Hello and welcome to Development Pergatory!
This is the podcast all about the movies that were never made, the scripts that were
never written, and the ideas that never have made it to the page.
My name is Daniel Kawka.
And I'm Lexcee Riley.
Welcome back to Part 2 of Plastic Man.
If you have not listened to Part 1, highly recommended you so we go through the history
of Plastic Man throughout his publication history where he came from and into his introduction
into DC Comics.
And we just started the movie that they were supposed to make, supposedly in 1995, written
by the Wichowski's.
We see the character named for the movie Daniel O'Brien.
He has just gotten his powers against his will and we're going to see how that all plays
out in Part 2.
Matrix Boo-Galoo.
Where are you coming from?
Why are you in my edit bay?
I live here now.
Stop!
They get Nebel Men to help clean up the lab after their experiment.
Nebel Men arrives in a raincoat in his pajamas because they did this in the middle of the night.
He sees the mess that's caused by the explosion and he faints.
When Nebel Men wakes up, he tells them that he needs the nano bot to stabilize the meltdown.
But it turns out it's gone.
It's inside of Daniel.
So without the nano bot, the waste is going to expel from the explosion and will only grow.
They can't do anything to contain it, but the best way that they can do so is by laying
down liquid nitrogen just to slow it down.
But it's going to continue to expand and basically anything that it touches will be pulmurized,
meaning that it's going to also be like liquid and jelly-like.
I'm telling you, who framed Brad Jorabbat?
This could have been half animated.
Poppy asks Sims if he found Daniel, but he hasn't.
And they're looking through as close to see if he has anything in there as for any clues.
And they find the key card to the admiral hotel.
I thought they were going to make an engagement ring.
No.
Daniel arrives back to the room, still woozy, from what had been done to him.
He's a little woozy here.
He's still excreting waste.
And this time he coughs it out the next morning.
Daniel wakes up realizing that he can't breathe.
So he's actually twisted his head around so many times that it causes him to close his
airway.
What?
Yeah.
He gets up, he corrects himself, he spins his head back to put a brick in order.
Did you ever see that?
I've ever show you death becomes her.
I mean, I've seen death becomes her.
We may have seen it together.
But there's that moment where was that Meryl Streep is throwing down the stairs and
like heard next snaps and twist around.
Yeah, kind of like that.
Death becomes her in 1992.
So we're talking about CGI and that kind of thing.
Oh yeah.
Because that wasn't all prosthetic.
So it would have looked like that.
Yeah.
Although, because it's kind of like a bow tie situation where it's kind of like pinched
at the neck, twisted around like so.
Suddenly the door burst open and it's sim and doby.
They try to capture Daniel, but he's bouncing around on the floor in the wall.
So at the time of the turn you get him, Daniel grabs the window sill as the goons they grab
his legs.
They stretch them out as they attempt to take him.
They let go of Daniel and he slingshots out of the window and he hits the ground.
The people around him scream thinking that they saw someone die, but Daniel gets up and
he's fine.
Daniel looks up to see that his hands are still hanging from the window.
Nine stories up, so it's like big, little, little, little hand.
He lets go and his arms just kind of flop down to the ground and then eventually
like retract back in Daniel.
Daniel takes off the goons.
They inform Argon that O'Brien, he's still alive, but he just got away.
Back at Argon Labs, there are news screws that are outside who are reporting on the accident.
They don't know the details, but from what they've witnessed is that the staff is not allowed
inside the building, only high-ranking officials from the EPA.
They are allowed to inside to investigate.
We see the live news coverage on the TV inside of Susan's kitchen.
Daniel knocks on the door.
She's shocked to see him alive.
He pleads to help her and explains what happened back at Argon Labs.
He's now stretchy in his skin.
Leave his skin.
His skin feels like plastic.
Fascinating.
Susan tells Daniel about their previous experiments with organic materials.
So they were supposed to be this mouse?
Yeah.
And how eventually it would not resemble back to its original structure.
So essentially, Daniel is doomed.
He says, "Oh God, please, this can't be happening.
I can't be plastic.
A plastic man!"
Roll credits.
Susan hands Daniel a handful of caffeine diuretic pills to help him flush out the nanobots
from inside of his body.
Daniel is resistant to the pills because his stance on Western medicine doesn't want them.
Susan then suggests that she could surgically remove the bots from his body and he's like,
"Okay, I'll just take the pills."
She says that she needs the nanobots to help stabilize the wastes that is spewing at
Argon Labs.
So that's what they need to do out of him.
Back to the lab, faceless men are in silver, hazmat suits attempting to contain the oozing
wastes from the blast with liquid nitrogen.
But it's no use.
The waste will continue to spread.
And while Susan and Daniel continue to work on getting that nanobot, Susan quote, "To
put it simply, the nanobot inside of you is a microscopic machine encoded with information
like a strand of messenger RNA that is programmed to synthesize your molecules with the pylocyc
prenees of assembler fluid, rebuilding the entire organic system with molecular level."
A Brian then just says, "Say it simpler, say it in English."
It's kind of part for the course when it comes to science fiction.
It's going to be like scientists going to ramble on about this thing and some general
is like, say it in English or something like that.
She simplifies it saying, "The nanobot combined with your molecules with the plastic molecules
in the white assembler fluid."
So that's on a molecular level.
You have more in common essentially with a goodier tire than with a human being.
It's more rubbery, plasticky and what that is.
You're going to die?
Yeah, basically.
Susan demonstrates what happens to a pulmarized egg that she experimented on.
She bounces and squishes it.
Yeah, it reverts back.
But then she shows Daniel and egg from three days ago, which is basically an unrecognizable
blob.
He's doomed.
Yeah, because it's killing all the living cells.
Yep.
At the lab, the news reports that argon was attacked by a radical environmental group.
Aron reveals that the waste has a 48-hour period for the waste to be stabilized.
She also wants to run some experiments on Daniel.
So Susan takes a blood sample.
It is just then that Daniel realizes that he needs a pee.
He runs into the bathroom and he goes into a beaker.
Now his urine is not liquid.
It's actually described as like rubber cement consistency.
Yeah, it's weird.
The two briefly fight over Daniel invading the lab and ruining what could be scientific
progress in Daniel.
He's stating that the lab, all that it was doing was destroying the world in Earth.
