Ok so Movies at the moment are in a bit of a weird place. Franchises are hitting
points now where we've had a number of different actors playing certain roles
that people have fond memories of from their childhood. You also have technology hitting
a point where it's possible to create life like looking CGI people and this
has been done to great effect in things like The Book Of Boba Fett and so on.
However with this also comes the temptation that we can now resurrect the dead and use
them in films to score some cameo points by banking off the back of nostaliga. I get why
studios have decided to do it and a lot of the time it acts as a touching tribute to
those we've lost since we fell in love with the franchise in the first place.
I know you probably think that this video is gonna just be me patronisingly condeming them
doing it but I actually think that I can totally understand why they've done it and a lot of the
times i dont think it has a nefarious side to it. A lot of the creatives probably think it's
a good way to show an actor lives on in our hearts through them reprising a certain role.
However I also feel now that it's gotten to the point where
hollywood spent so much effort on asking whether they could do
it to the point that they didn't stop to think about whether they should.
Throughout this video I wanna go through my personal thoughts on bringing back dead
actors and why I think that in the end hollywood should stop doing it. This includes the times I
think that it's worked and also the times I think that is hasn't. Overall though I
believe we're getting to a point now where it's so risky to even attempt this kind of stuff that
you should just avoid doing it because it's rare that it actually works well.
This video will contain spoilers for The Flash so if you haven't seen that yet and
don't want to know then go and watch it, come back and yeah let me know what you think.
So though the term deepfaking is a pretty new concept the idea of editing dead actors
into movies is something that's actually existed for a long time.
The first really notable version where this came with Bruce Lee's game of death.
Lee passed away while only half of the movie was complete and thus the crew had to come
up with their own ways to finish the film. CGI obviously wasn't available at the time
and thus they had to employ body doubles and also edit things in using existing footage.
This allowed them to complete the movie however this early film also cements some of the more
sinister things that can happen when you're trying to bring an actor back. In the film
we get a funeral scene involving Lees character and they actually used shots of the dead actor
from his open casket. Youtube is being a bit funny with monetisation at the moment and I
don't wanna show a body like this on screen but yeah, if you watch the movie it's there.
Now that kind of exemplifies some of my issues with what we'll get into and it
becomes more about making the movie than it does about respecting the actor. One of the
best things I think Marvel did with Wakanda Forever is that they didn't tout out a CGI
Chadwick Boseman to die in the movie so that they could have one final shot of the character.
Though people don't like the funeral aspect of that film I think it works well as a tribute and
we of course have the marvels studios logo being changed to become a homage to him.
That to me still works well in giving fans the feeling that they're saying
goodbye without trying to resurrect the dead for a couple minutes of footage.
Now the whole thing with Bruce Lee is something that studios have employed when an actor dies mid
production. His son Brandon Lee sadly died during his work on the Crow and they had to rewrite and
use doubles in order to complete the work. Oliver Reed had to have certain scenes edited differently
in Gladiator and they reused certain shots and lines to make it seem like he was still alive.
I think things like this are ok to do as the actor signed on and was likely
wanting the film finished if they couldn't be there to do it themselves.
As technology has improved the advancements and
ways that they've handled them have changed as well.
I think Paul Walker's passing exemplifies this and the actor sadly died during filming
of the Furious 7. His brothers were brought on to film the body double shots and they
digitally replaced his face at the end for that final ride off into the sunset.
The scenes really touching and it acts as a great tribute to the deceased actor.
This is where I think it works well.
Where things for me start to get murky for me
though is when and actors are brought back that havent given their consent.
Now in the case of Ghostbusters Afterlife, Harold Ramis was recreated through CGI to
play Egon come the end of the final act. Why I think this works ok on a
moral level is that Ramis was trying to get the movie off the ground for
a number of years but he sadly passed away before it rolled into production.
The film itself also acts as a tribute to him with several of the characters,
locations and so one all being linked directly to Egon. You also have the rifts between the cast
that caused them to not be on speaking terms for several years. Bill Murray and Harold had a big
falling out which was highly reported on though they did patch things up just before his passing.
This is sort of all the characters finally saying their goodbye to not only Egon but Harold as well
and we very much get some meta commentary from the actors who apologise for not reaching out sooner.
Now where I think things start to get a bit murkier is in stuff like Rogue One where
they bring back Tarkin. They already toyed around with this in Revenge Of The Sith by
showing a younger version of him at the end though this was played by a different act.
Personally I think recasts like this are fine as
you can't expect people to stay in the role forever.
Where we hit the shades of grey though is when he's brought back as a character in the movie.
Now the main thing with this that doesn't appear in the other things we'll talk about later on is
that Tarkin actually has a character. He does and says things that massively impact the plot and
he doesn't just feel like they've thrown him in there to silently stand around just looking about.
