RFYL 252: 28 Years Later: Bone Temple

You're listening to the Run for Your Lives Podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. I'm Daphne.

And I'm Pate.

And this is the Run for Your Lives podcast.

This episode is a follow-up to last week's premiere and is the post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later, The Bone Temple, directed by Naya DeCosta and released January 16th, 2026.

Yes. I got to see this one in the theater with some of our Zed friends. And it was a lot of fun. Yeah.

I was going to say same, but then you followed up with some of the Zed. No, I went and saw it alone all by myself, but I did go see it in the theaters, I think opening night.

We did, I think, a Saturday morning screening. But that makes me think I'm going to be in Texas in July. I need to check and see if anything's coming out that week that we might want to see.

Yeah.

Last year we saw Jurassic World Rebirth.

Yep. And then waited till the Oscar specialist actually cover it.

I mean, come on.

Wait until the literal next calendar year. Yes.

Yes. That's I mean, that's what happens. I know they're working on some more of those.

Of course, the first movie we went and saw in theaters together while you were down here, we still haven't covered, and it's been like two years or three years or something now, so uh No, we gotta keep going in that series, is what we've got to do.

And another one is coming out.

Yeah. Even though that felt like that one was supposed to be like the end, but then Jurassic was that way too, or Rebirth was supposed to be, or no, not Rebirth, uh Dimin or Dominion. Yeah, Dominion was a very good thing. Was supposed to be the end, and then like immediately they're like, just kidding, we want more money. Here's Scarlet Johansen.

Yeah. Um, funny enough, a connection to that, I went to see the new um Rennie Garland movie, Deep Water, and uh Angus Sampson was in it, and he, of course, is from the Insidious franchise because he played Tucker. This was a different role for him, and I won't spoil it because we'll cover it when it's available for all of our listeners to watch. Yeah, his character was a bit different than Tucker. Just gonna just gonna throw that out there. Yeah. Um, I enjoyed it. It was it was interesting, but um not gonna give anything away.

All right, good.

So we will kick this off with production notes. It was filmed in Enerdale, Cheddar, Fountains Abbey, Bradford, and Redmire, England. Alex Garland wrote this installment, which is the second film in the new trilogy by himself and Danny Boyle. Although Danny Boyle did not direct this one. It was directed by Naya DeCosta. It was filmed back to back with 28 years later. They started filming this one about three weeks after they finished filming the first one in the trilogy. It was about August 2024. $63 million budget. It grows $58.5 million at the box office. It did not even make back the investment or the cost of making it. And I just want to say this we had to watch two movies to get to the pot that I know that everyone wanted to get to.

Yeah.

We need a third movie because it will do better when people know that Killian Murphy is going to be in it.

Yeah.

That's what people want. And now I feel like please give it to us. We've been waiting.

You can't set that up and then just be like, yeah, that's it, actually. Yeah. No. No, we need to finish this out. Let's do that, please.

We need closure. We need it. So I don't know how to make it happen, but it needs to happen.

And like as soon as you can't like hurry and get on it while Alfie is still in his teens. Like, let's let's go.

I think one of the reasons why it worked so well is because they filmed it back to back. So he didn't look like he had aged very much. And so I think that was smart thinking on the part of Alex Garland and Danny Boyle is to just do it this way in order to make it seamless and not look like, oh yeah. By the way, last week I know he was only four feet tall, but now he's five seven. Like, no, that doesn't work.

When you're working with leads that are children, you've got to put yourself on a quick timetable.

It you do.

You have to get to it. Yeah, because there's I mean, Stranger Things is one of the biggest like culprits of people pointing that out, where you're just like, man, the next season came out, and these middle schoolers now are all, you know, look like they should be having 401ks and families of their own. What's happening? Um even like uh Disney Plus, like uh Percy Jackson, the Percy Jackson series. I watched the first season. I still haven't watched the second season, but like I watched the first episode of the second season. But even that kid, it's like he comes back for season two, and it's like yeah, he's not like he he grew up a little bit, didn't he?

