All language subtitles for Meow.Wolf.Origin.Story.2018.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG.eng

[wind blowing]

- Doesn't look like
much right now,

except for the
incredible carpet.

As you walk down the hallway,
you'll turn the corner

and open up a door
into another world.

And the first thing that
you'll be confronted with

in that world, a
gorgeous Victorian house.

And you'll think, why
did I just pay $15

to come in and see
a normal house?

Eventually you'll open
up the refrigerator

and the fridge
will just continue.

And you'll wind up in an
inter-dimensional travel agency.

[dreamy chiming music]

This time last year there
was nothing left in the tanks

for any of the artists
and we had literally,

$500 in the bank
account the night before

that we opened the
doors to people.

There was a lot of
fear and anxiety.

We can't control this anymore.

[upbeat rock music]
[laughing]

- We're going to
this lit place now.

- Apparently, it's
this psychedelic fun
house in Santa Fe.

- Everyone who's in
New Mexico is doing it.

- Meow Wolf!

- Okay, so there's
shrimp on the wall.

Like, what is happening?

- You guys look awesome.

- Oh my God, we're
here at Meow Wolf.

["Wolf Like Me" by
TV on the Radio]

♪ We could jet in a stolen car ♪

♪ But I bet we
wouldn't get too far ♪

♪ Before the
transformation takes ♪

♪ And blood lust tanks and ♪

♪ Crave gets slaked ♪

♪ My mind has changed ♪

♪ My body's frame,
but, God, I like it ♪

♪ My heart's aflame ♪

♪ My body's strained,
but, God, I like it ♪

♪ My mind has changed ♪

♪ My body's frame,
but, God, I like it ♪

- [Man] How we even got on
this timeline, I don't know.

I don't know if it was
collectively being willed

and we were navigating through
dimensions or something.

♪ Charge me your day rate ♪

♪ I'll turn you out in kind ♪

[electricity crackling]
[melodic glitching]

[eerie ambient music]

- Hello, hi!

All I know is that we're
supposed to get all juvied out,

and I brought the entire squad,
some old, some new squad.

- [Man] Okay.

- I've got some weird slime.

- [Man] Right.

- [Emily] Meow Wolf is this
entity that is using us

to channel itself
into the world.

- This is gross and cool.

- The Meow Wolf
itself, the beast.

I've talked to it on
the internet once.

I was like, "Are you it?"

And it was like, "Yes,"
and I was freaking out.

- The thing about
Meow Wolf, too, is

we don't know what we're
doing, and we don't care.

[jazz music]

- Santa Fe, New Mexico to me
is the reason for Meow Wolf.

You have this small town,
about 70,000 people,

over 300 galleries,
the third largest

art market in the country.

- Everything is geared
towards tourists

and what you'd consider
like high end arts.

- As cosmopolitan
as it is, it's like

well, this is a
safe form of art.

- The scene for young emerging
artists who are trying to do

something or weird just
didn't really exist.

- I'm making a wanted poster
for the Serpentine Scourge.

- God, the studio and
gallery arts world

is a bunch of markety bullshit.

[energetic rock music]

- We felt disenfranchised and
completely underrepresented.

There is a social
group that had formed.

We felt like there was this
apparatus of gate-keeping

that was keeping us
out of the art world.

- So it was like, well, if we're
gonna be living in Santa Fe

and having to work and
wanting to make art,

how is that gonna work?

- We were sort of like, Santa
Fe's orphans of neglect.

- We all organically
just grouped together.

We had a place
called the Quadruplex

that was four different
houses all in one little lot

and everybody that we knew
started to move in there.

And we're like really supportive

of whatever art
people were doing.

- I was tired of, like,
reading about people

who had done interesting things.

I wanted to be someone
doing interesting things.

- It just felt like
really cool to be a part

of this social group, getting
to be really, like, brash.

- Matt King!

I often lose it.

♪ Living off this land ♪

- Matt, he was an animal.

He was an animal back in
the day, he was just feral.

♪ Take them by their hand ♪

- We had a lot of music
shows in our basement.

- The police would come and
shut everything down immediately

And there wasn't enough room
and people would get all pissed

'cause like, it was their
house that was getting trashed.

- You guys woke me up.

- The police had concluded
that there was a cult

living in this apartment,
because there was

clear signs of cult activity.

[laughing]

We were like, we
just need a space.

Like, let's just
finally get a space.

[upbeat music]

It was like, we
can't wait for others

to invite us to be
part of their world.

It's time for us to just
do what we want to do.

- I'm King Cosma, and I
come from the Oz Dimension

and trying to make
something that lasts.

The new tradition
and taking back

the Santa Fe plaza for locals.

♪ It feels so '80s ♪

- I wanted to, like, be
an agitator of things,

and really put work towards
shaking up the culture

of the city that I was
born and raised in.

♪ Get up, baby, yeah ♪

♪ I'll meet you in the street ♪

♪ Get up, baby, yeah ♪

♪ Destroy the right wing ♪

- [Vince] So I was
sitting in the parking lot

of the Ramblin' Cafe,

and I was eating a
breakfast burrito,

and this was probably
a romanticized
version of this story,

but I looked up and next
to me across the street

was this building
that said "For Lease".

I did the math, and I was okay
so, if 15 people got together

you know, $900 a month, that's
like $70 a person per month.

We could totally afford this.

So I started just
like making calls.

We could throw shows, we
could do really weird things,

we could have,
like, sleep overs.

♪ Get up, baby, yeah ♪

- Everyone just kinda like,
yeah, cool, let's do it.

[light electronic music]

- Count me in, that
sounds so amazing.

Like, I want to be there.

- So 10 of us came together.

We all threw down $100 a month,

we rented a
900-square-foot space.

We just started
working together.

We said, what are
we gonna call it?

- [Emily] We all sat in a
circle and passed the hat around

and drew names out of the hat.

And everyone would draw two.

And then we went around the
circle reading the names.

There was fighting,
people were standing up

and, like, shaking their fists
and getting really passionate

- [Matt] So many different
possibilities came up.

[upbeat electronic music]

- Then Meow Wolf was a combo
that was thrown out there.

- I will admit I was one of
the people at the beginning

when the name Meow Wolf came up.

It was like, no
way, that's, no way.

That's such a dumb name.

- And then when it
came down to vote,

it turned out everybody
actually voted

for Meow Wolf and
it won unanimously.

I'm not sure why.

- Even at the time,
everyone was like, "Really?"

- Everybody was still
kinda weirded out,

like, "We're gonna
call it Meow Wolf?

"That's not even a thing."

- I left that meeting just
like, what are we doing?

- The amorphous beast was
a mere zygote at the time.

[laughing]

[rising ominous music]

- Quinn and I were like, well,
let us have the first show.

And everyone agreed.

- They knew what they
wanted to do first.

They were just like,
"Let's jump into it,

"let's jump into it, let's do
it, let's do it really quick."

[light percussive music]

- Quinn was like this
mega-artist, superpower,

excentric dude.

- Matt and I got very, very
close, very, very quickly.

He became my best friend
in the whole wide world.

We painted everything
together, every square inch.

- Very quickly we ran out of
room to pain, so we started

building sculptures out of
the paintings into the room.

And it was really
liberating moment

when no one was
telling us what to do,

and these ideas were
just coming naturally

as though they
wanted to be built

and we were the
medium at that point.

That two week
experience just sort

of cracked everything open.

- Set the tone for everything
Meow Wolf ever did after that,

'cause it was like, oh well,
they're just goin' nuts.

- Way more people showed
up than we thought.

And like, we got on the news,

which was totally not
an expectation at all.

- [Interviewer] So, how
would you describe Meow Wolf,

and how do you fit
into the art scene?

- Meow Wolf is a
venue for artists.

