Episode 181 - Freejack: LIVE!

[Smigg. 509]

 

That's what I remember, that if you accepted the silliness of the premise (a massively popular rock band decides to pluck some guy off the street to be their singer), it was pretty much a normal movie after that.

 

Early Correction and Omission

 

That actually happened, it's very loosely based on Judas Priest. Rob Halford left the band, and they replaced him with Tim "Ripper" Owens, who was the lead singer of a Judas Priest tribute band called "British Steel".

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

still less product placement that jurassic world

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMOljrWUUXc

[ChunkStyle 1160]

This then begs the question why not take the very young to Freejack into. This new ozone layer seems to work fine and they younger they are the longer you get to live..

 

It seems to be implied that it has to be a death that was captured on film for them to be able to get everything lined up just right for it to work. So the roster of available bodies is going to be pretty small. That got me thinking that surely there would be competition to grab the same body. Pulling it into the future a nanosecond faster than the last time. Then we're back to some classic time travel paradoxes. Maybe that was Freejack's problem it was a time travel movie that was too straightforward.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

It seems to be implied that it has to be a death that was captured on film for them to be able to get everything lined up just right for it to work. So the roster of available bodies is going to be pretty small.

 

And the sample size gets even smaller when you realize, not only do you have to know the exact moment of death, not only do you have to have a video of the death (from a third-person perspective that doesn't have direct eyes on the target), but the death has to be of such a catastrophic and explosive nature that people won't question for a second why there aren't any remains left behind.

 

And, since the likelihood of your Average Joe meeting all that criteria is pretty astronomical, the only people I can think of that might have cameras so ubiquitously on them that they might capture something like that would be some kind of celebrity or other public figure. But, then again, it can't be - for obvious reasons - somebody too famous either. So - by that logic - Emilio is really one of the very few viable candidates for being Freejack'd at all. I'm guessing the future is just lousy with Z-List celebrity race car drivers.

[Cam Bert 8145]

And the sample size gets even smaller when you realize, not only do you have to know the exact moment of death, not only do you have to have a video of the death (from a third-person perspective that doesn't have direct eyes on the target), but the death has to be of such a catastrophic and explosive nature that people won't question for a second why there aren't any remains left behind.

Wow, you're right. I mean if you were to die of natural causes, choking, shot, etc. any variety of death that does not completely destroy the body there is just going to be a lot of question about where did the body go. You think you'd hear more stories of people saying things like "Oddest thing happened to me the other day. I was driving down the road, speeding, and all of a sudden this guy darts out in front of me. I could have sworn I hit this guy yet when I stopped there was no dent or anything. Like the guy just disappeared. On top of that, I got one of those speed camera photos sent to me from the intersection where I thought I hit the guy."

[Wil Dride 121]

"Hmm -- So Jagger tries to 'bonejack' Emilio, but he gets free? What should we call that sort of person?"

"No idea. No word seems to present itself to describe anyone who got free while being jacked."

"Huh. So, why bonejack again?"

"Portmanteau of bone and hijack."

"And bone?"

"Because they'd otherwise be dead and buried. They'd be nothing but bones."

 

"That's what a wraith is. That's what a wraith is."

"That's not what a wraith is. A wraith is kinda like a ghost and nothing like a dragon -- Unless it's the ghost of a dragon, I guess. I do enjoy your confidence, tho."

 

"I think my aunt had a Faberge Egg. No, sorry -- I meant she wore Tigress by Faberge, but she still smelled of eggs. My mistake."

[GoodDoctorDanger 0]

In fact, this was NOT the only movie Mick Jagger ever made. He also appeared in the utterly bonkers 2001 film "The Man from Elysian Fields" (with Andy Garcia, Julianna Marguiles, Anjelica Houston, James Coburn and Olivia Williams), which I think should be a future candidate for the HDTGM treatment.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I think the most perplexing moment in the movie for me came at the end of the movie during Hopkins’ big reveal. I didn’t have a problem with him wanting to get inside of Emilio’s bod so much, but I had real issues wrapping my head around the rules regarding Hopkins’ holographic mental projection. For instance, why does a mental projection need to smoke? I get it in terms of the ruse he’s been playing up to that point, but once it’s revealed that he’s just Hopkins’ consciousness, and not a physical being, what’s the point? Why does his brain need a fake cigar? Did the programmers have to write some code so he could have a stogie or is smoking such a fundamental part of who he is that his mental construct isn’t even able to manifest without one?