So eventually they laugh it off.
Meanwhile at the lab, we see argon bribing the head of the EPA.
Shocker?
Yeah.
Back at Susan's place.
Daniel is split out on the couch, limbs dangling off the edge.
His head resting on the floor while Susan is searching for the nanobot under a microscope.
Daniel gets hungry and he stretches head into the kitchen looking for food.
He doesn't find anything and he stretches his head into the basement or Susan is.
Daniel scares her, claiming that he didn't want her to hear him walking.
She turns around to see that his head is kind of floating mid-air, kind of like a cobra.
Right.
She's frustrated because she can't find the nanobot and must be still inside of him.
She wants to do more tests and they go into the backyard and she asks Daniel to stretch
out as far as he can, like, to stretch as tall as possible.
It's there that he gets spotted by the two security guards, Sim and Dobby.
Daniel continues to stretch his body and he gets thinner and thinner and as he does so,
at one point his pants fall to the ground.
God, the 90s were inappropriate.
Yeah, it was.
He then goes back to normal size and puts his pants back on.
Susan gets a blood sample and a hair sample instead of that she's off the lab because the
equipment that she needs to test is all there at argon labs.
He stays at Susan's, downing multiple two liters of coke.
He plays around with a glass of vase.
He empties out the flowers.
He actually sticks his head into it to kind of like conform to the shape.
Right.
This is just like a fun visual.
He suddenly needs to pee again.
He runs to the bathroom and then he has a thought.
Wait, technically I don't need to go to the bathroom and he just kind of stretches himself
into the bathroom and he fills the beaker with a yellow fluid.
It's weird.
The camera moves closer and closer into the beaker to get to the molecular level and we
see that the nano bot is inside of that beaker.
Inside his pee?
Yep, inside the pee.
Didn't see this coming did you?
I weirdly feel like I did.
If you put bound and the matrix together, like...
Yeah.
We cut to the Cook County Courthouse where we see the head of the EPA.
John Joplin.
He gives an announcement stating that Argon Labs was the site of a deliberate terrorist attack
and the radical environment caused a toxic spill within the lab.
The person responsible is Daniel O'Brien and we see Joplin on TV but he's muted and
we're back in Susan's living room.
Susan walks in with a pizza and we see a flesh colored love seat and Daniel's head suddenly
appears from it.
This has Jim Carey written all over it.
As he retracts he realizes that he's naked and he quickly puts on his clothes.
You pants fell off earlier.
We've seen it.
Yep.
But Susan holds up a tiny red suit about the size for a GI Joe doll.
Turns out she made this specialized suit to adapt to Daniel's abilities and it comes
with little red boots.
So this is where we get the like iconic red yellow suit.
You couldn't have given me pants.
So Daniel runs into the bathroom and he tries on the suit and it fits perfectly in which
he says groovy.
No thank you.
That's a Bruce Campbell line.
Oh it is?
Yeah.
Meanwhile Susan sees the news on TV and turns on the volume and man hunt has been put out
for Daniel.
Susan puts together that they're blaming the spill.
He's got a gold time.
Yeah they're blaming the spill on him because they can't contain the spill.
Right.
They have 48 hours.
When in doubt put a time crunch on them.
You always have to.
That builds up tension so well.
Suddenly Sim and Dobby burst into the room gun strong.
The two are escorted out but the beaker with the Nanobot is left behind.
They get to the limo where they meet with Icarus, Poppy and Nebelman.
Icarus gives his villain speech telling Daniel that he gained his first fortune from his invention
of PVC.
He was once Mr. Universe and now he's withering away.
He claims that nature is the enemy in the future.
What they need is the Nanobot and they're going to cut it out of him.
But Daniel admits that the Nanobot is no longer inside him.
Susan slaps her hand over Daniel's mouth.
Icarus orders the goons to search Susan's house for the Nanobot.
Susan yells at Daniel to do something.
Nebelman pulls out a syringe and Icarus pulls out a gun.
He extends his arm, pointing the gun away from himself and it fires inside the limo.
The bullet bounces around and hits Nebelman in the leg.
Daniel takes the syringe and injects it into Nebelman, poor Nebelman, just an assistant.
And it was a sedative.
So he gets shot in the leg and gets knocked out by the...
You gotta find that guy too.
Yeah, this is not worth it.
Put in your two weeks now.
Daniel reaches for the door but he realizes that it's locked from the inside.
He dives into the back seat and he actually makes his way into the trunk so he slithers
his way in through the cracks and then out into the trunk.
He opens the trunk from the inside and realizes he's on the highway.
The driver he's swerving back and forth trying to knock off his balance.
Am I you going to bounce just hop on out?
Yeah.
I mean, he kind of does that.
He sees a car traveling in the opposite way and he grabs onto that car and he slingshot
himself into the air.
When he hits the ground, he actually hits a Cadillac and he like rakeshays all over the
place in Lanson someone's backyard.
He gets up and he stretches himself really tall and he actually starts like walking over
the houses to like get back to Susan's house a lot faster.
We actually get this quick shot of these kids who are playing in a sandbox and all of a sudden
a foot just like stomps into their sandbox and like goes away and they look up to see that
it's like this really, really tall man.
I hope they built like a teeny tiny tower.
Godzilla style just I would love it.
Yes.
Sim and Dobby are back at Susan's apartment.
They're on the phone with Nebelman asking what they are looking for.
Sim finds a beaker of yellow liquid.
He takes a sniff and it smells like crazy glue.
That's how they know that they have it outside.
Daniel hides behind a light post watching Sim and Dobby as they exit Susan's home.
But if the NanoBots not in him anymore, why does he still have the powers?
He just changed his DNA.
It just changes his DNA.
The NanoBot is helping stabilize him or like it did help him stabilize.
So like the egg for example when they show that and it's like this is what it's like right
now.
But if it goes unstable it turns into a blob.
Got it.
So we got to put the NanoBot back inside him.
Yeah.
Essentially like he needs the NanoBot eventually.
He hides behind a lamp post and he watches Sim and Dobby as they exit Susan's home and
they get into a black Lincoln.
Daniel then sneaks under the car and clings underneath to the chassis as they drive away.
So he's just hiding underneath the vehicle.
God is what we would have been so difficult and so expensive to make.
Right.
The car with Susan, Nebelman, Icarus and Poppy they arrive at Arkham Labs.
