Life After Flash (2015) - full transcript

Life After Flash is a feature documentary that captures the real man behind the legend that is "Flash Gordon", and features cast and crew looking back at the filming of that iconic 1980 movie, and how it influenced and inspired them.

SAM J. JONES:
What has life afterFlash
been like for me?

About 35 years ago,
I put on...

I put on some tights
and a tank top.

Okay, so...

Thirty-five years later...

Um...

Thank God.
Thank God I don't
have to wear...

Well, actually, I did in Ted.

I wore the tank top
and I wore the tights

in Ted 1and Ted 2.

But I would probably be
very self-conscious



if I had to...
Hey, how are we
doing today?

-MAN: Fine, thank you.
-Good. Where are you in from?

MAN: For nearly 50 years,
the comic stripFlash Gordon

has gripped the imagination
of successive generations
of children.

To translate it to the screen
is a challenge that involves

love, inspiration,
hard work and pure
movie magic.

When I first saw Flash Gordon,
it changed my life.

Flash!

I love everything
about Flash Gordon.

It was such an incredible
experience at that time.

We used to take the carpet
in the middle of our living room

and pretended that was
the floor with spikes,

-and we were just acting it out.
-I was blown away.

This reminds me
of being a boy again.



Quarterback, New York Jets.

I would have been
pretty little the first time
I saw Flash Gordon.

The first time I saw it
I was 11 years old.
I was in the fifth grade.

-I was in college.
-Yeah, Flash Gordon,

grew up with him
as a kid.

I'm a late bloomer.
I always get to things late.

I just saw Star Wars.
It's great.

Are there sequels?

The special effects
were ground breaking.

I think I saw it,
like, a dozen times,

but I couldn't be sure.

They gave a different look
to Flash Gordon.

I just love the colors,
I love the costumes.

I love everything about it.

My wife and I were first dating,
this is the first movie
we saw together.

Action adventure,
love story.

The way the music hit,
and the colors hit,

like, that was my entire world.

Hail Ming!

Something happened
during the making
of that film

between Sam and Dino.

Sam is a man who... struggled.

You know, all the tabloids are
coming out, you know, saying
"Where has Flash Gordon been?"

Who wants to hire
a bitter, angry actor

who's blaming everybody else?

It's harder for them to go
and explore other characters

because everybody just wants
what they love.

Well, I guess I'll be
running along now.

Like, really
that day, right.
Like, uh...

Like, when Sam got the call
that he wasn't asked back.

He really stewed
in his own juice.

He was around.
He did stuff.

You know, I'd see him
in a couple of TV series,

you know, in the '80s, and go,
"Oh, that was Flash Gordon."

But it just...

I don't know how much of it was
that the film didn't do as well
as everyone thought it might

or how much was whatever
went on behind the scenes
with him.

RICH: Yeah, I wonder
if he regrets what he did.

WOMAN: Well, who doesn't
remember this, of course.

A football player
and his friends travel
to the planet Mongo

and find themselves fighting

the tyranny of Ming
the Merciless to save Earth.

Well, guess what,
The Flash Gordon Sam Jones
is right here

in our studios
here this morning,

and he is part of this weekend's
STCE's Comic Con at TAMIU.

Good morning.

I carry my own bread
because, uh, it's flourless.

I was getting
pretty heavy there
at one point

and I eliminated all flour.

And within 30 days,
I dropped 30 pounds.

A pound a day
just from eliminating...

I knew I couldn't give up
my primary staple of bread

so I substituted it
for this Ezekiel bread.

We have a lot of print,
a lot of radio, some TV,

lot of interviews
back to back.

It's gonna be exciting.

If we leave it there,
maybe we should do this,
you know.

That way
you're clear, I'm clear.

So, this is good like this?
You're testing?

If he does the same thing.

-So, Alien.
-Yes.

Well, I guess you can
call me Flash, you know.

We're gonna get up
and probably pose
together, okay?

You know, I'm sorry.
Do we have any high chairs,
like bar chairs?

You just do a mark,

maybe just write
just a one or something.

You know, just a mark.
And then, that way
I don't have to be bothered.

I don't have a whole lot
of those, do I?

So, at the end of the day,
doesn't matter if you have
$10 or $20,000 in that till.

It doesn't matter.
The marks on my sheet
and the marks on your sheet

is what matters.
Is that cool?

Yes.

And they should come
to you first, right?
In line?

Okay. So that way,
Melody and I are here.
Boom, boom, boom.

-Okay.
-MAN: It's like
a military operation.

Well...

There has to be some form
of organization, which it is,
you know.

And this is
a more intimate venue,
which is good.

Just thank the Lord
for a great day,
a blessed day.

That sign should be corrected.
It should be straight.

The Holy Spirit
just guides me in everything,

that I'm patient with people,
that I'm not too...

As my wife says,
I'm abrasively encouraging.

Well, I want to get rid
of that abrasiveness.

I want to get rid
of that abrasiveness today
and just be encouraging.

And Your joy upon me.

In Jesus mighty name. Amen.

MAN: Join us for the
fantastic adventures
of Flash Gordon.

Having been taken
prisoner by an ally
of Ming the Merciless,

Flash escapes,

only to face
the gauntlet of the swamp.

Leave him!

MAN: Is this the end?
Will Flash survive?

Find out now
at a theater near you.

I remember when I first
saw Flash Gordon,
me and my younger brother

we'd been seeing
the trailers for it
on TV.

And the TV spots
were great.
They were, uh...

I've never seen them anywhere.

I can't even find them
on YouTube.

There would be
little cliffhangers.

They would show
each little adventure.

Like, when he's fighting
the creature in the swamp,

and it would show him
going to attack, and it would
say, "Will Flash survive?"

I was a Flash Gordonfan
before Flash Gordonopened
in theaters.

I used to watch
the Buster Crabbe
Flash Gordonserials.

My problem was
I saw Flash Gordonfirst.

♪ Flash
Yeah, um, I dug it.

It had Brian Blessed,
it had Timothy Dalton.

I remember every single bit
about that film.

My favorite bit in the movie,
I think, is the football fight.

I think it probably
is everyone's.
As a little boy,

um, that was the scene
we acted out most.

What I really remember
is being a kid.

It was that scene
with Timothy Dalton,

being terrified by that
thing they had to stick
their hand in.

That frightened me as a kid.

You can see why
George Lucas wanted to make
the Flash Gordonmovie.

He wanted to get the
rights toFlash Gordon,
couldn't get it,

so he wrote his own movie
calledStar Wars.

But originally
he was inspired to do it
because ofFlash Gordon.

MILLAR: You can see
Flash Gordon's fingerprints
all overStar Wars,

so it really is the daddy
of the genre.

Flash Gordonwas
a really exciting movie
for me, as a kid, to see.

And seeing somebody like
Sam J. Jones play Flash Gordon,

uh, it definitely had
an impact on me as an actor.

There is something so absurd
about him in the film

because he's guileless.
He has this innocent
approach to everything.

-Are you all right?
-He doesn't really
evolve or grow

throughout the whole movie,
but that's partly what I love
about it.

He shows up,
and he's perfect.

-My name is Flash.
-GORE: He's kind of naive.

We've got to stop Ming
or he'll destroy the Earth.

Like, it doesn't...
You know, he's just a guy.

Right? Who says that?

He's just one of those guys
who you root for, you know,
no matter what.

Well, Flash Gordonwas created
at a really interesting time,

where it seemed to be characters
who we would identify with

being put in an environment
that was alien to them.

He didn't have,
like, superpowers

so he's not, like, a superhero,
but he's just a normal guy

who got put into
a very difficult situation.

Uh, a stressful situation.
And he was able to conquer
and save the Earth.

It's an interesting question.
Is Flash Gordon a superhero?

Yeah, he doesn't have
any superpowers,

just his natural
athletic abilities,

just his natural abilities,
in general.

You have to care
for the character
because of who he is

and not just
for his superpower.

In other words,
in private life
if he's interesting

and you want to know
more about him,

that, to me, is what makes
a good character.

Then, if he has
a superpower on top of that,
so much the better.

But you can't be a superhero
without a superpower.

Sorry, I don't want
to step on Stan.

Stan said...
Stan the man said

that if you'd have to have
a superpower to be a superhero?

-'Cause Batman would
not be a superhero.
-Batman--

A good superhero, I think,
is somebody who against
all the odds wins.

I think, ultimately,
that's every superhero's story.

And a guy
you don't expect to win.

A guy who is out of his depth
suddenly winning at the end.

Honestly, in terms
of the history of superheroes,

there are no superheroes
without Flash Gordon.

Uh, if that character
hadn't come out
when it did in the '30s,

um, you wouldn't have had
all the various characters
and costume designs

that came from people
ripping off Alex Raymond
and his comic strip.

The fact that Flash Gordon
can take on Ming's entire army
and win and save the planet,

to me, that makes him
a superhero.

Effectively the father
of all superheroes,

in many ways,
is Flash Gordon.

The every man
for the best
in all of us

who could rise up
and take on, virtually,
everything.

In the context of film,
that's taken to maybe
a slightly more,

uh, humorous degree,
attaching him instead of
what he was created to be

in the '30s.
He was a polo player.

Now, he's a football player
in the modern age.

I grew up
in athletics, anyways,
as a footballer

and basketball, and baseball
and track and field.

And it's helped me a great... I mean, it's obviously helped.

MAN: Newcomer Sam Jones
plays Flash Gordon.

It had a lot to do with me
getting the part, I'm sure.

Other than taking
my clothes off,

I think that had a lot
to do with it, you know.

Dino De Laurentiis, you know,
he gave me an opportunity.

He, uh... He cast me
in the part of this iconic,

this legend Flash Gordon.

It was, like,
the most coveted part.

Everybody wanted
to play that part.

