<music>
- Weird Little Girl: They're he-re
Nick: Thanks, Weird Little Girl. From Akron, Ohio, this is Episode 3 of "On the Tropes". I'm your host, Nick, and today, I'm joined by
Cir: Cir
Kyle: Kyle
Nick: And, for the first time on the show, but not the first time in our hearts, your co-host
Themos: Themos
Nick: Themos. What's going on?
Themos: Not too much. How you doing?
Nick:Good, good. Not much new with me
Cir: There's a certain person who wouldn't be to happy to hear you say that.
Nick: I got married last week. In between episodes 2 and 3.
Kyle: Niiice.
Cir: It was a beautiful wedding
Nick: It was. Thank you.
Kyle: Mark off "personal time"
Themos: So, we're three-dimensional people. Moving on...
Nick: Don't care what's going on in you guy's lives.
Cir: Seriously, though.
Nick: Yeah, seriously. So, on episode 3 we're gonna be talking about a trope called "Chekhov's Gun". This is based on the Russian author and playwright, Anton Chekhov, who once said that if you say in the first chapter that there's a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter, it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there. And from this, we derive the term "Chekhov's Gun", which is this week's trope. Cir, can you explain that a little bit more? What did Chekhov mean by that?
Cir: I think his point was not to waste any time in storytelling, like don't spend a lot of time explaining about the family dog unless he's actually going to be in the story or movie. If you can keep that in mind, it kind of helps you keep everything together; it's kind of a "every scene must move the movie forward" thing.
Nick: It's about economy of detail.
Cir: Right.
Nick: Don't throw in all this extraneous information that's not going to be used, or that's just distracting.
Themos: I'll disag— I agree and I disagree. Certainly, you can't just throw a bunch of stuff at the screen that doesn't make any sense and that is just overwhelming the audience; however, I would argue that, if I have a character who's the type of, if I put a gun on his or her wall, I'm saying something about that character and in that way, it is moving the story forward.
- [1] Archer: God, I said the cap slips off the poison pen for no reason, didn't I?
Cyril: I know, but I just assumed that if anything bad happened that it would have been...
Archer: No, do not say the Chekhov Gun, Cyril. That, sir, is a facile argument.
Woodhouse: And also, woefully esoteric.
Archer: Woodhouse...
Nick: It's also the way the gun is showed. It could just be background matter. But if they show a close-up on it, then, I feel, it needs to be used in some way. That was one of the things I learned when I was in film school; that every scene... or every thing you shoot has to have a reason, and if you're shooting a certain object, it better be used, or tell the story. Or whatever.
Kyle: I think that 's important, to make that distinction. That's a good point, what exactly, how much explaining of something or showing of something makes it almost necessary to be part of the plot? And what other things, like you're mentioning, "this is the character", "this is the pen that he carries", that sort of thing.
Nick: One of the things that I think is interesting about this trope is that Chekhov was a playwright, and he wrote short stories, but he wasn't writing for the screen, he wasn't writing screenplays or TV
Themos: Good point.
Nick: Do you think he would say the same thing now, if he was writing for a sitcom?
Kyle: That's a good point, because being a playwright, set design and such, there's no reason to have a cluttered-up set with a bunch of stuff. You know what I mean?
Nick: Yeah, whereas now, say in a tv show, people have band posters on their walls, but it's not like Led Zeppelin is going to come into play at the end of the second act.
Cir: Like Kyle pointed out, if you show a close-up of it, in a movie, generally, if I have to read something I generally think
Nick: It's a harbinger of something to come, later, in the future.
Themos: It's funny that you mentioned sitcoms, because I think a sitcom would be much more akin to a shrt story in that they have a very limited amount of time and space to get the story across as opposed to a film — take something like The Lord of the Rings —- where it's a three, three-and-a-half hour epic and you can throw in a bunch of carvings onto the elven walls of Rivendell and no-one is going really...
Cir: I see what you mean. One other thing about sitcoms: they also have a lot more time to fill out the character information in earlier episodes
Themos: Right. Rightrightright.
Nick: A sitcom is like a series of short stories, but over a season, it's a lot longer than one movie, so they have more time to play, like Arrested Development uses this trope a lot and they play with
Themos: They're constantly, I don't know why they...
Nick: There are so many background things inthat show that, even if they don't forward the plot, they forward in-jokes that you might miss the first, second, third time you watch; the fourth time you watch, you go "Oh! I get that now."
Themos: I think the first example of that is, for no reason, when, the first time you see it for no reason, Tobias Fünke is wearing jeans in the shower. Jean cutoffs. And you have no idea why.
Kyle: And they never mention
Nick: Even in the pilot, they have boxes in the background, on the boat, that say Saddam Hussein's name, backwards.
Themos: No!
Nick: Yeah.
Themos: Get out!
Nick: And that's something that I don't think gets explored until, like, the third season of the show.
Themos: I just got chills.
Kyle: They go deep.
Cir: It was definitely a very well-thought-out show.
Nick: So, is this trope then all about economy? Or is it also about foreshadowing?
Themos: I thnk; one of the things I love about constructing, about a well-constructed story, regardless of the genre, is when they bookend it. I don't know why that's so aesthetically
Kyle: Cycular? Cicular? What's it called when they go around in circles?
Nick: "Circular"
Themos: "Cyclical"
Kyle That's what it is. Sounds like cicular.
Themos: The best example I can think of that, not to get too off-topic; is with Carrie, where it starts off where she's walking through and everyone's laughing at her, and then at the end of the movie, she's walking through as the prom queen, and everyone's applauding her; and in both the shower scene and the end scene, there's blood as the catalyst to all of it. That's the perfect bookend to me.
Cir: I think when Chekhov wrote it, it was about economy. I think that's why he wrote that.
Nick: I think that now, the same idea is there, but not as literally as he meant it.
Cir: Exactly.
Nick: If you show somethng in the background, it doesn't need to be that important, but like Kyle said, if you zoom up on it and let the camera linger there for 10 seconds, it probably should come into play, otherwise you're just wasting people's time.
Cir: I like it as a technique. A lot. I've always liked it.
Nick: One other thing I like about this trope is when it gets subverted or played with, there's another trope called "Chekhov's Blank", when something gets set up so that it looks like it's going to be a Chekhov's Gun, but then it's not. And my favorite example of this is — I meant to look it up but I didn't remember to — but I think it's in season 3 of The Sopranos; the Russian episode.