Yeah. I mean, back when Lost was on Walt Walt. Yeah, that's oh my gosh. Walt was the big thing for for all of us because he just matured in like six months. He he just looked different, and yeah.

Yeah. So then you wonder why like certain like shows and stuff that would catch slack from because even Cobra Kai kind of did it, where you have high schoolers played by like actors in their early 20s, and it's like, why would you do that? And it's like that's why. So you that's why you get used to the way they look there, and then they don't drastically change over seasons.

From has done a decent job, or at least with the way they're filming every year, you are not getting huge differences in Ethan, the young boy.

I I'm starting to wonder, yeah, the kid that plays Ethan, I just wanna I don't think he ages. I think he's just they found a child vampire and he's worked he's worked great for me.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Because even he was in when we did Black Phone 2, he was in that, and I was like, he looks the same there. Yep.

Like, I don't know. They must have got him young enough so that he hasn't hit that growth spurt or whatever, but it's coming. So it's like, okay, you've got one more season after.

We've got one more season. We gotta wrap it up before he gets any bigger.

So, uh, it was 109 minutes long. Pake, give us a synopsis.

All right. This synopsis assumes that you already watched and know about the first movie. You should. Um, yeah. As Spike is inducted into Jimmy Crystal's gang on the mainland, Dr. Kelson makes a discovery that could alter the world.

As much as film number one was about Spike, this movie to me was Dr. Kelson's movie.

This is Kelson's movie, for sure. It was very much the first movie, and I loved, you know, last week in the timey whimey wibbly wobbly things of it all, when you're listening to this, the episode that came out last week last week when we recorded the first movie with Lucy. Yeah, I mean, it was very much like we we talked about the story of Spike, this coming of age story of him, and then Kelson is a very interesting character that is featured in it that their connection is an important point in the movie. This one, this is Dr. Kelson. This is Ian Kelson's movie. And then there's also a storyline with Spike, he's in it, it's interesting, and then when the two of them meet back up, that's like the most moving and important part of the movie, or one of them again, like this yeah, has very big implications in something very important.

Yeah.

But but yeah, this is Kelson's movie for sure.

Yeah, and again, they didn't share very much screen time with Kelson and Spike, but it was enough. Honestly, for me, the most compelling story for Kelson, or at least a big part of it, was his relationship with Samson and that whole arc trajectory of life and death and being a human and humanity and love. Like there's just so much in that, and we'll talk about it. There's a lot to talk about. As usual.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, uh, I've gotten notes pretty well broken into sections. But it's just one of those things is like we're not gonna be able to do if we do the sections, which is good because I don't think we should, and I I don't like when we accidentally fall into the the ditch of recapping the movie chronologically, but it's like the way these are broken up is like if we stick by character sections, I've got it's like I'm gonna be leaving big things out and circling back to things and doing because like yeah, because I have it broken up even like within those groups, like we have the two main groups, because I have like Spike himself, I have Kelson himself, but then I've got Jimmy Crystal and the Jimmies on their own, and then I have Samson as his own big like section of his own with because he went on his own journey in this movie.

It was huge. Samson as a character really blossomed, I think, from what we saw in the first movie to what we see in this one, and you go on that journey with him where he starts as this infected person and then becomes a person again at by the end of it, and it's mind-boggling when you look at where we were in the first movie.

Yeah. So we'll jump into it. Where do we want to start? Because I feel like, again, chronologically, we're gonna be all over the place. So like I feel like we can start in any of those places and we will be good to go.

Yeah. Um, I feel like because this is Kelson's movie, we need to start with him because he is the the main protagonist at this point. He's the one out there doing his mission, which is all sorts of different things, really. Um he's a doctor, so it's about treatment. But is Samson really a patient? It's yeah, there's a lot that happens with Kelson. So I feel like we definitely need to start with him.

