Snake on a Day: The Experience
After 24 hours, I finally feel sane enough to report on the Snakes on a Day event. In case you haven't read my last few posts (Shock! Betrayal!), Snakes on a Day was a 24 hr showing of Snakes on a Plane with 10 back-to-back screenings. It was sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse, a movie theater for whom my love breaks the laws of every major religion. Warning: possible spoilers, although how can you really spoil a movie called Snakes on a Plane?
The People
There were 13 of us who took the Snakes on a Day challenge, and I'm proud to say that all 13 of us made it through. Most of us were young and we were majority male, although the ladies represented with 4 participants. (I think there were only 4 of us.) The most unusual (but possibly coolest) SoaD warrior was a older (40s-ish?) woman who runs a snake store and had put a snake on a plane that very morning. She was extremely knowledgeable about snakes and the snake-handling processes for the movie and was basically who I want to be when I grow up. (edit: her name is Sandra. She works at Chameleon Counters.) Shannon, our leader, was probably the most hardcore of us all. He was doing the screening as a birthday present to himself and was very insistent on not falling asleep. (I admit it- I slept through most of the 4th or 5th screening and in small pockets throughout.)
Shannon also claims he came up with a Grand Unifying Theory of Snakes on a Plane, but since he has yet to post or state it, I am forced to believe the rumor that it is all about masturbation. My Grand Unifying theory is that the snakes were a kind of purgatory that bad characters had to endure to either flourish or die. (This is a shitty theory and it could apply to any disaster movie, but it's the best I could come up with after almost no sleep).
I wish I had gotten to know my fellow screeners a little better. I think I'm going to write Shannon about a possible group get-together to find out things like names and occupations. There was some discussion during the first few screenings, but towards the end I at least was in no mood to talk to anyone. Also, during the last few screenings I kept getting up and leaving between screenings to walk around outside so I probably missed some conversation. I eventually got the names of the 2 guys sitting behind me who I kept talking to, but I was so sleep deprived that I've completely forgotten them. I'd like to have a meet up in about a week to get a beer and actually meet/talk with everyone. After all, like war survivors, only we can understand what we've been through. :) I think I'll e-mail Shannon about that.
The Screenings
As far as screening quality goes, the first an last screening were definitely the best. In the first screening, of course, everything was new and I was watching with my friends Jennifer and Brian who are very funny. The last screening had a great, enthusiastic, and appreciative audience who made all the old scares/jokes feel new again. The 4th or 5th screenings were probably the worst, and I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it. After the 6th screening, I got my second wind and it was much easier from that point on.
I felt really sorry for those last few audiences during the open to the public screenings. I drank a lot of coffee and wasn't able to take a shower, so I smelled FOUL. I tried washing under my arms with bathroom soap, but that only made things worse. The last 2 screenings were sold out, so people had to sit right next to me. It was very embarrassing, and I felt like apologizing to them. (I didn't- how do you apologize for something like that?)
Quentin Tarantino and Rosario Dawson were at the 1st screening. (I don't know where to put that little factoid, so I'll put it here.)
The Experience
I had predicted earlier that a spontaneous Rocky Horror-ization would occur at some point during the night. That hapeened around the 3rd showing (~3am: shockingly, everyone was very quiet and polite during the 2nd showing which was the first one not open to the public). People started yelling things back at the movie and loudly reciting favorite bits of dialogue. There was apparently a whole callback script online at some point, although I have no clue where it is. I don't remember there being any particularly funny callback, but my memory of some of those late night shows is kind of warped. :) Also, during the 3rd show I started acting out the flight attendant passenger instructions (Welcome to flight 121. Exits are located...). I did this for 3 reasons:
1. In any Rocky Horror-ization, something must be acted out. (See: Buffy Horror Picture Show) Since this movie consists mostly of scenes of people getting killed by snakes, the flight instructions were basically the only things that could be performed
2. My mother didn't hug me enough as a child
3. To keep myself fucking awake during the boring, expository first part of the movie
I ended up doing flight instructions for every screening except the 1st one in the morning that was open to the public. I sat it out during that screening because I didn't want to be distracting to the normal audience, but after the screening my fellow aereoophidiophilliacs told me that they had missed it. It made me feel warm and fuzzy, so I did flight instructions for every remaining screening. In a weird way, having a "part" in the movie is probably what kept me sane.