Cir: Oh, wow. Yeah, perfect.
Nick: Christopher and Paulie are supposed to kill this Russian guy, and somehow, he gets away. And it's an entire, episode-long thing
Cir: And they describe this guy, like "He's special forces..."
Nick: They make such a big deal about how, how letting this guy survive is the worst thing that could happen.
Cir: The end scene is Tony talking to that guy's best friend about how; he's talking to the other Russian mobster , and he's like "That guy saved my life, if anything ever happened to him, I would...". You know, implying there would be serious problems. So you always just imagine that ...
Nick: And throughout the rest of the series, you're waiting for something to come of it, and it never happens.
- "Where is this prick? You sure I hit him in the head?"
''Yeah, f{bleep}in' positive."
"I don't see any more blood. It's like the trail just ended."
Cir: "Pine Barrens". That's what the episode is called, "Pine Barrens".
Nick: Yeah, and it creates this sense of uneasiness in the background, in the back of your mond, that at any point in time this thing could come back and not to spoil — well, it's too late now, but... It doesn't. But I like the mood that sets for the rest of the series.
Cir: Yeah, because you are always wondering. I thought about it during the ending. The ending of the series, I considered that.
Kyle: There's a game, ah, Walking Dead, and the game is really all about the decisions you make, and at one point you come across a car, and you have to decide whether you take the ...groceries or something like that... in the back of it. An abandoned car. And if you take it — there are a couple of episodes that happen in between — but they bring it back at the end, who you took them from and what kind of implications it led to. Interesting
Nick: You mentioning groceries and zombie-related things, I'm just now thinking that a good MacGuffin for our last episode could have been the Twinkies in Zombieland.
Kyle: Yeah. Damn.
Nick: So, without spoiling your top five lists, what are some other examples you like of this trope in use?
Themos: In The Host, a Chekhov's Skill. I think that's a trope, It's either "Hobby" or "Skill", maybe both. The daughter in the family is an archer, and she's shown being an archer and then at the climax of the movie that comes into play in a big bad way. And also, the creature has an instinctual thing it does, when it gets rained on, to drink the rain and that also comes into play in a big bad way.
Kyle: Or like the daughter in Jurassic Park Two, who knows gymnastics and takes out that raptor at one point.
- Dr. Ian Malcolm: "The school cut you from the team?"
Nick: Do you guys have some examples of how this is maybe not used so well, and why is it good in some places and bad in other places?
Themos: Sometimes it insults the audience, I think. Like Robocop's giant spike. Do you really think he's not going to use that to stab somebody in the eye with?
Kyle: Yeah, exactly.
Nick: The one example that I thought of is a movie that has a good and a bad example of a Chekhov's Gun in it, and that's Training Day. Denzel Washington's character is a cop, and you see that ... earlier in the movie, you know that he's got some problems with the Russians, and you know that they're going to come into play later; then Ethan Hawke, and all the drama, and you forget all about the Russians and it doesn't come into play until the very end of the movie. So it's a good Chekhov's Gun, it wasn't extraneous information, it was useful. But where they kind of use this trope poorly is where, after Ethan Hawke saves some random girl, he finds her wallet and keeps it, which seems kind of weird, but then, when the wallet comes into play again, some people are about to do something bad to Ethan Hawke
Cir: And they see it, right?
Nick: And they take his wallet out before they beat him in a bathtub. It's like "What are you wasting your time for?"
Kyle: Maybe they didn't want the contents of the wallet to get wet?
Nick: Maybe...
Kyle: To get wet with blood. I dunno.
Nick: It's a lot of...
Cir: The whole thing was really ... I mean, as one character famously said, "This is some trippy-ass shit, Holmes." That summed up how I felt when I first saw that, just like, "Really?"
Nick: Yeah. So I think that movie uses the trope both to its benefit and , the opposite of a benefit. A "bad-nifit"
Nick: "Detriment"
Themos: As far as the "badnifit" goes, that's the thing that I don't... I like it when it comes into play early, but it also seems to be moving the story around. It feels much more organic as opposed to its own separate entity that's glaring, "Hey, this is gonna be, gonna come into play later." I like it when it's organic and you don't see it coming in advance. It blindsides you.
Nick: I agree that if it's staring you in the face, it doesn't work very well. Which is why I think sometimes this works best for TV shows. Because you have an entire season to have something be set up
Cir: Good point.
Nick: And for you to forget about it. And then when it comes back, you go "Oh, I remember that now!" rather than " -_- " .
Kyle:: the entire time I was watching Training Day I was "The wallet's going to come into play sometime." And you see these people and you go "I bet..." You see it happening
Cir: I didn't call it. I actually didn't call the wallet. I didn't think they would be related to her. Until, like... It was one of those things that happened, it wasn't like a good surprise. It was more disappointing, "Oh really?"
Kyle: "Oh, we're doing that?"
Cir: I think I had forgotten that he even had it with him.
Themos: Another thing is that sometimes it feels contrived, in how they utilize it.
Kyle: I think that's part of the risk with Chekhov's Blank, too, though. That you set these things up, and, like we were saying with The Sopranos, a lot of people hated that the Russian never came back into play. I thought it worked really well, but a lot of times, if you set something up like that, and it doesn't pan out later, people hate it.
Themos: I love Chekhov's Blank. I think I respect that more than the Guns, because you set something up, and then it doesn't come to fruition, and that's a lot like ...life. Where somebody can be a great... We were just talking, before we started the show, about City of God, and there's the one character who's really well-trained in martial arts, and he's in a gangwar with the main baddie of the film and, at least, I was expecting for a long time that there would be a confrontation where he would just beat the hell out of him and it never came to fruition.
Cir: I like how you point out how that's like real life, because they're based on real characters and Brazil, it's the birthplace of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is perhaps the most important martial art of our time.
Kyle: I think when it works, the Blank is more interesting, and I think it's a ballsier move
Themos: It is a ballsier move.
Kyle: Say what you want about The Room
Themos: Having a character vanish? For no reason.
Kyle: Yeah. If that would have worked, it would have worked out really well.
Nick: So, that is our discussion of Chekhov's Gun. Send in your thoughts to us by email at OntheTropes@gmail.com, and join us after this break, when we talk about our Top Five Chekhov's Guns.
- "I thought this tape was gonna be a f{bleep}in' conversation stimulator, man. I was gonna ask for your "Top Five Records To Play On A Monday Morning" and all that and you just have to f{bleep}in' ruin it."