Perfect. Yeah, we did say is his movie. Yeah, we kind of pick back up where we left him really after the first movie. He's still he's living there at the Bone Temple. Um, he's got a nice little underground apartment complete with a generator so he can power his record player. That is very important.

Uh yes. Uh let me just say this. As a teenager in the 80s, Duran Durand was a big like one of my favorite bands, and hearing music from different albums of theirs in this movie was a lot of fun. I loved it.

Yeah, that was yeah, it was great there. So yeah, he's hanging out there and stuff, and then of course, Samson is still coming back. And it Samson's gotten a little, and we'll talk more about Samson specifically. I've got plenty of notes, so I'll leave out a lot of important stuff. But where it connects to Kelson is uh Samson's got a little bit of an addiction to this uh morphine that he keeps hitting him with, these tranquilizer darts. Starts realizing, yeah, I stop trying to rip your spine out and attack anybody that's around you. Also, it feels real nice and it's very euphoric, and it's like I get to just zone out and stop being a crazy monster for a little bit. I actually really like it. And so Samson keeps showing up with the intention of knowing he's gonna get drinked because that's actually what he's looking for.

Yeah. I mean he's he's going to his dealer to get a fix.

Yeah.

It's delivered through this blowgun, and it's what he wants. And he's even communicating in his own way.

Yeah.

By gr grunting or whatever.

First, he's like, get take the hint. This uh I want you to do this. Uh and and Kelson kind of lets his own medical and scientific curiosity take over to where he takes some major risks, but then through doing that, learns pretty quickly like Samson's not gonna kill me. Like, we have found you know, as long as I have the goods, as long as I have the morphine, it is a in nature, because even it's like he hasn't come to this conclusion yet, early in the movie, that there's still a human inside Samson that can come back out. Even if he's fully animalistic, he's like, well, at least in the animal kingdom, this is a mutualistic relationship. This is mutualism. I get to study and learn, and Samson gets to get high. And as long as those two things continue to coexist, we're good. We can take care of each other. It's you know, almost like a cat or a crow or something. He's even bringing in little gifts. It's like there is a give and a take, there's an exchange, there's a mutual benefit between the two of them.

Yeah, they form this bond, this it's almost like it's a friendship of some sort with give and take, and throughout the whole movie, they're just different scenes where they're sitting beside each other and just you know, a Samson's in a drug-induced haze.

Just hanging out, stoned out of their mind.

Yep.

They're comfortable and happy. I've had some great weekends like that. I get it. Dancing, uh, all of it.

It's that's great. That dancing was a fever dream, and he's singing Rio, and I'm just on earth. Okay. How many people got high in the 80s and sang Rio? Probably more than you would think.

Yeah. So skipping a lot of like what Samson goes through on his own, but Kelson himself, through working with Samson there, you know, comes to this conclusion, like realizes like I only got so much of a amount of this left, so many doses left. And it's like when I run out, he either just like reverts back to what he used to be and kills me, or like he's back in pain that he's hiding from. So he has this idea, is like I'm just gonna, you know, you know, put him out of his misery, really, is just kind of euthanize him and we'll take the easy way out of this.

Well, he was also thinking about if something happened to him like Kelson, if something happened to him, who would take care of Samson? Who would be that provider? So it was like it was the drugs, but it was also I don't know, I feel like Kelson was getting philosophical about his own mortality and his own lifespan and the responsibility that he has in this rapport he's built up with Samson.

Yeah. But either way, you know, he's about to go through with that when then Samson speaks his first word. So there is human, there's language, there's thought, there's logic, things that are coming back. And that kind of pushes him to go, wait, okay, I I can't stop here. Now I've got to figure out. But now he's got more because it's not just the morphine and the anesthetics. He comes to this realization that it is a psychotic situation. So he starts uh building a new and improved anti-psychotic drug cocktail that he can inject him with it'll make Samson improve better and quicker even than this is. He's like, okay, now I have a specific goal that I'm looking for. I can tweak my uh formula a little bit and work with that. And again, you mentioned like the Duran Duran. I my favorite, other than the very end with the John Murphy score. But uh my favorite music moment, that radio head needle drop is absolutely perfect. Just the timing of it and the scenes, because Samson's like humanizing more, and he's like, you see the human side of him, and he's like viewing the world in a different way, everything is you know right in its place. Uh, and and Kelson's sitting there trying to like perfect this formula, and yeah, yeah, that Radiohead moment is so good, so well done. The the artistry of some of the like moments in this movie are so well done.

We've talked about music as a character, and I think out of all the movies, there's something about this one in particular, the way that the music is used that is different than the others. I don't know if it's Naya DeCosta or how it came about.

I mean, because like Alex Alex Garland as a writer on that I'm sure has those thoughts because even though he's not like an Edgar Wright at the way he incorporates music, if you watch Alex Garland movies, sound is a big is a very important part of those things. Yes. Either whether it's music or not, but even just the way that sound works and and the you know um sonic sonically, the kind of that kind of stuff. So I I think of like Annihilation, like you pay attention to that movie, like the sound is very important in that one.

Yeah, you're right. I think that sound is very important to Alex Garland. As as you said, because in his prior movies, you can obviously tell that he's thinking about those little details. Um yeah, all all of the music in this movie was fantastic. It was fun for me because it was kind of going back to some music I heard as a kid, but I liked how the music was paced well. I think the end when we get the score, just before that, you get the sound is just it's different, it's more current to this movie, but the way it's like a transition into and I remember being in the theater and looking at the house that pops up on the screen, and I'm like, yes, yes, I recognize that house. I'm like, would they really still be there? Would they really still use that house? And yes, absolutely, it is the house, it is like all of it. Um you're transitioning from the Kelson storyline into the Jim storyline, and I just I appreciated that so much. Because that's what we've been waiting for.

Is that yeah, like that was when that we knew that this like knew hopefully to be trilogy, but we knew we were at least getting the first two movies. Uh that's what a lot of people expect. It's like, oh, we're getting Killian Murphy back, we're getting Jim, we're getting the continuation of 28 Days. And instead, we got this fully new world of Spike and Dr. Kelson and the Jimmies and the Alpha Samson. And I don't know. For me, it hits great. I love this new world that's been built. I know some people are probably disappointed. It's like this isn't what I wanted. It's like when it comes to directors like Alex Garland, go in, don't who cares what you want? Take what he's gonna give you because it's gonna be different, but it's gonna be great if you just like are on board for the ride. Come on.

And I feel like Danny Boyle and Alex Garland together, what they did back when they did the first movie was really iconic at that time, but I think what they did with 28 years later was iconic for this time because it was different. And I know people were disappointed, and all I could think is maybe people turned out for that first movie, and what they wanted wasn't there, and so they didn't go see the second movie because they were irritated or frustrated. And if that results in us not getting the movie that you all wanted, I'm gonna be really disappointed.

And then there's me, which I don't know if I've stated this officially, but now that like I've seen all of these movies, even this one, Bone Temple, I've seen it multiple times, and it's had like you know, a year or you know, to well, yeah, no, not quite, but uh I was thinking was it that like no, it was this year, so six months. Um almost.

Four months fake. It's been four months.

Time as a construct. Anyway, yeah, no, okay, so is But even with this one, I've been able to watch it multiple times. I've been, you know, I've set on it for a little bit. Um even taking into account the original Twenty Eight Days Later, my favorite movie of this whole series, easily and by far the one that strikes me the hardest, and I will rewatch ma many times happily, is Twenty-Eight Years Later, the first one of this trilogy. There's just something so special about it, which you heard me put better into words on last week's episode of the podcast. You know, like it's it's just very special. This one is good, is it it's not as good as 28 Years, I don't think. Because it's kind of maybe it's just because I don't connect as much emotionally to Kelson's story, even though I love Kelsey's stories, but especially all the stuff with the Jimmies and everything. It's just it's a different vibe. It's a very different vibe.

Yeah. I could not re-watch this one many times because of the Jimmy story. Like it really was troubling, and I've got a whole bunch of notes on who Jimmy Crystal was based on. Um an online.

I'm trying to remember how much we talked about that in the last episode, but because I know we got into it a little bit, I'm sure with Lucy being on here. Again, it's like for those listening, it's like it was last week. How do you not remember it? It's like it's been six weeks.

I don't know, but it's been longer. Yeah, it's been at least six weeks since we recorded that one.

Yeah.

We're doing things a little bit different this season as far as how we're recording things. So yeah. Yeah, I've got I've got some notes on that because in this movie it really delved into like him. His character was much more prevalent um throughout than he was in the first one. Um, Jimmy.

We just kind of bookended the first one. We got him as a little kid, and then we got the introduction to what he had become at the bare minimum at the end of the movie. So this is really where we see who Jimmy Crystal is. Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal.

I honestly, he's a villain for sure.

Like, absolutely like I don't think anybody's going into this thinking, you know, and that guy, what a hero. No.

Oh, he's horrible. Um, I think he's one of the worst, honestly, that we've seen.

Jack O'Connell is just incredible, and he's so good at playing horrendously great villains that are like so charming in the way that you know they're evil and it's unsettling.

Yeah, absolutely. He had a really great year.

Yeah.

Because he was in Sinners and then in this one, and also his little piece in the first one. Um, but there's so much about that character that just makes me uncomfortable. And we'll talk about it when we get to him. So let's get back to Kelson.

Yeah, with Kelson. So speaking of Jimmy, of course, he has that conversation with Jimmy that we'll talk about later, because I feel like that's more Jimmy focused. But after that, he's he he reads Jimmy for who he is. He knows, he's like, Oh, I might die tonight. This guy's evil, like he's not somebody to be messed with. Um, I'm gonna go along with his plan, we'll play along and hope I make it out. But time is of the essence, so that's where he has Samson back, and he's like, Let's try this antipsychotic method, let's see if it works, and he's a little more hurried. And uh, as we see by the end of the movie, it truly worked wonders. Like, it is huge in this universe. It is a big, big deal.

Oh, yeah. And I I think that again, this movie, some of it is about Kelson and his thoughts on mortality and looking at his own like lifespan. And because he had that conversation with Jimmy, I feel like he uh constructed this magical lair of the devil. And it became a theatrical performance, like he was performing.

I love it. I love that Kelson has Iron Maiden in his meager little vinyl collection. It's great. Uh then he just gotta make sure that he gets the pr you know, that the production is all top-notch and looks convincing with the help of some light psychotropics, but you know, uh he'll get there. Uh it was a hell of a show, Ian. Hats off to you. Good job.

Um it was so great. I've had forgotten about the dregs part until it happened. Um, oh yeah, they're drugged up, so that's really that's gonna help.

Makes it pump even more.

Well, because the fire, and they're all just kind of mesmerized by everything that's happening.

I couldn't help but even watch Spike through those scenes, and he's even dancing a little bit. And I was like, part of it's like he's just trying to blend in because he's just like, this uh this is all fucked. It's all bad, but like if I just go along with it, then we'll see what happens.

Yeah, well, you saw earlier when um Ink, Jimmy Inc. was telling Crystal, Jimmy Crystal, that she had seen old Nick and started describing it. The look on Spike's face, it's like he was concerned because he didn't want anything to happen to him. Kelsey was kind to him and his mom and all of that through that process, and so he didn't want anything to happen to him, and he knows what the Jimmies will do the way that they are, the code they live by.

Which is, yeah, what leads to kind of that mo ending of the movie uh uh aside from the the little gym cutscene there. But yeah, this moment where because Kelson's going along with Jimmy's plan, he's like, I'll tell your followers, your fingers, what you want them to hear, so you leave me alone and don't kill me, and you know, whatever. You can see he's struggling with it when it's like, and then you want us to continue going out and disemboweling and disemboweling and murdering all these innocent people, and he's like, No, I really don't want you to be doing that. That's terrible. But it's like, yeah, just go along with it. But it's when he recognizes Spike through that mask and has to stop and goes over there and and and pulls it up to confirm that that's who it is. That's when everything changes, and that's the part in this movie that's the most moving to me. That's the emotional thing, and it's kind of very similar, it's about the same part of the movie as it was in the first one. Um, it's this Kelson and Spike together kind of like at the in the third act of the movie. When he sees Spike and he just realizes like I can't let this continue on. I have to break my promise, change the rules a little bit, and do what I can. And and what I think about is I I it takes me back to that first movie, that Memento Mori, but then that second part of that, Memento amoris. Remember that you must love. And it's that full circle because what this is is the love that Kelson is feeling for Spike. After what they went through together, you know, he says to him, You've suffered enough.

Mm-hmm.

Watching him lose his mother right there in front of him and being able to be there for him and the conversations they had and the connection that they shared, as brief as it was, the day they had together.

It was enough.

He has enough of that love for Spike to go, This is worth sacrificing myself or risking myself for. Memento amoris. That's what we're doing. And it's he's risky, but he also knows if I don't intervene, Spike is not gonna survive following this absolute psychopath around.

No. Because Spike had a heart. Spike was a kind person. Everything that the Jimmies were doing was going against who Spike was, and this he I mean, honestly, he'd be right. Spike was not gonna survive. It was just gonna take someone challenging him to kill him, Jimmy killing him, Crystal killing him. I mean, it was not Jimmy Inc. could only save him for so long. Like you could tell Jimmy Inc., aka Kelly, had a soft spot for a spike.

Aka great gorilla song.

Yeah. Um she had a soft spot for him, and so she wanted to take care of him in order to do that. And it in order to take care of him, she was having to continue to put herself out there. I mean, she uh tells Jimmy Crystal about the Bone Temple just because she's trying to get Jimmy Crystal off Spike's case and away from like looking at what he had done.

There's a case to be made for Kelly or Jimmy Inc. at the time that it's not very it's a little vague. It's you're not sure where exactly she lands. Because you can make the argument that like, oh, she's just trying to save Spike and she's but also there's the other side of it that like, no, she was also fully devout as well to the cause. I mean, when when Jimmy Crystal sends her off to find this like spot that where she finds the Bone Temple, she's legitimately pretty sad that she has to miss the charity. Like, she was very ready to be part of that.

That is true.

But she starts she starts seeing the cracks in Jimmy and she's losing faith in him. But I think her going, like, well, let's ask old Nick, I think she was fully convinced that Kelson was Satan. I think she was so bought into Jimmy Crystal that she was like instead of you know, but she's losing faith in Jimmy. She fully believed in Satan, in old Nick, I think. But she as she even says, she was like, I do believe that's old Nick. I don't believe Jimmy's his son. I think Jimmy's full of shit. And so she knows, well, if Jimmy decides what old Nick is gonna say to do a spike, it's just gonna be what Jimmy wants. So she goes, Well, the real old Nick is over there. Let's actually go ask him.

And let's be honest, Kelson was very convincing.

Yeah.

His theatrics were very they were very convincing to the Jimmies. Absolutely. You could tell in their expressions, they were all like wonder. Even Jimmy Crystal was just kind of like part of it is because he was high as a kite, but I think he was also very impressed with what he was watching.

Yeah.

I don't know how Kelson decided about the sacrifice or how that came about in his head, but it was brilliant.