There was a film crew filming our group for a documentary about Snakes on a Day. In the morning, there were also a few local media sources that came out to watch the freakshow. :) I didn't really get interviewed, so I'd be surprised if I made it into any of the coverage. At one point before the last screening, I grabbed one of the documentary filmmaker's cameras and started walking around with it, but I doubt my sleep-deprived rambling makes it into the final cut. One of the filmers was a very cute redheaded girl- she seemed cool and I wanted to talk with her more, but I was too tired by that time to be social.
The Aftermath
As you can tell from my posts last night, 24 hours of Snakes on a Plane really fucked me up. I started seeing hallucinatory snakes just about everywhere after the 6th screening. i kept startling at these small movements I caught out of the corner of my eye. After the last screening, I went home and tried to take a shower. I had to stop the shower 3 times because I thought I saw a snake crawling in. As late as play practice this morning, I would close my eyes and see a coiling coral snake ready to strike. I also was walking around after practice (about 2pm) and nearly freaked out over a stick lying on the sidewalk. I'm feeling a lot better now, though I'm still easier to startle than normal. It would help if my cat quit biting me in my sleep.
The fundraiser for the Zombie musical happened right after the last screening. I was planning on making it, but I was so fucked up by that point that I just went home and went to sleep. I think I'm going to go ahead and use the $5 that would have covered admission to make a donation on the blog's paypal.
Miscellania
My favorite lines:
1. Whose house? Troy's house!
2. Fuck Randy! That's my own brother, and I say "fuck him!"
3. Turn this big mothefucker left Troy!
4. (the Asian gangster, on putting snakes on a plane) You don't think I've exhausted every other option?
5. We need to put a barricade between us and the snakes!
6. What do you mean, you people?
7. My ass. My ass, man.
8. You're a witness for the prosecution? That's so...hot.
9. Do as I say and you live.
10. Enough is enough! Get these motherfucking snakes off this motherfucking plane
My favorite scenes:
1. Troy lands the plane. How can you not love that?
2. The snake bites the guy's cock.
3. The snake bites the woman's boobie.
4. The snake crawls up inside the woman's dress
5. The FBI guys fly the hellicopter out to the snake dealer's house, and he runs out of his house and falls down a la Cops.
My favorite plot contrivances/plot holes:
1. So, the bad guys aren't sure which flight Sean (the teenaged witness) is on because the guy has to call it into the gang boss. He then douses the leis for that flight in pheremones. However, since the cargo was already on the plane, how did they know which plane to put the snakes on? Were there snakes on every plane? Did those snakes just not attack because there were no pheremones?
2. A barrier made up of suitcases actually holds back about 50 snakes, even though a snake is shown easily crawling over a similar barrier later in the film. A plastic raft also holds back an assload of snakes, including a giant boa constrictor.
3. FBI guy and snake expert guy spend a ton of time trying to get antivenom to give to the passengers once they land. However, by this point only 2 people who have received a snake bite are still alive. In fact, the whole subplot with the FBI is nonsensical.
4. The second pilot "dies" about 3 times
5. The whole shooting out a plane window and sucking the snakes outside thing. I've seen the movie 10 times, and I'm still not sure how that worked or how they did it without anyone dying.
6. Eddie Kim (the gangster) puts the snakes on the plane to kill the witness. However, since there is apparently only 1 guy in LA who deals in snakes, isn't that a clear trail back to him? Even if the plane crashes and everyone dies, it's got to be obvious that some of the victims were already killed by snakes.
I kept a paper journal of my viewing experiences. These are my favorite comments (interpreted so they are coherant):
1. This movie was obviously sponsored by : Red Bull, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, the motor boke company, possibly Blackberry. (There are about 6 shots in the movie that focus on Red Bull cans, including one where Sean has a stack of cases of Red Bull.)
2. What's up with the random Asian kickboxer? He seems like he's going to have a bigger part in the movie. Did he have a purpose originally?
