Hercules in the Underworld: Chaos, Seduction, and Mythology Explored - Episode 48

Wes and Nick moves into the 4th Hercules Film. What happens when Hercules encounters chaos, seduction, and a hellish hole all in one film? Prepare for a wild ride as we dissect "Hercules in the Underworld," the fourth installment in the Hercules series. From Hercules' brutal showdown with Eryx the Boxer to the bizarre subplot involving a professional wench sent to seduce our hero, we leave no stone unturned. Alongside a centaur farmhand and dark themes of assault, Hercules plunges into the underworld to save his wife. Expect hilarious critiques and witty insights as we navigate the film’s oddities and fragmented mythology.

But the fun doesn't stop there! We dive deep into the rich lore of the gods and Titans, focusing on the roles of Hades, Hera, and Zeus, while introducing another god and our first Titan. How do these mythical figures fit into the cinematic universe we've been exploring? As we wrap up our discussion, we can't help but look forward to the series finale, "The Minotaur," and its amusing foreshadowing. Don’t miss our Movie Monday series and remember to stay sexy, Atlanta! Thanks for tuning in to the Dumb, Cool, Weird Podcast!

Support the show:

🎤 Go to listen to the audio podcast on your favorite platform: https://dumbcoolweirdpodcast.buzzsprout.com/share

🌐 To see more stuff, buy some merch, or support us go to https://www.retroradfilms.com/dumbcoolweirdpodcast

😀 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retroradfilms/

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retroradfilms/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/retroradfilms

🌴 Links: https://linktr.ee/retroradfilms

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

dumb, cool, weird podcast. Next is the next movie in the hercules series. It's number four. Hercules and the underworld yes and uh.

Speaker 2: 0:12

We start off with eric's the boxer killing the whole village in which a small boy runs up to good old hercules's home begging for help. Hercules, as usual, shows up and tries to help the town, but for some reason decides he wants to keep holding back when beating up Eryx the Boxer, who is like a seven-foot-tall professional wrestler in real life yeah, and Zeus is in the background and he can help as usual, but instead he's like son, come on, keep your left up and jab.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Yeah, almost like he thought he taught him how to do that yeah, like you know, he like he fathered his son, or something yeah something like that.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Yeah well, you know. Anyways, hercules decides to let go and then uh keeps punching eric's a boxer in the dick and he lands on uh, he lands on this thing, he impales himself Pretty badly and then you cut to the next town over. A giant hole from hell comes up because that's a thing, and everybody gets devoured and eaten in that local town.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Fun times.

Speaker 2: 1:20

Yeah, what was it? The village sends over this? What was the woman's position? She was like some kind of a wench. Well, they had a lot of wenches back in those days. Yeah, they had, like, I think she was like a professional wench that if she didn't complete her job, and like seducing Hercules to kill himself, that she would die too. Well, yeah, well, yeah. And then we had, you know, when we're getting the backstory of Hercules, you know, enjoying his family, we never figure out why he has a centaur.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Yeah, because it never shows it in the circle of fire why he has a centaur.

Speaker 2: 1:55

Yeah, Nessus just shows up as his farmhand in the horse stable, Like what's he doing? Fucking the horse?

Speaker 1: 2:02

Yep.

Speaker 2: 2:03

That was like like so odd. Well, he was, you know, he cut over and he just kind of like they're venturing off, and then, for some reason, you know, he tries to rape Hercules's wife while she tries to warn him.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Yep.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Got really dark, didn't it?

Speaker 1: 2:18

Yeah, it did get, pretty dark.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Yeah, and eventually they finally make it to the fucking village and he runs down the hole after that blanket. Oh yeah, by the way, uh, nessus bleeds all over this blanket and it gives it it was, it gave him all the mystical powers to, like, put his killer blood all over it so that uh, through harrah, so that he could, he can kill hercules in another fashion. Didn't work out very well, yeah, and uh, yeah, you know, in hercules you, while he's almost getting murdered by this fucking blanket, decides. You know, I'm just going to run to the hole and get this done After Zeus goes on, this whole thing of like. I really can't tell you if you're mortal or not.

Speaker 1: 2:58

How the fuck does he not know? I thought he was all knowing God.

Speaker 2: 3:03

He doesn't have a very good track record of knowing, right? Yeah, he's just a not-knower. Yeah, Well, you know. And then Hercules goes into hell and he meets Charon.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Where he just roasts the shit out of him and doesn't pay him.

Speaker 1: 3:17

Yeah, you gotta pay him a gold coin, you know.

Speaker 2: 3:19

Yeah, and Hercules is like yeah, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1: 3:23

And then he goes deeper into the underworld.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, because he was trying to help out Hades. And then Hades is like yeah, your wife's here.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Yeah, that's how you entice him.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Yeah, and Hercules, you know, not really understanding why you know, has to make a deal with Hades, like saying, hey, I'll get Cerberus back in line if you give me back my wife.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Fair trade.