It is, um...
You know, it's iconic.

The audition process
for Flash Gordon,yeah,
it was complicated.

It wasn't easy,
because we look around
for one years,

no star, really,
can play Flash Gordon.

I think I met with
Dino De Laurentiis in his
Beverly Hills office.

It was all about sizing you up.

He flew me to London.
They dyed my hair blonde.

He wanted to change
my eye color, uh, blue,

so I had these hard
contact lenses.

And finally after 30 days
he basically said,

"Hey, you..."
He didn't say it to me,

he said it to another man
in the office.

He said, "Hey, Sam Jones,
he's our new Flash Gordon."

MAN: Melody Anderson
as the delectable Dale Arden

doesn't find her Mongo trip
much of a rest cure either.

I'm in New York
and I get this call.

There's this voice
at the other end
of the line,

"Melody, it's Dino."
And I think it's a friend

making, like, a joke.
Going, "Dino De Laurentiis
calling me."

It is Dino De Laurentiis,
and he says to me,

"I want you...
I want you to come
to London tonight.

"We want you to do
the movie."

The only comic book I saw
was at Dino's house.

It was in Italian
so I had no idea.
Buongiorno.

I didn't even have any rest.

They picked me up
from the airport,

took me to the studio,
dyed my hair.

Shaved the front of it
because they wanted to
make it look like a wig,

but, of course, nobody
thought about using a wig.

And, um...
And put me on screen
with the wardrobe,

and I started working
the next day.
It was that crazy.

Everything was overwhelming.

I was really discombobulated
for the first couple of weeks.

Sort of like I was a deer
in the headlights, going,
"Where do you want me now?"

I think I remember being
quite nervous about it

'cause it was a big film.
It was exciting as well.

We had no time to enjoy.
If I'm rehearsing this scene,

a fight scene, okay,
we go to the next set,

we shoot that scene
that we just rehearsed
an hour ago,

then, I go off
with the bull whip artist.

He has to teach me
how to use a bull whip,

and it just did not stop.

I am playing Vultan,
the king of the Hawkmen.

-MAN: Brian Blessed.
-And his kingdom
is the Sky City.

Flash Gordonhad more effect
on us as schoolchildren

than anything else in cinema.

Brian Blessed
is a great guy
to work with.

Oh! Gordon's alive!

At the end of an episode,
the railway embankment
was outside,

we've got these great
steam trains coming through.

And we'd run down
the embankment.

Jumping, doing ghastly,
what men dare.

And you pretend to be...
And I was pretending
to be Vultan.

And I never dreamt
that eventually I'd
actually play Vultan

in the film,
but I enacted him
as a child.

MAN: You'd think for
a long time in the film

that he's really a big baddie.

But he's really got
a great heart,

and at the end he comes good
and becomes a great hero.

I based my part
on the comic strip plot.

Zoom, bang, wallop, wham!

What a great voice he has.
What a presence.

Never have I known
such artistic happiness
and freedom.

For me, it was a...

-picnic
-There was a marvelous sequence

in the opening conversation
when Zarkov says,

"Come on!
You can get together.

You can all get together
and you can fight Ming."

And I'm going,
"What, fight Ming?
Against the Imperial Fleet?"

And as I'm passing Melody,
I goosed her straight up
the ass.

-Whoo!

And she squeaked
as I put my hand up her ass.

And she never expected it
on the film.

TREDOR BUTTERFIELD:
Before we had to put
all the wings on

and all the costumes,
we had to stand there
in our underwear...

and have all this makeup
painted all over us.

I couldn't sit in a chair
'cause you've got
these wings...

It was difficult
walking down staircases.

And so, they built me a perch.

He was left
more or less whole day
wearing these damned wings.

They would go,
"Pretty polly, pretty polly."
Bugger off!

You walk in the studio
and everybody goes

Making all the bird noise.

We had about 12 wiremen
or riggers,

all prodding up and down.

We had another 12
pulling along on pulleys.

It was outrageous.

Getting people up on wires.
And Brian going,

"Get me out of these wires,
Michael." Brian.

And then, you get them
on the wires,

and, of course,
you've got to,
really, be ready

because once they're on there
and they're hovering,

you've got to really start
rolling the camera.

ANDERSON: It was
a very physical film.

A lot of the shooting
was happening in the winter,

and there was no heat.
And so, we had these straps

that held us up.
I remember scenes
with Topol,

when we're supposedly
on this machine.

And we'd be hanging
in these stirrups,

like, 40 feet off the ground.

And they'd have the fan going. It was already cold.

They would often just
sit there and go,

"Okay, it's tea time,
everybody,"
and they'd go off.

And we'd, kind of, say,
"Hey, what about us?"

We were hanging,
I don't know,
I think, a whole week.

MAN: Zarkov is played by Topol.

As a child in Israel, he only learnt ofFlash Gordon by word of mouth.

Well, the cinema
was in the north,
I lived in the south

of Tel Aviv.
It was too far
for me to go.

It was quite a...

A different, uh...

A different sort of acting.

I mean...

We couldn't decide
whether to have Topol
or Warren Oates.

I remember we went
to the theater one day
before the shooting,

myself, Bernie,
and we were talking about
who we should have.

And we all had
our own ideas
who would be better.

Mike wanted Topol.
Dino said,

"Listen. Who's got a coin?

I've made some of my
best decisions like this."

And someone gave him a coin
and he said, "Heads it's Topol,
tails it's Warren Oates."

He slung the coin up
and it came down as Topol.

And that's how Topol
got the part.

TOPOL: He was a professor,
and he was very serious.

Moon out of orbit.

WOMAN: When was
the last time you saw it?

Thirty-five years.

There's this tiny minutiae.

But remember when Zarkov,
they're sucking the memory
out of his brain,

it's supposed to be backwards, but they show them meeting

and then, her dying,
when it's supposed
to all be backwards.

That would have made
a huge difference,
I think, in the film.

In the marketing,
in the box office.

-No, no. I know.
-That needed to be said.

We all want to see stuff
like that.

Like, you know,
in Die Hard 2they use

a Pac Bell phone
on the East Coast.

Like, little things
like that.

It was a bit
hard going, the film.

You know, there was lots
of changes in minds.

Like in the forest.
For some reason,
they thought it'd be way out,

and they made it pink. And the cameraman, Gill Taylor,

he came on the set,
he said, "I can't film this.

"People will never
talk to me again."

He said, "How can you
have a pink tree?"

And he made them
change the whole thing.

Thank goodness he did
'cause it would have
looked ridiculous.

MAN: Neither of their two
London studios was big enough

for all the extensive sets,

so they also commandeered
a massive aircraft hanger.

Six million cubic feet
under one roof.

Three times the size
of any existing film stage.

Triple Oscar winner
Danilo Donati was appointed
production designer

to give the movie
its overall visual flavor.

MARTHA DE LAURENTIIS:
So, the challenge
of making a spectacle

with Flash Gordon
was the genius of
Danilo Donati.

ROY: The sets were
elaborate, bigger.

You know, it was one of the
biggest movies at that time.

It was a little overwhelming.
Also, when I saw the quality
of the work on the sets...

Danilo Donati who did
the production design
worked for Fellini,

so he continued that
same kind of exotic lyricness

in the designs that he did.

ROSS: One of the brilliant
things about the film

and one of the absurd
things, too, is how much
it embraced color.

Nothing was practical about the fashions and costumes

made for the
Flash Gordon movie.

It was all meant to be
just this blended
literary landscape

of brilliant color and sequins,

and things taken
to a degree that

nobody would think
before or since

to do in a science
fiction film.

There was a work room
with these little Italian women

sticking these things,
these beads on,

each bead on at a time
by hand.

My wedding dress
with black bugle beads,
weighed 30 pounds.

How did I feel about it?

All these fancy,
smancy dresses and eyelashes,

another day at the office.

Put back the mask.
Put back the mask.

That's all I ask you to do.

-You see, I warned you.
-Peter Wyngarde was Jason King.

He was around
forever in the '60s.
Did loads of stuff.

But he was Jason King
inDepartment S.

And then, he had
his own showJason King.

And he was a sex symbol.
Women went nuts over this guy.

His life story in general,
about him being an actor

and him being involved
in the gay community,

and him, kind of, like,
not getting blacklisted

but, kind of,
getting shoved aside

because of his alleged
homosexuality,

um, just made his character
in Flash Gordon
even more interesting.

My costume was so heavy
that I couldn't stand.

I couldn't walk.
I had to prop myself up

in this ridiculous
ironing board.

It used to take my poor dresser
an hour to put the costume on.

Also, a jock strap.

Because the nuns
that made this silk,

this raw silk so fine

that things got piping hot,

so we had to put on
the jock strap.

If anybody wants
to look closely,

I can tell them
it's all well covered.

We're coming up to the point
where Prince Baron
and Flash Gordon

kill Klytus,
and throw him on the spikes,
and get him.

And at that particular point
Peter Wyngarde wouldn't die.

Suddenly he stopped
the whole filming.

I think that Klytus
is such an important character.

There's going to be sequels.

I think it'd be a big mistake
to kill Klytus off.

I don't think I should die.
At which point I said,

"Oh, I'm not gonna bloody die."

Mike said, "No, no.
It's written in the scripts.
You'll die now.

"Klytus is part
of the whole thing."

Well, I said,
"You die! You bloody die!

You come on,
they get over with you

and they throw you
on the spikes.

And you die."

-MAN: Director Mike Hodges.
-It is a comic strip

and therefore they are
pretty one dimensional.

And by having good actors,
I think, it sort of just adds
flesh and blood to it.

You sort of feel that
they've all got a past

-and they've all got a future.-I thought the best thing was

he should go to another planet.

That was my weak
little suggestion

so that I could come back
in some way for another film,
of course.

But, no, he wanted me
squashed up in little pieces.

