TAKE ONE Presents...

TAKE ONE Presents... returns for another job, this time sticking up the Ocean's franchise and taking all the critical insight we can get from this franchise. In this first episode, Simon and Jim set out the plan for the series and then go back further than they've ever been to discuss 1960's OCEAN'S 11. They discuss the personal and political lives of the Rat Pack aka. the Clan, how this film came to be and the many writers that contributed to it, the languid pacing for a heist movie, the film's status as marketing for Las Vegas and specific casinos, and the racist issues with the film's unfortunate conclusion. Content warnings: anti-Black racism and blackface; anti-Black racial slurs; misogyny; cancer and death; slavery; anti-Indigenous American slurs. Our theme song is Heist Chase Robbery Music by Mykola Odnoroh licensed under the Pixabay Content License: https://pixabay.com/music/hard-rock-heist-chase-robbery-music-346328/ Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/S3HZ25CF/collection

In this epilogue to their Terminator series, Simon and Jim wrap up their thoughts on the franchise as a whole, explore what the directors of these films went on to do, give their final rankings of the films in the franchise, and expand on their thoughts on the impact of capital on this franchise through how the rights were passed around in a way that makes the franchise more of a commodity than a creative endeavour. Our Letterboxd rankings for the Terminator franchise are available at https://letterboxd.com/jimgr/list/terminator-franchise-ranked-take-one-presents/ and https://letterboxd.com/simonxix/list/terminator-ranking/ Content warnings: capitalism; misogyny and patriarchy; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; murder and violent death. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix

Simon and Jim finish their journey through the Terminator franchise with Tim Miller's TERMINATOR: DARK FATE. They get into whether the film is actually good or if they've just been down in the Terminator mines too long, the film's positioning in dialogue with TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, Linda Hamilton as a rare example of a female 'geriaction' star and the film's depiction of female aging, the film's refreshingly contemporary representation of Mexico and the politics of the US-Mexico border, Arnold Schwarzenegger's great performance when he's actually given an interesting arc for his character, and how the controversy around the film's opening scene links to THE LAST JEDI. Content warnings: nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; murder and violent death including the shooting of children; body horror and removal of skin; xenophobia and border control violence; mental illness and substance abuse. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/W5YPVM4F/collection

Simon and Jim enter the modern era of Terminator films with TERMINATOR GENISYS directed by Alan Taylor, a film with a promising start that goes on to absolutely fall off a cliff. They discuss the producers' ambition for a new Terminator Cinematic Universe off the back of this film and the perils of planning for a trilogy without making a successful film first, the interesting way that this film recontextualises and subverts the original film and creates a blank slate for a new direction, the uninteresting way that the film just goes in the same direction as the previous entries in the franchise, digital de-aging and the "mummification" of cinema, the transformation of Skynet into a consumer tech product and how that impacts the politics of the narrative, and why 'Genisys' is spelled that way. Content warnings: nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; murder and violent death; patriarchy and forced procreation; body horror and removal of skin. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/EIRIF9WS/collection

Simon and Jim discuss TERMINATOR SALVATION directed by McG. They discuss the film's disappointing turn from the franchise's anti-war themes towards working directly with the US military and parroting establishment narratives, the dour over-saturated (by design!) late-2000s colour palette of the film, what specific voice Christian Bale is doing as John Connor, how the film represents (or doesn't) the nuclear and the horror of nuclear weaponry, the odd allusions to other films like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and MAD MAX, the interesting work that could be done tracing the production rights to this franchise and how that impacts the texts themselves, and Jim tells us about his legendary Worst Day of Cinema. Content warnings: incarceration and capital punishment; misogyny and patriarchy; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; militarisation and civilian casualties; murder and violent death; body horror and removal of skin; steroid abuse; heart surgery. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/J4XVRVSM/collection

Simon and Jim discuss Jonathan Mostow's TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES, a pivot from interesting and distinctive Terminator films towards generic early 2000s action films. They discuss this film's wild tonal whiplash and the great disservice it does to the film's more ambitious plot points, the casual laddish misogyny and voyeurism expressed through the T-X and the Kate Brewster characters, how terrible and generic the film looks including a stunt superficially similar to the famous truck flip from THE DARK KNIGHT, Arnold's small distraction during this film of running for Governor of California, and the naming conventions of blockbuster franchises after the third film. Content warnings: misogyny and patriarchy; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; casual homophobia; murder and violent death including the shooting of children; body horror and removal of skin. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/MA22Y4VE/collection

