Cargo Cult

If you haven’t seen HBO’s critically acclaimed and video game inspired The Last of Us, you might want to skip ahead to episode 14 and keep following Justin and Jimmy Mac as they travel along Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. But if you’ve seen or are watching the Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascale survival horror vehicle, stick around and listen to the hosts’ reaction to this staggering piece of telev...

Jimmy and Justin use the latest episode The Last of Us to discuss road trips, roads to redemption, and how all of it comes to an ugly end in Kansas City. A lot of ground gets covered both on the show and the episode including a star making turn from actor Melanie Lynskey, an investigation into the nature of vengeance, and an analysis of why few revolutions actually work. Want to hear the full epis...

The second of four episodes looking at the groundbreaking HBO series. Our interlude into The Last of Us continues with a discussion of the effectiveness of a great cold open, the creation of dystopian worlds, and why Nick Offerman needs to play Teddy Roosevelt before it is too late. Speaking of Nick Offerman, wouldn’t he be great as The Comedian in a long form adaptation of Watchman?  Want to hear...

OTW

Did you think we really wouldn't get to this movie? Director Hal Needham's anarchist celebration of trucking culture perfectly captured the chronotope, put trucking at the center of American culture, and became Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movie. Many tried to replicate it, but no one succeeded. Ironically, this movie was the end not the beginning of the trend. It never stood a chance against Star...

If ever there was a western where outlaws and outlaw truckers became one, Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece The Wild Bunch would be it. An over-the-hill-but-still-formidable gang of bank robbers heads out for one final score only to find their final obstacle is a stubborn sense of honor. The laughter of the gallows is omnipresent throughout both the move and this episode. Want to hear the full episode?...

Recorded close to Halloween, these two episodes are a ghoulishly joyful detour into John Carpenter's cult classic The Prince of Darkness. Part of the director's Apocalypse Trilogy, the movie concerns a ragtag band of grad students, holed up in an abandoned church, attempting to prevent an Eldritch-induced world ending event while staving off an army of the homeless. That army is led by Alice Coope...

Recorded close to Halloween, these two episodes are a ghoulishly joyful detour into John Carpenter's cult classic The Prince of Darkness. Part of the director's Apocalypse Trilogy, the movie concerns a ragtag band of grad students, holed up in an abandoned church, attempting to prevent an Eldritch-induced world ending event while staving off an army of the homeless. That army is led by Alice Coope...

As the song says, "the thumb goes up; the car goes by". Or it should have in the case of C. Thomas Howell's character Jim in 1986's The Hitcher. Instead young Jim Halsey picks up the aptly named John Ryder and sets a course for a 90 minute nightmare. The fact that Ryder is played by Rutger Hauer should have tipped off our hapless hero. But we're glad Howell did pull the car over, since it gives Ju...

Get your motor running, head out the highway, looking for adventure, and whatever comes your way. The urge to be free is the center of a hero's journey. It is their ultimate goal. Despite being set in different times and having different objectives, the heroes of both The Wild Bunch and Easy Rider share the deep desire to break away from the worlds in which they are trapped. It is a desire shared...

Jimmy Mac and Justin Welborn discuss the idea of the road combined with the race against time as an antagonist of many a movie hero and the American truck driver. They also work in the time to discuss one of Jimmy's favorite movies: 1972's The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3. Best line from that film? "We need more time Pelham!"  Want to hear the full episode? Click  here to find it on the SiriusXM App.

Using Joseph Campell's Hero's Journey as a model, Jimmy and Justin talk about The Call to Adventure that not only starts countless films but also drives those who choose trucking as a profession. They manage to find time to share their enjoyment of director Sam Peckinpah's gleefully mean-spirited cult movie 1975's The Killer Elite and its joyful slaughter of ninjas. Ninjas! Want to hear the full e...

Join hosts Jimmy Mac and Justin Welborn on Cargo Cult. It's a podcast about the movies, books, music, and moments that helped shape not only the lifestyle of the trucking industry but also the American obsession with being on the move. Want to hear the full episode? Click  here to find it on the SiriusXM App.