We had a different director.
We had Nicolas Roeg

for a year plus
who did all the developments

and the pre-production.

So, Dino meets Nic Roeg.

And Nic did a lot of research
and also did his own, you know,
pitch to Dino,

and also, enough time
with storyboards
and illustrations

to, um, have somewhat of an idea
of what the picture would cost,

uh, if it were going to be
in his, kind of, highly stylized
intellectual take.

And I guess Dino thought,
"Too expensive. This isn't
going to work."

They tried to make it work,
and Nic actually parted ways
with Dino.

MAN: Movie moghul
Dino De Laurentiis.

I start to read
the Flash Gordon character
when I was a kid,

around 13, 14.

The cartoon come up
in the United States
in 1931.

1930s was the first time.

After the Big,
the pregenomic Depression
of the United States.

The American people
were looking for a hero.

And Flash Gordon was the
first great American hero,

who tried to save the world.

So, to describe
Dino as a producer

is also describing Dino
as a man,

where he's about
a quality of life

and he's also, um...

Was also just full of love

and an immense wave of will
to make something happen.

You always knew
when Dino was there, you know.

Everything, sort of,
seemed to change.

Dino loved to fire people.

A couple of times,
I think, I got to tears.

You know, just being frustrated
because he was so specific

and demanding about
how he wanted his film
to look like.

Mike, you know, disagreed
with everything Dino wanted.

So, it was almost an argument.

You know, that time
Mike was ready
to leave the film.

There were problems.
And I remember one day
hearing Mike,

um, order Dino off the set,

which I thought was
exceptionally brave,

for anybody to do that
to your producer.

When Dino came on the set,
people got so scared
no work got done.

He used to come on
with three or four
of his henchmen,

you know, carrying money
in their pockets and things.

Bags. In black outfits.
And Dino would come...

People were terrified
when Dino was around.

He got on like a house
on fire, you know.

And I'm busy doing something.
I said, "Dino, go on.
We won't get anything done."

Am I allowed to say F?

So I said, "Dino,
you must fuck off.

Dino, you must fuck off.
We can't get anything...

Everyone's terrified of you.
We can get bugger all done."

With all these costumes...

"No one tells me to fuck off."

There was a lot
of conflict on set

because Dino didn't get...

It was supposed to be funny
in camp.

That's the way Lorenzo
had written the script.

You've got Dino
wanting it to be
an epic film,

and the distributors wanted...

Another, sort of,
John Wayne Flash Gordon.

And then, you've got the cast

and, uh, Mike Hodges

selling it up.

High camp is what
it was called.

Why, I can't think.

He was a perfectionist.
He came to me one day,
and he went,

"Your face is so round."

I said, "While that's true,
it's not gonna change."

And I was certainly a lot
skinnier then than I am now.

And, um, and...

You're very right
about the perfectionist.

He had an image in his mind
and he would not bend it.

When he died,
I, kind of, read his...

The retrospect on his life.
And he did it several times
with Flashand other big films,

where, you know, he put lots
of money in and made something
that was iconic.

Dino would talk about,
you know, obviously,
working with actors,

working with, um...

You know, not that
Sam was a diva,

but in a certain way
he was a young, novice actor.

He was a beautiful
All-American boy
that fit the part visually.

Not a lot of experience.

But there were some things
that once he showed up
in London,

some behavior patterns
that Dino saw happening.

And so, right before
they started shooting,

Dino calls him into his office.

He's sitting there
and Dino's behind
this big desk.

He says, "Sam, you come,
you do this...

This is a big movie.
A lot at stake.

Take care about
what happens now.

What will happen later,
you become a star.

You are not a star now.

You must be sincere,
and go quietly."

I guess that fell on
deaf ears.

Because, I think
before they started shooting

Sam ended up in an altercation,

where he ended up
in the hospital

because he had a big gash
in his forehead.

It would have been
disastrous, though.

If Sam were not to do this job
right before shooting,

we'd have to find
another Flash Gordon.

Yet, Sam didn't listen to that advice even after that.

He continued
to have altercations.

He was very
emotionally young, Sam,

and, um, a little out.

Felt... I think
he felt a little unloved.

He's a prima donna.
You know, making life
difficult for everyone.

Give me this, give me that.

I don't want to do this,
you know.

Come on the set late. Hey?

We're nearly getting to the end
of the film now.

We've only got
a couple of weeks to go.

I wasn't getting paid
as a weekly actor.

I'd listen
to my representation,

who evidently wanted
a piece of Dino.

They said, "No,
we're gonna just hold up.

And you're not gonna
work anymore."

My advice, I spoke
to Sam a little bit about it,

was not to get involved
in a confrontation with Dino

over, be it money
or whatever,

um, because I've seen it
happen before,

particularly with
George Lazenby.

JONES: I didn't work
for a couple of days.
It was a big deal.

And I guess you could say
I held up production,

and then, I got paid.

So, apparently,
at Christmas time,
they broke.

Gave a couple of weeks off.
The crew goes home,
Sam goes back to America,

and he doesn't come back.

They sacked Sam.
Got rid of him.

MARTHA: Dino says,
"The pope die,
you get a new pope."

We put the stand-in.
We finished the movie
without him.

I was sad for Sam
'cause I liked him a lot.

Whoever his agents
or advisors were,
were completely wrong,

but, you know,
so often they are.

The stakes were large
for Dino on this.

Dino's collateral
were his personal assets.

And when something
like this happens,

you just have to make
a decision and go.

Dino wasn't vindictive.
He had to always cover his ass.

Because if not,
they'd take his ass.

He didn't go back
and loop his dialogue.

He must have really been upset.

That was the bone of contention.

You know, I mean,
my leading man
is to be dubbed.

You know, fuck you.

As an actor, uh, you know,
I'm sure there's a frustration
with that.

He was disgusted with it.

He wanted it to be his voice,
he wanted it to work out.

He wanted to get paid.
He wanted things the right way.

I know it hurt him
that his voice was,
uh...

You know, 'cause Sam
has a great voice,

and the voice that they used
was, kind of, pedestrian.

I don't know who it was,
but that's definitely
a British actor doing American,

-trying to do American.
-I think it's Bill Cosby.

He's a Canadian actor.

I do know his name.
I can't remember it.

Not because for any reason,

but I just simply
can't remember his name.

He did, sort of,
things like Thunderbird.

One of those
Thunderbirdcharacters.

His performance
has not gotten its due.

I think the movie hasn't,
but his performance as well.

-Really?
-He's wonderful
in the movie.

I think he's really,
really great.

It's hard to pull off
the heroic thing

and not look, you know
ridiculous doing it.

He does it very, very well.

But in certain instances,

that voice doesn't
quite do justice to what
he's doing on screen.

I just think that
it was so wrong that
Sam was treated badly,

with the dubbing.

Uh, because it was wrong.
It was very wrong.

We made our protest.
It's all we could do.

Made another time,
he would have cracked it.

-He could have made it.
-Universal was ready
to do a sequel.

Like, they were gonna do,
like, a trilogy.

At that time you had
a contract for a sequel.

You know, sequel rights
and bla, bla, bla.

So there was a contract
for doing the film,
doing film two and three.

Sam sues
for not having done
two and three.

But two and three
were never made.

These guys are very powerful
in Hollywood.

I mean, they're not
the sort of people

you want to be changing
a deal with

or your situation with

because it'll come back
to haunt you.

You've got to be
very careful
who you upset.

MAN: Join us for the
fantastic adventures
of Flash Gordon.

Will Flash's strategy
prove successful?

Will he survive?

Find out now
in a theater near you.

So, at the time
that the original
Flash Gordon came out,

there was so little merchandise.

There was, really,
nothing to buy as a nerd.

But I bought the Flash Gordon
movie novelization,

which I read as a kid.

And let me just tell you,

the stuff that you learn
in this Flash Gordonmovie
novelization

shocked me as a teenager.

Flash Gordon's mother
died during childbirth.

Flash Gordon's father became, kind of, an alcoholic.

JONES: Childhood was
unpredictable, unbalanced,

dysfunctional. Yeah.

Dad was on the road a lot.
He was a former military.

So a lot of my growing up
was, you know, hard knocks.

Sam Jones, my grandfather,
whom I was named after,

told my dad, "Son, it's time
for you to go get a job

and explore the world."
My father left

and went to the
Wyoming coal mines.

He probably arrived
at the ripe old age of 14,

and, obviously,
started drinking,

which led to 50 years
of drinking.

My dad was a great guy,
but he was a chronic alcoholic.

I know you hear all those,
but he was a good drunk.

But he was a good drunk.
I mean, he would drink,

would not break you down,
he'd actually build you up.

But my mother couldn't
stand him drinking.

My father would say to Mom,
"Anne, why don't you stop
your nagging?"

And her reply was,
"Joe, I'll stop my nagging

"if you stop your drinking."

"Well, I'll stop my drinking
if you stop your nagging."

And just back and forth.

And they both split.
And at 15-and-a-half,

I ended up getting my own apartment with friends.

I don't know
how that happened,
but it happened.

Nobody humbled themselves.
They had to stick to
me, my way.

So, that was my family.

A lot of actors
come from a place of loss.

And Sam experienced loss
as a teenager in a horrific way.

JONES: Well, my older brother, the only brother I ever had,

we are 14 months apart.

Joe Jones. He was so great
as an athlete

that they nicknamed him
Jumping Joe Jones.

And he was a local hero.

We were going
from Florida to Sacramento.

We thought it was a vacation,

but little did we know
that our dad was running
from bill collectors.

It was a deceptive move.
It caused a lot of contention
and strife

between my brother and my dad.

And, uh, he was never
the same from that.

He got into a bad car wreck, but he was physically so strong

that he survived.

And he was 21 at this point.

