Two rocks. One clifftop. No music, no voices, no movement — just white and black text appearing over them in a universe where life never formed. Joy tells Evelyn that most universes are like this, actually. Evelyn says it’s nice. Then Joy starts talking about how we spent most of our history certain the Earth was the center of everything, torturing and killing people who said otherwise, until we found out we orbit one sun out of trillions.
After the montage of sixty-nine universes nearly broke us last week, this minute is the movie building in its own intermission — and we are deeply grateful for it. We get into how the Daniels genuinely feared audiences would be bored here, shot backup time-lapse footage of the sun moving behind the rocks as insurance, then cut it for being too energetic. We talk about the missing punctuation in the text and why it makes the whole thing feel like texting rather than dialogue. Kynan reads from William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble — a children’s book Daniel Kwan has confirmed as a direct reference, about a donkey who turns himself into a pink rock and then slowly stops trying to be anything else — which is a genuinely upsetting thing to encounter in a picture book. And we sit with Evelyn’s apology, which arrives shockingly early, and what she might really be apologizing for.
Also: Michelle Yeoh is the reason there are no voices in this scene. It was her idea. Rocks speaking English would violate the rules of the universe.
- Show archive
- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It’s just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
- Banana for Scale Facebook Group
- The Devil’s Details: The Evolution of the Devil Through Art & Literature
- The Exorcist Minute
- Connect with Kynan on Instagram or Letterboxd
- Connect with Lester on Facebook, Instagram, or X
