Noah Baumbach’s 2019 film Marriage Story—a movie about divorce and a messy custody battle—is a harrowing movie for anyone who’s ever been married.
It was well-reviewed by critics at the time, boasting a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an impressive 7.9 according to the often fickle IMDb movie-rating community. Yet one of the film’s lasting memories is a meme template where Adam Driver’s character smashes his fist into a wall after an argument with Scarlett Johansson’s character.
It’s a film of raw emotion and brutal arguments where characters reveal the nuances of their complex web of flaws in every sentence, whether they intend to or not, all while screaming at the top of their lungs.
The arguments are now being used to scare off wolves.
The USDA Is Using the ‘Marriage Story’ Fight Scene as Wolf Repellent
In a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the USDA has confirmed that a painful argument between Driver and Johansson’s characters is being blasted from drones over Oregon pastures to stop wolves from eating livestock.
The practice, known as “wolf hazing,” is a non-lethal method used to protect animals while preserving the federally protected grey wolf population. Hazing usually involves loud noises like fireworks, gunshots, or blasting AC/DC.
But lately, professional wolf scarers have added the Baumbach-scripted brutal screaming matches to the mix. A full-throated marital screaming match is nature’s wolf deterrent.
These so-called “drone cowhands” use quadcopters equipped with thermal cameras to spot predators at night. When they find one, they hit play on Marriage Story’s most explosive scene, where Driver and Johansson detonate years of resentment in one big argument that is too painful for some humans to watch and too obnoxious for wolves to stand. And it works.
There have been fewer dead cows and a lot more wolves, wondering if they should call the cops on the screaming couple next door to make sure they’re okay. According to USDA stats, after 11 cows were killed in 20 days, wolf deaths dropped to just two over the next 85 days once the drones went airborne with their Marriage Story screaming track blasting.
Another way to think of it is that Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story has transcended cinema and is now an active part of the food chain.
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