication, there's a thing called the security paradox. I think we might've talked about it before. Where if you build a nuke to defend yourself, I see that as an aggressive action. Or like if you put into missiles in Turkey, like a certain Psalm wine and a certain other movie that we've covered 13 days, check it out. Then it gets interpreted as aggressive. Even if it's intended that way. Also in this conversation, they make the point that like nuclear missiles are like ridiculously powerful. They're like 50 gazillion times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki, where it's almost like comical Speaker 2 00:15:04 Bomb that was exploded in world war two, combine that all together. And it's only 60% of one of these minute missiles, which is insane to think about. Speaker 0 00:15:13 Yeah. It's incomprehensible. But Speaker 2 00:15:15 Yeah. So he blows up at the ranger, the ranger actually I was impressed by him that he was like, do not try to like argue back with him. You just sounded like it took the shouting and then was able to diffuse the situation, asked if Petroff, if he thought that atomic bombs would ever be used in Oregon. And he's like, yes, it's inevitable. The past has taught us nothing. Speaker 0 00:15:34 He's a very nihilistic point of view about humanity and the future. Yes. Given everything he's gone through. It's understandable. But Speaker 2 00:15:41 Um, also there's a scene here or he and go, yeah, see a Buffalo room, a bison. Speaker 0 00:15:47 Actually I was advised Buffalo. Don't live in the United States. I read that under a misconception list. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:15:53 But that Speaker 0 00:15:53 Song, yeah, the song is wrong. Oh, Speaker 2 00:15:57 You're blowing my mind. Here's a Speaker 0 00:15:58 Check. Getting back to the bunkers. He says call the director of the political department, which was interesting. Cause it's like the political officer, he calls his commander, but his commander is like, don't talk tonight. Me like leave me alone. I'm hung over. So he just hangs up on him. This is great too. Yes. Speaker 2 00:16:16 Then of course after that, there's the third missile and we get a little like slow motion of him. Like going back through the observation center, say the singles, keep coming. Now there's a fourth one as a fifth one. Speaker 0 00:16:29 Yeah. The first time I watched this movie, I actually thought the world was about to blow up. That's so much I was sucked in. So everyone's looking at our guy everyone's looking at Stanislav what do we do? What do we do? Speaker 2 00:16:40 He's like imagining all these ICBM's launching. It's weirdly intercut with like love scene with his wife again. Speaker 0 00:16:47 Yeah. Sex and TAF. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:16:49 Older Petrov is narrating. Thoughts of how, you know, if he confirmed the attack, there would be retaliation. Lots of people would have died. There would have been complete overkill and the retaliation. So it was like, okay, what do I do? So he keeps trying to get the visual confirmation of the people, pushing him to make a decision. He says, I'm going to do nothing. I don't trust the computer. I want to wait for radar confirmation. So he orders like everyone back to their stations. Speaker 0 00:17:15 Something interesting here that I wanted to talk about. People are just staying. We won't have time to retaliate the longer you wait, which is good for screenwriting. Cause it's like a, Timelock like it puts time pressure on him to make a decision. And he said, if I'm wrong, millions die. And I didn't understand this now. Maybe I wouldn't expect Stanislav to be like an expert on like nuclear theory. The theory of nuclear war is that weapons are neither offensive or defensive. They are deterrence weapons, right? Their purpose is to the enemy from attacking you. Which means if the missiles are in the AR deterrence has already failed. Okay. Right. You have to have your enemy convinced that you will launch if he launches. But if he's launched, there's no point in you launching except to spite him because you're going to die either way. Basically you Stanislav is wrong. Then billions of Soviets will die. But not millions of Americans. Is that such a terrible thing? I mean, it is a terrible thing, but from his perspective, they're going to die either way. Speaker 2 00:18:20 But he was not thinking of himself in terms of countries in this moment. I think he was just thinking of just lives in general and that he doesn't want to, like if he made that call and it wasn't like, as he did, like he said what he said, he didn't trust that computer and that he, even though they were saying maximum, uh, what was the Speaker 0 00:18:37 Phrase? Maximum verification Speaker 2 00:18:40 Either. They can see it. So