It was created to
give artists who felt

like they were on the
outside of the art market

in Santa Fe looking in a voice.

We started to feel
this momentum,

and it felt really good.

It felt like we were
included for the first time.

[lively rock music]

We started to hold
meetings, and that's when

early constitution stuff
started to get built.

So it was like, who do we
allow in these meetings?

And it felt really strange to
say these people over here,

but not these people over here.

So we were just
like, fuck all that.

♪ One, two, thee, four ♪

♪ Everybody talking at ♪

♪ One, two, three ♪

♪ Well you know
I'd walk a mile ♪

♪ Just to die ♪

- It's about
radical inclusivity.

- It's an open door.

♪ We all learned what
that door is for ♪

- There was like the first
sign we ever painted,

it looked kind of like a really

punk rock nursery
school or something,

and we were like
concerned that what

kind of people is
this gonna draw?

♪ Walk a mile just to die ♪

♪ Die die die die ♪

- All the types of weirdos.

All the good and bad weirdos.

- I went to a meeting,
and the rest is history.

I was just, like, ready to go.

♪ Good luck is gone ♪

♪ In the mile that I speak of ♪

♪ Is the one I love ♪

- A big one, and
then I say this.

- And then you say that.

- And then I say this.

- And then you say that.

- I think I, like,
messaged Vince on Facebook

asking if I could have
a show at Meow Wolf,

and the response was, "No,
we don't really do that,

"but you can come
by and hang out."

I've always kind of gravitated
toward groups of people

who are kind of saying
"Fuck you" a little bit.

- I, thankfully, got
invited to come over

and participate, because I
never would've gone on my own.

I was too shy.

♪ Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy ♪

- [Caity] It was
impossible not to go back.

We would just text
the words "Meow Now."

Meaning, like, I'm gonna
go sit in this miserable,

freezing warehouse
and paint shit.

[laughs]

Do you wanna glue
shit to the walls?

[ominous electronic music]

- Meow Wolf itself, the
beast, can spread out

like with weird little tendrils,

and, like, it chooses people

and absorbs them into
its amorphous blob.

- Rule number one,
you have to show up.

You have to come and hang out

and talk to people and
start making things.

Rule number two, you have
to get jumped into the gang,

and that's a very secret
initiation process

that I won't go into
here, of course.

- I actually didn't plan to
stay in New Mexico permanently.

But I really wanted to work
on this next installation.

I decided to stay for
that, then ended up

kind of changing my life.

[banging on door]

- Emily and Benji were big,

artistic powerhouses
in a lot of ways.

- [Emily] I met
Benji in high school.

We were in an art
class together.

- [Benji] And she was
just wearing this shirt

that said, "Emily
is a strange girl."

- Benji and I formed a cult
called the Star Gentle Utarians,

and our mission was
to transform your soul

into digital data and
migrate to the next level.

- Store it for you so
you could live without

your body and be
immortal, essentially.

- Yeah.

[ethereal electronic music]

The first show I took part
in was Biome-neuro-norb.

- That whole show
was literally almost

completely made out of garbage.

- We had no money, me
and Matt started, like,

taking trips to Salvation Army

and just pulling stuff
out of their dumpsters.

- It was like a
treasure hunt for us.

The show grew out of the
materials we could find.

- For Biome I created this
really weird assemblage.

I basically, like, sat in
a pile of trash for a month

and was, like, zip
tying trash together

and fixing it to the wall.

- Everybody's
Maximalist going to town

on every single square
inch of the room.

Maximalism is way more
stuff than you think

is gonna actually be pleasing.

[oscillating tonal music]

- I'm not much of a
visual artist, you know.

I've never really have been.

But I'm, like, looking
at all this stuff

and realizing, like okay,
if we're creating a world

then who inhabits that world?

[electric sizzling]

[speaking foreign language]

- We wanted to do something
space cult, future sci-fi style.

There was a mythology
and there was pictures

of the two, like, original
people who formed this colony.

- Narrative is access
point for people

who don't feel welcome
in art galleries

and museums to
experience the work.

[speaking foreign language]

- I made this fishbowl with
a creature inside of it,

and the creature's
name is Buggy.

[speaking foreign language]

I ended up filling the
fishbowl with clear jello.

Everyone goes up to the
fishbowl and like touches it,

and these, like, crazy
little Petri dish-style

organisms started to grow.

So that was definitely a
first time of being, like,

I'm gonna make art
that's in an environment

that people are going
to interact with.

And in the end, I
actually like that,

because it became
part of the piece.

You know, I wanted
to make this kind of

like, fucked up
organism, but what it

actually turned into
was even more fucked up.

[laughing]

Wow.

- [Man] Music video.

- [Emily] Remixed music video.

[laughing]

- Those first handful
of shows were messy.

[energetic electronic music]

You know, for us, it was
just this creative explosion.

- It was just, like, burning
down some kind of old system

and having, like, a
hybrid phoenix of what

art can be rising
out of the ashes.

- We moved into this
warehouse space.

We kinda needed, like,
a trashier building

that we could trash even more.

- How did you find
my secret lair?

[cackling]

- [Sean] We just kinda all
did whatever we wanted to do.

[energetic funk music]

- Anyone who knew where the
key was could book a show.

- [Man] All types of
music, you know, like punk

and metal and, like,
weird art stuff.

- The space on
Hopewell and 2nd Street

was the sketchiest shit I've
ever witnessed in my life.

Probably 200 extension cords,
like, plugged into one another

Like, wrapped around
the rafters with,

like, plastic bags around them.

- Basically we
almost killed Corvus.

- Those were pretty
ragged times.

- [Man] Hear us!

[explosion booming]

- There's always been like,
this good, productive,

I think, tension between
the chaos and the order.

- [Man] Catastrophe!

- [Sean] A lot of people in the
group kinda thrive on chaos.

[laughing]

[metal music]
[screaming]

- I brought a agenda for
the first time to a meeting

and I think it was Quinn,
or it might have been Matt,

who literally crumpled
it up and, like,

threw it on the floor
because that looked

too much like the corporate
world or something.

- We didn't want rules,
we didn't want hierarchy,

and that presented
a lot of problems.

- Total annihilation.

We all had to fight
for ideas and projects,

and sometimes that's,
like, literal fighting.

[laughing]

[screaming]

- I started thinking
about the bridge

between idea and manifestation.

- Vince had ideas about
a specific vision.

That's, like, a big thing
that he brings to the group.

It just wasn't what
we were doing, though.

- He moves very, very fast.

And a lot of art
cannot, and should not.

- I saw the vision and I was
very aggressive about it.

- He could see further
out, and for someone

not concerned with further
out, that's really annoying.

- I really didn't want
to have, like directors,

and that's what I
was starting to feel

was a lot of, like,
directorial energy.

A lot of, "No, that's just
not how it's gonna be."

I'm like, "Who the fuck
are you to tell me that?"

- [Matt] Vince was doing
things that reminded

people of the man or whatever.

- I had a really bad
relationship with
power and control.

It was my way or the
highway type of thing.

- He is the person
at the meetings will

stand up and yell at all of
you for not agreeing with him.

- I remember a moment when I
went into a Meow Wolf meeting

and I was a little
bit late and they had

started the meeting without me.

[eerie tonal music]

I wanted to help
run the meeting,

and so like I was chiming
in with sort of ideas.

And I remember Corvus and Shawn
sitting next to each other

and sort of, like,
tag-teaming against me.

Just kind of like keep
me out, or at least

that's what it felt
like to me at the time.

Probably wasn't true.

And so I remember
looking at them,

two of my closest
friends at the time

and just being like,
okay, fuck all of you.

I'm out of here, I'm not
part of Meow Wolf anymore.

♪ In the great unknown ♪

♪ They left me alone
and I wondered why ♪

♪ Til I realized
I don't disobey ♪

♪ Outside my picky gaze ♪

♪ When I realized ♪

♪ Why they left me alone ♪

- I've known Vince
for half my life.

