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soveryanon · 5 years

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Reviewing time for MAG138! /o/

- ………………… It’s Holy Shit Smirke What The Fuck time, and I feel obligated to mention in preamble that: yes, I do get one of the points of his statement – that he lacked… flexibility and that it impacted his understanding of the Fears; that he associated them with a neat categorisation, with places, with stone and concrete and stable, fixed monumentality (“And if, as I came to believe, the Dread Powers were themselves places of a sort, then surely with the right space, the right architecture, they could be contained. Channelled. Harnessed.”) when they’re actually mutable, can express themselves in an infinity of ways, and that Smirke’s ~taxonomy~ was far from perfect, probably too tainted by his preconceptions and associations with tangible places to work for long after a few decades of illusion; that, in the end, Robert Smirke died as an old man unable to admit the flaws in his work (“Would you have me separate The Corruption between insects, dirt and disease? To, to divide the fungal bloom from the maggot? No. No, I… stand by my work.”), ready to blame others than him or his own community for their sufferings (“No; I feel certain they were bought into existence by some ancient civilisation, some… foolish tribe from pre-history.”). Leitner (!) (yes, “!”: Leitner, being right about something, I know. Incredible.) and Gerry had actually warned about describing the Fears with such neat separations:

(MAG080) LEITNER: I told you it was an unhelpful analogy. Let’s try another one. Um… Imagine, you are an ant, and you have never before seen a human. Then one day, into your colony, a huge fingernail is thrust, scraping and digging. You flee to another entrance, only to be confronted by a staring eye gazing at you. You climb to the top, trying to find escape and, above you, can see the vast dark shadow of a boot falling upon you. Would that ant be able to construct these things into the form of a single human being? Or would it believe itself to be under attack by three different, equally terrible, but very distinct assailants?

(MAG111) GERRY: […] And when our fears change, so do these things. But it’s not quick. Gertrude reckons they’ve basically been the same since the Industrial Revolution. She and my mum both liked to follow Smirke’s list of fourteen. ARCHIVIST: [DISBELIEVINGLY] Th– I mean, there are a lot more than fourteen things to be afraid of in the world. Where do you draw the line? GERRY: Hmmm. I always think it helps to imagine them like colours. The edges bleed together, and you can talk about little differences: “oh, that’s indigo, that’s more lilac”, but they’re both purple. I mean, I guess there are technically infinite colours, but you group them together into a few big ones. A lot of it’s kind of arbitrary. […] And like colours, some of these powers, they feed into or balance each other. Some really clash, and you just can’t put them together. I mean, you could see them all as just one thing, I guess, but it would be pretty much meaningless, y’know, like… like trying to describe a… shirt by talking about the concept of colour. O–Of course, with these things it’s not a simple spectrum, y’know, it’s more like– ARCHIVIST: An infinite amorphous blob of terror bleeding out in every direction at once. GERRY: Now you’re getting it. ARCHIVIST: Like colours, but if colours hated me.

Sounds like the Fears are… part of a whole, and that “infinite amorphous blob of terror bleeding out in every direction at once” might still be the most Accurate Description for… whatever they are.

But I’m also an utter fool who likes neat categorisations for these concepts so YES, I acknowledge that Jonny is calling us out on trying to put labels on everything that happens in the series and on trying to make occurrences fit into the list we were given in MAG111, but suddenly I can’t read / HOW ABOUT I DO IT ~ANYWAY~. :w

- Obligatory tears because: Tim, disillusioned at the end of season 3, had reached the conclusions about Smirke’s work that Smirke himself half-admitted here (back-and-forth between admitting that he had been wrong and ~standing by his work~):

(MAG117) TIM: […] You know, for the longest time I thought the secret was in balance…! In some… dusty old architect’s work on symmetry. [SCOFF] But he failed, didn’t he? What was he even trying to achieve? He’d lived like anyone else, he… died like anyone else. Whatever he was looking for, in his “Balance and Fear”? I don’t think he found it.

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “I have been blessed with a long life, something few who crossed paths with the Dread Powers can boast, but now… at the end of it, my true fear is that I have wasted it, chasing an impossible dream. To speak plain, I have begun to lose faith in the possibility of Balance. Of any sort of equilibrium among them.”

And look, yes, I know, I should be terrorised that Smirke’s shiny system wasn’t so great and functioning after all… but I’m mostly SAD, because Tim had spent the last three-to-four years of his life trying to understand Smirke’s work, and had concluded that it wasn’t working. And he was right. (And then he died, too.)

- So we’re getting a new designation for the Fears: the “Dread Powers”, which, yeah, what it says on the tin, neat!

- Smirke’s words and his influence on current characters localised in London puts me to mind again that… how come that some people apparently knew what the rituals would do to our world? How can they know of the result, since no ritual has succeeded so far?

(MAG092) ELIAS: These things that touch us, they… don’t have a form of the sort that could exist in physical reality. So the Stranger wishes to remake that physical reality into something closer to itself. It wants to make this world its own.

(MAG111) ARCHIVIST: No, I don’t have time. Tell me about the rituals. GERRY: Well, they all have one. Most of them, anyway. Takes centuries to build up to a level of power where they can try it, and if they fail, it’s back to square one. ARCHIVIST: Okay, but what do the rituals do? GERRY : They… kind of “shift” the world, just enough for the Power to come through. Merge with reality. Some say, or well, they guess, that it could bring other entities through with them. I mean, I doubt The Buried would be bringing through The Vast, but you know. ARCHIVIST : But what does that actually mean. F–for the world? “Merging with reality”? GERRY: […] right now all the entities have to act like a hunter, they pick off the weak ones around the edges, the ones that wander to close, and the rest of the time they have to just graze on whatever fear we all passively give away. ARCHIVIST : And if one of the rituals succeeds? GERRY : The world becomes a factory farm.

So this might be what Smirke theorised himself, notably on the idea that Powers had allies and opposites:

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “Fourteen Powers, with their opposites and their allies, each with an aim no more no less than manifestation. Apocalypse. Apotheosis. I wonder: did my work bring about these Dreadful things, or… did I simply develop the means by which they can be known…?”

And we saw through The Hunt (or… the essence of the hunt) that its goal is not to manifest, since it revels in the chase and the pursuit – not in getting the prey. Though Smirke might have given inspiration to humans touched by the powers, to organise their activities around circumstantial allies (or allies by nature) and enemies? There might still have been a bit of truth to it, since Gertrude did manage to neutralise The Buried’s ritual with the body of Vast-touched Jan Kilbride… So, to what extent was Smirke, in the end, spot-on, and to what extent did he over-systemise something that was filled with irregularities and particularities?

(- I wonder if the ideas of what the world WOULD look like if one of the rituals succeeded weren’t due to… the Fears-touched dreams? There is definitely something too suspicious about “dreams” overall in this series – I assumed for long that it was a case of “well, of course, if you experience a terrifying thing, your subconscious with get plagued with it and you’ll have nightmares related to this” for a lot of them, independently from Jon’s Archivist-induced dreams. But Smirke revealed that he had initially begun his work influenced by the dreams he had:

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “Did I ever tell you about the dreams? I’m sure I must have. I would dream about them, you see, as a young man, long before I devised my taxonomy. I would find myself in nightmares of strange, far-off places: a field of graves; a grasping tunnel; an abattoir, knee-deep in pigs’ blood. I believed then, as I still believe now, that these places I saw were the Powers themselves, expressed in their truest form, far more entirely than any “secret book” can claim.”

And we’ve had various cases of dreams being more spooky than “regular” ones: Oliver began to see the veins in his dreams (MAG011, MAG121), Robert E. Geiger was only able to hear Stefan Brotchen’s last words in his dreams (MAG099), Annabelle had started to get dreams involving spiders despite being unaware of the nature of the experiments (MAG069), Carter Chilcott had been dreaming of “floating through ancient graveyards or the open, empty sea” while on the Daedalus (MAG057), Joshua Gillespie dreamed of asphyxiating despite the coffin itself not giving him any such experience while he was awake (MAG002)… Is it possible that people are more sensitive to the Fears in their dreams, since dreams are a bit more in the Fears’ territory (Jonny mentioned, iirc, that they behave on “dream-logic”)? Is that how Garland Hillier saw The Extinction coming, too: due to his dreams?)

- Alright: sudden information that Smirke APPARENTLY HELPED THEORISE THE RITUALS??? HOLY MEW????

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “So many have abandoned us, casting about for rituals that I helped design. In my excited discussions with Mr. Rayner, I… perhaps extrapolated too much from his talk of a “Grand Ritual” of darkness. The Dark, I thought, was simply one of the Powers so, it stands to reason that each of them should have its own ritual. Perhaps they already did, even before I put pen to paper. They certainly do now, and I shudder to think how Lukas, Scott and the others may use this conception.”

So, to break this down: it seems like Maxwell Rayner agreed to discuss with Smirke about what he identified as The Dark’s ritual, and Smirke guessed from there that the other Fears that he had isolated probably had (or should have) their own rituals, and worked on theorising them? Basira herself had noticed that Natalie Ennis’s words reported in MAG025’s statement (“She said that they were all going, that 300 years was a long time to wait, but she was lucky to have found it so close to the end.”) matched with two solar eclipses happening in Ny-Ålesund (MAG108: “And when Natalie Ennis talked about it being 300 years ago, well. How much do you know about the relationship between Edmond Halley and John Flamsteed?” “What, Halley like the comet?” “Exactly.”); Basira might have been spot-on on the idea that The Dark is quite… regular and organized around these eclipses? Or at the very least, that The Dark was aware of its opportunities to reshape the world.

And Smirke hypothesises that a few other people might have taken inspiration from it, some of them also part of Jonah Magnus’s own circle (so they were probably all mutual acquaintances, at the very least, as people that Smirke had “brought into [his] confidence”?):

* “Mr. Rayner” (The Dark): unless twist, Maxwell Rayner himself, and Smirke had abundantly talked with him, apparently. No mention on whether Jonah knew him too (except if the Elias-is-Jonah theory turns out to be an actual thing, since Maxwell was revealed to have been a ~friend~ of the Head of the Institute in MAG135), but Dr. Algernon Moss, in a statement given May 14th 1864, had reported on his encounter with Maxwell Rayner who was already well-known at the time (MAG098).

* “Scott” (The Buried): likely referring to George Gilbert Scott (MAG050), who had been under Henry Roberts’s tutelage, who had himself been one of Smirke’s disciples. Sampson Kempthorne, the author of the letter to Jonah, briefly employed Scott in 1834 (historical fact) and noted that he tended to design claustrophobic places. Scott had been said to have “also received certain architectural tutelages from Sir Robert himself”, and during a reception, Smirke had explained to Kempthorne that Scott hadn’t really understood his lessons about “balance” and that Kempthorne had dodged a bullet getting rid of him. Sampson Kempthorne wrote his letter on June 12th 1841, was in good terms with Jonah Magnus but not really an intimate of Smirke himself (he wasn’t into ~the confidence~).

* “Lukas” (The Lonely): we know from Barnabas Bennett’s letter to Jonah Magnus, dated April 9th 1824, that Jonah had warned him to avoid Mordechai Lukas and was himself on “good terms” with him according to Elias (MAG092). Smirke could be referring to Mordechai or another from the family – since, at least, it seems like the ties between the Lukases and the Magnus Institute remained strong over time, with the Lukases being current sugar daddies patrons of the Institute (MAG017, MAG033) and Elias knowing ~Peter~ personally.

So that’s indeed quite a peculiar society of people in the know about the ~Dread Powers~. Given that Maxwell Rayner gave information to Smirke about The Dark’s “Grand Ritual”, and that Mordechai Lukas was already… powerful enough by himself to punish Barnabas in 1824, it doesn’t look like Robert Smirke “converted” all of the people surrounding him, but that he got acquainted with a few people who already had their own knowledge? Not sure about George Gilbert Scott, though – it seems like this one learned Smirke’s principles and ran away with them, serving The Buried.

In the same way, it really feels like Smirke might have exaggerated his role in organising the rituals? The Dark has its own already; we know that the previous attempt to bring The Stranger through took place in the Court Theatre of Buda in October 1787 (statement given by Abraham Janssen in MAG116), when Smirke was… a young kid. There was also some suspicion about the ~Archives~ under Alexandria, which were attacked by what looked like a Dark faction in AD 391, perhaps to stop an attempt by the Beholding (MAG053). According to Peter Lukas, The End and The Web have never been interested in setting up their ritual (MAG134), and Daisy&Jon guessed that The Hunt doesn’t want to reach its culmination (MAG133), even though some Hunters were seeking it. It doesn’t seem like Smirke created the principles that guide rituals, more that he himself didn’t have any information about attempts by other factions than The Dark? But he apparently wrote… guidelines (/wild-mass guessing essays) about others, and feared, towards the end of his life, how they could be misused.

Smirke, why the FUCK did you do that in the first place, OF COURSE IT WOULD GET MISUSED………….. (Though, it’s easy to see how something meant to protect could serve nefarious purpose. Explain in details how fire works, in order to save lives during a housefire, and one pyromaniac could still twist the principles to achieve more damage…)

Smirke specifically said that he “put pen to paper” so, unless it was an exaggeration… there might be a Robert Smirke essay somewhere about his ideas of the Fears’ rituals, whether they’re concrete guidelines or more general principles. The question is: where, and is it actually “worth” something, either to construct the rituals or to stop them? Did Gertrude have access to it? … is it in Elias’s safe? (Or is it… absolutely useless and off-the-mark, and Smirke feared for nothing because he thought his work a bigger deal than it actually was for the Fears themselves?)

- Amongst the list of people into ~Robert Smirke’s confidence~, what about Henry Roberts? He had trained George Gilbert Scott:

(MAG050, Sampson Kempthorne) “Henry [Roberts] was very effusive about the talents and prospects of young Mr Scott and was at great pains to inform me that his young protégé had also received certain architectural tutelages from Sir Robert himself. He said this with the oddest of looks, as though there was some jolly secret between us. I rather just nodded, as if to say I took his meaning, and he left well enough alone. […] At the mention of the name George Gilbert Scott, Sir Robert’s face flushed suddenly, in a manner not entirely unlike that of his protégé. He asked me what my interest was in Mr Scott, and I told him that he had, until recently, been engaged as my assistant. At this, Sir Robert gave a small laugh of satisfaction and told me I did not realise exactly how lucky an escape I may have had. I asked again what his training had entailed, and Sir Robert stared at me for a silent minute, before he finally nodded his head. “Balance,” he told me. “Equilibrium. […]” Without prompting, his tirade continued, and he talked about George, about shortcuts in symmetry and a patron that the young fool did not understand. I could follow very little of it, and it seems to be decidedly removed from anything that I would consider architecture, but whatever it was that Sir Robert had been teaching George, it appeared the lessons had been put to less noble use than he had intended.”

Both George Gilbert Scott and Henry Roberts historically survived Smirke (dying respectively in 1878 and 1876) – but it seemed that at the time, Henry Roberts knew about the true nature of Smirke’s work, and yet didn’t apparently dedicate himself to one power like Scott apparently did with The Buried…? Did it happen later, or did Henry Roberts totally manage to remain neutral…?

(And I’m HOWLING overall that… I hadn’t noticed, back in MAG050, that. Henry Roberts’s behaviour implied that Robert Smirke was indeed sharing what he knew of the Fears with his private club of acquaintances. I thought he was only training people in his “Balance and Fear” and that they independently happened to discover the powers by themselves. But nope, it’s REALLY all because of Robert Smirke; good job, Bob.)

- A curious detail: Robert Smirke’s death as given in MAG138 does not match the official version in our ~world~: the historical figure died on April 18th, 1867 while Martin reported that the letter he wrote to Jonah was dated February 13th, 1867, and that he died of ~apoplexy~ mid-writing it. That’s two months before his historical death!

(MAG138) MARTIN: Statement of Robert Smirke, taken from a letter to Jonah Magnus, dated 13th of February, 1867. […] Uh… [INHALE] The, hum… The letter ends there. Uh… Ap–apparently Robert Smirke was found collapsed in his study that evening, dead of, uh… [FLIPPING PAPER] Apoplexy.

Buuuut that year (1867) curiously has one matching point of data with the statement previously read by Martin, in MAG134 – it’s the same year Garland Hillier disappeared.

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “Garland Hillier’s final essay, published in 1867 and simply titled “L’Avenir”, “The Future”, was supposedly a rambling and meandering speculation on the end of the human race, influenced by Darwin’s recent publication of The Origin of the Species and his own shattered faith. He posited a future where, far from any glorious or holy revelation or reckoning, a decadent and corrupt humanity was violently and utterly supplanted, and wiped out by a new category of being. One he referred to as “les Héritiers”. “The Inheritors”. He gave no details on how he believed they might look like, or how they might behave, but his predictions for the final days of humanity were unpleasant, and visceral. […] Anyway, the point is that sometime after that essay was published, Garland Hillier disappeared. Exactly when this happened, no one is really sure, but the last records of his existence can be found near the end of 1867.”

