Interview with Enter Nowhere Movie Scribe Jason Dolan
The other day, Chris T. pitched out to us all a movie for us to discuss that I had never heard of before entitled Enter Nowhere. I watched it and, although it was a micro-budget fling, it was fun and was brimming with big ideas. The twists and the turns of the plot were good and the larger philosophical insights were fantastic. And so I did a write up about it, which you can find right here, and that was that. But on a lark, I thought, huh, wonder if I can track down either Shawn Christensen or Jason Dolan to chat about their big idea movie, and low and behold I reeled Jason Dolan in out of the blue.
Thankfully, Jason was cool enough to let me ask some of the big, spoilery questions that I guessed at during my write up of Enter Nowhere. And so most of this interview below will be one big, enormous spoiler fest. So please. Before you read my write up of the movie, or this interview, make certain that you watch the movie first. Good news! You can watch Enter Nowhere right here
!! And a small slice of your viewing pleasure will come our way to help you keep finding great movies like this one.
Here, check out the trailer to Enter Nowhere and you’ll see what I mean about a small movie with big ideas:
Spoilers From Here On In – Spoilers Beware!
Alright, so like I said up top, this interview is 100% spoiler material. If you continue on and ruin this movie, I promise you, Santa is bringing you coal for Christmas. This is a guarantee. Alright, onward!!
Interview with Coauthor of Enter Nowhere Jason Dolan
THiNC. – “Thanks a bunch for agreeing to answer a few questions about the film… I wrote a pretty deep dive into the inner workings of how the mechanics work and the motivations of the characters, etc. But I’d love to add your insights as well. The first question I’m dying to know more about is just more of a confirmation than anything else. I’ve seen a bit of confusion online about what happened. When Hans shot at Tom, he was never hit… is that because his mother had just died, or was dying, and therefore he was vaporizing? Maybe I’m confused?”
Jason Dolan – “In a nutshell… yes… the idea simply comes from what if someone was trying to shoot Marty McFly as his parents weren’t getting together – and the fun ensued from there.”
THiNC. – “It’s amazing how many movies have been impacted by Back to the Future. Time Travel movies. Closed Box movies. Low budget. Big budget. Doesn’t matter. It really has influenced an entire generation of movies. Speaking of Tom’s vaporization, he ceased to be forever, because after that point, when Hans survived, he and his wife were there for Samantha, and therefore, Samantha didn’t die in child birth, and therefore Jody didn’t find herself hanging out with Kevin I think his name was? And so Tom was never recreated?” (Here is a timeline visualization I did for my write up that helps to understand that walkthrough I just spat out to Jason… )
Jason Dolan – “This is true… had the film turned out to be better… I was going to write a sequel about a new Tom… played by a different actor… because he has a different father. I always joked that somehow Marty McFly intertwined with Jennifer’s parents, and a different sperm actually made its way to her mother’s egg, so that’s why she looks like Elisabeth Shue in the sequel! Lol.”
THiNC. – “Oh dang… yeah totally. He can’t look like Tom (Scott Eastwood), he’d only have half of the right DNA. Totally! Hahah. Totally fascinating. This is probably the only movie I’ve seen where a SUCCESSFUL solution is the disintegration of one of the key protagonists. Funny. Which brings me to Hans. I watched and then rewatched certain sections trying to figure out what he was up to. I understood that the Germans behind the front line assumed he had died. But I didn’t get what exactly he was trying to do out there? Was that ever mentioned. Also, I will say this, I’ve understand he wasn’t a Nazi, but I’ve literally never rooted for a German soldier during WW2 before. Was that an intentional choice?”
Jason Dolan – “To answer the second part first… yes, not every German was evil… Oskar Schindler comes to mind… he was caught up in a war that he didn’t really have much of a choice, or even mental capacity to understand… it’s not like the average German soldier really knew what was going on in the upper echelons of the Third Reich. That was the idea. Not every American Soldier fighting in Vietnam WANTED to be there. Not every American Solider invading Iraq understood the politics of why they weren’t in Afghanistan. The idea was to humanize Germans during this unfavorable period of German history… one day a writer might even try to humanize Americans during the current political blitzkrieg we find ourselves apart of… simply put… foot soldiers do not represent the intentions of their leaders.
“As for what was he doing out there? He was a scout. If he saw the enemy approaching, he was to radio his base…. I like to think he was looking for the Inglorious Basterds.”
THiNC. – “Hahah! Totally! Now that would be a conceptual crossover to break the mental banks of viewers everywhere. Inglorious Basterds meets Enter Nowhere?!? Hahah so epic.
“Alright, final question. I picked up on a massive scent that you dropped throughout the entirety of the movie. One of nurture over nature in the message of missing family and all the deaths caused as a result. (By my count, something like 2 deaths 3 murders and a suicide?) Was I picking up what you were putting down, or was that just a coincidence there? Oh, maybe one final question? You working on anything interesting that you want to pitch our way? I have heard good things about Sidney Hall, but I haven’t seen it myself yet. Maybe a plug for where we can watch it? Or do you have anything else you are working on?””
Jason Dolan – “Yep… nurture vs. nature was a big part of this film. That’s the ending. Jody was not the same person she was when she robbed the gas station because the circumstances of her life changed. We are all born innocent and it is our parents’ decisions, or our guardian’s ideals, or our friends’ influences, our experiences in general, that form our personalities and direct us to be the people who will either be a guiding light for positive change, or a skidmark on the toilet seat of desert gas station bathroom stall.
“Once again, I enjoyed your analysis. Enter Nowhere was a great first step for us. Our next film, The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, turned out much better. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime.” (Taylor here, you can watch The Vanishing of Sidney Hall
now! Don’t miss out. I literally just queued it up for my evening’s entertainment. Can’t wait.) “You can also catch my writing partner, Shawn’s Oscar-winning short film CURFEW, which facilitated Sidney Hall finally getting made. We wrote Sidney Hall in 2004, sold it in 2006, and made it in 2016. Welcome to Hollywood! The tortoise and the hare indeed.”
THiNC. – “It was really a fun little movie with a ton of great ideas coursing through its veins. I’m recommending it to everyone I bump into. Really enjoyed it. I’m really glad one of the people on my site told me about it.”
Alright, so Enter Nowhere. A super cool little movie with big ideas all throughout. We wish you the best of luck Jason. And don’t be a stranger, let us know when your next movie is out so we can all get in a bus and head to the premiere together! hahaha!
Edited by, CY