Speaker 2: 3:45

It was a fair trade. But his uncle Hades was kind of like A dick. Well, he wasn't a dick, he was like hey, man, I made these rules for a reason. They're already dead.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Can't bring them back. You know it's funny Hera Zeus and Hades are the only gods we see in these entire movies. It's kind of crazy, right.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Well, yeah, except the Titan.

Speaker 1: 4:07

Yeah, well, yeah, you see, Prometheus, prometheus, yeah, that was the only. Titan that we see other than that? Yeah, because Titans aren't technically gods. They're more powerful than gods, or I don't know how does that work.

Speaker 2: 4:17

I think their power is matched. Oh yeah, oh okay. I think the gods were craftier and more mystical.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Yeah, so that's all we know. We just know Prometheus, and then three gods, and that's all we see.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Yeah, and you know, the movie gave us another lesson, because earlier in the movie his wife was like oh try using your words in kindness. No wait, that was the she wench. That was the she wench who did that when guy burned, uh, his mouth on some soup and started terrorizing the bar oh yeah, that's right that that did happen.

Speaker 1: 4:48

So when does uh hercules run into those three chicks?

Speaker 2: 4:51

oh god, that was, uh, the three chicks. Yeah, yeah, that was when he was like he got into hell after he uh, after he beat up I think he was after he beat up all those people he killed in the previous movies yeah, including the yeah Including the centaur. Yeah, the center shows back up again.

Speaker 1: 5:07

He's like oh, nice to see you again. Hercules and all these other people that he's killed show back up. And they're like yeah, we're going to fight you now. And he's just like all right, whip your ass again.

Speaker 2: 5:15

I love it. He's like you killed my mother. He's like she was ugly, like that was his excuse. It was like she was ugly, so it kind of did the world a favor.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Yep, and then he ends up going again Like I guess he ends up fighting those three chicks.

Speaker 2: 5:35

Yeah, he ended up. I think that was like before he ran into everybody because he was in like the zombie pit, yeah, zombie pit, yeah. And that was before uh, nessus, uh sent him to the place where his wife was hanging out, where all the beautiful hot ladies hang out in hell.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Yeah, and she couldn't remember anything. I remember that her memory was spotty. At best she's like bitch. Who are you?

Speaker 2: 5:54

yeah, and then he got kisses her and she's like, oh, my god, hercules, where am I?

Speaker 1: 5:58

yeah, and then her, and then, uh, haiti shows up hey, he's like come on, man, I can't let.

Speaker 2: 6:02

He's like how about I get Cerberus back? Cerberus is being tracked by my best hunters, who are just getting their ass handed to them every second of the way.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Yeah, then that's when we cut to Cerberus. Right.

Speaker 2: 6:16

Yeah, and Cerberus. Those are some pretty good effects, though, for Cerberus.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Yeah, they really kicked up the budget on that stuff, I can tell for some of these movies no.

Speaker 2: 6:27

And then I mean Hercules used that lesson that he learned in the bar use your words and kindness and he got Cerberus back in chains.

Speaker 1: 6:37

I mean it was pretty much happily ever after after that yep, and he gets his wife back and they go back to being a family again yeah so what would you say? Is um really dumb about this movie? Is it because we just didn't know where the fuck?

Speaker 2: 6:52

yeah, he just didn't know where he came from. This guy just lives in the horse stable, yeah, like from movie three, you know. At least. No, sorry, not movie three. Yeah, movie three, you know, in the circle of fire. I've thought we would like, I thought they would at least do some kind of a segue if we're going to get that character.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Nothing. Fourth movie yeah, that is pretty dumb. I think the coolest stuff about this movie is you know, because he was in the underworld a lot of the effects practical effects were really fucking cool.

Speaker 2: 7:19

Oh yeah, I thought. The thing that was cool, though, is how they tied in everyone from the previous movies that he killed.

Speaker 1: 7:26

Yeah, and moving on to the weird, I mean we can still go back to Nessus. It's fucking weird that this character's here. We don't even know where the fuck he came from.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Yeah, like who the fuck is he? Why was he like oh, I've been in love with her. Why would Hercules invite a centaur into his house? Makes no sense.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Makes no fucking sense. But that was Hercules in the Underworld. Pretty good movie. Kind of explores the lore a little bit. You get to see another god.

Speaker 2: 7:56

You get to see. You know Hades a little bit. Yeah, we've only seen Hades. We only know of Hades, hera and Zeus' existence, though, Yep.

Speaker 1: 8:00

And Zeus' existence, though Yep, absolutely, and one Titan that's crazy. Yep, up to now. So, yeah, we're done with this one. We're going to move on to the final movie and that is the Minotaur.

Speaker 2: 8:16

That was funny because they did allude to that in one of the other movies. Go fight a Minotaur, or something.

Speaker 1: 8:24

So you want to sign us off for this one. Stay sexy, atlanta. Thanks for checking out the Dumb, cool, weird Podcast. We're a movie podcast now, so Movie Monday is every Monday about crappy movies from the 20th century. It's going to be great, folks. I can't wait to show y'all.