Episode 53: "The Conspiracy" Movie

The Conspiracy is a fictional documentary that features two filmmakers and their subject, "Terrance G." However, when Terrance disappears and his apartment is gutted, the two men go down a one hell of a rabbit hole to find him. If Blair Witch and Alex's Bohemian Grove break-in had a baby, it'd be The Conspiracy. 

⚠️ Spoilers lie ahead!

Links:

https://tubitv.com/movies/498162/the-conspiracy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2330322/

Need more? You can visit the website at: https://consaracytheories.com/ or my own site at: https://saracausey.com/. Don't forget to check out the blog at: https://consaracytheories.com/blog. 

Decoding the Unicorn: A New Look at Dag Hammarskjöld is available now! Click here to buy it on Amazon. 

Transcript

Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

Welcome to con-sara-cy theories. Are you ready to ask questions you shouldn't and find information you're not supposed to know? Well, you're in the right place. Here is your host, Sara Causey. 

Hello, hello, and thanks for tuning in. In tonight's episode, I will be talking about the conspiracy movie, and that is the title, the conspiracy it was released in 2012 I hadn't heard of it before, and I'm not sure if to be suggested it to me, and that's how I found out about it, or if I heard about it somewhere else, and then I looked it up on Toby. As of this recording, it's available to watch free of charge. There standard disclaimer here. I don't control what movies they keep and which ones they cycle out. So it may or may not be available there by the time that this hits the airwaves. It is interesting. I think the best way that I could describe it would be, what if the Blair Witch Project and Alex Jones' documentary about breaking in at Bohemian Grove had a baby as weird as that sounds, I think that's the most apt description for this film. It's done in like that Blair Witch Project, horror movie found footage kind of way, but it centers on these two guys that go down conspiracy theory rabbit holes and then ultimately regret the decision that they've made. Spoilers abound. There's no way for me to talk about what happens in this film without spoiling the ending. If you intend to watch it and you haven't already bookmark this episode, download it and come back to it later, because I don't want to spoil anything for you. If you're still with me, let's saddle up and take this ride. The film opens up with a quote from Benjamin Disraeli, the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes. Then the movie itself starts up with a man screaming, we're human beings. We're not a product of overpopulation, and we're not cannon fodder for your wars. The film is set up in the style of a found footage documentary, kind of like Blair Witch. We know at some point, just from the genre that it's going to turn into a horror story. We just don't know exactly when that's going to happen. We also see clips of various people, none of whom we're told the names of, yet, the screen flashes up that in July of 2011 two filmmakers started the documentary centered on a local conspiracy theorist named Terence G. And Terence. G is in quotation marks like this is a pseudonym. Terence looks like he's living in a hoarder house. There are newspapers and photos and newspaper clippings everywhere, and it seems like there's some homage or satirization here of Alex Jones, because He even calls his den area the War Room. They also show him playing a video game that looks kind of like The Sims, except it's called the conspiracy cafe. Like Alex Terence will go out on the street in crowded areas with a bullhorn and bullhorn his message to people, the filmmakers say they are less interested in Terence himself and more interested in the 1000s of people who listen to him, and this leads them down several rabbit holes online, of people within the quote, conspiracy theory community, whatever that really means, the tone really starts to change around minute 11, when one of the fake filmmakers says, Looking back on it, I wish we had never listened to a word. He said, We see footage of terrence's Apparently empty or gutted apartment, along with a screen that flashes up saying following an interview on July 20, 2011 Jim and Aaron. Those are the two faux filmmakers. Jim and Aaron were unable to make contact with Terence for a period of four weeks in August. They try to find him inside the video game, but that's no help. He's not in jail. He's not in a hospital. He's just gone. The filmmakers try to salvage what they can of Terence is vast newspaper clipping collection. One of them cracks a joke that maybe the mother ship came back for Terence, but you can see they're still worried. We see some of their video footage like they're going back through it. So we're able to see some of the video footage that they took before Terrence disappeared. And Terence points out a man on a bicycle and says that he believes this man is a spy who's been following him. One of the filmmakers says it's probably just a guy out for a bike ride, but Terence is pretty insistent that this man has been following him. So the other filmmaker, Aaron Jim, is kind of like the devil's advocate. The Resident skeptic that always wants to come up with an alternate explanation. And Aaron is one that's a little bit more open minded to the things that Terence has been talking about. So Aaron is the one that starts to go down the Terence rabbit hole. He watches a video of Terence