"Well, we'll do it next Monday."
"NO! I wanna do it NOW!"
Nick: Welcome back to "On The Tropes". We're doing our Top Five Chekhov's Guns this week. Kyle, what is your Number 5?
Kyle: My number 5 is the bat, Merrill's bat and the water from Signs. It's introduced pretty early that the girl like to leave water out, I don't remember what the exact reason is; she thinks it gets contaminated or something but definitely, it comes around to the end and... Well, the ending may not be my favorite, but it definitely shows that the water is pretty useful. And then, Merrill's bat, Merrill being a baseball player — an ex-baseballplayer, he uses it at the end and it's, ahh, pretty cool. So yeah. What about you Themos? What's your Number 5?
Themos: My Number 5 is from a little comedy called Men in Black. The flying saucers are actually a very effective example of this, because, the idea is that in the 1950's the World's Fair, the flying saucers that actually, literally landed, were just propped up on poles instead of the government trying to hide them. That's introduced early on, and at that time, it just kind of moves the story along, because "Oh, aliens are everywhere. And even right in plain view." But inthe end it comes back in a big bad way, because it's what the main villain is using, is going to try to use to get off the planet. So it's a pretty effective Chekhov's Gun in that it's misdirection in the beginning, moving the story along, and then actually comes into play in a big way in the plot. I really like that.
Cir: That's one of my favorite ones, because I like the idea of the villain taking advantage of his environment. Using old equipment to fulfil his mission.
- Edgar: You idiots! You don't get it - I've won! It's over! You're milksuckers! You don't matter! In fact, in just a few seconds you won't even BE matter!"
Kay: "You're under arrest for violating sections 4153 of the Tyco Treaty.
Jay: So hand over whatever galaxy you might be carrying and step away from your busted ass vehicle, and put your hands on your head!"
Nick: Cir, your Number 5.
Cir: Number 5 is an example that I guess is more towards being bad, only it's a great movie. Marathon Man, starring Dustin Hoffman. The Chekhov's Gun is right in the title. The first time you see the character, hes running, and you just know
Nick: He's a "marathon man".
Cir: Right. I do like it a lot, I like how it plays out, because he does outrun those guys, and he would be able to.
Themos: The acting is so strong on that, oh, my god.
Cir: That movie?
Themos: That movie.
Cir: Yeah, I love it. It's one of my favorites.
Nick: My number 5 is from one of , Jake, who is an honorary co-host, and this weekend, at the wedding, he said that this is his favorite movie of all time: Wayne's World. It's when they learn about the record producer, Mr Big. Earlier on in the movie, they've learned that he drives around in his limo, and he has a satellite and a TV in his limo and he watches it all the time. Then later, when they're trying to get a record deal for Cassandra, Wayne's girlfriend's, band they find out that he's going to be driving through town, so they try to triangulate the signal to project her band playing to his car. And they even mention that it seems kind of extraneous, like "It seemed kind of extraneous at the time when we learned about it, but it's important now." So it's not only a Chekhov's Gun, but they're Breaking the Fourth Wall and Lampshading it as well. Kyle, your Number 4...
Kyle: My number 4 is the Winchester gun from Shaun of the Dead. It's the first one that popped into my head. It's pretty obvious in the beginning of the movie that ... when they're debating whether the gun behind the tavern or whatever works. And then also, at the beginning of the movie; I don't know which version of Chekhov it is, whether it's Chekhov's Skill or not, but they're playing that video game and (I don't remember their names) Simon Pegg's character is pointing out where to shoot, and then later on in the movie, they're doing the same thing with zombies.
Themos: I think the dialogue is word-for-word.
Kyle: It's pretty awesome. What about you, Themos? What's your Number 4?
Themos: My number 4 is "Wingardium Leviosa" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. That whole series is full of stuff coming back, even with the first chapter.
Nick: "The Philosopher's Stone" for our U.K. listeners.
Themos: Right, sorry. Anyhoo, they're learning this spell and then the first time there's danger in the world of Hogwarts for Harry, they use that spell to overcome the cavetroll that broke loose. So there it is. Boom!
Kyle: The big bad troll.
Themos: The big bad troll. Cir, what's your Number 4?
Cir: My number 4 is the exploding-pen kill in Goldeneye. One of the Russian hackers is shown
Nick: Boris
Cir: Boris. He has a nervous tic of clicking his pen over and over again, and of course, Bond winds up having an exploding pen at some point. With predictable results. He gets it into his hands.
Themos: That inspired me to try to type one-handed for a long time. And only then.
Nick: My Number 4 is the Doctor Who episode "Blink". It's the one with the Weeping Angels. There's a list of DVDs that Sally Sparrow receives midway through, and then later it comes into play, it helps to define her role through out the story and sort of ties everything into a somewhat tidy little bow, considering the whole plot is about time travel and that it's very convoluted.
- The Doctor: "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff. "
Nick: But it's definitely one of my favorite episodes of any TV show, ever.
Themos: That's my favorite Doctor Who, period.
Cir: I tried to watch the new series
Themos: Did you watch that one?
Cir: I tried watching the new series, and...
Themos: Did you watch that one?
Nick: Did you watch that one?
Cir: No.
Nick: Watch that episode.
Kyle: He's barely in it, actually.
Nick: Yeah. You'll be converted.
Cir: Just skip all the...?
Nick: Yeah.
Themos: When I watch it, I don't watch it chronologically. I just watch the best episodes from Season <x> and then
Cir: Yeah, I don't watch anything like that.
Nick: Carey Mulligan, before she made it big.
Cir: ...Who?
Nick: Carey Mulligan. Before she made it big. ...She's a superstar. ... Gatsby.
Cir: Oh.
Nick: Kyle, Number 3.
Kyle: My Number 3 is actually from my favorite movie of all time, the scene in Jurassic Park, when Grant is explaining how raptors attack to that little kid.
- Grant: "You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes. Not from the front, but from the side, [makes 'whooshing' sound] from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there."
Kyle: The way he explained it is exactly the way Muldoon dies; he has a raptor in his scope of his gun, and then one just comes out of nowhere that you never even saw coming. I never really thought of it as being a Chekhov's Gun. I don't know if it's still a Gun, or if it's a Chekhov's Situation or something, but I think it's really eerie that he was explaining this thing to a little kid at the beginning of the movie, before you even knew anything about how intense the island was, minus the first raptor attack
Themos: "Like a giant turkey!"