Because he was of age,
he told the doctors
not to tell the family

that he only had
six months to live

because his organs
were deteriorating inside.

And, you know,
he acquired a gun

and he got pulled over
by a cop,

and he got shot and killed
by a police officer,

who was protecting himself,
obviously.

And, uh... I mean, that
in itself is devastating.

-WOMAN: Take your time.
-Yeah.

But, uh... Yeah.

As you can see,
I haven't talked
about this much.

But, uh, it wasn't just
so difficult that he left
this world early,

but the cop that took his life happened to be good friends with my mother.

So, my mother's good friend shot and killed her oldest son.

The weapon that he acquired,
my dad bought for him.

HILL: A lot of times
actors find a way
in their characters

and their roles
to overcome that,

but at the same time
channel that passion,
that energy, that caring

into their characters.

It's a way of dealing
with something that you just
can't otherwise deal with.

But, Sam, through that loss
found a way

to entertain,
to connect with other
actors and actresses

and directors on the set
that was rather unique.

But this was something
that was an undercurrent

to who Sam was
as a young man and then,
certainly as an actor.

I think it's probably what drove him to be an actor.

It was a way for him to escape something that he might not

otherwise have been able
to deal with.

JONES: I guess
when I went to Hollywood,

I probably got
a little bit full of me.

He was very wild,
and so was I.

And we drank,
we did drugs.

I was born and raised
in Hollywood.

You know, a lot of our
friends and family were famous.

It wasn't until I stepped out
of my little bubble

that I realized
going to parties
with the LA Lakers

and hanging out with famous
football players wasn't normal.

We made millions of dollars
and spent it all.

We came to that place
where we were very unhappy
inside.

And I was
looking for something,
and so was Sam.

ESPRIT: We were young
and, you know, he was
married at the time.

You know, a lot of infidelity.

And the reputation
that Sam would get
because of that.

Because, I mean,
Sam was an extremely
handsome guy.

I mean, he still is.
But, I mean, back then,
when he was young,

I mean, you know...

He had women falling
all over him.

But, um... And he took
advantage of that.

My first marriage to Lynn...
Lynn is a great lady.

We have two great children,
Matthew and Kaylin.

Lynn was a great wife
and a great mother.

And I was just
a horrible husband.

I was a habitual
adulterer, you know.

Um, no fault of anybody
but myself.

Um, you sit there yelling,
"Oh, blame it on Hollywood.
Yeah."

Just blame it
on Hollywood, what?

It's just the matter
of a man making wise decisions.

You see all the time
in Hollywood,

families being
broken apart non-stop.

And husband cheating on wife,
wife cheating on husband.

It's a crazy life.
Hollywood is not
for the normal person.

People think they want it.

ESPRIT: I think it's just something he had to go through.

I think it's something
he had to go through,
a divorce.

He had to go through
a relationship with a woman
that he met

when he was doing a film
in the Mauritius.

To the degree to where
it brought him to a point

of wanting to kill himself.

JONES: In between
my two marriages, I was
with a French model.

I was madly in love
with this, uh...
With this lady.

And, uh, I probably
treated her like a God.

I'm sure that was my downfall.
And she left me for another man.

And I was devastated.

So I'm looking at two things
on how to get her back.

I'm looking at...
I'm looking at a handgun.

Yeah, you know, handgun.
I mean, that's, you know...

I'm looking at
a little bottle
of Sominex.

Little pills you buy
across the counter

to make you go to sleep.

He took a bunch
of sleeping pills,

and then,
his wife at the time

who he had married
from over there,

called me on the phone
and said, "You're Sam's
good friend.

I think you should come up here. He's not right."

So, I went up to the house

and the ambulance came
and all that,

and they pumped his stomach.

I went down to the psych ward
that they had in there

'cause he was probably
a little nutty.

I go in and the doors go...

These doors, you know.
And you go in there,

and, um, I see him
and he's like,

"Oh, brother. Brother."
He's, like, half laughing
and half crying.

I just grabbed him
by his shirt.

And I just got up
in his face and I said,
"Stop it.

Stop it! Or you're
never getting out of here."

It was a sad time.
It was a hard time
as a friend

to watch, whether it's family,

or somebody
you really care about

and even respect
to have to go through
something like that.

I just think sometimes you just gotta hit the bottom.

And sometimes
the bottom for some people
is a hard hit.

♪...Old

♪ No, I've not seen him
all this long day

♪ The boy don't want
to write this way

♪ If he did
I have no doubt... ♪

-No way.

All right, man.
Enjoy SPain.

Are you going to Madrid?
Where are you going?

-I'm going to Alicante.
-Oh, okay.

I can't believe I'm sitting
with "Flash Gordon."

JONES: You have
to find something good
in everything.

I mean, you do, you know.

Sometimes promoters
didn't quite do
their due diligence,

and they didn't have
the type of numbers
that they wanted,

but you have to find the good
out of everything because...

I mean, if you look
hard enough, you can find...

You could find the negative
out of everything, huh?

MAN 1: Very good.
MAN 2: Thank you.

WOMAN: If you had to today...

JONES: It's funny, yeah?

It's a bit much, you know.

I mean, unless you change
the world, right?

Like, Winston Churchill
and people like that

had a huge impact
on the world.

I guess on my tombstone,

if they said, you know,
"He was a good husband
and a good father," you know.

"And made people laugh."

Good morning,
good morning.
How is everybody?

Good morning. How are
we doing today? Good?

This should not be there.

My table here,
Melody's table here.

All right, the banner goes
right there.

Alex Ross has
a brand-new poster

that he designed.

T2. You have T2?

-Yeah.
-Yes.

Martin, I need a couple
of volunteers, please. Martin.

Just like that,
we can...

MAN: This really shows
how unpractical they are.

-That's beautiful, man.
-JONES: I did it the wrong way.
Take it off.

Ah, set it up.
Pull it down. Nice.

-Yeah.
-JONES: Where are you, Peter?

If you'd be anywhere,
you'd be in here with
this group, right?

You should have been
in here, right?

There's space.
I think space around here
would be good.

How are you? Hello.

Come down to Del Con.

MAN: I always think,
"No, I'll never
get starstruck."

And then, I see him there,
I'm like, "It's Flash Gordon!"

We thanked him for saving
every one of us.

WOMAN: What did he say?

He laughed. I don't think
it's the first time
he's heard it.

I was among the men
with Melody.
I was Aborian.

You see me just there.
Looking very innocent.

I was actually in the film.

But prior to them
actually making it,

they had to do all these
experiments and tests
with the Hawkmen.

They would figure largely,
as you know.

And so, I was down
in Shepperton Studios
for quite a few weeks

being, um, fitted up into
the costumes and the wings,

being flown up in the air,
being carved out of polystyrene.

You know, Queen did
the music for the film.

In the ceremony,
they actually played Pink Floyd,
"Crazy Diamond."

They played that music,
and it created atmosphere.

So they actually used
a musical track to set
the atmosphere.

This is the actual stump monster
from the film 35 years ago.

It's his first
public appearance

since its opening in 1979.

And I was asking Quentin
how he got into writing,

because he started
as an actor,

he said he would re-write...
He would take scenes from movies
that he liked

and do those in acting class,
and add to them.

He would act the scene
with a partner,

where you put your hands
in the tree stump.

And I'd say in the show,
my interview show,

I said, "That's a great scene,
but it's not that long.

Would you expand it?"
He goes, "Yeah, I would
expand the scenes,"

and that's where
he learned to write.

It's seriously dilapidated
because it's, um...

All of its workings.
'Cause it was
a mechanical object,

so that tail used to come up.

You'd see in the film,
it used to come up
and, kind of, glowed

and pulsated.
But that's

thirty-five years
of deterioration,
I'm afraid.

I took the leaves
from my own back garden
just to give it a bit of...

WOMAN: That's your
blue piece coming out?

It's the one
I made earlier, yeah.

BOB LINDENMAYER:
One day it dawned on me,

If I didn't buy
a month's worth
of action figures,

I could take that money
and actually buy something
real from the film.

Flash Gordon's tank top.
There's not a lot you can
say about that,

other than just enjoy.

Well, my name is Rolf Skrinde.

I've been collecting
Flash Gordonprops
for 20 years.

This is a tunic worn by
Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin.

It's beautifully made.
You can see it even has
little blood stains on it

from the battle on the
revolving disc in Hawkmen City.

And even in the back,
it has some Timothy Dalton
sweat stains.

In the '80s, most props
and costumes were, like,
pushed outside

into this massive burn pile.

This is a Hawkmen blaster.

So, especially,
with the older movies,
it's super challenging.

They would fire,
the light would go off.

The animators, they were making
animated rays for the film,

would know when exactly
they're firing it.

I run down the wing.

And they said,
"Cut! Cut! Cut!

"Brian, we put in
the special effects."

Original Hawkmen puppet.
There were three sizes of these.

This is the small size.

And, essentially,
it was just to pepper out
the entire screen.

My first thing I got
was my Flash Gordon sword.

When I got it, it was just like,
"Oh, my God. It's so crappy."

Like, now I embrace that.

It has a history to it
that you can actually see.

This is the notorious
eyeball gun they used

when Flash first
crash lands on Mongo.

There's a ray
that shoots out of it.

On the end of the ray
is this metal glove

that strangles Flash
to the ground.
So you can imagine.

Being throttled
to the ground with this.

Original Hawkmen helmet,
which is interesting,

'cause 90% of them,
the entire top has been
snapped off.

This is another
Imperial blaster.

And Timothy Dalton uses this.

He flings it over his shoulder
at the end of the film.

-Kind of awesome.
-LINDENMAYER: One of the
original Klytus masks.

I couldn't breathe
when we first got it.

I couldn't speak any lines.

This is the only one
in the world

that has been in the hands
of Peter Wyngarde

in the last 35 years,
which is super exciting.

