Midweek Mention... Heathers

Heathers

Sidey:

Right. So this is going to be the start of our school slash educational week nominated by me, sadly. And our mid weeker. We're gonna look back at Heather's way back in 1989, I think.

Dan: Wow. I, I'd never seen this.

never, never, never, never,

Pete: I, I, this was another film that I didn't think I'd seen until I watched it again and realized I had seen it before.

Sidey: I, I had seen it, but I'd forgotten how it ended.

Reegs: Yeah. I saw this maybe 10 years after it came out, but I guess I was kind of already aware. Of like what Heather's meant and what it was saying about like teen social structures and like, it, it made a bit of an impression sort of thing.

Sidey: Yeah, well Ive, from how we normally do it to say that this was a massive flop mm-hmm.

Budget, well, I mean it was budget three mil, so not a lot of money and only made just over one mil back, but since then has been adapted into musical. Yeah. And I think TV series. right. So it has had some kind of cultural impact, albeit not being a hugely successful movie in its own

Dan: own. This is where I'd heard of like that franchise and things. But, and I, I was aware there was a film and that when Winona Rider was in it, but I didn't actually delve deep enough to know that Christine Slater was in it as well.

So it was all nice surprises for me.

Sidey: Yeah. So I think back to those times, known Ryder. Pretty like big name

Reegs: fresh off of Beetlejuice. Pretty much I

Sidey: Yeah.

And Christian Slater was quite the heartthrob as well. Yeah. So like a good, you know, a good couple of lead act tours In it. So it starts off with almost like a David Lynch kind of picket fence,

Pete: It is very

Sidey: idealized garden view with the three girls who we learn are all the Heathers Heather, one, two, and three.

Reegs: It's it's, they're playing que sra and they're putting a red scrunchie in her hair and it's like, red is a real symbol of power in this movie. And you'll see it like over and over again.

Sidey: And they're sitting on a, a bench and they get up and they trample all over some perfect flower beds. And then they go to play croquet and one of them waxs the croquet balls and it hits Winona Rider who's buried neck deep in the ground.

It's quite.

Reegs: quite just her head

Sidey: You're like, oh, I wasn't expecting that.

Reegs: And then she starts narrating, doesn't

Sidey: saying, dear diary, and then she's writing in her diary about how she's, she effectively in the film has joined this powerful, popular girl cliques,

Dan: of the cool

Sidey: But she doesn't like it.

Dan: No. And

Reegs: It's more a case like Yeah. You, you have to be part of it because you fear them sort of thing. Yes. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

And she's been told to go and speak to people. And, and, and the first kind of bit that you see, and you think these people are really mean is that for no reason whatsoever. They'll pick on like the really.

Sidey: There's a larger girl,

Reegs: Martha yeah. Yeah,

Pete: Yeah.

Dan: And they, they want Winona Rider who's got brilliant

Reegs: She's a forger. She's a expert Forger.

Dan: that's right. She can forge anybody's handwriting, said, well, look, put the, the top sort of football

Reegs: Well, it's Curt. He's gonna appear later. The top high school football, quarterback,

Dan: or something, and goes, I'll write a letter, a love letter to her, and we'll slip it on her tray. Anyway, that's what happens. And they watch.

With kind of glee as it unfolds. She reads it goes over to him and he just starts laughing. And it's just a really, really mean trick to play.

Sidey: And Veronica. So we should say that Banana Rider who plays Veronica.

She's not full Heather, because she's not called Heather. Yeah. But she's part of the Heather crew. But she not by, not by just the means of her name, you can see her reaction. She regrets, I think, straight away that she's done this note. She's kind of. Like wincing as the lady reads it and she's, she's not into it

Reegs: Well, she's navigating the minefield of high school popularity side, and she's, she's had to, she's already had to been off a few mates. There's a few sort of small interactions with old social groups in the beginning as Betty. She'll come later.

Pete: But she does like Veronica's character even when she's forging the, the letter. I think she has like a moment of hesitation and then gets immediately like, shut down by one of the Heathers, say like, no, no, no, you're going ahead with this.