Kyle: Yeah, but...
Nick: I feel like Muldoon should have known better.
Kyle: Yeah, really.
Themos: He's hunted most things that can hunt you.
Kyle: Yeah, I don't know.
Themos: Chekhov's, uh, yeah, no. Chekhov's Tactic?
Nick: Yeah.
Kyle: Something like that. what about you, Themos?
Themos: My Nunber 3 is from a video game. I'm a huge fan of this series of video games called Monkey Island, and they just, Telltale Games, who did Walking Dead, just released a five-part series, five episodes of a new Monkey Island series called Tales of Monkey Island. The entire time, you have this ring. Your wife kind of abandons you slash you lose her. But you have her wedding ring. Her engagement ring, rather. The entire time you're trying to get back to her, to save her and so on and so forth. You get to the end of the game and you have to go between planes and the first time, you have the ingredients to complete this circle, and part of the ingredients are "devotion" and "commitment" (those are the same thing, but,) — a bunch of stuff that describes "love". And the first time you're able to complete the circle with these parts. But then you get thrown back there, and the second time you have to go through, and the only thing you have that symbolizes all these things is the wedding ring. So... It's a very very sweet, subtle thing, because you forget you have it in your inventory the whole time.
Kyle: I feel like those guys are really good at storytelling because the ''Walking Dead" game is one of the better-told stories in the last couple of years for games.
Nick: All right, Cir, your Number 3.
Cir: Number 3 is from Bloodsport and the character Frank Doo? Dux? It's supposed to be French, I think. He practices this move, the 'Dim Mak', 'the touch of death'. He practices it early in the movie and he breaks a bunch of bricks. Later, he's fighting this huge Hawai'ian wrestler who is really hard to beat, and he goes to the Touch of Death and you're thinking "OK, he's going to kill this guy." And it doesn't work. So he has to use a cheap shot to beat him.
Nick: So it's like the "Five-Point Exploding Heart Palm" thing
Cir: Exactly.
Nick: gone wrong.
Cir: It just doesn't do anything.
Themos: The Hawai'ian dude, if I remember —-I'm a big guy, so I'm not judging, but he wasn't just muscle. He had some padding. So maybe that's why.
Cir: Maybe. Could be. Could be. As we've seen from Batman, the touch of death, Batman, [2], you can defeat it with a pinch of cloth. A small pillow. I thought it was funny, though, because in the movie, in the 80's, Frank Dux was supposed to be this reality-based martial artist, and that was kind of his thing; making fun of the old-school martial arts that supposedly didn't work. And it's even funnier, because in real life, he wound up being a complete fraud.
Themos: Really?
Cir: Really. I think it's common knowledge by now that Frank Dux is — If you're listening, Frank Dux, I don't want to fight you.
Nick: Frank, I don't know who you are.
Themos: I'll fight you, but only if I have a bunch of pills I can grind up and blow in your eyes.
Cir: Exactly.
Themos: A little throwback to all those who like Bloodsport.
Cir: Love it, that movie.
Nick: All right, my Number 3 is also from Kyle's favorite movie, one of my favorite movies, Jurassic Park. But instead of the raptor, it's the frog DNA. We learn about it, I think the science guy talks about it, and we learn about it very briefly during the "dino DNA" cartoon. They tell you that the dinosaurs are made with part frog DNA to fill in the gaps, and later we find out that the frogs that they used can convert genders, which sets up the... it makes the whole first movie seem more ominous, that there's even less control than they thought, in this uncontrollable terrain that they're in already. It's worse than it even seems, because they can procreate, and it sets up a second movie, a third movie, and the fourth movie, that's in development.
Kyle: It's a strong Chekhov's Gun. A really strong one.
Themos: There's the scene, the foreshadowing, when Grant uses two female sides of a seatbelt and "finds a way"; he ties them together
all three of Nick, Kyle, and Cir: Oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Nick: Yeah!
Kyle: Mind. Blown.
Cir: Wow. Wow!
Nick: You just assaulted my mind.
Cir: Gee. Suss.
Themos: You're welcome.
<crosstalk>
Nick: Kyle, what's your Number 2, now that we're all,
Kyle: I don't want to say it. I don't want to say it anymore, because... That's awful. It's from God of War, a video game. Early on in the game, you are, well, the God of War series is really notorious for having a really big sense of scope and scale and you'll be fighting these monsters who are really huge and everything. Early in the first game, you cross a bridge that's made of a sword. And you don't think anything of it, because all the levels in the game are over the top and ridiculous. Then later on in the game, the last battle, actually, you're fighting Ares, the god of war, and you actually have to use that sword. You rip it off, like Megazord yourself up to a really big height and then you have to take the sword and defeat the god of war with it. Which is kind of cool. It's cool that they allude to it early on, and it's a bridge and you're tiny, but then you use it in the end. So...
Cir: "megazord"
Nick: For sure
Kyle: Is that a good reference? I'm trying to think of a way to ... But, what about you, Themos?
Themos: My Number 2 is from Nick's favorite movie. It's the box of matches in The Fifth Element. It's early in the movie, in a very throw-away scene, but still kind of reminiscent of Blade Runner in a way, because he's ordering noodles. The main character, Bruce Willis plays, is lighting a cigarette and he's talking to his mom on the phone while ordering the thing, blahblahblah. And he burns his fingers and he looks and he only has two matches left, so he lights another one and lights his cigarette and goes about his business. and then, at the very end of the movie spoiler alert!
- "Spoilers"
Themos: They need the matches to create the element of 'fire', thus completing the defense of Earth. So it was just, pretty cool.
Nick: I feel the need to clarify that The Godfather is my favorite movie.
Cir: That's another..., that's what he calls The Fifth Element.
Themos: He refers to Bruce Willis as The Godfather.
Kyle: That reminds me of the one in Toy Story, when Sid lights that match; he doesn't light the match, but he puts the match in Woody's little pocket
Themos: Right, right.
Kyle: And then they light it and it just blows out.
Themos: That's a, a Blank.
Kyle: Yeah, a Blank.
Themos: Love it. Nice.
Nick: Cir, what's your Number 2?
Cir: My Number 2 is from Braveheart, one of my favorite movies. One of Nick's favorite movies also, I think. Nick and Mike.
Nick: Why are we making me the bad guy?
