The government is using Marriage Story to scare wolves

The mechanism for deterring wolves comes in the form of drone cowhands, which are equipped with thermal cameras that can spot a wolf creeping through the night. The drones also have speakers which can play various wolf-deterrent sounds like fireworks, gunshots, and people arguing (like in Marriage Story). Other anti-wolf audio mentioned in the piece includes AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” and Five Finger Death Punch’s song “Blue On Black.” It seems like the audio options are sort of a dealer’s choice situation; sometimes it’s just the drone operator scolding the wolf. (“Hey get out of here! Get!” Wildlife biologist Colby McAdams “sternly yelled” to a wolf via the microphone on his drone’s controller at one point in the WSJ piece.) 

It just goes to show that great art can serve a variety of purposes, whether it’s an Oscar-caliber entertainment mechanism or just freaking out some wolves. Surely that must put a smile on the face of Noah Baumbach, who recently told Vanity Fair that the middling success of his post-Marriage Story film, White Noise, sent him into “quiet crisis.” “I had this feeling of, like, ‘Am I doing this just because I always wanted to do it—do I even like doing it anymore?'” To that we say, don’t do it for yourself, Noah. Do it for all the innocent cows out there who need a hero.