in that case, well, yeah. Do you want to be the one who, oh yeah, no. Now it's all on because you know that he would be a scapegoat if he was wrong. Speaker 0 00:18:51 I think what he's going for is that if you lose this as nerve millions, we'll talk. So maybe I choose to interpret his comment. That way maybe there is some translation errors. Speaker 2 00:18:59 He like debates, changing his orders and actually following a protocol. But he realized, no, I'm not going to do that. And in minutes he says it in a minute and made it say to appear on the screen. And minutes later they would detonate as we get 30 seconds until they're actually going to be observable, get a countdown. And then when they are observable, radar finds nothing. So everyone celebrates because they avoided three Speaker 0 00:19:24 That's right. What a relief, the longest 30 seconds of his life. It was a quote here. When someone says, we showed those Americans, Speaker 2 00:19:31 Uh, show them, is that the same guy? Like the very gung-ho. Oh, it could Speaker 0 00:19:38 Be. I don't know. Speaker 2 00:19:39 I wasn't paying attention for that. Yeah. But what was really interesting to me is the fact that they couldn't find what causes this glitch. You're telling him, you know, make room for a new metal on your uniform. And so it goes up to see the commander general, who is not happy with him and says, you know, there are gaps in the combat journal, you know? Well, I was chosen to lead my men and not keep my journals. So I said, well, why don't you go back and fill it in afterwards? And it was like, because that would be altering a military document, which is illegal. It's classic Speaker 0 00:20:09 Soviet. They're just out to Speaker 2 00:20:11 Get ya. Yeah. Yeah. So they make him a scapegoat and you know, Galya being the president asks, is this why you left the army? And we find that no, the main reason he actually left the army is because his wife's health was rapidly declining. Her cancer was very advanced. The, we get the classic, the doctor says, there's nothing we can do except make her comfortable. Speaker 0 00:20:31 The system wrote her off is wide. He says, there's also a part. I don't know if this was intentional, but the actor playing Stanislav seems to have less hair, like the edges of his head. He is like a bit of a bald spot. I liked that he actually looked worse than her. And she was the one who was dying. He's Speaker 2 00:20:47 Taking care of her. And a certain point he falls asleep, wakes up and find that his wife has died in their bed. Speaker 0 00:20:54 He says, forgive me, which I guess is like, forgive me for not being there. When you died. This movie has too much emotion, too much turn into is five movies to feel it gets worse. Speaker 2 00:21:08 Yeah. And Galia, you know, asked if he ever loved anyone after her. He says he didn't even really try anything after her. He was all by himself. Apparently his mother came the day after the funeral and they left shortly after that. And he hasn't seen her since. And his family, you know, doesn't really know about what he did. Speaker 0 00:21:29 That's true. Well, you wasn't allowed to tell them at first, but even in 2005, they don't know. Yeah. He was just like, why tell her what's the point? She's the way she always says eventually though they finally meet Kevin costs. Speaker 2 00:21:43 Yeah. So they go to his trailer and it is super nice inside. Like it looks like just a house that's got like wood paneling and everything inside his trailer. Costume is actually apparently a surprise that he wanted to meet him. But we find yet Petroff, like you said, is a big fan. Cause we saw the post in his apartment. And like we said before, apparently Kevin Costa is very popular in Russia. Petrov gives him a book on Moscow. Well, Speaker 0 00:22:10 Yeah. It's like a coffee table book. Speaker 2 00:22:12 It was the funniest bit about how he tried to send it to his, like to costumers house. And like, is it a publicist? Had to explain why you can't send stuff to a celebrity's house. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:22:22 I know they don't go into it, but I would have liked to know why he would've thought Kevin Costner would want a book, a buyer, Moscow. Speaker 2 00:22:29 I think it's more just bringing something as a gift. That's fair. And that's like his home, you know? So he wants to share his home. Speaker 0 00:22:36 Yeah. But unfortunately this whole scene after that is terrible because he tells Kevin Costner about how dangerous nuclear war is. I'm like we just went over that a half an hour ago, Speaker 2 00:22:49 Costner ass who asks how many lives would have been lost. We find that it apparently would have been half the us population after the first strike and all communications roads would be destroyed. And it'd