Yeah, and again, it's like I've got to save Spike from this hellish future. So I like that what he does is kind of a jab at Jimmy, is let's turn this religious imagery on its head, even though it kind of has been with this, you know, satanic part of Jimmy Crystal. So it's like, you know, turn that inverted cross back right side up, and you demand this Christ-like sacrifice from Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, uh, and and have him die at the hands of the poor souls that he has misled and abused this whole time. Of course, that all goes to shit because these devout psych offense of his, except for for Inc., for Jimmy Inc., who has the cracks have worn down through her, and she's the one that's like, I mean, I'm gonna take this opportunity because I'm tired of following him. I don't believe in him, and he's gonna get us all killed. But then, yeah, I mean, everything falls apart because then you get Jimmy stabbing Kelson, and then Ink having to kill the other two Jimmies, uh, but then Spike being the one that not really mortally wounds, but stops Jimmy Crystal long enough for then Ink to knock him out. There's a lot of Jimmy going on in my notes, and like when I'm just gonna Jimmy this and Jimmy that and Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

Um I got to the point where it was Ink, Crystal, Spike, Jemima, Jemima.

And then there's Snake and Fox.

Yeah. Like, I was using their secondary names because it was too confusing. Like, I don't know how to do this any other way, so that's what we're doing.

But yeah, but uh Ink just kind of knows that the time to finish this, and even you know, when Kelson turns out to not be old Nick and all of it is a lie, she's like, you know what? We've talked about this. Her and Spike had had these little conversations, it's just like this is the time to, you know, opportunistic the opportunity here. Get rid of Jimmy's crystal, step away from all of this madness, and start fresh.

Yeah. And so they do. The end.

If you like what you've heard, oh no.

That's a completely different podcast fake. Um, do we talk about the real end now or do we wait?

Um, I mean, I have that as part of my like spike notes as far as they're connected to that.

Okay. So wherever we want to go. Yeah, so that's basically the end of the story. Samson does come in, but that's we'll talk about that under Samson. The human Samson.

So I'll let you decide where we want to go next. So I assume you kind of have the same sections. I've got Spike, the Jimmys, and Samson left.

So what's go with a lot of my Spike and Jimmy's stuff is together. But um let's go to Spike. Let's go to Spike.

Alright, yeah. So with him, I mean we pick up pretty quick with him. Like when we left off with the last movie, he had run into Jimmy and the Jimmy's uh his fingers, and we quickly kind of pick up on and then we see it fleshed out throughout the movie that yeah, Jimmy's running this satanic death cult. Um he's just wandering around the countryside, killing and torturing people for his dear old daddy, for his father, Satan, old Nick, the devil. Uh keeping this close group of followers, the Jimmies, the Fingers, with him. Uh, and after they found Spike, we don't know exactly how much time has elapsed between the the movies, but we see them they're in this like abandoned like park, like like play place kind of area with a pool and stuff, like a party area. And with Spike, it's like, okay, kill or be killed. We either just kill you, you get charity, as they like to say, or you kill one of my fingers, my jimmies, and take their place. And he does end up winning that fight even pretty much by accident. He just happens to cut an artery on this guy's leg. And with that kind of accidental murder, he's the youngest and newest Jimmy, like it or not, you don't really have a say. It's what it is now.

Yeah. Jimmy Scheites, I think was his name. Jimmy Fox was not happy about this and held the grudge the entire film because that was his best friend, and he was not pleased. But again, they have to abide by these rules that Jimmy Crystal set up. And so that's how things go. You have to fight one, you take their place, and that's how you know he keeps fresh rotating faces. Because Spike honestly would have had no chance, honestly. That was the only way that he was gonna get in there. There's no way you could save Jimmy Scheit because he had been stabbed in the artery in his leg. And so he was not gonna live.

Yeah. So yeah, Spike passes the test. He's a he's a Jimmy, he's a finger, but unsurprisingly, he's not really having a very great time running around with this new group of friends. No, it's not really his thing. But is he it's not even uh Stockholm syndrome, because it's just like, no, it's not that he has fallen into it and feels like he belongs here, it's that if he doesn't do it, he's gonna die. Like they're gonna kill him if he descends.

It's definitely survival mode. And they live this nomadic lifestyle where they're just going and taking from others and killing them and and giving charity and and all of that. And it's a bleak existence.

Yeah, next we see them is like they're at this farmhouse where these little these survivors have this area set up, and they just come in, they demand to be served, and they eat their food, and they take up space, and at the end of it, and it's like, thanks for your hospitality. Now we pay you back by killing you all.

Mm-hmm.

But we see then you know these people on the farm don't go out without a fight. Uh at least some of we have Kathy. Uh, and Tom is the one that they kind of spare to give him the opportunity to uh kill or be killed, to kind of, you know, replace one of the Jimmies. He's the one he's the one that that Jimmy Crystal views as you look like you're the most capable, so I'll give you here's your audition. Let's see what you can do. Uh but yeah, so you know, don't they don't go out with a fight though. He's like, well, I'm gonna pick uh Jimmima.

Jimima.

She seems quiet and weak and and scared. She put on a great, you know, fake little like face for that. I think she wanted to get picked. She was like, Yes, look at me. Think I'm the the weak link so that I can have some fun. Let's do this.

Well, she did do the funny little teletuppy dance.

Mm-hmm. The dipsy dance.

The dipsy dance.

She got some moves. She she was on point with the dipsy dance. I'll give her that. Yeah, like I said, they don't, you know, her him and Kathy, because Kathy is the pregnant one that was out and then came back to find them there. She's hiding up in the loft and she takes Jamima out with this hook. And then Tom, all stabbed and cut and beat up, crawls over and grabs like this propane tank and sets it on and you know turns like into a flamethrower and torches one of the other Jimmies. Um, all this stuff going on. I was like, it's a good thing that Spike and Ink are just hanging out outside the barn because it is chaos in there. And you have the friends like, that's a lot of screaming. I mean, there usually is a lot of screaming, but that just doesn't sound like normal screaming.

Yeah, because the particular brand of charity in this case, which we'll talk about with the Jimmies, was disgusting. This is why I could not watch this movie again and again.

Yeah, yeah, but the screaming was different now because there were Jimmies on fire.

Yep. Multiple Jimmies on fire.

Yeah, the screaming of the hearing is a little different than that. It's Jimmy's on fire, which, you know, great Bruce Springsteen song. It's probably my favorite there.

You want me to laugh so bad.

I'm just gonna give it a second to breathe. Just so other people listening will appreciate it for how incredible it was. And yeah, and then yeah, chaos, though, the barn door is open, and yeah, there's flaming jimmies, which God I want to make a flaming lips joke because I couldn't think of a name of one of their songs right off the top of my head. I need to stop doing this.

Uh it's just because it's late. It's later than even usual for us.

Yeah.

It's like, uh yeah.

Spike is sent after the fleeing Kathy, but instead of bringing her back to Jimmy, he wants her to let her him escape with her. And understandably, she does not buy that. She's like, this kid's trying to pull something on me, so she sucker punches him and escapes and gets the hell out of there.

And locks him in.

Yeah. So then Spike has to go back, tail tucked between his legs, to Jimmy and be like, Well, I gotta accomplish something. Because I tell her that if I tell Jimmy that she punched me and I fell over and she ran away and I let her go, and I asked her because I asked her to take me with her, yeah, it's like that's not gonna end well, so he has to give him this story of, well, I chased her down into the woods and then she tried to fight back, so I had to kill her. And Jimmy's not buying that. He's like, Oh yeah, conveniently you chased her down into the woods into a spot that you won't be able to find again, and who knows what happened.

And you know, giving And you didn't bring me her face, you didn't bring me, you know, no you brought me nothing. Like this is not good.

Yeah. So that's you know, we talked about this a little bit, so he's like, well, old Nick will decide what to do with you, what fate befalls young Jimmy. Uh but no, not the old Nick in Jimmy Crystal's head, but the real one that Inc. found earlier is what ends up happening, as she points that out. And then as you mentioned, Inc. describes, you know. I saw him. And then he's like describes, you know, the skin, the bone palace, the alpha that's tamed. And Spike's like, oh God, it's Kelson. Like, I know I've been there, I've seen it, I know exactly what she's describing. Samson, it's all. Yeah.