Pod Insights The Rewatchables ‘Die Hard With a Vengeance’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan About this episode The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan are called back to action to play a lethal game of Simon Says. The guys put down their five-gallon jugs and cover the 1995 action classic ‘Die Hard With a Vengeance,’ starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jeremy Irons.
Producers: Jack Sanders and Ronak Nair
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Transcript 25,326 words · 6 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:00 Bill Simmons? The Rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can find Chris Ryan on The Watch, sometimes on The Big Picture, on about 12 other Ringer podcasts, including...
1:13 Speaker 02 Higher Learning.
1:14 Bill Simmons? It happened. You somehow got invited to Higher Learning before me.
1:18 Speaker 02 On Juneteenth. Very special.
1:20 Bill Simmons? Best episode of the year?
1:21 Speaker 02 For sure.
1:22 Bill Simmons? Did Rachel know who Chris Ryan was?
1:24 Speaker 02 Rachel wasn't there. She didn't know who he was.
1:27 Bill Simmons? Does Rachel know who Chris Ryan is?
1:28 Chris Ryan? She doesn't.
1:29 Speaker 02 No, she doesn't. But she will know on Monday as we crown the face of the Ringer.
1:34 Bill Simmons? The face of the Ringer is happening.
1:35 Speaker 02 The face of the Ringer argument. Chris Ryan was a part of it. You're one of the four finalists.
1:39 Chris Ryan? Yeah, congratulations.
1:40 Bill Simmons? That's great.
1:43 Chris Ryan? For what it's worth, I said you're the face of the Ringer.
1:46 Bill Simmons? Oh, thanks, Chris.
1:47 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:49 Chris Ryan? You got just 10% more Boston.
1:52 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:53 Chris Ryan? Right now. Oh, yeah, I'm on Face of the Ringer?
1:55 Bill Simmons? Am I?
1:55 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:56 Bill Simmons? You can ask her, Van, on The Ringer Verse.
2:00 Speaker 02 Ringer Verse.
2:01 Bill Simmons? On The Midnight Boys.
2:02 Speaker 02 With you.
2:03 Bill Simmons? And sometimes here. My name is Bill Simmons, and it is still New York month. Very few New York movies more New York than Die Hard with a Vengeance, and that's what we're covering next.
2:22 Speaker 04 On a bad day. He's the best there is.
2:28 Speaker 04 On May 19th. McLean is back.
2:34 Speaker 04 You got a AAA card? Bruce Willis, Die Hard. This time with a vengeance. Rated R.
2:43 Bill Simmons? This episode of the Rewatchables is presented to you by Amazon Prime. Prime is more than just fast delivery. It's also where you can dive deep into your favorite movie genres with Prime Video and get what you need fast to fuel your obsession. You also, if you, if you watch a movie in Amazon Prime, you can click down and see the actors in each scene for a lot of the movies, which is great. Snacks for movie night, a new book on film theory. It's all there too on Amazon Prime. Whatever it is, Prime helps you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Head to amazon.com/prime and follow your obsession wherever it goes.
3:33 Bill Simmons? I'm just gonna read the Wikipedia description of this movie. That like the Grok thing? That they tells you like the AI spits it out.
3:43 Chris Ryan? Okay.
3:44 Bill Simmons? Detective John McLean, parentheses, Bruce Willis, is now divorced, alcoholic and jobless after getting fired for his reckless behavior and bad attitude.
3:54 Bill Simmons? That's the first sentence. Reckless, divorced and an alcoholic and no job? Injected into my veins.
4:00 Chris Ryan? The quadruple crown.
4:02 Bill Simmons? When has it ever not worked? In real life? It's like, hey, having the birthday party, John McLean's coming over. Don't let him drive. In a movie, he can just defuse a terrorist attack and it's fine.
4:16 Speaker 02 Yeah, in real life, John's getting drunk at the birthday party, whipping out his nine millimeter.
4:22 Speaker 02 Boom, boom, boom. But in the movie, it's perfect.
4:24 Chris Ryan? Has John McClane ever come to a birthday party not covered in grease and blood, wearing a tank top?
4:30 Bill Simmons? In real life, John McClane is hanging out with the guy who was killed that led to the Karen Reed trial.