He's just always
been a total force,

but he wasn't
always so confident.

- I had a really traumatic
high school experience.

I was a closeted gay kid who had

severe acne and was overweight,

and I didn't really
have any real friends.

With Meow Wolf I started
to discover myself

as a leader and as somebody who
could bring people together.

It was my first time as
an adult where I felt

committed to something
I was willing

to be committed to for
the rest of my life.

And so when I saw them
doing really good work

without me, it was devastating.

It was like, it was devastating.

[mellow synth music]

- I've known Benji
and Emily and some

of the other Meows since
they were teenagers.

When they did
GEODEcadent, I was like,

"Oh my god, Linda,
you have to see this."

- So I went to see them
in this rabbit warren

of dangerous ladders
and little rooms

and strange things,
and I totally loved it.

I just, I loved it.

- Linda Durham, local
gallerist, hyper-famous,

queen of contemporary
art in Santa Fe.

- She invited them
to redo GEODEcadent
in the gallery space.

- I thought, people
need to see this.

This is the new art.

- Being that it was a
big-name art gallery,

I made the decision to curate
who was gonna be in that show.

- It was limited to
just eight people.

It was the first
thing that we did

that wasn't radically inclusive.

There was a composition to it,
there was an artistry to it

that couldn't really just be
everybody doing everything.

- It really did lead to a wider
kind of audience for them.

- All of a sudden
people are noticing.

Credit started becoming
a really big concept

in not just my head,
but everyone's head.

And people are
grabbing for credit.

All of us want acknowledgement,
but at that age you need it.

And so there was a meeting
at the Dome one day,

where I just sort of lost it.

I couldn't

[sighing]

couldn't do it anymore.

- He moved out
without, you know,

really telling anyone
he was moving out.

It was an incredible
disappointment.

- In that period of
time I was suicidal.

I didn't really have any
friends, and I felt kinda lost.

And then I met this guy
named David Loughridge

who kinda came into my
life out of nowhere.

Became my best
friend and confidant.

So it was a moment of healing
for me in my life a that point

He was looking for
community in Santa Fe,

and was really
interested in Meow Wolf.

So he inspired me to try to
get myself back involved.

And I said, "Man, I
really want to be part

"of Meow Wolf again,
but I don't really want

"to engage in the same
sort of like structure."

- After GEODEcadent, there
was a bunch of different ways

that we had tried to work
together and try to deal

with this kind of
chaotic working method.

And it like failed and succeeded
in lots of different ways.

It was a hard time, though.

I think a lot of it had to do
with Vince not being there.

He was, like, a
powerful glue and force.

Brought people together
and propelled them.

- I reached out to
him and we started

having these morning meetings.

I was about ready to leave, too.

- We were gonna start
a new collective

called Super Meow
Wolf, and then people

could have the choice
whether they wanted

to go a Meow Wolf show or
to a Super Meow Wolf show,

and that was like a really
dick thing to think about,

but we did talk about that.

- But we arrived at this
conclusion that if Meow Wolf

is completely open
and inclusive, then
that can include us

even if we want to
have some amount

of organizational
structure and roles.

That intention and that momentum

became the Moon is to Live On.

- I told you, I was
visiting a time space.

- Whatever, it doesn't matter.

A spirally void could
open up tomorrow

and take us to a completely
different reality.

- We wrote this, like,
huge, ambitious, crazy play.

- The play was inherently
Vince's brain child,

but people were
into the idea enough

that it became a Meow Wolf show.

- I saw that as an opportunity
to really open the doors

for more people to
get involved again.

'Cause that was what was
kind of missing at the time.

- [Man] David was the
star of this play.

- Here Robert, eat your bacon.

- Don't tell me what to do!

I don't feel like bacon,
I'm going to work!

[gasping]

- Bacon?
- Bacon!

- That's crazy, man.

Yeah, I don't know, you haven't
seemed very happy lately.

- [Man] I got to really
get close with David,

and his energy, like, ended
up really adding to the whole

group and sort of transforming
Meow Wolf in lots of ways.

- Well, I'm an amateur
storyteller, or something.

- It was an actual
play that was put on,

except it was done
in a Meow Wolf way.

It was like pushing three, it
was like two and a half hours

or, like, three hour
play of just total nuts,

and all the stuff
that we wanted to do

were justified in the dreamworld

of the protagonist character.

[airy electronic music]

- By nature it had
to be a lot more

structured than our other shows.

- [Man] I don't like
to plan like that.

Why do we have to
plan like that?

- A lot of people really
started to feel like

there's not as much anarchy
as I'm comfortable with,

but at the same time we
would never pulled off

the play without
structure and hierarchy.

- It's like a weird thing
to say in the context

of an anarchic art collective.

That strong leadership
and a strong vision

actually does cohere people.

- [Vince] And that started
a whole next chapter

of Meow Wolf, where
I was welcomed back.

- We were realizing more
and more, okay like,

we need some amount of structure

and we probably should
start, like, raising money

and thinking about a budget.

And, you know, we did
that for the play.

Like, let's do that for
another big installation.

♪ Going on a pigeon quest ♪

♪ Surf the mouth and
ride the breast ♪

♪ I've been looking
in a new direction ♪

- The writing was
on the wall for me.

Like, I don't think Meow
Wolf is a place anymore.

I think Meow Wolf is
a group of people.

♪ I've been looking
in a new direction ♪

This group of people
can do anything we want.

- We'd be, like, sitting
around and dreaming together.

Yeah, we're gonna
get a show at CCA

and then we're gonna
get really popular

and that's gonna launch us.

- Corvus and Sean and Vince
invited me to come over

for their Thursday meetings,
and that lit the fuse, man.

- We got together
and we talked about

what that show could look like.

Chris Hilson said
we should do a ship.

- We were trying to
figure out one piece

that was large enough for
everybody to actually have

different portions of
control, different rooms.

- I was like, wow, this
could be really cool.

A big boat in this space.

- We were all really
excited, and really scared,

'cause we were like, oh
shit, that thing is huge.

- It was 6,000 square feet.

It was, like, three times the
size of the space that we had.

- And I just said, "If you
need to spend the night,

"work all night, that's fine.

"If you need to sleep, okay.

"Get hungry, want to cook
somethin' in the back, yes."

I don't think I said
that ever before,

and probably not
since, but this is such

an extraordinary project.

- Man, we wanted it so badly.

We knew that we
were doing something

that was, like, kind of crazy.

- Something so ambitious
that we're not sure

if we can pull it off or not.

[chuckles]

♪ I've been looking
in a new direction ♪

♪ The day has passed ♪

♪ The moon's aglow ♪

- And it was crazy,
it was a really

crazy project to
commit ourselves to.

I mean, we basically said that
we're gonna raise $50,000.

And when I said that number
the group was just, like,

that's fucking insane,
that's way too much money.

And we'll never get it.

And, you know, we raised $50,000

and we spent every bit of it.

And it was all
spent on materials,

not a single person got paid.

[upbeat electronic music]

- Sean and Vince and David,
Matt King and Caity Kennedy,

really took very good
charge and were able

to herd the cats, as it were.

- Making it, like,
organized enough

and like a certain amount
of left brain enough

that you can actually
execute the idea.

'Cause otherwise it would
just be tangential screaming

in a warehouse for eternity,

which is also a good
show idea, I think.

- When do you want to paint,
Caity, what do you like?

- The way that it
was structured,

we had essentially
like five teams.

The shift.

- Put one strip on this
side, one strip on this side.

- [Oliver] The archive.

- The people on this ship.

Go to the archive and
figure out how to do

something really particular.

- [Oliver] The environment.

- I kinda just need to be
here all day, every day.

- Performance.

- The captain from all
those eras is Captain Banks.

- So if someone
wants to develop him.

- [Oliver] And tech.

- [Man] What is that you
guys are doing on that wall?

- Oh, we're listing
all the components

of the control surfaces,
and trying to figure out

dimensions for all of them
so we can arrange them.

- [Oliver] That was our first
real go at having a tech team

and having interactive
components.

- My specific role has sort
of evolved into a weird,

kind of combination of architect

slash engineer slash
general contractor.

That was, like, tough for me,

because I wasn't used
to having that role.

I wasn't totally
committed to that role.

There was this part of me that
wanted to just be an artist.

People were looking to me to
make decisions about stuff,

and sometimes I just,
like, lost my shit.

[light electronic music]

- People were going to
work still four or five,

whatever days a week
to make their money,

and then often
spending that money

and all of their extra
time to make this thing.

Which was, like, what the hell?

Like, I've gotta
see where this goes.

- I'd come in in the morning
and people would be asleep

on the floor from
just going to sleep

a couple hours before
working all night.

- We were just so
tired, you know,

and just there all the time.

It kind of stresses
me out, like,

thinking about it,
like oh my god!

- Does everybody
fit through this?

- There were probably
around 100 people

who contributed to this
ship, and that was, you know,

the moment where Meow Wolf
really got its hooks into me.

- [All] One, two, three.

- [Zevin] Because I'd
never experienced working

with a group of
people in that way.

[piano music]
[drilling]

- There's, you know, 50 people

that are all doing
little things.

It may in comparison
to the entire whole

of this project feel
inconsequential,

but when you put all those
together, that is the project.

That's what makes
it so incredible.

- [Man] David was so solid
through the Due Return.

[light electronic music]

- Okay, on three we're gonna
jump up and down and say Meow!

- [Man] He did stuff
that nobody else

wanted to do, and
it was incredible.

We couldn't have done
that show without him.

[crowd cheering]

- He was a workhorse, and
he a big truck and he had

a trailer, and he was the
guy that loaded the stuff up,

moved everything, and
was a positive spirit

and a motivator to the group.

- So I'm just looking
for one person,

so if you want to
volunteer for that,

see me after the meeting.

Nick, cool.

I have my volunteer, thank you.

- [Man] He sided, like,
the entire ship by himself.

- I always thought it was
so cool that he had, like,

all the tools and they
were all organized

and everything was perfect,
and he was perfect.

[giggling]

Just love David.

- He was definitely
a born peacemaker,

and I think he was able
to understand people

and where they're coming from.

And we needed those
people that could

just get in between and be
like, you are both valid.

We need you both, stop fighting.

- It's been good, it's
been really positive, yet

really exhausting, stressful.

- We have three weeks, and
it looks like there's a lot

to be done, but with that
amount of people it just flies.

- We're like, "Shit,
I hope people come."

You know, like, we've
been working on this thing

so hard for so many months.

- I remember the day
before we opened,

Vince and I were walking
around and he's like,

"What did we do, what the fuck
did we do, this is stupid."

- Exhaustion, doubt.

Are we creating
something that people

are actually gonna like or
are people gonna walk in this

and say, what a bunch of
fuckin' masturbatory bullshit?

I remember there was a moment.

We're 15 minutes from
opening the door,

and we all crack a few
bottles of champagne.

We should feel proud of
ourselves as a group.

Hard times and we kept going,

and I just, that's
what it takes.

And I just, like,
incredible job.

Thank you, guys.

- And I'm just
proud of everybody.

I am so proud of everybody,

and I apologize if I've ever
been a little bit of a bitch

during this.

[all laughing]

Because I know I'm
guilty of that,

but I just wanted to say
thank you to everybody.

You guys, you guys, you guys--

- [Woman] Fucking did it.

[all laughing]

- [Matt] Every
single one of you.

- [Man] To Meow Wolf!

[all cheering]

- [Vince] To my new family!

[all cheering]

It was just such a sweet moment,

because we could literally
hear 1,000 people outside.

And we knew that
we, at that point,

had done something
that was remarkable.

[upbeat electronic music]

- [Man] So it was,
like, totally magical.

- That's the moment that
you kinda get addicted to

is when you actually
see what you've done

through somebody else's
eyes for the first time

and you remember why you were
doing it in the first place.

- [Woman] Aw, cool!

- The sense of accomplishment
was pretty spectacular.

- Seeing these
people of all ages,

all kinds, all types, you know.

Not the kind of people that
you would see walking into

the Miami Art Museum
or Walker Art Center,

or other places
that I've worked.

- [Interviewer] So how
long did it take you guys

to build this?

- Uh, we've been
working on it since '82.

- [Interviewer] How long did
it take you guys to build this?

- You know, with time travel
and all, it was pretty quick.

'Cause you know,
all we had to worry

about was these paradoxes.

- It was pretty immediate the
way the press responded to it.

I mean, we're on
the cover of like

every local arts and
culture magazine.

- I just remember the intricacy
of it and the details of it.

Where you could've just
spent hours in there

looking at all the pieces of it.

- I was one of those people
that was just totally,

like, which bunk am I gonna
take a nap in this afternoon.

I like completely
fell in love with it,

and went back as many
times as I could.

- I mean, I would've lived in
that intergalactic pirate ship

if they had wanted to
hire me as a caretaker.

- It's a unique experience.

The art world needs that.

They need to get
shaken up a little bit.

[energetic punk music]
[screaming]

- People loved it.

It ran for three
months, and we saw

25,000 people through the door.

- [Man] We asked for
like a $10 donation.

- The year before we'd be
like, "Cool, there's like

20 bucks in the
donation box tonight!

Like, let's buy some beer."

- We made like
$125,000 off that show.

And I was literally like
taking cash and putting it

in shoe boxes, 'cause I didn't
know what to do with it.

So literally like under my bed

was like $125,000 stashed in

shoeboxes.

At that moment I realized that
we had a product on our hands

Something that we
could actually use

to create a
sustainable business.

[rhythmic electronic music]

This is closing night of the
ship, this is our last night.

We've had an amazing run.

I just wanted to personally,
and from like Meow Wolf,

I want to thank
everybody who came here.

- You guys are all
stuck here now, too,

because it's flooded outside.

And we also never promised
that this boat would float.

[thunder cracking]
[rain falling]

- The ending night of
the show was just this

biblical deluge flooding
the area outside

of the gallery and
water starts coming in.

We're tryin' to
mop out the water.

Here comes the rain to
take away the ship now.

It's pretty surreal.

I'm feeling like an agent
of entropy right now.

- It was really sad
to break it down.

We didn't know what
we were doin' next.

- Where to go from
here was huge,

so I think we had this
kind of identity crisis.

- So this project happens
where everybody pours

their heart and soul into and
volunteers all of their time.

Then you throw in all
this money, and you
throw in this like

possibility that we're
actually going to transition

from a collective to a business,

and everyone just
starts to freak out.

There was a lot of
existential questions.

- What do we do with the money?

Who gets to decide?

- How do we function
as an organization?

You know, how do we
feel about hierarchy?

- And there ensued 100 hours

of group conversation
and debate.

Excruciating at times.

I started to think about, well,

what does success look like?

How can we continue to do this?

- Vince was coming from one
direction very specifically,

like, with very
hard-nosed ideas.

- He and Corvus had always
had this business mentality.

- [Vince] There's
all this, like,

hatred and angst,
and skepticism,

rightfully so, around capital.

- [Woman] It was a lot of
resistance against them.

- And a lot of people
were like, oh, the soul

of Meow Wolf is
going to be crushed

if we start getting paid,
'cause then we'll start,

you know, doing it for the
completely wrong reasons

and it's not going
to be punk anymore.

