The San Francisco Standard staff watched the nine-minute Altman/Ive io intro and then “[broke] down the video in excruciating detail.” They weren’t kidding:

0:35: The video’s first few seconds have the feel of a romantic (bromantic?) comedy’s opening sequence, with the “two friends” navigating thronged streets from separate starting points en route to a cafe meet-up. Unusually thronged, for that part of town, actually. Suspiciously thronged, even …

0:44–1:29: OK, either someone hired a lot of extras to make these streets look hella thronged, or else the mind-blowing technology these superfriends are making is a teleportation device. The same people keep showing up in shots in different locations, sometimes heading in different directions.

Later:

1:19: I cannot believe Ive walked right by Vesuvio and went to Cafe Zoetrope instead.

I had the same thought.

8:56: Let’s take a look at the “special thanks,” or credits(?). Davis Guggenheim, the screenwriter, director, and producer known for “Training Day” (2001), “Waiting for Superman” (2010), “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) … and “Sam & Jony introduce io” (2025). And you can’t ignore the music: Also thanked is composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who most recently scored “Gladiator 2.” This seems fitting.

The “credits” also include “The Coppola Family”; Francis Ford Coppola owns Cafe Zoetrope (and the building it’s in)—which explains the cafe choice.

Now I’m wondering just how much this thing cost to shoot.