Like, you

Sidey: but while that's all going along, we do get a glimpse of Christian. Yeah. As super cool jd. Like he's, he's caught Veronica's eye and he's watching what's going on and he's, he's not

Reegs: impressed. Well,

she approaches him, doesn't it? They've, they, they work for like a. High school sort of newspaper, and they're asking people questions and as one she's asking like, oh, you know, may seem like a really stupid question. She says, there are no stupid questions. Said You give $5

Sidey: Stupid question I've ever heard.

Reegs: Yeah, alien's land.

What'd you do? It's a stupid question. But then what he does say is, I'd head out to the lake with my sacks and a bit of bark, and I thought, whoa. Yeah. I am not going with you. But he's a heart throw. Benny. He

Sidey: oh, he's super Jimmy.

Pete: smoldering. He's got the, he's got that kind of like, that sort of like squi. Well, his name is Jason Dean, isn't it? It's a very James

Sidey: Dean. Yes. Yes. And did you see the alternate casting?

Reegs: I did, yeah. A few different names,

Sidey: Brad, Brad Pitt was in

Pete: Yeah. That, that would've worked.

Jim

Reegs: Carey was one of the names

Sidey: would not have worked.

Pete: I know. I dunno, because this would've been pre,

Sidey: Yeah, but he's

Pete: Ventura and stuff. And he

Sidey: not as much as a heartthrob

Pete: No,

but if you see him do his like, like you see him like pre. Ensure and all of that sort of stuff. When you see him doing his impressions and everything, like he does his Clint Eastwood now he can, he

Reegs: herself. Well

Pete: put

Reegs: of impressions,

Pete: himself into,

Reegs: he Christian Slater is doing a pretty good Jack Nicholson

Sidey: that's who he based the role on and he did reach out to Jack to get him to watch it and never heard back.

Yeah. But yeah, so he's got this kind of let's just say trench Goat Mafia kind of look about him, which certainly

Dan: the new kid in school, so he is a little bit mysterious and he is

Sidey: he's definitely got an nihilistic kind of he's not, he's not bothered about fitting into any fucking clique in

Pete: learned that he's been to like seven

Sidey: schools. He's moved around a lot.

Pete: And, and he puts it, he. He puts it down to the fact that his dad runs like a big construction company, a big famous seemingly construction company that he has to move around for his dad's work.

But you're kind of reading between the lines, thinking like there was probably some bother at at the previous schools. Well,

Sidey: Well, his mother has also committed suicide. Yeah, we learn. Yeah. So he's

Reegs: there's some bother at this school because pretty soon Kurt and his friend Ram is it That's right. They, they come across and they have an interaction with him, and I think he says something about, or they say something like, oh, doesn't, don't they have a no fags rule?

He says, oh, they have an open door policy for assholes.

Pete: Yeah,

Dan: That, that's right. So it was, it was quite funny. And they, they. Just kind of spotted him. And one of the lines is, you know, we're seniors. We, we shouldn't be doing this, but they're gonna go and rattle his cage anyway. And he pulled out fucking big gun

Sidey: Look like a magnum.

Dan: Yeah. And then points it at their head and shoots. Both of them,

Reegs: I

Dan: To their head. And I thought

Reegs: now than it obviously would've done in 1989. Right. Because I think it's probably more Blackly comic in 1989 than

Pete: like,

well now this actually happens every day in America.

Like, yeah.

Sidey: And I think we learn after the, after he is done this, that they both piss themselves with the fear of being, you know, shot, shot in the face pointing black range. But, you know, I would describe this as basically mean girls mes bowling for Columbine. It's basically how it plays out the film because people start to, it, it turns from blanks into just murder.

Just fucking

Reegs: yeah. Pretty soon as well. Because I mean, I dunno if we're leaping too far ahead here.

There's a frat party isn't there? And Veronica is kind of pressured into a sexual encounter that she doesn't want. And by one of the Heather's kind of thing. Yeah. And

Sidey: yes, cuz they're, cuz they are high school girls.

