 And then how it also just the good shift in tone when you go to the Shire. Oh, it's so chill. It's the most important thing in this entire series was setting up like how wonderful the Shire is. Hobbits have been living and farming in the four farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years. Yeah, and you would think it would almost seem like such a... It's such a jarring juxtaposition between all this, like, world shatter and stuff, and the Shire... It abandoned Gollum. But something happened then, the ring did not intend. But the way the outside world slowly starts to intrude upon it, and, you know, the nine riders are sent out after Frodo, and they start to encounter them as they're making their way. Yeah, it's pretty well done. It was picked up. A Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. In the extended version, you see more of the citizens of the Shire and how I love that they convey that there's this sort of disdain for Gandalf, you know, that he's like Timothy Leary of the world when he shows up, people are going to smoke out and get a little crazy. I'm content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the Big Folk. You can... There's this great effort upon each of the places, let alone those species in Middle Earth, that they've tried to characterize it. They create a sense of culture. There I was. The mercy of three monstrous trolls. This was your idea! Oh, it's nice that you can look at it. There's like multiple different human civilizations that we see across these movies, and not one of them looks the same. Rohan doesn't look like Gondor, Gondor doesn't look like Bri. And yet they unified, right? The older people from that area is something that connects them all. No, it's just me the dragon in these parts for thousands of years! Very erotic, Bradley Buck. And a peregrine toke. I might have known. The whole shire, obviously, it's shot on location for the most part, and it's very mundane, very normal, and it gradually eases you into the other fantasy elements that come in more and more as you get through the story. And it's, again, it's a great way of grounding it in reality and making you buy into the world, because what you see initially is very real. I don't know half of you, half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you, half as well as you deserve. It helps when you get to Moria. It is a very powerful, like, tonal shift and sort of world shift, because you've been in pretty normal places, the shire, on the way between here and Bri, and from Bri to Rivendell. Even Rivendell is like, okay, like, we're fantasy, but it's kind of, it's nice, it's really nice, you know? It's nothing crazy. Then you hit Moria, and everything's super dark and underground, and it's like, you know, boom, it hits really, really high. Imagine if fucking Disney made this, like, everything around them would be just green screen. And I think that's a problem, because like, even a scene where Gandalf first goes and talks to Solomon at Isengard, they'll show you an establishing shot that has an effect that's combined with live action, and it'll pan down, and you'll see the two of them talking outside, but they're fairly medium shots, medium to close-up shots, so there's, they don't have to put visual effects in them, and it's them talking in real environments, and you cut to an effect shot, it feels much more seamless, but when you're in environments that are completely generated, and there's no reality in them, you don't get that same feel, and this movie does both all the time, and so you buy into it. I'm trying to help you. Oh, well. The ring must go to Frodo. And the more you find out about the ringwraiths, the more terrifying they are. One of my favorite things about fantasy in general are the monsters that you can get out of them, and the Nazgul are just like my favorite. He's got a separate looking hole, just specifically for hobbits. That's a great little detail. World building. What a quaint little village. Well, I hope nothing bad happens here. It's the gradual intrusion of the real world into the Shire as well. Like, it's still got some of the look and feel of the Shire, but it's bigger and it's more sinister. Definitely different now. There's something moving through the world. Yeah, the adventure's begun. Something that's a bit more explicit in the book, but is alluded to a couple of times in the movies, is that there's people like further east you go that just straight up don't even know what a hobbit is, because they haven't been around for very long, so it's also them just like realizing what the world really is like beyond the safety of the Shire. I like that they used scenes like this just to integrate like little moments of the lore. Like, it's not really relevant. Well, it's a little bit relevant to the plot. It just helps flesh out the world a little bit more, even if you don't necessarily need to know the story of Baron and Luthien. But it's just a little goes a long way, doesn't it? It gives it a much more like a sense of being like a bigger place than what you see. Just because this is what we're seeing doesn't mean that this is the bounds of this world. Some of the leaders have fucking been on a go there. That's amazing. It looks like a painting come to life. A movie made more than 20 years ago and it looks this good. It's stunning. You must take the past of characters. Yeah, that's nice and ominous, isn't it? It's like, by the way, I know you weren't done enjoying the stuff you just seeing. Here's some more. Sometimes I look at these shots and I'm just like, how is this a real place on this planet? It's too glorious. I mean, that's what scouts are for, right? They're supposed to find these locations. They used to have those in movies. I don't know if they do anymore. There's parts of Arizona in the desert that look kind of like this, and especially like Rohan. Yeah, the Arizona desert looks like another planet. Yeah, it does. Kind of surreal. Talked about it before, but when you have like crazy weather events where everything goes red or crazy color things happen, I'm just like, are there directors out there now? Rushing out, getting their shots. Weird dust storm thing in New York City where everything was orange. Oh, that was from the fires. Oh, the fires. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was all the wired fires. I mean, that shit was surreal. They say that a great sauce lives in these woods. That happened to us in San Francisco, and that was weird, dude, because everything was orange, tinted, everything. It wasn't as bad in Michigan, but everything was like a deep gray, and the sun was just like a fucking red circle in the sky. The air tasted fucking horrible. You walked out of the side of Michigan. I'm out for a drink. It's terrible. San Francisco looked like Blade Runner 2049, but more entertaining. He's alive. You know, big intro to Rohan now. I think Rohan might be my favorite culture in this. Wow. I just thought so. Because they're white old. That, yeah. But they're clearly like a melding of like Vikings and nomadic horsemen and stuff, and I just think it's such a cool-looking culture. I love the beautiful scenery that they exist in. I love the way that they go to war. I think they're really cool. It was ambushed by Orcs. If we don't defend our country, Saruman will take it by force. Gorgeous new area, lots of new ways to check it out. And even still, colors feel a little bit more drab for now before. Life is brought back to this countryside, at least somewhat. Saruman the White has ever been our friend and ally. What an interesting thing from the books, actually. When you get to this point in the story, Rohan is not allied with Saruman, but they are not opposed to him. And they actually like sell horses and stuff to him. Like they provide him with military supply. Trouble, Rohan. It goes ill with the king. Yes, and it will not be easily cured. I wonder how long it took them to scout all of the locations that they decided to shoot in. Maybe not long, because everything's gorgeous there. Maybe. You're still speaking riddles. They just assumed that over the next hill, it would be great for a scene. It's like a week. You know what's so disheartening? Like, can you imagine if this was getting made? No. Like the whole thing would be done on a volume screen. Yep. Shadow facts. It's the lord of all horses. Can't just go and fill in the planet. Look at that. And it's free. I mean, not totally free. You had to go there, but still. Also the music. All this dirt and rocks are just laying around. You could just film them. Redirt for all. Don't even ask for, you don't even have to ask for consent. You could just do it. Matt, it's such a striking visual, isn't it? Quite oppressive. Yeah, it looks pretty fucking cool. Really, the defining theme for the architecture is spiky and jagged and kind of a little bit rusty. You know, in designing Halloween land and Night of Fuck Christmas, apparently the note from Timberton was absolutely no right angles. Everything has to be wonky. Interesting. Your whole day is sleeping or getting poked to open a gate. You wonder what they eat? Maybe it's Orcs. Orcs, yeah. A lot of them eat them orcs. They just poop on the little pathway there and kick it off. Well, where it falls, it falls. God, the poops must be massive though. Yeah, those guys are going to eat a lot per day. What lovely music. What lovely scenery. What a lovely flag. I hope nothing bad happened to it. I wonder if this would have taken a few shots to get it to fall in a particular way. Probably. Yeah. Maybe they got a first try. Maybe God was like, I'll help you out with this one. You make it a pretty neat film. Give you a hand. You're not to kill me. You will not kill him. Sorry, just enjoying the film. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just really nice to watch that. You like how as well instantly the colors are starting to get brighter? As our coming through is all really washed out and muted. Now it's starting to get a little bit more vibrant. I know you're... Breathe the free air again, my friend. More warm. Yeah, it's really subtle actually. Also, oh look. More things. Yum. What are they? New culture. More rabbits. More rabbits. Oh no, those are people. I'm trying really hard not to bring up, bring some power right now. It gets tempting. This movie's great. The Elephants. The Elephants. The Elephants. Big chongas elephants. Moomakeel. It's such a cool... Like it's a cool design. Yeah, look great. It's like it's the ultimate taken real animal. Now make the fantasy version of it. Yeah, and then you have like the big rickety platforms up top as well. That was cool. Have you gone on such a quaint little adventure with The Tree Man? You know? That's kind of where they would happily have led the rest of the movies, if not for a certain tree's getting cut down. Tree Beard was happy to remain neutral, but oh boy. Oh my god. Look at New Zealand. I mean, mid-left. Wow, the CGI is incredible. I don't know, it just keeps getting pointed out, but it's like, dude, Earth is pretty cool. You know, there's a lot of cool shit here. Yeah, this is all right. Yeah, you can use. And it's so different than Gondor when you get there. There's just such a complete and total difference. The long houses and the wooden aesthetic and that Norsey kind of look, it's just so different from... Oh, and you can see the color. Yeah, it's just vibrant. Like, you want to be here. This is the place you want to be. Because, remember, in Two Towers, how grim and miserable it was. Yeah. Oh, it's so beautiful. It's like a painting comes alive. Man, New Zealand is so awesome. What a cool idea of this layered city against the mountain. It does feel like a subtle thing. That bottom. The sets themselves being very disparate to give a sense of place. But even like the... Has been talked about, the lighting compared to... Like, how bright it is. It's a distinctly bright area. These guys look like they could repel what was sent to Helmsdeep with a lot more ease than Rohan could. But then again, you see what these guys have to deal with from Sauron. You're like, oh, shit. Especially with the Nazgul. It's been constant all the time, too. Also as a Blackpilled leader. And then, you know, Rohan, horse lords and all that, they've got that open ground to just... There are a few quite as fuck-yeah moments as when Denethor is fucking depressing his whole army and