Midweek Mention... Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton

Dan: [00:00:00] Probably gonna sneeze

Sidey: Prove it

Dan: Okay. It's there in the nostrils. You know when it's just there? Do you get that? Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah That feeling- When you know it's coming ... when it's like you know it's- And sometimes it doesn't come

Dan: come. And then now, now you might have psyched me out of it- Yeah ... 'cause you, you threw down the gauntlet- Yeah

of the sneeze gauntlet. But- The

Cris: The gauntlet.

Dan: The-

Sidey: I don't think anyone sneezes in this film that we're about to talk about. I don't remember them. Wow. Yeah, that's a s- Segway.

Dan: mulled

Cris: that we're about to talk about. I don't think they do. Wow. That is just so weird. What a, what an entrance to this

Sidey: film. And this is a film I have mulled over nominate for quite a long time

Dan: Yeah I

thought I'd seen this Someone else did When-

Sidey: Chris

Dan: was Chris ... when you mentioned the name, I thought, "Oh, I've seen this." But there w- it was Michael Collins,

Sidey: Yeah, you've done all the Michaels

Dan: one. I've done a different kind of, Combination

Sidey: Jackson biopic Y-

Dan: you've done all these different Michaels, and different named people of, you know-

Sidey: But never Michael Clayton

Dan: Christian surname. Yeah. But never Michael Clayton. This is it. We used to play football with [00:01:00] a guy called Dave Clayton.

Sidey: Div Div Well,

Cris: we used to play football with a guy called Clayton Romel.

Dan: Clayton's- Cory's brother ... yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

Cris: Big Clay. So

Dan: Big Clay

Sidey: Clay for

Dan: So- Yeah. But this isn't any of those people.

Sidey: This is 2007, directed by Tony Gilroy, produced by Steven Soderbergh- Yeah

'cause we're gonna... It's quite awaited Steven Soderbergh themed week. Yep. And it's starring George Clooney. I don't... It might be, 'cause Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney did have... In fact, it probably is. They had, the two of them had a production company called Section Eight Pictures or whatever it was.

Right, okay. Section Eight being the-

Cris: They're both executive producers in this one

Sidey: so it will be a Section Eight then. So, Section Eight's- Section Eight what? ... is a when you're discharged in the army for going mad.

Dan: Oh, really? Okay. That's

Sidey: Klinger was always trying to get in M*A*S*H. Oh, right.

He was trying to get

Dan: Okay. Section Eight.

Sidey: So this is Michael Clayton, and cards on the table out of the gate, I fucking love this film.

Dan: It starts-

Sidey: it stars- Have you seen

Dan: [00:02:00] it before, Al?

Sidey: times. Yeah, yeah. I've

Cris: before as well, and I remember I've only seen it once, and I remember I really liked it.

And

Sidey: is why I didn't nominate it before, because I didn't want it to be just me like spaffing over a film that I really like,

Dan: So I, this... I was a Michael Clayton virgin. Okay, nice. This was- Oh, okay ... the first time I'd seen

Sidey: starts off with a bit of kind of, a voiceover of Tom Wilkinson's lawyer character, doesn't it? Yeah. He-

Cris: bit confusing initially because it doesn't really, you don't really understand where this is coming from- No ... and it's qui- it's quite a, sort of like a metaphor. It's- There's a lot of metaphor in,

Sidey: It starts off in a non-linear- Yeah ... sense. So we get Tom Wilkinson, he's, It turns out with, what he is, is one of the best litigators in this law firm.

Cris: this law firm.

Sidey: He's Arthur Edens, but he's fucking lost his marbles.

Arthur, yeah. That's it. Yeah. He's he's as- he's, he's clearly got some sort of psychiatric, had some sort of psychiatric episode. However, he's right. He's, he's almost certainly correct in s- [00:03:00] in the sense that they have been Defending- Defending this company called U-Green ... the wrong client. Yeah. But he has come to learn that i- in the sort of Erin Brockovich sense, that is also a Steven Soderbergh movie- Yeah.

That he's basically

Dan: defending

Sidey: defending the indefensible morally

Dan: Yeah ... well, I, I'm not sure that

he,

he ever didn't know that.

Sidey: Yeah. Because he- But he's, he can't do it anymore

Dan: but suddenly-

Sidey: to have a s- a breakdown ... he's

Dan: reflected on it enough to realize life's too short to...

And he's met some of the people.

Sidey: become infatuated- Yeah ... with this girl, Anna. But but then we g- then we, then we meet Michael Clayton, who is George Clooney, and he's he's been called out to go and- He's playing poker ... so we can see he's a gambler. Yeah. He likes to gamble. He's never particularly happy in the film. He's gambling.

He just gets fucking annoyed with the chat and the bullshit at the table. It's, it's not, this is not a casino. This is a back-

Cris: no. It's like a Chinese

Sidey: a backroom [00:04:00] game- Yeah ... but for fucking big money.