be the same of the USSR. Be a chance of a second strike. Speaker 0 00:23:05 So there's a little bit more information. That's Speaker 2 00:23:07 A little bit more I give, like, rather than just saying, you know, that it would be terrible. We get, you get not exact numbers, but rough figures, which gives you a better idea. There's also intercut here, Petrel looking at houses from like a nuclear test site. So he like it's the, the actual, you know, impact of what would have happened to half of the country if he had made the wrong call. Speaker 0 00:23:28 Yeah. I guess I was wrong when I said a lot of that test footage from the Soviet union. I guess some of it is for Ali, from America as well, watching Koster's reactions to the speech is kind of interesting. He seems like he's trying to seem very serious, but you could also tell, like he has no idea what Stanislav is talking about. It's like his tiny actor and I like Kevin Costner, but like wow. Big intellectuals. Speaker 2 00:23:54 Okay. I mean he played JFK. Speaker 0 00:23:57 Yeah. We made fun of him for Speaker 2 00:23:59 That. I know he didn't play JFK. He played the other guy. He's Speaker 0 00:24:01 Like Kenny. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I like Kevin Costa and I especially like seeing him, like not being an actor in this movie, I think he's pretty likable, but yeah. It's like nuclear war is not something he understands a lot about. That's pretty cool. Speaker 2 00:24:15 And I think he knows that he does. So he's just trying to that's I think that's probably why he was asking these questions so he could better comprehend the gravity of what Petrov did. Speaker 0 00:24:24 But like I said, I feel like you could've cut the scene where he's talking to gall. Yah. And just put it all in Speaker 2 00:24:29 Here now, because then you couldn't do the flashback. That's why you have that as a framing device is so that he was telling her, so then he's reliving it. Like you wouldn't have him reliving it with Kevin Costner, Speaker 0 00:24:42 Unfortunately, because it's a documentary. You can't just cut scenes up like oh yeah. Because if he didn't talk to Kevin Costner about that stuff and you can't put it in. But I will say though that once the flashback is over, I feel like a lot of the tension goes out of the movie because he's explaining all the death. I feel like that would have been better if it had happened before the crisis was averted. Speaker 2 00:25:03 Yeah. I mean, it's sort of just to hammer home the, you know, the impact of what he did basically. So there's a nice scene where Costner brings Trav onto the set of the movie that he's filming, which is apparently the guardian, Speaker 0 00:25:19 Which is not in 2014, Speaker 2 00:25:21 2005. Yeah. That's why I think that's, as I said, I'd come back to that. That's why I think, because it, did you notice who else was onset? Speaker 0 00:25:29 I saw a guy who I thought was Adam Baldwin, but I think he was just a tech guy and I did see my favorite actor Speaker 2 00:25:37 Also. Ashton Kutcher. Speaker 0 00:25:39 Yeah. He shows up in the credits or is he this scene? Is he in this? Speaker 2 00:25:42 And he's in that scene as well? I think, but I didn't like notice I'm on until later on Speaker 0 00:25:47 I asked him, but they talk here. I don't remember who says it, whether it's Costner or Santa slob, but he says, well, you must forget the past and move forward. But that contradicts what he said earlier about how we didn't learn from the past. So he's saying he Speaker 2 00:26:03 Doesn't believe that we have, Speaker 0 00:26:04 But we need, I guess they're really not contradicting Speaker 2 00:26:07 Faster. Like yeah. It gives that whole speech. And now to Sue, he was under the easy ease. The hero brings out the champagne and then we get this interesting thing of all right. Costumer asks Petrov. Like I think they're having dinner together. Cause they're having a meal together. He was king of the world. How would he fix everything? And yeah, this is where if child says that, you know, we must forget about the past. The country countries must get along. And the next scene, we start at an exterior and we just hear Galya and Petroff fighting Speaker 0 00:26:35 Actually before that there's a, pre-formed where she's sleeping on his shoulder. But yeah, they were fighting again about the mom. I'm like, Jesus Christ. You guys need to let the mom thing go already. Speaker 2 00:26:48 Okay. This one, I feel like the Galya is actually doing it for his own good, not like journalists who was like, just trying to get information really. And just trying to get a reaction. Speaker 0 00:26:59 It's true. But he has such the reactions like gall, you have respect the guys boundaries, come on. Mean Speaker 2 00:27:06 The other hand it gets, you know, he, she