3. A sequel to the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the stupidest idea ever.
4. One of the surfers at the beginning has a "Borg" t-shirt
5. Baby rattle foreshadows rattlesnake
6. 3 Gs (the rapper) has a song that says wither "Booty Goes Thump" or "My Booty Went Thump"
7. The beginning of the movie is completely off in tone from the rest of it. Was the film originally aimed at teengers? Why is there so much surfing in this goddamned film?
8. In a film that has so many good actors, why did they cast the worst actor in the world as Sean (the witness)? He looks like Frodo, only he's much, much worse.
9. Samuel L/Sean= OTP
10. When I become famous, I will force my friends to be my bodyguards. Then I will constantly boss them around an generally be a bitch.
11. Didn't smarmy pilot (pilot 2) used to be on the Daily Show?
12. She's a flight attendant, but she's REALLY a lawyer. So it's OK for her to be smart/hook up with Samuel L. Apparently, normal flight attendants are too stupid to combat airborne reptiles?
13. Eddie Izzard is right- British guys are always the villains in American movies.
14. Why are Asian bad guys always all about the lame platitudes?
15. This movie contains every racial stereotype ever. (Later: This movie contains every stereotype ever.)
16. Why does the FBI guy go on about how his wife is hot. Was she not hot before? It's just such a weird comment.
17. Why does Eddie Kim disappear after the first 20 minutes of the movie?
18. Why does the blond flight attendant like Sean anyway?
19. How did they pack so many snakes without getting bitten? Wy don;t the snakes attack each other more?
20. Horror movie rules apply: sex, drugs, being a fat woman, threatening children= death
21. Why is snakeo-vision green?
22. Red and black snakes are friends to Jack and should not be on a plane full of poisonous snakes. (The red and yellow ones are fine.)
23. (Around the 7th viewing) Snakes on a Plane? (I have no clue why I wrote this.)
24. How did they get the big boa into such a little space with all the other snakes?
25. When they are talking to the redneck snake dealer, why aren't they more careful of the loose snake?
Blogs of other participants:
Official blog
My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours
Collin's Crazy Life
The Blue Parrot
Other stuff:
The Alamo Drafthouse rocks! Not only did they let us stay in their theatre overnight, they gave us some free food, soda, and coffee! They are AWESOME!!
Venous Reptiles.org, our charity.
It's late, so i'm going to edit this post for coherence/spelling/grammar tomorrow. Sorry if you're reading this version!
The People
There were 13 of us who took the Snakes on a Day challenge, and I'm proud to say that all 13 of us made it through. Most of us were young and we were majority male, although the ladies represented with 4 participants. (I think there were only 4 of us.) The most unusual (but possibly coolest) SoaD warrior was a older (40s-ish?) woman who runs a snake store and had put a snake on a plane that very morning. She was extremely knowledgeable about snakes and the snake-handling processes for the movie and was basically who I want to be when I grow up. (edit: her name is Sandra. She works at Chameleon Counters.) Shannon, our leader, was probably the most hardcore of us all. He was doing the screening as a birthday present to himself and was very insistent on not falling asleep. (I admit it- I slept through most of the 4th or 5th screening and in small pockets throughout.)
Shannon also claims he came up with a Grand Unifying Theory of Snakes on a Plane, but since he has yet to post or state it, I am forced to believe the rumor that it is all about masturbation. My Grand Unifying theory is that the snakes were a kind of purgatory that bad characters had to endure to either flourish or die. (This is a shitty theory and it could apply to any disaster movie, but it's the best I could come up with after almost no sleep).
I wish I had gotten to know my fellow screeners a little better. I think I'm going to write Shannon about a possible group get-together to find out things like names and occupations. There was some discussion during the first few screenings, but towards the end I at least was in no mood to talk to anyone. Also, during the last few screenings I kept getting up and leaving between screenings to walk around outside so I probably missed some conversation. I eventually got the names of the 2 guys sitting behind me who I kept talking to, but I was so sleep deprived that I've completely forgotten them. I'd like to have a meet up in about a week to get a beer and actually meet/talk with everyone. After all, like war survivors, only we can understand what we've been through. :) I think I'll e-mail Shannon about that.
