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Clip description
Thommo (Shane Jacobson), a road train driver, is baffled when he stops at the road-closed-due-to-flooding sign placed earlier by John with the aim of preventing vehicles from heading any further. He calls local cop Rosco (Bryan Brown, who stopped John in clip one), who tells him the area has experienced a 100-year-long drought. He starts up and drives over the sign.
Curator’s notes
This piece of wry comedy plays an important narrative function: it’s where the elaborate plan starts to come unstuck, the stupidity and inexperience of John and his mystery employer plain to see. How could they not have realised this outback area is in the middle of a drought? It thus serves as a portent of trouble to come. The scene also introduces the character of Thommo, who will play a small but crucial role in the narrative. The casting of Shane Jacobson – best known for his starring role in the hit comedy Kenny (2006) – underlines the scene’s deadpan comedy (note his astonished expression as he reads the 'flooding’ sign and then looks up at the bone-dry landscape), as does the dancing doll on his dashboard.