I don’t know if the “change” regarding Robert Smirke’s death is simply a matter of authorial self-protection (Magnus Archives is ~an AU~ of our reality, this Robert Smirke is not the same one as the historical figure) or if it is potentially tied to something more tightly knitted (a shift, a rupture between the Magnusverse and our own world? etc.)

At the very least, I *squint* hard at 1867. Were Jonah’s activities tied (from afar or more closely) to Garland Hillier’s own activities? Did Beholding start feeling threatened by the ~prophecy~ announcing the new emergence?

- You, too, get Marked by Beholding and get A Big Giant Eyeball haunting the sky in your dreams, the got-in-contact-with-Magnus trademark:

(MAG120) ELIAS: The Archivist wanders. He is searching, though, for what he does not know. […] All through it, the shadow is above him; the shape that gazes down upon him, bloodshot and unblinking. […] It opens, and he walks slowly down the steps into the earth; but even as it closes above him, the great shadow still Sees him. There is nowhere in this universe that it would not blot out the sky. […] So he watches her, trying in his single-minded focus to ignore the attention of that impossible thing that covers the sky and fixes its gaze on him with such force it would choke him – were he breathing. […] And at last, the Archivist looks up. [STATIC INTENSIFIES] At last, he looks into The Eye that sees all, and knows all, and clutches at the secret terrors of your heart. The Ceaseless Watcher of all that is, and all that was; the voracious, infinite hunger that tears at his soul, invoking him to discover, to observe, to experience all and everything and forever.

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “I have been dreaming again, Jonah. The same every night for months, now. I imagine myself a boy again at Aspley. I awake, cold and alone in the dormitory. The sky outside is dark and I see no stars. I light a candle to better see my way, and step down the silent corridor. The masters’ rooms are empty; the fire in the kitchen is dead. Eventually, my steps lead out into the courtyard. It is so quiet that the sound of my feet upon the grass is painful to my ears. I stop, and look up at the sky, that empty black nothing, and I see the edges of the horizon becoming a dull white. I cannot understand what I am looking at. And then the sky… blinks. And I awake.”

(Bob didn’t have it so bad, after all? I mean. At least, his Big Eyeball blinked.)

- Third named mention of “The Watcher’s Crown” in the series! … almost directly answering Jon’s plea to know more about it from last episode:

(MAG111) GERARD: She worked out they’d all be happening quite close together. She’d already been doing it a while, and the Unknowing was the next on her list. That and The Watcher’s Crown. ARCHIVIST: The, the what? GERARD: Uh, the Rite of The Watcher’s Crown. It’s what she called the ritual for the Eye. She didn’t tell me much about that one, just that she knew how to take care of it.

(MAG137) ARCHIVIST: […] What the hell is The Watcher’s Crown? So far the only mention of it I’ve had is from Gerry, and he didn’t seem to know much about what it actually meant. [PAUSE] And he’s gone now. But if it is the grand ritual of Beholding, then I– … I mean… I need to know about it. Right…?

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “I am not a fool; I know well enough what this dream is likely to mean, and I warn you again that if you have any remaining ambitions to use our work, to try and wear The Watcher’s Crown, you must abandon them! Not simply for the sake of your own soul, but for that of the world! I have always had the utmost respect for you as a man of dignity, and learning. Do not allow yourself to fall to this madness.”

Interestingly, Smirke presented it like a literal crown that could be worn…? (What is in Elias’s safe.) (Is the crown Fashionable.)

- Take your pick of your Failed-Because-Of-Hubris representative:

(MAG080) LEITNER: And so I branded them with my seal. I told myself that if any should escape such a mark could help me retrieve them. But I think, in my heart, I dreamed of my work becoming known. That “The Library of Jurgen Leitner” would stand as a symbol of courage and protection. Hubris. I suppose it is fitting punishment that my name has become a watchword for evil, spoken by those who only know it as marking the darkest, most terrible of secrets. My name has become a curse.

(MAG111) GERRY: Eventually, I grew old enough and wise enough to see [my mother’s] obsession for what it really was: hubris. She lived her just carefully enough not to be destroyed by things she studied, but that was it. The things out there weren’t like taming fire, they couldn’t be contained or used for light or warmth. The best you could hope for from them, would be that they don’t spot you, and instead my mum chased after them, obsessed with others who had tried to stare at them without being blinded: y’know, Flamsteed, Smirke, Leitner. Idiots who destroyed themselves chasing a secret that wasn’t worth knowing.

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “You see, Jonah, I feel the hour of my death approaching and, though you have always been reluctant to pay due heed to my warnings or counsel, I continue to see in you the reflection of my own past hubris. […] So yes. Hubris. Not simply in that, I suppose, but in believing that those I brought into my confidence shared my lofty goals. “

I wonder if we’ll hear about John Flamsteed at some point, since Basira had done a bit of research on him by MAG108, too… (Though he lived waaaay before Smirke and Jonah.)

- I’m still not sold on the Jonah Magnus=Elias theory. On the one hand, there are many things indeed reinforcing that possibility: Smirke thought that Jonah had sunken into Beholding and that he planned to launch the Watcher’s Crown. MAG138 casually revealed that Smirke knew “Rayner” and the way he described him implied that Jonah knew him too (there was nothing in MAG098 to confirm or deny that Jonah knew the guy; the statement was even given to the Institute, not to Jonah himself, and we didn’t know if he was still alive at the time (1864) until MAG138). This is coming shortly after MAG135 which… revealed that Elias PERSONALLY knew Maxwell Rayner and was acquainted (?) with him at some point. Robert Smirke was guessing that Jonah was trying to escape death, and there is obviously the question: and if he had succeeded, who and where would he be? There is even the mention that:

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “I am choosing to assume that these manifestations are unintentional, Jonah, and you have not… simply decided to implore a Dark Patron to end the life of an old man.”

… which (except for the fact that Beholding Never Does Shit) obviously puts Elias to mind because uh, who is well-known for murdering old people? Would Robert Smirke have been voiced by someone from Jonny’s family, too?

BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, every time Elias opens his mouth, I… can’t “read” him as 220+ years old. He’s too shitty? Too petty? Too… not exactly impulsive, but there is always an undercurrent of impatience in him, I feel? I don’t really know how to explain, but I feel like someone much older than “middle-aged” wouldn’t… revel as he does in petty jabs and punchlines, wouldn’t be so intent on getting the last word and on being Verbally Right at every turn?

(But then, that’s one of the main question in this series: what the HECK is Elias, what is his backstory, what are his goals, what even is his ROLE, and what does he know about the Spiders in his Institute.)

- HOWEVER, nervous laughter re: the fear of dying, because hum. Hum. Who does that remind me of.

(MAG080) ELIAS: Well, he was always going to need to fly the nest at some point. Go out and see the world for himself. LEITNER: He might die. ELIAS: It’s always a danger. Almost always.

(MAG121) OLIVER: The thing is, Jon, right now, you have a choice. You’ve put it off for a long time; but it’s trapping you here. You’re not quite human enough to die, but – still too human to survive. You’re… balanced on an edge, where The End can’t touch you, but you can’t escape Him. I made a choice. We all made choices.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: My– [PAUSE] [INHALE] [SIGH] My memories of the coma are not clear. But I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die.

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “I beg you, do not pursue this goal; if only a single lesson may be gleaned from my life of long study, and longer hardship, it is that the fear of Death is natural, and to flee from it will only bring greater misery. Repent of your sins, Jonah. Seek forgiveness. I am certain the Dread Powers cannot take a soul that keeps faith in the Resurrection.”

Elias had already installed Jonah Magnus as a Role Model for Jon in MAG092 (“Because he had to know, to watch and see it all. That’s what this place is, John, never forget it. You may believe yourself to have friends, to have confidantes, but in the end, all they are, is something for you to watch, to know, and ultimately to discard. This, at least, Gertrude understood.”) and ;; I. Am. Getting the feeling that Jon might be, totally unknowingly, walking in Jonah’s footsteps a bit…? Except for the part where he’d agree to sacrifice people close to him, because Jon’s conscious decisions have been the absolute opposite so far.

- Something heartbreaking to me: the way… information is not being shared, between Martin and Jon – though Martin is apparently planning to let Jon hear Robert Smirke’s statement eventually. Because MAG138 brings another light on Jonathan Fanshawe’s letter and Jon’s own conclusions about Jonah Magnus:

(MAG127) ARCHIVIST: Hm. “Jonah Magnus”. I’ve never really given much thought to him. Not nearly as much as I should have. I suppose I had always hoped there was a chance he was… innocent, in all this. I know, I know! But I had… [EXHALE] I had just… hoped that maybe the founding of the Institute was in earnest. And not simply the foundation stone for all the terrible things that have happened here. … But no. Whatever is happening now… has its origins two hundred years ago. In the work of an evil man.

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “It is telling that of those I have brought into my confidence, it is only you and I who have continued this far without falling to one Power or another, despite all my instruction and work. This is, of course, assuming you have not taken the path of The Eye that I know has called you – called us both – for so long, even since before we began our work on Millbank. […] I am choosing to assume that these manifestations are unintentional, Jonah, and you have not… simply decided to implore a Dark Patron to end the life of an old man. I further find myself supposing that they may emanate from your own intrigues and preparations to culminate those plans which we agreed to abandon so many decades ago! […] The Eye has marked me for something, of this I have no doubt. My… humble hope is that it may be a swift death, an accidental effect of your own researches, which I once again implore you to abandon.”

Jonathan Fanshawe sent his letter to Jonah in November 21st, 1831: the fair assumption was that Jonah had probably funded the Institute in 1818 as a temple to Beholding? But it seems like it wasn’t the initial goal of the Institute, since Smirke was under the impression that Jonah hadn’t followed the path of Beholding until rather recently (unless Jonah had managed to deceive him all this time?). It could explain the wording used by Breekon to refer to the Institute:

(MAG128, “Breekon”) “That was the first time we saw what would become this place, The Eye’s Pedestal.”

“what WOULD BECOME this place”: not what it WAS already, even though Breekon is talking about their time serving on the Robert Small, around 1853, years after the foundation of the Institute. (Though the concept of the Institute, of Jonah asking all his acquaintances to send him spooky stories, amassing knowledge, threading his map of relationships around spooky people, of trying to know and learn more about it… indeed sounded extremely Beholding in the first place. But it seems like Beholding taking a hold of the Institute was a consequence, and not the initial goal of it – like the Institute wasn’t initially created to serve it?)

In the same way, I had wondered in MAG127 if Jon mightn’t have been wrong to conclude right away, like Jonathan Fanshawe, that Jonah’s goal had been to get rid of Albrecht without any concern for him – there could have been other reasons to take the actual books away from him, especially since they were the ones affecting Albrecht? But hum, alright: even without being a (conscious?) Beholding agent in the 1810s to 1830s, there are many ways to indeed be an “evil man” – Millbank says hi:

(MAG127, Jonathan Fanshawe) “Jonah; I must first and foremost decline your generous offer of a medical position servicing Millbank Penitentiary. While the terms you’ve laid out are no doubt more than adequate, I have, over these last months, come to the unfortunate conclusion that our intimacy and friendship must cease immediately. I do not know what interest you have in the poor condemned souls within those walls, nor do I care to guess. In the light of what I have so recently witnessed, I can no longer in good conscience associate with any of your endeavours.”

(MAG128, “Breekon”) “Poor wretches who emerged from Millbank, with tales of Australia and its cruelty on their lips, bundled into the cramped and creaking ship that would drag them away from everything they loved – and towards everything they feared.”

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “What we built at Millbank should be left well enough alone, resigned to the nightmares of the reprobates and brigands contained within its walls. […] This is, of course, assuming you have not taken the path of The Eye that I know has called you – called us both – for so long, even since before we began our work on Millbank.”

For Breekon to mention that it was an awful place, it must have been REALLY bad, indeed.

And it saddens me to agree with Martin that he… probably wasn’t the right person to read this statement:

(MAG138) MARTIN: I don’t know what he’s talking about when he mentions Millbank. The old prison, I guess? Tim said the tunnels under the Institute were all that was left of it, but… Jon said he’d checked them pretty thoroughly. [SILENCE] [SIGH] I’m not the one who knows all about this stuff…!

It’s not even just Jon who was specialising in navigating the tunnels – he was finding his way, but Tim was able to use them pretty efficiently too (MAG114, Jon: “I know there are some exits to the tunnels outside the Institute, so I guessed you were using them to get in and out, avoiding any… tape recorders.”). And there is something that Martin didn’t appear to remember about them, but that he had read himself:

(MAG088, Enrique MacMillan) “so here I came. To tell my story, of course, but another thing as well; cold, empty and calling. There’s something here, you see. Something to be dug up, rooted out, buried within. A hollow space that all eyes point towards. And I intend to reach it, if my fingers don’t give out first. I know where to dig.”

[…] MARTIN: Based on a few scattered notes and accounts from some of the older staff, it sounds like Mr. Macmillan got in a bit of a fight, which led to his arrest, and the replacement of quite a bit of the floor in Jon’s office. There are still a couple of boards with marks on them that I’d always hoped weren’t fingernail scratches, but I guess…

(+ Daisy’s mention to Jon in MAG114 that she didn’t like the tunnels because they felt “empty”, and the fact that… the “DIG” leaked into Jon’s dreams for reasons still unknown, despite Martin having been the one to read that statement.)

Is it the same structure as the tunnels under the Reform Club (MAG035) and St Paul’s Church (MAG063), or are they all separate installations? The ones under the Reform Club were long but looked clearly organised and structured; the one under St-Paul’s Church ended with a wall; and the ones under the Institute had been mentioned to be a veritable maze and… cover a very large area:

(MAG080) LEITNER: Over the years I have found that [this unexpurgated copy of Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture] interacts with Smirke’s architecture, and those tunnels specifically, in a more predictable way. By carefully reading specific passages in certain locations I am able to exercise… a degree of control over the substance of the tunnels. […] I’ve been in hiding for over twenty years now, ever since my library was destroyed. Obviously I have not spent all that time below your Institute. The old Millbank prison tunnels stretch out a very long way, and there are other entrances than the one below the Archives.

(Leitner even telling Jon that he had made them simpler for him.)

- YOU KNOW WHAT OTHER LINES SHARE THE SAME ENERGY?!

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] I wish I could talk it through with Martin. … Or Tim. [SHORT SAD CHUCKLE] Or Sasha. But we never really did that, did we…? … Everything’s changed. … [SIGH] Two days out of a coma, and I’m already tired.

(MAG138) MARTIN: Tim said the tunnels under the Institute were all that was left of it, but… Jon said he’d checked them pretty thoroughly. [SILENCE] [SIGH] I’m not the one who knows all about this stuff…! I wish– … No. No, it’s fine, I’m… fine, I… [EXHALE] I can do this.

It’s open to interpretation but I’m really hearing Martin’s “I wish–” as a “I wish Tim was still alive and with us” and AOUCH orz

(I’m… still hoping that we’ll get something from Martin about his own mourning of Tim orz Because that one must have been… so harsh… he was so worried about Sasha’s disappearance in the beginning of season 3, his small voice broke my heart in MAG092 when Elias confirmed that she had died a LONG time ago, and the fact that he had been buddy-buddy with her murderer while Elias was doing nothing about it had been one of the points he threw to Elias’s face in MAG118. And Tim was around even longer, and he experienced so many bad things alongside Tim, and even at his worst, Tim was often mellowing down / a bit more protective of Martin than… anyone else, really, be it in Michael’s corridors or when Tim had explained to Martin that he didn’t think that reading the statements were a good thing? And this despite Tim telling Jon in MAG114 that he didn’t know Martin as well as he knew Sasha, hence the fact he was avoiding him like the others – what does it say about Martin’s relationships with other people… ;;)

- But the “Good luck, Jon, I– … [HUFF] Stay safe.” coming after was absolute Gay Energy, and MARTIN!!!

It feels like the episode was the Perfect Recipe for how to get an episode popular/trending/making people scream: it has MARTIN throughout it, and we’re all thirsty to hear from him! It has Martin being snappy and cunning! Martin’s loyalty towards Jon! A Robert Smirke statement! The relationship between Smirke and Jonah Magnus! New questions about Jonah! More lore with Smirke’s taxonomy from the inside! Beholding statement, with eyes horror! A small mention of Tim! Elias! Elias in prison! Elias FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGING PETER’S EXISTENCE! MORE CHAINS RATTLING AT EVERY TURN! Elias calling Martin out for his manipulative tendencies! Martin using the tape recorders instead of being used by them!