- I think that was kinda like
in the back of people's minds,

like, I don't want to
make this a business

because I want to feel like
I have the power to make what

I want to make, and I don't
want to be told what to make,

and I definitely don't
wanna be somebody's bitch.

[giggling]

- We just clashed, you know.

Clashed big, big fights.

- Man, I remember
people just being angry,

yelling, shouting people down.

I mean, it was insane,
it was too much.

- I just decided, you
know what, I want to study

my own stuff, I want to,
like, work on my own stuff.

- I took time off
after the Due Return

'cause I just felt like,
really spent by it.

I can't blame
anybody for the fact

that I decided to
take on a huge amount

of responsibility
in that project,

but I felt resentful about it.

I needed to step away from that.

I also needed to, like, spend
some time doing my own thing.

- People come and go for
many different reasons.

Because it can get
terrifying to be part of this

mutant creation that
we've all had a hand in.

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

♪ I thought the
future would cooler ♪

♪ Cooler, cooler, cooler, cool ♪

[upbeat electronic music]

- Meow Wolf itself, the beast.

We're kind of
subject to its whims,

while still creating it.

And you can leave
it if you want,

but it's about this
creation, the beast,

controlling us as opposed
to how individually

we would, like, maybe
inherently feel.

- Who we are and what
we want to represent

is always gonna be a question.

We knew we wanted the big
building and permanent home,

but we weren't ready, and we
didn't have the opportunity.

- [Man] People had heard
about the Due Return

and so there was
reverberations out of Santa Fe.

More interest in getting
us to do other projects.

- We decided at that point,
because we have so many people,

that Meow Wolf could split up

and do different shows
at different times.

There was, like, a million shows

in all these different cities,

and little factions of Meow Wolf

that were involved in them.

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

♪ I thought the brave
world would be newer ♪

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

- [Emily] We went to
Boulder, Colorado,

Las Cruces, New Mexico,
Chicago, New York twice.

Matt and I went to
Miami for probably

the smallest Meow
Wolf show ever.

- Each time we get invited
to one of these places

us as a group get so excited,
and we think this exposure

is gonna lead us to
the next big thing.

And we did it, and we
did it, and we did it,

and nothing ever happened.

It never got us
to the next level.

- The problem was
that the art world

was not capable of handling
Meow Wolf as an artist.

The art world usually
spends some amount of money

on one person to do a short
install of work that can sell.

And we were a bunch of
people doing a long install

of work that doesn't sell.

- [Man] This is, you
know, it's Glitteropolis.

- I keep trying to
make something that's
as over the top,

pretty pretty as
possible in order

to like get over that impulse.

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

♪ I thought the brave
world would be newer ♪

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

♪ I thought the future
would be cooler ♪

- Attention customers.

We have a special on Whale Song.

[laughs]

Whale Song

[whales singing]

is a deodorant that came to
me in a dream that I had.

The scent is calling for peace.

Whale Song deodorant,
antiperspirant,
and antidepressant

is now on sale for 1/12th off.

- We did this for
years and it got,

you know, it got really tiring

because we'd go to a city
and there were 10 of us

living in one tiny little room,
sleeping one after another

because that's
all we can afford,

because all the money
is going to the art.

There's not even
much money for that.

- At some point you
have to go, well,

you know, how long
can I do this for?

How long should I do this for?

You know, everybody's
got their limit.

There's other things I
want to do with my life.

Like, I'm not
gonna have a family

in this, like,
destitute reality.

- We saw very clearly why
this wasn't gonna work.

You know, money wasted, projects
that were total disasters.

Pending lawsuits.

Meow Wolf was really
feeling like this obligation

that didn't have any path
forward toward success.

Nobody wanted to do it anymore.

[slow breathing]
[dreamy electronic music]

[wolf howling]

- We were not having meetings.

Meow Wolf was kind
of dissipating into
different ideas,

but David was always
really just like,

let's look for a building,
let's try to get a new thing.

He was kinda like pushing it

when everybody else
was kinda flighty.

He was really
intense in that way.

- [Man] David put, like, so
much energy into what he did.

He had mood swings, intense
kind of manic approach to things

but then he would get really
upset and be depressive,

and that was part
of his bi-polar.

- The swings were much larger

than anybody else I've known,

personally, who's
had the disease.

He was a very
talented photographer

and found an outlet
not only artistically,

but with us as a group.

David put together this show
in the Meow Wolf warehouse.

It was really quite something.

He was gonna present
his photographs,

but also share journal
entries from a time

that he spent in a
psychiatric hospital,

as these representations
of his mental illness.

When you came and saw this
show, you were encouraged to

pick up charcoal and markers
and draw on the walls

and sort of just how you felt.

By the end of it,
it was just this

beautiful mess of scribbles.

- [Man] Sentences
that didn't make sense

next to crazy images

of weird, kind of
like demented faces

cluttered with
nonsense and insanity.

He continued to have bouts
with mania, depression.

- [Man] Sometimes he
was down and you could

see it immediately in his eyes.

- David actually lived with
us for, like, six months.

He was very dedicated
to his friends,

and to Meow Wolf,
and to his family.

And he was very, very unhappy.

- [Man] So you, like, wouldn't
see him for a long time.

He just wouldn't
come out of his house

for a really long time.

- And the doctors
didn't know what to do

to get him out of
this depression.

They said, "Okay, last resort.

"We're gonna do ECT,
electroconvulsive therapy."

And he was going in for
two or three shocks a week.

You have to deal with
getting put under,

and then the grogginess of
coming out of anesthesia.

I saw over the course of a
year, this thing was working.

It was defeating the depression.

He was psyched, he was like,

"Okay, we're gonna do
another big Meow Wolf show."

And he even
mentioned to me once,

"What if we got George
R. R. Martin involved?

"Like, that would be crazy,"
and we laughed about it.

- But he called me up
like right before he went

into a treatment, and he
had been thinking about me,

and he called me
up and said, "Hi."

I asked him how he was doing,
and he said he felt good

and he was feeling like these
treatments were really helping

There was a lot of hope and
positivity in David's life

and there hadn't been
in several years.

- I saw him Thursday and
he was not doing very well,

but I didn't think
anything of it.

I was like, this is just a
normal up and down for David.

Friday, he goes in for
literally his last ECT.

He leaves and he
feels really groggy.

And he just says, like,

"Okay, I just need
to sleep this off."

I got a call from his
brother, and his brother said,

"I have something bad to tell
you, David fell into a coma."

And I just was
like, what the fuck?

I just started calling
people and letting them know.

It was just fucking
devastating, man.

- When I got that call
it was really heavy.

There's no way that you
could prepare for it.

- It was just like, let's drive
to Albuquerque and see him.

It was really, first
time in a long time,

that most of the group
was together again.

- Essentially he had,
he had had pneumonia

and nobody really knew,
because he was going through

these, like, treatments and
his body was all messed up.

- His lungs filled with
liquid, heart stopped,

brain stopped getting
blood, and then,

[sobbing]

and then died 24 hours later.

[wind howling]

- The way that he went
was very inexplicable.

And we all got a chance within

a 24 hour window to say goodbye.

I don't know why any of that
happened the way that it did.

- I miss him every single day.

He was not only an incredibly
impassioned person,

he was not only an
incredibly caring person,

but there was something
to his character,

a certain type of a
empathy that I think

only really comes from
personal suffering.

You knew that every single thing

that happened with David
was completely genuine.

I just wish he was
here, I really do.

I really, really
wish he was here.

♪ Steady silence ♪

- I try to think about him
as a sense of strength,

as somebody who's
still present with us.

But the weird thing
about his death

is that it definitely
brought us all together

in a time when we were,
like, totally dispersed.

- Everybody came to my house

every day, all day, for a week.

- [Vince] We just felt this
like extreme sense of loss

and needed each other to
help us get through that.

- You never thought
all of these people

are going to become our family.