Dan: Yeah, like keys and wallets and, and ID or whatever are left-

Sidey: And the guy's saying, "I know you"

in the basket. This guy's saying, "I know you, and you did the- Yeah, the restaurant ... you had a restaurant." "Oh, no," and he's like, he doesn't wanna know. And then he gets, you can see his phone, because there's no, there's no phones at the table. You can see his phone in, in the little basket thing- Yeah ... ringing away.

I mean, he kicks the game into touch, and then he picks up his phone, and he's got a call from someone at the law firm, and he is the kind of law firm fixer, and he's told to go to this place. And when he gets there, it's a wealthy client of the law firm who's fucking mowed someone down- Did a hit-and-run ... in a hit-and-run.

Yeah. Panicked, called the law firm, and so they said, "Listen, we're sending Michael out. He'll sort it." He's he's- He, he's like a Winston Wolf ... he's... Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Well, well, that's the kind of thing that the client has been promised. Yeah. He's, you know, this guy's a miracle worker, and when he gets there, he's like, "Right, okay."

Clooney's like well, you've done that, you know, you have done that. We know some people up here. We can connect you with some good [00:05:00] lawyers. You need to get on top of this straightaway, and you need to do blah." And the guy's basically expecting someone to come up and sweep this under the carpet, and, and he's like, "No, no, you've been misinformed."

Like, "You're- "I don't pay

Dan: retainer every week for you just to come up and tell me this

Sidey: "I was told miracle worker." And he, Clooney's like, "Well,

Cris: He misspoke.

Sidey: he's misspoke." Yeah. You need to... There's, there's, there's no play here. Like, you've hit someone. You just need to do the best thing that you can- Yeah

to minimize what's gonna come next." And so we see that he's, He's a serious guy and he's connected, but he's not got fucking superpowers. Yeah, exactly. Like, do you know what I mean? He's still operating

Dan: But we-

Sidey: look-

Cris: I recommend a local lawyer. I can recommend you what to do, but I'm, I'm-

Dan: But we, we also know because this is basically the end of the film as well- Yeah

That on another day and time, he probably deserved that miracle worker reputation, and that's why he's got the job that he has. That's why people depended on him at different times. But he, like Arthur, had become by [00:06:00] this point a little bit jaded by

Sidey: sort of his role. Yeah. We, we do

Cris: he's also a gambler.

Sidey: we learn some more about his life and what he's been doing and why he's where he is within the firm. He's not a partner. He's not one of the ones calling the shots. He's still getting ushered around to do- Yeah ... these sort of shitty jobs. So he g- he deals with this guy and sort of tells him to stop being a prick, and you fucking run someone over, you prick, basically.

You're gonna have to face the music in some way, shape, or form. Yeah. Gets in his car, drives off. The sat nav is not working. It kind of just flashes all the time.

Cris: nav is not working. It kinda just flashes all the time. It glitches. it's

It's, glitching out.

Sidey: it's glitching out, and then he's just going through the countryside. It's very nice countryside. It's it's either gone through the night now, getting to dusk.

It's getting to the, the early morning, isn't it? Yeah. And he just happens to glance around and he sees some ponies at the top of a, a hill.

Cris: Which have you seen the reference with the ponies? You know why he stops, right?

Dan: right? We, we do in a little while,

Cris: while. Because the ponies- The, the, the- ... exactly that same image are in the book.

Yeah. There's the horses on a, on a- He's reading ... in the book that his son speaks to, to him and to [00:07:00] Arthur

Sidey: Arthur keeps, gets obsessed by, doesn't he? We-

Cris: k-

Dan: yeah. We-

Cris: Yeah ... is, is quite important. I can't remember the name of the book, but it's quite important in, in the whole plot because he kinda looks, and he looks again, and he's like, "Oh, three horses on a hill."

It's exactly-

Dan: don't know any of this at this point. Yet,

Cris: yeah.

Dan: he- You, you've just

Sidey: gone up- It's called Realm and Conquest,

Cris: Realm and Conquest. Yeah. So he stops the car, leaves the car in the, in the road, and he just goes up to kinda just stare at

Sidey: at these horses. He just looks at these ponies.

Looks up the

Cris: He goes up the hill.

Sidey: And I said to my missus, 'cause she was watching, I said, "Oh, watch the car," 'cause it's just over his shoulder, and all of a sudden, boom, the car goes up. Yeah. It looks like... Well, we don't know, but a car explodes. Yeah.

Dan: ca- a car explodes, and he's kind of then just running-

Sidey: up the side- Well, he knows.

He knows 'cause- ... the hill ... we don't, but-

Dan: but- But then it goes right back into-

Cris: Four days later or

Sidey: or something. Four days earlier. Earlier. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Earlier, yeah. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: And it's the, there's been a deposition- and this is where Arthur's completely lost it. He's stripped naked in this deposition.