The Screenings
As far as screening quality goes, the first an last screening were definitely the best. In the first screening, of course, everything was new and I was watching with my friends Jennifer and Brian who are very funny. The last screening had a great, enthusiastic, and appreciative audience who made all the old scares/jokes feel new again. The 4th or 5th screenings were probably the worst, and I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it. After the 6th screening, I got my second wind and it was much easier from that point on.
I felt really sorry for those last few audiences during the open to the public screenings. I drank a lot of coffee and wasn't able to take a shower, so I smelled FOUL. I tried washing under my arms with bathroom soap, but that only made things worse. The last 2 screenings were sold out, so people had to sit right next to me. It was very embarrassing, and I felt like apologizing to them. (I didn't- how do you apologize for something like that?)
Quentin Tarantino and Rosario Dawson were at the 1st screening. (I don't know where to put that little factoid, so I'll put it here.)
The Experience
I had predicted earlier that a spontaneous Rocky Horror-ization would occur at some point during the night. That hapeened around the 3rd showing (~3am: shockingly, everyone was very quiet and polite during the 2nd showing which was the first one not open to the public). People started yelling things back at the movie and loudly reciting favorite bits of dialogue. There was apparently a whole callback script online at some point, although I have no clue where it is. I don't remember there being any particularly funny callback, but my memory of some of those late night shows is kind of warped. :) Also, during the 3rd show I started acting out the flight attendant passenger instructions (Welcome to flight 121. Exits are located...). I did this for 3 reasons:
1. In any Rocky Horror-ization, something must be acted out. (See: Buffy Horror Picture Show) Since this movie consists mostly of scenes of people getting killed by snakes, the flight instructions were basically the only things that could be performed
2. My mother didn't hug me enough as a child
3. To keep myself fucking awake during the boring, expository first part of the movie
I ended up doing flight instructions for every screening except the 1st one in the morning that was open to the public. I sat it out during that screening because I didn't want to be distracting to the normal audience, but after the screening my fellow aereoophidiophilliacs told me that they had missed it. It made me feel warm and fuzzy, so I did flight instructions for every remaining screening. In a weird way, having a "part" in the movie is probably what kept me sane.
There was a film crew filming our group for a documentary about Snakes on a Day. In the morning, there were also a few local media sources that came out to watch the freakshow. :) I didn't really get interviewed, so I'd be surprised if I made it into any of the coverage. At one point before the last screening, I grabbed one of the documentary filmmaker's cameras and started walking around with it, but I doubt my sleep-deprived rambling makes it into the final cut. One of the filmers was a very cute redheaded girl- she seemed cool and I wanted to talk with her more, but I was too tired by that time to be social.
The Aftermath
As you can tell from my posts last night, 24 hours of Snakes on a Plane really fucked me up. I started seeing hallucinatory snakes just about everywhere after the 6th screening. i kept startling at these small movements I caught out of the corner of my eye. After the last screening, I went home and tried to take a shower. I had to stop the shower 3 times because I thought I saw a snake crawling in. As late as play practice this morning, I would close my eyes and see a coiling coral snake ready to strike. I also was walking around after practice (about 2pm) and nearly freaked out over a stick lying on the sidewalk. I'm feeling a lot better now, though I'm still easier to startle than normal. It would help if my cat quit biting me in my sleep.
The fundraiser for the Zombie musical happened right after the last screening. I was planning on making it, but I was so fucked up by that point that I just went home and went to sleep. I think I'm going to go ahead and use the $5 that would have covered admission to make a donation on the blog's paypal.
Miscellania
My favorite lines:
1. Whose house? Troy's house!
2. Fuck Randy! That's my own brother, and I say "fuck him!"
3. Turn this big mothefucker left Troy!
4. (the Asian gangster, on putting snakes on a plane) You don't think I've exhausted every other option?
5. We need to put a barricade between us and the snakes!
6. What do you mean, you people?
7. My ass. My ass, man.
8. You're a witness for the prosecution? That's so...hot.
9. Do as I say and you live.
10. Enough is enough! Get these motherfucking snakes off this motherfucking plane
My favorite scenes:
1. Troy lands the plane. How can you not love that?
2. The snake bites the guy's cock.
3. The snake bites the woman's boobie.
4. The snake crawls up inside the woman's dress
5. The FBI guys fly the hellicopter out to the snake dealer's house, and he runs out of his house and falls down a la Cops.
