Minute 86: “NOOO!!!”
Cypher finally does his Judas deed.
Guest: Alex Thompson (of Galaxy Quest Minute)
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Transcript
0:00Matrix Minute. I switched it again. No, because when we started this, I went Matrix Minute. The official name is The Matrix Minute. You can't change the official name. Okay, okay, okay. We'll play the song again. The Matrix Minute. There you go. Are you happy, Jake? Absolutely very happy. Are you happy, Alex? Reasonably. Okay. Reasonably is good, too. I'll take that. I'll take that. Hi, I'm Phil. Hi, I'm Jake. Hi, I'm Alex. Alex from Galaxy Quest Minute. Yeah. Yes. Yes. You've heard the theme song sung by us already for two episodes. I think we're good for Friday. Yeah. And this is the last time we'll have Alex on, I think, for this week.
0:43Yes, it's true. It's true. It's true, Alex. Your time is coming to an end. But the important thing is Alex is still here. Oh, that's right. Yes. We should look at the positives. You're talking like he's not here, Phil. I'm sorry. My apologies. I'm not dead yet. Exactly. He's very present and alive. Yes. We're glad to have you, Alex. Thanks for coming on. Yeah. Thanks for having me back, guys. You're totally welcome. And let us get into... The sadness. The sadness that is... Minute 86. Aliens came out. Oh, it was 86? Dozer is, spoiler alert, about to get 86. Oh! Dang, no! Who will make the special drink?
1:25Ah! Yeah. Only he knew the secret recipe. No one makes such good liquor. Dozer. Ah. Sad times. Yeah. Who will advertise the aminos? Yeah, the aminos. Mm. Mm. He knew the best suppliers of aminos. So that means, after this, the food will suck. How can we have everything the body needs? Yeah. Oh, well. Oh, well. Anyway, let's keep going. This is... Phil, tell us. Yes, yes. I will tell you. As usual. Inform us. Yeah. Of what happens in this minute. Minute 86. As Cypher and Tank look at the monitors, Cypher leaves. The crew head to the ringing phone in the Matrix.
2:05Cypher picks up their electric... Sorry. Cypher picks up their electric gun and shoots Tank in the back. He missed a spot. Dozer jumps to save Tank with a... No! And gets shot full on. After Cypher's terrible deed, he dials the number to Trinity's phone as they wait in the Matrix for their exit and says, Hello, Trinity. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Okay. Betrayal. Betrayal. So. So I wanted to mention this because I forgot to mention it last time. What? But the music here, there's a little bit of wonderful little underscore by Don Davis where there's some strings playing in the distance with a very staccato.
2:52Not staccato. Staccato? I wouldn't think. Staccato is bum, bum, bum, bum. Yeah, staccato is da, da, da, da, da, da. But this one kind of does a, I don't know what you would call it, a mosquito effect where it sounds... It's very nice. It's very, very subtle. And I've never heard it before until now. Just really paid attention to that. Very nice. All right. So. Jacob, stop moving the picture. Okay. So. Minute 86. Well. This is the moment of betrayal. Sad times. So. What really happens is that the crew, which really at this point is Trinity, Neo, Switch,
3:38and Apoc. Mm-hmm. The four of them are waiting to get back in. Right. The real world. Yeah. They finally made it into the telephone room. The TV repair shop. Yeah. With a telephone in it. Oh, yes. Yes. Definitely. Because, you know, the TV repair guy has to take order. Lightning fast VCR repair. Mm-hmm. And Trinity's like, you first, Neo. Because she's like, probably listening to Morpheus. Like, you know what? He's the one. Uh-huh. Gotta save him. Yeah, he's important. And Neo's like, okay. Okay. Picks up the phone. Just went dead. But in the meantime. Yeah, the set. Cypher. He goes back. Well, yeah, he goes back. Yeah. I mean, when I mentioned the script last time,
4:20he had the whole alibi with, my lungs, the gas. And Dozer, he's distracted by getting a, you know, a little first aid kit for him. And then Cypher goes on and takes the gun. Right. But in this version, he just kind of goes to the tank and like, what's going on? What's going on? Everyone's busy trying to patch up these calls and things. Mm-hmm. And then Cypher just sneakily goes in the back to get. Under a blanket is this weapon, which I think is meant for sentinel attacks. It's sort of like a blaster gun. Yeah. In the script, it's different, but we'll get to that. Mm, okay.