I still feel floored.

- Special bonus for another occurrence of Martin’s “Mm-hMM” when people are telling him something he doesn’t want to hear, and I LOVE HIS CASUAL SNAPPINESS IN SEASON 4…

(MAG129) ARCHIVIST: I just… I’m sorry. Basira is off doing… God-knows-what, and I can’t talk to Melanie. MARTIN : Mm-hmm.

(MAG134) PETER: […] And as far as the coffin goes, there’s not much I can do about a bull-headed Archivist who seems hellbent on self-destruction. My powers only extend so far. MARTIN : Mm-hmm.

(MAG138) ELIAS: I am so very pleased to see you. MARTIN: Mm-hmm.

Martin “Mm-hMMm.” Blackwood, ilu.

- The difference between how Elias constantly reminded Jon how he belongs to The Eye, versus Elias’s… apparent uninterest? in Martin’s own alliance to the Lonely is quite… jarring. As for Jon:

(MAG092) ELIAS: [SIGH] What are you? ARCHIVIST: I… The Archivist. ELIAS: Precisely. It is your job to chronicle these things, to experience them, whether first-hand or through the eyes of others. To simply be told, well… ARCHIVIST: It doesn’t please your master? ELIAS: Our master, Jon. […] We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown. If you are to stop them, you need to get better at seeing.

(MAG116) ELIAS: I have been doing my best to prepare you, Jon, to See. You should hopefully have it a bit easier than the others. ARCHIVIST: Another of my… powers? ELIAS: More… an aspect of your becoming. DAISY: You don’t say. ARCHIVIST: Er… right.

(MAG120) ELIAS: [The Eye] stares into him, and it stares out of him, and he is falling into the devouring eternity of its pupil. He wants to cry out in horror, but he cannot. He. is. whole.

(MAG135) ELIAS: Fine. Consider it a test – things are… coming, things that will need Jon to be far stronger and more willing to use his connection to our patron. […] If Gertrude had a plan for this one, I haven’t found it, which is why Jon needs to be closer to The Eye. If anyone can stop what’s happening, he can. See through the darkness, etcetera.

With Jon, it’s always been a casually possessive “us”. While Martin…

(MAG138) MARTIN: I think he wants me to join The Lonely. ELIAS: Then it sounds like you have a decision to make. [SILENCE] MARTIN : … What? [HUFF] That’s it? No, no monologue, no mindgames? You love manipulating people! ELIAS : That makes two of us. MARTIN: [HUFF] ELIAS : But no. This is too important for me to jeopardise with cheap “mindgames”. I simply have to trust that when the time comes, you’ll make the right choice. [SILENCE] MARTIN: Great. Great, great. So, what you’re [NERVOUS LAUGHTER] actually saying is that you’re gonna be… no help whatsoever!

… is clearly not getting that.

It’s terrible yet makes so much sense that of all people, Martin would talk to Elias about Peter’s offer, and implicitly seek out… whatever Elias might have to say about it? Elias had been the one to hire Martin in the Institute:

(MAG056) MARTIN: I don’t have a Master’s in parapsychology, I don’t even have a degree. When I was 17, my mom, she… had… she had some problems, and I ended up dropping out of school, t–trying to support us. I tried everything, but no one was hiring. So I… I just kinda started to lie on my applications, sending them out to just about anywhere. For some reason, my lie about parapsychology got me an interview with Elias and, and then a job here. M–most of my employment details are made up, I’m only 29!

… for reasons still unknown – was Elias actually fooled But Would Never Ever Admit It (as of MAG084, at the very least, he knew about Martin’s fake CV (“I mean, that doesn’t actually, er, make her qualified.” “[POINTEDLY] Formal qualifications aren’t everything, Martin.”) but that was long after MAG056 and he could have eavesdropped on that conversation)? Did Elias hire him because Martin was vulnerable and either prone to become canon-fodder or Beholding food, being Full Of Secrets and fearing that they might get discovered? Was there… something else? And in the same way, we’re not sure how Martin ended up working in the Archives – when Tim, in MAG098, pointed out that Jon had asked him to go with him, Martin was curiously silent as if… he couldn’t really say the same. Why is Martin at the Institute? Doesn’t working there for at least nine years mean anything?

I feel like the episode both began with a question (Martin asking where he should stand between The Lonely and The Eye) and ended up with his implicit answer, maybe… after all guided by Elias, when he made a jab at Martin for being into manipulation games too, and for not sharing his information about The Extinction with Jon:

(MAG138) MARTIN: So… so what? What does it mean? Am I supposed to be reassured that new Entities can be born? That there’s some, some kind of… precedent for The Extinction? … Peter? [SILENCE] Huh. Maybe he has gone to a party. […] I don’t know what Peter’s planning, but my–my guess is that it might involve something below the Institute. Hopefully, by the time you get these tapes, I’ll have something more concrete for you. [PAUSE] Good luck, Jon, I– … [HUFF] Stay safe. [CLICK.]

At the end of the episode, Martin’s answer feels twofold: to manipulate, and to choose “Jon”.

Manipulate, because he checked whether Peter was around before revealing that he wasn’t just using the tape recorders because it’s what the archive team does with the statements (MAG134: “I can’t help but notice you’re recording right now?” “It… was a statement, right, that’s what we do.”), but because he’s planning to send information to Jon, through the tape recorders that have always been associated with him (MAG126: “… It’s because he’s back, isn’t it. [SIGH] He’s back, so now you’re going to be… around, again. Listening in. Mff. You missed him, didn’t you. … Yeah. … [VERY SHARP SQUEAL OF DISTORTION] Yeah, me too.”).

I don’t know if it’s enough to go full Web-aligned, but… it feels like between Eye and Lonely, Martin is actually heading towards a third option? Or maybe a neutral ground, since his loyalty for Jon is bypassing the rest as of now? Elias’s arrest had always been presented as Martin’s plan, it’s logical that Elias would remind Martin of it with such insistence (since he’s still stuck there), but it’s still… stricking:

(MAG113) ARCHIVIST: Martin’s plan is solid. I think. MARTIN: I mean, they might just kill him. MELANIE: Good. ARCHIVIST: I mean, maybe. But… I think they’re still our best chance. Even if we did manage to blindside him, I–I don’t know how long we could… hold him. MARTIN: And, in fairness, he’s happy enough to use the police against us. ARCHIVIST: Quite. And I’d rather not be staring down a kidnapping charge on top of everything–

(MAG114) ARCHIVIST: And Martin… he’s okay with it? DAISY: It was his idea. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. You think it’ll work?

(MAG117) MARTIN: These last couple of years, I’ve always been... running, always hiding, caught in someone else’s trap, but… but now it’s my trap. And, well. I think it will work. I know, I know it’s not exactly intricate, but… it felt good, weaving my own little web. […] I guess I’m just… sick of sitting on my hands, drinking tea and hoping everyone’s okay. This way I finally get to do something. It’s gonna hurt, but… I’m ready.

(MAG120) ELIAS: I must admit I’m impressed, Martin. I knew you were all planning something, of course, but I didn’t believe you specifically would have the… er, capacity for boldness that you displayed. It took me quite by surprise. MARTIN: You didn’t just see it in me? ELIAS: Honestly, I didn’t look. For all my power, I will admit I am not immune to making the occasional lazy assumption. I presumed that I knew you thoroughly, but by the time you demonstrated otherwise… well. There was simply too much to keep watching over. I only have two eyes, after all.

(MAG138) ELIAS: Besides which, don’t forget I am still living At Her Majesty’s Pleasure, due in no small part to your actions. […] MARTIN: … What? [HUFF] That’s it? No, no monologue, no mindgames? You love manipulating people! ELIAS: That makes two of us.

(And once again, it is VERY interesting that Elias likened Martin’s depiction of him to Martin himself on the subject of manipulation. Once again: what do you know about the spiders in the Institute and about Jon’s ties with the Web, Elias…)

- It really feels like Martin was Our Protagonist, during this episode? From Jon barely catching him in MAG124, to Martin’s own work alongside Peter at the end of MAG126, to Martin reading a statement in MAG134 to… Martin being the character we follow in different locations in MAG138, getting his point of view (going to see Elias, reading a statement, doing his own follow-up, revealing a bit more of his own agenda).

;;;; I’m still so “!!!” over Elias and Martin being in the same room. Elias was absolutely shitty with him, but at the same time, there is an undercurrent of… honesty? behind their exchanges? Because Martin knows that Elias knows about his relation to Jon and:

(MAG118) ELIAS: [EXASPERATED BREATHING] … Did Jon put you up to this? MARTIN: You think I’m doing this for him? ELIAS: No. It’s just the sort of half-baked scheme he’d come up with. And I’m well aware that you’ll do just about anything for him– MARTIN: I– ELIAS: –and I don’t need to read your mind for that one. […] MARTIN: Well, I hope you've got something better than that pathetic dig at my feelings for Jon. ELIAS: It’s baffling, really. Such loyalty to someone who really treats you very badly. MARTIN: Oh, is that supposed to be, what, a revelation? ELIAS: [CHUCKLE] You know, I really should have gone for that. Find something that would finally manage to shatter that precious image you have of him.

(MAG138) MARTIN: […] Why am I only hearing about this now, and why doesn’t Jon know?! ELIAS: […] as for our… dear Archivist, I’m afraid I no longer have any real control over what he does or does not know. Unlike yourself! [PAUSE] I notice you haven’t told him either. MARTIN: Yeah. Well. I’m still not sure I really believe it. [EXHALE] A–and, I don’t… I–… I’m, h… ELIAS: Worried he might charge off into another coffin. [SILENCE] … Quite.

… I feel like we always get a glimpse of what Martin isn’t saying, when he speaks to Elias? It’s not the whole picture, it’s not Everything about Martin’s feelings, but there are some bits, some weaknesses that are getting exposed. (And I don’t know if these were Gratuitous Jabs at Martin or if they were meant to get Martin to do exactly the reverse of what Elias was denouncing ;; Because the episode did end with Martin making sure that Jon would know, though indirectly…)

- I’M ABSOLUTELY DDDD: OVER THE FACT THAT

Ahahaha, “This is too important for me to jeopardise with cheap ‘mindgames’” says the guy who sent Basira (and potentially Jon) to focus on The Dark and DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE EXTINCTION TO THEM, and, in the meantime, discusses The Extinction with Martin when he brought it on the table and DOESN’T MENTION THE DARK’S ACTIVITIES AT ALL WITH HIM. Guess who is back to manipulating through information: THIS GUY. So, there is definitely an agenda behind it; he’s not seriously concerned by The Dark, isn’t he. It’s just a matter of throwing a bone to Basira and making sure that Jon gets to Experience The Dark, isn’t it.

- On the Relationship Between Elias And The Apocalypse:

(MAG080) LEITNER: The Unknowing. ELIAS: [CHUCKLE] Creativity never was their forte. LEITNER: You of all people should want to stop them. ELIAS: And we will. But I don’t think we’ll need your help.

(MAG092) ELIAS: The Unknowing. I need you to stop it. ARCHIVIST: Again with– What is “The Unknowing”? Exactly. ELIAS: A ritual. The Stranger and its kin attempting to gather power enough to bring it closer.

(MAG102) ELIAS: I should have thought preventing the horrific transformation of our world is not solely my concern!

(MAG126) MARTIN: Yeah. You said. … But if things are really so urgent, then why didn’t Elias say anything? PETER: [LAUGH] Because, behind all his bluster, Elias’s just like all the rest. He’s so preoccupied playing the game he doesn’t pay attention to the big picture. He managed to convince himself that he could get his ritual off first, which would have made all of this a… bit moot, but that’s not really an option anymore.

(MAG135) ELIAS: I have been observing a recent increase in people and supplies being moved to the small town of Ny-Ålesund, in Svalbard. An increase which I believe may be linked to a rather desperate attempt, by the People’s Church of the Divine Host, to perform a crude ritual of their own. To bring their… “Mr. Pitch”… into the world. […] You thought the final death of Maxwell Rayner might have sufficiently derailed them? Yes, that was my hope too, but alas it would seem not. […] I rather feel the real shame would be letting the entire world fall into Darkness because of a single person’s wounded pride. Detective. The stakes are far too high for that kind of… indulgence.

(MAG138) MARTIN: So why haven’t you helped him?! ELIAS: My relationship to the apocalypse is more… complicated. MARTIN: [UTTER DISBELIEF] Oh, seriously? ELIAS: Seriously.

TECHNICALLY, we only have Peter’s word that Elias wanted to launch ~his ritual~ because Elias was obviously Very Silent on the issue, but. What is your “relationship to the apocalypse”, Elias – is it just a matter of getting it the way you want it, or not at all…?

(In the way he answered Martin, it sounds almost as if he wouldn’t have been against The Extinction wrecking the world, hence his inaction but? He was probably implying that he had other plans to stop it which involved Beholding’s ritual?)

- Regarding Elias’s agenda:

(MAG122) BASIRA: Elias is locked up. […] A bunch of Section’d officers took him in. He made some sort of deal, I think. But… he’s not getting out anytime soon.

(MAG127) ELIAS: Our… arrangement with the Inspector notwithstanding, I… rather feel that right now all the distrust is very much your own. […] I’ve made it clear my cooperation’s contingent on his not seeing me, and my terms have been accepted thus far.

(MAG138) ELIAS: As for why I’ve done so little about such a looming existential threat… to be blunt, I have been rather busy. MARTIN: [BARELY CONTAINED SNORTING CHORTLE]

Was Elias talking about his activities while still running the Institute, or what he’s currently doing in prison? But oh yes:

(MAG138) MARTIN: Great. Great, great. So, what you’re [NERVOUS LAUGHTER] actually saying is that you’re gonna be… no help whatsoever! ELIAS: … Just like old times~ MARTIN: I don’t know what I expected. [INHALE] Right. Right, we’re done here.

Elias has always been a Very Busy Person.

- … And Peter Has A Very Busy Social Life apparently, too:

(MAG134) PETER: Right! Then, if you’ll excuse me, I have a family thing to get to. […] Okay! Now, I really am running late, so if you don’t mind?

(MAG138) MARTIN: … Peter? [SILENCE] Huh. Maybe he has gone to a party.

Technically, maybe he’s trying to make Martin feel Very Alone by showing off that he has a lot of things to attend, but still. Does anyone even realise he’s there.

- Have I mentioned that ELIAS FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGED PETER’S EXISTENCE? Incredible, I can’t believe, etc.

And he did it in the BEST POSSIBLE WAY:

(MAG138) ELIAS: Come on, Martin. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. Let’s not start with lies. MARTIN: [LOUD SIGH] Fine. ELIAS: I am so very pleased to see you. MARTIN: Mm-hmm. [SILENCE] ELIAS: No time for pleasantries? Very well, then. To business. What can I do for you? Tired of running budgets for Peter? I know I would be.

Absolutely unprompted and to gratuitously complain about Peter – ALSO, L-O-L ELIAS, “let’s not start with lies” but WHO is lying here. We ALL KNOW that you’re dying to do these budgets, that you’re probably doing them in your head a millisecond before Martin by watching him, seething that he’s doing YOUR precious scheduling and budgeting.

And

(MAG138) ELIAS: [INHALE] Everything Peter has told you is true. MARTIN: Oh… ELIAS: For all his… many faults, Peter is legitimately trying to stop the end of the world as we know it.

…………………. Listen. It’s getting harder and harder to keep in minde that they might NOT be marrying/divorcing for the sixth or seventh time. It sounds so much like bitter exes/nagging spouses………………………. And I mean………………… they deserve each other………….?

(Though, if season 4 is any indication: Elias’s true OTP is with hand gestures. He’s getting WORSE and WORSE with the chain rattling sound.)

Title for MAG139 is out and HHHHHHHHHHHHH once again. Immediate thoughts are for AGNES? AGNES? AGNES? PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE? (Reminder that The Desolation still hasn’t gotten a statement in season 4 so far~). Agnes statement from Gertrude’s stash…? (Is there a tape with Agnes’s voice, somewhere?) Or maybe about The Dark’s victims, to keep with the theme; Julia? Julia’s mother?

And second meaning could as well be about Martin, or more likely… Jon, very obviously. I guess ;;

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #tma season 4 #mag138 #tma liveblog #long post/

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just-tabletop-things · 6 years

Text

Everyone I Don’t Like is a Demon

When cultures meet, ideas clash. Once-solid beliefs crack against new worldviews. Members of the merging cultures are frightened. People struggle, often against one another, to make sense of a world they can no longer explain. Rather than throw more fuel on the fire, a humble few bring their thoughts forward. Perhaps together, they can discover a better way.

This would make a brilliant premise for a roleplaying game. Imagine characters with conflicting perspectives forced to work together; how their beliefs will clash, change, mix, diverge. Imagine a game where all the action is in service of exploring the ideological tensions between the characters.

I thought this was the premise of a tabletop RPG called Sig. The cover describes it as a game of planar fantasy that “focuses on confronting beliefs, changing perspectives and relationships”. I was invigorated when I imagined beings from disparate planes of existence challenging one another’s cultural assumptions while still trying to work together. I was violently disappointed.

When I create a Sig character, the book tells me to create a list of three “subjective and philosophical” beliefs that she holds to. (59) This is immediately a problem because there are no subjective philosophical beliefs in Sig. The setting predetermines which of your character’s beliefs are true.

Sig’s setting is the now-standard Great Wheel planescape cosmology. Each plane is “composed of some pure substance, and it’s why those substances can exist elsewhere in the ‘verse”. (6) Not only are there planes composed of physical substances like water, but also of “ideological” and “conceptual” substances like freedom and death. (7) This means that freedom, etc. are not just ideas. They are real objects that can be visited, studied, and understood.

So, once I’ve made my character’s list of starting beliefs, anyone at the table can look at it, cross-reference it with setting information in the book, and immediately know which beliefs will hold true and which will prove false. Let’s see what that would look like, using the example beliefs from the book:

1. Family is a chain to be broken - This is not true. In Sig, family and heredity are fluid. Your body and mind are formed by social ties rather than biological ones. Family is not a chain to be broken because it is not a chain at all. Family is exactly those people with whom you have the closest social connections, and that can change at any time. Not only is this belief untrue; it’s meaningless. 2. Violence is the best teacher - This is not true. The Teachers Guild in Sig is run by the Plane of Justice, which is more like the plane of Mercy or Charity (I’ll drill into that later). Needless to say the guild is thoroughly nonviolent. So not only is Mercy the best teacher, it actually employs all teachers. I’m not twisting words here. Remember that ideas objectively exist in this setting. The plane of Justice defines the concept of teaching, so mercy will always be a more effective teaching technique here than violence. 3. Only sinners need masks - This is not true. We can look to the plane of Shadow for this answer, because it governs illusions and the like. The nice gnomes who live on the plane of Shadow use the shadowsubstance to make beautiful jewelry. This means that illusions or “masking” are not just for deceivers, but for anyone who wants to present themselves well.

Now, a character could argue that she doesn’t care about the damn gnomes or what they think. The plane of shadow represents falsehood. That jewelry is literally made from lies, which are evil.

The plane of Shadow might cement the properties falsehood, but it doesn’t actually tell us if lying is wrong. As long as the setting doesn’t enforce a moral compass, our characters can still make subjective value judgements. So, what does Sig say about morality? Well, hold on to your political alignment charts, because things are about to get authoritarian.

The multiverse of Sig contains a ring of five “Ideological” planes, each of which represents a different interpretation of the concept of law. The opposed planes of Order and Freedom roughly represent the principles of organization and disorganization. They are exactly the planes of Law and Chaos from D&D.

The remaining three ideological planes concern moral law, and are all opposed to one another. These are the planes of Justice, Tyranny, and Destruction. In describing these planes, the author tips his ideological hand so severely that it makes me cackle with rage.

Let’s start with the plane of Justice. “In this place, law shields the weak from the abuse of the strong. In this place, reconciliation is stronger than retribution.” The race native to Justice is diverse, “vary[ing] in appearance from midnight-hued... to russet”. The god venerated on this plane is Myn, a little girl who travels the multiverse persuading the “complacent or comfortable” to repent of their acts of injustice. She accomplishes this by asking “a single query” that cuts her quarry to the heart and exposes their hypocrisy. (82-85)

The plane of Justice is a utopian world of progressive ideals. I’m about to tear into this thing, so don’t get the wrong idea that I’m bashing social justice. I think it’s a great idea to include a plane that represents the progressive moral compass. I think it’s a terrible idea to make that plane the exclusive source of moral goodness in the entire setting, which is what Sig does.

"Justice” means a lot of things to a lot of people. In Sig, it can only mean one thing: exactly what the author wants it to mean. This is a problem for any player (including a liberal one) who wants to explore a character with a conservative perspective: their beliefs are canonically unjust; and not just unjust: tyrannical.

Consider the plane of Tyranny. This plane seeks to “bring order and harmony to the universe through force of arms and strength of will”, “chain the forces of chaos”, and “offer redemption to those who wish it”. (87) Sounds interesting! I’m imagining Inglorious Basterds: planeswalker edition; I’m imagining Chris Hansen with shape-shifting powers. I’m ready.

With dark certitude, the author dismisses all this as “lies and propaganda”. Those who accept the offer of redemption “would only be trading one set of shackles for another,” as they join a race of demons responsible for the “eternal torture” of “writhing, screaming masses chained for crimes real and imagined”. The pages of this section are splattered with words like “dominance”, “brutal”, and “hatred”. (86-89)

This is the only treatment of anything resembling a conservative sense of justice in the entire game. So, what if my character believes bad guys belong behind bars? What should she do when she discovers these demons punishing people without cause? She can’t throw them in prison, because they run the prison. She couldn’t even get them a fair trial, because they run the lawyers’ guild too. She also couldn’t even reliably get them arrested because, I kid you not, all cops come from the plane of Destruction and all they care about is power. She can’t even argue that it’s unjust for the demons to avoid punishment, because the plane of Justice doesn’t want bad guys to be punished at all. The game is rigged to ensure that conservative-leaning beliefs are impossible to defend.

I’m not saying Sig should be rewritten from a conservative perspective. It shouldn’t be. If your goal is to tell good stories about changing beliefs, your world must be inviting to people of diverse ideologies, including ones you hate. You have to present a world that, like ours, invites itself to be plausibly interpreted within many different worldviews. This grants the ability to understand another’s perspective, which is what makes stories about disagreement compelling.

Sig never encourages the reader to consider its multiverse from different angles, or to question the reliability of the one describing it. Characters’ beliefs are constantly challenged, but they can only change to agree more with those of the game designer. Despite its denunciation of domination in the Tyranny section, Sig creates its own relationship of domination between the author and the players.

It’s that hypocrisy that makes Sig unbearable to me. Consider the god of Tyranny, Kalzak the Absolute. In his description, the hypocrisy of this game is on shocking display:

“Kalzak earned his infernal title, Demon-god of Moral Absolutes [except for the moral absolute of justice presented in this game?], through toil and bloodshed in the infernal bureaucracy. He rules from a tower of skulls where his scribes engrave new laws on the bones of living victims. He infects the slumbering primes [earth-like worlds] with a single toxic idea, that anyone different [like people who have different worldviews than you] is dangerous. His servants fan the flames of racism [never mind the objectively evil race of demons on Tyranny], of prejudice [like the ruthlessly grotesque portrait of conservatism presented here], and of bigotry [such as the complete unwillingness to lend even a scrap of dignity to people who disagree with you] in the hope of triggering bloody wars [like the arguments and fights that a rigid ideology inevitably produces]. Once the smoke settles, Kalzak invites the most hateful and harmful souls to join his retinue.” (89)

Sig claims that Justice is a place where reconciliation is stronger than retribution. How can there be reconciliation if you demonize all perspectives but your own? Isn’t it basically the definition of retribution to portray your enemies as demons who engrave unjust laws on the bones of living victims?

Is it justice to dehumanize your ideological opposites instead of working to understand them?

If I’ve misunderstood something about the ideology behind this book, I want to understand. From my perspective this game just looks hateful, hypocritical, and domineering. From my perspective, this does not look like justice.

I think the central problem of our culture right now is not one ideology or another but that people hold to their ideologies without listening to others. I think instead of demonizing each other we need to humbly work together to better understand ourselves, each other, and our world. That doesn’t mean we have to give up our convictions. It means we have to learn to have productive conversations. This whole demon thing does not strike me as a productive conversation.

I strive to follow the convictions that Jesus lived by. I think they are convictions that everyone can learn from: if you want love to conquer hate, you have to start by loving the people who hate you; you have to start by loving the people that you hate.

#tabletop rpgs #roleplaying games #review #ttrpgs #sig rpg

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titleknown · 7 years

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The Horrid Spider is a common but often misunderstood clade of the Arachnida, related to the common Arachnida but its own separate clade from “normal” spiders, related more to the ancient euriptids than any of the current arachnids, though their abilities are remarkably similar to the Areanae (IE, producing venom; webs) thanks to convergent evolution, with a parasitoidal lifestyle granting them far higher neurological capacity than typical arthropods; akin to the intelligence of a dog.

They have a high capacity for specialized evolution thanks to the way the obscenely massive amount of neurology their hosts have combines with the neurological efficiency of the arthropoda, and here are multiple examples of such individuals...

Ghoulspiders: A specialized morph of the species inhabiting areas adjacent to radioactive minerals, they direct their host towards deposits of these minerals with a form of neurological impulse towards pica. The host often expires well before the arachnid reaches full maturation due to the poisoning involved.

The Ghoulspider is actually quite peaceful for its species, much less aggressive due to the fact that its radiovoric nature means it does not require meat for sustenance, only consuming plant matter now and again for various necessary matter it may transmute into nutrients. It is, of course, deathly toxic to those individuals who become adjacent to it, but this is not due to malice on the creature’s part.

Certain individuals have bred them as a weapon of terror, in tactics that no doubt international criminal courts will be working out for years to come.

Nightmare Spiders: These are perhaps the most troubling of all the forms of this creature, as they do not keep court in conventional matter, but rather in ectoplasmic-etherial ones. It is said the evolution of this species came from the infection of a powerful psychic human with Horrid Spider eggs, who went mad before his astral body was able to wrest control from the infectious creature, and which took on a warped form akin to this creature before the mental fusion simply scuttled away to infect more.

Born from the psionically sensitive, it feeds on fear and weilds enormous psychic powers despite having no true physical body except the wispy immaterial on the ethereal plane, which is the only place where it may be injured aside from the much less likely route of inter-dream combat. While they appear tiny on the etherial plane, they are gargantuan in their realm of nightmares, where they feed, and at times may deign to reproduce.

High Spiders: These creatures are only slightly larger than the usual spiders they take after, but are distinguished by their human-level intelligence, distinctive colors, fanciful dress, and quite civilized manners. They dress in gorgeous adornments; in particular those that conceal their human half; and they speak in adorable squeaking tones.

The resin and web constructed cities they make boggle the mind, and their heavily alchemy/magic-based technology is simple, yet brilliant, and they hold quite the excellent parties and are generally quite friendly; genteel souls. Their only flaw; their great shame as a species; is that they must kill sentient beings to reproduce still.

They do say they only use the dying and those who would be killed anyway, and they do make a good try of doing so. Emphasis on the word try…

Tomb Spyder: Not resting in human skulls, this legendarily royalty-bred type was created by kings to nest in the mystical alchemist-summoned Brazen Heads [Writer’s Note: Those were an actual historical myth, go look them up] to guard tombs and store the knowledge therein for reconstruction should the tomb fade or disappear.

Their floodlight-eyes can illuminate, reveal that hidden by magic, or simply blast with a mixture of holy and unholy energies that round down to morally ambiguous blasts. They are dedicated to their job, and will relentlessly hunt those that defile their dwellings, though if one comes simply seeking knowledge, they are completely willing and eager to grant it; aside from that which their masters commanded them not to reveal...

Mountain Spiders: A subspecies incubated in the Languedire Mountains, where great stone heads of rare minerals grow naturally like plantlife, this species has been able to peacefully incubate within these stone heads, integrating themselves with their geology to create an incredibly efficient metabolism and a shockingly high; if unorthodox; intelligence via neural integration with the heads’ mineral structures

They are approximately the size of the ancient sauropods, and wander slowly, grazing on vegetable and animal alike, but peaceably. They do tend to make a point of avoiding sapient beings, leading to speculation that they may be sapient themselves. But, if they are, they keep it to themselves. They don’t seem to have much to say.

War Spiders: A sub-species of the High Spiders, these were a warrior cult sickened by the “soft” lifestyle of their brethren who left to return to their roots of killing, who it is said trained so deeply that their bodies merged with the armors and weapons they so fetishized.

They want not for heads to birth in, for that is a part of the price almost always consistent in their work as mercenaries. Their skills with their inbuilt blades is beyond compare, and the way they integrate their chitinous and steely tissues with their host head further than other species has granted them frightening regeneration beyond other species; along with enhanced growth to roughly the size of a small car.

Merchant Spider: There is only one Merchant Spider, an individual who is said to be a rare color morph of the High Spyder. She is friendly, a brilliant conversationalist, and will rob you blind if you let her. Do not trust her.

Integra Spiders: A species that suggests there may be a better way for the Horrid Spider Race, this subspecies represents a full integration of the human form and the spider’s, the spider’s sentience being symbiotic with the original rather than subsuming it, and giving the humanoid form all the Spider’s typical abilities combined with human resilience; albeit altering it into a body type more akin to the pictured chitinous; thicker; hermaphroditic form no matter what the previous sex of the host was.

The merger is almost always willing, by those who are outcasts in their communities, and the individual consciousnesses tend to perceive each other as akin to siblings; and tend to work towards their own; independent goals; which they can far more easily accomplish than any other human due to being near immortal. Many have cited the idea that they “breathe through their skin” as the reason why they so often shun clothing, but this is often viewed as an excuse, given by those individuals who prefer nudity for other reasons.

Spider God Sacrifine: Said to have uplifted the species from near extinction, this being lives like a heartbeat in the minds of all his species; constantly moving and hunting so quickly as to be invincible; with a hall of heads of lesser gods said to lie at the core of the world below the Languedire Mountains that he changes like shells.

He acts through his worshippers sometimes through subtle implication; sometimes through direct control, though even the High Spiders who shun him hear his heartbeat and hear his hunger in their minds, imploring them to gnaw, to kill.

God Spider Metabond: The first of the Integra Spiders, borne from a woman who hated Sacrifine and from the egg of the first High Spider Queen before she was slain by agents of Sacrifice through multitudes of molts she has grown into her gargantuan form.

She is rushing too, across the globe, to find a better way, but has only truly been seen when fighting Sacrifine, where they stop, two great forces clashing unbending, and when in the minds of all the Horrid Spider species; the heartbeat stops in their minds, and they can see something better in the distance…

Welp, while I didn’t win, or even get shown as a runner-up, I figured I might as well use the opportunity to show off all my Spider designs and, for the first time ever, the full worldbuilding deets there!

And, while the original picture/asset belongs to the creators of the Horrid Spider, all original elements, concepts, ect are hereby released under a CC-BY 4.0 License, Free TO Use As You See Fit in any way, as long as I, Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

Have fun, and thank god for Jim Sterling, even if I didn’t get a runner-up, because man was the competition fierce!

#jim sterling #the jimquisition #thank god for jim #horrid spider #horrid spider contest #my art #my shoops #GIMP #photoshop #worldbuilding #open species #open source character #open source characters

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mariabblackyr2 · 5 years

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Nothing Is Original (and thats ok) - Lecture Notes & Set Task

Aims for lecture: to start to think about originality, to think about the concept of what a copy is and how this might impact my practice. Also to begin to think about the terms pastiche and appropriation.

Palimpsest - a literal description of a physical object “ Paper, parchment, or other writing material designed to be reusable after any writing on it has been erased”

By the 19th century the definition had to be tightened and was then referred to ‘a manuscript in which later writing had been superimposed on earlier writing’

During the 1800’s the word also evolved into a metaphor - with it retaining traces of its earlier form.

What is Originality? - How do we define it? Should we try and purse originality? Does it even exist? If so what does it look like?

The Artist as a Conman - Wolfgang Beltracchi - in open prison, the thrill of the crime, painted exact copies of famous painters and sold them as the artists not his, shouldn't look at a painting to say this is this or that.

So why does it matter? Where are I going? And Why should you listen?

Everything is - uncanny, a hoax, theft, deja-vu, appropriation - nothing is every original - everything is re-appropriated.

To define something it can be easier to compare it to its opposites, for example to define appropriation art you can compare them to forgery to see similarities - so re-appropriation is using a piece of work again in your own style whilst forgery is right off copying.

Historical Context - This idea of copying stems from artist apprenticeships where they would be trained to be artists by copying their ‘masters’ - a necessary formation as part of artist training.

The practice can also be traced back to cubist collage - from works such as Picasso and Braque (1912)

As well as this the theme of surrealism follows ideas of copying and forgery in works done by artists such as Salvador Dali, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg

Alongside this Marchel Duchamp - presents everyday objects.