Ultimately that
brought the family

together and made it stronger.

- There are plenty of
people in this group

that can be pretty hard
to be around sometimes,

but that's why it's more
like family than friends,

because it doesn't matter.

You make it work anyway, you
don't walk away from them.

♪ I take care of you ♪

♪ If you ask me to ♪

- There was like
this space for us

to mutually
understand each other

and feel sympathy, love,
compassion for each other.

Reminding ourselves
why we started this,

what's actually magical
about this collective.

[upbeat rock music]

- And there's probably
some element of it

that was like holy
shit, that can happen?

Like, let's not fuck around,
let's get over our shit.

- It just felt like there
was this rejuvenation

of wanting to do a
big show together.

In honor of David,
in honor of his

wanting the group
to get together.

Thinking about that as
like Meow Wolf rebirth

and not knowing what
that looked like.

[rhythmic percussion music]

- Several of us
were thinking about

how can we make Meow
Wolf sustainable.

- We need a building,
we need like,

probably millions of dollars.

Like, where are
we gonna get that?

- There's seemingly
insurmountable odds against us,

but let's just pretend like
it's actually gonna happen.

Let's start designing
the project.

♪ Through the dream ♪

♪ Baby dream ♪

- [Woman] We were
throwing out concepts,

you know, writing stuff

down on post it notes and
putting them on the wall.

- [Man] The idea
came into my head

about a house that you enter
and there's secret passageways

that lead into other dimensions.

- Here is a house, and
an event has happened

that has broken time
and space to the extent

that portals have opened
up throughout the house

which will now lead to these
fantastic environments.

- Everybody just went
completely nuts with concepts.

Like this way, this way, oh,
it's gotta be a laundry room,

it's gonna be, okay, so
a laundry room jungle

that has fish in it with gelatin
pouring out of this thing

and with like ants, but there's
ants like tunneling inside.

Like, it was just so nuts,
like, seems really insane,

but if this happens
it could be one

of the most crazy things
that anybody's seen.

♪ Dream baby dream ♪

♪ Dream baby dream ♪

- I had looked at
the bowling alley,

and was like holy fuck,
this building is huge!

33,000 square feet, and it
was just like oh my god.

And I had all of these
memories of the bowling alley

growing up here, just like
going to birthday parties

and getting grilled cheese
sandwiches and bowling.

- It was for sale, and we
needed someone to buy it for us.

So what we did is we made a
list of everyone that we knew

that we thought would have
enough money and be interested.

- And Vince, like, threw
out George R. R. Martin.

♪ Oh dream baby, dream baby,
dream baby, dream baby ♪

- George lives in
Santa Fe and happened

to, like, meet Vince once.

- Most of us are huge
Game of Thrones fans,

so the idea of the person
that we are closest to

that could really buy
this building for us

being George Martin
was really silly.

- It was all joking,
at least I thought,

but Vince was actually
really pushing for it.

- And yeah, there are huge
question marks for this project,

and we're trying to bring
something that is like

a impossibility to
make it possible.

And we just need to believe
and work as if we can do it

and figure it out
as we go along,

and not get paralyzed by doubt.

[wolf howling]

My life is either
going down this track,

or I'm like moving
to another city

and I'm starting a
new life somewhere.

It's on me to get this done.

- Vince called me
up and, you know,

said, "Do you want to
purchase a bowling alley?"

And I said, no,
not particularly.

I don't, I mean, I
bowled a few times,

but it's not a particular
passion of mine.

And then he told me a little
of what he had in mind,

and invited me to
come down and see it.

- If you want to go
and see the show,

you just walk right up this way.

There's some hints that
something's happened here,

something unusual,
some break in time.

- The Victorian house
lost in time and space,

other dimensions, other
times, a secret story

that you would have to decipher.

Ah, he was just pushing
all my buttons there.

He probably knew
they were my buttons,

'cause I'm a
science-fiction fantasy guy.

- And he's like, "Well, how much

"is it gonna take to
renovate the building?"

And we're like, it's gonna be

like $300,000, man,
like no big deal.

- And I said, "Where did
you get that figure?"

- A couple weeks later
this contractor comes back

with a number that's like
$1.8 million to renovate.

- And we had to go back George.

- And he's like,

"What's this, this is, is
this the number down here?"

And we're like, yeah, the
number's $1.8 million dollars.

And he just, like,
sits there quietly.

It was a desperate
plea, it was like,

please take a chance
on us, you know?

Like, nobody else is going to.

- He convinced me, okay,
I'll buy the bowling alley.

God help me.
[chuckling]

- It was December 23rd,
and we're supposed

to close on the
building January 6th.

And there was a really
terrible moment, actually.

George really wanted to have
$140,000 backing the lease.

- And we were like,
we're screwed.

- [Vince] I don't
know where to go,

I don't know where to turn to.

I had to call David's parents
at, like, 10 o'clock at night

two days before Christmas,
a year after David had died.

- Meow Wolf was very
important to David.

They're a big part of our lives.

A big part of our heart.

He wanted so much for Meow
Wolf to become very big,

and I think he would've been
so excited, so Bruce said yes.

- That was huge.

That was like, this is a go.

[industrial music]
[people chattering]

- It's a pretty
astonishing space,

and I can see all sorts
of possibilities here.

Something magical, something
the city has never seen before.

- [Vince] We're naming the
show House of Eternal Return.

[all clapping]

- Listening to them
describe their vision

of what it would be,
it seemed unreal.

Really, quite honestly,
there would be this

immersive experience
where people of all ages

could walk in, have an
intimate relationship

with the art that
was around them.

- Here you are, you
walk in, you are

in an intergalactic
travel agency.

Interdimensional, intergalactic,
anything you can think of.

[all laughing]

- A lot of us were able
to quit our other jobs

and just do this full-time.

For the first time
ever in our lives.

- [Woman] In those images of--

[people chattering]

[bassy electronic music]

- [Benji] So hey everybody,
it's time to start!

- [All] Start what?

- [Benji] The meeting!

- [All] Start what?

- First bowling alley meeting!

[all cheering]

- [Man] Trying to
conceptualize something

being permanent is
so much different.

Everything we've done up to
that point gets torn down.

- The group had made
large-scale, immersive,

semi-permanent
installations before.

They had not done it to
code, they had not done it

with inspections and permitting.

- [Sean] The whole
process really started

way before we actually
got into the space,

and it started with the
architecture process.

How do you describe this
thing that we're building.

We're not building a house,
but we're building a house.

You can go through
that fireplace, and
then there's caves.

We were suddenly like, engaged
in a project of massive scale

A ton of infrastructure.

- All right, so we're
gonna start by doing, like,

a big loop of the
building and talking

about all the different spaces.

- It was scary, too, 'cause
we were all amateurs,

and we didn't really
know what we were doing.

- Um, it's a construction
site, obviously.

From the ground there's, like,

it's dangerous, just be careful.

- The entirety of figuring out
the House of Eternal Return,

the business structure, the
layout, the building code,

and fire retardant, and,
like, all of the many,

many, many pieces has
just been a constant,

all day, every day exercise
in rolling with it.

- There is no one answer,
how do I make a massive,

immersive tech layer for
this already insane exhibit.

I wonder if it
happened when we were,

like, the very first
time we hung this.

- So many levels of just,
like, every single Meow Wolfer

working on multi
projects and getting good

at what you needed
to get good at,

or at least like learning
it or finding people

who were really good at
it and combo-ing that.

That was like the hyperweb.

[crashing]

- [Man] All right!

- This will be totally
walkable, explorable.

There's absolutely no reason
to make something like this.

But for some reason,
everybody is psyched

about making things
just like this.

- This stuff is like four
inches thick, which is great.

It came from the
walk-in freezer here

when it was still
a bowling alley.

