Directed by Nathan Juran
Screenplay by Martin Berkeley
Tagline: "This Was the Day That Engulfed the World in Terror!"
Run Time: 79 min
Oh joy…another "big bug" movie. Man, when will I ever learn? Although far from the worst of this genre (see Beginning of the End (1957) for a good example of a truly crappy bug movie), "The Deadly Mantis" has a lot to be desired. OK. I take that back; This movie sucks. The "science" behind the mantis’s existence is, well, non-existent…basically a volcano erupts somewhere in the Southern hemisphere causing an iceberg to break off on the other side of the globe near the North Pole (!). Our featured bug was, of course, released from its icy tomb in the process, no worse for the wear, and quickly proceeds to raise hell before finally being gassed to death in a tunnel in New York City.
"For every action is an equal and opposite re-action," is all the film’s narrator (the ubiquitous Marvin "Robby the Robot" Miller) in way of explanation of the mantis’s highly improbable advent. Gee. Thanks. What about the more obvious questions: What the hell is a giant mantis doing at the North Pole in the first place? How does a insect, albeit a huge one, survive the deadly sub-zero temperatures? Why can’t anybody seem to find and shoot the damn thing down? Why do I spend my time watching these movies?
The observant reader (or somebody who bothers to investigate a bit on IMDB) may notice that Romanian-born director Nathan Juran helmed one of my favorite goofy sci-fi films The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). (Coming soon to this site when I get the time!) Other films of note include Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (also 1958). Gotta love that guy!
Screenplay writer Martin Berkeley also penned some decent flicks from the 50’s including one of the better "big bug" flicks: Tarantula (1955). He also wrote the so-so 1955 sequel to "Creature from the Black Lagoon" entitled Revenge of the Creature, alone with a handful of other films. Incredibly enough, the mantis special effects were done by Fred Knoth: the man responsible for the nice effects done the same year in sci-fi classic (in my eyes) The Incredible Shrinking Man. I guess he needed a quick buck because, believe me brother, the mantis itself is pretty damn goofy.
Anyway, the film opens with the "for every action is an equal and opposite re-action" malarkey that I quoted above. As is par for the course for these sci-fi cheapo’s, almost all opening narration is accompanied by massive amounts of stock-footage in order to save a buck. After what is almost a 5 minute documentary on Radar Site Construction, we finally get to the film itself, which opens at Polar radar station "Red Eagle One", far, far North in the Arctic wastes, where our hero and radar station Commanding Officer, Colonel Joe Parkman (played by Hollywood veteran Craig Stevens), has just arrived. The day quickly turns hectic when a routine patrol discovers that one of the distant radio stations has been destroyed by unknown forces. (We see a quick scene where 2 enlisted men pick a strange ‘buzzing’ noise on some sort of radio before the station is destroyed. How the buzzing sound from a giant insect’s wings can be picked up on a radio is not very clear to me…but you really can’t be too nit-picky in films like these.)
The film proceeds as expected at this point. A search party flies out to the radio station only to discover that it’s in fact destroyed ("…as if something crashed into the roof!") and that the 2 radio operators are missing. A couple of ‘false-scares’ and a bit of head-scratching leads to the discovery of two long furrows in the snow, almost as if something landed there…hmmm. (How they didn’t see the pair of 50-foot long tracks from the air is beyond me.) To the eerie strings of a violin on the sound track, one of the men brushes away some snow to reveal a huge 3-toed imprint in the ice.
Back at "Red Eagle One", a "blip" on a radar screen compels the jumpy CO, Colonel Parkman, to call a red alert. The red alert is accompanied by clips of stock footage showing pilots donning flight gear, running across tarmacs, and scrambling into fighter jets. Unfortunately, whoever chose this footage failed to see (or probably didn’t care) that the footage was filmed in a snowless, tree-filled part of the country, which doesn’t exactly match the Arctic terrain that we’ve been seeing so far. Just try not to notice that.
Umm, wasn’t this film taking place at the North Pole?
Anyway, more footage of planes flying around in formation looking for the source of the mysterious "blip". After a pointless scene, the planes report back that they found nothing and return to base.
Now that was exciting!