They get out and Icarus tells Nebelman to inform him when the NanoBot gets back.
Susan warns them that they have about 24 hours to get the NanoBot to take care of the
waste before it becomes unstable.
Icarus on the other hand, he doesn't care.
He only wants to use the NanoBot on himself in the hopes that it'll do what it did to Daniel.
Icarus gives a tour to Susan of his garden which is filled with impossible plants.
You know who this reminds me of?
Nightmare before Christmas.
The mad scientist.
Yeah.
Like in the wheelchair with the mummy wraps.
And he also has a garden, right?
Yeah.
So he has like this garden of impossible plants are crossbred genetically manipulated plants
that rely on radiation and chemicals to survive.
They also see a gardener tending to the garden.
Icarus claims that these plants will change the world just like how the atomic bomb did.
No thank you.
Meanwhile, Sim and Dobby arrive back at Arkham Labs and Daniel slips out from under the
car making sure that he does not get caught.
In the garden Icarus is giving another villain monologue explaining to Susan that science is
not about understanding nature but it is about a way to conquer it, to control it, to bend
it to his will.
Icarus is told that the NanoBot is here and they need to get the assembler tank ready,
which is going to be at about six hours.
So Susan warns them that if they do not use the NanoBot to take care of the waste, that
this is the last NanoBot that she is ever going to make.
And Icarus reminds her that he does not care if the city turns into gelatin as long as he
gets what he wants.
His body back?
Yep.
Does not matter what gets in his way, does not matter who...
Why are you going to use that body if the city is good?
If the whole thing is jelly, I do not know.
Daniel slips in and he hears two guards talking about that they are looking for a guy in a
red underwear.
So not wrong?
They walk past the wall of art and they look up to see a red painting that they have never
seen before.
Oh, I wonder what that could be.
But they think nothing of it and they just keep on walking.
Oh my god.
Susan and Nebelman are held in a room with lab equipment.
Nebelman tries to convince her to give in to Icarus's demands so that she will be all
right, but Susan refuses to give in.
In the hallway, a guard spots Daniel.
The guard yells and just before he can pull out his gun, Daniel reaches his arms out about
a hundred feet away and he wraps it around his head until the guard blacks out.
Just let them go.
Daniel continues to search, seeking his head between the closed doors and calls out for
Susan in a hushed voice.
This one I can really see Jim Carrey doing this.
Susan.
Done the hall, the elevator doors open.
It's Icarus and Poppy.
And Daniel presses himself thin against the door.
Icarus and Poppy make their way down the hall as they're discussing a way that they can
get to Susan so that she can cave and they realize they need to go after Daniel.
She must have feelings for him and they're certain that he's going to return back to
Argon Labs.
If we threaten him, that's how we get her.
We get to her.
They pass by where Daniel was and he's gone.
The two enter into Poppy's bedroom.
Everything is read in made of PVC.
Icarus and Poppy get into a heated discussion.
Poppy is asking if Icarus still loves her, how she's changed so much of herself for him.
Icarus is annoyed by the questions asking what is it that she wants.
He then notices that there's two identical red Ottomans, but he doesn't really say anything
about it.
As you say, being in this red room, like that's the perfect place for him to hide.
Yeah.
Now to emphasize her point, she stands on the ottoman with her heels on.
We actually hear from the ottoman this like, "Gurl-pain."
She's hoping that if the polymerization works on Icarus and turns him into a plastic man
just like Daniel, could she have the same treatment done to her?
That way they can both live forever.
Icarus says that he'll consider it and Icarus leaves and Poppy is furious.
Behind her, we see the ottoman scurrying to the bathroom.
Just understand.
This is like her own personal room.
She has a bedroom almost.
To make this make sense.
Poppy and dressers to take a bath.
Daniel looks around and he notices that there's not really any place to hide except the toilet.
Oh, me!
Poppy enters into the room, but she gets into the tub and Daniel sneakily reaches up and
flushes himself down the toilet.
100% Jim can.
Poppy, she hears the toilet and she's like, "Ah, that thing just must be broken."
We cut to Susan doing science stuff with beakers.
I don't know if I'll describe it.
She looks outside through these barbed windows.
The camera pans up to a chandelier.
We get closer to a single light bulb that appears to be burnt out.
We get closer and closer to see that it's a security camera.
We travel through the camera, through the fiber optic cables and we emerge at a security monitor.
Bams!
A matrix.
Watching over Susan.
Yeah.
We even kind of see this in bound as well where they like the telephone between the two
rooms.
Yeah, we kind of see the like following of the wires.
Yeah.
Sim, he has written a dictionary and he learns a new word.
You ubiquitous.
Present or seeming to be present everywhere all at the same time?
Omni-present.
It'll all come together, don't worry.
Daniel continues to zip through the maze pipes.
He randomly emerges from one toilet and he sees that the room is empty.
He towels off and quickly opens door and finds Susan.
Hello, Key.
They can't believe it.
She was worried about Daniel and he responds with, "I'm plastic man, remember?"
Sure.
"I'm plastic man, remember?"
Yeah.
Susan informs Daniel that Echris is going to use the nanobot on himself and they need
to get it from Argon's private lab before he does.
Susan warns Daniel about the guard outside of the door and he shrugs it off.
He opens the door and he's met with Sim and multiple other guards and Sim, he calls himself
"Mr. ubiquitous."
[laughs]
Paid off immediately.
Ridiculous.
It's ridiculous and had to rewrite they probably would have written that out immediately.
Oh yeah.
That is 100% unnecessary.
Echris wheels into the room and greets Daniel.
He says, "Welcome to my home, Mr. O'Brien."
Oh yeah.
They call him Mr. O'Brien, as in like...
We know who you are.
No.
Mr. Anderson.
No.
Oh god.
Yeah.
It's kind of that same tone.
Like, "Welcome to my home."
Mr. O'Brien.
As you can see, we've been expecting you.
They seem to have Daniel cornered but he turns it around and he says that he's actually been
looking for them and he has saved them the trouble of him looking for them.
Yeah.
Mr. Anderson.
Yeah.
I have been looking for you.
Well, if you were me and I'd be you and I would use your body to get this out.
You can't stop me no matter who you are.
Yeah.
So Sim, he taunts him and Daniel lashes out his tongue like a frog and he snatches the gun.