4:36 Speaker 02 No.
4:36 Bill Simmons? It is, he's on the third floor.
4:39 Chris Ryan? Wait a second, it's like, it is literally 110 seconds.
4:44 Bill Simmons? It's like, oh no, John McClane's here. Oh, he's getting into it with John O'Keefe.
4:50 Chris Ryan? He's texting his buddies, being like, make sure you plant the evidence.
4:54 Bill Simmons? How long does it take a body to freeze? Um, anyway, John McClane, in movies, it's fine.
5:00 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
5:01 Bill Simmons? His life really fell apart. Here's my, here's my first question. Let's start here before we get into the movie. So John McClane saves the Nakatomi Building, prevents an incredible terrorist attack, and then doubles down and saves everybody in the airport in Chicago.
5:17 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
5:18 Bill Simmons? How is this guy not at least Captain Sully at this point?
5:21 Chris Ryan? I mean, this is a-
5:22 Bill Simmons? What else did he have to do?
5:23 Chris Ryan? Do you think that this is one of the greatest testaments to the power of the internet to create celebrities out of, out of nothing? I mean, I, to be fair, this guy would have a documentary made about him in 2000 or whatever.
5:36 Bill Simmons? Yeah. What, yeah, what is his, in real life, if you do those two things, what do your next 30 years look like? I feel like you have a, like, you're at least, what was that guy, John Walsh, the America's Most Wanted guy? You're at least hosting a show like that, just getting massive paychecks. Do you have a morning talk show?
5:52 Speaker 02 You probably do. You know, Fox News is starting to bubble at that time. He's probably got a show on there. He's their law enforcement guy. But you have to remember.
6:03 Chris Ryan? He's smoking on Fox News.
6:05 Speaker 02 Him and Bill O'Reilly were bringing in John McClane to tell us. But you have to remember, also, this was the era of, remember Eddie Murphy left, Axel Foley left Detroit and went and basically solved two gigantic capers.
6:19 Bill Simmons? Right.
6:19 Speaker 02 But he was a outcast.
6:21 Bill Simmons? Right.
6:22 Speaker 02 So maybe they look at John McClane as somebody who went against the grain too much by saving people's lives in Los Angeles. They shouldn't have been done it. He was out of his jurisdiction.
6:32 Bill Simmons? You saved us too much money and too many lives.
6:34 Chris Ryan? Isn't this actually, we could really map this out. All of the sequels find our favorite characters in a place in their lives you'd never guess. Like, how is Pete Mitchell not at least Chuck Yeager? By Top Gun Maverick? Instead, he's like, I'm fixing old planes? No, you would be probably like, he would be on the cover of a Wheaties box.
6:55 Bill Simmons? Yeah, would have, like Val Kilmer, would have happened to him with Iceman, should have at least happened with Maverick.
7:00 Speaker 02 That is, I guess, why our protagonists are our protagonists.
7:04 Chris Ryan? Cause they're complicated.
7:05 Speaker 02 Right, they're complicated and flawed in a way that keep them in the bubble that we need them to be in to make the movies work.
7:11 Bill Simmons? All right, counter, Captain Sully, random pilot, lands the plane in the water. That's it. They make a Tom Hanks movie about him? Like, that's one of the things with these movies, nobody makes a movie about John McClane.
7:24 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
7:25 Bill Simmons? That actually would have been a better Die Hard 3. Is them making the John McClane movie about Die Hard 1, and then there's a terrorist.
7:31 Chris Ryan? I'll take it a step further, why can't Holly move back from Los Angeles?
7:35 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
7:36 Chris Ryan? Has this guy not been through enough?
7:37 Speaker 02 That, that's one of my picking nits. I will say something about Sully, though, is that actually happened in real life. So he actually saved, like, actual, like, 200 people.
7:45 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
7:46 Speaker 02 So John McClane is a fictional character, so.
7:52 Bill Simmons? Noted.
7:52 Speaker 02 So, so Sully's celebrity actually comes from actually.
7:56 Bill Simmons? But this is what happens in real life if somebody does something like that.
7:59 Speaker 02 Right.
7:59 Bill Simmons? Now it's like.
