Daily Dialogue — September 13, 2018

“Spiders!”

— Outland (1981), written by Peter Hyams

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Outer Space.

Trivia: The script was originally intended to be set in a western period, but Peter Hyams decided to move it into the outer space background due to the influence of Alien (1979). The original title was Io, but Hyams was persuaded to change the title, by an executive from the Ladd Company, following a demonstration on random people, that many would read the title as number 10 instead.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This spinoff of the classic western High Noon is predicated on the idea that these space miners are being hepped up on drugs which… well, here’s the official explanation from Dr. Lazarus: “Polydichloric euthimal! Those stupid bastards are taking polydichloric euthimal! It’s an amphetamine. Strongest thing you ever saw. Makes you feel wonderful. Makes you do ten hours work in six hours, that kind of nonsense. Especially manual labor. It makes you work like a horse. The army tested it a few years ago. It made the men work alright… then it made them psychotic. It takes a while, ten maybe eleven months… and then it fries your brain.” Hence in this scene below, a case of imaginary spiders in outer space.