And the big achievement for the, the main Heather girl, we should probably know her surname

Pete: Chandler.

Reegs: Heather

Sidey: Heather Chandler, is that they, they're so cool that they will actually get invited to the uni frat by, so it's like a le They're leveling up. Yeah. Like you say, and she's pressured into.

Having, well, just doing whatever so that Heather can stay there and look cool and whatever. And so she's borderline raped or, or, you know, the guy's almost gonna force himself. Yeah. And she wants to leave. And even to the point of fucking vomiting after the trauma of like the, the encounter with this fella and Heather still won't, it's just embarrassed

that, well, she's worried she's showing her up, she about

Reegs: impact of the, of being sick at this thing and then what's happened and how it's gonna play out.

So,

Dan: and that is kind of her part in common is it is like, I can't believe you've been sort of sick on the carpet there. That's the worst thing. And, and she go, are you bitch? I can't believe that you, you'd be even, you know, giving me this clearly. Girl the girl Heather is just out for herself. Just out for, you know, is never been more clear in the film than that.

And in the morning, oh no, she goes back home, doesn't she, to write her diary. And she's scribbling away and she's saying, look, oh, I do fucking anything.

And

Christine Slater pops his head through the window via a ladder to her bedroom. And she's delighted to see him because it's, you know, she's had a shit night.

And the only person that she's kind of gotten well with In the last, well, since we've seen the film, he's this guy,

Sidey: They do the fucking wild thing.

Dan: Yeah,

yeah.

Reegs: Pretty quick. They go out for some cro strip croquet.

Dan: They look so young, don't they? Under the, under the tree together there. They're just like

yeah.

Right. It, it's just as actors, I mean like, you know, Christian

Sidey: there was some there was some sort of drama about dating on within the cast. Did you see that?

Reegs: No, I didn't.

Sidey: I think that Christian Slater and possibly Kim Walker, I think the main Heather were dating and he gunned her to start.

Carrying on with Winona.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. Well, there is a bit of chemistry, you can see that.

Sidey: So that was a

Reegs: Mm mm.

Sidey: quiet,

Reegs: Hormones raging. And anyway, in post Coit, Italy, or in the morning afterwards, they come up with this plan

Sidey: which JD

Reegs: it. It's, it's basically to make, you know, to make her sick really to get her back for, cause she's puked and she doesn't want the social stigma of that going out.

So is they gonna make her puke with the hangover cure,

Dan: That's it. So she, she goes, they're spreading these rumors that I'm gonna be sick and everything. So I'd love to see her vomit everywhere.

Reegs: So they go to the kitchen and they get out a few things. She's talking about knocking up a, a milk and orange juice.

Sidey: yeah, she says, do they cur jds got bigger, better ideas of like

Dan: Old blue,

Sidey: Unblock her.

Reegs: Yeah.

So there's a bizarre

Dan: and not a little bit He's tips like a whole mug of

Yeah,

Pete: well, they put it in a glass at first and it's like, well, she's obviously gonna know that that's not, you know, IBI because it's bright, it's bright blue.

So he goes, oh, we'll put it in a mug. Then he's got, he's thought of

Reegs: think it was an energy drink.

Sidey: Yeah, it's a monster or something. Get I mean, Veronica doesn't take a whole lot of convincing. Everything's kind of played out to extremes in this film. So

Reegs: I wanted to talk about this. Does she know I, cuz it's played in the movie, that the dialogue is that she doesn't want to kill Heather, but she picks up the one with the lid on which we've already established is the one with the, so it's not rea, there's like a difference between what she says and what the

Pete: when she picks it up though, they're, they're having another kiss. She's not looking. So she's not looking and

Reegs: reaching, but she fingers her hand onto the one with the lid. Yeah. It's the only what? So it is

Pete: I, I took, I took it as like, you know, she, she's fantasizing about killing Heather

Sidey: I think. I think either way. Once, once she is killed. Because she is killed. She, she drinks the stuff and falls through

Reegs: it's pretty

Sidey: plate glass, like coffee table.

She very quickly okay with it.