We continue our Terminator series with one of the most successful films ever made, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY. Simon and Jim discuss what this film does to develop as a sequel, the film's production through some very James Cameron stories, the many various readings of this film in the research literature including some dubious political and racialised readings, modernism and postmodernism as embodied in the two Terminators, the shifting of genre and tone between this film and the first film, how masculinity and femininity are presented and subverted through the characters of Sarah Connor and the T-800, how the film represents and undermines authority figures, and what it means to make a violent film about peace and the value of human life. Content warnings: casual homophobia; carceral psychiatry and mental health issues; US police and institutional racism; murder and violent death; misogyny, patriarchy, and sexual assault; racism and Orientalism; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; body horror and removal of skin. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/QJSNUUXT/collection

TAKE ONE Presents... is back for a new series covering the Terminator franchise. In this first episode, Simon and Jim discuss James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR. We talk about how the film came about through Cameron's dogged and occasionally dickish persistence, "tech-noir" as a genre, the film's situatedness in the 1980s and how that lends the film an interesting sense of temporality, how this film is a great example of good pacing and immediacy, sexual politics and the representation of feminism through action heroines, and nuclear anxiety against AGI anxiety. Content warnings: murder and violent death; nuclear war and apocalyptic destruction; body horror and removal of skin and eye stuff; the Holocaust; abortion; pessimism about the future. Our theme song is Terminator Theme Song (32Stitches Remix) by 32Stitches available on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/32stitches/terminator-32stitches-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/KFB8CEB2/collection

Simon and Jim wrap up The Impossipod series with a discussion about the overall trajectory of the Mission: Impossible franchise, what the directors of these films went on to do, the politics of these films, their rankings of every film in the franchise, and some thoughts about how this ties into their wider thoughts on blockbuster franchise filmmaking. Our Letterboxd rankings for Mission: Impossible are available at https://boxd.it/nUsNA and https://boxd.it/EIfj2$bq018RHfaf81ior5 Content warnings: sexual abuse in the context of Harvey Weinstein; American neo-fascism and militarism; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; misogyny. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Simon and Jim reach the end of the Mission: Impossible franchise with 2025's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING. They discuss the film's shockingly shoddy first half, the disconnect between the dialogue's apocalyptic exposition and what we're actually shown on screen of the world, how the film continues DEAD RECKONING's attempt to grapple with themes around AI and post-truth but never manages to do so successfully, what a shame it is that they separate Ethan Hunt from the rest of the team for such long stretches of the film, the emotional core that emerges towards the middle of the film from a surprising source, and how the film builds to a decent climax but unfortunately it's the same climax they already did in FALLOUT. Content warnings: the COVID-19 pandemic; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; violent deaths including murder and assassination; terrorist bombings and nuclear weaponry; submersibles and drowning; aviation disasters and parachuting. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/FUI8ZJF4

Simon and Jim discuss Christopher McQuarrie's third Mission: Impossible film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, the first of a two-parter that will cap off this franchise (for now). They discuss the film's troublesome title (again), the reconfiguration of the IMF from an intelligence agency to a weird cult with echoes of Tom Cruise's own religion, how the film is in dialogue with more traditional political thrillers like those of Tom Clancy and Brian de Palma, the nebulousness of the AI antagonist and what it misses about human-computer interaction, the issues created by the film's flabby and repetitive script, and then their minds are broken upon discovering which derided English film director has an inexplicable knighthood. Content warnings: the COVID-19 pandemic; verbal abuse and workplace harassment; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; violent deaths including murder and assassination; nuclear weaponry; public transport disasters including a train crash. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/4UGZV7LG

Simon and Jim return to The Xenopod for a special episode discussing the new Alien franchise TV series, ALIEN: EARTH created by Noah Hawley. They discuss how well the worldbuilding works, the production design, the creature design before ultimately descending into discussion of why the series as a whole doesn't work: pacing issues including the pacing issues with US prestige TV in general, themes that don't fit the Alien franchise, narrative threads that taper off unresolved, and the never-ending Peter Pan references. The Impossipod will return later this month for an episode discussing MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE. Content warnings: body horror; mutilation and violent death; biological experimentation; child slavery; transhumanism and biological augmentation; pregnancy; eyeball stuff. Our theme song is Alien Remix by Leslie Wai available on SoundCloud: ⁠⁠https://soundcloud.com/lesliewai/alien-remix⁠

Simon and Jim discuss Christopher McQuarrie's second Mission: Impossible film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT, a very highly-regarded entry in the franchise that frankly Simon and Jim are a bit meh about. They discuss how Henry Cavill (and his $3 million moustache) is a great addition to the film, the shift in Ethan's character towards mythologising messianic tropes, McQuarrie's obsession with continuity in the franchise, the franchise's continuing approach to femininity in action films, and the script's lazy misunderstanding of political anarchism. Content warnings: nuclear explosions and mass death; violent deaths including murder and assassination; destruction of religious sites; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; flying including parachuting and helicopter crashes. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/RQWZD7BU