Daniel threatens to shoot everyone but is stopped when he sees Dobby has a gun against Susan's
head.
Ooh, there he is and Susan.
They Grus tells Daniel that they have a room for him and that he might be so comfortable
in it that he may never leave.
Everyone puts on an oxygen mask and the gardener walks in and he sprays a chemical into Daniel's
face and he collapses.
Susan asks where they're going to do with him and Grus says it depends on what she does.
Danyl wakes up in a glass cage in the--
In the motion?
Well, yeah.
He's in the conservatory which is where the garden is and it's being pumped with this gas,
this not just gas.
Which Icarus explains is a mix of oxygen dioxide and sodium pentathol.
Yep.
Daniel is just a red puddle in the middle of the cage.
Susan agrees to give Icarus the design if he agrees to let him go.
Divalman tells Icarus the assembler tank which kind of looks like a Geeger sarcophagi and
a dry cleaning machine that it's ready.
Okay.
A big old metal tube, but like stylish.
Poppy helps Icarus undress and get into a robe.
She asks him again but he tells her that this is not the time.
Meanwhile Susan continues to do science in her room.
To make sure the guards can't see what she's doing, she turns out the lights and she barricates
the door with the chair.
The guards get suspicious and attempt to break down the door.
She takes the test tube filled with the replicator fallout and pours it onto the metal bars
of the window.
The bars now can bend like rubber and she pulls them apart just far enough so that she
can slip through with a stool.
She gets out on the ledge to find the main lab roof is about 40 feet below her.
Turns out she actually took the stool, the stool that she took with her.
She combined it with the replicator fallout as well and so that stretchie and she uses it
like a rope or like a bungee cord.
She attaches it to the ledge and she lowers herself down with the stretchy stool but realizes
that the stool is not long enough for her to get all the way down to the roof.
Now the stool is going down.
Now we have parameters.
Yeah, but now the stool is going lower and lower and lower.
It doesn't go far enough and then it's starting to snap back so she has to decide is she
going to go back into the room but she lets go and she continues to fall.
She actually screams as she falls and she hits the roof of the main lab and it bounces.
The lab has been pulmarized.
It is big.
The fallout has been spreading so far that now the whole lab is now bouncy and stretchy.
Yeah.
Everything is stretchy, bouncy.
She manages to get inside of the lab and everything inside there is pulmarized so like even when
she's like walking around her feet start to like sink into the floor with every single
step.
The door handles they feel like you needed it dough.
She encounters two crew members using liquid nitrogen on the floors.
She looks around for a weapon and she grabs a fire extinguisher.
She swings it at the crew member and as it hits the tent it just bounces off of it.
The extinguisher has been pulmarized.
The other worker grabs her and she drops the extinguisher into the puddle of liquid nitrogen.
She kicks one of the members in the nuts and she gets free.
She grabs the extinguisher and hits the crew member head and now it's solid so it also like
breaks into a billion pieces because it was in liquid nitrogen.
It froze in.
Yes.
Icarus makes his way to the chamber.
He removes his rope.
We see his...
He's in his brain.
Yeah.
We see his withered body.
His legs like sticks of beef jerky.
The door closes and the chamber fills with chemicals.
We hear a muffled scream inside and Poppy bites her nails as she watches.
The tank is drained of its liquid and the doors open.
Icarus coughs up a gelatinous mass from his lungs and he rises to his feet.
He's no longer crippled.
He's restored to the physique that he used to be except his skin.
It feels like plastic.
Poppy embraces him.
Oh, itki.
Yeah.
He screams and he says it's fantastic to be plastic.
Get out.
That's a line from the movie.
Get out.
I didn't write this.
Get out.
He also goes into a monologue about how it's man's ultimate triumph.
And Sim enters the room and he tells Icarus that Susan has escaped and she's on her way
to expose everything to the press.
Also the crew has abandoned the main lab.
The waste cannot be contained and they need to evacuate.
We cut to a scene where Susan, she's actually wearing one of those like protective suits
that people literally.
She's not going to the press.
She's like...
"I'm gonna go save him, yeah."
Yeah.
Meanwhile, Daniel attempts to escape.
Underneath the wall of the cage he turns his arm into a tire jack and uses the other untistly
ratchet up the shaft.
But he's too weak and he falls back into a puddle.
Again, 100% Jim Garrett.
Oh yeah.
He tries to turn his finger into like a glass cutter, but it's no use.
Sim, dobbie, enebelman, enter into the conservatory to finish the job.
They turn off the oxygen and Daniel begins to suffocate.
An anonymous crew member enters and takes off their helmet to reveal that it's Susan.
She fights off dobbie and grabs Sim's gun.
Sim fights for control of the gun and manages to get off a shot at the plexi class enclosure.
It's just enough for Daniel to squeeze through and he merges on the outside like a genie.
Now they're in trouble.
Sim grabs the gun from Susan, restrains her and holds the gun to her.
Nebelman cowers behind dobbie.
The gardener goes to find the spray cans.
And Sim, he aims the gun at Daniel instead and he yells, "I ain't afraid of no plastic
man and he shoots."
The bullet hits Daniel in the chest, but the bullet stretches out Daniel and it stops
and then it slingshot back in the bullet, hits Sim's and he dies.
All of a sudden, like, yeah, that's what killed him is just the slingshot of bullet.
Nebelman tries to escape but Susan stops him by punching him in the face in noximal.
Daniel turns his hand into a giant hammer and hits dobbie multiple times.
The gardener begins to spray a deadly red chemical.
Daniel turns his hand into a giant bellow and he sucks up the gas and he forms it into
a nozzle and sticks it into the gardener's mask and fills it with a deadly gas.
Oh my god.
He thrashes the round, trying to remove the mask and he smashes into a sea monkey tank in
collapses.
The little creatures then swarm around his body.
I didn't mention them earlier when Aikras first show Susan the garden.
They also show the sea monkeys but it's like such an off-handed scene where...
Check off sea monkeys?
Essentially.
It's like, I didn't need to put in there.
I can just explain it like when they are here and actually like do something.
There Susan and Daniel reunite quote, "They hold each other tightly, feeling the volatile
electrons charging in the air, creating an intermolecule bond between them, they kiss.
They kiss so intensely that the entire building shakes around them.