There's no like, lasting trauma about having just killed one of your friends. Yeah, yeah. Friends in,

Pete: Well, she's more worried as he is about the, the coverup. Like how do we know?

Dan: that's the

Reegs: well, which they come up with really quickly because obviously she's a master forger.

They can just say that, you know, they can write a suicide note and they come up with they, they're sort of talking through her test scores and stuff and saying whether she'd use the word myriad or not.

Dan: Yeah. And it goes no, you're gonna spell it right. You know, we're gonna use it and spell it. Right. And it goes, and it goes to prove my point that she got it on the test, and it was about how, how much more sensitive she was. The, the suicide note. The, and it was like she, she had to put up this kind of facade of being a bitch, because really she was so, you know, caring and everything.

And then the school kind of run with this. Yeah. Yeah. And she's turned into this martyr of, you know,

Yeah.

what an amazing person. So they're living

Reegs: well, they, they read, they get her suicide note and they're passing it around class to like, yeah.

Pull it apart and talk about how

Dan: beautiful

I was sure that somebody was gonna pull 'em up on the handwriting and saying, that's not her, or whatever, but none of that happens.

It all just sails through.

Reegs: Yeah. And she's con she's doing these like diary entries as well. Yeah. All the way through talking about it.

She talks about her now. My teenage Dan's bullshit has a body count.

Dan: That's right. And and,

and it doesn't, you know, things seem to to be nice for a while because people seem to be treating each other a little

Reegs: well. But one of the other Heather's, Shannon Doty's, Heather kind of steps up,

Sidey: I was gonna ask you about that. Is it Doherty or Dockerty?

Reegs: Sure.

Dan: Dockerty.

Sidey: Yeah. Okay.

Pete: Doherty

Dan: D But yeah, you, you cut the head off the serpent and another one

Pete: but it was, it was interesting. It was her, cuz Ida said in the pecking order of Heather's, she seemed to be

Sidey: she was being forced into bulimia

Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reegs: She had the red though, if you notice, she was wearing

Pete: red. Well, she, I she got the, she got the red scrunchie from,

Sidey: by The Captain's Armand,

Pete: original Heather's locker.

Sidey: Yeah. Well,

Dan: Well, there was an interesting scene in the church as the students kind of go by and

Sidey: we get that in a monologue. Yeah. You

Dan: to hear what they're thinking.

And it is like, oh, I'm so sorry. This is tragedy too.

Reegs: Yeah. You know, the guy, the guy who says, oh, I hope it's not me. He killed himself a few years later.

Dan: Oh, for reals? Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Oh, right. Okay. Well, he was, He's going, oh, please, you know, I hope it's not me doing this. Somebody else goes, why'd you take such great snatch,

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: like, oh,

Pete: was one, yeah, that was Ram, wasn't it? Yeah.

a

Dan: Just a joke. Nobody can take a joke. He's kind of doing all this. And then you've got all these other, you know, their, their own concerns. And Winona Rider comes on and says, well, you know, wasn't me, but I suppose, you know, who am I getting? Right?

Sidey: And she, she justifies it by saying, I just want high school to be a good place.

That's how she's okay with it. it. Yeah.

Pete: Yeah. But I think Heather Duke, which is Shannon Doty's character, is like, oh, I'm fucking glad you're dead, you bitch and

Dan: whereas the other Heather actually goes, oh, I'm so sorry. I, I was like, you know, she's really actually quite nice. It's one of the, the nicer reactions.

But yeah, Shannon do, Dori is she's just so pleased she's going, I prayed for this every day myself. I can't believe it just goes to show you do listen. Hallelujah.

Reegs: Which is, so there's a, to propel the story on Heather one of the Heathers, is it Shannon? Derek Dockerty Heather. They, she wants to get it on with Kurt, the football player from the beginning and like she

Pete: I think that's the other thing. It's McNamara Heather, the sort of the middle one. Middle the, the most innocuous one. Yeah.