So he's [00:08:00] representing the firm. They are millions and millions of fees being paid to this law firm. Yeah. This is serious. They've been defending this for years. This is a big class action lawsuit.

Dan: what are they called? West Up

Sidey: Ugreen ... UNorth. UNorth. UNorth. Westar, UNorth. And it's Tilda- I was

Dan: was a million miles away. Tilda

Sidey: character, she's the kind of in-house counsel trying to drive this forward.

Dan: in lieu of Arthur not doing his job, she has now been given the top job, isn't she? Like, Arthur was the lead counsel, but-

Sidey: he's lead counsel for the law firm, but she is, she is UNorth's-

Dan: UNorth's-

Cris: U North's in-house lead. Yeah. She's a, yeah, she's the counsel for U North- Yeah ... for the company that they're representing.

Yeah.

Dan: she's feeling, the,

Sidey: she's feeling the pressure. And then we see, like, we get a little bit of video of Arthur, and he's gone completely, like, AWOL. He's... You see him stripping naked. It's Tom Wilkinson doing it. Brilliant in this.

And the rest of the people in the room are like, "What the fuck's going on?" And they're, like, horrified watching this VT of him in this deposition just going completely bananas and they're like, [00:09:00] "This is the main guy who's defending us against..." I think it's some sort of pesticide or something that

Cris: a weed killer,

Sidey: yeah. Yeah. That they've been putting out and it's killing people. Yeah.

Cris: And he's...

He tries to speak to Anna, who is one of the plaintiffs. Yeah. And apparently her parents died because of this, Yeah ... weed, this pesticide. And they send Michael to deal with Arthur because they're in Pittsburgh or Milwaukee.

Sidey: He goes

Dan: And he's had an episode before.

Cris: he said eight years ago, yeah.

Dan: And Michael was able to help him then and get him back onto the straight and narrow. And everybody in the firm waxes lyrical about Arthur's abilities in the courtroom, and he's second to none as a litigator. If they're asking, you know, who would be the best at this?

Arthur would be the best at this. At the best at this? Well, Arthur again would be the man you ask. So, when they're looking for people to sort out the problems, it's this guy, and they need Michael Clayton, Clooney, to, to go and put him [00:10:00] back on the straight and narrow. So he goes to meet him from the deposition.

Cris: Well,

to take him out of jail first.

Dan: him out of jail. Yeah. Meet him from, like... He's been arrested because he had his cock out in the car park

Sidey: around naked, yeah.

Dan: He's totally lost the plot at this stage, and it's, it's snowing outside. It's freezing.

You know,

Sidey: it's, it's- It's, well, basically it's damage limitation- Yeah

'cause they've got to keep the client happy. So he gets the team, and he's like, "Right, this is how we sell it. He's off his meds, you know. It was just a, a momentary thing.

Cris: an episode.

Sidey: an episode. We're gonna get him back." No reason for it. Blah, blah, blah. "And we do this, and this is how we do it, and we blah."

And he ends up speaking with Tilda Swinton's character, and they, they're like, "Who the fuck is this guy? You know, we haven't seen him." And they, they start doing some digging. They're like

Cris: like- He's work-

Sidey: He's work- you know, he's did this- Six, eight years he's been in- ... he's assistant DA, he's done this, he's done that.

He's been at this firm for, like, another dozen years. Fucking hell. Why is he not a partner? Like, he's just weird. And so then we just see in parallel there's, like, an auction going on where all of the stuff of Clooney... So Clooney's gone into [00:11:00] partnership with his brother as trying to get a way out. It's obviously not, like, his bag really, this life, so they've tried to do something.

He likes a gamble. He's taken a punt with his brother who's got substance abuse issues, gambling problem, and... But I think he's done- Alcohol and substance ... I think he's done the trifecta. And,

Dan: and their, their restaurant business has

Sidey: he says at one point they're paying nine grand a month just on rent.

He's- he- they said, "Oh, you know, we've just sold the fridge." He's like, "I fucking paid,

Cris: Four grand

Sidey: grand, we're selling it for 1,500." Yeah. You know, so he goes in to see... 'Cause who, it's, who plays the partner in the law firm? It's, it's it's, it's an absolute dude. Sydney Pollack- Yeah ... plays Marty.

Marty. Yeah. And he's, he says, "Marty, I need a loan. I need 80 grand just to get out of a hole." So they, they basically own him. So they, when they've got a problem, Joe Clooney will solve it. Yeah.

Dan: And he, he's, he's doing it his best.