Cir: Anyway, there's this great character, the Irishman, and I can't think of his name. When he's introduced, they talk to him, and it's pretty clear he's crazy. And he makes reference to Ireland as being "his island". They're all like, "Okay, this guy's nuts." and then, spoiler alert:
- "Spoilers"
Cir: Then later, in battle, the English bring Irish troops and they all defect over to Braveheart's side because he's ... basically, he just steps out and waves them over. And they ask him how he did it, and he's "It's my island." It's definitely one of my favorite ones, and I think it's probably one of the most literal Chekhov's Army.
- <incomprehensible>
"Irish."
Cir: And ah, Nick?
Nick: All right, my Number 2 is, in Back To The Future, Marty McFly's guitar playing. Early on in the movie, we see him in his band, trying out; I don't know what school event they try out for, but they try out and they're just too much rock-and-roll for the administration. But when he gets sent back in time to 1955 and the guitar player at the prom injures himself, he has to step in, and he shows off his Chuck Berry -like dance moves, and, I guess in terms of time travel, invents the song
Cir: Yeah.
Nick: "Johnny B Goode". He technically wrote it.
Cir: Yeah, and he essentially starts rock-and-roll, because
Nick: He invents rock-and-roll, and more importantly to him, he makes sure that his parents have a good time at the dance, and get together, thus
securing his own, his own fate.
Cir: And it's got one of my favorite lines: "You remember that sound you were looking for? Well, listen to this."
- Marty: This is an oldie, but, ah... . Well, it's an oldie where I come from. Alright, guys, lets have a blues riff in B, watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, ok?
Nick: Time travel is coming up a lot on my list so far. I like time travel. Kyle! What is your Numero Uno Chekhov's gun?
Kyle: My numero uno, just because I think it's really funny, is the Swedish-made penis enlarger
from Austin Powers:
- Quartermaster Clerk: "One Swedish-made penis enlarger."
Austin Powers: [to Vanessa] "That's not mine."
Quartermaster Clerk: "One credit card receipt for Swedish-made penis enlarger signed by Austin Powers."
Austin Powers: "I'm telling ya baby, that's not mine."
Quartermaster Clerk: "One warranty card for Swedish-made penis enlarger pump, filled out by Austin Powers."
Austin Powers: "I don't even know what this is! This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby."
Quartermaster Clerk: "One book, "Swedish-made Penis Enlarger Pumps And Me: This Sort of Thing Is My Bag Baby", by Austin Powers."
Kyle: When they introduce it in the beginning of the movie, you think it's just a joke, and they actually manage to bring it around at the end, with that Random Task guy when he breaks in. But yeah, when I saw that on the TV Tropes list, I thought, "That's the perfect one", really, because you don't even really think of it until the very end, when they bring it back. So I think that's a really good example of Chekhov's Gun. And a really funny one. What about you, Themos?
Themos: The clock tower fire in ''Back To the Future". It comes back, where at first it's just ruining the moment for him and his girl, and then it turns out to be what his ticket home is made out of. Really cool in a slick way. What about you, Cir?
Cir: My favorite one, probably of all time is recent. It's one of the characters, it's from The Cabin in the Woods. One of the characters is set up at the beginning of the movie as
Nick: a huge burner,
Cir: A stoner, just completely worthless idiot.
- "That's what I have to say."
"Do you want to spend the weekend in jail? 'Cause we'd all like to check out my cousin's country home."
"Honey, that's not OK."
"Statistical fact: Cops will never pull over a man with a huge bong in his car. Why? They fear this man. They know he sees further than they and he will bind them with ancient logics."
Cir: And it turns out that his potent marijuana and the fact that he's high all the time keeps him safe from the drugs that they use to basically control everybody else. And I think that's pretty cool that for once the stoner gets to be the hero, there's a huge benefit, and I think it kind of shows our times, they are a-changin'.
Kyle: Is that what that song's about?
Themos: he actually has one of my favorite lines of any recent movie, where he's reading "Little Nemo", and he's like "Nemo man, your shit is topsy-turvy."
Cir: Yeah, Marty. Marty, from Cabin in the Woods. We salute you.
Kyle: I like the one
Themos: Puppeteers? puppeteers? Poptarts?
Kyle: No, when he tells the girl to make out with that moose.
Nick: So, my Number 1 is from the movie The Searchers, starring John Wayne as Ethan Edwards. It's his jacket. There's a part in the movie where he goes offscreen and he comes back and his jacket is gone. Not much of it is made of it initially, but later on you find out why his jacket is missing. Namely, he buried a person who had died, in it. And it not only fulfills the Chekhov's Gun in that moment, but it also shows that the people that — It helps set up the stakes for the people that they're trying to rescue. It shows that, racist as it may be in that movie, that the Native Americans that they're trying to track down are maybe not the best people in the world.
Cir: Yeah, they're certainly repaying the US in kind.
Nick: That movie is... It's a good movie.
Cir: It's one of my favorite movies. I love that that movie doesn't ... It's pretty obvious how racist John Wayne's character is.
Nick: It's ...troubling. It's got a lot of troubling parts.
Themos: Is it, is it... Shame on me, I haven't seen it; is it that his character is incredibly racist or is it that the movie itself is?
Nick: Moreso the character.
Cir: Moreso the character. The character is blatantly out-there.
Nick: It is somewhat based on a true story.
Cir: Yeah, events like that happened. I've always loved that, I think it was John Ford pushing the envelope as far as he could. For his times.
Nick: It's a very — don't get me wrong— amazing movie. Incredibly influential, one of the most influential movies ever made.
Nick: So, those are our top five Chekhov's Guns. If you have comments, critiques or ah,
Cir: One of your favorites?
Nick: Yeah, one of your favorites that you think we've overlooked, shoot us an email, and we'll have a poll up on the Facebook page, where you can vote for your favorite, also.
Themos: And remember, you can find more Chekhov's Guns if you go to TVTropes.com
Nick: Dot Org.
Kyle: Dot-O-R-G.
Themos: Is it really? Dot org?
Nick: It's dot-org. Yeah.
Themos: I just Google
Nick: Yeah, that's fine. Google works. I don't know if dot-com redirects you, but it's dot-org. For the curious listeners.
Nick: Join us after the break, we're going to do a couple of trailer reviews on some upcoming summer blockbusters.
Themos: Aw right.
Nick: After this. Ye-ah.