There's an actor playing him and the creative team clearly put a
lot of effort into making sure that the effects were as good as they could be and
that they were bringing him back in the best way that they could.
I know people kick off about Leia at the end but this movie was made before Carrie
Fishers passing and I'd consider that more of a deep fake de-aging thing. She
was brought back using archival footage for Rise Of Skywalker but she's integral to the
plot in that and obviously was hoping to be around when they made the movie.
Anyway that's where things start to really bend a lot and ey,
if you're made at Tarkin coming back I can totally understand it.
Now at the opposite end of this is what we get in the Flash and
this is where I've hit the point that I wish Hollywood would stop doing it.
In the film there's a big scene that brings back a number of dead
actors including George Reeves, Christopher Reeve and Adam West.
None of these characters say anything, they don't effect the plot at all and instead they're just
propped up like puppets so we can point at the screen and applaud. The CGI has also been really
mishandled when it comes to this and they don't look like there's been much effort put into it.
I know director Andy Muschietti has come out and said these bad effects were intentional but
I think that they should've chosen someone else or scrapped them entirely. They have no bearing
on the plot and their hands weren't tied with this similar to something like Rise Of Skywalker. They
really didn't need to be included and instead it feels like they were just put in so that
the movie could trick us into getting nostalgic feelings about what we were seeing on screen.
Had they helped to stop the worlds crashing into each other I might be
a little less frustrated with it but they don't do anything beyond standing around.
Now if you know the history of some of the people here as well then you know why this
might be seen as being in bad taste. George Reeve ended up sinking into a depression
about how much Superman ruined his career and the actor apparently took his own life
after failing to find other roles. There are conspiracy theories about whether that's the
case or not but the mental anguish he felt is at the least well documented.
There's also the fact that these guys didn't give their consent or have any involvement with
the film. In the case of Carrie Fisher she of course filmed things for The Force Awakens and
Last Jedi that could then be reworked for Rise so that the character could get a send off.
Here though there's no way that either actor couldve possibly known how their
likeness would have been used. Sure estates can sign things off but ask yourself,
if you had a great great nephew that agreed to let you be in a movie after you died,
do you think they'd be doing it because they want to see you in a film or because
there's also a financial incentive. I'm sure there's aspects of the first part but yeah,
the people signing off on this stuff might not even have everyones best interests at heart.
George Reeve didn't even have any children either
so there are questions over how this cameo came about.
Now I think the fact that they don't really do anything also cheapens the tribute overall.
They're getting called cameos but when you think about it they're really not.
For example I could quite easily use todays technology to make an
AI recreation of William Shakespeare that I then put in a video. Shakespeare never
gave his consent, it's not really him and he had absolutely no involvement in it at all.
What I'm doing though is just showing a cgi version of him
which by the same rules means that he's cameoed in my video.
He hasn't but you get the idea.
I think when you have so many actors attached to tragedy that appear like this and mean absolutely
nothing to the plot that that's when things get bad and also the effects in general don't
look good either. Instead of being wowed I'm sat thinking how atrocious it looks which makes it
feel like it's a bit of a bad tribute in the end. It's like when they unveil a bad statue of someone
and instead of being something you marvel at it just looks so bad and has the opposite effect.
Now like I said I'm not trying to get too preachy on this stuff as I can see why
they've started to do it more and more. However I think that the risks outweigh
the benefits of doing it and in the end there's a lot that can really go wrong.
Brandon Routh canonically is the same version as Christopher Reeves and I dont
think that there wouldve been any of the backlash if he'd been in the role instead.
What we have though is leaked frames and footage blowing up on twitter and
people now writing 10 minute long video essays asking you to stop doing it.
I think that Hollywood should just let the dead lie and probably put an end to this before it
gets out of control. It almost feels like the corporations and franchise now own the actors even
in death and that they'll just keep wheeling them out for eternity without ever letting them rest.
Kinda sounds like the plot of a Black Mirror episode and if youve seen Joan
Is Awful then you'll know that it touches on similar things. I
was actually watching that thinking that they might have released it the same day
on purpose cos they even do a joke about george clooney at one point.
So what I'm asking Hollywood is that you please think about this the next time you
try. My guess is that you'll realise you often dont need to do this and that you're
only doing it for nostalgia reasons. The pros outweigh the cons when it comes to
this stuff and it can often lead to backlash so please hollywood just think before you act.
Now obviously this is gonna be a touchy subject so if you agree or not then the
comments section is below. Hopefully I've argued my points across to where you can at
least see why I'm talking about this and i'd of course love to hear your perspective on it too.
We'll leave some other videos on screen right now if you want to
watch them and hopefully I see you over there right after this.
With that out the way, I've been your host Paul and i'll see you next time. Take care, Peace.