But as he starts to speak to Arthur and Arthur goes on the run. He gets him to a hotel after picking him up from the police station. [00:12:00] Arthur goes on the run because he is having these kind of episodes still. He is off i- the meds. He has got a book that... He's obviously friends with George Clooney's family and his son, because at one point he's on the phone- Yeah

to his son, and his son has this book, and you see the, the relationship George Clooney and his son, and it's of a stressed out dad who doesn't have a lot of time to spend with his son, and he's driving to school, and he

Sidey: not a bad dad. But

Dan: he's not a bad

Sidey: But he's just not as present as he would like to be, I don't

Dan: be at times.

E- e- exactly.

Sidey: he does give him a pep talk when when the son talks about Arthur. He says, "Listen..." No, it's, it's the

Cris: the- The brother, when it's

Sidey: He says, "Listen, on your, you know, on your, on his best day, you know, you still are

Cris: You're still better than him,

Sidey: him

th- that he, that he could

Dan: maker."

Don't... Yeah, 'cause kids sometimes worry about that, don't they? Yeah. They think, "Is it in the family? Am I gonna be a fuckup 'cause he's a fuckup?" Yeah. No. Look, you're not. You're way better than him, and he does care about him, and he does love him. Yeah. But he's not present. He's got... [00:13:00] And we know, having seen the story, how much he's got going on, how many plates he's spinning and things.

You still like to think that you'd be doing better and you'd be more present, but we've all been there where, you know, you've been stressed and, you know, you're driving along and your mind's on something else, and the kid's talking about a book that you should read which is this book that Arthur's got, the one that you referred to earlier.

Sidey: and Conquest or something like that. And

Dan: when a little while later, Arthur has been killed, Whoa.

Sidey: It's a massive-

Dan: Yeah, it's a

Sidey: forward. So we see Karen. Karen is,

Dan: killed. Sorry, everyone.

Sidey: Yeah. We- we've seen how under pressure she is because we've seen her in a cubicle and she's kinda like looking at her armpits.

Sweaty pits, yeah. There's massive armpits, like sweat, and she's really feeling the pressure of just defending this company, but they fucking know,

Cris: look, the idea is when, when Clayton goes to get Arthur he, they can't find his briefcase. Meanwhile, we see that Tilda Swinton's character, Karen, she's got the briefcase. Yeah [00:14:00] And in the briefcase, in Arthur's briefcase after he does the runner- The runner

there's, there's a memo, the internal memo that

Dan: It's a smoking gun

Cris: and tells you that- We knew- ... that is the proof that the company knew that that weed killer, the pesticide, is

Sidey: a killer ... toxic. Yeah. It

Cris: creates skin damage, tissue damage, all that stuff. And even better, it's signed by Don Howard or whatever- Yeah

who is the CEO of Unorth, who is her mentor and the person that put her in charge

Sidey: Well, imagine signing that. Fucking hell. So it's too expensive to fix, but it's not gonna be as expensive as going completely fucking bust when this gets out. So they go to quite extreme measures to hire two let's say, in inverted commas, "surveillance guys"- Yeah

To go after Arthur and find out what's going on. Ex-CIA,

Dan: black ops.

Sidey: So they, they do surveil him for a while, and then they realize he's got this memo. He's gone rogue, and they, like-

Dan: They also

know-

Sidey: they, they- Well,

Dan: Arthur knows that [00:15:00] they're recording him at one point because- Well, that's why,

Sidey: because- Well,

Cris: that's why, because he starts reading out the memo into a

Dan: Yeah

into a surveillance camera. Saying, "You're fucked," basically. And

Cris: "Look, look this." And then- They

Sidey: say, "Are we g- are we authorized to take this further?" They, 'cause they're quite careful with what they say, and she's like- Okay ... okay, which means this is-

Dan: proceed, or is that okay understand?

Sidey: is a fucking hit.

So and it's really sort of stark the way they show it on the screen. It's very procedural. Like, he walks into the apartment. He's just grabbed, you know-

Dan: at the door, little kind of- No,

Sidey: noise, just dragged. I think injected straight away so he's out

Cris: the-- in between the

toes They,

Sidey: him first, so he's, he's sedated.

Right, yeah. Then they, when he's laying down, just sock off, inject in between the toe. No, under the, it's under the toenail. Anyway, so there's no mark. It's not weird. There's no punchy mark. Sock back on. He twitches, dead. Put in there, pills out. I think, turn, do, do the tap on.

Dan: Turn the tap on,

Cris: tap on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's

Dan: obvious that- Fingers are on the neck for the pulse

Sidey: There's [00:16:00] literally no, like, drama about it other than you're watching someone be executed. There's no, there's no like, "Oh, is he gonna get..." You know? It's very matter of fact- Yeah ... the

Cris: It's like cleaning windows.

Sidey: Yeah. And you're like, "Fuck, they've just killed, they've just

Dan: did it." They're, they're in and out in five minutes. I mean, it's almost real time that stuff, isn't it? Yeah. That we, we see it in. Yeah. And he is dead.

