"Swiss Army Man" begins with a suicide attempt that's salvaged by a dead body. Paul Dano plays Hank, a sullen loner marooned on an island where a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washes ashore. Said corpse, Hank learns, talks and carries a supernatural ability to guide him home, specifically through the use of his erect penis and decomposing (read: farting) remains. Alongside his new pal, whom he names Manny, Hank rediscovers the will to live, and "Swiss Amy Man" becomes the most philosophical movie ever made about flatulence.
Following a lucrative limited release in New York and Los Angeles last weekend, "Swiss Army Man" expands to almost 700 screens nationwide on Friday. Inspired by a fart joke and peppered with homages to things like "Jurassic Park" and "Cotton-Eyed Joe," the movie has the potential to be one of the year's most notable -- or at least strangest -- independent projects. Here's what went into making it.
Maybe you've heard it referred to as the "farting corpse movie."
When "Swiss Army Man" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the press in attendance made note of two things: Paul Dano was propelled across the ocean on the back of Daniel Radcliffe's farting corpse, and a slew of people walked out of the movie. Already one of Sundance's most-anticipated titles, the divided responses only bolstered its momentum. I was at the premiere screening, which started half an hour late because officials had to control the crowd of hundreds that were turned away after the festival's largest theater filled to capacity. No one knew exactly what to expect from the movie, assuming it would be a "Cast Away"-style survival tale, or at least something ... normal. To be part of that naïve audience was exhilarating. By the time its bizarre 95 minutes came to an end, the room was stunned. Throughout the rest of the fest, chatter spanned an effusive "What was that?" to a bitter "Fuck that." A24 snatched up distribution rights in what was reportedly a heated bidding contest.
You've probably seen at least one thing the directors have done.
Before writing and directing "Swiss Army Man," frequent collaborators Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, collectively known as The Daniels, made the trippy video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon's 2013 hit "Turn Down for What." Watch it and "Swiss Army Man" back to back and you'll see The Daniels have an affinity for boner humor. In "Turn Down for What," they treat testosterone as a laughable force that leads to uncontrollable destruction (and/or massive parties). In "Swiss Army Man," Manny's pecker is the compass that guides Hank home.
The Daniels have directed videos for Passion Pit, The Shins, Foster the People and Manchester Orchestra, whose Andy Hull and Robert McDowell composed the galvanizing score for "Swiss Army Man." The Daniels have also helmed episodes of the Adult Swim comedies "NTSF:SD:SUV" and "Childrens Hospital," as well as several short films that you can watch on Vimeo. They made off with one of Sundance's directing prizes this year.
So what's it take to get Harry Potter and the silent kid from "Little Miss Sunshine" to do a movie about boners, farts and suicide?
All it takes is a logline, apparently. When I asked Radcliffe and Dano this week about how the movie was pitched to them, they said it was that simple. Radcliffe recalled the hook as something to the effect of “a lonely, suicidal man is saved by his discovery of a dead body" -- which is, sure, a pretty apt description of the movie. "It definitely pitched that it was a two-hander and one of the hands was dead," he said. (Watching Radcliffe act lifeless is a croaky, glassy-eyed, limber marvel.)
But Dano liked the angle he received better, and I'm inclined to agree. "They wanted to make a film where the first fart makes you laugh and the last fart makes you cry," he said. "With that, I was in. That’s ambition."
They shot exclusively outdoors in California last summer. Dano had to lug Radcliffe around on his back, hoist him up hills and ride him across the ocean like a jet ski. I asked whether it was an arduous shoot, and the actors gave an emphatic, simultaneous affirmative.
"I mainly got carried, so it was pretty good," Radcliffe joked, to which Dano replied, "You got dragged and thrown! Your guy goes through a lot. And also the amount we were doing every day, and the speed at which we worked, and the energy at which we worked, not only us in the scenes, but the whole crew."
After this, it's time for the "what will Harry Potter do next?" narrative to dwindle.
Radcliffe has been exceptionally generous about the understandable flood of "Harry Potter" questions he has received since the film franchise ended in 2011. (With the play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" and the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" on the horizon, there's a whole new layer of wizarding things to ask about.) And Radcliffe has done a remarkable job of diversifying his post-Hogwarts résumé, even if he'll always be known as The Boy Who Lived. But if playing Allen Ginsberg in "Kill Your Darlings," a supernaturally horned widower in "Horns," a dog walker in "Trainwreck" and a magic-aspiring villain in "Now You See Me 2" aren't enough to separate him from his wand-carrying days, the eccentric nature of "Swiss Army Man" should.
"It’s interesting, someone did say to me, 'Did you choose this because it’s so different from Potter?'" Radcliffe said. "Yeah, but it’s also different from everything I’ve ever done. Some people want every career decision I make to be in some way a comment on my relationship to Potter, but you’re not in control of what gets sent to you, so when you read something original and you love it, that's that. And I’m in a position that I can do things that I want to do and I don’t have to do things for other reasons, so for as long as I’m in that position, I’m going to make hay while the sun shines."
For his latest trick, Radcliffe had to wait until seeing the finished product to learn what his fictional farts sound like. The movie's sound guys asked members of the cast and crew to record their farts, which were then blended with artificial effects, like in elementary school when you squeezed your hands together and blew into them. You can read all about the process in this Village Voice interview. I asked if Radcliffe thought to ask for a fart-approval clause in his contract: "No, but I should have, just to say that I had that at some point. When else am I going to need it?"
It may not be the type of movie you take home to Mom, but the profundity of "Swiss Army Man" is surprising.
Radcliffe has no qualms showing the movie to his "weird" parents, literary agents who used to be actors themselves. People often ask whether he was "embarrassed" to perform the play "Equus," a theological character study in which he appeared nude, in front of his folks, when in fact they "encouraged" him to take the role. "They're artsy, I guess," he said.
Dano, on the other hand, is far more cautious, calling his parents "super old-school." Lucky for him, they'll just be enamored because it features their son. "If we took me out of it, I obviously don’t know how it would play," Dano said. And by now, they're used to seeing him portray misfits struggling to find their way. Dano made a name for himself by doing just that in "L.I.E.," "Little Miss Sunshine," "Being Flynn," "Ruby Sparks," "Prisoners" and "Love & Mercy."
I don't want to spoil the movie's thematic punch, but the zany comedy of "Swiss Army Man" morphs into a poignant statement about learning to appreciate life. Hank is a suicidal recluse who has lost all hope -- until Manny's childlike questions about the world force Hank to realize how much beauty surrounds them. Some viewers may be frustrated by the magical realism, which makes the film more surreal than sensible, but look beyond the scatological bro-gags and you'll find a missive about companionship, self-acceptance and wonderment.
"There’s something intrinsically wonderful about the image of 'If you just come into the world knowing nothing about it and with no emotional baggage, it’s a fascinating and wonderful place,' which is sort of what Manny discovers," Radcliffe said. Manny uses that discovery to teach Hank how to "live again and love again."
Dano agreed. "It’s largely about being yourself, in a way," he said.
"Swiss Army Man" is now in theaters.
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