Appropriation within art practice:

The deliberate production of another artists work

Artists copying artworks for their own artistic expression

It involves adopting intellectual property from elsewhere

Borrows images, styles, forms from art history or pop culture

Evolved around the 1960’s and then peaked in the 80’s

Appropriation - or making artworks using already existing artworks

Terms around The readymade, pastiche, parody, stealing, simulation

Appropriation :

Pastiche, Parody and the Remake

Postmodernism has been characterized by new creations as well as the sense that everything that is ‘new’ has been done before.

Postmodernism asks the question, ‘can there ever be new ideas and images’ Will anything ever be any different from what has come before. However, does any creation or trend have to be new, does it really matter?

In today's day and age the world consists of a huge variety of images that are remakes or copies of each other- with pop culture, art and architecture the concept of an image being original has been thoroughly subverted.

A key term used to describe the culture of imitation, copying and parodying is pastiche. The film theorists Richard Dyer has written the way to understand pastiche is as an ‘imitation that announces itself as such and that involves combining elements from other sources.’

According to Dyer collage, montage - a style of composing that combines elements from different places - within imitating we can find different combinations and relationships to the original text

Pastiche can be a form of play

Photographers who explore re-appropriation:

John Strezkar - uses found images to create collages and montages which recreate the original narrative of the photographs.

Jeff Wall - Wall created the photograph titled ‘A Sudden Gust of Wind’ which is remarkably similar to a Japanese Painting.

Levine says ‘ the world is filled to suffocating. Man has placed his token on every stone.every word, every image, is leased mortgaged. We know that a picture is but a space in which a variety of images, none of them original, blend and clash.’

Levine's work questions the ownership of art and what originality really is. Her image our famous for being is a blatant violation of their copyright.

Originality - ‘the action of mechanical reproduction effectively diminishes the concept of originality’.

The mass, mechanical reproducibility of art has reduced its authenticity

Mass production removes what he calls the aura - a sort of unique authority - from the work.

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.

The Death of the Author - Barthes extended this concept of ‘The Death of the Author’ to question originality and authenticity - he talked about how any text or image did not emit a fixed meaning from one person but yet a range of quotations that were references to yet other text.

Igor Stravinksy - was writing ballet - corrected scores of classic manuscript - borrowing baselines whilst adding his own harmonies - ‘how dare you do that to the classics’ - you respect but i love

Kleon loves newspapers - daily dispatch of human experience

The artist as the collector - collects selectively - collect ideas

‘Stole words from the newspaper’ blocked out words on the page that he didn’t need to create a poem.

Published a book

Thought he was ripping off government censorship - however work was said to be unoriginal

Tom Philips - uses books - paints and draws over the page leaving words floating on pages

Philips got it from William Burroughs who had a cut up writing technique

Burroughs got it from Brion Gysin who was a painter cut through newspapers - poetry

Tristin Tzara - cut up newpaper put pieces in hat them read them as a poem

Caleb Whitefoord - read across newspapers - funny combinations - published broadsheet

Kleon - idea ‘unoriginal’ - nothing is original - all creative work builds on what came before - every new idea is a remix of previous ideas

We are remix of ancestors - a genealogy ideas exists also - friends, books, music - mashup of what you let into your life

Stealing what meant something to him - expose yourself to the best things humans have done them bring them into what you're doing

Good artists copy - great artists steal

All art is theft - bad poets steal and de-face it

youtube

Set Task

For the set task I did some research into Richard Prince as well as looking at the book Appropriation to further explore theory and ideas around the topic.

Appropriation - Documents of contemporary art

‘ Pictures’ showcased artists who re photographed works

‘The death of the Author’ - ‘questions the notion of originality’

Appropriation art was justified via the ideas of Jean Baudrillard - merging reality with media's representation of reality itself

Happened around postmodernism

Influential galleries for appropriation -Metro Pictures and Sonnabend

Artists who debated postmodernism

Took place largely in the 1970’d/1980’s.

Barthes and Foucault were ‘ taken up by postmodernism to construct a critical space for works using appropriated imagery and stereotypes, largely through photography.

Jean Baudrillard

‘The simulacrum is never what hides the truth - it is the truth that hides the fact that there is none. The simulacrum is true’ - an image or representation of someone or something that is not true - links in with Richard - simulacrum is a fable - it is fake

Richard Prince never wanted to copy but create a resemblance

The technique is how you manage and reproduce the image - Prince disassociate’s from the images original intentions

A late 20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism, which represent a departure from modernism and is characterised by the self conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

Richard Prince

‘What Richard is doing is questionably legal, but even if something is legal and ‘starts a dialogue’ it doesn’t mean you should actually do it.’

An infamous appropriation artist

He re-photographs, scans and manipulates the works of others

Draws his subjects from subcultures and cultural cliches

Shows how we accept stereotypes and messages from marketing - how we rely on the icons that are created by marketing such as instagram. - reproduces cliches of advertising - revelling that the messages and images are fiction

Taking things from the original environment such as a screen shot - the familiar becomes unfamiliar and uncomfortable - inviting the viewer to criticize

Has had multiple lawsuits due to the ‘borrowing’ of work.

Prompts others to think about the ownership of art and question what is art

Has created a series of works appropriating peoples instagram posts - repurposing them by changing the caption then hanging them on a gallery wall - controversial due to - captions provoking thoughts around current issues

Distorts the idea of owning something

When working for time-life he used advertising images then cropped them down to create his own images - ‘it was used to create a fiction, but it had come from a truth’ - creates a different meaning for advertising photography

Known for rephotographing Marlboro cigarette advertisements then re-titled them.

links:

https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/9602/the-new-exhibition-examining-appropriation-in-art

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/18/instagram-artist-richard-prince-selfies

https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/46679/1/richard-prince-causes-controversy-instagram-appropriation-art-artwork-theft

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/arts/design/richard-prince-instagram-copyright-lawsuit.html

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/prince-richard/

#contextualstudies

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starfriday · 8 years

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CHIPS, directed by Dax Shepard is releasing across cinemas in India on March 24th, 2017.

Dax Shepard (“Hit & Run,” TV’s “Parenthood”) and Michael Peña (“Ant-Man”) star in the action comedy “CHIPS,” directed by Shepard from his own script.

Jon Baker (Shepard) and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Peña) have just joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Los Angeles, but for very different reasons. Baker is a beaten-up former pro motorbiker trying to put his life and marriage back together. Poncherello is a cocky undercover Federal agent investigating a multi-million dollar heist that may be an inside job—inside the CHP.

The inexperienced rookie and the hardened pro are teamed together, but clash more than click, so kick-starting a real partnership is easier said than done. But with Baker’s unique bike skills and Ponch’s street savvy it might just work��if they don’t drive each other crazy first.

“CHIPS” also stars Rosa Salazar (“Insurgent”), Adam Brody (“Think Like a Man Too”), Kristen Bell (“Bad Moms”), and Vincent D’Onofrio (“Jurassic World”).

The film was produced by Andrew Panay (“Earth to Echo,” “Wedding Crashers”), who previously produced Shepard’s “Hit & Run,” and Ravi Mehta (“Get Hard”), and is based on the popular television series created by Rick Rosner. Robert J. Dohrmann, Nate Tuck, Rick Rosner, Michael Peña and Dax Shepard served as executive producers.

Collaborating behind the scenes were director of photography Mitchell Amundsen (“Ride Along 2”), production designer Maher Ahmad (“Hangover 3”), editor Dan Lebental (“Ant-Man”), costume designer Diane Crooke (TV’s “Parenthood”) and composer Fil Eisler (“Empire”).

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, an Andrew Panay Production, “CHIPS” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

ABOUT THE MOVIE

SEX, DRUGS & HIGHWAY PATROL

What happens when you team up a former X-Games star with a busted-up body and a painkiller habit, and an over-sexed undercover Fed with too much confidence, give them each a badge and a bike and set them loose on the sun-baked highways of Southern California?

CHIP happens.

More to the point, if you’re writer/director Dax Shepard, you deliver a buddy cop comedy loaded with enough action, stunts and hard-R humor to push it to the legal limit.

Shepard also stars as Jon, opposite Michael Peña as his partner, Ponch. “This is about two very different guys with vastly different agendas and skill sets, who have to learn how to ride together, pick up the slack for each other and ultimately trust each other with their lives,” Shepard says. And if that sounds a little high-minded, “It also has nudity—though granted, mostly of me—and epic chases, destruction, and explosions. I don’t think we went more than three days on this movie without blowing something up. The action is real, the jumps are real and the fights are almost real.”

In other words, this ain’t your parents’ “CHIPS.”

Jon Baker is a newly minted officer of the California Highway Patrol, CHP for short. Jon’s a mess. But, fueled by optimism, prescription meds and a single-minded desire to make good and win back his ex-wife, he’s ready to face any challenge or humiliation with everything he’s got. For now, that means playing it by the book, keeping his nose clean and writing lots of tickets. Just one problem: he’s stuck on day one with a take-charge partner who doesn’t give a damn about any of that.

Francis Llewellyn Poncherello, aka Ponch, is actually Miami FBI agent Castillo, a guy with a big success rate and the swagger to match. He also has a pathological weakness for women, especially women in yoga pants, which is a much bigger problem now that has to straddle a bike every day. Perpetually cocked and locked, he’s in L.A. undercover to smoke out a dirty-cop robbery ring inside the CHP.

Of course Jon doesn’t know this up front, including the fact that he was picked as Ponch’s partner only because they figured he was too green to ask questions. Or get in the way.

But when things get real out there, these two newest members of the force have to find a way to get past each other’s bulls**t and get on with it, because they have only each other to rely on.

Producer Andrew Panay, who collaborated with Shepard on the 2012 romantic action comedy “Hit & Run,” signed up for the ride as soon as he read the script. “It’s incredibly funny, and wall-to-wall action,” he says. “The comedy is edgy and the action is a little throwback because it’s not a lot of visual effects. We did most of the stunts in-camera, and Dax does a lot of his own stunts, so it feels authentic.”

“I can think of a lot of movies that are funny but I don’t remember the action, or it was just background,” says Peña. “This is obviously a comedy, but Dax wanted the jokes and the stunts to work together so when we transition into the action sequences there’s validity to it. He really gets the setups and the payoffs and how to break down the characters so people can relate.”

It helped that Shepard was writing about something he loves—motorcycles—and that he knew the players. “I started this project knowing Michael and I were Ponch and Jon, so I could play to our strengths. A lot of times you’re writing in a vacuum because you don’t know the cast, but I could be more specific here. My passion is motorcycles and cars, so I knew we’d be doing a lot of riding, and that gave me the freedom to write scenes where we’re talking trash over a chase. All of that definitely informed the kind of story I was going to tell.”

Shepard was committed to showcase a range of stunts with high-performance machines. “I wanted great motorcycle action from a variety of disciplines, so we have motocross-style stunts, road race stunts, drifting, a lot of different things,” he lays out. “We needed bikes that could jump and corner tight with amazing speed and braking, bikes that could handle stairs. But I couldn’t do those things on stock CHP bikes because the logic wouldn’t hold up. The bad guys could have whatever they wanted, and that was a completely different vibe, but I had to figure out how to get Jon and Ponch onto cool motorcycles to catch up with them. That introduced the premise of Ponch being undercover FBI.”

The writer/director also took a page from his own life by giving Jon the need to figure out what makes people tick. “Jon’s always trying to understand why he does what he does. I’m very much interested in what drives me, or what drives other people, so that became a part of the character,” Shepard explains. That translates into Jon trying to analyze his hug-averse partner, or, say, figure out why Ponch requires so much “alone time” in the bathroom multiple times a day…

A running joke in the film, Jon’s touchy-feely observations contrast with Ponch’s more down-and-dirty commentary, like the way he has to enlighten his out-of-circulation partner on the current sexual scene—namely certain back door maneuvers Jon had no idea had gone mainstream.

Either way, what it boils down to is them being themselves. And being guys. “Ponch and Jon come from opposite directions on so many things,” says producer Ravi Mehta. “Not only tight-lipped versus TMI, but Jon’s a stickler for the rules and Ponch likes to fly by the seat of his pants, so they start out not clicking at all. But once they’re through fighting it, and let their guards down, they actually feed off of how different they are. That’s when it becomes more of a bromance and a true partnership.”

That means owning their screw-ups as much as merging their talents.

Citing the inspiration he drew from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s TV series created by Rick Rosner, who is now one of the film’s executive producers, Shepard says, “To me, the key elements of that show were the setting, the bikes, and the fact that Jon and Ponch were heroes.” And as much as those characters were unique to the show, his Jon and Ponch are different. This is a new incarnation, with its own personality—a big-screen “CHIPS” for a new generation that takes the stunts, action, and comedy further than the small screen would allow.

It wouldn’t be the CHP without Southern California. “The CHP is emblematic of California and we worked incredibly hard to keep this production in Los Angeles,” says Mehta. “We made sure L.A. was featured in the art direction and the action, so audiences will see parts of the downtown area as well as beaches and deserts. There’s even a chase through pine trees in the Angeles National Forest.”

“Growing up in Detroit, where it was overcast a lot and freezing cold, I loved L.A.-based films,” says Shepard. “For me it was a two-hour vacation to sunny SoCal.”

But this take on California living is far from laid-back. “The story is constantly moving,” says Vincent D’Onofrio, who stars as Lieutenant Ray Kurtz, a veteran cop with the power to make a whole lot of trouble for the new recruits. “It wows you with the action and the motorcycle scenes. Then so many of these actors are also great comedians and they’re just killing it.”

The “CHIPS” main starring cast includes Adam Brody as Clay Allen, an FBI agent Castillo shoots “accidentally on purpose” in Miami before taking this West Coast gig as Ponch. His arm in a sling, the still-pissed-off Allen follows Castilo to L.A. as the bureau’s point person on the case. Rosa Salazar also stars as CHP officer Ava Perez, who shares Jon’s love of hot bikes…and possibly other things, if only he’d get with the program.

Not surprisingly, “CHIPS” bears little resemblance to the day-to-day lives of actual CHP officers, some of whom worked with the production to keep everyone safe during their location shoots on active roadways. “The officers on set with us were great sports,” says Shepard. “It goes without saying, we have nothing but respect for the job that law enforcement does every day to keep us safe in the real world. Everything we did was to the extreme and played for entertainment.”

In fact, there was a great deal of cooperation between the CHP and the filmmaking team, from informal pre-production meetings over the content and logistics of the script to a tour of the organization’s Sacramento training facility. “During the shoot, they gave us escorts on scouts, which gave us freeway access that would have otherwise been nearly impossible to secure,” Panay recounts. The filmmakers were even granted access to the CHP headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, which, he adds, “was something we had been hoping for and was the pinnacle of our working relationship.”

But in case there’s any doubt about what audiences are in for, “CHIPS” opens with this friendly disclaimer: This film is not endorsed by the California Highway Patrol. At all.

TO SERVE AND BRO-TECT

The oldest rookie to ever join the force, as his supervisor points out, Jon Baker may not seem like an obvious candidate for the job—that is, until his fellow recruits see him ride. Clearly, “The Baker” is still a force to content with on the road, but, says Shepard, “As an X-Games motocross competitor he had sponsors and fans; he had the money and the glory and the great life. That’s all over now. He’s had about 20 surgeries, broken a lot of bones, and he’s not in the best physical shape. He’s in a transition period.”

Mostly, Jon is still reeling from the breakup of his marriage. Karen, played by Shepard’s real-life wife Kristen Bell, is a trophy from his heyday that he can’t let go. He’s convinced he can get her back once he gets out of his slump, so he continues to live in the tiny guest room behind the luxury home they once shared, and that Karen still occupies, just to remain close. And, in spite of her total lack of interest, Shepard offers, “he continues to attend couples therapy. Alone.”

At the same time, the former star athlete is focusing on a new career path he hopes will make his ex take notice. The only thing he really knows how to do is ride a motorcycle, so he picks a profession for which that advantage might tip the odds in his favor.

But, whatever his motives, Shepard notes, “It turns out that once they decide to give him a badge, he takes this job very seriously.”

Not so with Ponch. In his mind, this ace fed is just passing through. He’s here to wrap up his assignment, hang up his helmet and go home. The truth is, Ponch’s high-profile cases have created some high-profile collateral damage, and sending him to California was good for the bureau in more ways than one. Sure, he’s here to break up this insider ring. But, since he was caught sexting with the wife of a drug kingpin he just busted in Miami, it would also be better for everyone if he was out of town, and out of touch, during the trial.

“Yeah, he’s a little bit of a sex addict,” Peña acknowledges.