Sidey: So Karen's just authorized a hit. This is now corporate fucking- Yeah ... homicide.

Dan: And when Michael Clayton gets that news, and indeed the o- the law office get

Sidey: He called it

Cris: the law...

Yeah, the, the law firm, but the, the... That's what Marty says. He's like, "I'm conflicted about this because we dodged a bullet here." Yeah. He was like the, the partners, they're kinda buzzing really because- Yeah, yeah ... the guy's dead, so there's no more problem. Well, he,

Dan: he was off, off the rails. Yeah. He was, he was getting into bed with the you know, the, the defendant rather than the, the the law firm that he should be defending.

He's going in on the, with the other side, and he's siding with them. So they're like him [00:17:00] having a heart attack

Cris: also before, before he dies, before they, they kill him, that's a great moment when Michael Clayton finds him in the street and he's got about 12 baguettes in a

Sidey: Yeah. Still warm.

Cris: Still warm. And he's like, "Still warm.

Do you want one?" It's amazing. But he, he turns from ditzy lunatic that "I'm trying to help you, Arthur. I'm trying to help you. Just come and we'll do the right thing." And he's like, he, he turns straight into lawyer mode. So he's still lucid. He knows what he's doing. Yeah. And he's like, "Listen, Michael, you sh- if you wanted me to s- if you wanted to sort this out with me, you should've kept me in Milwaukee where it was under the law."

Ta-da-da, he gives him all this thing about, "If I've done something

Dan: it

Sidey: that. Yeah. If I've done something illegal- Jurisdiction ... it's jurisdiction. It's only there. Now I'm

Cris: Jurisdiction ... its jurisdiction is only there. Now I'm in New York City. If you wanna come at me, you come at me and

Dan: Am I a danger to myself? Am I a danger to others? Do you think you got the horses for that?

And he's like, he knows that he can't take him on, because he's already admitted previously- He's the best ... the best person for this kind of case

Cris: kind of case- Is that guy

Dan: him. Yeah.

So,

Sidey: But he's gone now.

Cris: And now they're at the thing in the bar, [00:18:00] and then the next day...

Sidey: I

Cris: remember how does he call Anna

Sidey: She was sp-, she was, she turns up at the airport

Cris: No, but because he- Talks to his sister ... is he watching something or?

Because he calls the sister, but I can't remember how that in that night he gets drunk, and then I think he just decides to call the sister.

Sidey: Who does?

Cris: Michael Clayton. Michael Clayton,

Dan: Clayton,

Cris: He calls the sister, and she's like, "What kind of people are you?" No,

Sidey: No, because Anna has flown.

Cris: Yeah, yeah. but- He,

Sidey: arranged, and she phones...

And he's, he's in the apartment, isn't he? He's in... Or does he just get the missed call? No. 'Cause he, he breaks into the crime scene, 'cause he doesn't believe the suicide. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's where he finds out about the memo. And he also, Picks up the book ... I think she d- she must've just phoned the law firm.

The, the mum, the, the sister might've just phoned the law firm to fucking berate them or however, what- however it turns out. Right, yeah, yeah. And, and so Arthur had arranged for her to fly over, and that's why they're like, "Well, this is definitely bullshit," because he wouldn't have arranged for her to come over and, and then meet her and then kill himself.

Like, it's bollocks. So that's when I think Clooney goes to the apartment.

Cris: And he goes to meet her [00:19:00] as well. He,

Sidey: he does meet her. He chats to her. He finds out

Dan: the time when he's broken into the apartment, he dis- he discovers the book, The Realms, and-

Sidey: the, the page marked with the thing

Dan: and it has the, the picture of...

It's highlighted text and it's got a picture of horses on a hill- Yeah ... which later we've- Seen ... we've already seen. Yeah. We've already seen at the beginning where he's parked his car, he's gone up to see these horses on a hill, obviously thinking, "That's, that was in that book." Yeah. And he- he's gone to get a closer look, and it's ended up saving his life because the car is blown up while he's up on the hill looking at these horses.

Cris: And I- And then he goes to the laundrette

Dan: the laundrette. Well,

Cris: Or the, to the laundrette, to the printing thing. Well, that's what he found in the book, no?

Dan: 'Cause it's the same guys who have killed Arthur who have put a bomb in his car, and there was that scene where they've just gotten out in time, and we realize he's coming in from that gambling scene, Arthur

right at the beginning of the

Sidey: film. But Arthur has, Arthur's taken that memo, though, but he's taken it to the printing company.