- "We always thought alien life would come from the stars; but it came from deep beneath the Pacific
"What the hell is going on?
"[unintelligible] land in San Francisco. The second attack hit Manilla. Then the third one hit Cabo..."
Nick: You just heard a clip from the trailer of Guillermo del Toro's new movie, Pacific Rim, which comes out July 2nd. It stars Charlie Hunnam, who is from Undeclared, which is a tv show I liked;Idris Elba, from The Wire, which is a tv show I loved.
Cir: Right.
Nick: Charlie Day, from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, kinda weird; and Ron Perlman, from being Ron Perlman
Cir: From every other adult horror movie.
Themos: That dude is just, he's so tough. No matter what he's in.
Kyle: So cool, yeah.
Themos: I haven't seen Beauty and the Beast, but I'm pretty sure he's tough in that too.
Nick: Oh, we were talking about
Cir: I grew up on that show.
Nick: We were talking about Drive on the break, and Themos hasn't seen that. And he's in Drive
Themos: Is he?
Nick: And he's pretty awesome in it. Not only is he awesome in it, but he's like not even the fifth most awesome person in that movie.
Kyle: It's a great movie.
Cir: It's one of the few times tha he's a gangster in a movie and another character is more gangster than him.
Nick: Yeah, but we'll get to Drive in a minute. First, Guillermo del Toro's new film, Pacific Rim. Cir, we'll go to you first, because I know that you're like, dying
Cir: I'm pretty much convinced that this is going to be my favorite movie of all time. I'm convinced that it's going to eclipse Citizen Kane, it's going to eclipse ... all the greatest films, Braveheart, Dumb and Dumber, all the greatest, most amazing
Kyle: Dumb And Dumber, Citizen Kane,
Cir: All the most amazing films. This is going to be the best sci-fi action movie ever made, hands down. That's my prediction.
Kyle: Dumb and Dumber was pretty good sci-fi action...
Cir: This is pretty much everything I've ever wanted to see in a movie, since I was a child. So I'm just, ...
Nick: What are those elements? What is it about this trailer?
Cir: Giant robots fight giant monsters, continuously, throughout the film. And it's directed by del Toro. Those are all the elements I need.
Nick: We've had Transformers.
Kyle: It beats Real Steel.
Nick: Eh... We've seen these things before
Kyle: That was missing "giant monsters", also known as "kaiju". Which I think is brilliant that they're called "kaiju" in this film. That's the name for "giant monster".
Nick: What about
Kyle: All the monsters from Godzilla are kaiju.
Nick: What about, like, Gamera vs. Guiron or whatever, any of the Gamera movies.
Kyle: I think it's going to be better than Gamera. I love Gamera, though.
Nick: Is this movie based on certain media, or is it
Themos: Like a manga, or something like that?
Nick: Yeah, is it based on anything or is it
Kyle: and Cir: simultaneously: It's based on an original story / Original script
Nick: That's pretty cool.
Cir: I think that it's funny that next week we'll talk about Genre Busters, genre-busting, and this is definitely kind of a mash-up, in a way. I think anytime
Nick: Hopefully.
Cir: It's kind of a genre-busting work.
Nick: I think that's something, and we'll talk a little bit more about it next week, is that del Toro does — and part of the reason I'm excited for this movie, is, based on thre trailer alone, Kyle was saying off-air, it could be cheesy, but I'm giving del Toro a lot more credit than that. Some of the movies he's produced haven't been the best, but the movies he's directed; look at Pan's Labyrinth; one of my favorite movies made in the last 20, 30 years. Devils Backbone.
Themos: ''Devil's Backbone" is soooo gorgeous. That movie...
Nick: That's a terrific movie.
Kyle: Hellboy is the reason why I think this movie will be good. He';s shown that he can take something that's ... I mean, Hellboy in the wrong hands could have been
Nick: A mess.
Kyle: Awful. It could have been horrifyingly bad.
Themos: Devil's Backbone, actually, to go back to the topic, had a great Chekhov's Gun in that one when the students are learning about how the cavemen used to be able to take down a mammoth, and then that's exacly how they take down the bully. Anyhow.
Nick: That's a terrific movie. One of my wife's favorite movies.
Cir: "Ma wife".
Nick: "Ma wife".
Themos: "Ma wife".
Nick: She hates that.
Themos: You already know she hates that.
Nick: She's been yelling at me for doing it for, like, months. and then within maybe twenty minutes of us being married, I was "Hey, guys, meet ma wife!" and she was "Will you stop that?! Or I'll divorce you."
Themos: I'm really excited, even if there is a lot of cheese, because you look at, even if there's a lot of cheese, it will still deliver on what it needs to. Look at a movie like Hobo with a Shotgun. A lot of cheese, but at the same time, it's giving you exactly what you're paying for.
Kyle: Did you ever watch the movie?
Themos: Oh, my god, yeah. Many times.
Nick: I've watched it and I liked it. Rutger Hauer, c'mon.
Kyle: At the same time, I think the trailer was better.
Themos: I feel that way for 300. Not for this movie. This movie, I think, way surpasses it. There's a line in the movie (it's also in the trailer), where "You can't just solve all the world's problems with a shotgun!" And the response is "It's all I know", which is ...
Kyle: There's some great lines in that trailer. "You're on a one-way ticket to Hell!" "And you're riding shotgun."
Nick: The original trailer?
Kyle: The original.
Cir: is better than the movie.
Nick: Well, the best line from the original trailer was "I'm gonna sleep in your bloody carcass, tonight!"
Cir: I love it.
Nick: One thing that I'm interested to see in Pacific Rim, though, to get back on topic, is Charlie Hunnam, who, like I alluded to, was in Undeclared, and since then, the only thing I think I've seen him in is, he's got a tiny part in Children of Men. But besides that I haven't seen him much, and in Undeclared, he's really funny. He's a charming dude.
Cir: He's got the traditional actor looks, too. He's
Nick: Yeah, so I thnk if this movie pans out well, and I haven't heard any review, early reviews or anything about it, but if it pans out well, like we're hoping it will, dude could shoot to stardom.
Kyle: I think so.
Cir: I'm notorious for being just a complete
Nick: hater?
Cir: old guy. I'm just like a crotchety old man. But this is definitely that movie, where I don't care if it's cheesy or not. I want to be entertained at the theater. I want to feel like the very first time I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' in the theater.
Nick: So you're comparing this movie to a goofy movie.