“I actually like some of Ponch’s quirks,” the actor continues. “He’s kind of clumsy, for one. He thinks he can do anything, so, even though he can’t really ride a bike that well, he’s always pushing that limit. His ego gets in the way and sometimes he crashes. But beyond that, he’s capable at what he does and he’s really focused on the case, and I like that about him.”

Peña’s portrayal, Mehta feels, “preserves the machismo of the character while bringing a whole level of comedy to it with these very human flaws.”

For Shepard, “I couldn’t see anyone but Michael in this role. He’s a phenomenal actor and effortlessly charismatic, even when he needs to be angry or embarrassed.”

Matched up with Jon, it’s a sure bet he’s gonna be angry and embarrassed a lot.

What Ponch expects in a partner is someone who can follow orders, keep his mouth shut and not draw too much attention. Unfortunately, none of those things describe Jon. On the other hand, Jon’s ideal partner would be a generally more easygoing guy who knows how to take a bunny hill without rolling off his ride, and is open to a little meaningful conversation from time to time.

“So much of the story is about their dynamic,” says Peña. “Ponch is very logical and focused on the present, and Jon is more in tune with his feelings and about fixing his marriage, like he’s always ‘three beers too deep’ with the intimacy.”

To his credit, Ponch comes to grudgingly acknowledge Jon’s instincts as a detective, not to mention his insane skills on two wheels. As they continue to work together, with all the minute-by-minute sacrifices and real heroism that entails, they begin to understand more about each other. “Ponch starts to meet Jon in the middle and maybe even attempt a more emotional point of view, and it’s funny to watch him try out this completely unfamiliar approach,” he adds.

The bottom line is, they have a job to do. Someone in the CHP has been running a series of armored car robberies with black-and-whites and motorcycles, in broad daylight, to the tune of millions of dollars. And that’s not all. There was a suspicious suicide at one of the recent heists, which gives the guys their first promising lead. The questions are: who in the department is involved? Who knows what’s going on and who doesn’t?

Their investigation soon turns toward Ray Kurtz, played by Vincent D’Onofrio. Whether or not he proves to be one of the cops they’re after, no one denies that Kurtz is one scary dude.

As D’Onofrio sees it, “Kurtz has been around a long time and he’s a bit of a hardass, but he’s also a really good cop and I think everyone on his team respects him. He’s in a tough situation and he has to get out of it. Whenever I play characters like this, I don’t play them necessarily as good guys or bad guys but just people. I feel for his situation and the difficult things he has to do, to get what he needs done, and that’s his part of the story.

“He has a problem with Ponch right away, and goes after him,” D’Onofrio goes on to reveal, “but there are also moments of lightness where they’re talking back and forth and it’s just crazy and funny. We did different versions, from super funny to serious, because my character has issues and you don’t know what’s going to work and how far you can go.”

As Jon and Ponch dig deeper into the case and find new ways to run afoul of Kurtz, they also catch the attention of officers Ava Perez and Lindsey Taylor—played by Rosa Salazar and Jessica McNamee. Lindsey calls Ponch for herself, while Ava sets her sights on fellow bike enthusiast Jon. At least that’s what he thinks when she invites him on an off-road excursion.

Extenuating circumstances would never stand between Ponch and a hot date, but with Jon it’s more complicated. At the first hint of Ava’s interest, he launches into full disclosure. Says Salazar, “It’s touching that he wants to repair his marriage and says so. He’s like an open wound, vulnerable, but in a nice way. Ava likes that, and she’s obviously attracted to him but she’s a brass-tacks type of woman, very straightforward and real, and what she actually says is, ‘Get over yourself. I just asked you to go for a ride.’”

“It’s important that Ava have the upper hand on Jon at all times,” Shepard comments. “She’s witty and sarcastic, cool and tough. She loves motorcycles and she loves being a cop. I worked with Rosa on ‘Parenthood’ and she’s wonderful. She brings great ideas to the table.”

On reading the script, Salazar recalls, “It was the funniest thing I’d read in forever but that’s not surprising because Dax is the funniest guy you’ll ever meet.” About the action, she thought, “I’m gonna get so hurt on this movie. I’m going to be jumping over barriers and there’s fire, and fights, and helicopters. But I love action-comedy and Dax assured me it would all be safe and it really was a blast.”

Ponch, meanwhile, heats things up with Lindsey. “I get to kick ass and chase bad guys around,” McNamee says. “The relationship Lindsey strikes up with Ponch is kind of unlikely and unexpected, so it’s cool to play into all of that. Jon and Ponch certainly come in and shake things up. I think for Ava and Lindsey there’s a kind of ‘fresh meat’ instinct to it, but they also find them endearing and charming in their own odd little ways.’”

Throughout all of this, Ponch touches base with his former FBI colleague turned bureau contact Clay Allen. Supposedly calling the shots on the case, Allen mostly ends up eating Ponch’s dust after arriving five minutes late to the party every time. It’s a role based largely on “anger and indignation,” observes Adam Brody. “When Allen and Castillo—now Ponch—were working together in Miami, things went south. Ponch shot a suspect through Allen’s shoulder and he’s still mad about it. He feels that wasn’t necessary.”

Shepard credits Brody’s expressions and keen timing for elevating the role beyond his expectations. “He’s just so funny and so quick—anything you throw at him, he will say it in such a way that immediately makes it twice as entertaining.”

Adds Brody, “At first, it looked like the part was mostly playing straight man for Ponch, but when I arrived on set it was, no, what they want is for Allen to be an idiot. And I really liked that, because I love playing an idiot.”

“Dax’s dialogue is amazing, so we had all these well drawn characters on the page,” says Panay, “but what we looked for in assembling this fantastic cast were actors who could also push the comedy in their own way. Dax likes everyone to open up and swing big.”

Also suiting up for the “CHIPS” cast is Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Ponch’s FBI boss, Peterson, who runs the gamut from disgusted and ticked off to full-on apoplectic. But he still manages to find laughs in anything that puts his least-favorite employee on the hot seat. Jane Kazcmarek is Ponch’s supervisor Captain Lindel, a woman with a shockingly relaxed sense of protocol; Richard T. Jones is officer Parish, the wrong man with whom to pick a fight; David Koechner is Pat, a wrestling trainer who doesn’t appreciate Jon’s unconventional technique; and actor/environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. takes an ironic turn in the unlikeliest role his fans could imagine, for reasons that will be obvious the instant he speeds into frame … in a Ferrari.

Kristen Bell dives into the role of Jon Baker’s carefree ex, Karen, the undeserving object of his self-improvement efforts. Marking her fourth big-screen collaboration with Shepard, Bell says, “Karen needs to be the person audiences don’t want for Jon. They should be shouting, ‘No, don’t do it!’ Karen is vain and all about appearances, and she thinks she’s the ultimate prize. Things started going south in their marriage the day he stopped placing first in his events. That’s the kind of person she is.

“Dax almost didn’t cast me,” Bell contiues. “After he wrote the role, he sat me down and said, ‘I’m not positive you can be as unlikable as I need you to be for this,’ which I took both as a compliment and an insult,” she laughs. “Because I can be very unlikable.”

SETTING EACH OTHER RIGHT

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

To boost the level of action on “CHIPS,” from bridges to bathtubs, Shepard reunited with renowned stunt performer Steve De Castro. De Castro, who first served as stunt coordinator for him on “Hit & Run,” enlisted pros as well as the best stunt riders to execute the trickiest and most spectacular maneuvers. Also on board were special effects coordinator Larz Anderson, production designer Maher Ahmad, and cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen.

“With Mitch, you get kinetic action; the camera is always moving. He’s a cowboy,” says Ravi Mehta, who had worked with Amundsen and knew he would be a good fit. “Selecting key department heads is just like casting, you have to put the right pieces together.”

“He shot a ‘Bourne,’ he shot ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Transformers,’” Shepard offers in short, “so this is a guy who’s been in that pursuit vehicle and operating a crane for hundreds of hours. I had a very accomplished team all around. We were in very good hands.”

Shepard kept the action as real as possible. “That was our whole approach. The most we did digitally was to swap out a bike, so generally if you see something happening on screen, it happened,” he confirms. “Everything the motorcycles do in this movie was actually done by someone. And as much as I could put myself or Michael into it, I would. For example, we got Michael to do his own burnout in a scene and it got a fantastic reaction from him.”

The film opens with a bank robbery, shootout and pursuit through the crowded streets of Long Beach, which doubled for Ponch’s home town of Miami. In the driver’s seat of the lead car, Ponch makes no distinction between the road and the sidewalk. For audiences, it’s an intro to the ride they are embarking on, and to Ponch a sign of things to come, as this chase is the prelude to a bigger and crazier one set in Los Angeles.

The L.A. sequence begins with Jon and Ponch after a suspect in a residential neighborhood that opens onto city streets, then takes them up and down a parking structure, across the beach and into the L.A. river basin before culminating on Downtown’s 4th Street Bridge. There, all hell breaks loose with cars and motorcycles, a helicopter, a SWAT Humvee, a motorhome in the wrong place at the wrong time and yes, even a bicycle cop.

De Castro outlines one of this scene’s key beats: “We had 100 stunt performers and extras on the beach, with bikes jumping into the sand, going through volleyball nets and heading up a sand dune. As Jon and the bad guy hit the berm, the bad guy is in front and spins a 180 in mid air, then shoots at Jon’s leg. That’s X-Games gold medalist Lance Coury. It’s a 75-foot jump. When you see the bike spin around it’s what they call a turndown, but he’s doing it one-handed, which he’d never done before. Then following him over the gap is Dave Castillo, an AMA pro rider who won the Motocross 500. For them to jump 75 feet and so close to each other, with Lance turning the bike 180 degrees, it’s just incredible.”

Production closed the 4th Street Bridge for the melee and mash-up between the Hummer and the bulky motorhome. “Dax wanted to do it practically so we drove a stock H1 Hummer straight through a stock RV at 45 miles an hour,” De Castro states.

Shepard attests, “It was crazy. I’ve lived in L.A. for 20 years and I’ve driven across that bridge a thousand times, and to have it as a playground for two straight days to demolish motorhomes and crash motorcycles was pretty amazing. There were many times when I thought, ‘I can’t believe we are allowed to do this.’ We owned a whole exit off the 210 Freeway to blow up a propane tank with helicopters circling and a fireball nine stories high. There are actual cops watching you peel out and do donuts and they’re giving you the thumbs up, which is not a side of law enforcement you usually get to see.”

Bike action being a huge component of the story, the filmmakers needed equipment to support it in style. Shepard used a range of brands and models, some stock and some custom, including what he calls “a smattering of Harleys and the big BMW snowmobiles,” like the BMW RT1200 standard police models. For D’Onofrio’s ride, he worked with Harley Davidson to design a custom Electra Glide that, Shepard says, “shoots six foot blue flames out the back and has titanium pegs that shower sparks.”

Primarily the film featured one of the director’s personal favorites: Ducati, and in particular the Ducati Hypermotard, a versatile and durable model which became Jon and Ponch’s updated “hero” bikes. “Every time we’re jumping, sliding, drifting, stoppie’ing or free endo’ing them, they were all stock Ducatis,” he says, in the parlance of the initiated. Even on the beach, the Hypermotards served, with modified knobby tires in front and paddles in back, while retaining their signature look and sound.

De Castro comments, “Michael Peña had just started riding and he did a great job, and Vincent D’Onofrio hadn’t ridden a bike for maybe 20 years but he hopped right back on and we got the shots we needed.” As for Dax, “He would have made an excellent stunt guy. He’s a high-level rider on both street and dirt, so it was a great position for me to be in. I could say, "Hey Dax, I need you to come in faster, I need you to come in hotter. I'm gonna put the camera here and we're gonna counter with you,’ and still we know everyone would be safe and it would look amazing.”

Even so, Shepard admits feeling humbled alongside the pro talent, including his double, Joe Dryden, a pioneer of the street bike freestyle. “Before I started this movie I thought I was really great at riding motorcycles, I would have given myself a 9. And now that I’ve seen some of the best riders in the world I feel a little weak,” he allows.

“There were a couple of times when Dax wanted to do a stunt but De Castro said, ‘No, you’re not doing that,’” adds Peña. “That’s Steve’s job. He makes it fun but safe. But with a film like this, you really get psyched up to be part of the action.”

Stunt riders also took cameras directly into the fray not only with Pursuit vehicles, but with Covert Camera Bikes, electric motorcycles that can reach 100mph with cameras in front and back. Perfect for tight situations and able to dolly as needed, they’re effective for bringing audiences into the moment.

The stunt team worked closely with FX supervisor Anderson and production designer Ahmad, as sets were built and destroyed. As the big chase segued into the confrontation on the bridge, Shepard gives kudos to “our special effects genius Larz for figuring out how to slide this massive 35-foot RV along the asphalt. Larz designed a pneumatic cylinder to lift the back wheels. It slides, then you flip a switch and it comes back up.”

Following the slide, Anderson picks up, “we switched it out for another motorhome that was pre-scored and loaded with a bunch of stuff, held together by nothing, so when it’s hit, it all goes flying. Dax was great to work with. He really knows what he wants and he’s open to other ideas that might embellish that—especially if it involves fire or explosions.” Anderson had plenty of opportunity for that, including the challenge of safely igniting a propane truck alongside a hillside full of brush, for which he made a tank out of foam. Later, as a truck slams into Ponch’s bike and drags it down the road, he created a literal trail of fire.

Anderson’s handiwork also appears in one of the film’s major set pieces, a warehouse compound north of Los Angeles near a popular biking site of canyons and valleys known as The Devil’s Punchbowl. It was the perfect setting for the final showdown involving a variety of vehicles, gunplay and hand-to-hand takedowns, all of which leads to a massive explosion.

The filmmakers found a property of several acres of desert land, housing a private home, barn and outbuildings that would add peripherally to the set. Says production designer Ahmad, “It had everything we needed except the main building, the warehouse, so I found a spot Dax liked and we built the whole thing from scratch. Given that the building was for the big finale and needed to be blown up, set on fire and driven through, it was a virtual certainty we would have to build it. It was about 50 by 100 feet, 25 feet tall, with dozens of windows. We poured a concrete floor. Then we dressed the inside with old cars and junk, and there was enough space outside to build the wall for the bikes to go over.”

“Maher is brilliant,” Shepard proclaims. “I’d show up to sets and they’d be five times better than I even dreamt when I was writing it. If we had a fight scene, I’d ask, ‘What can I break in this room?’ And he’d say, “That’s breakable, that’s breakable, that chair, that desk, that table, that’s fake,’ and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I can do anything in here.”

But for all the story’s high-octane action, one stunt audiences will not likely forget unfolds on a more intimate scale. After a physically taxing day, Jon wakes up unable to move his wrecked body or reach his meds. He needs a therapeutic soak and calls on a very reluctant Ponch for help getting into the tub.

Ponch trips, catapulting his naked partner in the general vicinity of the bathtub.

“I had to get into pretty good shape for that, so I could do all my nude stuff on week one and then resume eating what I wanted for the rest of the shoot,” says Shepard with typical good humor. “I had a harness and a cable, and I was on a ratchet, so, as soon as he lets go they hit the hammer and I just flew into the wall. It also spun me, so I hit the wall and then went upside down into the tub, bare naked, in front of my crew that just met me two days before.”

“I remember a fair amount of laughter that day,” Peña confirms.

The tub was made of rubber, as was the wall that absorbed Shepard’s impact. “The room had to be high enough for the stunt and FX guys to run a track up along the ceiling,” says Ahmad, who built the bedroom and bathroom comprising the guest house from an existing home’s dining and living rooms, with an eye toward allowing a straight line trajectory from the bed to the tub.

The designer modified numerous other practical locations, including the interior of a suburban home that gets trashed in a fight between Jon and Ponch and an officer who doesn’t appreciate their snooping. But the set he had the most fun creating was the drug den.

“It had to be filthy and disgusting,” he emphasizes. “The direction I got from Dax was that we couldn’t push it too far, and that’s what we did. We laid down pre-grunge-ified linoleum to protect the existing wood floors. Then we painted and did horrible things to the walls and brought awful furniture in, like stained mattresses. The kitchen was all moldy and overgrown with loathsome stuff and rotten food, and we learned a lot about making kitty poop with modeling clay. To accelerate its drying we put it into a microwave oven at the production office and one batch got away from us. It set off the smoke detectors and we had to evacuate the building. But it was the bathroom that just grossed everyone out. It was completely sanitary and smelled fine but it looked awful. I love it when a set elicits such an enthusiastic reaction from the crew.”

When Jon enters the house and is physically overcome by the stench, it’s a fair bet that members of the audience will be right there with him—their hands to their mouths.