brings it up that he's old. So his mother is older and that she won't be around much longer. So you've got to heal those wounds. But what, before you don't have that chance. Speaker 0 00:27:18 So I did this to a mutual friend of ours who I won't name. Okay. But he was like, my mom's coming to visit this weekend. She kind of gets on my nerves sometimes. And I'm like, hang in there. You know, she's not going to be around forever. So try to enjoy your time together. And he just turns and looks at me. He's like, that was low, sorry buddy. Jewish guilt. It's in the blood. I'm susceptible to it too. Speaker 2 00:27:40 He continues to push the issue and he's not having it. He is saying, you know, this is my personal life. You know, this is not. And she like throws back. Well, you can talk to Costner about world peace, but you can't talk about your own mother. And you're just saying to him about how you have to forget the past and forgive. And then you can't forgive your mother. And he like blows up storms out of the hotel. What a mass. And then we see him going on a plane back to Moscow. He's back in his apartment. He unpacks his award from the UN, goes to a graveyard, put some flowers on his wife's grave. But some indetermined time later, we don't know how long he calls Galya on the phone. And she's like annoyed with him. Like, why are you calling? What's you know, I'm very busy. What, what do you want me? It's like, yeah, no things are not great. My brother died two days ago. She has to go. Did you see her ma your mother is like, no, I haven't seen her in a long time. Speaker 0 00:28:31 The mother again. See what I mean? Speaker 2 00:28:33 I mean, okay. At this point, I think it's, the movie has shifted tone in from what he did into just how he wants to live the rest of his life. Speaker 0 00:28:41 I don't know how you feel about it because on the one hand it's a really good character arc for him. It's really emotional, too much feelings. My little heart couldn't take it. But on the other hand, it's really frustrating to see people keep bringing up the mother and having him blow up at them. And then they just bring her up again. It's like, yo, Speaker 2 00:28:58 Well, in this situation though, when she brings it up and she pushes him to go see her, she knows that he's going to already. So I was like, I'm not going to argue with this. I just think this is what you need to do. She knows him by now and knows that he's going to start arguing. So she like, basically just cuts them off, says, I'm not going to argue, dude. This is what you need to do. And when they hang up is actually on good terms, like take care of yourself, that sort of stuff. So it's not, yeah. I think it actually worked that he was, she was breaking down this barrier. She knew how far to push Speaker 0 00:29:27 She's basically like, you know, I'm right. But I'm not going to argue about it. Yeah. So he gets on a train and he goes to like, looks like a slum almost. And he does find his mom. Yeah. And she immediately lays on the guilt trap. Speaker 2 00:29:41 She's super dramatic to be fair. Like her other son is Jay had just died. Speaker 0 00:29:46 Yes. I wondered if this might be why they had such a strange relationship because there are some people, fortunately you see them in fiction. I don't know anyone in real life like this, but there's example is the play. And then the shitty movie, August Osage county and also the Sopranos. But there's older people in it who will like manipulate their children by guilt, tripping them like this. And I'm not talking Jewish guilt. I'm talking to like extreme. And they're basically like toxic, like Darce assists personalities. I don't think that's what the movie is saying about his mom. But there's the potential that may be why their relationship is what it is. At least he hasn't seen him in like 30 years and immediately like starts slamming him with that. It was hard to watch stuff with old people. I like can't handle that with her. Speaker 2 00:30:32 Oh, I haven't seen flowers in a long time. So I think they just needed to get that out of the way. And then the healing can start. Speaker 0 00:30:38 Yeah. I think someone says I can't be mad at you. And then they share some pictures together. Speaker 2 00:30:43 He forgets Matt Damon's name. I thought it was Speaker 0 00:30:45 Hilarious. I forgot that part. So, Speaker 2 00:30:49 But they also go to visit his brother's grave and yeah, the movie ends, but we have some stuff during the credits we have, this was threw me off. Like there was a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who comes into his room. Speaker 0 00:31:02 Okay. The whole setup with the mom was very, like I said, it really made me sad, but it's also a little hopeful. It was very emotional. And then it cuts to what looks like a stripper, possibly like an attractive woman dressed up as Marilyn Monroe doing like a song and dance routine for Stanislav. And it was very strange. It was a very strange choice. Speaker 2 00:31:24 I don't know why that was in there, Speaker 0 00:31:26 Especially because it's not clear, like why she's there or who hired her? Like maybe at the end she could have a car that's like from your friend Kevin Costner, Speaker 2 00:31:35 Which would also be weird. But yeah, at least we have a little explanation, but yes, we get a little more like just shots of him meeting various people. Yeah. This is where we see us in Kutcher who is sitting like a few seats down from him. I think when they're doing the filming, he gets up and just like goes into nude, wants to shake his hand. Speaker 0 00:31:53 It's funny seeing Ashton Kutcher on the other side of that exchange happened to him a lot because you can see them like working up the courage to say something or citing whether or not to say hi. So there's a quarter where Stanislav is looking at a us army recruitment ad army, which I don't think they use any. Speaker 2 00:32:13 Well again, that's cause I think this was like, that was around the same time that they had in 2005. I think that was in times square as well. Speaker 0 00:32:21 Yes, it was. I also remember it was a news story when they switched from be all, you can be to an army of one because really you can be for a long time. That's right. Yeah. And then the last note I have for the credits is there an, a diner and there's a waitress says to her, this guy saved the world and the waitress says, oh, that's cool. I can tell she's been doing this for a while. She'd probably hear us all sorts of wacky stories, but yeah, with that and the movie does finally come to an end. I curious to hear your thoughts on it. But first we have a little spy fact versus fiction. This is all from Wikipedia about Stanislav okay. He had a son, D Mutrie and a daughter, Alina. I didn't know that the movie didn't mention them. I wanted to know what the deal with them was for live as well. Speaker 0 00:33:09 Yeah. Also those are the most Russian names in history. Just putting that out there. I mean the Tasha is up there too. Yeah. His wife RIAA died in 1997. Oh, okay. So Stanislav left the military in 19 84, 1 year after the incident by choice. He was not forced out though. He was sent to a less sensitive post after being reprimanded for the log. He then later got a job at the research Institute, which developed the early warning system. Oh, I guess he's an expert on it. So it makes sense. Yeah. He then retired to, could take care of his wife, a BBC report in 1998 said he had suffered a mental breakdown and quoted him as saying I was made a scapegoat. So I suspect the mental breakdown is why he couldn't get along with other people. Right. So he later says that the influence on his decision was that he had been told the U S strike would be all out. Speaker 0 00:34:03 Now one missile to missile, there would be like a hundred that also occurred to me. He also knew that the launch detection system was new. He also thought it went through to maximum of verification. A little fast. Yeah, that's fair. But in the 2013 interview, he said he was never completely sure that his call was correct, but he did say that he felt his colleagues were all professional soldiers with pure military training. They would have immediately reported. Cause that's what the military does as opposed to him who worked into the civilian world a little bit first. So good thing that it was him and not a military guy. Right? What if whoever was supposed to actually be on duty, didn't get sick. That's true. The same day that picture of was first honored. The UN ambassador to Russia said, Hey guys, the system required multiple confirmations before we launched. Speaker 0 00:34:57 We were not within one phone call of like blowing up the world. That's a paraphrase. And then finally Stanislav died on 19 May, 2017 from hypostatic pneumonia on at 29, September, 2018, he was post humorously awarded a future of life award or a $50,000. His daughter collected on his behalf. But his son Dimitri missed the ceremony because the U S embassy delayed his visa. Oh, do we know what happened to Golia? I did not look her up. Oh yeah. I'm just curious. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. W the fact that they came to collect his money made me wonder if it was like a grand Torino kind of situation where they like didn't care about him until they can make money off of them. But that's super depressing to think about. So I'm not going, Have you seen Gran Torino? I have not. No, it's a great movie. There is anti-Asian racism in it though, so I can see why you wouldn't want to see Speaker 2 00:35:51 It. No, thanks. Speaker 0 00:35:52 But it is really good. Okay. So now it is time for our favorite quotes. Would you like to go first? Because I have quite a few. I'll go Speaker 2 00:35:58 First one that I don't know if it's a favorite code, but it got me. It's like, it's a terrible thing. The torture of loneliness. Speaker 0 00:36:05 Whoa. I don't remember. That was out in the movie. Speaker 2 00:36:07 Yeah. It's when he's basically, it's like when he's after his wife's died and golly is asking if you ever loved again and all that sort of stuff. Holy cow, that got, uh, let's see, nobody will win in a worldwide nuclear war. We have to learn to co-exist as brothers or perish like dinosaurs. Yeah. I liked the dinosaurs. Finally. I thought from Kevin Costner what's MACPA when he's trying to read the Cyrillic and it looks like MacBook, but no, it says muscular. Oh yeah. Okay. Speaker 0 00:36:38 Okay. I've got a few when he says I'm not some slimy politician who comfortable way at all times I'm a regular person. So I don't know if that was meant to be like a thing, but yes, he is a regular person and that's, what's so amazing about it towards the end. He says, these women will be my undoing Stanislav is so quotable. Kevin Costner says in my country, it's easy to be famous for the wrong thing. How true that is. And then finally, by favorite quote, the one that has stuck with me, even though I watched this movie a long time ago, that I tried to make a history meme out of it, but I can never make it work. Trust the computer. I think that's a great line. I think it's really bad ass. All right. So now it is time for ratings on a scale of one to 10 Martinez, one being the Avengers, 19 97, 10 being even better than no time to die. I am really curious to know how you will rate the man who saved the world. That being said, you can go first. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:37:35 Go. You own, you go first. Speaker 0 00:37:37 So I've actually seen this movie three times the first time I thought it was great. I thought it was really gripping, loved the bad-ass one-liner the second time I thought it was terribly boring. Speaker 0 00:37:49 All right. So now, today I'm watching it for this really locked in. I think it was pretty good. Like I said, repeating the stakes was a bit, much not going 11 footage was also a bit much, but it gave me a lot of feelings and I thought stand us off as a really interesting guy to follow around. And I learned a lot. I thought the flashback was really good. So I am going to give it a seven out of 10. All right. Yeah. I should add though, if you want to watch it, it would probably help if you're really interested in these issues. Like, if, if you don't care about like nuclear war or the cold war, you're probably going to find it pretty boring. Speaker 2 00:38:25 You know, it held my interest, but I w it was a little lacking in the spy that I like action that I was looking for. Like, yes, they're preventing world war three. You know, we get a little bit of like what, you know, how they, what their capabilities were of like, alright, this is how we detect and everything like that. But there wasn't a lot of spy action. And in it, for me, that's it being said, it was still a very good movie. So I'm going to give it a six out of 10. Nice. Speaker 0 00:38:52 I feel like it's kind of like 13 days where you have people who have to make decisions based on limited information and they have to bet gutsy call. Speaker 2 00:38:59 And what's the common denominator declare war. No. Well also, yes, but Kevin Costner. Very nice. Well, thank you for joining us as always. You can find us on social media, on the Spotify guys on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram until next time I'm Christian and I'm Zach and we are the Spotify guys signing off. Speaker 3 00:39:20 Thank you for listening to the Spotify guys. If you enjoyed our podcast, please be sure to give us a five star rating on iTunes theme song. This podcast is a mistake to get away from it. Competent, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.0 films, books, and television chills reviewed by our podcast on the intellectual property of their respective copyright borders. And no, Speaker 0 00:39:50 This is a personal podcast and you've used statements or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal. I belong. So wait until the participants, they do not represent those. The people, institutions, or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with any professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated any views or opinions are not intended to mine. Any religion, ethnic group club, or organization, company, or individual, Speaker 3 00:40:17 You can find our podcast on social media at Spotify governors on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.