Turns out the support beams of argon are affected by the fallout and can no longer support
the way to the building.
Daniel asks about the nanobot and Susan says it's too late.
Aikras already used it.
Daniel asks, "Well, what if we just threw Aikras into the core?"
Would that stop it?"
And she's like, "Oh, that might."
We cut to Poppy's bedroom where we see her and Aikras and this is a quote from the script,
what is happening beneath the red rubber sheets of Poppy's bed is beyond anything ever
pictured in the Kama Sutra.
Yep.
I can't even comment on that.
They get interrupted by the building shaking and Aikras realizes that the building is
collapsing.
Cut to Daniel and Susan.
Susan is trying to prevent Daniel from going after Aikras.
Daniel wants Susan to go to the press and tell the truth about what's going on at argon
labs.
As they argue, the elevator doors open and reveal Poppy and Aikras and they exchange words.
Aikras quote, "It remains to be seen who is the good guy and who is the bad guy?"
History is written by the victor.
Daniel quote, "The only history I'm going to be writing is your obituary."
Jim Carrey.
Definitely Jim Carrey.
Although I can see Bruce Campbell saying that line too.
Yeah, that's fair.
Yeah.
So, he can go either way and they fight.
It just looks like spaghetti arms to slap in each other.
The two crash out of a large window and they hit the ground and they bounce and eventually
they get to their feet.
The two stretchy beans are locked in combat.
The press sees them and they crawl under the fence to get a better look at things.
Aikras is leading Aikras to the main lab and Aikras then catches on to what he's doing.
He's lay in there to prevent the meltdown.
Aikras tries to leap away but Daniel catches him.
He turns his fists into jackhammers, wrecking balls and this one confuses me ballistic missiles
and uses them to pummel Aikras' face.
He falls to the ground with a wet smack.
Daniel takes the unconscious Aikras and heads towards Susan's lab.
He climbs up the stairs of the tower with large strides trying to get up faster and faster.
Aikras' eyes snap open and he wraps his body around Daniel like a bowl of constrictor closing
his windpipe.
Daniel tries to slam his body against the wall to shake him but since everything is polymerized
they just bounce off of everything instead so he's not really doing anything.
Daniel is about to pass out when he sees a canister of liquid nitrogen.
He elongates his arms and grabs it and he sprays Aikras' arms, freezing them solid
which allows Daniel to slip out of his grip.
Daniel sprays even more liquid nitrogen onto Aikras so that he can't move and he continues
to carry his frozen body into Susan's lab.
Meanwhile, Susan and Poppy begin to fight.
Poppy whips out a knife and swings it at Susan.
Susan ducks behind a statue of Aikras and she pushes it over, knocking over Poppy.
The statue smashes to the ground, breaking off on the arms in which Susan takes that arm
and slaps Poppy with it.
The building tips even further, throwing them both off balance.
Poppy gets up and kicks Susan in the head, knocking her out.
She then heads towards the roof where there's a helicopter but the roof because it's slanting
as like falling to the edge of the building like it's still there.
But it's like it's just on its edge so she gets into the pilot seat.
She starts the helicopter engine and that's what we see.
Susan comes to the very top and then she tries to get in as well because of this, like they're
fighting inside the helicopter.
The helicopter eventually like tips over the edge but it's hanging off of the ledge of
the building.
Why would you guys get into helicopter?
That's so stupid.
I don't know.
Well, she was gonna fly away but because of Susan like now the helicopters rendered useless
and they're just gonna like hanging from the tower in the lab.
Daniel finds a crater where the assembler tank used to be.
It is now a pond of pale glowing goo.
Daniel throws Icarus into the crater but Icarus has a single finger that is not frozen and
he stretches out and cleans onto a pipe preventing him from falling in.
Daniel then turns his hand into a giant pair of scissors and he snips Icarus' fingers
which allow him to fall into the pond of Moon Milk.
Hold from the script.
Moon Milk.
Moon Milk, alright.
With sizzle and a giant bubble begins to inflate and Daniel runs.
On the roof, Susan reaches out her hand to poppy and attempt to save her.
The bubble continues to swell until boom it bursts.
The force of the pop launches Daniel into the air.
He tucks himself into a ball and he bounces around through the hallway.
Everything begins to solidify but in their liquefied state.
Right now you're just having these like puddles of bricks but it's like hard.
Yeah, it's kind of like.
There's an episode of The Simpsons where Bart floods the basketball court, the gym court
and then because it's all made of linoleum they had to dry it and now it's all lumpy.
So now these kids are playing basketball on it and there's one part where I think
Mill House is dribbling a ball and the ball just bounces back into his head.
So essentially that's what this place is turned into.
The helicopter breaks free and falls down into the lab.
You're crashing through the roof in burst in new flames.
Susan is thrown over the edge but she hangs onto the top.
So essentially poppy has died with the helicopter but Susan is hanging over the edge.
Yeah, there's this moment she starts up and sees the moon and just like has this peaceful
moment before like it all blows up.
Wow.
Yeah.
So Susan is hanging over the edge and she looks up to see Nebelman.
He tells her that this was all her fault.
And Daniel is now frantically looking for Susan.
The tower then solidifies and it's band-shaped making it very unstable and it's about to fall
over like a jenga tower.
Nebelman pries up Susan's finger but the tower is now beginning to fall and Nebelman
is thrown off the tower.
Daniel spots Susan and he rockets himself.
He like slingshots himself to her.
He flattens himself out and he makes himself into a quote "giant, loose shoot" that Susan
then lands on and then she softly slides down into Daniel's arms.
Oh no, you don't want to break her neck, I'll explain.
Oh no.
The building collapses into a fiery oblivion as the two kiss and the camera tilts up to
the moon and fades into the sun and they tilts down and it's the next day.
We see Daniel and Susan walking down the street with grocery bags in their hands.
They're happy.
Susan recalls the last time they went to the grocery store and the problem is that they
had.
She says that maybe they met before they were supposed to.
They spot someone littering and at first this makes Daniel furious.
Susan doesn't want to repeat the last time and said Daniel picks up a cup and throws it
away with no confrontation.
They continue to walk as he wraps his arm around her.
The camera then pans back to find the litter bugs head face first in the trash can with
the cup stuffed into his mouth.
I was going to say there's more than that.