 

But even beyond that, this “projection” - if that’s what it is - seems to be able to physically interact with the environment. At times, he physically touches both Emilio and Rene. How is that even possible? We just saw him materialize out of thin air and now he has the ability to influence the environment beyond the realm of the Spiritual Switchboard? I mean, the motherfucker has to physically touch a device to transfer his consciousness into Emilio!* That makes no sense! He’s just a thought! He shouldn’t be able to touch anything!

 

And, if he’s able to do all of that, then it kind of seems like Freejacking is pretty much obsolete technology anyway. It feels like it should be a relatively low hurdle to clear to go from stored consciousness, hologram, hologram that can touch things inside of a specific room, hologram that can touch things outside of a specific room. Heck, we’ve already seen him assume Emilio’s visage. So, theoretically, you could download yourself into any shell you wanted to create for yourself. It seems like jacking Emilio is just this side of being completely redundant.

 

*I also found it bizarre that brain transferral seems to accomplished through your fingertips. You’d think the head would be the more direct route. Wouldn’t some kind of headgear-type apparatus be more appropriate?

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

*I also found it bizarre that brain transferral seems to accomplished through your fingertips. You’d think the head would be the more direct route. Wouldn’t some kind of headgear-type apparatus be more appropriate?

It's almost as if better movies had thought this through and come up with a more interesting way, both visually and narratively, of utilizing this "jacking" scenario....

 

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

 

And the sample size gets even smaller when you realize, not only do you have to know the exact moment of death, not only do you have to have a video of the death (from a third-person perspective that doesn't have direct eyes on the target), but the death has to be of such a catastrophic and explosive nature that people won't question for a second why there aren't any remains left behind.

 

And, since the likelihood of your Average Joe meeting all that criteria is pretty astronomical, the only people I can think of that might have cameras so ubiquitously on them that they might capture something like that would be some kind of celebrity or other public figure. But, then again, it can't be - for obvious reasons - somebody too famous either. So - by that logic - Emilio is really one of the very few viable candidates for being Freejack'd at all. I'm guessing the future is just lousy with Z-List celebrity race car drivers.

I kinda said this earlier, but there is no 1992 clock in the world (other than those linked in the military or NASA or whatever) accurate enough to do the job necessary. Forget that our entire concept of time is a measurement imposed upon the chaos of the universe -- the timestamp on someone's grainy VHS camcorder is never going to get to the exact moment you need to get the body unharmed but brain-dead.

 

Huh ... maybe that's why "freejacks" are even a thing.

 

Besides, I don't even think there's any timestamp on the fucking footage of Furlong's wreck ... Mick Jagger is just eye-balling it in the video -- how the holy hell is that ever accurate?

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

Mick Jagger and Anthony Hopkins are puzzled by the fact that Furlong is still showing brain activity after being jacked.

 

So the idea was to get a guy who wrecked a car at a moment when his body is intact, but his brain is dead ... how does that work? Does "bodyjacking" usually leave the person without brain function, or does the whole phenomenon assume that the human brain shuts down at the moment it realizes it's going to die? Like, I see myself launched into a fiery crash and so I give up the ghost, as some kind of defense mechanism?

 

I know that "mindset" can keep someone alive in moments of duress ... like if they've been shot, they can sometimes ignore their injury and will themselves to go on instead of lay there and bleed. But if a person's mind shut down the instance an accident occurred, no one would ever survive any auto collision ever.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I would just like to post a little something about gun safety.

 

I’m not saying Emilio’s character doesn’t have any experience with guns - for all I know, he’s down at the gun range every weekend - but I am saying this: he’s not a soldier. Nor is he some kind of loose-cannon detective in the vein of Riggs or McClane. He’s an F-1 racer. And Formula One racing isn’t a sport generally known for its propinquity to firearms.

 

I'm just saying, I found the way Emilio kept shoving that pistol down the front of his pants to be extremely reckless. You’re 100% going to shoot your dick off, dumb-dumb.

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

If you freejacked a deceased English monarch, let's say one who died prematurely, does that make you king/queen of England? What if someone else freejacked a patrilineal ancestor? Do you have to concede the throne? I could see a real succession crisis brewing in this freejack universe.