8:00 Speaker 02 It should have happened in the Die Hard.
8:01 Bill Simmons? John McClane's at least doing $75,000 speaking gigs all over the world about the two times he saved the world.
8:08 Chris Ryan? If this was a contemporary story, what would happen is John McClane would do this, we would all get like, goddamn, this is really what we need for America right now. And then somebody would discover his weird Facebook posts from 2021, where he's like, I'm not wearing a fucking mask!
8:23 Chris Ryan? And we'd be like, no, John McClane's not allowed to even be a security guard.
8:27 Speaker 02 His inward tapes, Zeus is one of my best friends!
8:29 Bill Simmons? Right. Yeah, so if this, so after he saved Chicago, it turns out there's some frat photo of him in 1978.
8:37 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
8:37 Bill Simmons? That's not good. And then that kind of.
8:40 Chris Ryan? Dressed as Richard Pryor.
8:41 Bill Simmons? Sent him backwards.
8:41 Chris Ryan? That's what we're trying to say.
8:42 Bill Simmons? I just, my biggest pet peeve with all these movies we love is. That especially with the sequels that they just discount how amazing it would be for somebody to have pulled off the feat they did.
8:53 Speaker 02 Isn't there also a chance that John, this is the only time that John is competent? Because when we first see John, he can't even get his shit together. He's got, but then as soon as the adventure is on, he's like really Jason Bourne in this movie. In this movie, he's one, I mean, obviously the original Die Hard as well. He's one step ahead of them at all time. He's making evaluations. He, when Zeus has, he's, John is like, oh, real quick. Boom, boom, mix the thing, load the thing up. He is really.
9:26 Bill Simmons? He's got jokes.
9:27 Speaker 02 Yeah, the whole.
9:28 Chris Ryan? But the best part about Bruce Willis is he still gets scared.
9:31 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:31 Chris Ryan? The best part about Bruce Willis is like when he's getting out of that police van in the beginning in Harlem. He's like, don't worry, I'll be dead in four minutes.
9:38 Speaker 02 Right.
9:38 Chris Ryan? Like, he's like, I'm still like sweating out beer and I need a cigarette and I need aspirin and I'm, I'm, I know I'm gonna die. Like, this kind of character needs to have almost nothing to lose to do the things that they do.
9:52 Speaker 02 Or one of my favorite small parts of the movie is when they get to the park and the bomb's there. And he goes, yeah, there's a bomb there. Why don't you go ahead and grab it?
10:04 Speaker 02 So why don't you go ahead and grab the bomb? Zeus goes, why would I grab it? He goes, yo, Simon said you're supposed to be helping out. He told you to help me go grab the bomb. It's funny. He doesn't want to grab it. It's funny.
10:15 Bill Simmons? Did you see this in the theater?
10:17 Chris Ryan? Yeah, I saw it in the theater this weekend, actually, but I saw it in the theater when it came out. Yeah.
10:21 Bill Simmons? Yeah, I remember my excitement level was a 10 out of 10. And I remember being slightly disappointed by the last like half hour.
10:28 Chris Ryan? Sure. It helps that.
10:30 Bill Simmons? Being like, first hour, great, fell apart near the end, still had a good time, not as good as Die Hard. And then I think over the next 30 years, the first 75, 80 minutes is so rewatchable. It's just kind of took another life.
10:45 Chris Ryan? I, I think like literally like up through the school evacuation, it's like one of the best blockbusters ever made.
10:50 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
10:50 Chris Ryan? It's one of the best action movies ever made, one of the best New York movies ever made, one of the best summer movies ever made.
10:55 Bill Simmons? It's, it just checks all the boxes. The first 80 minutes is unassailable and like so many other great ones, it can't sustain it.
11:03 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
11:03 Bill Simmons? And we'll go into some of the alternate ending and and stuff like that, but holy, I love that. It just starts. We're just going.
11:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:11 Bill Simmons? We have an explosion within 90 seconds and we're and we're off and they don't spend a lot of time with McLean. It's just clear. He's a complete fuck up and his life is falling apart and then we're off. Let's go.