The next day the mantis downs a C-47. Colonel Parkman and a couple of others fly out to the crash site and discover more of those weird 3-toed imprints in the snow. (Take a look at the cardboard mock-up of Parkman’s plane in the background…the wind from the fans blowing the soap-flake ‘snow’ seems to nearly blow the ‘plane’ off the set as well!) To add to the mystery of the strange footprints, the wrecked plane’s crew is missing, and Colonel Parkman discovers a big piece of….something…which broke off the bug. (Needless to say, the exoskeleton sample is brought back to Red Eagle One for further examination.)
The officers at the base are stumped. What the hell could it be? Well, they decide to report their finding to "CONAD", or Continental Air Defense, which is responsible for the "Super Sonic Shield that guards the North American continent." (The Super Sonic Shield? I argue that this adjective is not entirely what they intended to say when they wrote the script.)
A certain General Ford (Donald Randolph) arranges for the odd organic finding to be flown to the Pentagon for study by a committee of scientists. This astute board of professors have come to one conclusion: "That this appendage comes from some living creature." They cannot say any more than that. (Wow! Your tax dollars at work!) The scientists’s spokesman suggests contacting Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper), a leading paleontologist at the Museum of Natural History. (No, not ‘Fredrick’…Nedrick.)
Moving right along, Nedrick and his female assistant and museum’s magazine editor Marge Blain (Alix Talton), go over the evidence. Nedrick eventually deduces that the appendage fragment must have come from a giant, prehistoric insect. Later when he tries to explain his theory to the other scientists, he shows them a goliath beetle, but Nedrick refers to it as an "ant"…Idiot…and this guy is supposed to be working at the Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.? Yeah. Right. Stupid movie.
Nedrick displays an "ant" to a curious scientist.
Nedrick’s ‘big bug’ theory is initially met with disbelief, but eventually the other scientists are willing to give it a shot. ("Five men have vanished!" Nedrick shouts, "To die is one thing…to disappear without a trace suggests complete destruction!" Umm, sure, Ned, sure.)
"Where do we start?" asks Dr. Gunther.
"By thinking of the hook…as though it were infinitely smaller," Nedrick suggests.
Man, if you want to know what I’m thinking…I’m thinking about just switching this crap off.
Nedrick makes a final (and most unlikely) deductive leap and concludes that it is in fact a gigantic praying mantis. Meanwhile, our titular insect busies itself by eating an eskimo village. Well, sort of. We don’t actually see it eat anybody. Rather the filmmakers took Eskimo footage from an old 1933 film called S.O.S. Eisberg and foleyed that irritating buzzing noise over the scenes. This is really quality stuff here folks.
Well, at least we finally see a shot of the mantis’s head and forelegs as it clumsily knocks over some balsa wood structures. Let’s just say that the monster’s debut in the film is far from satisfying considering the crap the viewer has had to put up with to get this far.
I would also like to point out that the mantis roars like a lion. Oh boy. We’re having fun now.
(Hilariously, in the next scene the headline of The Washington Globe newspaper is "Greenland Eskimos Terrorized". Yeah, I guess you could say that. You’d think that the fact that they were terrorized by a praying mantis the size of a Greyhound bus might have also been mentioned…)
The next day Ned travels to the Arctic to meet with the Air Force at Red Eagle One and investigate first hand. After some silly, sexist banter, Marge persuades Ned to take her along as his ‘photographer’, even though, you know, she is merely a woman!
The evening after Ned and Marge arrive at the base, the giant mantis is seen making its way across the snow towards Red Eagle One. Maybe not actually walking…the monstrous mantis sort of shuffles its legs back and forth and appears to hover over the surface of the snow. The bug makes its way, unseen (!), to the radar station and starts raising hell. (True to this film genre, the first person to see this gigantic intruder is the female lead, Marge, who lets out a ear-shattering scream upon spotting it outside the window.) A couple of soldiers grab rifles and a flame thrower and attack the insect. Having had enough abuse, the mantis takes wing and flies off into the cold Arctic night. A squadron of stock-footage fighter jets are quickly scrambled to track the beast.
After some truly atrocious dialog, Ned deduces that the mantis is heading towards South America towards a more suitable climate. Ned and Marge head back to Washington as we cut to see the mantis flying low over the ocean. The "flying" mantis special effects are truly awful. The bug basically "hangs" in the air while its wings flop back and forth. (The wings were blurred in post-processing in order to make them appear to be rapidly flapping.)