- So when you enter
into the house

you are basically in what
appears to be a normal house

that's inhabited
by a real family

that's lived here
for generations.

It's a house in
Mendocino, California,

but something has
happened there.

Something is not quite
normal about this house.

- The shockwave that
happened sort of

shot up through the roof and
it has rippled the floor.

And there will be a video
playing through the toilet.

The story is based
around the Selig Family,

who are a family of
supernatural artists,

musicians, and inventors.

They are so creatively
powerful that their abilities

actually break time and
space, which creates

the exhibition, and that
exhibition is a manifestation

of the family's thoughts,
and memories, and dreams.

[bird chirping]

- [Man] Everything that
exists in the exhibit relates

to our storyline that
we have in this house.

- There's so much
detail in the narrative.

Like, they all have, you
know, collected photos

and we have family
portraits and journals.

[light electronic music]

You'll never know everything
that's happened in their life,

but there is this
underlying story.

- [Sean] And then
you're back in, like,

kind of the normal world.

But not really.

- [Woman] Hi.

- There's some doors that go
[emulating depressurization]

[groaning]

[erratic electronic music]

- [Sean] Never gonna make it.

- No I did, I got it out of
the maker space and in here.

- [Sean] Yeah?

- Yeah.

- I was super
fuckin' stressed out.

And probably scared a lot
of people because I had

a terrible frown on my
face like the whole time.

- Him and I got in just
throw down screaming matches

where I almost had
to punch little Sean.

- I got a finger for all of you.

- I was just the
guy who went around

and said no, you can't do that,

'cause then we have to
put a sprinkler in it

and that's gonna cost us $500
and we just don't have it.

- I don't need a
helmet, we got our CO.

This Beer?

This is a soda.

- Yeah.

- You can use all of
this in the documentary.

- [Woman] There's
no documentary.

- Yeah right.

- That's like the
order and chaos combo

where it's like
having to be, like,

passionate but responsible
about both of those things.

I think it could totally
drive people insane.

- Our entire approach
to the electrical system

was fundamentally flawed.

We're planning on using
all these extension cords.

Shit, that doesn't work.

- [Man] You guys have any idea

when the power
will come back on?

- [Woman] No word.

Sean is the only one who knows.

- [Man] Just hit
the kill switch now.

- [Worker] Let's just turn
this big mistake off, you guys.

[laughing]

- We had to
completely re-engineer

all the power
distribution in the show,

which meant adding another
$20,000 to the budget

and bringing in an
electrical engineer,

and then adding another
$20,000 to the budget

and bringing in
electrical contractors.

And these were, like,
really last minute changes

to a plan that we kinda
barely understood.

- It just kept going up
and up, and you know,

there were a couple points

I wish they, we can't, you know.

Guys, stop it!

- Is the whole project
gonna fail now,

because we can't
raise another $20,000?

Then there was like
$20,000 after $20,000.

- [Man] We're going
like way over budget

and the opening kept getting
pushed further into the future.

- [Sean] Every time the
construction costs went up

Vince had to go out
and fundraise more.

He had to go out
there and present
confidence, this matters.

- Uh yes, so this is the
Meow Wolf art complex,

and it's 33,000 square foot
building, it's 2.7 acres.

- I mean, there was times where
it's two days before payday

and there's zero
money in the bank.

- And so I have
the rest of Friday

and I have Monday to
come up with $90,000.

♪ You got to ♪

♪ Ha ha, ha ha ♪

- [Vince] Or else we have
to tell the entire team

that payroll's not
coming this time around.

- To have the incredible
stress of responsibility

for everyone's job,
it was very hard.

♪ Tape ain't gonna
fix it honey ♪

♪ Honey, it ain't gonna stick ♪

♪ Tape ain't gonna
fix it, honey ♪

♪ It ain't gonna stick to you ♪

- [Man] We had about
400 people working

on the House of Eternal Return.

Volunteers and
contractors and artists.

- We thought we could build
everything for $800,000.

We came up to an end result
of 2.7 million dollars.

And Vince raised all of
that money single-handedly.

♪ You got to go steal a hand ♪

♪ You got to, you got
to go steal a hand ♪

- At some point we had
to put a deadline on it.

It was just gonna keep on
going, and so we decided

March 17th, that's
the day we're opening,

and there's no
question about it.

- [Matt] It's like this
looming, this looming presence.

Like, oh yeah, this
shit has to get done.

- It's like, what else are you
gonna, you're not gonna stop.

You know, you're not
gonna stop doing it,

you have to kind of figure
out how to keep doin' it.

♪ You got to go steal a hand ♪

♪ You got to, you got
to go steal a hand ♪

♪ You got to ♪

- At this point it's
been a year and a half

of six or seven day weeks.

And those days are never
less than 10 hours.

Usually, in this final
stretch, like 14, 16 hours.

- [Man] Oh, it's
got down here now.

Uh, god, please work.

- We got some two weeks left.

[all cheering]

When I hold up my
arms like that,

I want you guys
to say two weeks!

- [All] Two weeks!

- Of mad cash splashin'!

- [All] Two weeks!

- [Benji] Of mad bash crashin'!

- [All] Two weeks!

[speaking foreign language]

- I've gone through a bunch of
different levels of burnout.

Kinda like Dante's levels
of hell sort of thing.

- [Man] Like every show,

we are still working
up until we open.

- [Woman] It's just full of
things that drive me crazy.

That I want to fix,
and it's like not done.

- There's some shit
goin' on in there

that doesn't seem like
it was part of the plan.

[laughing]

Nobody's seen the
show, because there's

ladders everywhere,
there's the scissor lifts.

- I haven't slept in 36 hours.

- I haven't thought at all
about operating the thing.

What are we going
to do tomorrow, when
the public comes in?

[light electronic music]

- Opening night was totally
in the hands of fate.

There's no backup plan anymore.

- [Emily] It was
terrifying and exciting

all at the same time.

- I run home and change.

I'm exhausted, I come
back, my mom's talkin'

to George Martin on the couch,

and I'm like, mom, why
are you talkin' to George?

Leave him alone.

- It's incredible.

The Meow Wolf gang
have done something

I think they should
be very proud of.

Something truly unique.

- [Vince] People are
just like funneling in,

and I remember just
like seeing Sean

in the front yard of the
house and he runs up to me

and like I was
like, is it working?

You know, is it working?

And he's like, "I
think it's working!"

- [Emily] People started
comin', and then more people

started comin' and then
more people started comin',

and we're like, oh my god!

- [Vince] God, David
would've loved this.

- It was very emotional for us.

We just kinda
stood there in awe,

because we had no idea what
we were getting ourselves into

or what we were gonna see next.

- [Man] We, like, devoted the
learning center to his name.

- [Leslie] Just to walk
in to see his name is,

it just takes me
back every time.

- [Man] We help
fulfill something

that he helped set in motion.

- I don't know, it's just
you don't ever expect

things to actually work.

[chuckles]

You like really, really,
really hold out for the hope

that, like, it's
all gonna work out.

[heavy electronic music]

♪ Life needs no keys ♪

♪ Brook then Grand Street ♪

♪ Four fights, late night ♪

♪ Black socks, white ties ♪

♪ Ten pounds, loud sounds ♪

♪ Turned up, tied and bound ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

- [Man] Felt like a cosmic joke.

We're looking at the
numbers after a few weeks.

We're like, we've got $550,000.

We're just like
laughing, like what?

Like, how is this possible?

♪ I'm earning money ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ 10 Brook's pencil ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ I don't make the rules ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Is it co-mental ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

♪ Don't slow down ♪

[phone dialing]

- Since last time I
networked with Meow Wolf,

I copy-pasted two
new team members.

[chuckling]

[cheering]

I love, I just like
to have to say,

I love what Meow Wolf is doing.

You guys have vision, okay?