I had to consider
relinquishing the part.

I suddenly thought of something
was a ventiloquist's doll,

with all the instructions
on how to throw your voice out.

And you found a way
of making the voice come
from your diaphragm,

and come through, eventually,
through this mask.

And it worked. Eureka!

How can I express my gratitude?

Ming royal guard mask.

This is another good piece,
Prince Vultan's club.

BLESSED: So, I met Dino
at Shepperton.

I want you to be like a Viking,

and I think you should
have a sword.

I said, "What? A sword?"

"I mean, a sword? No, no."

I said, "This guy is the most
powerful man, physically,
in the film.

If you were to carry ray guns,
that makes you weak.

But, if I just move
to the monsters and hit them.

oof! Bash! Thump!"

Like the comic strip,
he just flattens them
without a weapon.

Okay, okay.
Maybe you have, like,
a thing.

-You'll have a club.
-This is an aboriginal pipe,

played by the great
Richard O'Brien.

It's a pig guard
who we call Creepy Red Guy.

He's the one that got shot
in the face, and the smoke
went off,

and, essentially, like,
filled up his helmet,

and made him sick,
and he threw up.

Melody Anderson
told me that story.

Without the story,
it might as well be
an action figure,

and, I think,
that's probably the difference.

And mine also has
burn marks in it,

for the bang flash
that was there.

Now, you're living...
You're living in Flash Gordon.

I think Flash Gordonhas
the most movie posters
ever made.

The amount of original art,
uh, that was generated

before, after,
during the film

is unprecedented,
and is super lovely
to collect.

It's important
in the center, here.

In the center, here.

The line here is perfect.

MAN: Today, special effects
have to be more special

and more effective
than ever before,

and thoroughly tested out,
often at some personal risk.

I spent a lot of my time
with the special effects people.

They were showing me
how they made the skies,

'cause that was
very interesting.

Dino De Laurentiis
had a thing about clouds.

He used to love
to see clouds.

They had a big
tank of water.
Huge tank of water.

And they dropped those
different colors in,

and the different colors
had different weights
in the water.

And what they didn't realize
that two days later

the water was still
going around.

Very, very slowly,
but it was still
moving around.

And as it moved around,
the colors bled into the water.

And there was
this wonderful effect.

It's the first time
you saw colored skies.

So, in that scene,
where Flash is going to be
executed.

The sky is green
and purple and vermilion.

It's beautiful.

The combat disc
was challenging.

You saw what happened
when Sam went off the edge,

uh, and that was not out
of an improvised situation.

If it was improvised,
we'd probably kill ourselves.

We had to think of
a good way to make
the spikes look menacing

without being dangerous.

My colleague came in
one morning on his bike,

"Why don't we make the spikes
like bicycle pumps?

And then, we can
blow it up with air.

And if somebody falls on it,
it will just go down again."

-And that's what we did.
-Knives up, please.

MAN: Knives up.
All knives.

-Get all knives in there.
-MAN: All knives.

There's no art without craft,
in my opinion.

DUNCAN: It was
probably the last
of the pre, sort of,

before we got hi-tech
digital stuff coming in.

And yet, it was still
done well with props.

And, of course,
you'd have 2001.

So you could still
pretend very well
with models and things,

and make it look good.

But now, everything
is so hi tech

that we've almost
lost that romance.

I really think that how well
Flash Gordonturned out

for what it aspired to be,
I think, is really a testament
to that script.

-It was fun.
-Tell me more about
this man Houdini.

It was very good
being so serious.

I love this line,

"Tears, they are
a sign of weakness."

It's fucking true, though.

-It is.
-Have you seen us cry
in this interview?

No. And we're strong.

The nice thing is,
the comedy becomes enriched

because they are not
playing it for comedy

because they are
playing it seriously.

So it was never going to be
like a Star Wars,it was never
going to be, um,

It was always going to be camp.

I don't see it as camp,
it's comic strip.

When we did it,
we had no idea
that it was...

In the sense,
it was a bit
tounge and cheek.

I think I seem to remember

it was a serious
science fiction film,

even though everybody
was dressed in, sort of,
lycra,

and it all seemed a bit...
You know, a little bit
over the top.

Timothy Dalton was very naive.

I mean, very young.

He took it all
very seriously.

-Timothy Dalton
is giving it everything.
-He's good.

-He's taking it
very seriously.
-He loves it.

I think everyone is.

Timothy would say things
like well, uh,

"I'm gonna play it
like Errol Flynn.
Yeah, yeah.

-With that panache."
-Prepare the feast.

One interesting thing was
that Ming the Merciless
was Max von Sydow.

I'm not sure
that I'm killing it.

I think I have some
rare secret trick

which might give me
a chance to return.

He sat with me,
and he said,

"I don't know
how to play this part, Ming."

Max, you amaze me.
A great actor like you--"

"I know, I know, I know.

I've got to make my entrance
in about 20 minutes' time.

I don't know what to do
with my first entrance."

I said,
"Well, Ming is a magician,

and he is very sexy."

I said, "Ming uses his hands."

It freed him.

So, I show up for my close up.

And here's Max von Sydow
coming back to set
two hours later.

He's wearing the full costume,
which weighed 60 pounds.

I said, "Max, what are you doing, man? You're off camera.

You don't need to be here.
You don't really need to
wear that."

And he looked at me
and he said, "Sam..."

He said, "I'm going to
give you my off camera lines

the way I best see it,
and you had better do
the same for me."

I went to his dressing room,
and there's girls in the bath,
naked.

"What are you doing, Mark?
What are you doing?"

"I think it's gorgeous,"
Max von said.

Darling, get out of the bath.
Dry off, love.

He's happily married,
he's got a terrible ulcer.

He's not well.

He can't shag anybody.

Out of the bath.

I think a week
I was on and off set,

catching occasional glimpses
of Ornella Muti

across the set floor, really.

Being a young man then,
I was rather enchanted.

I was her pet. I said,
"What a nice owner
to be a pet with."

Princess Aura is looking
at Prince Barin,

and they're
whipping some guy,
and she goes,

"I love initiations."

-That's one of my favorites.
-Right.

Particular film which I...

I'd hoped Mike would do
something more with...

Which I regret he didn't.

The execution,
Klytus takes out
a handkerchief

and puts it under his nose.

It was her handkerchief.
Princess Aura's handkerchief.

That was what
I was trying to do.

She wanted to take
Ming's place.

And he thought the best thing
to do is fuck the daughter.

MAN: Klytus, I'm bored.
ROSS: Just the very opening
of the film is something

that would get
my heartbeat up.

The very first frame, I think,
is Ming talking about Earth

and wanting to destroy it.

And he does the buttons
for, you know, earthquake.

Hurricane, tornado and hot hail.

What the hell is hot hail?

It's hail that's hot,
and when it lands, it burns.

But, why hot hail?

-Why not, like, hail?
-What's cold hail going to do?

And then, the first lines of
"Klytus, I'm bored.

"What plaything can you
offer me today?"

You know, all that stuff
is so invigorating

'cause you know there is
this drumbeat that's coming
around the corner

very soon. Putting
a rock soundtrack
to a modern sci fi film

was something novel
that hadn't really
been tried before

and, really, hasn't been
done much since.

In terms of music and film,
obviously music plays
an incredible part.

Music is such an
emotional component
of filmmaking

that when you hear
that music in there,

and you actually listen
to it now, and you go,

"Oh, wait a minute.
What was Queen in the '80s?

Oh, my God.
They were, like,
musical Gods."

Just before
Flash Gordoncame out,

Queen's biggest album
was The Gamein America.

And "Another One
Bites the Dust"

just this massive,
massive single everywhere.

-Uh, "Crazy Little
Thing Called Love."
-Ha-ha.

That's my best part,
when they go, "Ha-ha."

"We Will Rock You."
I mean, they had hit
after hit after hit.

So, I think that movie,
that score, that soundtrack,

yeah, was an important part
more for the movie
than for Queen.

'Cause anytime
that song comes up,
and it's...

- ♪ Flash

-Flash!

Music has always been
very important in my movies.

I started just doing
my own music because of that.

So I have my own band
because of that.

Having the band
score a movie

I've been doing it
since Desperado,
probably because of that.

When I was a kid, I bought...
I was at a flea market,

and I bought the soundtrack
to Flash Gordon.

It was this bright yellow album

with the Flash Gordon
logo on it.

You had this, kind of,
heartbeat to the movie

that was built by this
incredible rock star band.

Still inspires me to this day
with my own music.

I think, really, for its time,

it was just the
zeitgeist of music
for a film.

Without them?

Queen's music is sensational.

The romantic music
when Flash and Dale
are together in that rocket.

I thought that
that was the best
thing in the film.

Queen, I think
that's essential
to the movie.

I think the movie
would have been fine
on its own.

-You know, it would have been
an amazing thing as it is, but--
-Right.

It takes you over the top.
It's like this,
and then, it goes...

-Yeah.
-Here, Queen.

What happened with the score
was that it produced

a very, very unusual,
uh, synthesis

between orchestra music
and pop music or rock music,

whichever Brian
might want to call it.

♪ He's for every one of us

♪ Stand for every one of us

♪ He saves with a mighty hand
every man, every woman
every child

-♪ It's the mighty Flash
-BLAKE: There was
another composer.

They thought
he was gonna write it,
and he didn't write it.

He wrote enough
for one minute.

And here, Dale, I give
a hint of "The Love Theme,"

that

I had, effectively, 10 days
to write this colossal score.

When we began, they were already
quite far on with the filming.

And they were able
to show us the rushes

of the things
which they wanted
music for.

I walked away,
and I already had
this thing in my head.

It was sort of...

And it became the underscore
of the film, which is something
I was really pleased about.

And I could hear it all
in my head.