Newspaper headlines show growing fear throughout the continental United States as the mantis approaches. Boring scenes showing solemn newscasters broadcasting warnings to the public ensue. Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly where the bug is…because it flies at 250 miles per hour! Yup. And I have some swamp land down in Florida I’d like to sell you…
Eventually the bug is spotted and a squadron of fighter jets are sent up to shoot it down. Let’s just say that the ariel combat scenes between the jets and the mantis are less than convincing. In the end, the mantis dives into the clouds and escapes. For some reason the jets don’t seem capable of flying through clouds and break off the pursuit. Go figure.
People say things, things happen, the mantis continues raising hell by smashing buses and trains (off screen of course), and this dull, preposterous movie continues to crawl towards the conclusion.
Moving right along…the mantis finally reaches Washington D.C. where it flies around a bit, buzzes the Capital building, and finally perches on the Washington monument (the only scene in the movie featuring a real mantis) where it roars like a lion and proclaims its supremacy. (Maybe I read a bit too much into that scene, but, well, it does climb to the top and roar.)
Yet another squadron of stock-footage jets are scrambled to meet the threat. (Notice how the planes that are shown taking off don’t match the planes shown flying in the air…nice.)
Ok, yup. The mantis continues flying around but now the Army opens up with anti-aircraft fire. Following its natural instincts to avoid anti-aircraft fire, the wily bug drops down and cruises under the radar. (Don’t ask how it knew to do that…I really don’t care at this point.)
Blah blah blah. Another ludicrous ariel battle between the bug and some jets results in Colonel Parkman crashing his jet into the mantis over New York City. (Parkman bails out At The Last Second.) The bug, mortally wounded, is forced to land in the city below. Seeing that there wasn’t any money in the special effects budget to show the bug landing and moving through the city, we simply cut to see that the bug has taken refuge in a highway tunnel and that the Army has blocked off the exits with massive tarps. The tunnel itself has been filled with smoke (?), which I guess is meant to kill the mantis…because bugs hate smoke, I guess.
Instead of keeping the mantis trapped in the tunnel until it dies, which is of course the only realistic thing to do, the Army decides to go into the smoke-filled tunnel to kill the mantis with poison gas because it "might break through the walls" and start a flood. (I was never aware that praying mantises could tunnel through re-enforced concrete.)
Anyway, apparently the only person qualified to lead the assault team into the tunnel is our hero: Air Force pilot Colonel Parkman. Why would a jet pilot be chosen to lead an infantry squad against a giant praying mantis? Because he’s the hero…that’s why! Now let me get back to work. Oh, ok, I just learned that the smoke was meant to give the guys "cover" as they make their way through the tunnel. Actually, I think it would give the mantis just as much cover as it gives them…but anyway.
The elite squad of soldiers, armed with gas grenades and rifles, trudges through the tunnel. (Why couldn’t they just pump poison gas into the tunnel instead of smoke?!) It’s pretty funny to see these guys peering about with flash-lights, looking into cars, looking behind them, etc., because, hey…they’re looking for a giant praying mantis the size of the Washington Monument!!! You’d think it wouldn’t take a trained search party to find something like that.
The boredom, excuse me, suspense, builds as the soldiers advance deeper into the tunnel. Suddenly, out of the smoke, the mantis rears its head and lets out a ferocious roar…which is quite a feat given that insects don’t have vocal cords.
A few gas grenades later, the mantis roars its last and collapses onto the tunnel floor…lifeless. Yea verily. Later, the film’s leads gather in front of the back-projected dead mantis and gaze at the expired bug, deep in their own thoughts.
Marge snaps a few shots for the museum magazine, setting up a fake-scare scene. Yes, the mantis still has a little life in it (unlike this film) and takes a feeble swipe at Marge. This scene also has the added benefit of giving Colonel Parkman another opportunity to literally grab Marge and carry her out of harm’s way. (Because, you know, 1950’s women forgot how to walk when they were scared.)
Yuch. Parkman tosses Marge’s camera to Ned so he can take the pictures. Of course taking the camera from Marge frees her up for a big kiss…something any woman would want standing next to a dead giant praying mantis in a poison-gas filled tunnel.
You know what? The movie’s over. Hallelujah!