[tomspanks 9039]

I was wondering why they were running around so much, trying to capture Emilio. They have freejack technology (?) - just go back a millisecond before the first freejack and bring back another Emilio to the future. Problem solved.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Like, I totally get them some people thought that this movie felt long. And, I have to admit, the second act sagged worse than Emilio Estevez’s sensible, gray, cotton, granny panties. But by at least by one measurement Freejack felt far too short. A one hundred and ten minute movie is not nearly long enough for a character to twice uncover another character’s hidden desire via Freudian slip. The first time occurred when Rene Russo wondered what “the other wives” would be wearing to the race, and the second time was when David Johansen exalted, “I’ll be eating caviar!”

 

Honestly, I feel like - even at the best of times - Freudian slips are a pretty lazy way to reveal characterization, but to do it twice in less than two hours is utterly shameful.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

...and the second time was when David Johansen exalted, “I’ll be eating caviar!”

Honestly I didn't even understand why this line gave away so much. In a normal conversation I think "I'll be eating caviar!" is a proper way to show excitement about being among the rich. I mean how was David Johansen supposed to know if Furlong even liked caviar? Maybe he was trying not to make assumptions and shove some metaphorical caviar down the dude's mouth!?

[Cameron H. 23786]

Honestly I didn't even understand why this line gave away so much. In a normal conversation I think "I'll be eating caviar!" is a proper way to show excitement about being among the rich. I mean how was David Johansen supposed to know if Furlong even liked caviar? Maybe he was trying not to make assumptions and shove some metaphorical caviar down the dude's mouth!?

 

Oh, I know. It was a pretty weak assumption. It was all based around the fact that he said "I" instead of "we." Emilio might as well have been like, "What the fuck, bro. Don't you think I like caviar too? Are you selling me out?"

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Oh, I know. It was a pretty weak assumption. It was all based around the fact that he said "I" instead of "we." Emilio might as well have been like, "What the fuck, bro. Don't you think I like caviar too? Are you selling me out?"

Yep exactly. I am inclined to believe that if my friends and I were to be invited to some big CEOs house I wouldn't be saying a lot of "we" even if we were all going. I literally can picture myself saying, "I'm gonna drink so much champagne," because I am the one who would be doing that not a collective we. Who the fuck knows what things my friends would indulge in!

[trickchow 1]

What does Freejack mean?

 

This is how I saw it. Mick Jagger and his guys were bonejackers, so they're jacking someone's body. If that person escapes during the process then he/she is a Freejack.

 

My hangup was, if that's the case then shouldn't the emphasis be placed differently? People kept saying "he's a free-jack" but it should be "he's a FREE-JACK." #CoachBombay4Life

[Cameron H. 23786]

Was anyone else shocked by apparent lack of quality at the Pork Chop Diner? For a restaurant that seems to deal exclusively in pork, and has what appears to be a fully functioning abattoir directly behind the kitchen (complete with freshly butchered pigs hanging from the ceiling), you’d think it would be better.

[EvRobert 1684]

I'm just getting around to listening to this week's ep and I realized that for yers I've had Judgement Night and Freejack confused. I thought Freejack was Emilio Estevez and Cuba Gooding Jr on the run from Denis Leary and Judgement Night was Emilio Estevez in the future.

 

I'm having a hard time reconciling this in my brain.

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

I'm just getting around to listening to this week's ep and I realized that for yers I've had Judgement Night and Freejack confused. I thought Freejack was Emilio Estevez and Cuba Gooding Jr on the run from Denis Leary and Judgement Night was Emilio Estevez in the future.

 

I'm having a hard time reconciling this in my brain.

Judgement Night had a pretty interesting soundtrack.

[Cam Bert 8145]

I was wondering why they were running around so much, trying to capture Emilio. They have freejack technology (?) - just go back a millisecond before the first freejack and bring back another Emilio to the future. Problem solved.

Well, wouldn't this just lead to a time travel paradox because he wouldn't have been there to freejack a second later which means none of that would have happened which means they wouldn't need to try it again which means...

[Cam Bert 8145]

I'm still confused as to why Boone's Grandmother is getting hope by seeing Emilio. I mean if it because she is among the poor and somehow sees Emilio as sticking it to the rich or taking down the rich, this is clearly a failure on the part of Boone. He has a good job and clearly lives among the rich so if he loves his grandmother so much why isn't he supporting her more? Have her move in with him. Buy her some nicer things. That'll give her some hope as well and doesn't require a runaway Freejack to help you out.

[tomspanks 9039]

Well, wouldn't this just lead to a time travel paradox because he wouldn't have been there to freejack a second later which means none of that would have happened which means they wouldn't need to try it again which means...

 

But I need to know what happens when 2 Emilios occupy the same space.