X-Message-Number: 22458 Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 03:47:19 -0700 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Hollywood finally getting it? I watched a movie last night but did not have time to get this in before the deadline so this will be a day after the fact. It was the sequel, sort of, same actors but different characters, to "A Fish Called Wanda". It starred Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Clease and Michael Palin and it's called "Fierce Animals". It's kind of dumb but not too bad a waste of two hours time as dumb movies go. The plot centers around John Clease's character whom gets the job of trying to make a zoo more profitable and so he decides it can only keep "Fierce Animals" that draw more crowds. The zoo is owned by a corporate raider type played by Kevin Kline, as the raider and as his son. They have a dysfunctional relationship with the son always trying to please the dad and dad never caring. Through all the hijinks there came a scene where Kline's son of raider character is arguing with dad about money and the subject of the old man's will comes up whereupon the elder says in so many words he's not going away, he's going to be "cryogenically frozen until a cure for whatever killed him is found and the money will stay in trust until then" obviously preventing the son from obtaining his inheritance. Kline's son of raider character says with dismay, "You're going to be immortal?" This is the first part noticed and I liked for accuracy. The last was when the old man is accidentally shot in the head by Michael Palin's character in a comical bumbling accident. Here's where it gets good. Everyone is arguing and Clease's character is berating Palin's and no one notices Kline dragging the body away. They discover this and are horrified, he's messing with a crime scene and all, and run after to find him stuffing dear old dad in the freezer. Puzzled they ask why and he says words to the effect of, "I have to cool him he's being cryogenically frozen until a cure." Here is where everyone, instead of saying "Oh that's bolix", or "ewww how gross" or any of a host of quips they could and say instead, "he's was shot in the head, there's no cure for that". I was floored! Everyone in the scene just took for granted that had he died another way there'd have been a chance but not with such a horrendous head injury, or so the scene implies. It would be very interesting to someday ask those stars what they felt about doing those scenes and had they ever considered the real possibility of "cryonics". Although the word cryonics was not used the context was always about the process as in "cryogenically frozen" and the dialogue never touched the area of the proper name for the practice. It is pleasing to see more accurate portrayals of what we believe finally coming from the movie industry. James -- Cryonics Institute of Michigan Member! The Immortalist Society Member! The Society for Venturism Member! MY WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/~davidpascal/swayze/ Signature Memetic Virus--The worst enemy of those who now or will need medical care is the uninformed politician or moral fanatic who proscribe what doctors are allowed to prescribe and research, with the consent of their patients. Those who understand this are strongly encouraged to modify this to fit their personality, and add this to their signature file, and organize to recover our freedom from Big Brother. For those who wait until they are sick, it will be too late. Those who suffer from diseases which might have been cured by advanced medical research or schedule 1 drugs banned by Big Brother, have the right to hold accountable those who sat on their hands or worse, deferred their responsibility for personal and humanity's survival to unseen agents, while they remained ill and dying. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22458