Dennis Grisbeck (Feb 2006)
some reason to suspend disbelief. All we get here is a narrator giving us this "For every action is an equal and opposite reaction" nonsense. Give me a break!
Another interesting point that was brought up by Jerry Warren (author of the invaluable "Keep Watching the Skies") was the tendency of the big-bug imitators to use the same formula as was used in the far superior 1954 giant ant classic: Them!. The first third of "Them!" was spent trying to solve the mystery of just what in the heck was killing everybody. The makers of "The Deadly Mantis" mindlessly use the same tactic here although the menace is already revealed in the movie’s title! It’s a giant praying mantis! We know that…hell, we even see it thawing out in the opening credits! So watching two-dimensional characters trying to solve a "mystery" that we knew the solution to even before the movie began is far from exciting.
You might want to see this movie if you’re a big-bug movie fan or just want to have a few laughs. Don’t expect anything else from this piece of junk.
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Despite its shortcomings plot-wise, I really thought the Mantis itself was pretty cool. I think there was even a model that came out with it in the 70’s.
True, I do think mantises (mantisi?) in general are pretty kick-ass bugs, and I think they could have done something more interesting with it…
I saw only the MST3K version of this, and it was hilarious. I can’t imagine trying to take this seriously.
@Randy: The mantis was pretty cool, even if it’s relative size changed from scene to scene.
@guts3d: This was a cool movie when I first saw it as a kid. I especially remember the final scene when the people went into the tunnel full of poison gas, crashed cars everywhere, alone with a gigantic, mortally wounded praying mantis gasping on the pavement. It really freaked me out.
I watched the MST3K version again last night, and laughed my @55 off. Mike as the “voice” of the mantis was hilarious.
Yeah, man, a giant mantis, good grief. The only thing stupider than that would be a giant grasshopper…oh, wait….
Remember the mute guy “screaming” as the giant grasshopper advanced upon him? Weird memories, to be sure!
lol, yeah, I haven’t thought about that for a long time…
“There’s a Mantis… In my Pant-is” Tom Servo at his finest!
The movie “The Deadly Mantis” doesn’t suck at all. I don’t understand why people don’t appreciate old movies. I’ve seen several old movies (including “The Deadly Mantis”) and I can only recall two bad movies I’ve seen that were made before the 70’s. One is “The Creature From the Black Lagoon” (1954) and the other is “The Bat” (1926). “The Deadly Mantis” isn’t great, but it’s really good. If someone is looking for bad movies they should watch the movies of today, where they spend so much money on their fancy CGI that they don’t care whether the script and the actors are good or not. All they care about is how much money they’ll make. The movies were better in the past. And movies featuring huge bugs don’t have to be bad at all. Just think about the movie “Them” (1954) where nuclear detonations mutates ants to grow huge. That movie is no doubt great. The reason of why they’re not so scientific in old sci-fi movies is that people had IMAGINATION back then. Something that seems to be missing nowadays, when every movie is the same and half of the movies that are released are either sequels, prequels or spin-offs because people have run out of ideas. Please try to look beyond the fact that old movies don’t have “photo-realistic” special effects and such things. You don’t need that to make a good movie. All you need is imagination.
Although I enjoy the MST3K version of Deadly Mantis, and Dennis’s review, I’m fond of the movie itself as well. Warts and all. And it does have warts. My biggest complaint is that the mantis doesn’t wreck enough havoc. They didn’t have the budget for it. Which is ironic, as today all sorts of lousy movies are crammed with CGI spectacle. If only they would slow down and let the story breath once in a while. And like PublicCyberfreak notes, there is hardly any imagination put into them – because the corporations who produce them are terrified that will limit their box office appeal.
Oh come on…the movie sucks a little.
There’s one thing I’ve been thinking of. Hollywood always reuses sound effects, and there was a specific one that I thought of when I watched “The Deadly Mantis”. Approximately a month before watching “The Deadly Mantis”, I watched John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982). (I’ve seen both the 2011 prequel and the original “The Thing From Another World” (1951) as well, but that’s irrelevant in this case.) Anyway, I believe that a sound effect from “The Deadly Mantis” might have been reused in “The Thing” in the scene where they burn the Bennings Thing. (The one with the not-yet-completely-transformed hands.) Right before they switch on the flamethrower, the Bennings Thing (standing on “his” knees in the snow) shrieks. That shriek sounds (according to me) exactly like the mantis in “The Deadly Mantis” does when it roars. Did someone else notice this or am I just imagining things?