Reegs: So she convinces Veronica Tobin off JD for a night and double date with her effectively. And they end up cow tipping with these two

Dan: Well that's what, that's what they say. I did not know what they were, they were meant by cow

Sidey: tipping. You never heard that

Pete: We've never heard of it. I've never done it, but I've, I've always known I wouldn't have the, I couldn't do that.

Dan: those, you like me, who, who doesn't know you go into a field at night when there's a cow sleeping or a bull in, in this case. And no. You, you just push it over and then it just soak

Sidey: be careful where you stand, I would say.

Yeah.

Dan: And Winona Rider had said previously, look, if we are just gonna be in a field watching these guys, Cow tick.

Pete: get drunk and go cow tiping, that's exactly what happens.

Yeah.

Dan: Cut to that scene next bit.

Pete: Yeah.

Reegs: So anyway, I, they're trying to get frisky, but she's having none of it.

And I can't remember exactly how it plays out. But then anyway, it does start when she goes back to

Pete: d's watching again

Sidey: They, the up

Pete: in the trees.

Sidey: the start a rumor, the lad start a rumor about her blowing.

Reegs: But I can't remember exactly how.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: They start the rumor about, Veronica blowing one of the guys in her

Dan: in her mouth.

Sidey: Yeah. And that starts to go around school, which I know jds now got the taste for.

Yeah. For killing. Yeah. So they arrange for Veronica to have a, a three-way. Yeah. With

Reegs: tells Kurt and

Sidey: Kurt Loder and Ram, Ram man they're gonna basically meet up in the woods and and get it

Dan: dawn? Yeah, at dawn,

Sidey: there's a different plan.

Reegs: Yeah. So sh they, she does lure them there and she gets them to face each other in this circle and start to strip. And the plan is, is pretty shady, isn't it? He tells Veronica, I've got,

Sidey: it's blanks again, isn't it?

Reegs: Well, it's not

Pete: types. Is it like some

Reegs: luga bullets or something.

Yeah. The, they,

Pete: just like, they break the skin and And render you unconscious for a while, but

Reegs: it just sounded like total bullshit, didn't it? And when he shoots the first guy in the throat, it clearly is bullshit. Yeah.

Dan: And the, the second guy starts running and he gives chase and it ends up coming all the way back around to. Where the first guy got shot and Winona Rider levels the gun and shoots

him.

Reegs: if there was any ambiguity over the first killing, it's just completely gone by this one cuz she does just

Dan: knows exactly what she's doing, but they, they've also brought some props with them to corroborate their story

Pete: This is the bag. Yeah.

Dan: as well as a, a letter written.

Declaring their love in a misunder, you know, an un understanding world or whatever it was. Yeah. Then they've got a bottle of mineral water which they say, you know, this is

Reegs: Ohio. It's the most homophobic, it's the most homosexual thing there could possibly be is,

Dan: need beers.

If you haven't got beers, then you know, mineral water. And they had a Joan Crawford

Reegs: a postcard. Yeah. There's

Dan: these kind of random little. Bits, mascara and stuff. Yeah. And then so they end up cut to the

Sidey: Well, the police, the police rock up, don't they? Yeah,

Dan: Oh, of course

Reegs: they're getting stoned just, aren't they? Just around the corner or whatever.

Sidey: The police, yeah. Yeah. They rock up and they're literally the worst. The worst. And like chief wig. Yeah. And Veronica and JD are just like, Getting it all in the car as if they'd, they'd been there the long time and they're like, okay, well they were fucking So it can't be them.

Reegs: It can't be them. Yeah.

Sidey: they just accept like hook line and think of this, this scenario.

Dan: we've got all the answers we've got right here. That's when he holds

Reegs: on water.

Pete: yeah, that's right. Yeah. They're gay.

Dan: two guys. And then you cut to dad in the church going, oh, love my gay dead son. Yeah. And they're all in their football kits with helmets with in the coffin, open coffin with the balls with the football and yeah, it's It's kind of a, a darkly funny scene.

It is.

Reegs: Mm-hmm.

Dan: And they've got a way of it again, you know,

Sidey: got away with that one.

But Veronica's. She's not up for any more

Dan: No. But the school is rocked as well by their quarterback. They'd already been a lot of community spirit from school.