Another “CHIPS” location included the Cal Poly Pomona College’s south campus, for scenes set in the Police Academy locker room and gym. The production also shot interiors and the parking lot of the active L.A. Central CHP Center, just south of downtown.

Finally, as a Valentine to locals, the production included a scene of Jon and Ponch at an Original Tommy’s burger stand—a Southern California institution—and not just any Tommy’s, but the one that started it all, at Rampart and Beverly Boulevards.

Overall, Panay says, “Dax went for an authentic L.A. feel. This film was shot entirely on practical, Southern California locations. We did build and augment some sets but we weren’t on soundstages and everything was right here, real and tangible. Our location team found so many great spots to showcase the action and help make L.A. itself an essential part of the story.”

“What I like best about it is the old-school action, which we put together with a lot of love and I think consequently has a really good vibe,” says Shepard, “not to mention great explosions and amazing stunts, and a lot of comedy. I hope every scene is as fun for audiences as it was for us, making it.”

# # #

ABOUT THE CAST

DAX SHEPARD (Jon Baker / Director / Writer / Executive Producer) was born in 1975 in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. With both parents working in the automotive industry, his first love was cars. He graduated in 1993 from Walled Lake High School, and moved to California in 1995. Shepard graduated magna cum laude from UCLA with a degree in Anthropology. While attending UCLA, he trained at The Groundlings Theater for improv and sketch comedy. After eight years of auditioning, Dax booked “Punk’d,” his first paid acting role.

Shepard’s notable film credits include “Without a Paddle,” “Idiocracy,” “Employee of the Month,” “Baby Mama,” “The Freebie,” "The Judge” and "This Is Where I Leave You.” He also portrayed Crosby Braverman for six seasons on the hit NBC series "Parenthood."

Prior to “CHIPS,” Shepard wrote, directed and starred in two features films: “Hit & Run” and “Brother’s Justice.”

MICHAEL PEÑA (Ponch / Executive Producer) has distinguished himself in Hollywood as an actor with a wide range of performances and has worked with an impressive roster of award-winning directors. Peña earned notable recognition for his performance in Paul Haggis’ provocative Oscar-winning film “Crash,” alongside Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard. He garnered multiple Best Ensemble nominations for his performance as Daniel the locksmith, winning awards from the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the cast’s performance. In 2013, he was seen in the David O. Russell film “American Hustle,” which won a Golden Globe, as well as ensemble awards from the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics. It was also nominated for a BAFTA Award and an Academy Award. In 2015, he was seen in two films to cross the $500 million mark; the heist film “Ant Man,” starring opposite Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, and “The Martian,” opposite Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain. “The Martian” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and went on to win a Golden Globe, was named Top Film by the National Board of Review, and was nominated for a 2016 Academy Award.

He was most recently seen in “Collateral Beauty,” starring Will Smith, Edward Norton and Kate Winslet, and “War on Everyone,” opposite Alexander Skarsgård, which premiered at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.

He can next be seen in “Horse Soldiers,” alongside Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, and “A Wrinkle in Time,” opposite Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine. In addition, Peña will also lend his voice to the highly anticipated “The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie,” and “My Little Pony: The Movie.”

In 2014, Peña starred as civil rights leader and labor organizer Cesar Chavez in “Cesar Chavez,” directed by Diego Luna. He was also seen in the drama “Graceland,” and in David Ayer’s “Fury,” with Brad Pitt and Shia LaBouf. In 2012, he was seen in the critically acclaimed “End of Watch,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. For his performance as Officer Zavala, Peña was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and the film was recognized by the National Board of Review as one of the Top 10 Independent Films of the year.

Peña has been seen in a range of films, including the independent “Everything Must Go,” alongside Will Ferrell and Rebecca Hall; “Gangster Squad,” opposite Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling, and the animated feature “Turbo.” His credits include “The Lucky Ones,” co-starring Rachel McAdams and Tim Robbins; Jody Hill’s comedy “Observe and Report,” with Seth Rogen; Robert Redford’s political drama “Lions for Lambs,” with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep; and Werner Herzog and David Lynch’s psychological thriller “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done,” with Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe and Chloë Sevigny.

Peña’s other noteworthy credits consist of Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center”; Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby”; Matthew Ryan Hoge’s “The United States of Leland”; Gregor Jordan’s “Buffalo Soldiers”; Antoine Fuqua’s “Shooter”; Brett Ratner’s “Tower Heist”; and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Babel.”

On television, Peña starred in the HBO film “Walkout,” based on the true story of a young Mexican-American high school teacher who helped stage a massive student walkout in the mid-1960s. Peña received an Imagen Award for Best Actor for his performance. He recently re-teamed with Danny McBride on the second season of HBO's “Eastbound and Down.” He also appeared on the F/X drama “The Shield,” in its fourth season, as one of the central leads opposite Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson. His other television credits include Steven Spielberg’s NBC series “Semper Fi.”

Raised in Chicago, Peña began acting when he beat out hundreds of others in an open call for a role in Peter Bogdanovich’s “To Sir, With Love 2,” starring Sidney Poitier.

ROSA SALAZAR (Ava Perez) was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Greenbelt, Maryland. Salazar’s upcoming film releases include “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” and “Alita: Battle Angel.”

Her past films include “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” “The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” “Search Party” and “Night Owls,” amongst others.

ADAM BRODY (Clay Allen) is a dynamic young actor, who has crafted a distinguished career in film and television.

Brody recently starred in Crackle’s original drama series, “StartUp,” alongside Martin Freeman. He also starred alongside Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith in “Yoga Hosers,” directed by Kevin Smith. In addition, Brody wrapped production on the comedy “Big Bear,” opposite Pablo Schreiber, and will soon begin filming the thriller “The Wanting.”

Last year, Brody starred alongside Uzo Aduba and Maggie Grace in “Showing Roots,” a television movie set in 1977 about two women who try to integrate their small town amid rising racial tension. In addition, Brody was seen in “Sleeping with Other People” from producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, which starred Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis. In 2014, Brody starred in “Growing Up and Other Lies,” directed by Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs. He was also seen in “Life Partners,” starring Leighton Meester and Gillian Jacobs; and “Think Like A Man Too,” alongside Kevin Hart, Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Regina Hall and Meagan Good.

His past film credits include “Revenge for Jolly!,” opposite Kristen Wiig, Elijah Wood, Oscar Isaac and Ryan Phillippe; David Talbert’s “Baggage Claim,” starring Paula Patton and Taye Diggs; “Some Girls,” adapted by Neil LaBute from his play of the same name; “Lovelace,” opposite Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard and James Franco; “Welcome to the Jungle,” directed by Rob Meltzer; “Double or Nothing,” a short film penned by Neil LaBute; “Damsels in Distress,” by writer/director Whit Stillman, with Greta Gerwig and Analeigh Tipton; “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”, alongside Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley; “The Oranges,” directed by Julian Farino from Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss’ screenplay also starring Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Alia Shawkat, Leighton Meester, Oliver Platt and Allison Janney; Jon Kasdan’s “In the Land of Women,” opposite Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart; Wes Craven’s “Scream 4;” Kevin Smith’s “Cop Out;” Galt Niederhoffer’s “The Romantics;” Karyn Kusama’s “Jennifer’s Body,” written by Diablo Cody; Boaz Yakin’s “Death in Love,” with Josh Lucas, Lukas Haas, and Jacqueline Bisset; Gregg Araki’s “Smiley Face,” with Anna Faris; David Wain’s “The Ten;” Jason Reitman’s “Thank You For Smoking;” Gore Verbinski’s smash “The Ring;” and Doug Liman’s blockbuster “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” alongside Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Brody memorably starred as Seth Cohen on the popular television series “The O.C.,” directed in the pilot episode by Doug Liman. He also starred as Billy Jones in Neil LaBute’s romantic comedy series “Billy and Billie,” about two step-siblings trying to deal with their taboo romance. His television work also includes recurring roles on “The League,” “House of Lies,” “Burning Love,” “Once and Again” and “Gilmore Girls”; and standout guest turns on “Judging Amy,” “Family Law,” and “Smallville.”

VINCENT D’ONOFRIO (Ray Kurtz) can currently be seen taking on the complex role of The Wizard in NBC’s “Emerald City,” the reimagining of “The Wizard of Oz.” The 10-episode mini-series was directed by Tarsem Singh, with whom D’Onofrio worked previously on the science fiction noir film “The Cell,” opposite Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn. D’Onofrio also recently wrapped Eli Roth’s “Death Wish,” opposite Bruce Willis.

Last year, D’Onofrio starred in “The Magnificent Seven,” playing one of the seven gun slinging outlaws alongside Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke; as well as “In Dubious Battle,” based on John Steinbeck’s novel, directed by James Franco and featuring Bryan Cranston, Ed Harris and Selena Gomez.

2015 was also a busy year for D’Onofrio with the blockbuster success of “Jurassic World” and his critically acclaimed role of Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin in the Netflix series “Daredevil,” opposite Charlie Cox. He also starred in “Run All Night,” opposite Liam Neeson. In 2014, D’Onofrio starred in “The Judge,” opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall.

D’Onofrio was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Hawaii, Colorado and Florida. He eventually returned to New York to study acting at the American Stanislavsky Theatre with Sharon Chatten of the Actors Studio. While honing his craft, he appeared in several films at New York University and worked as a bouncer at dance clubs in the city.

In 1984, he became a full-fledged member of the American Stanislavsky Theatre, appearing in “The Petrified Forest,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” and “The Indian Wants the Bronx.” That same year, he made his Broadway debut in “Open Admissions.” He recently starred off-Broadway in Sam Shepard’s “Tooth of Crime (Second Dance).”

D’Onofrio gained attention for his intense and compelling talent on the screen in 1987 with a haunting portrayal of an unstable Vietnam War recruit in Stanley Kubrick’s gritty “Full Metal Jacket.” His other early film appearances include “Mystic Pizza,” and “Adventures in Babysitting.” He also executive produced and portrayed 1960s counterculture icon Abbie Hoffman in the film “Steal This Movie,” opposite Janeane Garofalo.

His other film credits include “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,” opposite Jodie Foster; “The Salton Sea,” opposite Val Kilmer; “Imposter,” with Gary Sinise; “Chelsea Walls,” directed by Ethan Hawke; “Happy Accidents,” co-starring Marisa Tomei; Robert Altman’s “The Player”; Joel Schumacher’s “Dying Young”; Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood”; Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days,” opposite Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett; Harold Ramis’ “Stuart Saves His Family”; Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Men In Black,” opposite Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones; “The Thirteenth Floor,” opposite Craig Bierko; “The Whole Wide World,” which he produced and starred in, opposite Renée Zellweger; and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” More recently, D’Onofrio appeared in “Escape Plan,” featuring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

D’Onofrio starred as Detective Robert Goren in over 100 episodes of the series “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” He received an Emmy Award nomination in 1998 for his riveting guest appearance in the “Homicide: Life on the Street” episode “The Subway.” D’Onofrio directed, produced and starred in the short film “Five Minutes, Mr. Welles,” and recently appeared in the Academy Award-winning short “The New Tenants.”

KRISTEN BELL (Karen) currently stars as Eleanor Shellstrop in the NBC series “The Good Place,” with Ted Danson, which returns for a second season this fall. She was also most recently seen in “Bad Moms,” alongside Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Jada Pinkett Smith, Annie Mumolo and Christina Applegate. She will return for the sequel, “Bad Mom’s Christmas,” to be released this November. She will also appear in “How to Be a Latin Lover,” alongside Rob Lowe and Salma Hayek, set for release on April 28, 2017.

Bell starred as Anna in the blockbuster animated feature “Frozen,” which has grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the highest grossing animated film and the 9th highest grossing film of all time. Last year, she starred opposite Melissa McCarthy in Ben Falcone’s comedy “The Boss,” and was seen as Jeannie Van Der Hooven in the Showtime series “House of Lies,” opposite Don Cheadle, which wrapped its fifth and final season. In 2014, she reprised her beloved title role in the film adaptation of “Veronica Mars," which raised $2 million on Kickstarter in less than eleven hours and broke the record at the time for the fastest project to reach $1 million and $2 million. Bell appeared in a guest-starring arc on NBC’s hit series “Parks & Recreation.” She also played the lead role in the independent film “The Lifeguard,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as starring in and co-producing the comedy “Hit & Run,” written and directed by her husband, Dax Shepard.

Her other film credits include: “Movie 43,” “Some Girls,” “Writers,” “Big Miracle,” “You Again,” “Burlesque,” “When in Rome,” “Couples Retreat,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Pulse,” “Serious Moonlight” and David Mamet’s “Spartan.” Bell’s television credits include: “Veronica Mars,” “Unsupervised,” “Deadwood,” “Heroes” and “Party Down.”

Her Broadway credits include “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Crucible,” opposite Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. Her Off-Broadway credits include “Reefer Madness” and “A Little Night Music.”

JESSICA MCNAMEE (Lindsey Taylor) has become one of Hollywood’s most sought after and engaging talents. Since beginning her career in acting, she has fostered an impressive body of work that includes both film and television.

She will next be seen in the film “Battle of The Sexes,” opposite silver screen heavyweights Emma Stone and Steve Carell. The film is slated to open this year.

McNamee recently wrapped production on director Jon Turteltaub’s film “Meg.” She will star opposite Jason Statham in the action packed sci-fi film, which is currently slated for a March 2018 release.

Additionally, McNamee was previously seen as the female lead on USA’s comedy series “Sirens,” starring opposite Michael Mosley and Kevin Bigley. Prior to that, she starred alongside Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum in Michael Sucsy’s “The Vow.” She made her feature film debut in Sean Byrne’s “The Loved Ones,” opposite Xavier Samuel. The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival and received the Midnight Madness Cadillac People’s Choice Award. The film also screened as part of the Freak Me Out Pathway at the Sydney Film Festival.

McNamee is best known for her role as Sammy Rafter in the Australian television series “Packed to the Rafters.” In total, the television series has gained 31 Australian award nominations and taken home 13 wins.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

DAX SHEPARD (Writer/Director/Executive Producer) – SEE CAST SECTION

ANDREW PANAY (Producer) – has an entertainment career which has spanned 20 years and his films have earned over $750 million in worldwide box office. He has built a reputation as a premier feature film producer with an incredible talent for creating original ideas as well as cultivating strong talent relationships.

Panay created and produced David Dobkin’s 2005 smash hit “Wedding Crashers,” starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Christopher Walken and Bradley Cooper. The film was the highest grossing R‐rated comedy at the time.

In February of 2015, Panay produced “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” the sequel to the hilarious 2010 hit “Hot Tub Time Machine.” Panay joined director Steve Pink in bringing an all-star cast to the screen, including Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clarke Duke, Adam Scott and Chevy Chase.

While working at Relativity Media, Panay released the successful family adventure film “Earth to Echo,” based on an original story by Panay and Henry Gayden, written by Gayden and directed by Dave Green, involving a group of kids who follow a mysterious map on their phones, only to discover a tiny creature from another world.

Panay began his career as an executive, developing the highly successful teen romantic comedy “She’s All That,” starring Rachel Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr., and the inspiring drama “Pay It Forward,” starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Panay co-produced the beloved romantic comedy “Serendipity,” starring John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Piven and Bridget Moynahan. Additionally, Panay created and produced the successful teen campus comedy “Van Wilder,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid.

RAVI MEHTA (Executive Producer) is an Executive Vice President of Physical Production for Warner Bros. Pictures. He was the executive in charge of films such as “American Sniper,” “Live by Night,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” and “The Accountant.” He is currently producing “A Star is Born,” starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.

He most recently served as a producer on “Unforgettable,” starring Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl, opening April 21st, and “Grudge Match,” starring Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone. He also was an executive producer on “Get Hard” and “The Lucky One.” Mehta began his career at Warner Bros. as a production accountant on films such as “Training Day” and “Romeo Must Die.”

ROBERT J. DOHRMANN (Executive Producer) began his career in the ‘90s in live TV, reality TV, commercial and documentary production. He established commercial house Mad Molly Productions in 1996, recognized with Clio and Cine Lion awards and nominations for several public service announcement campaigns.

In the early 2000s, Dohrmann pivoted to feature production, first as a production coordinator and then production supervisor, on such successful projects as “Man On Fire” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” as well as the multiple award winners “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Thank You For Smoking.”

Dohrmann made the jump to line producing in 2007 for the critically acclaimed “Sunshine Cleaning,” and has produced and/or managed features ever since, including creative and popular hit projects “10 Cloverfield Lane,” “Get Hard,” “2 Guns,” “Lovelace,” “The Lucky One” and “Jeff Who Lives At Home.” Bob lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kathleen and their two wonderful children. Dohrmann is a southern California native and UCLA alumnus.