Cir: I don't think it's going to be goofy. I think it's going to be wonderful. The scale is huge. You're going to feel like
"WOW!". Like a kid watching this huge — c'mon, every kid has wanted to see giant fight monsters.
Kyle: But that one line... What I kind of wish is that they were actually just robot-robots, not controlled by human people. I thnk that kind of takes away from it
Themos: If you put — I'm sorry, go on, I ddn't mean to interrupt.
Kyle: But also the line, "Go big or go extinct" or something?
Cir: Yeah.
Kyle: That line just got me. I was like, "Ahhhhhh."
Nick: The {??} "We're cancelling the Apocalypse." looks like it could be
Cir: That's heavy.
Nick: looks like it could be awesome. It could have, like an Independence Day
Cir: Independence Day
Nick: kind of vibe, which
Themos: I'm all excited to see how it pans out.
Nick: which is awesome.
Cir: Yeah, that's my thing. I'm looking forward to that part. I think del Toro's smart enough to have it just >right there< on the edge, and he's got to know that a line that's saying "We're cancelling the Apocalypse" is right on the edge of cheese.
Kyle: But it's going to be Brie, not Swiss.
Nick: It's going to be a fancy cheese.
Themos: What's wrong with Swiss?
Nick: As we have the first cheese fight on the show...
Themos: We haven't mentioned Blade Two, which is, it's a pretty cool flick, a lot of great action, but I think it fell short because it spread itself too thin with subplots.
Kyle: I think Blade 2 is the strongest one of the series.
Cir: I think Blade 1 is hands-down
Kyle: Uh-uh. Blade 2 is worlds better than Blade 1. Just because Blade 1 is ...
Nick: I can't comment. I've seen Blade 1 within the last couple of months and I haven't seen Blade 2 since I saw it in theatres.
Cir: I thought the action was a lot better in Blade 2
Themos: Action was more fast-paced.
Cir: del Toro does a good job of big, big movies. Whereas you're pointing out that you didn't like Blade 2 because the subplots were too thin.
Kyle: The last thing that I thought was kind of weird — did you guys notice that during the title screen, they take the Tyrannosaurus roar from Jurassic Park and play it over it?
Nick: No, I didn't.
Kyle: It was really weird. I don't know.
Themos: You noticed that too?
Nick: Kyle, I think you're reaching a little bit, there.
Kyle: No, no, no. We're critiquing the trailer, not the movie itself. This is a trailer critique.
Cir: I'm just busting your balls.
Kyle: I know you are.
Themos: I don't see why they didn't use fat guys. This is the one chance the fat guy had to be the star of an action movie. 'Cause he doesn't need to be physically fit. He has a keyboard and a mouse, he can do the same thing. I'm angry at this movie.
Cir: I actually am interested to see if that comes into play. if the characters are r3equired... Because they seem like they're pilots or military people. I see what you mean, though.
Themos: A gamer would be much more efficient in this situation. Just saying.
Cir: That's interesting, too, just from what we've seen. There's a feature out, talking about the technology they use to control the giant robots. That does seem a little bit... That's one thing about this movie that does seem weird, that you need two people to pilot one, and they basically have to mindmeld, it seems.
Themos: Wait, those guys weren't operating independent ones?
Cir: Yeah, it's two pilots in each. Which I think is cool and strange. Apparently it's supposed to be a huge... it's like a big deal.
Themos: They should have just done a Voltron thing.
Nick: They showed their past memories or something.
Cir: It's something to do with... yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me. At the same time, honestly? I don't even care.
Kyle: I'm excited
Cir: I think it's going to be awesome.
Nick: So, let's put down the robots, the flash, the special effects, and take a quick listen to Nicolas Winding Refn's trailer for Only God Forgives
- Female: "While I was pregnant with you, it was strange, you were different. They wanted me to terminate. But I wouldn't. I don't understand you. And I never will."
<music>
<Gargle-y choking sounds>
<Tinkley, music-box type music.
Nick: That was the trailer for Only God Forgives, which comes out on July 19th. It was shot in Thailand; it is Nicolas Winding Refn's I-don't-know-what-th movie, but it's his fourth made in the English language, a follow-up to Drive, from a couple of years ago, I know, a movie that I love with all my heart.
Cir: I'm a huge — I call him Nicolas "Winning" Refn, I'm just a huge fan of this guy. I think I've been a fan since I saw, I think, Pusher in, like, 2001. It came out in 1999, and ever since then, I've been following everything this guy's done. And he's yet to disappoint me. There hasn't been a movie that he's put out that— even — I felt that Valhalla Rising was kind of a 'bump', but at the same time, it's so much better than so many other movies that came out that year. And I think the same is going to be with... The thing I'm seeing with Only God Forgives; I'm pretty excited about it because I like the world that he's in,
Nick: I've only seen his three English-language — Bronson, Valhalla Rising, and Drive, but it seems that his movies tend to focus on hyper-violent male figureheads.
Cir: Yeah.
Nick: And it looks like this movie is going to be ...not much different from that.
Cir: Yeah. One thing that is interesting about that, though, is that one of the more powerful criminals is a woman.
Nick: Kristen Scott Thomas?
Cir: Yeah, "mom" in the movie. She plays kind of a "Ma Barker" type
Nick: Bob Barker?
Cir: Den mother. Ma Barker. You know who Ma Barker was
Nick: The Price Is Right.
Cir: Yeah, no.
Themos: His mom.
Cir: "Ma" Barker was a Depression-era gangstress who had a whole family of criminals. There's a movie based on her, it's called Bloody Mama.
Nick: Happy Gilmore.
Cir: I always like seeing that on the
Kyle: "The price is right, bitch."
Cir: I don't know if it's a trope or what, the woman gangster.
Nick: I do like the woman gangster.
Cir: So I'm excited to see it for that
Nick: It easy to Justify. Do it awesomely.
Themos: I should probably spay and neuter my pets.
Cir: I don't like the title.
Nick: You don't like the title?
Cir: No, actually, and there's only one reason I don't like it. Because Rick Ross released an album last year — either in 2011 or 2012, called "Only God Forgives" — No, "God Forgives, I Don't." And I hate Rick Ross to a degree, so I'm ...
Nick: Do you think this is allusion to a Rick Ross album?
Cir: Something about those two, I hate that they came out so close to the same time.
Nick: Do you listen to the music that gets played in
Cir: Yeah. It's all Rick Ross.