And we get a close up of a sign that says keep litter in its place and that is the end.
That's a very cute movie.
But yeah it's very reminiscent of like the mask who framed Roger Rabbit.
But I would argue to say.
What a plastic man movie.
It's a completely different movie entirely from what the character has been established
to be.
Yeah.
So question for you.
Yeah.
Would you like to see this movie?
I'm torn.
This is the first time I'm not like hell yeah or no.
I want to see it made in the 90s.
I don't want to see it try to get made now.
But I think for like 90s nostalgia it would have been fun.
I think another movie for Jim Carrey would have been great.
I think it would have fallen under the same category as the mask.
It might not have been as good as the mask.
Yeah.
But I think it would have fallen under that category of like this is a wacky CGI movie and
to later find out like oh that was a comic book.
I had no idea.
Completely agree.
Like you would never have classified it as like a superhero movie.
It would have been something completely different.
It has like a fun hint of Captain Planet thrown in.
Which I like that his origin story is different than you adunked in poison.
I was bummed at first but I actually really like that his origin story was different but I
don't need it now.
Yeah.
Or at least if you do plastic man now you cannot approach it this way.
You have to be more faithful to the comic which is how a lot of superhero movies are made
today is like you got to go to the source because so many people know what the source is.
I just think this source material like I don't get plastic man.
Like I don't think the source material is that interesting.
I actually think this was a more interesting take on it.
I actually think given our climate issues you could make this a far more serious movie
but I don't get plastic man like at all.
I think because I know plastic man is a character and the way that I've been shown plastic
man before I have an ideal plastic man in my head based on how I've seen him in the comics
how I've seen him in animated shows in the injustice movie like it is a very different character
it's a very different take and I feel like it's not consistent and I think the consistency
is where I-
Is consistency or something?
Yeah I think that's where I divert away and say like I wouldn't see this as a plastic
man movie.
I see this as a completely different movie of a elongated man.
This is just a zany comedy.
I actually also don't think we need plastic like I'm excited for a James gun take on it because
I think it'll be interesting and like I don't think we need plastic man as a main character.
We've had four fantastic four remakes now.
I'm sorry but each time we don't get the CG right even now like well now we're rushing
so that's why it doesn't look as good.
I actually really enjoyed the latest fantastic four.
If that's gonna be your title character it's not why we like fantastic four we like
Sue and Reads like love story which I guess you can always have baby plaes but like now
we really don't need it with the current storyline so.
I think the way to use it is kind of like what they did with the animated series where
plastic man is never a main character.
You just play a man.
Yeah like I'm fine with him being in the next Superman is like Guy Gardener's like they
can go chuckle it up.
That's all I need.
I don't need a stand in line film.
I kind of think of him as like it's kind of like cilantro.
You don't have a cilantro salad but cilantro sprinkled on things is delicious.
Well and some people hate it.
That's true.
Why didn't this happen?
Because the Wichowski's went on to do the Matrix.
Well for reasons unknown the script had sat in development hell.
It was expensive.
Yeah.
Oh yeah it definitely expensive.
And for the Wichowski's their careers just continued.
The script that put the siblings on the map mentioned before is assassins that came out
in 1995.
Unfortunately so much of that script was rewritten by Brian Hellsland who wrote The Nightmare
on Elm Street for the Dreammasters.
He also wrote Mystic River in Ellie Confidential.
Wow.
The Wichowski's they actually tried to take their names off the film because of how much
was changed which is why I love them.
Their stuff is a little out there but like I like how they carry themselves.
Yeah.
They're not afraid to swing for the fences and I admire that a lot.
Yeah.
Like if you think it's something like Jupiter sending for example like not a great movie
but like it really swung for the fences.
It was gorgeous and like they're really trying something and unfortunately that didn't
work out where it's something like the Matrix.
You can definitely see if you just read the script of the Matrix you'd be like I don't
know if this is gonna work.
But I don't understand it and somehow it was like it was lightning and a bottle.
The love of the Matrix really is insane.
The fact that they did what three and then did the fourth one like decade, twenty year
whatever way too long later.
And like I said it's a good movie.
I just you couldn't have paid me to go oh yeah this will be successful.
Yeah.
Yeah it didn't seem like it.
It just seemed like some other weird sci-fi movie that was gonna be made as well.
It was a interview with Josh Horowitz in 2003.
Josh Horowitz.
Horowitz.
And 2003 with Lana Wachowski explaining vaguely what happened with the plastic man script.
Quote originally they liked the script a lot.
They got a director and he didn't like the script.
I don't know why director signed on to these projects and completely rewrite everything
but he rewrote it and now I guess it's not the project they want anymore so we'll see.
They figured the only way that they could prove that they could write a good movie is that
if they could direct a movie themselves.
So they wrote the film Bound.
They sold the film stating that they were the only ones that could direct it.
Executive producer of Assassin's Joel Silver then offered to finance the film for six
million dollars and gave them free reign in regards to their story.
The main plot of Bound is the lesbian relationship.
And you know, especially in the 90s, had a studio executive read that they'll be like no
it needs to be heterosexual.
Like easily so there was like no we can't have that.
We need to make sure that this relationship stays the way it is.
The film wasn't a financial success but it did make it money back but it did prove that
the Wachowski's had the ability to direct a movie which opened the doors to allow them
to make the matrix.
With them they brought the cinematographer from Bound, Bill Pope to shoot the movie and the
actor Joe Pantoliano or also known as Joey Pants.
After the massive success of the matrix and the two sequels that follow Warner Brothers
approached the Wachowski's to write and direct a film adaptation, the studio has been trying
to produce since 1992 and that was Speed Racer.
They're all over the map.
Yeah.
The visual effects designer John Gettah, the visual effects designer who also worked
on the matrix.
Speed Racer unfortunately that was a flop and it's open in the weekend.
It was third behind Iron Man and what happens in Vegas?
Yeah, how do you compete with Iron Man and then anyone who wasn't going to see Iron Man
was going to see what happened.
And it's the theatrical run it did make over $93 million which would be great if the film
didn't cost $120 million to make.
Yeah, wow that's an expensive movie.
It was.
What year was this?
This was in 2008.
Yikes.
Yeah.
The script for Plastic Man that was leaked in June of 2003.
Now in July of 2008 Joel Silver who's the producer who like took them under their wing.