5:01And yeah, you know, Cypher, you know, he shoots tank in the back. And it makes a very big... If you notice in the shot, he actually shoots, once he shoots tank, some of the electrical fizzy-wizzies go through the cables, and I thought they might have broken some of the equipment. Yeah, yeah. Boom. Thankfully, it didn't, but... Could have. Imagine if that was a plot point as well. It could have been a plot point. Like, you know, oh no, we can't reach Morpheus. Like, you know, we can't read Morpheus' signal. Is he dead? Is he alive? We don't know! I think what's more sad is that when we see Dozer...
5:41Oh, yes, yes, yes. ...you'll cry out. Like, no. Tank. Because his brother... No! I think those are one of the... That's one of the most dramatic no's in film history. It's a good no, man. It's not a cheesy no. No. Because they set it up so well, because, you know, they're brothers. Mm-hmm. They work together. They were the only guys who didn't have plugs. Oh, yes. There's a lot of subtle backstory. It's not a lot of backstory, but it's there. And he goes... And charges at Cypher. And Cypher just kills him as well. And burns his arm. We don't get to see that. We just see the close-up of the gun, which I think is a great image.
6:22Mm-hmm. You know, it's interesting. The guy who took two shots... Spoiler in three, two, one. The guy who took two shots from the gun survives. The guy who took one shot dies. Huh. Well... Some of them are just more resilient. Oh, yeah. I'm seeing that through the club. Yeah, that's true. You almost feel like you maybe should have been the other way around or something. Yeah. That might have been better. But then again, this also creates like a whole... Then, you know, when Tank comes back, you're like, oh. Oh! Maybe more... Oh, it's a miracle. Exactly, yeah.
7:03Yeah. That's a stuntman, obviously. Jumping down there. It's definitely something like that. So, as these guys are waiting in the TV repair shop, there's a little shot of Switch, which, you know, if you're into those stupid theories like Tim is... Hi, Tim. She's like, oh no, is Tank doing it? Tank is killing them? Like, it was our deal? Don't buy it. Don't buy it. I love the shot. Oh, so his theory is Switch is not only a traitor, but then Cypher is going to betray Switch as well? Yeah, because he's just a meanie head. That's who he is. Oh, okay. Yeah, and that's why she goes, not like this. It's like, she didn't expect this to happen.
7:44Ah, it's silly. I didn't expect a traitor to betray me. Yeah. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? Let's talk about that abandoned video shop there. Yeah, I wanted to mention that this is one of my favorite parts about The Matrix, is that they select... You know, you can tell when someone is very, how to put it, visually informed in their aesthetic, where they pick things that really work for what they're going for in the film. And The Matrix, you know, plays with a lot of these ideas, not just these philosophical ideas, but also like, you know, television, right? The Matrix, computers, screens, these kinds of things.
8:24And it's just nice to see when they use something as almost silly, like, oh, a TV repair shop, you know, in this time. Because it has a lot of old TVs here as well. You know, it's very retro. It's just cool. It's just a cool aesthetic thing. And look at that cash register that... Yeah. 1952? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, there's a lot of old 60s and 50s architecture. It just gels so well. It does. What do you think, Alex? Yeah. It does make me wonder, you know, if this is an abandoned TV repair shop, why was it abandoned with all the TVs in it? And if it's still an in-use TV shop,
9:06how bummed is this guy going to be when he comes in to find a bunch of dead bodies? That. That. Or he was freed from the Matrix. Oh. Oh. I like it. Yeah. And he's just like... That wouldn't work that way, but... Yeah. But yeah. But yeah. This is the location where they, you know... Yeah. This was one of their guys' old TV shops, and he just got freed by Morpheus or someone else. Is it... Do we know... Is it ever established what happens when an agent overwrites you? Do you just cease to be, or do you teleport somewhere else, or...? Good question. In my opinion, I think that the person who gets possessed or overwritten...
