Waking Life - All Theory and No Action

Waking Life © Richard Linklater
clip has been horizontally flipped for copyright reasons

[@BLUDDYknucklez]

At first I started to think that this was a pretentious scene, until the ending came, then I was like, wow genius.

[@Whathatsmellike]

It’s pretentious, these guys are too much, even with the ending 😆

[@GiantArtProductions]

A motley crew of philosophes plodding together through the streets, acting like they are going somewhere intensely, like a platoon sharing brotherly comradery before battle, but they are treading randomly towards nowhere, lost in thoughts of a more authentic life.

[@astrorobinson3716]

Well said

[@mitchelldwight791]

They speak of nihilistic anarchy yet walk around like robotic pseudo-individuals. This scene is ironically humorous due to their intricate social theory and plan of action to utilize that theory yet they are almost soulless without direction or action. Yet the contrast of the simple minded old man who is quite comfortably sitting in ignorance with assertive ideas is almost positioned as the greater being (also physically positioned above). Its quite a nice light hearted scene. That's what I got from this anyway.

[@DJBOYARDEE]

sweet, nice analysis

[@EDGARgfx]

oh I liked that better

[@ProudSF]

Mitchell Dwight Spot on analysis

[@Theevil6ify]

Sounds about right. The guy even says as much in the end that for all their sophisticated talk, they're no better or worse than the old man with no deeper need or thought other than to enjoy his spot in the "clouds". It shows that no matter what, words are words, and action or lack thereof is all that matters, as well as how that action or inaction affects your happiness.

[@theelectricant98]

fight club vibes

[@KopMATT96]

This scene is brilliant, so clever

[@alecaquino4306]

More like pretentious.

[@brunovaz]

@@alecaquino4306 why?

[@di55olve]

11 years ago and I still come back to rewatch this

[@shad0wMata]

This scene is one of the reasons why the movie is seen as a pretentious piece. But I like to look at it as a formal parody of people wandering through life babbling another person's words, almost robotically and yet they do nothing about their surrounding life. We regard those people as intellectual but theyre just walking literature. Good for info not for action.

[@CunningCondor]

I feel the idea of the film is seeing the different perceptions of various individuals. The viewer isn't expected to agree with everyone in the film, but simply to understand em.

[@Maurowood]

I want to tell people about this movie, but out of fear of seeming pretentious, am apprehensive. Your comment here ironically is an apt description I'd like to use. But won't for fear of babbling out another persons words. Lol

[@dustinwatkins7843]

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." - Marx

[@Snoozelightable]

Fake intellectualism. Full of spieling. Every idea already answered in philosophy. Fake smart people movie.

[@nickmitchell8653]

I mean....yeah haha. But, I also think the word "prententious" is a bit of a cop-out. It's basically accusing the filmmakers of deliberately making something because they wanted to be seen as better others. Which I don't think was the filmmakers intent. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and trusting that they made a sincere effort to make a movie that helped explain complex but important truths. Saying it's pretentious entirely depends on the vantage point from where one is looking at it (which is usually from an ignorant, judgmental, and close-minded place)

[@powertothepeople12]

I flippin love the contrast in this scene

[@futuoinvictus7669]

One of the best scenes in the film, right here.

[@discodani420]

one of the best scenes in any movie

[@YOUCANTDOTHATONTELEVISION]

i dont even know a group of four individuals who are capable of stringing together sentences with words that contain more than 4 syllables in a coherent matter like this......i sure wish i did.

[@robschneider8310]

***** You have a certain talent, but you have not overcome the intellectual's common weakness: pretention.

[@ogpwr]

***** I believe it was bjork who said that she the decided to make music because trying to communicate through language was like trying to squeeze an ocean through a straw. I think the same applies to your situation.

[@mator2339]

Its just one person actually. All these people exist in his dream, hence they are all coherent.

[@duncantoms]

You're right - in the context of almost every other movie, this is superb stuff, and hopefully rousing people to action, or at least to think wider than the usual lines. And it's true, it's easy to through out one line comments and seemingly diss a piece of art that took so much effort and even daring to create.

[@ronaldsmith2529]

To protect the world from devastation! To unite all peoples within our nation! To denounce the evils of truth and love! To extend our reach to the stars above! JESSIE! JAMES!

[@dustinwatkins7843]

lmao

[@TheGamblingApocalyps]

What was missing was felt... irretrievable. The great uncertainties of subsisting without working made excesses necessary and brinks definitive. To quote Stevenson: "Suicide carried off many. Drink and the Devil took care of the rest."

[@leogarcia-cuesta5211]

I fucking hated going through this phase of my life.

[@DafranchYze]

"if the world that we are being forced to accept is false then anything is possible" The Simulacra doesnt hide the truth but rather the fact that there is no truth

[@vmonroe1741]

Where there is fire we will carry gasoline to interrupt the continuum of the everyday experience and the expectations that go along with it.

