That idea is what becomes known as the BlackBerry, which purports itself to be the first smartphone. He wants to work with them, he announces-he wants to help them take their idea and make it into the biggest piece of tech ever created. Or, at least, it sounds like a pie-in-the-sky doohickey to Balsillie, who is less interested in the nerds and more interested in chasing a promotion at his current company.īut there is something about these nerds that sticks with Balsillie, which is why he shows up at Research in Motion’s makeshift workspace the next day. It’s why they’re at Jim Balsillie’s office, preparing a poorly written speech about why the Big Bald Business Bro should invest in their pie-in-the-sky tech product. It’s 1996 when we meet him and his nebbish best friend/fellow founder Mike, and the pair is in clear, but unstated, dire straits. Johnson co-stars as Doug Fregin, co-founder of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company Research in Motion (RIM). “Good Morning, Captain” is lingua franca for a certain viewer, to telegraph what co-writer/director Matt Johnson perhaps wants to frame this movie as: the story of a devastating breakup. And for BlackBerry to employ the song, even if only its instantly recognizable, mounting intro, feels telling. It’s gorgeous, it’s painful, it’s cathartic-it’s one of the most honest, vulnerable moments ever committed to tape. Then, a painfully long build-up toward those final three words, which McMahan screams at the top of his lungs: “I miss you!” Over and over again, “I miss you.” Six-and-a-half minutes into the nearly eight-minute piece, McMahan’s mumbled vocals become painfully clear: “I’ll make it up to you,” he sings. But the song is most memorable for its incredible ending. The recording session for the song, the final track on Slint’s first-and-last album Spiderland, was such a visceral experience that lead singer Brian McMahan got physically ill after they finished. “ Good Morning, Captain” has earned legacy status for, in part, its haunting backstory.
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