9:48Overwritten, that's a better one. Um... Just goes... And is transferred to wherever the other person was. Oh, weird. Oh, wait. No, wait. There's a thing, I think, later in this movie, isn't there? Where, um... The agent... Is it later in this movie? Where the agent takes control of, uh... I think the helicopter pilot. Mm-hmm. And then, after he takes the bullet to the face, he transforms back into the dead, now dead helicopter pilot. Yeah. So... So I think that, like, at the last moment... So I guess they do just override them temporarily. Yeah, temporarily. They just possess them.
10:29Yeah. Yeah. So when... So maybe this TV shop owner was someone who was possessed by an agent, killed, then the agent got killed while he was possessing him, and then the guy's just dead. That's another good theory. That's a tragic one. I guess we can have more deaths in this minute, too. Yeah. Well... Of course we can. Of course we can. But anyway, that aesthetic is very cool, because it jives with the whole... Mm-hmm. And it's spooky, and it's tense, and we don't... And these guys don't know what's going on, but Cypher, just... His heel turn is just so unexpected. No, it's not. After that scene, it's restaurant 41 or whatever. Yeah, 41. That's what it was.
11:10Yeah, by the way, that restaurant... It's gone. Sad. Yeah. We looked it up. The restaurant that Cypher meets with Agent Smith. It's a real Australian restaurant. Yeah. But... So, I know this is something you can probably touch on a little more in the subsequent minutes, but Cypher is beginning to have, at the end of this minute, he's going to have his Bond villain stupidity. Remind me of his stupidity. Bond villain stupidity is any point where the bad guy could have solved the problem by just killing him. Right. Right. He's got the gun. There's no one to stop him. But he's just talking. Everyone is laying there helpless, and he chooses to put on the headset and taunt Trinity and Neo.
11:51That's... Yeah. And switch and they pop. Yeah. It's a classic movie trope. Happens all the time. And, you know, if you want to shoot someone, just shoot. Stop talking. He would have, you know, he would have solved... He would have at least had a better chance if he just pointed the gun at all four of them. I know. Instead of picking up the headset. He couldn't resist. Mm-hmm. Laying out his whole plan. That's my favorite. Yeah. What? He's like, here's my plan. Did you want to know? You're going to die anyway. Here's the plan. Here's the plan. There's just going to have to be some kind of a miracle to stop me. Humans are... Now that you're about to die, let me exposit. Yes. Humans have a difficult time keeping secrets,
12:31and so it explains it. You know, it's like, I have to tell you my secret plan. Hmm. Dozer's burn marks are very... Bad? Yeah. Gross. They're very gross. They're very gross. Good job laying down there. It's just... I actually... So touching on those burn marks, actually an interesting bit of headcanon here. Dozer is wearing basically an A-shirt. He's wearing a wife beater. Mm-hmm. And Tank is wearing what looks like long-sleeved clothes. They get burned through, but maybe that's why Tank survives. He is wearing thicker layers... But then how weak is that? ...than Dozer.
13:12Well, it's electric. I mean, what do you know? Oh, yeah. How do we know? How do we know anything? But like... Yeah, Dozer... Maybe Dozer gets killed because the blaster makes it to his bare skin. Right. Yeah. Dozer, how could you? Or here's another theory. He had to show off those muscles. Maybe Dozer was closer to the blast. That's how weird that gun is. Oh, that gun is so weird. Yeah. It's just the right angle, just the right distance. I guess it's not meant for people. Ooh. That's a good one. Yeah. That's a good one, man. It's just not... It's just for those... Maybe it's supposed to penetrate electronic components, things of this nature, and then when it gets... Yeah, it's probably something like a concentrated...