Simon and Jim discuss Christopher McQuarrie's first Mission: Impossible film of many, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION. They discuss how this film both subverts the tropes of this franchise and simultaneously develops the 'house style' for the rest of the franchise, the continuing themes around government accountability and 'Deep State' conspiracy theories, how the character of Ilsa Faust represents a new expression of femininity for this franchise and action films in general, the expression of neuroqueerness through Mission: Impossible and Ethan Hunt, and Zhang Jingchu's extremely small but top-billed part pandering to the Chinese market. Content warnings: violent death including murder and assassination; US-backed violent coups in Latin America; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; "terrorist" actions against arms manufacturers and major financial institutions; drowning and suffocation. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/I3SDJBUL

Simon and Jim are back for a Dinopod bonus episode on the recently released JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH. They discuss how this film fits in with a recurring theme of 2025 blockbuster films going 'back to basics', the elements that distinguish this film from the other Jurassic World films and make it more of a Jurassic Park film, how the impeccable pacing, competent structure, and intelligent writing distinguish this from the previous Jurassic World trilogy, what the film gets right about treating dinosaurs as animals, open source technology, and the nature of ecology in the Anthropocene, and how sick they are of mutated hybrid monster dinosaurs. The Impossipod will return later in the month for an episode discussing MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION. Content warnings: domestic violence and child abuse, genetic experimentation and mutation, violent death, capitalist exploitation of pharmaceuticals. Our theme song is Jurassic Park Remix by Gabriel Filósofo available on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/gfilosofo/jurassic-park-remix Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/XQ6WLBM6

Simon and Jim discuss Brad Bird's live-action feature directorial debut, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, a zenith of the Mission: Impossible franchise. They get into how this film finally strikes the right tone for the franchise and how that tone will be carried forward from this point, the clear intent to replace Tom Cruise in the franchise that doesn't get carried forward, how this franchise addresses Tom Cruise's aging body in an interesting way for an action franchise, and how this film is part of Hollywood desperately trying to make Jeremy Renner happen. Content warnings: nuclear war and nuclear extremism; terrorist attacks on buildings including 9/11; Russian military invasions including the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia; climbing at dangerous heights and vertigo; sexual coercion and exploitation. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/PPYF3E2I

Simon and Jim get into J. J. Abrams' feature directorial debut, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, a nadir of the Mission: Impossible franchise. They discuss the ways in which this film is a time capsule of the mid-2000s complete with an ugly digital camera aesthetic and an unpleasantly jingoistic neoconservative worldview, the film's distribution issues related to Scientology, how J. J. Abrams-y and Alex Kurtzman-y the whole film is including a dive into Abrams' patented Mystery Box via the Rabbit's Foot, and how this film, even if largely unsuccessful, sows a lot of seeds for the later shape of the franchise. Content warnings: cult leadership and specific Church of Scientology beliefs; sexual coercion; interrogation and torture; the September 11th terrorist attacks; violent death including murder and assassination; US military interventions and illegal wars; US American slavery. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/IPJMNCX2

Simon and Jim discuss John Woo's hi-octane early-2000s take on the Mission: Impossible franchise, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2. They discuss the many issues with this film's script, the John Wooiness of it all, the strong current of misogyny running through the entire film and how Thandiwe Newton is literally the only woman that speaks in it, how we're starting to see the early seeds of Tom Cruise's controversial on-set and off-set behaviour including his insistence on performing his own stunts, and the very strange top ten grossing films at the worldwide box office in the year 2000. Content warnings: airplane travel and disaster; misogyny and sexual coercion; statutory rape; violent death including murder and suicide; chemical and biological weapons; viruses and pandemic; cult leadership. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/PJLRKSI9

Simon and Jim launch a new TAKE ONE Presents... limited series on the Mission: Impossible franchise starting with the 1990s spy thriller, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE directed by Brian De Palma. They discuss the cultural context of the 1990s when this film came out, how this film leans into spycraft and espionage compared to the blockbuster action of later films in the franchise, and Tom Cruise's non-traditional approach to the exhibitionism of the action hero. Content warnings: nausea and vomiting; torture and interrogation; violent death including murder and assassination; public transport disaster. Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop ( https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission ) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/NIFQIZ9P

Simon and Jim meet to wrap up the Jurassic Park franchise (for now) with a discussion about what they learned overall, the various themes that emerged as they analysed every film, and some discussion of what's coming next for the franchise including some thoughts on JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH (2025). Content warnings: sexual abuse, climate change and environmental disaster. Our theme song is Jurassic Park Remix by Gabriel Filósofo available on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/gfilosofo/jurassic-park-remix