The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 106: Cloak & Dagger (1984)
Added 2024-09-16 22:01:14 +0000 UTCThis week on the Watchcast, it's Cloak & Dagger! No, not the Marvel thing. The loosely Atari-related thing from the '80s! Join us as we discuss illegal game tapes, Dabney Coleman's action hero credentials, and how we feel having just watched the kid from E.T. kill a guy.
CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 106: Cloak & Dagger (1984)
(00:00:24) - Intro.
(00:01:00) - Our movie this week: Cloak & Dagger! (Not the Marvel thing.)
(00:10:42) - Talking about the movie's connection to Atari and video games.
(00:17:52) - Some top-line thoughts about what does and doesn't work in the movie.
(00:20:49) - Talking about some of the folks who helped make this thing.
(00:27:33) - The strangely common refrain of this movie being important to kids who have trouble relating to their dad.
(00:28:30) - More production and cast talk.
(00:35:43) - The movie's opening Hitman level.
(00:37:10) - Our intro to the kids and Morris.
(00:44:45) - Infiltrating Textronics.
(00:51:07) - Evil video game scientists are hunting your children!
(00:58:30) - Break!
(00:58:46) - We're back, and the bad guys are coming to kill this kid.
(01:05:39) - Unlocking the secrets of the forbidden Atari tape.
(01:12:28) - There is no plan here. These people are dumb as hell.
(01:16:13) - Davey is on the run.
(01:21:30) - Sure, let's make a kid ride in a trunk with a corpse. PG! Parental Guidance!
(01:26:07) - To the Alamo!
(01:31:32) - Wacky child driving antics!
(01:36:28) - Jack Flack might not be a great role model.
(01:45:41) - To the airport! Where unsupervised children will be welcomed with only moderate questioning.
(01:50:37) - This is one of the goofiest hostage situations in film history.
(01:56:40) - Final thoughts.
(01:59:58) - Girding ourselves for next week's movie: Ready Player One!
(02:05:00) - Outro.
Comments
Re the Hitchcock similarities, watch the VHS trailer: https://youtu.be/gjuGX8HYDCQ?si=fIgrf98YU2od118i which uses the North By North West theme, so pretty clear what they were going for!
Dan Platt
2024-09-18 10:38:53 +0000 UTCHyped! Lol
Nathan
2024-09-17 09:43:08 +0000 UTCAwwww, love hearing Ryan again ♥️
Jason Wineinger
2024-09-17 00:54:42 +0000 UTCAnd I'll say that as a kid, I saw the opening scene as Cloak & Dagger was both a pen & paper/miniatures spy RPG and also had a video game adaptation. Very much like D&D. So the intro was them playing a table top scenario but then he later is getting the Atari game as well.
Michael Jacobson
2024-09-16 22:51:30 +0000 UTCI have a good memory of a Ryan Davis interaction around when he did this for WU-TANG. I posted a comment that this was like that Twilight Zone with Jonathan Winters called A Game of Pool. He responded that that hadn't occurred to him but that I was right and that it was exactly like that.
Benji Black
2024-09-16 22:16:30 +0000 UTCThis was always a favorite of mine as a kid. And maybe I'm in the minority of kids who liked this and still had a good relationship with my Dad and he was encouraging my interest in video games & computers in the 80's.
Michael Jacobson
2024-09-16 22:06:29 +0000 UTC
