It's a Damn Light! - Phenomenon

Season 19, Episode 2

My relationship with Phenomenon is rooted in nostalgia. The movie was released in 1996, which would place me around 21 years of age, and no, this isn't a drinking story. But this was smack dab in the middle of me discovering my love of storytelling, cinema and anything else creative.

I've talked about it on the show quite often, that when I started getting into film, I watched everything. Working at a movie theater only helped that appetite. When Friday rolled around, my movie weekend watching started on that Thursday night, with what screening was I going to watch and who was coming with.

Two would hold one movie. I believe Titanic was three.

Before movies were delivered via satellite (even before they were sent on hard drives), two giant cans of movie reels would show up on Wednesday or Thursday. And these cans contained a film reels in 20 minute increments that a projectionist would need to splice together in order for moviegoers to see the full show. To make sure they did a good job, projectionists would screen the films late at night. We were lucky enough to work with a decent bunch of projectionists who would let us sit and watch the film while they did their quality checks.

So, for most of the 90s through the 2010s, I watched a majority of my movies alone in a

theater late at night with a few friends and colleagues. It was great.

Phenomenon came out the same weekend as Independence Day, but while ID4 came out on July 3rd, which was Wednesday in 1996, Phenomenon released on the Friday, July 5th. That meant I probably watched ID4 on the Tuesday (or Monday) before the 3rd and I'm willing to bet I watched Phenomenon (I don't remember which theater) on the Thursday, late July 4th night.

Ahhh...the Fourplex. My old stomping grounds. I used to change the letters on that marquee. Notice how the walkway doesn't go all the way around? Yeah, we used to climb over to each side, outside the railing.

And if I'm not mistaken, I believe I watched ID4 in Showcase North Haven (before it was a Rave Cinemas and before it was a Cinemark), and one of the reels was spliced upside down, which meant they had to fix it, so they stopped the movie and we had to wait to finish it out.

Side Note: The only other movie I watched as a screening in North Haven was Star Trek: First Contact and in that one, they spliced the reels out of order, but the cut was seamless, we didn't know until 20 minutes after, when the movie suddenly jumped back in order. Needless to say, I never went to a screening in North Haven again.

Back to watching Phenomenon, and I talk about this on the episode, but I remember having a good time watching this movie as we juste quoted ridiculous lines of dialogue to each other for years to come. "It's a damn light!" or "This is great. This is great."

We were stupid twenty-something, movie geeks. It's what we did.

Phenomenon

Directed by Jon Turtletaub

Written by Gerald Di Pego

Starring John Travolta, Robert Duvall (who is awesome in this!), Kyra Sedgewick, Forrest Whitaker, Jeffrey Demunn

Find out what Mike and I thought about the movie this week on your favorite podcast platform.

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | YouTube | More Links

Here's the YouTube video for your viewing pleasure: