-
Episode 76: Evolution’s Child (1999)
Today we’re reviewing Evolution’s Child (1999), a made-for-TV movie in which a woman is accidentally impregnated by sperm from an Ötzi-inspired ice mummy, and ultimately gives birth to a child with magical bronze age powers—and one fatal weakness. We talk ancient diseases, DNA contamination, and genetic memory, and Ross reassures us that this probably won’t…
-
Episode 75: Out of Darkness (2022)
We rarely the get change to review a newly released caveman movie, so we’re really excited about Out of Darkness (2022), the story of Upper Palaeolithic modern humans venturing into Europe for the first time, and encountering a mysterious enemy. What could it be? Well if you’ve kept up with the field of palaeoanthropology over…
-
Episode 74: Star Trek: TNG S06E20 The Chase (1993)
Today we’re travelling to the 24th century to discover humans’ earliest ancestors in The Chase, a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Captain Picard gets a chance to follow the road not taken and fulfill his dream of being an archaeologist. We talk pottery, ancient DNA, and linear progressive evolution. Win…
-
Episode 73: The Beast from the Beginning of Time (1965)
The Beast from the Beginning of Time (1965) is a story we’ve seen many times: archaeologists find a caveman who wakes up and kills everyone. It doesn’t have the camp of Trog, or the star power of Horror Express, or the quotable lines of The Neanderthal Man, or the catchy surf-rock tunes of Eegah, or…
-
Episode 72: Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) tells the story of Hushpuppy, a young girl living with her daddy in the Louisiana bayou, adapting to a changing world: her father is dying, the climate is warming, and prehistoric beasts are returning from the ice to haunt her. Aurochs, the titular beasts, were real Pleistocene animals –…
-
Episode 71: Music Videos
Today we’re diving into the music industry and reviewing seven stone age music videos: from Pearl Jam to Wu-Tang Clan, from folk to metal, musicians seem to love the ancient past. We explore the intersection of art and science, the way every generation projects their own ideals onto the past, and the disturbing amount of…
-
Episode 70: Master of the World (1983)
We’re getting back to our roots with Master of the World (1983), an Italian film about modern humans and Neanderthals, and cave bears, and cannibalism, and fighting! And herons. And a plot? Well this is an artistic film, so if you didn’t get it then maybe you’re just not as evolved as we are. Win…
-
Episode 69: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
It’s Episode 69, dude! So we watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), the classic time-travel movie starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as two slackers collecting historical figures to help them pass their history final in order to save a future civilization founded on their band’s music. Imagine how weird that sentence would sound…
-
Bonus Episode: Il Primo Re – Greeced Lightning Podcast
If you like Screens of the Stone Age, you’re gonna love Greeced Lightning, a podcast about Greek and Roman mythology and history in movies! Sara and Sam joined us for our review of Attila, and here we present the other half of that collaboration: Greeced Lightning is back! We’re kicking off Season 2 with a…
-
Episode 68: Brother Bear (2003)
Happy New Year! To kick of 2024 we’re reviewing Disney’s Brother Bear (2003), the story of a human learning to be nice to animals by being forced to live as one. This is low-key a stone age movie – it’s set in Beringia during the Pleistocene, but other than some mammoths and glaciers, it doesn’t…