[@realghostboii]

it’s pretty scary how much i relate to this scene

[@Tenorcapacity121]

the irony in this scene is just too awesome

[@BlueRonsonol]

one of the best scenes in the movie.

[@adamyearwood1995]

They're basically saying that you can have alot of really good ideas but if you don't put them into practice then they mean nothing.

[@Zaint]

to live everyday in contention and never fall into perdition

[@yittmashups]

this scene's message stuck with me

[@tnix80]

word, epic quote

[@Hayabusa2005]

If someone actually did everything the men mentioned, what would a life like that look like?

[@fleshcookie]

They who turn fear into possibility and the adequacy of laziness into the righteousness of action prove triumphant... or something like that

[@beargrylls235]

The moment you get hurt by the exposing honesty...

[@janrouth_Artist]

all theory and no action, all action and no theory... interesting

[@3000dora]

Well said.

[@discoRyne]

Yeah, I'm sure you've come a long way. I would've loved to have grown up in the UK or Netherlands, but alas, it's all a game of chance and patience for the most part. It's just a sad, sad day when I try to show this film to friends and they find themselves bored on the fact that they can't comprehend this level of dialogue for an extended period of time. Just really hurts on a deep level :|

[@3000dora]

Both, since I see those things in myself at times.

[@duncantoms]

I know the feeling of that hurt. It can be a lonely thing to start waking up and your friends aren't interested and then your interests start to differ and you just want to shake people out of their slumber. Then there's no choice but to go it alone and see who comes along as you do so. (The UK is little better than US, BTW, and we are full of US trashy imports, but we do maintain a slight air of independence in culture)

[@christopherlopez3549]

How rich you still find the need to compare but can’t see that we’re all the same

[@RECTmetal]

You cut out the final scene of this chapter! Nooo.

[@RizRa]

wicked film.

[@neild4609]

We will be an intensity never before seen in daily life, and consequences will never be the same.

[@Chronomatrix]

0:57 that's Adam Goldberg!

[@ElliottsRevenge]

Gerdronex he wines a lot.

[@Extarvazis]

I believe that's the point.

[@oceanofoil]

This scene exists to dare you to do something.

[@TheDuttzz]

there is no "authentic self"

[@honeybuns6561]

All action and no theory... ✈️Remember the Skyking✈️

[@adriennelatchman1604]

Best scene in the whole movie hands down

[@mikewest9256]

Adrienne Latchman ..eehh why you say hands down if you like... I put my hands up when I celebrate

[@Ledgeview]

ahhh..i cant find the guy he talks to on the roof..(guy is wearing a white shirt) who is that guy??

[@Wunderlich879]

Isn't one of these guys in Saving Private Ryan? One of the guys in the group of four walking down the street.

[@Openheimmer666]

This name is Robet Paulson... His name is Robet Paulson! His name is Rober Paulson! His name is Rober Paulson!

[@dannimalcrossing]

Nothing is truth. Everything is permitted.

[@BeartoeConCarne]

Were team rocket surrender now or prepare to fight

[@mattbonaccio3522]

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[@gspice4592]

if anyone is wondering these guys are based of the situationist internationale / guy debord

[@classicpinball9873]

To be fair his predictions/analyses were spot on just there’s no action you can really do. I also think it took the idea a little to far however

[@tdcc189]

where there is fire, we will carry gasoline

[@Ledgeview]

i wish i did. im kinda surprised nobody else knowZ either.

[@dustydustydusty]

adios to the most

[@Reporterreporter770]

Is that the voice of Adam Goldberg?

[@surrealcereal603]

Yes, and that's him too.

[@sommelierofstench]

although i have mixed feelings about this movie, this scene will stick with me for my entire life. i don’t know why

[@clocked2002]

the beautiful thing about the movie is, you won't remember everything, and only certain parts will really resonate with you. just like an actual dream:)

[@smokeyalpaca1910]

The 'God Moment' and 'Ukulele' scenes stick with me the most

[@kietosucess8017]

Interesting

[@kopadenieve]

The thing is not to provoke action, is to transform it... becouse action is the base of your life, you don't need MORE actions, waking up is an action, walking, eating, talking, among thousands of other actions everybody do over the day. And science is not the way to transform it, nor religion. Scientific people can still be racist, violent, irritable, depressed, egocentric, competitive, etc. And they are. Religious people are also, although they repress it. The change is in you, not in a system

[@lxmoya11]

dialogue seems partially inspired by the May 68 slogans

[@TheAnalogmatt]

zen is the finger pointing at the moon, not the moon itself :)

[@ralnik2973]

where there is fire we will carry gasoline

[@Mogisnotreal]

Thats me at past

[@RiodeJaneiro4ever]

- "Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I dont think so". lol

[@discoRyne]

Apologies for the personal attack, by the way.