NATE TUCK (Executive Producer) is a producer who has built his career in feature films, branded content, commercials and music videos. His films have been nominated and have won awards, including two nominations at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards for “The Dynamiter.”

The path to “CHIPS” started over a decade ago while Tuck and his long-time best friend Dax Shepard were shooting short films for the sole purpose of making each other laugh. In 2010, they released their experimental comedy with Tribeca Films, “Brother’s Justice,” which won the Comedy Vanguard Award at the Austin Film Festival.

Based on the film’s success, Tuck and Shepard, with producer Andrew Panay, went on to create and produce the action-romantic-comedy “Hit & Run.” Released in 2012, the film starred Shepard, Kristen Bell, Bradley Cooper and Tom Arnold.

Dating back to his first independent film, “Hairshirt,” which sold to Lionsgate in 2001, Tuck has built his reputation in development, writing, production, financing and distribution as the go-to guy to get it done.

RICK ROSNER (Executive Producer) is the creator and executive producer of a wide-range of projects, including “CHiPs,” the television series that inspired the film.

His other credits as a creator, executive producer and producer include the TV series “240-Robert!” and “Lottery!” as well as the game shows “Just Men!” with Betty White; “Caesar’s Challenge”; “Personals”; “Phone Tag!”; and the iconic “Hollywood Squares.” He was also the creator of “The Paul Lynde Show.”

In addition, Rosner served as producer on such talk shows as “Steve Allen,” “Dave Garroway,” “Philbin’s People,” “The Della Reese Show,” and a producer of “The Mike Douglas Show.”

He was the executive producer of the Emmy-nominated “Warner Bros. Movies – a 50 Year Salute” and the executive producer/ writer of the TV movies: “Panic In The Skies!” “Sky Heist!” and the TNT reunion movie, “CHiPS ’99.”

Rosner served as Vice President of Variety Programs at NBC in the mid 70s and in a partnership with DIRECTV, Rosner also invented the CES Award winning portable satellite system SAT-GO!, which made the front page of the New York Times business section in 2007.

Since 1971, Rosner has been a Deputy in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

MICHAEL PEÑA (Executive Producer) SEE CAST SECTION

MITCHELL AMUNDSEN (Director of Photography) most recently was the cinematographer on “Ride Along 2,” starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. His previous films as cinematographer include “Now You See Me,” “Red Dawn,” and “Premium Rush.”

Amundsen’s early credits include being a production assistant for Michael Apted on “First Born” and technician on Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish” and “The Outsiders.” He worked assistant camera on Joel Coen’s “Raising Arizona” and was a focus puller on “the Glass Menagerie,” directed by Paul Newman, and Michael Lehman’s “Heathers” and “Meet the Applegates.”

He then became a camera operator, working on such films as Wolfgang Petersen’s “In the Line of Fire”; John Singleton’s Higher Learning,”; Nick Castle’s “Major Payne” and “Mr. Wrong”; Betty Thomas’ “Private Parts”; Richard Donner’s “Conspiracy Theory”; Ron Howard’s “Edtv”; Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Wild Wild West”; Billy Bob Thornton’s “All the Pretty Horses”; and Michael Bay’s “Armageddon.”

He subsequently rose to second unit director for Bay’s “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II,” and “The Island”; Gore Verbinski’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”; Frank Marshall’s “Eight Below”; Gary Ross’ “Seabiscuit”; Paul Greengrass’ “The Bourne Supremacy”; J.J. Abrams’ “Mission Impossible III”; and Brad Bird’s “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.”

MAHER AHMAD (Production Designer) was born in northeastern Pennsylvania and while in high school worked on stage crews for the local community theater, designing his first stage setting when he was 16.

He attended Northwestern University where he graduated with honors, and went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in theater scene and lighting design from the same university. After teaching theater design in college for two years, Ahmad then worked as a professional theater set and lighting designer in the first wave of the what is termed “the Chicago theater renaissance,” designing well over 100 theater projects for Chicago theaters including the St. Nicholas, Organic, Victory Gardens, Goodman and many others. His designs were nominated six times for Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award.

Ahmad credits his early theater design experiences and training as contributing greatly to the craft and skills he possesses now. He was hired one day by happenstance to be the local art director in a film that was shooting in Chicago, and from then on worked exclusively in film. He has over 80 film projects to his credit.

Ahmad moved from Chicago to New York and worked there on many features including “GoodFellas” and “Married to the Mob.” Among his many film credits are the period film “Gangster Squad,” with Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin, and Sean Penn; “The Hangover 3”; “Zombieland”; “The Guardian”; “Miss Congeniality 2”; ”Dodgeball”; “Holes”; “Get Hard” and “US Marshals.”

On occasion, Ahmad lectures about design to film schools, and is a bibliophile with a collection of well over 20,000 books on art, architecture, film, design, technology, and other related subjects.

DAN LEBENTAL (Editor) has edited a wide variety of film and television projects. He has worked with director Jon Favreau as the editor on the hit comedy “Elf,” “Zathura: A Space Adventure,” “Cowboys & Aliens” and the blockbuster hits “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2.”

Lebental edited Peyton Reed’s films “Ant-Man” and “The Break-Up” as well as Albert and Allen Hughes’ “From Hell” and “Dead Presidents.”

His other film editing credits include “Thor: The Dark World,” “Couples Retreat” and the Chicago International Film Festival-nominated documentary “Art of Conflict.”

Lebantal worked with director Peter Berg on the 1998 comedy “Very Bad Things,” and then went on to work with him on the pilot for the 2000 television series, “Wonderland.” Lebental has worked as an editor on the pilots for such television shows as “Dinner for Five,” “In Case of Emergency,” “Revolution” and “About a Boy.”

DIANE CROOKE (Costume Designer) is a costume designer based in Los Angeles with extensive experience designing for film, television, print, and web.

Crooke’s career took off when she got the job as costume supervisor for the first three seasons of the hit NBC series “Friends.” From there, Crooke went on to supervise several projects, including six seasons on NBC’s “Crossing Jordan.” As a designer, Crooke spent five seasons designing NBC’s “Parenthood” before designing “Scream” for MTV.

Recently, Crooke has jumped into the feature world, and her work can also be seen in the upcoming film “All Star Weekend.”

FIL EISLER (Composer) composes music that faithfully embodies both story and character. Known for his signature themes and creative execution, his work can be heard in a diverse range of films, including the 2016 hit comedy “How To Be Single,” starring Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson and the upcoming sci-fi/thriller feature “The Titan,” starring Sam Worthington and Taylor Schilling.

In addition, Eisler served as the primary composer for Sundance 2016’s poignant documentary, “Newtown.” He composed the main title theme and acted as music director for the documentary, organizing and leading an all-star line-up of over a dozen Hollywood composers who each donated a piece of music for the film. He was represented at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with Marti Noxon’s “To The Bone,” starring Lily Collins.

Eisler’s scores also continue to enliven the drama in some of TV’s most popular series. Most notably, he composes for Fox’s hit drama series “Empire.” Other shows featuring Eisler’s music include Showtime's Emmy-winning “Shameless,” as well as Lifetime’s critically lauded series “UnREAL.” For four seasons, Eisler served as composer and conductor on the ABC drama “Revenge.”

In 2008, Eisler was among a select group of up-and-coming composers invited to the Sundance Film Composer's Lab, and in the years since, his projects have garnered critical acclaim on the film festival circuit and beyond. As part of his ongoing commitment to independent film, he returned to Sundance in 2011 with the Inupiaq-themed thriller “On the Ice,” scored the Sundance-backed documentary “Whatever It Takes” and Jonathan van Tulleken's BAFTA nominated thriller “Off Season.” Eisler won the Best Film Score Award for his work on Robbie Pickering's “Natural Selection” at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival. The film was the most decorated of the festival, also winning the Grand Jury and Audience Awards. He continued his work with Pickering on the 2015 Sony feature “Freaks of Nature.”

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sheminecrafts · 6 years

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WhatsApp founder, Brian Acton, says Facebook used him to get its acquisition past EU regulators

WhatsApp founder, Brian Acton, who left Facebook a year ago — before going on to publicly bite the hand that fed him, by voicing support for the #DeleteFacebook movement (and donating $50M to alternative encrypted messaging app, Signal) — has delved into the ethics clash behind his acrimonious departure in an interview with Forbes.

And for leaving a cool ~$850M in unvested stock on the table by not sticking it out a few more months inside Zuckerberg’s mothership, as co-founder Jan Koum did. (Collecting air cooled Porsches must be an expensive hobby, though.)

Acton has also suggested he was used by Facebook to help get its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp past EU regulators who had been concerned it might be able to link accounts — as it subsequently did.

“You mean it won’t make as much money”

The WhatsApp founders’ departure from Facebook boils down to a disagreement over how to monetize their famously ‘anti-ads’ messaging platform from Menlo Park.

Though how the pair ever imagined their platform would be safe from ads in the clutches of, er, an ad giant like Facebook remains one of the tech world’s greatest unexplained brain-fails. Or else they were mostly just thinking of the billions Facebook was paying them.

Acton said he tried to push Facebook towards an alternative, less privacy hostile business model for WhatsApp — suggesting a metered-user model such as by charging a tenth of a penny after a certain large number of free messages were used up.

But that “very simple business” idea was rejected outright by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who he said told him “it won’t scale”.

“I called her out one time,” Acton also told Forbes. “I was like, ‘No, you don’t mean that it won’t scale. You mean it won’t make as much money as…,’ and she kind of hemmed and hawed a little. And we moved on. I think I made my point… They are businesspeople, they are good businesspeople. They just represent a set of business practices, principles and ethics, and policies that I don’t necessarily agree with.”

CANNES, FRANCE – JUNE 22: Chief Operating Officer of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg attends the Cannes Lions Festival 2017 on June 22, 2017 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images for Cannes Lions)

Still, it seems Acton and Koum had a pretty major inkling of the looming clash of business “principles and ethics” with Facebook’s management, given they had a clause written into their contract to allow them to immediately get all their stock if the company began “implementing monetization initiatives” without their consent.

So with his ideas being actively rejected, and with Facebook ramping up the monetization pressure on the “product group” (which is how Acton says Zuckerberg viewed WhatsApp), he thought he saw a route to both cash out and get out — by calling in the contract clause.

Facebook had other ideas, though. Company lawyers told him the clause didn’t yet apply because it had only been “exploring”, not yet implementing monetization. At a meeting over the issue he said Zuckerberg also told him: “This is probably the last time you’ll ever talk to me.” So presumably things got pretty chilly.

The original $19BN deal for Facebook to buy WhatsApp had been rushed through over a weekend in 2014, and Acton said there had been little time to examine what would turn out to be crucial details like the monetization clause.

But not doing the due diligence on that clearly cost him a second very sizeable personal fortune.

Regardless, faced with more uncomfortably chilly meetings, and a legal fight to get the unvested stock, Acton said he decided to just take the winnings he already had and leave.

He even rejected an alternative proposed settlement (without fleshing out exactly what it was) — saying Facebook management had wanted to put a nondisclosure agreement in it, and “that was part of the reason that I got sort of cold feet in terms of trying to settle with these guys”.

“At the end of the day, I sold my company. I am a sellout. I acknowledge that,” he also told Forbes, indicating that he’s not unaware that the prospect of a guy who got really, really wealthy by selling out his principles and his users then trying to claw out even more cash from the ad tech giant he sold to probably wouldn’t look so good.

At least this way he can say he took an $850M haircut to show he ‘cared’.

In August Facebook confirmed that from next year it will indeed begin injecting ads into WhatsApp statuses — which is where the multimedia montage Stories format it cloned from Snapchat has been bolted onto the platform.

So WhatsApp’s ~1.5BN+ monthly users can look forward to unwelcome intrusions as they try to go about their daily business of sending messages to their friends and family.

How exactly Facebook will ‘encourage’ WhatsApp users to eyeball the marketing noise it intends to monetize remains to be seen. But tweaks to make statues more prominent/unavoidable look likely. Facebook is a master of the dark pattern design, after all.

The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country.

So, in a way, it’s picking up on Acton’s suggestion of a ‘metered model’ — just in a fashion that will “scale” the bottom line in Sandberg’s sought for ‘loadsamoney’ style.

Though of course neither Acton nor Koum will be around to cash in on the stock uplift as Facebook imposes its ad model onto a whole new unwilling platform.

“I think everyone was gambling… because enough time had passed”

In perhaps the most telling tidbit of the interview, Acton reveals that even before the WhatsApp acquisition had been cleared he was carefully coached by Facebook to tell European regulators it would be “really difficult” for it to combine WhatsApp and Facebook user data.

“I was coached to explain that it would be really difficult to merge or blend data between the two systems,” Acton said.

An ‘impossible conjoining’ that Facebook subsequently, miraculously went on to achieve, just two years later, which later earned it a $122M fine from the European Commission for providing incorrect or misleading information on the original filing. (Facebook has maintained that unintentional “errors” were to blame.)

After the acquisition had been cleared Acton said he later learned that elsewhere in Facebook there were indeed “plans and technologies to blend data” between the two services — and that specifically it could use the 128-bit string of numbers assigned to each phone to connect WhatsApp and Facebook user accounts.

Phone-number matching is another method used to link accounts — and sharing WhatsApp users’ phone numbers with the parent group was a change pushed onto users via the 2016 update to WhatsApp’s terms and conditions.

(Though Facebook’s linking of WhatsApp and Facebook accounts for ad targeting purposes remains suspended in Europe, after regulatory push-back.)

“I think everyone was gambling because they thought that the EU might have forgotten because enough time had passed,” he also said in reference to Facebook pushing ahead with account matching, despite having told European regulators it couldn’t be done.

Regulators did not forget. But a $122M fine is hardly a proportionate disincentive for a company as revenue-heavy as Facebook (which earned a whopping $13.23BN in Q2). And which can therefore swallow the penalty as another standard business cost.

Acton said Facebook also sought “broader rights” to WhatsApp users data under the new terms of service — and claims he and Koum pushed back and reached a compromise with Facebook management.

The ‘compromise’ being that the clause about ‘no ads’ would remain — but Facebook would get to link accounts to power friend suggestions on Facebook and to offer its advertising partners better targets for ads on Facebook. So really they just bought themselves (and their users) a bit more time.

Now, of course, with both founders out of the company Facebook is free to scrub the no ads clause and use the already linked accounts for ad targeting in both directions (not just at Facebook users).

And if Acton and Koum ever really thought they could prevent that adtech endgame they were horribly naive. Again, most probably, they just balanced the billions they got paid against that outcome and thought 2x [shrug emoji].

Facebook’s push to monetize WhatsApp faster than its founders were entirely comfortable with looks to be related to its own concerns about needing to please investors by being able to show continued growth.

Facebook’s most recent Q2 was not a stellar one, with its stock taking a hit on slowing user growth.

Three years after the WhatsApp acquisition, Acton said Zuckerberg was growing impatient — recounting how he told an all-hands meeting for WhatsApp staffers Facebook needed WhatsApp revenues to continue to show growth to Wall Street.

Internally, Acton said Facebook had targeted a $10 billion revenue run rate within five years of monetization of WhatsApp — numbers he thought sounded too high and which therefore must be reliant on ads.

And so within a year or so Acton was on his way out — not quite as personally mega-wealthy as he could have been. But definitely don’t cry for him. He’s doing fine.

At the Signal Foundation, where Acton now works, he says the goal is to make “private communication accessible and ubiquitous”.

Though the alternative e2e encrypted app has only unquantified “millions” of users to WhatsApp and Facebook’s multi billions. But at least it has $50M of Acton’s personal fortune behind it.

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technicalsolutions88 · 6 years

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Acton has also suggested he was used by Facebook to help get its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp past EU regulators who had been concerned it might be able to link accounts — as it subsequently did.

“You mean it won’t make as much money”

The WhatsApp founders’ departure from Facebook boils down to a disagreement over how to monetize their famously ‘anti-ads’ messaging platform from Menlo Park.

But that “very simple business” idea was rejected outright by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who he said told him “it won’t scale”.

But not doing the due diligence on that clearly cost him a second very sizeable personal fortune.

Regardless, faced with more uncomfortably chilly meetings, and a legal fight to get the unvested stock, Acton said he decided to just take the winnings he already had and leave.

At least this way he can say he took an $850M haircut to show he ‘cared’.

So WhatsApp’s ~1.5BN+ monthly users can look forward to unwelcome intrusions as they try to go about their daily business of sending messages to their friends and family.

The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country.

So, in a way, it’s picking up on Acton’s suggestion of a ��metered model’ — just in a fashion that will “scale” the bottom line in Sandberg’s sought for ‘loadsamoney’ style.