11:21 Speaker 02 Yeah. Premise heavy. Like this guy is fucking with McLean. We don't know why. But that doesn't matter because McLean is in imminent danger in every single scene. He has to find his way out of it. And the story kind of orients itself around that. I went to see it in the theater, but I remember not being as excited. Because I was kind of getting off the old action star guys. I think this is after the last action hero.
11:47 Bill Simmons? This is the tail end of that era.
11:49 Speaker 02 Yeah. And so I remember going to see the movie and being like, oh my God. But that was much, much better than I expected it to be. It had the same kinetic energy of the first film, but you know, Eraser and other movies like that. Maybe Eraser is a year after this, or maybe it's the same.
12:05 Bill Simmons? It is. No, it's True Lies was right before this.
12:08 Speaker 02 Well, True Lies was.
12:10 Bill Simmons? Cliffhanger was right before this. We had like the the action guys from the eighties and early nineties had like one last run here. Through 95 and then 96, it starts to flip. We get daylight with Stallone. We get Eraser. Van Damme kind of falls apart. Who, uh, Arnold's pretty much done after 90. Seagal's done. And then, uh, Stallone after daylight, then he gains the weight for Copland. So it's just, this is kind of the last movie.
12:37 Chris Ryan? I gotta say, I was, I was actually where you were probably like, you know, and then the second Die Hard is done by Rennie Harland. And it's like, it's really, really good. We've, and if you watch it over and over again, it's a awesome action movie.
12:48 Bill Simmons? We did the rewatchables. It's discounted.
12:50 Chris Ryan? But the crucial movie for Die Hard with Vengeance is Pulp Fiction.
12:54 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
12:54 Chris Ryan? Because when you find out Sam Jackson's going to be in this movie and you find out Bruce Willis is going to be in this movie. And then you see the trailer and you watch it and you're like, oh, it's this kind of movie. And it's funny and it's referential and it's like fast paced, but it's like, it feels the most real of all the diehards because of the way that people interact.
13:10 Bill Simmons? It's a crucial point. And the Sam Jackson is the crucial part of this movie because. He's bouncing around for years and years, Pulp happens, and then within a year, he's in this movie. And that was the appeal for me in 1995, was one of my worst years. Be like, Bruce.
13:29 Chris Ryan? One of your worst years?
13:30 Bill Simmons? Not a lot going on.
13:32 Speaker 02 Say more.
13:33 Bill Simmons? I'm just like, you know.
13:34 Chris Ryan? Tendin Bar.
13:35 Speaker 02 Oh, wait a minute.
13:37 Bill Simmons? Just trying, trying to get shit going.
13:38 Speaker 02 Who was she?
13:39 Bill Simmons? No, trying to get shit going. This is my last year at that, last year at the Herald.
13:44 Chris Ryan? Okay.
13:44 Bill Simmons? Trying to think like, maybe this sports writer thing's not gonna work out. We talked about this in another pod.
13:49 Chris Ryan? Celtics, like what was it?
13:50 Bill Simmons? Reggie Lewis is dead, Celtics are a mess.
13:52 Chris Ryan? Okay.
13:52 Speaker 02 Yeah.
13:53 Bill Simmons? Red Sox are a mess.
13:54 Chris Ryan? Troy, Troy and Troy.
13:56 Bill Simmons? This is when Boston became Loserville.
13:57 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
13:59 Bill Simmons? But it was like, Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson, this would be fun on a Friday.
14:03 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
14:03 Speaker 02 Could've hit you hard right there. I let it go. Boston Loserville thing, I could've hit you hard.
14:09 Bill Simmons? The 90s were bad.
14:09 Speaker 02 Yeah.
14:10 Bill Simmons? Then it turned.
14:13 Bill Simmons? Sam Jackson has this run from Pulp where he just is in like five movies a year. But some of those movies were Die Hard 3, Time to Kill. Yes, it deserves to die. I hope to burn in hell!
14:28 Speaker 02 Alright, Bill.
14:28 Bill Simmons? Long kiss, goodnight.
14:30 Speaker 02 June 10th was yesterday.
14:31 Bill Simmons? Jackie Brown, Star Wars remake. All of a sudden, he's like an A-plus lister.
14:36 Chris Ryan? Not a remake, but yeah.
14:37 Bill Simmons? Whatever.