The printing company, yeah. He's had [00:20:00] 3,000 copies of it printed up. Yeah. And he's just gonna start handing them out and giving to everyone. Distributing, yeah. He's, he's... Let's say he's not acting in his client's best interest in that. He, he's certainly not,

Dan: not, but he's, he's in, like his own mind acting-

Cris: this is the thing because we do see that when Clooney goes to the girl at the airport into her room the surveillance guys are there. Yeah. And they're like, "Well, this is interesting." And then he breaks into the apartment. Yeah. And they're like, "What are we doing now?" And then h- his brother-in-law takes him out bec- or the, the jail cell because he's a police officer.

And

Sidey: he, He has to pull some strings

Cris: pull some strings and whatever,

Dan: he's been busted in- Yeah

breaking into the apartment Breaking into

Cris: the apartment with the seal on, and he had a separate seal to cover it up. But then he's like, "Who called 911?"

Sidey: I

Cris: quiet. There's no one else living in the building.

Yeah. Who called the police? Yeah. And his brother-in-law is like, "Oh, you're selfish. Fuck off," whatever. But he's already thinking, "Right, there's something wrong here. [00:21:00] This is not, this is not right." And now we're pretty much coming full circle 'cause that's when he goes back to Marty. Marty gives him the 80 grand check- Wow

and he's like, "We're settling. We're settling with you, North. There's no more-"

Dan: got three more years on contract.

There's the 80 grand that I promised you."

Sidey: A-

Dan: and at the same time he had the memo and he was gonna confront Marty with the memo and go, "What the fuck is this?" But then he realized, "I ain't getting the 80 grand I need to dig me out of a hole here, and there's three years contract that I need." So he's just there holding both the, the money and the contract, and he, he doesn't hand him the, the, the memo-

Cris: The memo, yeah ... the,

Dan: memo, yeah

the, the the memo and, and the money and the check.

Sidey: So

Dan: He's kind of conflicted over what an asshole

Sidey: he sells it out for 80 grand.

Cris: this is the thing. He gets 80 grand, and then the ni- later that night,

Sidey: he...

Cris: can see he gives the money to that guy, but [00:22:00] it's 75 grand, and that's why he goes to the gambling den. Yeah. Which you can kinda tell that that's, he's got five grand- Yeah ... and he's trying to...

Because he said, "I haven't been to, at a gambling table in eight months. I've, I've not been. I've not placed a bet. I've not, I've not placed a bet. I've not done anything." And then we go full circle where he does the whole thing, gets out of the gambling den, phone call. You see the guys, the undercover guys that...

And that's what the guy says, that he's like, "I put the device in his car."

Sidey: Yeah. It's not l- like... We'll see one in the m- in the main feature where there is a bomb under the car. This one, it's in the actual center console of the, of the vehicle. Yeah. He's in the backseat. Yeah. He's, he's fiddling around, and the

Dan: guy's... 'Cause

Sidey: guy's...

Th- 'Cause it's a, it's a duo, and one's on lookout, and one's doing the bomb planting. And his mate's like, "He's coming," you know. So Michael Clayton's walking around the corner. It's very, very close, and he, he actually, I think he just closed the door as he's still... Just happens to be on the phone. Yeah. He's not really looking, and he's put the bomb in there, but he hasn't been able to wire everything back up properly, [00:23:00] which is why his satnav is all glitchy.

But presumably this is Karen who's, like, authorized this as well. It's another kill that- Yeah ... she does on U-North, specifically on her. Yeah, so we'll see him now drive off,

Cris: And- And now the n- this is pretty much the grand finale where they go in to settle. Yeah. And,

Sidey: she thinks he's dead.

Cris: Yeah. She thinks he's dead, and even the partners at the company because they're like, "Have you heard?"

Yeah. "Michael Clayton, bomb, upstate New York." Bomb, yeah. Car bomb. He's... And, and everyone's like, "What do you mean car bomb? What?" Yeah. "What's going on here?" This is not just, ooh, suicide, or he

Dan: fell over the hoarding. Yeah. This i- this is two deaths

Sidey: But he obviously, he realizes my car hasn't just blown up for some fault.

By itself. It's, this is the same thing that's happened to Arthur. They're trying to get rid of me- Yeah ... because we both, we both know the secret, that they're guilty. So he sets up a little sting of his own

Dan: own

Cris: Yeah.

Sidey: The

Dan: wh- which is brilliant because sh- sh- T- Tilda Swinton is there with all the

Sidey: the U North

Dan: st- [00:24:00] shareholders saying, "Look, we need to take this deal. We're gonna have to fall on our sword here.

We don't think it's as bad as it would be. In fact, it's gonna be a bit of a tax write-off for us. It's gonna cost us, you know, X amount of millions.

Sidey: We'll

Dan: able to take that hit. There won't be any comeback."

Sidey: And then- We're not admitting any guilt here

Dan: we're not admitting to guilt. And she goes out then of the...

