Resurrect Dead

Justin Duerr- Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (2011)

Netflix is great for a lot of things. Ok...so not a lot of things unless you're into bootleg children's movies but it is pretty good for documentaries !

I came across today what I would call a thriller-documentary called 'Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tile'. It followed Philadelphia native Justin Duerr and his team on trying to find out more about the mysterious tiles that were found in large quantities around the major cities on the east coast of the U.S. and a few cities in South America. The meaning of the text on the tile described and the chase for the information was awesome and I can totally see how Mr. Duerr found himself so enthralled in the same thing. I found myself wishing I can an amazing urban myth I could wrap myself into. 

The great part of this really was the meaning in the words. The tile read: 

"TOYNBEE IDEA 

IN MOViE`2001

RESURRECT DEAD

ON PLANET JUPITER"

Toynbee was a British historian from the early 1900s known mostly for his studies on the rise and fall of civilization. He also had theories on dead molecules and how they could be brought back together to resurrect the dead! Cute idea, Toynbee...real cute...His theory was brought together with Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: Space Odyssey on the tile to alert that media that the dead molecules of a human could be brought to Jupiter's massive gaseous state to rearrange them in such a way that they would be able to be resurrected. The theory in itself is great to play around with in your head but is of course not much more than the ramblings of a lonely 'bird-man'. None the less, I really did love this documentary and it kept my attention through out, which is hard to do because as a youth in this country...I do have an iphone.