14:38 Chris Ryan? Prequel.
14:39 Bill Simmons? What was it?
14:40 Speaker 02 Keep doing the thing.
14:42 Bill Simmons? Well, it's just that was it. All of a sudden, he was an A-plus lister.
14:45 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
14:45 Bill Simmons? And it made perfect sense that he was right next to Bruce Willis in what basically is Lethal Weapon. This is, let's, we gotta at least address that this is basically Lethal Weapon's movie.
14:55 Chris Ryan? This script was acquired to be a Lethal Weapon movie.
14:58 Bill Simmons? It was supposed to be Lethal Weapon 4. It somehow went and turned around. 20th Century Fox bought it, it became this movie. But you could easily have seen Gibson and Glover in this, I think.
15:09 Chris Ryan? I could, but I'm glad that it's this and I would put these guys up against those guys.
15:15 Speaker 02 On Sam Jackson, has anyone taken advantage and rode the kinetic energy into the beginning of a career? Not the beginning of a career, into the renaissance of a career like him. He was able to balance taking parts where he was with more established actors like Bruce Willis.
15:33 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
15:35 Speaker 02 With really weighty secondary roles with new stars like Matthew McConaughey. Properties like Star Wars. He seemingly had a complete vision of how he wanted to start his golden era. And it really what kind of solidified him for the next like thirty or forty. Like every single movie was something interesting and had some kind of quality.
15:57 Chris Ryan? Yeah, maybe it's because it didn't happen early for him.
15:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
15:59 Chris Ryan? So he just like knew when the window opened, I'm jumping through it.
16:03 Speaker 02 Right.
16:03 Chris Ryan? So and I know exactly how to do this now.
16:05 Bill Simmons? He's the toughest one for the rewatchables actor rankings. Cause I think this is like his 10th rewatchables.
16:11 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
16:12 Bill Simmons? But like six of them, he's barely in the movie.
16:14 Chris Ryan? Right, like Goodfellas.
16:15 Bill Simmons? Yeah, like he's in, not only is he in Goodfellas, he's in Coming to America as Hold Up Man.
16:19 Chris Ryan? Mm hmm.
16:20 Bill Simmons? He's in Do the Right Thing. We did that one. He's in Sea of Love in 1989 as Black Guy.
16:26 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
16:26 Bill Simmons? Like you look at some of his.
16:28 Speaker 02 That's what he's credited as?
16:29 Bill Simmons? This is Black Guy. Um, you go through his things, Magic Sticks.
16:34 Speaker 02 Is that what you credit me as?
16:38 Speaker 02 Is that what, is that what I am?
16:40 Bill Simmons? He's like in Magic Sticks, he plays bum. You go like it's just.
16:45 Chris Ryan? It's fucked up.
16:46 Bill Simmons? But anyway.
16:46 Speaker 02 But seriously though, by the time Pulp Fiction comes, it kind of, and this doesn't happen as much as it used to, at least not for me. By the time Pulp Fiction comes, you go, oh, okay, it's, it's, it's time for him now. But by the time that, because I had seen him.
16:58 Bill Simmons? But it wasn't probable though. This is like an NBA player at age thirty becoming a star.
17:03 Speaker 02 I'm not saying that it wasn't improbable, but I had seen him, you leave like Jungle Fever, he was in almost everything that Spike had done.
17:09 Bill Simmons? Exorcise, Exorcist three, he plays Dream Blind Man.
17:13 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
17:13 Bill Simmons? But yeah, Jungle Fever.
17:14 Chris Ryan? He's actually quite good in Exorcist three, it's a brief part.
17:17 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
17:17 Chris Ryan? Dream Blind Man.
17:18 Bill Simmons? Jungle Fever is when I think he goes on the radar in 91. Where people are like, oh, this guy.
17:23 Speaker 02 Death by Temptation, one of my favorite horror movies. He's just, he's in all of these films.
17:27 Bill Simmons? Juice?
17:28 Speaker 02 Juice.
17:28 Bill Simmons? Ninety two.
17:29 Speaker 02 One scene in Juice, maybe two.
17:30 Bill Simmons? He's in Patriots game in 92.
17:32 Chris Ryan? When's Fresh?