My favorite plot contrivances/plot holes:
1. So, the bad guys aren't sure which flight Sean (the teenaged witness) is on because the guy has to call it into the gang boss. He then douses the leis for that flight in pheremones. However, since the cargo was already on the plane, how did they know which plane to put the snakes on? Were there snakes on every plane? Did those snakes just not attack because there were no pheremones?
2. A barrier made up of suitcases actually holds back about 50 snakes, even though a snake is shown easily crawling over a similar barrier later in the film. A plastic raft also holds back an assload of snakes, including a giant boa constrictor.
3. FBI guy and snake expert guy spend a ton of time trying to get antivenom to give to the passengers once they land. However, by this point only 2 people who have received a snake bite are still alive. In fact, the whole subplot with the FBI is nonsensical.
4. The second pilot "dies" about 3 times
5. The whole shooting out a plane window and sucking the snakes outside thing. I've seen the movie 10 times, and I'm still not sure how that worked or how they did it without anyone dying.
6. Eddie Kim (the gangster) puts the snakes on the plane to kill the witness. However, since there is apparently only 1 guy in LA who deals in snakes, isn't that a clear trail back to him? Even if the plane crashes and everyone dies, it's got to be obvious that some of the victims were already killed by snakes.
I kept a paper journal of my viewing experiences. These are my favorite comments (interpreted so they are coherant):
1. This movie was obviously sponsored by : Red Bull, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, the motor boke company, possibly Blackberry. (There are about 6 shots in the movie that focus on Red Bull cans, including one where Sean has a stack of cases of Red Bull.)
2. What's up with the random Asian kickboxer? He seems like he's going to have a bigger part in the movie. Did he have a purpose originally?
3. A sequel to the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the stupidest idea ever.
4. One of the surfers at the beginning has a "Borg" t-shirt
5. Baby rattle foreshadows rattlesnake
6. 3 Gs (the rapper) has a song that says wither "Booty Goes Thump" or "My Booty Went Thump"
7. The beginning of the movie is completely off in tone from the rest of it. Was the film originally aimed at teengers? Why is there so much surfing in this goddamned film?
8. In a film that has so many good actors, why did they cast the worst actor in the world as Sean (the witness)? He looks like Frodo, only he's much, much worse.
9. Samuel L/Sean= OTP
10. When I become famous, I will force my friends to be my bodyguards. Then I will constantly boss them around an generally be a bitch.
11. Didn't smarmy pilot (pilot 2) used to be on the Daily Show?
12. She's a flight attendant, but she's REALLY a lawyer. So it's OK for her to be smart/hook up with Samuel L. Apparently, normal flight attendants are too stupid to combat airborne reptiles?
13. Eddie Izzard is right- British guys are always the villains in American movies.
14. Why are Asian bad guys always all about the lame platitudes?
15. This movie contains every racial stereotype ever. (Later: This movie contains every stereotype ever.)
16. Why does the FBI guy go on about how his wife is hot. Was she not hot before? It's just such a weird comment.
17. Why does Eddie Kim disappear after the first 20 minutes of the movie?
18. Why does the blond flight attendant like Sean anyway?
19. How did they pack so many snakes without getting bitten? Wy don;t the snakes attack each other more?
20. Horror movie rules apply: sex, drugs, being a fat woman, threatening children= death
21. Why is snakeo-vision green?
22. Red and black snakes are friends to Jack and should not be on a plane full of poisonous snakes. (The red and yellow ones are fine.)
23. (Around the 7th viewing) Snakes on a Plane? (I have no clue why I wrote this.)
24. How did they get the big boa into such a little space with all the other snakes?
25. When they are talking to the redneck snake dealer, why aren't they more careful of the loose snake?
Blogs of other participants:
Official blog
My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours
Collin's Crazy Life
The Blue Parrot
Other stuff:
The Alamo Drafthouse rocks! Not only did they let us stay in their theatre overnight, they gave us some free food, soda, and coffee! They are AWESOME!!
Venous Reptiles.org, our charity.
It's late, so i'm going to edit this post for coherence/spelling/grammar tomorrow. Sorry if you're reading this version!