And I love what you're doing
with SRA Outreach, okay?

It's like, wow, you guys.

[chuckling]

Meow Wolf has so much potential.

[heavy rock music]

- Yes!

- [Woman] And I was like--

- Right now, after having
been open for a year,

it's like still putting myself
in positions of the unknown,

and putting myself
in positions of like,

holy fuck is this gonna work?

But now it's just on
a whole 'nother scale.

Thinking about Austin and
thinking about Denver,

and thinking about these 75
people we have on salary,

and the money that's just like
going out towards creatives

and, like, trying to fundraise.

Sort of in the same position
of like is this gonna work?

Selfish move is to just like
operate the house in Santa Fe

Make a couple million
dollars of profit every year,

but there's other
artists in the world.

There's other
communities in the world

that could be transformed
by this opportunity.

[rising optimistic music]

- We're going to look
at a site in Denver

for potentially for
a new Meow Wolf.

Does that make any sense?

I don't think anything I
just said made any sense.

- It does, it does, yeah.

- Yeah, for a potential
new Meow Wolf?

How do you say Meow Wolf?

- Meow Wolf?

Meow Wolf.

That answer your question?

We've been like doing all these
trips to Austin and Denver

over the last, like, six
months looking at real estate.

It's a really weird thing,
because, like, suddenly

we're like looking
at real estate a lot.

Just not anything I ever
expected to be doing in my life.

♪ Why not launch off of
the very highest rope ♪

- So the front entrance to
Meow Wolf would be right here,

and you have this
like really cool

sort of like industrial entry.

We could do like a really
cool facade on this.

So not only are we
creating exhibits that are

two or three times the size of
what Meow Wolf is currently,

where we're on the brink
of doing two of them.

And so that's a huge question.

Do we have the capacity?

Are we biting off
more than we can chew?

It's daunting.

We're climbing a
mountain that's, like,

four times the size of the
one that we just climbed,

and the one that we just
climbed nearly killed us.

♪ Don't get people
hurt just try to ♪

♪ I perceive to leave ♪

- [Man] There's some
people, like Vince,

who's just this classic,
like, pusher archetype.

He's always gonna be going
a hundred miles per hour

faster than everybody else.

The rest of us are in some
way kind of tempering that

and trying to bring
it back to like

a pace that's comfortable to us.

- [Caity Voiceover]
The pace at which

we are all morphing into these

other people who can
do all these things

and can run things is
hard to comprehend.

- Do you guys want
to go over there

and like, get in a circle?

- Check it out!

It's Quinn Tincher from
the olden Meow Wolf days!

It feels like--
[drowned out by cheering]

So it's like the old
and new, together,

perfectly creating a
hyper event horizon.

- I got a note from
Matt online on Facebook

that said he wanted to talk.

- I just felt like I
needed to reach out

and try to bring him back in,

in the spirit and the
ethos of Meow Wolf.

- I literally hadn't
seen him in years.

- So I brought him over
here to Caterpillar

and walked him around, and--

- Like, and if you want, you
could have a job, I guess.

Totally downplayed it!

As heartbroken as I am to have
missed the last seven years,

I'm so enamored with this now.

It all worked out right.

[drill revving]

Can you guess what I might
ask about this entryway?

[laughing]

- Yeah, well I can tell you
it's not gettin' any taller.

[laughing]

- [Sean] Are you gonna
put a noodle on that?

- Oh, we're gonna noodle it.

We're gonna noodle so hard.

- [Sean] Is it gonna
rain on these a lot?

- It, it's, in this part
of Oregon during this time

of the year, supposedly
it does not rain at all.

But the roof looks pretty cool.

- Yeah, how are
people gonna see that?

Tell him to put a hardhat on.

I'm scared about
the skateboards.

Benji, drop everything
and give me a high five!

Yeah!

I'm spending all
this time putting in

place all these
structures and processes,

and also dealing with, like,
insurance and like, safety.

All these bureaucratic things,
and if we don't do them right

we could lose like the most
valuable thing we have,

which is our culture.

Is this what I want to be doing?

Like, I have to say yes to that,

because there's something
that put me here,

there's something that I'm doing

that's like, that I'm choosing.

At the same time there's like
somewhat of a conflict, right?

And like, I want to make art,
that's why I got involved.

Am I the greatest threat
to Meow Wolf culture?

I think it's just partly my
role, and it freaks me out.

Can I give you a high five?

- [Man] Hey, good to see you.

- [Sean] Good to see you, too.

- [Man] We need one mask.

[groaning]

- [Friend] Sweaty and gross.

- [Man] Well, we're gonna
have a gang off between you.

[laughing]

- [Emily] I'm constantly
trying to drill down

why do I want to do this.

Why am I putting myself
through all this crazy stress?

I really do love getting
to see people's reactions

to the exhibition,
and they're like, wow,

not only is this crazy,
but it's possible.

I can go out there in the world
and build whatever I dream

and whatever I want to manifest.

[laughing]

- Hey, Conehead!

You know what, you
owe Plotzo some cash!

- [Man] And cut!

- This is where all the junk is

that needs to be gone through.

[giggling]

Ooh, bunch of treasures.

- Oooh.
- Ooh, that's good one.

Oh my god, memories!

This is all Caity's stuff.

- [Caity] It's not all mine.

- [Matt] No?

- I don't know.

- [Matt] This old turtle?

Wow, that's a,
that is a Polaroid

of the first Meow Wolf
show in the middle of it.

- Curlers!
- Curlers.

Curlers we collected--
- Look how beautiful they are!

- I mean, really
what we have done

for a lifetime is collect,
fun, colorful things

to make weird abstract
installations from.

The current exhibit, we
can't really use stuff

like this anymore, 'cause
all of the hands-on stuff,

but for years we
got to have fun.

- Not anymore.
- Not anymore.

This is from the Due Return

inside of the little
treasure room.

- [Caity Voiceover] It's
important that things

remain a collective process.

It's important that
our curatorial process

is authentic and true to us.

It's important that we keep
making things that are weird.

People like to
minimize what we do

as entertainment
or as big fun art.

The art world is
important to what we do.

We're not separated from it,

we're just sitting on
the edge of that seat.

- Does everyone have
as much trash as we do?

- No.

- Where I imagine all this
going, I haven't really told it

to any of the other
members of Meow Wolf,

'cause it's kind
of a scary thing.

It goes back to the whole, like,

corporate capitalism
is a bad thing,

and so I'm nervous
about bringing it up,

but my goal now is to create
a billion dollar company.

Because like, a 50
million dollar company
is where we're at.

Which unit is this?

200 million is
totally achievable,

and so is 500 million,
so like I'm just fuck it,

let's create a billion
dollar company.

[energetic rock music]

♪ I have the dream
I dream myself ♪

- [Sean] Can we make a
billion dollar company

that's producing a insanely
wide range of aesthetic material

and can it be dynamic, and
textured, and unexpected?

- That would be the dark
dystopia fear that I'd have,

is that it just becomes this
like really grim business only.

Corrupt, just
heartless, churning out

factory-style Meow Wolf things.

- [Man] We're gonna
hire like 300 people

in the next five years.

We're not just artists any more.

There's some aspect to this
that is about production.

It's about repeating
this business model.

- [Woman] It's also really
easy to lose what makes you

actually interesting when you're
going for a broader market.

When you're going
for bigger business.

- We see it growing
really faster

than we can even keep up with.

We don't want to become
a Disney, you know?

We have to constantly
be thinking

how do we keep this radical.

That's part of what compels me,

is that we gotta make it better.

We're gonna sign the
lease here pretty soon.

Here goes, nothing.

- [Man] We have to support
those who feel like they're on

the outside looking in,
because that's how we were.

That's the point of all of this.

And to me, that's
where this is like

either a success or a failure.

[funky electronic music]