I could hear
all the harmonies go, Flash!

It's all about, um,
thunder and lightning.
You know, Flash!

And then, the thunder comes.

So it goes, um...
I managed to play it.

That kind of stuff.

And what everybody loves
is the...

On a multi-million dollar piano.

Funnily enough,
you won't see in the video.

Mike made the video
incredibly rushed.

So you see me going, "Blop,"
but you never see me do this

because it always cuts
to Roger going "Pssh"

on the cymbal, which happens
at the same time, obviously.

So, nobody's
seen that till now.

♪ Flash

♪ Savior of the Universe

When we saw these first rushes,
we all picked on a piece.

I worked on,
well, a couple of things.

I guess the battle sequence
and, um, the title.

I wanted to make
the title theme.

And Freddie...

It was hard to keep Freddie
in the studio at that point,
I've got to say.

He was like, "Yes, darling,
I'll do a little bit."

And then, "I have to go."
But he did, like, this, um,

great, kind of,
ethereal, um...

A vocal piece
for, um, Princess Aura.

Freddie Mercury, he said,
"I've written a tune."

I remember Brian
saying sometimes,

"When Freddie comes in,
he knows exactly what he wants

and what he's going to do,
and we don't have to work
too hard."

I said, "How did it go?"
He said, "Well, I'd have
to sing it to you."

I said, "Well, go on.
Sing it to me."

So he went...

Freddie was a, kind of,
musical genius

because he wasn't
the musician that
Brian May is

or the others,
but up here he was.

The, sort of,
weight of emotion in it

is all, really, very much

due to the way
the music is written.

So you also have to be
not only a composer

but a bit of a psychiatrist.

MAY: Once you have your themes and you've demoed them roughly,

you'll then go in broader
and try to make them into
finished tracks.

And, of course, you know,
Freddie has to do the scene

so we try and write out
all the words
for Freddie to sing

and, um, show them
what we want.

And Freddie says,
"No, darlings,
I'll do it this way."

And, um, he does his own thing.

He hated me
making him sing
the end titles,

which were incredibly high.
You know, "The Hero."

And it was done
pretty later on,
and he's like,

"You always give me
these fucking things

that make my beautiful throat
bleed."

Well, he was a bit...
But he hated it and loved it
'cause he loved the challenge.

-Forever. -♪ Always needed to be somebody

♪ Put your feet on the ground

♪ Put your hand on your heart

The idea of us doing
the underscore was, kind of,
revolutionary at that time.

Nobody had done a rock
underscore at that time.

Nobody at all
as far as I know.

I did a little demo.
Dino sat there
very impassive,

and listened,
and listened, and listened,
with a slight frown.

And said nothing.

And then, we play "Flash,"
the theme which I had
come up with,

which was supposed to be
the theme for the whole movie,
I was hoping.

I played that to him,
and he went...

His frown, kind of, deepened,
and he went,

"This is very good,
but this is not the music
for my film."

And it wasn't until the premiere
of the film itself,

which happened in London,

when Dino finally said,
"Thank you. It's magnificent,"

or something like this,
you know. I don't know
exactly what he said.

But he came over
especially to say
thank you to us

for making his film,
uh, come alive.

I thought,
"It's amazing.
I've finished it."

The next thing I knew,
my wife was shaking me.

She said, "Do you know
what day it is?"

I said, "It's Thursday."

She said, "It's Saturday."

They couldn't wake me up.

And they had to shoot me with Benzedrine to wake me up.

Acute bronchitis
and pneumonia in both lungs

due to absolute,
total exhaustion.

And he said, "Actually, you would never have woken up."

And I remember saying,
"I feel fine."

You're ready?

Look at that, huh?

RAMONA JONES:
I met Sam in church
twenty-three years ago

in Indonesia.
He was doing a film there.

He saw Ramona,
and he said,

"Okay, that's her.
That's my wife."

Something in me just clicked.
You know, I had butterflies
in my stomach.

And I said, "Oh, my gosh.
This is the man.

I'm gonna marry him."

It was rough. Sam was
very much an actor back then.

He was so caught up
in what he thought
he had to be

and what he thought
the world expected him to be.

You think you've got to be
this famous actor.

You've got to have,
like, millions of dollars
in your account.

And that's how
the world treats you.

That's how they
measure success.

JONES: You're raised
on a pedestal.

Once it's over, you know,
wait! Wait a minute, guys.
Time out. Don't you remember?

I just starred in that movie,
and I just did this series.

At one point,
he was at the top,

and he was making
millions upon millions
of dollars.

And I'm sure my brother
would tell you about this.

And then, he's been at
the lowest of low points

where he had nothing.

I saw all of his successes
and all of his failures.

And, I guess, as a kid,
you don't really understand why,

uh, someone can be
super successful one moment,

and then, all of a sudden,
we're sleeping

on my grandmother's floor.

If the phone's not ringing
and nobody is calling you
to, uh...

You know, to contract you
to act in a movie,

you start...

You know, then you start
believing that.

Well, you know,
maybe I'm not
in demand anymore,

maybe I'm not needed.

We were just at that place
where I had been teaching
for many years,

and we had little kids,
and I said,

"You've got to do
something else."

After Flash Gordon,
he had a lull and a dip

even before I met him.
So when I met him,
he was on the upswing again.

So, he was on a comeback
even at that young of age.

And then,
when it dipped again
in the early '90s,

I think he just thought
he was gonna bounce again
like he did.

And all of a sudden
he saw he wasn't bouncing.

I watched
a lot of suffering.

I watched... I watched
the wilderness for Sam
and Ramona.

She suffered, okay?
Sam suffered.

And his kids, especially Matthew
and his daughter suffered, okay?

So, I'm not gonna make
light of that.

He lost his family,
he lost his place
in Hollywood.

I don't know any other woman
that would have done that decade

that she had to endure
with him. I wouldn't have.

Now, he's remarried,
he's broken.

I think that she had gotten
to that point,

and, basically,
had given him an ultimatum.

If you're not going to change
the way you do things,

then maybe I'm not
supposed to be walking
this path with you.

ESPRIT: She went to Indonesia
with the kids for a couple
of weeks,

and he sat there.

RAMONA: What do I have?
What's another thing
I can do besides acting?

And then, he realized,
well, I guess my military
background,

and I have these certain
skill sets that I can use

to help bring provision
into my home.

He had gotten himself
in a position to be a bodyguard

and to work as a high end
security details.

He really wanted
to keep living that
superhero life in real life.

He would get a job
that he still has now
down in San Diego,

and they would have to move.

If you ever want to talk
about divine intervention

or a move that
you really need to do

and there is a real
purpose for it,
that was for them.

-MAN: If you need
a third career...
-Yes, all right.

MAN: That's pretty good.

Well, you got to do things
with a spirit of excellence,

otherwise, as my dad would say,

"If you can't do the job right,
then don't do it at all."

I'd always say,
"Dad, I don't want
to do it at all."

He started laughing
and walked away.

Average days I get up
at 3:30 a.m.

Cross border security
operations 101.

We'll be under
the radar today.
Low profile.

We're crossing the border
at any designated time

between 5:00 and whatever it is.

5:00 a.m., on.

You will not see our weapons.

Our weapons are
usually concealed.

We're not in a combat zone.

High risk,
but not combat zone.

We would transport
our VIP principle
to a secure place.

Are there any
imminent threats
on their life?

Any... Any, uh,
former threats?

It just compounds it for us.

During the day,
we have a command post
and an office.

And we're doing
our intel reports,

we're doing our admin work.

We're out running advances.

When we go into a restaurant
to eat, we pay immediately.

We don't wait around
for the check.

They have recognized me
as an actor.

Wait, wait, wait.
I've got an actor
protecting me?

No, no. This doesn't
feel right, okay?

But, uh, thank God
they didn't recognize me

until three or four
months afterwards,

where I had already
proven myself
as a security professional.

-Ooh! Who is this, Pavlo?
-MAN: Where?

Right here on the left.
This is President
Abraham Lincoln,

believe it or not.

And why is the statue
of Abraham Lincoln

on the Boulevard of Heroes
in Tijuana?

PAVLO: He probably liked
to come over and eat tacos.

Yeah, he probably liked tacos,

but he was a...
He is a hero

to the country of Mexico.

The average salary
here in Mexico
is approximately

$10 to $20 a day.

Before, the drug cartels started
committing all their crimes,

and chased away
a lot of the tourists.

It's the lower level
criminals that you have
to be concerned about.

Wherever we drive,
no matter what we do,

you always want to leave
a way out.

If you don't have a way out,
then you've made a big mistake.

Video.

HILL: I think for Sam,
a great family man,

he's got five kids
who he adores,

he'd have wanted to continue
to take care of his family.

And he was in the military,
had a strong sense of authority.

And, uh, the whole security
business appealed to him,

that this is something
I can do.

And I'll commit to that
the same way I committed
to acting

or anything else.
And I just think

that it was Sam answering
the call as a father.

And that, you know, there's...

Being a good father
is the most important thing
a man can be.

Sam had to be a man
that stood.

And stood.

And sacrificed.

And then, going from
being Flash Gordon

to getting a job
as a security person

and going to Mexico and...

Well, I dare anybody
to try that.

I'm a Marine, you know.
I was a former Marine
before I was an actor.

And, you know, my family
and friends say

"Now, you're always a Marine.
Once a Marine, you're always
a Marine."

But it's just...
It's just...
That's me every day.

We had a small group
of four, five couples.

We'd met maybe weekly
for about two months,

and we're just getting
to know each other.

Sam and his wife
come late one night.

I remember my wife and I
were arguing one day
at the airport,

and it was all about me,
you know.

Mostly we were talking about
opening up our lives.

And she said
there's a great book.

And finally Sam stands up,
bigger than life, and says,

"I need to tell the truth here.
My life is a mess.