<Laughter>
Nick: No, I was gonna say, it's the polar opposite of Rick Ross. It's like 80's synth-pop.
Kyle: The only thing that I think would ruin the title of the movie is if they found a way to say it in the movie.
Nick: "Please forgive me!" and
All simultaneously: And he's like, "Only God forgives!"
Nick: As he's standing over somebody, yeah.
Cir: That could definitely happen in the movie.
Themos: What I like about the title is that you know you're getting into a vengeance flick. There's no way you're not.
Cir: I'm a huge fan of revenge movies.
Themos: Me, too.
Nick: And so am I. That's part of the reason I'm so excited for this movie. That, plus Ryan Gosling, ... Let's put our cards on the table: he's a beautiful man.
Cir: He's a dreamboat.
Kyle: He can also be really creepy.
Nick: He was a dreamboat in Drive. That's one of his strengths.
Kyle: I wonder if he's going to have a mask in this movie, too?
Nick: With a mask?
Kyle: That should be a spoiler alert.
Nick: They show it in the trailer. Don't watch the trailer for Drive, people. Please don't watch the trailers for Drive.
Kyle: Don't watch them.
Themos: How is that a spoiler?
Cir: I like in this movie, how he trains. I guess he trains
<crosstalk>
Nick: Go, Cir.
Cir: He trained, in Muy Thai, I guess, for this movie. That's a huge part of the movie, is martial arts, which I think is going to be... I'm excited and I'm curious to see how it works out. It seems like he's almost setting up like a kung-fu movie, set in the modern world. It's apparently a huge part of it.
Themos: Is this a direct sequel to Drive, or is this a
Nick and Cir simultaneously No. No not at all.
Themos: or just a spiritual
Nick: Apparently, they are planning a sequel to Drive, called Driven. Because Drive was based on a book. And the book has a sequel, I believe.
Themos: I hate when movies do that, when they add another letter, and they form a franchise and they're screwed. Hence, Alien3.
Cir: It's based on a book, though.
Nick: Well, they did Alien, and then Aliens,
Themos: That's what I'm saying. Then you're stuck. Where do you go?
Nick: Yeah
Kyle: They could have put another Alienss. Or Dumb And Dumberer
Kyle: I think that this trailer is so beautiful. And It's kind of weird how all the terrible stuff that's happening, and it's so bright and colorful and it really looks, really nice.
Themos: It reminded me, when I saw it, it reminded me of, have you guys ever seen Hiroshima Mon Amour?
Kyle: I haven't
Nick: No, but ah, what's her name?, the girl in that is the girl from Amour
Themos: Oh, really? The one you just saw?
Nick: Well, I saw it.
Themos The girl from what is the girl from Amour?
Nick: The girl from Hiroshima, Mon Amour is the girl from the movie Amour.
Themos: Oh.
Nick: From last year. She was nominated for Best Actress. She's awesome in that movie.
Themos: Is she?
Nick: I haven't seen Hiroshima, Mon Amour, though.
Themos: It is, it's really good.
Cir: I guess my vote is, it's going to be better than what most directors are capable of.
Nick: Did you say it did well at the independent film festivals?
Kyle: Apparently at Cannes, it got both (this is per Wikipedia), it got both standing ovations and boos, but a lot of
movies, Tree Of Life got the same thing. It's getting panned
Cir: I liked Tree Of Life.
Themos: I would have been one of the "Boo"s.
Nick: Really? Tree of Life is pretty good, but they kind of lose me at the end. But it's got such a strong first hour. Beautiful first hour. But Early reviews on Rotten Tomatoes aren't great, but it's a small sample size...
Cir: That's the thing. I think it's going to be better than what most directors... I thnk it might not be his best.
Nick: Winding Refn does things that might not be ... palatable... to most people
Kyle: He keeps winning, though.
Nick: Indeed.
Kyle: Did Drive get good reviews?
Nick: Yeah, Drive did.
Cir: Drive got great reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it got, like, 90-something.
Nick: It should.
Themos: All I know is if it comes close to Bronson, the character
Nick: You're going to like it, then.
Themos: completely haas no redeeming qualities and yet you want to see them
Cir: That guy from Bronson has some nice books out.
Themos: I hear he has a weight —- a workout book, for if you're in a confined space.
Nick: I heard he was in Once Upon a Time in the West. I might have been misled.
Themos: Are you thnking of Charles? Charles Bronson?
Kyle: Rob Swanson?
Nick: I think he was in Parks and Rec. ... All right.
Cir: You completely got me with that one.
Nick: Okay, so Only God Forgives is in theatres on July 19th and Pacific Rim is in theatres on July 12th. When they come out, hit us up and let us know. And,
Kyle: Maybe a special event...
Nick: Yeah, Akron listeners,
Kyle: Akron, Cleveland listeners. We will have more information about which specific theatre we'll be seeing Pacific Rim on July 14th. Either the Imax at Crocker Park or at Tinseltown in Canton.
Nick: Yeah, so keep an eye on our Facebook page for that. That's at Facebook.com/OnTheTropes. Where can you find us on Twitter, Cir?
Cir: At "On the tropes". So that's Twitter.com/Onthetropes.
Nick: Yes. And Kyle, where can they email us?
Kyle: Onthetropes@gmail.com
Nick: He says it like a question, but it's a statement.
Kyle: "I'm Ron Burgundy?"
Nick: And Themos, if they want to subscribe on iTunes?
Themos: They can search... "On The Tropes", then hit "subscribe". Was that a trick question?
Nick: Yeah, I made it easy for you.
Themos: I appreciate it.
Nick: So, that was episode 3. Please, subscribe, send us e-mails or whatever with feedback, and keep on listening. So, we have been On the Tropes, and I have been Nick, and we have been
Cir: Cir
Themos: Themos
Kyle: Kyle
Nick: And, I don't remember our catch-phrase.
Cir: That might be it.
Kyle: Every episode should end that way. "I don't remember our catch phrase."
Nick: And, and, and, shoot us an email with a catch-phrase idea. Should we just end it that way?
Kyle: ...fighting, was it something about fighting?
Nick: Oh, and as always, something about "catch us next week when we're again
Cir: Stuck On The Tropes. Was it "stuck"?
Nick: Yes.
Nick: And join us again next week, when we're once again stuck — On the Tropes.
<music out>
Kyle: Would you consider the Ryan Gosling movie a "blockbuster"?
Nick: No!!!