13:52You know, it's maybe like a concentrated version of the EM that they use... That's what I was talking about. I thought it was like an EMP gun. You know, like it can be purposed to, you know, kill a human, but it's not really meant to do that. I think we found the answer. I think we found the answer. That sounds very plausible. Clap. Pat on the cell. Pat on the cell in the back. There you go. So how... Looking at Dozer and his tank top, since he's about to go bye-bye, or he just kind of went bye-bye, how cold is it on this ship? Because it seems like everyone else is dressed for... Slightly cold. Everyone's in long sleeves. Tank is even wearing fingerless gloves. And Dozer's in a tank top.
14:34Well, I think we know the answer to this. Dozer, he eats a lot of amino acids. Synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. That's correct. And he just stocks up on that and eats it like all day. We talked about this, yeah. So basically... He just works out. He's warm all the time, and he wants to show off those pectoral... No, well, he wants to show off those biceps. Triceps. He wants to show off his guns. Exactly. Lots of them. That was good. Well done. That was good. And so that's why he's warm. Everyone else is there all cold and... It's like, are you working out? Oh, I forgot. You better watch out. If someone uses the electric gun on you, you're out. And no one wants to eat those... The food that he makes.
15:15So then it's like they're all sort of scrawny. Yeah. But Dozer's fine. That's great. Except for now. Now you see what... That's what happened. That was sad. Now he's not fine. No. Alas. So what else is there really? I mean, Trinity... I like the lighting in the TV shop. Especially with Trinity. It's very dusty again. Again. Every time Trinity holds a phone, there's always some great lighting going on that I like. It's cool. Yeah, it's good. You should make a little collage of Trinity. Collage of Trinity holding the phone with the lighting. Yep. Sounds like a good one. And then, yeah. Let's look at that shot right there, where not only do we have
15:55an apparently dead tank lying on the ground there, and then the gun just being dropped on the floor, which gives you some flavor of... It just enhances what you're meant to be feeling emotionally. There's also this shot of the camera just going into Trinity's chair there, where she's sitting, in a kind of creepy, glidey way, because that's where we see Cypher next, when we cut away in the next night. Yeah, I think it's... beginning to foreshadow
16:36her vulnerability here now. Yes. She is now in jeopardy, because this traitorous madman has unfettered access to her. Yes. Yes. That's a good point. And plus, I think that she's in a really horrible position, because now she's sort of this, you know, mediator in this whole situation, where he has access to her, and she has to sort of speak for the crew, which is a pretty scary position to be in. Oh, yeah. Oh, I wonder if that maybe explains part of why Cypher didn't just kill
17:16all of them, is, did he perhaps intend to do something untoward with Trinity while she was unable to do anything about it? Maybe. I think that... You think she was gonna, he was gonna maybe tell her, like, um, like, join me. That's what I was gonna say. I think that he maybe had a, like, you know, because obviously we talked about this on the podcast in previous episodes, I've always wondered, you know, what was Cypher's and Trinity's relationship prior to this film, because it could be anything. They could have been romantically involved, they could have been, you know, really good friends, or either way, they have some kind of relationship that's a little bit deeper. Yeah, like, they could have been actually,
17:57like, associates in the Matrix before they got out or something. Yeah, clearly they're not, like, new friends. They've been friends for a long time or they've known each other for a long time, at least. Well, I don't know that they could have been associates in the Matrix because it seems, I think the implication has been that you're supposed to be freed from the Matrix when you're very young. Oh, right. Excuse me, when you're very young. Right. You know, which is why they talk about how an exception was being made for Neo. But generally speaking, you're supposed to be freed at some point in your childhood or else your mind is too entrenched in the Matrix to be able to accept the notion that your reality is a lie. That's right.