exposing 911 talking about the sketchy video of the Pentagon, how there's a sudden explosion, but no plane. The head of security in Pakistan wires 100 grand to Mohammed atta just prior to 911 and the morning of the same man, Ahmed, the head of security in Pakistan is in DC. We also see a reporter on C span asking Condoleezza Rice about this. Are you aware that at the time, the ISI chief was in Washington on September one, one, and on September 10, $100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in this area. And Connie replies, I have not seen the report, and he certainly was not meeting with me. We cut back to Terence, and he says, Why was the guy who bankrolled 911, meeting with the Charlie India Alpha before the attacks. Terence also argues with a man on the street and brings up World War One and the deliberate sinking of the Lusitania. Avenge the Lusitania puts America into World War One. He also goes into the Gulf of Tonkin in 2005 the November Sara Alfa releases a classified document that states the Gulf of Tonkin never happened. On screen, we see a newspaper clipping that reads secret papers point to unreliable intelligence leading into Vietnam. The filmmaker who goes down the rabbit hole, Aaron, makes a comment like and if people like Terence are wrong, then it's fucked up how they could be so delusional, but if they're right. And then he trails off, lost in thought, and we see him clearing off his wall and starting to reassemble some of terences photographs and newspaper clippings. Aaron thinks that he can figure out maybe what has happened to Terence by looking at things like highlighter marks and pin pricks in the papers. In other words, he's trying to go back through like a detective would, and figure out what was Terence looking at, what was he working on at the time of his disappearance? His fellow filmmaker, the more skeptical one Jim is a bit like dude. I don't see the point in this. You might drive yourself crazy. Terrence was unbalanced. Do you really think you should be doing something like this? Jim's argument is that if you stare at it long enough, because Terence had every conspiracy known unto man on his newspaper clipping board, if Aaron stares at it long enough he will start to see whatever he wants to see. They interview a woman who may be a psychiatrist. We're not sure, because we don't see her name or her credentials on screen, but she's talking like a psychiatrist would, and she says, the thing about conspiracy theories is you can't disprove them. You can't conclusively disprove them. You can't conclusively disprove that we don't have masters and overlords secretly controlling us. Paranoid schizophrenics will often create delusions for themselves that can't be disproven, and then this allows them to have delusions that go on indefinitely. And as she's talking, we also see an image of Terence packing up his portable cork board where he goes out, man on the street style, to explain his conspiracy theories to the general public. After a few days away, Jim comes back to Aaron's apartment, and Aaron is in there like the meme of Charlie Day with all of the cords and the push pins and the newspaper clippings, and you can tell that Jim, at first, is stifling some laughter. Aaron shows an article from Time magazine where the elite meet and greet. The article is supposed to be about this group called the tarsus Club, which is a retreat for politicians, and this is an obvious reference to Bohemian Grove. Aaron believes that he has cracked an important code in terrence's system. He believes that this string of dates that Terence has called out are dates that refer to specific meanings of the tarsus club. He points out that these meetings have all occurred before major world events. Jim is sitting on the couch looking skeptical, but at the same time, he's curious enough to go along with what Aaron is talking about. They try to call the tarsus club, and are unable to get through the tarsus Club website gives them no real information at all, other than the bogus phone number. They try to track down a man named Mark Tucker, who was the journalist who wrote the fake article from their fake version of Time Magazine. But they are told that he left the magazine years ago, we learned that Aaron is following a community in northern Alberta that wants to do an off grid hippie commune type of Lifestyle where they grow their own food and they live off grid, and they have a little homestead group. The two of them, meaning Jim and Aaron, the filmmakers, post a plethora of questions on social media, trying to see if anybody who knows anything about the tarsus club will get in contact with them. Somebody does and offers to meet them in a conspiracy theory chat room group, and it's the same one that Terence had been using that was kind of like The Sims. So Aaron and Jim show up and start asking questions of this guy. Now, allegedly, the man in the chat room is the man Tucker who wrote the article for time, he warns Jim and Aaron that they need to take down everything they've posted online, and he will be back in touch with them. Mark Tucker, this faux reporter, shows up with a long gray ponytail and his face blurred out. His voice has also been disguised. He says that he was doing a biographical piece on Murray chance, an important businessman. Tucker says he tried to report more truthfully, but his editor butchered the article. Rather than kill the story completely, it's better to have some information out there about the tarsus group, because a total media blackout would be damaging. Tucker says that the ultimate goal of this group is a New World Order. We've then seen news clippings for like a for real TV clip of poppy Bush talking openly about a new world order. We cut back to Tucker, talking about a single government world where a single organization controls every nation. We also see a real video from the WEF calling for a New World Order. Jim pushes back that Tucker might simply be Terrance in better clothes. Aaron Aaron thinks he's probably ex Charlie India Alpha. While they are talking outside at a cafe, they spot the same bicyclist who was stalking Terence. When Aaron gets back to his apartment, it has been ransacked. The prim and proper psychiatrist lady comes back on to tell us that Aaron's burglary was not connected to the film or any conspiracy theory research, which begs the question, How would a psychiatrist know that if she's not with the police, how in the hell would she know what was going on with the burglary Jim, who has a young wife and a young baby, allows Aaron to stay with him temporarily. Aaron begins to rebuild his conspiracy theory newspaper clipping and string board at Jim's house, and Jim makes the comment, it's one thing. When we were filming Terence and watching Terence do this, I could leave it behind, but now I can't, because it's invaded my home. The two of them have a second interview with Mark Tucker, and Aaron is much more forceful. This time around, Jim looks slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed, but through Aaron's pressing, Mark, Tucker reveals that the group is doing rituals based on the worship of Mithras. We cut now to an expert telling us about the cult of Mithras. We learn of the parallel stories between Mithras and Jesus. Tucker says that it was the world's first secret society. The filmmakers talk to an independent journalist with photos of important people who've been to Tarsus meetings. Aaron starts to plan a way to sneak into a Tarsus meeting with a hidden camera. So this very much. At this point, you definitely will have visions of Alex's plan to sneak into bohemian grove with hidden cameras after they leave a spy gear store, a black SUV is following them, and Aaron becomes more unhinged. Jim's wife gets weirded out and asks what they are doing with a hidden camera. This leads to an argument between Jim and Aaron. Jim feels like they are engaged in a pointless battle. Now the SUV has parked outside of Jim's house, Jim tries to convince Aaron It's a coincidence. Maybe it's somebody that's getting picked up to go to the airport, for example, and we're just being paranoid. But Aaron runs outside for a confrontation, and the SUV speeds off. Mark Tucker then hooks them up with a groundskeeper who works for the tarsus group, and he says that if they will pay him off, he'll help them get into a Tarsus meeting, and they agree to do it. I wrote in my notes this part is very reminiscent of Alex sneaking into Bohemian Grove. They sneak through a wooded area in dark suits and enter a weird abandoned building. They decide that this building can be a rendezvous point. If they get separated, they kind of relax a little bit, almost like they're catnapping in the woods. Jim tells Aaron that they could leave, but they don't, you sort of like, Dude, we could just leave. We could call this whole thing off. We could leave right now, but they don't. A truck pulls up to smuggle them in, apparently, inside of body bags. At this point, they play a clip of JFK speech warning about the danger of secret societies, and his words are juxtaposed with the Zapruder film. It was a little bit off putting for me, because I was like, oh god. I wasn't expecting to see this. I wasn't really expecting to watch him get murdered again on film in the middle. Of this faux documentary, but I do intend to record an episode completely about that secret society speech. Mean, it seems unfathomable now for a sitting President to deliver a speech like that, warning about hidden information, secret societies, how anathema all of that is in a free society. I mean, now, if a President tried to do that automatically, you're a crackpot. You're a conspiracy theorist. Why would you even say such a thing? I mean, the person would basically be burned at the stake if they even tried to talk about that. But it's interesting, like he he felt compelled, as a sitting president, to go out in public and make a speech about secret societies that should tell you something. So we go back now to Aaron and Jim. They get in at the tarsus meeting and hit the bar. An older man comes up and starts making small talk and chatting them up, and they're able to get a little bit of information from him. They wander around a little bit inside this building, wherever they're at, it's not completely clear, and we see a table of large daggers and another table of masks. They're basically trying to blend in and follow what everyone else does. The men go outside as horns blow and drums are beat. Men with torches show up automatically. For me, it's like, Oh God, this is going to be something bad. This is super creepy. This is super gross. I don't even want to be here. A man in some kind of costume gets up and says a few words as a bonfire is lit. The newbies are called ravens and are summoned to the front, and then they are led away in a group. So they're basically the initiates, and they go in a tent to make a pledge to Mithras. Aaron frantically tries to get to Jim and