Hop on the CONSPIRACY CRUISE! Short Film Starring THE LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT’s Henry Zebrowski
Josh Millican
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“First ‘The Macarena’, then MKULTRA.”
I caught the short film Conspiracy Cruise at Panic Fest earlier this year (before film festivals were shuttered in response to the COVID-19 pandemic) and today brings news it’s an official Vimeo Staff Pick! Give it a watch embedded at the top of the article!
Synopsis:
Conspiracy Cruise takes place at a conference for conspiracy theorists on a cruise ship. The event is headlined by Gordon Pike: a once-famous musician who sacrificed his fame to tell the “real truth” about the powers that shouldn’t be. Now he’s headlining this poorly attended conference on a sad cruise ship, barely making ends meet, questioning his decision and the conspiracies behind it. That is, until his most outlandish theories start to come true on-board. It’s a nuanced portrait of the subculture and its figureheads; considering the feedback loop of pathologies of conspiratorial thinking, hucksterism, and real historical context. Oh, and it’s inspired by a real event.
The short film by Brad Abrahams (Love and Saucers), starring Henry Zebrowski (The Wolf of Wall Street, After Midnight, Adult Swim’s Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell) is the partly real story of a cruise ship vacation for conspiracy theorists that takes a turn for the surreal when their most outlandish theories come true on board.
Brad was inspired by Anna Merlan’s article about the *real* conspiracy cruise written for Jezebel. A few years back, the real Conspira-Sea set sail from South Florida, and featured a cadre of about a hundred conspiracy theorists among thousands of normies on a cruise ship ride through the Caribbean. While no Reptilians or Illuminati revealed themselves (to our knowledge), the IRS did indeed arrest one of the keynote speakers under various articles of tax fraud upon docking back in Florida.
As the real Conspiracy Cruise shall never set sail again, Brad was inspired to fictionalize the tale into a surreal horror-comedy, imagining what would happen if their conspiracies started to come true. As we now collectively find ourselves in a time when both the cruise industry and conspiracy theories are at peak zeitgeist, the timing of this short is sadly perfect.
From the first draft, Brad had Henry Zebrowski in mind for the lead role of the celeb conspiracy theorist. Gordon Pike is truly Henry’s not-so-alter ego. Henry had previously interviewed Brad about his film Love and Saucers on his wildly popular podcast Last Podcast on the Left. The two had been wanting to collaborate ever since.
What do you think of Conspiracy Cruise? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