[@truthskullish]

you seem fun

[@buckovens6706]

I remember then i was 14 year old too.

[@gencooliveoilcompany3728]

I am still alive

[@calwayne2433]

That's completely subjective.

[@discoRyne]

Your mind must be numb, then.

[@brian1625]

For INTP and INFP personality types this is a great part in the movie. If you're all about acting on what's in front of you, or acting upon theories -- this may go over your head as irrelevant. (Which is fine, there's a place for everyone in our society)

[@LordSuperCow]

Other way around, dude

[@DonJuanCarlosII]

Reminds me of the all the crap the Secular Humanist say that science is the only thing that is true therefore we must guide ourselves with what it teaches us. Science just teaches us fact and what is already there. We are not taught what to do with it and we have to think rather than do.

[@Myskoxn]

XD

[@LewisGRAHAM]

Myskox, at first I thought that this was too angry for my tastes. Then, just in time, the self-awareness punchline arrived at the conclusion.

[@Myskoxn]

that movie has many levels :) it got me back onto Philip K Dick again too! maybe i should see it again one day..

[@LewisGRAHAM]

I've never gotten off of the Man Who Remembered the Future -- Philip K. Dick! Total Recall and Minority Report are great places to start. Like several other screenplays, they were based on P.K.D.'s sci-fi stories, which strangely paralleled his own life.

[@discoRyne]

Well, being from America, we need all the inspiration we can get in this cluterfuck of a country. I just don't find it in good taste to knock a film that is aiming to shape culture/society for the better by enticing viewers versus the same old action/comedy/drama routine. This is real, ya know?

[@supergeniusman1]

I know what you mean. I watched it on 3 tabs of LSD and high and had to shut it off because it was so uninteresting and pretentious that I felt I was sobering up and wanted to punch every character in the face. It was like I was reading the uninspired posts of a philosophy freshman on an existentialism thread.

[@NaneuxPeeBrane]

Well for those of us who never attended a college at all... and bearly got through high school - this was a gateway drug...i don't regret taking.

[@JayK108]

^this should have been the top comment. :/

[@MrBolaextra]

nevertheless, all theory and not action is by far better than all action and no theory

[@joshingaboutwithjosh]

god this is fucking depressing

[@duncantoms]

On the contrary. Theory is ashes, and this film is full of it, very little of the actual waking up

[@MakedonskaAkropolaMKD]

They sound like Slavoj Žižek :))))))))))))

[@duncantoms]

Fine, if you need inspiration. Why are you trying to make this personal and guessing about what people sound like, based on two sentences? My first comment is how I felt about the film and you felt like you felt and that's it.

[@nicorobinorsomething]

Honestly, if the voice acting was better then this would seem less "psuedo-intellectual."

[@jamescrock2213]

aww :(

[@tyree9232]

It makes it feel authentic in a way

[@gud3742]

Just trip balls 🤡 What is Just Trip balls? The idea that tripping trumps theory by a huge margin. Thinking, talking, and planning are good, but the greatest point of leverage for getting results is just tripping. Why is it Important? Without tripping you will not get any results. The reason you don't have what you want is probably because you aren't taking enough psychedelics.

[@simonjeste]

after a few dozen comments that are really no different than the young men in this clip, I gotta say... "BE the change you want to see in the world". -that is all.

[@Weeman44444444444444]

Pseudo intellectual gang walk down the street.

[@AdamSmith-gx9qm]

This is Nihilism.

[@leekee2578]

These guys know they’re virtue signallers

[@ISBChampion1]

What are the talking about? Seriously.

[@DonJuanCarlosII]

And of course god isn't gonna do it either hahahahaa

[@PerryUlyssesCox]

This is why I hate hipsters and love mechanics, carpenters, and pretty much everyone else.

[@petraino2751]

THIS SCENE WAS NOT FEATURED IN THE MOVIE, IT EVEN LOOKS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM THE TRUE MOVIE ANIMATION STYLE, DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE

[@Tsururu]

yeah, I totally hand-animated this whole thing and hired voice actors so I could trick everyone into thinking something I produced was done by someone else

[@TRicKyDicKy93]

Yes it was... I own the movie.

[@MrOnlyeye]

TRicKyDicKy93 lol

[@SKATER29334]

Yes it is.

[@oxicemusic]

There is absolutely nothing pseudo intellectual about this clip or this film at all. Believing that to be true, would mean that their reputation precedes them. That is not true. All of the characters are briefly touched upon with no hints or any warranties for judgment of character, Everything being said is mainly just there for stark contrast. Shut up with the weak disses already. #intellect.