nearly gets himself in major trouble. Jim freaks out after his initiation and tries to call his wife. However, he discovers that his wife and child are at the compound where this ritual is taking place, Aaron receives a mask, not of a raven, but of a bull. He will apparently be the sacrificial bull, because, as this story goes, the people in this club have some kind of ritual sacrifice of a bull. However, we see now that it's not an actual bovine, which, that would have been bad enough. I wouldn't have wanted to watch that either. It's not a bovine. It's going to be a human being with a bull mask on. So Aaron gets turned loose from His tent with his bull mask on, and men charge at him with daggers and chase him into the woods. Aaron hides for a while, and somehow gets back to that weird a frame building from earlier, the one that they said would be their rendezvous point if they got separated and things went wrong. He sees someone in the building, but the shot is so fast and blurry that it's difficult to make out. But it turns out to be Jim sitting at a table. Aaron goes in and is then ambushed by men wearing white KKK looking robes and carrying the daggers. The video survives, and apparently so does Jim. We see an old white man talking about how the core of Tarsus is about communication between governments, businesses and individuals. And the screen flashes up on November 30, 2011 the filmmakers were granted a rare exclusive interview with William Jansen COO of the tarsus Club International. He goes on to talk about the dark side of the internet and people spreading conspiracy theories like a virus. We also learn that the prim and proper woman who appeared to have been a psychiatrist is actually a woman named Nicole Higgins, who is the Senior VP of PR for Tarsus. They say that people trying to break in has become so common that they decide to scare off the interlopers. And then we see Jim in a weird interview where he almost looks like he's been drugged, saying that he and Aaron were taken to a back room by security, and they were threatened, but then they were released. Jim says he was able to move on, but Aaron was really terrified, even after he learned that everything was being done as a scare tactic against them, Aaron was still really upset, so Jim is basically saying they're like, nobody really got killed. Nothing really bad happened. It was all just a show to keep us away. That's one hell of an elaborate prank, though. William admits that they do come together. Global leaders do come together to collaborate, and that their goal is to create one single, global community. We then see Jim back with his family. He tears down the conspiracy newspaper clippings and says that he guesses Aaron went wherever Terrence did, and he hopes they are both free. And with that, the movie concludes the interpretation. Of all of this is definitely left up to the viewer. It reminded me, in a way, of winter kills, and soon I will be publishing an episode to talk about the novel and the film adaptation winter kills by Richard Condon. The only reason I haven't released it already is because I try to stagger my JFK episode so that every single week is not just John F Kennedy over and over again, some people are interested in his story and some people aren't. So I try to give a balance between other things, but one of the themes of the novel and the film winter kills is going down one rabbit hole after another, after another, after another. And it's a lot like the meme where the circle of spider mans are all pointing at each other. It was the mafia, no, it was intelligence, no, it was the military, no, it was Cuba, no, it was Russia. I mean, just one theory after another after another, of everybody blaming somebody else. So I could see shades of that same idea in this documentary. Well, this fake documentary, I should say, mockumentary, like you're gonna go down a rabbit hole. And in a best case scenario, you waste your life on things that can't ever be proven. In a worst case scenario, you fuck around and find out you get into a Tarsus club meeting and you get killed by crazy cultists that stab you to death while you're the sacrificial bull. Part of me is like, okay, is that the point of the movie? Is the point of the movie to say, yes, all of this is real, and if you try to pursue it, you're going to get killed. Is the point of the movie to say none of this is real, maybe some of it's real, maybe, but you're never gonna know. Maybe you're better off being the Jim instead of the Aaron, because Jim gets to go back with his wife and his kid and they're unharmed, whereas Aaron goes down the rabbit hole harder, and he winds up murdered. I don't know. It's completely open to interpretation. What do you think if you watch this movie or have watched it already, what conclusions did you come away with? What spoke to you, what seemed plausible and what seemed to be crazy is that the point you're supposed to be more like Jim and just let it go, go on back and be a surface dweller. Be with your wife and your kid, lead a normal life, come home and eat dinner every night, worry about the Super Bowl and talk to your coworkers around the coffee pot. And just let it be, because if you wind up like Aaron, you're going to be dead or crazy or like Terence, you're disappeared, and nobody ever even knows what the hell happened to you. A point to ponder. Stay a little bit crazy, and I will see you in the next episode.

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