While they debate what she's leaving, and she says, "As lead counsel, this is what I would recommend." And when she goes out this big hallway Clayton's there at the door- Ooh ... and he's goes, "Eh-" You see him. And she looks at him like she's seen a ghost. And he goes, "Arthur's walking around here as well." And i- I'm joking, I'm joking, because that's two people she's been responsible for killing.

But obviously, having thought he was dead

Sidey: He says to her, "I'm not the guy you kill, I'm the guy you buy" Yeah. He just goes,

Dan: you doing? Like, I sold out Arthur for 80 grand. I want $10 million, and this'll all go away." And she's [00:25:00] like, "Pff, I don't know what you're talking about. This is, this..." And he's going, "Don't give me this fucking bullshit. Look, five, but okay, five's more possible." And he goes... And he just basically gets her talking.

And then her boss, Don, comes out and goes, "Is this man bothering you?" And she's like, "No, no, just a minute, just a minute. I, I'll be a minute." And he goes, he, he just hook, line, and fucking sinkers her. Yeah. Takes a photo of

Sidey: photo of

Cris: And also say, repeat this, "I'll give you the 10 million. I'll have them ready by today," whatever. Yeah. And-

Dan: 468 milli- 468 people UNouf killed, I want the other five million. And she's like, "Okay, okay, look, it... fine, fine." And-

Sidey: Zing

Dan: zing. He's

Sidey: wearing a wire.

Dan: he's wearing a wire with his father, his brother-in-law's kind of, Yeah, the guy

Sidey: his brother, Gene.

Dan: Yeah, his brother Gene Sting.

Yeah. And she's like, "Oh,

Sidey: and she's like, "Oh, shit." She...

Dan: just... They, they go over there, don't they?

Sidey: don't they? You can

Dan: hear them as [00:26:00] he's walking out. She's done. He's going, "Can we get a can we get some medical assistance here?" 'Cause she's just collapsed and hit the ground. She, her world has just fucking crumbled, and it couldn't have happened to a nicer person 'cause she's really, really horrible.

Corporate greed at

Sidey: just desperate.

She's just really desperate, and, you know- Yeah ... she's fucking killed people, and-

Dan: Yeah. Oh

Sidey: it's the end ... and

Dan: And he gets in a taxi

Sidey: and, It's a great end ... just drives. Just

Dan: Just drives

Sidey: He

Cris: just drives. He just, "Give me 50

Sidey: gives 50 bucks, "Just give me $50 worth." And this film, it's sort of like a Police Squad!

ending where it... The camera just stops on him, and he's just sort of looking like...

Cris: he's, you

Sidey: It's, you know, he's just like, "Oh, God. What a shit

Dan: "Oh, shit." Yeah.

Cris: done there?"

Yeah. Whatever. The

Sidey: day." "What a..." Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And the camera just stays up while the credits are coming up. It's just Clooney face while he's just, like,

Cris: like

Dan: relieved.

First time I've seen this, I was just... I wanted more Michael Clayton. I- it was just like, what a great movie. What a, what a twists and turns.

Sidey: Just- It's so morally, like, gray- I know ... because no one is [00:27:00] gray in it. Yeah. The lawyers are-

Cris: As in like a nice per- or someone that's like, "Oh, this

Sidey: are gonna defend whoever for money.

Michael Clayton's sort of good. You know, you see some good in him, but he sells fucking thing out for 80 grand. Yeah. The only real good one is Arthur, who sees the light, and it causes him to have a fucking huge episode.

Dan: even him, he's been- He's still defending ... defending it for like 12 years, six years or whatever

Sidey: And that's what takes its toll, its toll on him. Yeah. And it's just- ... real corporate

Dan: corporate greed. But- Yeah ... as far as like films that just... They're out there, and they're really, really good, and they're really right up my street, and I haven't seen... I hope there's some more out there like this because it was just such a brilliant kind

Sidey: He- ... proper film ... I, I do have a hard-on for Clooney. He's fucking good.

Dan: he's brilliant in

Sidey: In stuff like this. Not when he's doing his super, like, "Oh, I'm so cool," like Ocean's stuff. This is more, like, way more pared back than that. He still

Cris: He still looks dapper and cool- He looks really good ... and whatever and but, but he just looks tired

Sidey: Yeah, he's just like, "Fucking more of this shit." Which is obviously what his [00:28:00] character's ro- been on, his journey, because he's wanna- tried to get out, but his brother's fucked him over.

Cris: Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah. So yeah, really, really

Dan: yeah, really, really good. Yeah. It just, as I say, it, it taps into that- That kind of corporate greed and that, that disgust that they have of each other and, and the money and the, the morally bankrupt kind of ethics that a lot of them

Sidey: They- ... share

Dan: this film and e- and everything,

Sidey: more explicitly in Fight Club, don't they?