Reegs: Well, you get another sort of like, you get another wave, another wave of it here around the,

Sidey: it's the

homecoming king and queen are gone.

Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. And the and the hippie kind of teacher wants to bring everyone together and sing kumbaya or something. And they're saying, right, well, you know, the last one didn't work. So they're given their day off and then say, come back in tomorrow, and the TV cameras are there and that's all they're really interested in.

And yeah, it's it moves on you again. Y the Sharon Doty's

doc Dockerty,

Pete: That's

Dan: Yeah. Good, isn't it? Her, her character is still becoming the bitch of bitches.

Reegs: Yeah. And the jds planning to kill her. They talk about how clean the knife should be, that. They're gonna

Sidey: kill her, but he, he tricks her, doesn't he?

Into getting a petition signed by everyone at the school. Yeah.

Dan: Well, this is after Winona Ryder says no more. She says No more. I'm, I'm finishing because he shoots they're sat at home and he shoots the radio or something. He brings out. She's like, what the fuck are you doing? Her dad

shooting Her dad, oh, sorry. His dad. And who's a construction guy.

Reegs: he's told some sort of thin metaphor about being an asshole, basically about blowing up this building

Dan: with Yeah. And they, they kind of change their own dynamics. Don't they? Go, they'll call each other son and dad

Reegs: Mm-hmm.

Pete: Yeah. The wrong way round.

Yeah.

Dan: way around. And And they kind of have this yeah, they kind of have a weird relationship where neither one of them wants to take responsibility the whole time.

So they, they kind of pass it

Pete: but it kind of infers that the dad is, is also a psychopath, like a, you know, a

Dan: well, he, he loves blowing shit up,

Pete: He's blowing shit up. And, and some people have, there's been some people disappear on his watch and all of this. It's, yeah, it's insinuating that that's

Dan: And, and you kind of hear him say, oh, this was the last time I, she was, when no rider says I'm going, at one point I'm going off to going home. Mom's cooked something. He goes, oh, last time I saw my mom, she was four stories up in a building. Dad's just blown up or something waving to me. So yeah, he's, he's got these kind of scars as well.

Which maybe. Give some reason as to why he's clearly damaged, because one, she does work out on him. His next deal is to go to Heather, Sharon ti um, Shannon and say to make a deal with her and say, look.

Pete: basically blackmails her into ci into like getting everyone in the school to sign a petition.

Yeah. That he says it's a petition, but his plan is actually, it's gonna be like a, a mass suicide Yes. Packed

Dan: Yeah. It's, it is one of those funny, funny kind of tracing paper things. So he takes off the top sheet and you realize everybody's signed what's underneath. And with that idea, he puts. Bombs all the way in the school, and he knows that they're all gonna come down for a, a lesson to get outta class.

The whole school's gonna get there, and it's cheerleading and, and clapping the basketball team. And so the scene is set. He's gonna set up the same way his dad does his buildings where there will be bombs on the top set off by a bomb at the bottom. So it really does just collapse and kill everything,

Reegs: Mm-hmm.

Pete: Destroy everything. Ju just before. This is a scene where the, the th the the third Heather has, has tried taking her own life. I mean, I, I dunno if again, if it was inferring that she'd been like, like raped by the, like, one of the guys when they're on this like double date, but she's now at the point where she wants to like take her own life and, and so on.

So she takes a load of pills, but Veronica finds her.

and

stops her from doing it. And, and like, so she's, she's had enough of like the

Reegs: she's literally got the mouthful of pills, hasn't she? And she likes

Dan: And she's gotta spit him out. And, and the big girl who's Martha, she also puts she's like, has a, a suicide attempt I

Reegs: well, this is a real thing Right. As well, how suicide can become a kind of epidemic or

Sidey: I remember it happening in a Welsh town. Yeah. Where it was like,

Pete: Kids, just

Sidey: kids wanting to kill themselves and yeah. Not be left out or something. Fucking weird phenomenon. That is,

Reegs: Yeah. It is a bizarre thing. Yeah.