While I agree that it is like comparing apples and oranges to compare a turd like this to a new big budget turd like “Lost in Space” ( I think that there was a recent review of that somewhere! )I must admit that these older movies have charm. I shudder each time I hear a character say some thing like ” It’s almost as if there was some kind of… ” and fill in the rest with whatever the movie was about, a big bug, monster, virus, etc. But I rarely hold a budget against a movie, but bad acting, props that are obviously common household items with some glitter applied to them used as wonder weapons, etc. drive me crazy. I am sorry, PublicCyberfreak, but I will have to agree to disagree with you on this movie. Don’t get me wrong, I watch the MST3K version 3 or 4 times per year, so I have a warm spot in my heart for it, but I’ll never think of it as good cinema.
I could mention that the version I’ve seen isn’t the MST3K version. I watched the regular one. In fact, I’ve never watched any episode of MST3K ever.
Then you are in for a superb treat, my friend! If you have access to Netflix, there are a few episodes on there.
Naah, not really. I looked it up on IMDB, and MST3K doesn’t really seem like something I would consider watching. (I’m not a big fan of comedies.)
And to be honest, from what information I could get from IMDB, I think the show MST3K actually seems a bit childish…
To each his or her own. I usually will give a show, program, restaurant, etc. a chance or two to impress me before I condemn it. If you do decide to give MST3K a chance, the movie put out on the big screen lampooning “This Island Earth” would be a great one to start with.
Maybe I could give it a try, but it won’t be anytime soon. There’s a couple of other things I would watch rather than something I’m not so sure I’ll like. However, in case I would run out of ideas of what to watch, then perhaps I could give it a shot and see if my opinion changes.
No pressure! I was skeptical when a friend gushed about how funny it was, but was a convert after I watched ” Puma Man ” and laughed myself silly.
Ok, I’ll think about it.
Have you watched it yet? Just asking…
Give me a break! “The Deadly Mantis” is fun! I saw it on television when I was a kid and was thrilled to death. The filmakers had such imagination-such is science fiction. I looked forward to seeing it again when I was older and finally got the chance when I got a recording of it on vhs from an independent dealer. What memories! I love the cheesiness of it. Compared to the predictable and desensitizing of computer generated special effects of today it is a welcome change. To watch the evolution of special effects from the beginnings of movie making was great-The art of that is long gone, replaced by computer perfection. What a drag. Yes I am from the old school of monsters notably stuff like Creature from the black lagoon and the classic monster flicks that came before it. If you, like me, are a true sci-fi and horror buff check out one of the last of the monster movies-“Prophecy”(1979), and you will not be disappointed. Leave our monsters alone. Long live the classics!
Hooray for the old Big Bug movies!!! I love them. So what if the special effects are cheesy, that’s half the fun. There were a couple of well made ones, like Tarantula and Them, but the lousy ones are still enjoyable. Part of the pleasure is in looking for the various continuity errors, ridiculous sets, etc. We’re not talking Shakespeare, here, people. Relax and enjoy.
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So, Guts3d. I don’t think you will ever see this answer, since it’s been more than a year since our conversation (I didn’t notice the question you sent until now), but I’d like to tell you that today I finally took the step and watched an episode of MST3k. “Manos, the Hands of Fate”. My initial thoughts were something along the lines of “What am I doing? I’m watching a TV show where the backstory is SUNG in the THEME! And it features PUPPETS!” but as you told me, I did give it a chance. You were right, it is hilarious. In case you happen to see this, and you want to resume our conversation, feel free to respond. I’ll keep track of this page daily for at least a month after publishing this comment. If you haven’t responded by then, I’ll check it monthly.
(Also, just a small note to William A. Sprick III above: I agree to most of that, but I don’t like The Creature From the Black Lagoon.)
Glad to hear that you liked it, PublicCyberfreak! I had the same apprehension as you at first, but a friend kept egging me on and I gave in. Now I am hooked! IMHO the best episodes are in no particular order:
Pumaman
Mitchell
Space Mutiny
Final Sacrifice
This Island Earth ( The movie theatre episode! )
You can see most of them on Youtube in either full episodes or in segments. Thanks again for giving MST3K a chance!