We were arguing in the car
that's why we're late."

It's called
Purpose Driven Life.

I said,
"I don't want to read it.

I know my purpose in life.

I know my purpose
in life, woman."

We need help,
and we need this group!

She said, "Well, just read
the first paragraph."

You know, Rick Warren's
Purpose Driven Life.

I read the first sentence.
And the first four words,

"It's not about you."

And when he did that,
because it was so real,

it changed the entire chemistry
of that group, forever.

ESPRIT: There's a breaking
that happens,

and there's a realization
that you have to face.

You've got to be
willing to face it.

If you're not,
then your weakness

is never going to be
turned into a strength.

There was a confidence
that was being built in him

that was different
than being the confidence

that because I was
in a hit movie,

'cause I was in a hit TV show
gives you.

And people love me,
so I feel so confident.

It's a different
confidence than that.

And that's what
happened with him
in those years of obscurity.

It was a suffering,
but there's a joy
attached to it

because you know that
you're becoming the person

that you were always
meant to be.

RAMONA: He had to find out
that that was not everything
in the world,

that family was important,
his faith was important.

And I think Sam realized that,

and it just set him free.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm really
proud of him.

He was made for Hollywood.

It's his inner being.

And he's often said,
"I was made for this, Dana.

I know in my innermost being

that God made me
to be an actor."

And I get emotional over it

because you feel that
you have this talent

and that God wants you
to utilize it,

but you have to
reign it in.

When Sam was lost for a while,

he thought that
who he was as a man

was defined
by his acting.

That's not who he is.

I just said, "Sam,
I don't believe that
God is done with you

in this business.
I think you need
to do this."

"You do this for your family
and everything."

And I said,
"But I just don't think...

I don't think he's
done with you here.

I don't know how,
I don't know when,
I don't know where,

but I believe you're gonna
come back into this business
in some kind of...

In some kind of way.
I just don't know
why I'm saying that.

I just feel that."
And then, 10 years,
eleven years later,

he'd get the call
from Seth MacFarlane

about, uh, for Ted.

I said, "Hey, Sam,
what's going on?"

He goes, "Brother,
I'm driving up to
LA right now.

"Uh, do you know this guy
Seth MacFarlane?"

And he goes,
"Well, this guy
is writing a script.

Mark Wahlberg has,
you know, this teddy bear
since he was a kid

and they have
a relationship together."

I immediately went,
"What?"

Seth MacFarlane is, obviously,
a genius on so many levels.

-MAN: How are you feeling?
-Oh, I feel good.

How does it feel to be
walking down the red carpet?

You know, number one,
it's a blessing to work.

WYNGARDE: I loved it.
I liked it because I saw
Sam in it, too.

But I thought
the little bugger was awful.

Horrible little thing.

Ghastly little...
Only America can make
a film like that.

ROSS: Seth, obviously,
was coming from the exact
same generation as me.

This film was in his head
the same way,

and he had a way to put that
into his own creation.

My memory of that movie
was such reverence,

and I think Sam's character,
kind of, embodies that.

You know, they have
this incredible reverence
for this guy

who turns out to be
just a party boy like them.

When Seth first called me
couple of years back, he said,

"Sam, when I was
nine years old,

you know, I saw you
in Flash Gordon.

"You changed my life."
And he said, "I want to
bring you on board,

"and you're gonna play
yourself." I said, "Myself?"

It'll be a little bit
of a parody and a spoof.

But this is not...
The way you've written it,
this is not me.

I mean, I did a few things
like that, but...

Uh, if we're being
honest right now,
I thought it was horrible.

Uh, I didn't like it.

I understand that there's
a lot of fans of my dad

that want to go see it
because of him.

They need to know
it's not what it stands for.

He wanted to be
as clean as possible

in a role that
it's really tough to be

because of what was
asked of him.

Sam at my bachelor party
was Sam in the first movie.

I know that Sam.

He actually did change
a lot of the lines

than what it should
have been, so...

Even though it's not
the cleanest film out there.

It brought Flash Gordon
back into the public eye,

and I think it really did
a great job of

energizing old fans
that had, uh...

very limited options
about how to celebrate Flash.

They asked me to come on
to the set for a reshoot
they were doing.

It was right over here
in Coppola's old studios.

We got there,
and he knew everyone,

from the security guard
to the guy making the food.

To the guy that's
just, like, holding cords.

It was the same with
Mark Wahlberg, and Sam,
and the bear,

but they had, like,
a C stand with a tennis ball
for the eye line.

But Seth was off camera
by the monitors,
doing the voice of the bear.

So I'm sitting behind him.

And so, Wahlberg
says the dialogue,

Sam says something,
and then, Seth does
the bear dialogue,

and it was so funny.
I had to put my hand
over my mouth

to keep from laughing.
And when they got done
with the scene,

Sam came over to me,
I looked at him, I said,

"Sam, this movie
is gonna be a hit."

It was cool being on...
Getting to walk the red carpet,

and seeing, like,
Mark and Seth,

like, Morgan Freeman.

MAN: Were you a fan of
Flash Gordongrowing up?

Uh, not so much Flash Gordon,
but Sam Jones.

Sam was one of the great
spirits and characters
of the business,

and it was nice
to be able to honor that.

Not only the history
of Flash Gordon,

but, you know,
to have fun
and poke fun

at his great success
with that on Ted.

SHANE JONES:
I went on the set
ofTed 2.

We went during
the Comic Con scene.

LENZI: We've been
to Comic Cons together.

-Yeah, we went together.
-We went together.

-In separate cars.
-In separate cars.

-We had separate rooms.
-But equal cars.

Just friends.
But we've been
to Comic Con together.

We have not slept together.

I think science fiction
cultivates fandom

because when you become passionate towards this thing,

when it's become
part of your life,

you want to immerse
yourself in it.

-Things have been...
-Like Comic Con.

-There was a few
drinks involved.
-We don't remember it.

It's not just escapism,

it's, sort of, recognizing
the positive things in life.

JONES: I owe it to the fans
to spend time with them

at an event,
at a personal appearance.

They're paying the money
to come to that event,

they're paying the money at the theater, at the box office.

We owe it
as actors and celebrities

to give them their due.

There's some actors
and stuff, they have
a problem with it.

Stay home.
Stay home.

MAN: Sam.

Come on. Fantastic.
Where are you in from?

-We live right here
in San Antonio.
-Good.

-I'll see you at my table then.
-We'll be there.

All right, get some pictures,
all right. Come on.

The times are scheduled. Say, Sam Jones is at his table

10:00 a.m. to 12:00.
I know that works
for a lot of people,

but I actually like
to stay at my table
the whole time.

'Cause I usually ask people
"Where did you come in from?"

When they tell me
that they drove 300 miles,

and they just happened
to walk by,

I'm in the green room
smoking on a Cuban cigar,

and having a glass
of Courvoisier,

I don't think
it's fair to them.

Did I want to step away
from the image of being
Flash Gordon?

A lot of representatives
over the years said,

"Yeah, you've got
to walk away from that.

"We have to show you
in a different light."

They became those characters.
They were iconic to the world.

And, um,
it was very hard for...

In the relationship
I was involved in,

for Christopher
to break away
from being Superman.

If you create a character
and people, you know, see you

as the kind of,
the definition
of that character,

it's really hard
to break out of that.

So a curse and a blessing
at the same time, I think.

You know, actors discover
the character that people
love them as.

And then, you know,
it's harder for them

to go and explore
other characters

because everybody just wants
what they love.

And the question really becomes,
you know, how do they grow?

You know, the negatives
towards an actor being
somehow only characterized

as one thing
seemed to reach
their fever pitch

when people talked about
Adam West in the '70s

because the idea then
he couldn't get any other work.

And that plagued him
for a long time.

So I think that
the positives

for somebody
like Sam and others

who were recognized
for something they did
years ago,

you're lucky to have
any kind of connection

with people
that you can find.

People ask me all the time,
is it a positive or a negative
to be, like, typecast?

Dude, positive.

Otherwise they'd
have forgotten you.

It's much better
to be typecast
than to be miscast.

I can do 10
Gone with the Wind,

but everybody will still say,
"I love you as the Hulk."

I think in 30 years
if I'm still coming around
to a convention

and people are excited
about The Walking Dead,
I think that's awesome.

There were a lot of times
over the years, in the past,

where I was put into a position
to make a difference

in somebody else's life,

even if it was just
eye contact and a handshake.

The rare quality
my dad has is,

there can be 100 people
wanting his autograph,

and he will stay
till the end of the show,

till the end of the dinner,
until he's looked every single
person in the eye

and asked them
about their personal life.

JONES: It's crazy how,
especially, Americans,

how they look at each other
and go, "How you doing?"

Most people lie.
I'm doing good.
No, you're not.

So I reached a point
in my age, even now,

if somebody says,
"How you doing?"

And I'll say,
"I'm not doing so good."

And it... It changed
the whole mindset

of even that question
with people.

When I ask somebody,
"How you doing?"

And I look at them,
and they say, "Okay."

Even now, with the fans.
How you doing?

I said, "You know what?
What do you need? Talk to me."

That's where I feel
I am now.

This can't be my daughter.

This is my 14-year-old
daughter here?
Are you kidding?

RAMONA: On the weekends
when he is home,

he makes it a point
that he's always at our
children's baseball games,

or dance or whatever
they're involved in.

Sam does this every morning.

He types up a letter
to his family.

It's on his kitchen table
every single morning.

He does not miss a day.

And he has, you know,
when the sun rises.

I don't know all the details,

but he has all these
specific things.

He always has a description,
a prayer at the end

for his family.

I'll come back to this.

He originally wanted me
to do taekwondo

because he wanted me
to be able to protect myself

'cause he's really
over protective.