Pete: Hmm. Yeah. So Martha's one and she's like, she writes a note and put like, so kind of cellar tapes it to her.

Chest and, and walks out into the traffic. And I, I, I, I didn't actually think by the end of the film I couldn't like,

Reegs: I thought even if a car hit her, she hit the car, I'd probably be worse off than she

Pete: Ah, fat shaming that the suicidal girl. Yeah.

Sidey: And also she does survive, but she's kind of like humiliated for trying to be trendy in killing herself and

Reegs: able to drink a cup of, what was that? When she

Dan: oh, not being able to, she said she couldn't even really do it. Like she's failed at that as well. How could she? Oh, just

Reegs: drinking her drink and then she just like pours it all down her t-shirt.

Dan: that's what leads to her suicide attempt where she's just like, oh fuck. Nothing's going my way. She sat in the gym on her own, drinking a massive kind of Coca-Cola or something. Slurp.

Reegs: she just,

Dan: yeah.

Well that's, you know, can't,

Pete: Are you shaming her again?

Reegs: Yeah. I've gotta leave her alone.

Pete: wanted to end it all like,

Reegs: leave her alone, haven't I?

Yeah.

Sidey: Veronica goes home and finds out that jds been round there and he's. Kind of grasped to her parents that she is also a suicide risk.

Reegs: Didn't he forge her handwriting? Was that there was a note?

Sidey: So she, well, anyway, she twigs that basically he's gonna have her killed. Yeah, he's, she's next in line. So she fakes her own That's great. Suicide with a, a hanging, a hanging

Reegs: Mm-hmm. yeah.

Dan: Which he

Sidey: which he buys, he comes

Dan: in the room via the, the window and the ladder again. And he gives away his entire plan to the, to the seemingly dead.

Sidey: Veronica,

Dan: Veronica. And so she knows he's gonna blow up the school. He's got this kind of plan that's gonna take everyone out.

And as soon as she goes downstairs, mom's gone back up the stairs and sees her. And just for a second, she's kind of just got, and she says, oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, you know, she's coming out with all the things she's sorry about. And when I rider lets this kind of clever noose down that's been wrapped around her body as well as her neck to take the weight and Yeah.

Yeah. She's she's now got a a plan to stop.

Sidey: Yes,

that's right.

Which she does the end.

Dan: Yeah. pretty much.

Reegs: well,

Sidey: she doesn't

Reegs: sort of. There's a bit of cat and mousey stuff isn't there? In the boiler room of the, the high school where he set the bombs up and he slaps her about a bit as well. It

Dan: He does, yeah.

And there's a gun around and in the end though, she does shoot him, she manages to stop the, the ticking time bomb.

Reegs: Well, no, he, he stops it with his blood or something,

Sidey: it just goes off and he is like clapping it to get it started

Dan: again. Yeah.

Reegs: I think he fuses it, his blood, when he squeezes the thing, it fuses it.

I don't know. Anyway,

Dan: In any case, it's four seconds left and the bomb is stopped.

And she goes into the, the gym. She sees all the kids and, and the teachers oblivious to everything. She goes outside.

and

the door opens and he's there as well. And he had a bomb strapped him. And I'm thinking, I, I, first of all, I thought he was another detonator for inside, but then yeah, it becomes a suicide vest.

And he goes out and and decides that's where he wants to go. And he, he kind of, and then you get this comedy kind of black smoke hair and everything all over her is,

Sidey: like the old Batman movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dan: And she goes back into the, and we're getting right to the end now, she goes back along the high school

corridor

and there's these long kind of corridors, lockers, both sides, and she's wandering up and she grabs the she Sharon Dockerty character and gives her a kiss and says, Paul's the, the red Tash off and says, well, I'm the new kid in town now,

Reegs: sheriff? I think she says, then she's here.

Sidey: yeah. And she says Martha's there kind of just going round on her mobility scooter. Yeah. Yeah. And she just said, do you wanna

Pete: anything to, do you wanna mark her for that?

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. She's, she, she says my PO dates kind of let me down. Or it's, it's blown up now, or whatever. She said do you wanna hang out instead?