I’m planning to watch another episode tonight. I’ll make sure to see if I can find any of those.
Great! Hope you enjoy it!
Done. I watched the MST3k version of “Puma Man”. I didn’t find it quite as amusing as “Manos, the Hands of Fate”. I think I’ll watch some additional episodes in the next couple of days before I make up my mind entirely. I’m not completely sure what I think of it yet.
Hope that you like them!
My thoughts so far: I think MST3k is entertaining, and I will most likely keep watching it. There’s just one thing that’s bugging me. Since I’m born in 1995, there are many pop-culture references I’m too young to get, even though I tend to watch a lot of old movies. Still, I do get some of them, such as the part from Mitchell where a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey is imitated shot-by-shot in one of the intermission sketches. (For the record: 2001 is my favorite movie of all time. I’ve watched it several times and I’ve read all four books. (The fourth is not as good as the first three.))
(This is not my final conclusion, just what I think at the moment.)
So true about the fourth movie. And I agree, you might not catch all of the references on MST3K, I’m 50 years old and I get about 90% at best. Those guys quote everything from Tolstoy to the Bible. I’m glad that you enjoyed Mitchell, and humbly suggest either “This Island Earth” ( The big screen movie ) or “Space Mutiny” with Reb Brown. Two great ones, for sure!
Fourth movie? I meant that the fourth Space Odyssey book is better than the other three Space Odyssey books, I wasn’t talking about MST3k at that point. I might have been a bit unclear about what I meant.
*Correction of my clarification* I accidentally wrote the opposite of what I meant. I meant that the fourth Space Odyssey book is not as good as the other three space odyssey books.
Also, to bring the subject back to MST3k, so far I’ve watched the first three on your list (plus “Manos, the Hands of Fate”).
Right you are! I looked at my movie collection and found that you are indeed right. “2001” and “2010” are all the movies that I have, but I have vague recollections of reading “2020” and I was confusing Arthur C. Clarke’s wondrous novel “Rendezvous with Rama” with the “2001” series!
Ah, “Rendezvous With Rama”. I’ve read that one, and I agree that it is indeed wondrous. I started reading the sequel (“Rama II”) as well, but it wasn’t as good as the first one, so I didn’t finish it.
When it comes to the Space Odyssey series, the books that exist are 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001. Only the first two of them have been filmed, like you said. I’ve never heard of 2020, but if it exists it’s probably not part of the Space Odyssey series.
So, having watched the first four episodes on the list (plus two that were not on it), I believe I’m ready to decide what I think of MST3k. My opinion is pretty much the same as what I said on April 4th, and I don’t have much to add to it. I will definitely keep watching it.
Glad you like them. I wish that more people were as open minded as you!
True. Very true.
Wait, that might have sounded weird. I meant “I agree that people should be more open-minded”.
Nope, I knew what you meant. I just got my box set numbered XXV in the mail yesterday, and I plan on watching an episode tonight! Now. the tough part is which one…
I suppose the best answer I can give to that is: “When in doubt, let a random generator make the decision.”
Meanwhile, back to the movie … I agree with some of the other posters here – this one is just some good, old-fashioned, 1950s, B movie fun. I wouldn’t take it too seriously either way.
For some reason, I remembered this comment thread and decided to go back to look at it again, over a decade later.
Wow, I was… a very different person back then, huh.
I’m still not a fan of most mainstream cinema, but I understand a bit more of the complexities behind it now.
It’s less about “not having imagination” and more about being afraid of making anything niche, because although niche stuff gets more appreciation from fans, it also gets fewer people watching it, and thus fewer tickets and merch sold.
But lately there’s also been a trend of actually bringing in interesting ideas, only to then mock them. And I don’t know if that’s worse.
However, there is a lot of good modern media too, mostly outside of the blockbusters. I haven’t watched a lot of old movies lately. Maybe I should.
These days I’m also old enough to not care about whether the media I watch is “childish,” so most of what I watch these days are animated shows of some type of another, because it’s easier to find interesting speculative fiction there. And I think this comment thread might have actually played a big role in making me overcome my hesitation to explore what’s available in that space.