In order to protect cattle herds, U.S. government wanted to scare off predatory wolves and show them that “humans are bad.”
So they used the most terrifying audio imaginable: A married couple fighting.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States Department of Agriculture is using a recording of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver screaming at each other in Marriage Story to frighten wolves across the American West. In the 2019 Noah Baumbach film, the duo play a couple going through a bitter divorce. The film includes a particularly raw argument scene (video below), which is presumably the one being used.
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The USDA is reportedly using drones with speakers blasting the scene (along with other recordings such as AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” fireworks and gunshots).
Rage the characters in the film: “You’ll never be happy!” “You’re back to being a hack!” “You gaslighted me!” “Life with you is joyless!” “You hated me!” “Every day I wake up and hope you’re dead!”
Explained a USDA district supervisor in Oregon: “I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad.”
The story noted that the wolf population has increased since they were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and that using a howling Johansson and Driver (among other recordings) has seemed to be effective in reducing the number of killed cows.