Sidey: Watch, watch, watch the, the new releases. I think she says. Yeah.

Dan: And that sounds a much better

Sidey: I know. Yeah.

Dan: And and they just sit at the end everywhere. Yeah. And they just sit at the end of the, the hole in the corridor. And the credits roll is, they're chatting along end of,

Reegs: yeah.

Dan: so, the, the bad guy

died,

but she wasn't much better herself.

Reegs: No.

Pete: No she wasn't.

Sidey: It's weird.

Pete: actually killed someone like in cold blood. Like one of

Dan: A Bonnie, and the

Sidey: message in the film, I think of all the films we've watched, this one's kind of aged. It, it play, like you said earlier, it just plays a lot different now.

I don't necessarily know in

Reegs: parts, but the rest of it of being like this sort of black satire, like that stuff all still holds up.

I think you know,

Sidey: I enjoyed it like,

Reegs: like you could still relate to, even though this sort of haircuts and shit were different, you could still relate to the problems that it was sort of talking about, even though it was making him really big and like really

Dan: but he still had the same kind of, High school social groups, you had the jocks, the nerds, you know,

Reegs: It's the stuff like this, like the whole Heather's thing is a great concept anyway, and the dialogue is so sharp and

Sidey: I, I really enjoyed the first two thirds, the, the bomb stuff.

I was, I was less

Reegs: a bit dull in it. Yeah, it's a bit

Pete: sorry with you. I, I, I watched it last night and I fell asleep for the last five minutes. Like the bit, which I guess is meant to be the most gripping was the bit that I found the most sort of like

Sidey: I preferred because it was more, Almost absurd and exaggerated at the start.

Yeah. And at that, that element of it kind of tailed off. I, I preferred it when it was more

Dan: Well, I, I kind of, you know, was finding difficult to get used to that nobody was really investigating these things

Sidey: there was no con there. There's no consequences for anyone. I mean, for,

Reegs: but it's not really a very real, you

Sidey: No, it's not.

It's, that's what I mean. It's absurd. Like he, he pulls a fucking magnum out of his coat and shoots in the face. The two like most popular lads at the school. Yeah.

Nothing

fine. You know, there's no like, no, not in detention, nothing. Consequences. Yeah. So that's the world that they, they live in, you know? So those bits I did really enjoy.

Winona Rider was really good. She's super fucking hot as well, and I really enjoyed her blue tights.

Reegs: Yeah. Bit, a little bit homophobic maybe this movie d

Sidey: Yeah. What, what is it? It, it has values that are

Reegs: dated or

Sidey: not representative of, of

Pete: I don't think it's like, it's not overtly homophobic, but it's got some unfortunate Yeah. Stereotyping and, and stuff in

Dan: is probably

Reegs: but some of it's quite funny

Pete: but it, it's not, it's, yeah.

It's more, I, I guess sort of

Sidey: it's critical of the fact

Pete: these guys are like the, you know, like

Sidey: they're the decades, they're the,

Pete: you know, football guys and then they're going around. Trying to get off with all the girls and everything. It's just like flipping that on its head. I wouldn't say it's necessarily like poking fun at, at like no

Reegs: homosexuality. No, because they're, they're all trapped in these, like social structures

Pete: Yeah. It's, it's more spinning the, the, you know,

Sidey: Yeah. They're, they're the villains in the, you know, you're not rooting for them.

Pete: Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: Well, as, as a first time I enjoyed this, you know, I, I thought it had, as you say, a, a, a really strong message or a, a well understood message of the

Pete: If you don't like someone, kill them. I think was the

Dan: Basically

Reegs: no. Comeuppance

Dan: get, and you'll be fine as long as you are a good forger.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: Go for it. No, I'd recommend

it.

Sidey: Strong. Strong recommend. Yeah.

Pete: We

learned that Riggs is a bit of a piece of shit

Sidey: Yeah. Fucking true colors. He's outed himself. Team I'm

Pete: Martha all the way.

Strongly Recommend

Sidey: I strongly recommend Team Martha.