Gandalf hits him in the face. Like, it's such a... You know, to bounce off of your comment about how bright and kind of colorful everything is for you, like, compare that to like every fucking fantasy show or movie that's come out lately. Where it's just all dark and gritty. Yeah, washed out. Because medieval times were shitty and awful and no one liked color or things to look nice and they all just wore shitty brown rags. Rags. Perhaps you come to tell me why my son is dead. It's the attempts that they make to make sure that the world doesn't feel homogenous that there's a distinct identity to each of the locations that they visit. Oh, yeah. Look at this palace compared to Eteras. It's completely different. Yep. The stone. God, imagine that just as you're always... It's got to be so oppressive. Yeah, it keeps you goal-oriented. But I mean, it, you know, it's because it's the tip of the spear, isn't it? I know, yeah. It's quite a contrast, you know, especially for the audience. That's Mordor and this is the nice place. Yeah, like beautiful, bright, majestic, Minas Tirith cast against the grim, miserable Gondor. Ah, not Gondor, but Mordor. I mean, maybe the mood is a bit grim. Yeah. The garrison that Osgiliath falls, the last defense of this city will be gone. You can't feel anything but bad for the people of Osgiliath. That shit is so difficult. Especially because we've already seen that, you know, scene of them taking it back. So, you know, they've been fighting for a long time. We have the white wizard. That's got to count for something. I mean, it's what sets up, you know, why Boromir wants the ring. He's like, we've been fighting for ages. This is what we do all the time. We do it so you don't have to. Crack! Crack! They'll resume! They'll resume! Oh, I love the sort of tints of color difference with Minas Mogul. I'm going to say something a little controversial. I think we need more gargoyles in media. Yes, yes, we do. Let me ask you this. Do you mean like specifically gargoyles like that, that are water spouts or just generally spooky statues on stone buildings? Generally spooky statues on stone buildings. You know, I'm for it. I'm for it. Yep. There's more statues, period. We need more statues of great people. Great people like Goggles. They've been killers shaped like people. Look at that fucking blaze. So cool. Guys, I'm going to go get an apartment. This is, this is when Sauron showed the Witch King this. He's like, this is your house. He was like, oh, yes, you knew. Like, how did you know? This is me. The green accent lighting just makes it. It just feels sickly and dead. And like, it's a, it's a, it's a very specific kind of green. Because green often represents life. Oh, God. Oh, God. Yeah, there are, there are definitely good and bad greens. This is an ominous green. It's a real blink and you miss it thing, but I like how the green of the city is kind of like reflecting in the water over the, or under that bridge. It's just, it has like a ghostly feel to it. I fucking love it. God, there's so many beautiful vistas even when obviously it's very oppressive and scary, but Now a time for the incredibly safe staircase. There's not even just showing how black their feet are, how long they've been on this journey, and how arduous and difficult it is. Yeah, I think all of these were CG except one that got helicoptered in. I wonder if it's that one. I think it's this one. This one. Yeah, you can tell that one's CGI fire, but they built, it looks like they built an actual. It looks like it's real and they're there. Yeah, and it is so fascinating to think about how little this one was like New Zealand as a country. Yeah. We were able to do it. It's been years. We've been, it's gotta be one of the most exciting things of your life. If you're one of those dudes stationed there. Yeah. And then they finally like, you know, we did it. And then it's working and then the next one goes and the next one goes. That must be thrilling. It's like the best of your life. You go home and you're excitedly tell your wife, like, I finally got to light the fire. And then your wife's like, I know, that means we're being invaded. It's not good, Derek. Well, it was, it was really exciting. You should have been there. We watched that thing every fucking day for like six months on our ships. Oh God, these are real mountains. Yeah, it's, it's absolutely captured pure epicness, especially the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, just scene. And based on real fleams, Byzantine Empire used them. Uh, it like just, it was faster for, you know, setting messages through something like that than obviously Orson Rider sort of thing. Interesting to think about all of those technical limitations back in the day. We're like reliance on Doves as well to communicate. Something that's super impressive with the way that they've done ministeria, they're showing us all of these different places. It doesn't feel like a small area because we keep seeing different parts of the city. Because what we see is probably the maximum that they had to use. And they have to make you believe that it's a part of this huge structure. Establishing the mental map. But it goes a long way. Very important. If you only have the one place that you keep seeing over and over and over again and showing us just normal parts of the city as well where like people obviously live and work. And man, these, the elephants, they just hit hard. Once again, we'll get very distinct cultural differences for this team. Oh, fuck. It feels so appropriate to, in terms of like, holy shit, that's the destination. Look how close we are now. We'll never get through and see. Yeah, especially with fucking sound. We're all looking around like that. Well, you guys do it over there. You fucking... I'm gonna find you. I'm getting a big feeling that the rig is close. Just saying. I think this is the first time we've seen the eye outside the Palantir, this whole movie, right? In this movie, yeah. In this movie. Very, yeah, you really don't see the eye much. It is the first time that any of their main characters have been near the eye though. Yeah, but they show, they like show it. Sometimes when they refer to it or in other imagery.