18:37Cypher actually says this in the early drafts of the script. Oh, no way. Remember how I talked about that? Hmm, forgot. It's okay. But I think the reason why he talks to Trinity is because he wants to sort of explain or finally get to tell her his feelings. Not just his feelings. He wants to tell her his, you know, true opinion of this whole situation because he's really been suppressing it the entire time and she knew that he wasn't really on board with everything and that's why he was always saying, oh, you know, I don't believe in the one and these types of things. But this is one moment and it's very, you know, you know, twisted because he like puts her in this position and she can't escape like you were mentioning to Alex and now he's forcing upon her his whole, you know,
19:17spiel and it's just horrible. And this is his chance to rub her nose in it, I guess. Yeah. And so maybe he would have said at the end, like, join me together we can become actors. Join me. Together we can become really great actors. Yeah. So I think he's in his like, you know, mind, he probably thought that he could maybe convince her or whatever. I don't know. And with that, I think our scene is concluded. Now we can go into the 1996 zone once again. Alrighty. Johnny, my boy. Hit it. Wow. That was great. That's great. Fantastic. So good. Delightful. Delightful.
19:57So in this, there's not much of a difference because there's only two, there's only a few little details that I wanted to share. And that is that as the plasma rifle in this 1996 version and the plasma rifle actually, this is what happens. Tank spins as red hot wads of plasma explode through the chair into his back. So it was supposed to be red and it's plasma and I don't know what plasma looks like really. Isn't it like lava? But that'd be so weird. It's a little, like what, lava gun? Maybe plasma's red, maybe, I don't know. Yeah, it's just red hot plasma.
20:40Liquid hot plasma. And that's what it is, a barrage of plasma rifle goop. I don't know, like just, I don't know what they were thinking but I think the electric one is a little bit better. I think, I think, I think that one, that one's a good change. And as the phone rings in, in the appliance store, this is a really nice little quip that Switch says. She goes, God, I love that sound. The ring? Yeah. Because it's like old school? Because it's like a, yeah, no, it's because that means they were able to escape. And so it's, it's, it's great because usually, usually people get annoyed by the phone.
21:21Oh, I see. So that, that, that was funny. And, that'd be good. And then, there you go. And that's, that's about all that is changed in this, uh, 1986 version. Not much, but you know, it was worth mentioning at least once or twice. We must mention all the things. So yeah. How far are you in Galaxy Quest? We, uh, so we're just airing, um, uh, Monday, the, the, January 1st, or, yeah, let me try that again in English. So we're, uh, as of what's gonna air right around today, Tommy is just pulling out
22:01of the starport after scraping the sides of it on his way out. Oh yeah. Um, in terms of recording, we're, um, just ran, Ceres, uh, they just ran into Ceres on the ship. Ah. We have a, we have a good recording cushion, not such a good editing cushion, but a good recording cushion. Sweet. Nice. Yeah. And, uh, you can catch Alex on the Galaxy Quest Minute anywhere where it's like, I think I've known, I know where this is gonna go. This is Facebook, it's Twitter. iTunes. iTunes. It's Stitcher, Google Play, anywhere fine podcasts are, are sold for zero dollars. There's the Facebook group as well.
22:42Right? Yep. Yeah. The Galaxy Quest Minute listener con. That's the one. Nice. Nice. So go subscribe to that podcast. Indeed. Yeah. I shall be listening. And, uh, uh, ours is the same thing, just Matrix Minute. Just switch. The Matrix Minute, please. The Matrix Minute. Just, just switch that. A Matrix Minute. A Matrix Minute. A Minute within the Matrix. Ha ha. Ha. Ah, yes. Thanks, Alex, for being on the show once again. thank you so much for coming in, um, an emergency situation like this. Yes. And we're glad to have you here. Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me, guys. You're totally welcome. And I think that,
23:22that's it for you. We'll see you next week. Ha ha. Have a good weekend, everyone. Yes. Have a good weekend. And moment of silence for Tank. I mean, Dozer. I mean, both Tank. Ah, no, just Dozer. Tank and Dozer. Just Dozer. Come on, Tank and Dozer. Never give up. Never surrender. That's right. See you. Bye. Bye. !