They just talk about the, It's literally an equation. Like, when I think he's a loss adjuster or something for the Ed Norton's character, the narrator. And he says if the car, you know, so if it's the fault of the car and people die, we just do, like, what the settlement would be compared to, like, what the court, you know, what the...

And it's just a just a straight equation. Yeah. And never mind the human equation of, like, someone's died or whatever. So same here. They're just like, "People are dead, but it's too expensive. Too much, too much re- you know, bad PR. We, we just can't have that." Yeah. You know? You fucking horrible

Dan: this is it. It's the [00:29:00] stakeholders, the shareholders, sorry, that are the ones that the boards have to answer to. They're the ones that are gonna pay the wages and, and invest their money or pull their money out and everything. So they're the ones they gotta do. But it was, yeah, right up my alley, this, this, this movie.

Sidey: I could watch it again tonight.

Fucking brilliant.

Cris: I also like it because

Dan: worth a rewatch

Cris: in,

you're in the realm of lawyers and lawsuits and all that, but there's ... It, it doesn't glamorize any ... You know, when you see a law- a, a lawyer film where they're in court and they ... Like Cousin Vinny where they're in court and it's like, "Oh, this guy is so amazing in court."

No, th- they're all port-

Sidey: 25 people in a, in a meeting room late at night grinding away on this cause ... looking at, at ways to- Yeah

Cris: make more money and- Yeah ... make more billing

Sidey: more hours

Cris: billing more hours and just trying to settle and trying to do this. How do we make more money?

Basically, that's all there is. And no one, like you say, no one is nice, no one is good, no one is[00:30:00]

Sidey: is... I- it's

Cris: And it's also an insight into the high level of these corporations, how it really works, where there's no good or bad, there's no winner and loser.

Sidey: Just balance sheets.

Cris: There's just ... Yeah. There's

That's just-

Dan: memo that we didn't obviously look to, to read, but they summarized and they talked about it being so expensive.

The scientist who, who c- created

the,

the data and, and did the report on it said

Sidey: there was,

Dan: you know,

human skin tissue damage, and actually to start again and is gonna cost us so much we're not in a position to make these decisions. And it comes down to cost, basically. We- we're pumping death into your kitchen via the tap.

It's odorless. It's colorless. Yeah. It's tasteless. You wouldn't know you're getting- You wouldn't even know you're getting killed. But if we're gonna now reverse all that, it's gonna cost us

Sidey: And their corporate-

hundreds of millions ... their corporate logo is [00:31:00] like a f- like a leaf growing out, you know. Yeah. Scumbags.

Dan: So what do you wanna do with it? And the recommendation is obviously to hide it all and, and fight in the courts and everything, and that's what they do.

And all those characters

Sidey: know

Dan: that's the case. Yet-

Sidey: For me-

Dan: go to it.

Sidey: And

Dan: we know that happens, and we know, you know, from other movies and, and other real-life court cases and things that shit like this actually happens, albeit quite rare you would hope.

Cris: Was-

Sidey: Budget was just north of, just U north of 21 million, 21.5 mil. Oh, it definitely made money.

This is a great hit. Was there any

Cris: Oh, it definitely made money. This is a great hit. Was there any nominations for any- It made

Sidey: 93 mil, so that's good news,

Cris: So from what, 25 to 93?

Sidey: Yeah. 21 to

Cris: 29 ... Yeah, 21 to 93.

Dan: I'm pleased it made money

Cris: It had a great cast as well Yeah.

Yeah Everyone was good in it. Everyone

Sidey: This is Tilda Swinton before she was, like, super androgynous. She's-

Dan: Good, good actors are [00:32:00] attracted to these films because they're good scripts, and- Like,

Cris: the, the,

Marty guy, the what's his name? The- Sydney Pollack Sydney Pollack. He was, he was like pro- You could, you could think he's a lawyer

Sidey: Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. It's-

Cris: When you look at him, you think, "Yeah, that guy's a lawyer." The, the other guy, the other partner, who's a bit of a dick, he's really good. Ev- everyone's just

Sidey: Swinton won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Karen Crowder.

Cris: Best Supporting Actress for playing Karen Crowder She did,

She did. How ... Because you hate her in the film, right?

Sidey: But she's also sort of pathetic. She's out of her depth. She's desperate. She's a bit of a fucking loser, but

Cris: but you

Sidey: makes- Yeah, well you hate her in the film.

Of course, yeah, because she makes all the wrong decisions. But she's just out... She's just spinning out of control with all, everything that's going on. This is Tony Gilroy, the director's, director's debut.

Dan: Good debut.

Strong. Strong debut.

Cris: a guy. I don't know what he did after, but he started really

Sidey: be as good as this. For me, this is the strongest possible recommend.

Dan: Yeah. This is- Yeah. Strong. This is- ... this is as good a mid-weeker as we've done this year.

Sidey: Mm.

Dan: High praise. Go and watch [00:33:00] it