He did Batman is that why I know that name?
Joel Silver he did lethal weapon and Kiscus Bing Bang.
There it is.
He's done a lot of big movies as well.
Like he's like one of the big Hollywood producers.
Joel Silver he was on a German talk show promoting Ninja Assassins.
The producer was then asked about the Wichowski's next project after Speed Racer.
He hinted that they might be revisiting Plastic Man with piano raves as Eels Bryant.
No.
So this is where that rumor came from?
I get it but no.
Yeah.
And he said that there was a potential release date at the end of 2009.
So there was a lot of hope that was there.
He went on to Avengers dog.
He's doing just fine.
Yeah.
Obviously none of this was officially confirmed but news outlets like they just went
off on this.
They heard this one rumor and they're just like the Wichowski's are doing Plastic Man
Wichowski is doing Plastic Man.
This is around the day and age where like Marvel just came out with Iron Man.
And just like they're gonna put together the MCU and it's like what is DC gonna do?
They're gonna do Plastic Man.
No, it didn't happen though.
But it doesn't mean that others haven't tried to wrap their ideas around this stretchy
anti-hero.
In September 2013, user Jet Beetle of the RPF forum claimed to hear from Warner Bros.
and DC producers that they were looking at David Tennant for the role of Plastic Man in
the upcoming Justice League movie quote and this is what he put on the forum.
A couple of producers I know told me that they were involved in an upcoming Justice League
movie.
I've known these guys for years and as nice as they are to never have been involved in
something as big as Justice League.
So who knows.
They did say Warner is basically trying to follow Marvel's lead.
No surprise there.
And amongst the heavy hitters already expected to be on hand Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman,
Aquaman, they want to put in a comic relief character.
They seem to believe that this is what Amin will be no matter how I defend the character.
I admit I have no idea how Pym would handle the upcoming film.
This is before they found out that Hink Pym was gonna be, yeah, in that poll right then
when they told me the character Warner was planning to include, well, I smiled and I
could totally see it as a good thing.
The ideal plastic man bouncing all over the place in the fact that the studio was looking
at David Tennant brought him to life.
This is another like take it with a green assault rumor.
And as we know what happened as Ramellar ended up being the flash and he was the quote comic
relief that worked out well.
Yeah.
Your boy Ben Schwartz of Sonic fame.
Yep.
Or of don't visit.
He has been a loud advocate on wanting to portray plastic man and he was inspired by
watching Deadpool saying that plastic man could be DC's Deadpool in an episode of the
X-ray Vision podcast Ben Schwartz pitched a story.
Plastic man is a thief.
You'll know Brian is a thief, right?
He even gets the superpowers while he's, you know, around his bad guys, whatever.
And they ditch him, which is also in the original one, which is also something interesting
to think of that.
Even that group of people who are s---holes don't like him, but I thought the fun of this
character would be he gets powers, but he doesn't stop being a thief.
And the course of the movie is people like he has to finally be convinced to use his powers
for good.
In the kindness punk rock era that James Gunn has created, which I think is incredibly
needed right now.
Yeah.
I don't know how you stick thief plastic man into that as any sort of main character.
I think you would have to change it up.
I think it wouldn't be Ben Schwartz's story given this is also in 2020.
So before the world fell apart.
Yeah.
This is before James Gunn before.
Got it.
Yeah.
So like it still.
That makes sense then.
It's still in that era.
Free 2020 comment makes sense.
Yeah.
So that's what he was going for.
But I do like that casting a lot.
Yes.
I do too.
In December 2018, the Hollywood Reporter announced that they were working on a new plastic
man movie.
In Amanda Adoku was hired to pen the script.
Prior to that, she wrote an episode of The Mayor and recently wrote Breaking News and
Yuba County.
In December of 2020, Cat Vesco was hired to rewrite the script.
She was known for adapting Queen of the Air, which is a story of the trapeze artist Lillian
Letzel, which had Margot Robbie attached to it.
She was also working on adapting the comic lumberjanes into an animated series for HBO Max.
But eventually the film and I guess lumberjanes also got canceled as well.
In February 2020, James Gunn was responding to fans on threads.
User Coli 21 asked if one of these news stories were true and he put up three news stories.
One, a teen Titans film is in development.
Two, there's an open casting for Ruthie for the Supergirl movie.
And three, Darren Aronofsky is to direct plastic man.
And James Gunn, he responded with at least one of those things is not true.
Have fun guessing.
What a sinister man.
I know.
I mean, he can't like.
No, but like he and he's not like you.
He could also just not respond.
Yeah.
No, he's Mr. Kindness is punk rock.
Yeah.
Also around this time, Kevin Smith revealed on his podcast Fat Man Beyond that he found on
his old laptop a script that he had written two years ago for a potential plastic man cartoon
that would have cast Jim Parsons as the voice of Patrick Eel O'Brien.
Interesting.
Yeah, I know Jim Parsons as that sigma of like being on the big big theory, but like he's
like good.
No, I don't think he does.
He was in another movie where he had cancer or his boyfriend had cancer.
I was like, this is, yeah, this is not okay.
He's a great actor.
Yeah.
He's really funny.
So like, I think he would work perfectly for it.
Like I know it was animated, but actually could see him in a live action as well as where
my brain was going.
Yeah.
He's got the limbs.
I can see that too.
Yeah.
And then lastly, in August of 2025, Rain Wilson.
This is what popped up that I've been itching to talk about.
I know.
I was like, what?
The very last paragraph.
He announced that he would like to play plastic man and he actually reached out to James
Gunn for the potential role.
Now for those at home, if you remember, Rain Wilson, mostly known as Dwight from the
office, but if you recall, Rain Wilson was in a James Gunn movie back in 2010 called Super.
I don't think I've ever seen Super.
Super is such a weird movie, but Rain Wilson is basically like, I think it was like after
a robbery con wrong.
He decides to be a vigilante himself.
Like he doesn't have superheroes at all.
Oh, this movie.
I haven't, I've seen, like someone had it on.
I've never seen all of it, but it was with Elliot Page.
It seems pretty straightforward, but there are some moments where like it gets real
weird in there.
Yeah.
But like, I can see why he would reach out and be like, hey, James Gunn, my own buddy.
Remember, you put me in a superhero movie before?
Let's do it again.
It's so interesting because I think that Rain has the voice and he has like the comedic
timing.
I don't know that he has the look.
Like I'm trying to picture him with like dark hair.
And it's not to say that like he couldn't get in superhero shape, but like with those
shorts.
Like, yeah, like what I imagine, especially with like the goggles and like the hair and
like that, the square jaw, like Ben Schwartz hits the profile just so well, just like look
wise, we know he's really funny.
Is this your last paragraph?
Yes, it's okay.
So the other one that popped up that I also think is genius.
And like again, this was me googling while we were recording was Max Greenfield.
Ooh.
Oh, that would be really good.
Yeah.
Wow.
I really like that casting.
There's no basis to that at all other than a Google image of like someone just fan casting.
But it had Ben Schwartz and Jim Parsons in the image as well.
That's why I'm like, yeah, I can see him.
Oh, I take my money.
I don't think plastic man needs a solo film.
I think Max Greenfield needs a solo film.
And so Max Greenfield and Nathan Phelian, like back and forth would be real good.
I think plastic man on his own doesn't have the pull to bring people to watch it in theaters.
Batman has the pull to bring people to watch in theaters, but you can also use him just
like with Superman.
No one's going to see the guy Gardener green lantern movie, the Mr. Terrific movie, but
like they're fantastic in the super man movie.
So you take something like Batman, kind of treat it like the brave in the bold and be like,
well, Batman, he teams up with other DC heroes.
Why not it be Max Greenfield plastic man?
If it's Moody Robert Pattinson, that's actually really good.
It'd be really funny.
Shit.
Yeah, Schmidt.
Schmidt.
Yeah.
I thought Ben Schwartz was really great.
I still do.
But the minute I saw Max Greenfield, I was like, take my money.
Take my money.
It's Josh Holloway playing Gambit and you're just like, that's the price.
I still want to see Josh Holloway playing Gambit.
He's so good.
He would be so good.
I would rather see a Gambit movie than a plastic man movie.
I agree with that.
Yeah, with Gambit, like he has enough of a pull.
He's a big enough character to hold his own movie.
He's got a love story too.
Not that you need that.
There's more in the comics, although recently with plastic man, they've really expanded
on him, but there's more origins when it comes to Gambit.
There's more storylines that come with Gambit, whereas plastic man has always been, he was
the main character and then just kind of pushed off to the side.
But it's hard to say that he's one note because he really, not one note, but he can serve
a purpose.
Him being part of the Justice League is really the best area for him to be a part of.
Here, you utilize his abilities for very specific things.
If you watch Injustice, he plays a very big role and actually helps take down the big
bad.
But he's not the only one who does it.
It is everyone helping out.
Plastic man is the catalyst that helps the league get from one step to another step to
another step.
And I think he's usually really well in that situation.
So you don't need to make him into a movie.
You can just use him like cilantro.
I agree with that statement, unless it's Max Dreyfield.
Yeah, that's plastic man.
Woo!
And that concludes the episode.
Now is our favorite time where we watch things instead of research things.
Watch this, man, I don't know, man.
And we recommend it to you, our listeners, for you, to view with your eyeballs.
And every time you say that, I think of a clockwork orange.
It will force you to watch these things.
Mm-hmm.
My recommendation is kind of a toofer, but they all go into each other.
One is Supergirl.
Oh, nice.
I haven't seen it yet.
I think it's a great movie.
I think it's a great addition to the James Gunn DC Universe.
I really like it.
Crypto is in it.
Crypto is great.
We love a floppier dog on this podcast.
We do.
So I know that it might not be in theaters by the time that this episode comes out.
If it still is in your theater, or if it's in cheap theater, definitely check it out.
Sticky Floor Theater!
But like I said, I kind of have a toofer.
So if you don't know, the movie is based on a graphic novel, which is called Supergirl
Woman of Tomorrow.
And the story is plucked from that book, and then they added a few things.
They took out a few things.
Like there was a horse in the book that is in the movie.
From what I would recommend, if you can see the movie first and then read the comic.
Because the reason why I say go about that way is because we're also these book snobs
where you read the book, you watch the movie, and you're just like, "Ahh, falling."
Right.
That's not how I work.
The book was better.
In the reason why I would recommend like watching the movie first, like enjoy the movie,
and then going into the book, which is written by Tom King, is that there's so much more
that is explored in the book.
They do add some things like they added lobo in the movie, which is not in the book, but
they wanted to introduce that character in there.
But there's so much more that is explored in the book, which makes it pretty interesting.
So it's more of like, if you're curious about what is Supergirl now in the comic book
I think the movie is a good introduction and I think reading the book is there to like
satisfy your curiosity of like, what else is she doing?
What else is she capable of?
There's more multitudes to her that you can explore through the book.
So, yep, recommend the movie, Supergirl, and recommend the book by Tom King, Supergirl,
Woman of Tomorrow.
This is going to be really random and so off topic, but going on like the idea that we
pick a lot of like lesser known things or you know, I guess smaller things or whatever.
There is a movie that I don't think I've recommended that I saw a while ago.
It's called Forbidden Fruit, but it's like, charmed meets the craft meets practical magic,
set in a mall.
It's just a fun time if that is your vibe.
I like a FM lead cast.
We'll go with that.
And you can find us on the socials we are at development purgatory on Instagram and TikTok.
We are at Dev purgatory on Blue Sky.
You can support this podcast by going to our Patreon for $5 a month.
You can get ad free episodes or all of our episodes, which includes the episodes with
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If you can't support us there, that is completely fine.
There are other ways you can do so you can like and subscribe.
Smash that like I can't.
You can rate and review.
That's another way you can do it and you can just tell your friends family whoever you
know is a big film nerd who is a big plastic man nerd, DC nerd, what chowsky's nerd.
Let them know about the show.
Spread the word.
Just go tell a random person on the street corner.
Okay.
Tell people about our podcast.
You can also send us an email with recommendations.
Our email current email is development purgatory at gmail.com.
If you use our old email, no worries.
We get that too.
We get those also not get made at gmail.com.
But we have the new email to go with the new name.
So go out there, watch a movie, see a movie.
Tell your friends about movies.
Make a movie.
Don't make a movie.
Oh.
Plastic man here reminding you that the next time you land somebody a helping hand, be sure
you get it back.
So long.