I want to go to college

and play baseball,
and hopefully, make it pro.

He made me play every sport.
I played baseball, basketball,
soccer.

There were times when
he was, like, my coach.

Just being on his hands
and knees at half court.

Just yelling at the refs
and yelling at us.

But we're fourth graders,
and my dad's just screaming.

-Whoa!
-MAN: Touch it! Touch it!

Whoa!

Hoo-yah! That's how we roll.
Sixty-one. All right.

Come on. This is Naomi,
my two-year-old granddaughter.

There's a little Flash doll
that she has

and she calls him Papa.

She's miss soccer right now,
or football.

Okay, I don't know.
In UK, it's...

She's a football player,
okay? She is.

-And she's serious.
-MATTHEW: Hollywood
is such a...

What have you done
for me lately?

Your 15 minutes of fame
and, you know,

and all the tabloids
are coming out and saying,
"Where has Flash Gordon been?"

I'm thinking he's just been
a good family man

providing for everybody.
Just because he's not
on the, you know,

on the movie screen,
he hasn't fallen off
the face of the earth.

I will never forget.
I was probably nine years old
at a gymnastics camp.

And he didn't have
a car at the time.

I mean, I knew,
even being nine years old

that, financially,
my dad was struggling.

And rode his bike,
which took him about
three, four hours,

and stopped and got me
a McDonald's sundae.

People sometimes
don't even drive,

and he biked in
a 100-degree weather

with a melted
ice cream sundae

to be at his daughter's
gymnastics camp to support her.

It's a memory that
you don't ever forget.

If you look at his kids
and how they're starting
to turn out

as they're becoming adults,

you'll see a godly man
with a godly influence,

and his children
are like he is.

And he's a blessed man.
He really is a blessed man.

My father and Sam
became very close

in the last three or four years
of my dad's life.

My father came down with congestive heart failure.

I was leaving
to go do a play
outside of Chicago.

My father had had a stroke.
I should stay. He goes,

"No, no, no. Go, go."

And I said my goodbyes to him
because I knew

that I probably
was not gonna
see him again.

When my dad had the stroke,

they put him
in a convalescent home,

but they weren't
taking care of him.

So, Sam was always
over there, every day.

He said to my mom, he said, "Anne, they're not taking care of him here."

And so, my mother said,
"Sam, we got to get him
out of there."

And Sam said,
"Don't worry.
I'll get him out."

And so, he, you know...

Bolstered up my father,
got him dressed,

and got him, snuck him out
of that place,

stuck him in the car
and drove him back to
my sister's house,

where my dad, eventually,
about three weeks later,
would pass away.

But Sam was always, uh...

Sam was there.

It's really funny
because my father
had five sons,

and the one...

that was with him

at the end was Sam, you know.

And it was right.
It was right.

As the years went on,
I called Dino.

All that stuff that
happened between us,

I just wanted to let you know, you know, I'm sorry,

and I probably
should have gone
with my gut instinct,

but I was a bit naive,
and I listened to
my "representation".

And I said, "I just want to
ask for your forgiveness

'cause I want a clean slate."

And he said,
"Oh, no problem, Sam.
No problem.

"It's good, it's all good."
I said, "Thank you."

Let's just say I continued
being high and mighty,

well, maybe I
wouldn't have been the father

that I should have
been to my children.

Usually men can say that
they are much better fathers
than they are husbands.

And I think the relationship
between my wife

is a great example
of what a wife should be.

In my rebellion,
she had every right to nag,
she had every right to leave,

but she decided to do
something more important.

She decided to pray for me,

and instantaneously things
started to happen, yeah.

Life is really easy.
Get over yourself,

knock off the baby talk,

stop thinking
of yourself first,

stop pointing your finger
at other people.

It's not their fault.

Yeah, life is tough.
Life is tough for all of us.

At the age of 50,
I changed vocations

because I listened to my wife,
somebody I trusted,

and God opened up those doors
a short time later,

not only am I providing
steady provisions, but...

The phone is ringing again.
I'm in demand again

for the movie business,
and the entertainment business

because I got over me
and humbled myself.

I've had to be a role model.

You know, a lot of people say, "Oh, you've got to separate your personal life

"from your movie life."

I don't know
how you do that.

Sam, when he walks
into a room,

-it feels like a superhero.
-Well, yes.

Not just his physical stature,
but the energy that he brings
into the space.

It's literally like
hanging out with Flash Gordon.

Flash Gordon is Sam.
He is a superhero.

He's a guy who wants
to bring justice,
and he wants to help people

and save the world.
Honestly, I think

maybe the movie changed him.

He is the persona
of Flash Gordon

in his everyday life,
and everybody loves him
for that.

Sam is the definitive
Flash Gordon.

No one can play it better.

We should all be so lucky to get
that sort of an iconic role

in that sort of
an iconic film.

We're all really lucky
to be a part of something
that fans love.

It's really cool.

I have my favorites,
and I have the films
that I grew up on,

and to be one of those
is a great blessing and honor.

To have any part of us
left with people

that they remember us
in whatever form,
I think is wonderful.

It's one of those
iconic roles that won't...

It'll stand the test of time.

Perhaps the fact that it was
just one self-contained movie

and it wasn't a franchise,

does make it,
kind of, special.

BBC put it in as
one of the top 100 films
of the 20th Century,

which is kind of neat.

We must never do it again.

We got it. We get
some things right.

Branagh's Henry Vis right,
Gone with the Windis right.

Flash Gordonis right.

We owe everything to Flash.

ALL: Hail Flash!

When it came
to the last scene,
Ming is dead,

and that weird sphere
comes forward.

Mike didn't know
what to do to end it.

And so, Sam said,
"I know. Run the camera."

Look out, Flash!
And it's coming towards him.

Hail Flash Gordon.
You have saved your Earth.

And Sam just jumped up
into the camera and went,
"Yeah!"

There was something so simple.

There was the id
that was released
watching that scene

and him yelling that.
And there's something
about the reverb,

and, of course, immediately,
the Queen chorus comes
right in after that.

You know, he'll save
every one of us, all that.

It was such a perfect
connection of elements.

Euphoria is what it gave me
as a kid.

JONES: What is
life afterFlash...
MAN: Long live Flash.

-...been like for me?
-MAN: You've saved
your Earth.

JONES: At my age right now,
it's incredible.

Yeah!

I did three movies last year
in between comic conventions.

Personal appearances,
I love it.

Speaking of
the movie Accelerator...

I was brought into
this incredible part

a brink who's the nemesis,
the villain and the hitman.

This is the one
I did in Spain.

When I was still doing
pretty well, I decided
to leave the business.

I had a bachelors
in journalism
and psychology.

This, of course,
is the headless, armless
and legless Venus.

I specialize in working
with families affected
by addiction,

trauma, loss,
relational difficulties.

Well, my life after
Flash Gordonhas just
grown and grown and grown

because I'm 50% actor
and 50% explorer.

I've done a bit
of Shakespeare.

And I certainly am very proud
of all my travel documentaries.

I want to rap.

I'm a fully trained cosmonaut.

I do remember meeting
Timothy Dalton in a lighting
shop at King's Road once.

I did go up to him
and said, "Hello, Timothy.

You killed me
in Flash Gordon."

He gave me a withering look
and wandered off.

Next.

If you note the end of the film,

the hand is Klytus's hand.

Lorenzo had already written
a sequel

in which Klytus had founded

a new famous Atlantic
under the sea kingdom.

And I never heard
another word about it

because Dino died.

I quit doing
big Hollywood films.

That was for
Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

This one is for
Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom.

When, uh, they said
with this little thing
The Snowman.

BLESSED:
I was at Buckingham Palace
for a Christmas show.

And the Queen came forward,
and I'm narrating the show.

"Good day, Mr. Blessed.
We watch Flash Gordon
all the time,

me and the children.

It's our favorite movie.

Would you mind saying
'Gordon's alive'?"

So I said, "Gordon's alive!"
"Thank you so much."

TOPOL:
Six years ago, we opened it.

It's not just a summer camp.

I mean, we work
all year around.

This is something that
makes the children forget
about their illnesses.

They can be Arab, Muslims,
Jewish, and not one penny

is asked from them.

My heart is the most
important thing that
I did in my life.

Flash. A-ha!
Have you seen
the pinball machine?

People dying on their deathbeds,
"Please say Gordon's alive."

Gordon's alive.

Gordon's alive!

-Melody Anderson, everybody.

And Sam Jones.

Oh, Mike, you're here!

I can't believe you came.

We need to get you
a T-shirt that says,

"I survived
Flash Gordon."

I met Dino,
and for some
inexplicable reason

he was determined
to get me to do it

so eventually I agreed,
but incredibly reluctantly

because I was a totally
inappropriate director
for the film. I really was.

So, in the middle
of the shooting,

we're now comfortably
on our way,

and I turned to Dino and said,

"Dino, why did you choose me?"

He just said,
"Mike, I like your face."

-ANDERSON: That is so Dino.
-Well, the film was improvised.

-The football scene.
-ONES: Amazing.

And it was.
We just made it up
as it went along.

ANDERSON: We did, didn't we?

And I went straight
into Gabby Hayes
on one of the takes.

-That must be one hell
of a...

Gone off his fucking head.

Uh, we caught this director.

He has continuity errors
all the way through it.

There's red blood
and there's green blood.

They really thought
we'd fucked up there.

I wouldn't know
what you'd be giving me,

or what you would not
be giving me.

It would be stupid of me
to do it. So he said,

"You're calling me stupid?"

If you don't give me this part,
I'll break your back up.

I'll break your back up.
I'll tear your cock off.

He really believed it.
Flash Gordon will save
the world.

And he believed it.
He was like a child,
I'm the cynic.

I want to thank Mike for all...

And the wonderful guys,
and everybody in this cast
we had.

We were very blessed.