17:34 Speaker 02 A little bit later, so that's like ninety five, ninety four, ninety five, maybe even ninety six.
17:39 Bill Simmons? Then in ninety three, Menace to Society, Jurassic Park, True Romance, Fresh in ninety four.
17:46 Chris Ryan? Ninety four.
17:46 Bill Simmons? And Night to Pulp Fiction. But he's been in like nine or ten rewatchables movies.
17:50 Chris Ryan? I can't remember whether Fresh came out before or after Pulp Fiction, but I remember being blown away by him in Fresh.
17:56 Bill Simmons? Yeah. So it's, so, and you know, everyone knows the story. He had a lot of issues. He had a lot of drug stuff and then cleaned up. And by the nineties, and then all of a sudden, he's, I mean, I can't even imagine how much money he's made.
18:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
18:09 Bill Simmons? He's been in so many movies. He's been in thirty plus years of movies constantly. Lot of big blockbusters. He's always figured out a way to get an Iron Man or a Star Wars in there. Plus, he's been the lead in stuff.
18:20 Chris Ryan? He was, he was in like every Marvel movie for ten years, basically, right?
18:24 Speaker 02 He was the through line to a lot of stories.
18:27 Bill Simmons? It's, it's a little like how Snoop Dogg just kept going and going and seems like he's as relevant in two thousand twenty five. I still feel like Sam Jackson's as relevant now.
18:37 Speaker 02 Well, he's become more than an actor. He's become a cultural figure.
18:39 Bill Simmons? Total, like, like Snoop.
18:40 Speaker 02 Like Snoop.
18:41 Bill Simmons? Same thing. Whereas like you've seen a lot of these actors. I think it's really hard to keep that going for more than fifteen years, you know? Like even you watch somebody like Cruise, who eventually couldn't keep it going. And then it's just like, I guess I'm just Mission Impossible, Top Gun guy, and that's it.
18:58 Chris Ryan? Well, the thing that I've always loved about Jackson is that he seems to operate under the idea of like, I want to make movies that I would want to go see. And so, so many actors probably are like, I want to make a movie to win an award or I want to make a movie because it's specifically going to make me a lot of money. But he just is like, I like shark movies.
19:16 Speaker 02 Yeah.
19:17 Chris Ryan? I'm gonna be in Deep Blue Speed. I, I like, I like this kind of movie. I like that kind of movie. And he makes them a lot. He's prolific. He doesn't take a lot of time off and, you know.
19:25 Speaker 02 And part of it is not shouldering the load of having all of these movies riding on your back.
19:31 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
19:31 Speaker 02 When that happens, that means a flop or a movie that's not critically well received doesn't ding you as much as it does somebody else. So you get to move on.
19:43 Bill Simmons? That's a good point. His losses just kind of come and go.
19:45 Speaker 02 You get to do cool stuff. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Because they're not these, it's not like, oh my God, I didn't like Days of Thunder. Is Tom Cruise over? You know?
19:57 Bill Simmons? The big thing with him, I think he had a little more trouble carrying a movie. But if he was part of the movie, almost like a basketball player, like if I can just be on the right team,
20:07 Chris Ryan? Sure.
20:07 Bill Simmons? awesome. And he's figured out a way like he can be like kind of the, kind of the cool, collected brain Sam Jackson character, or he could be like the bombastic character or the character like Zeus, which I probably think is it what a top three, top four Sam Jackson character? Like for just for pure like Jules is number one.
20:29 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
20:29 Speaker 02 Number one.
20:30 Bill Simmons? Um, I really enjoyed Deep Blue Sea, Sam Jackson. We still haven't done that on rewatchables, but I think he's great in that movie.
20:36 Chris Ryan? I'd probably say Ordell from, from Jackie Brown is up there.
20:39 Speaker 02 Ah, fuck yeah.
20:40 Bill Simmons? Fresh.
20:41 Speaker 02 Fresh is up there. Just, I, I love, Fresh came out around the same time that Searching for Bobby Fischer came out. So I was going through a chess thing.
20:49 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
20:50 Speaker 02 And to see the two different, uh, it was really cool. I'm trying to think who else. So Ordell is definitely up there. Ordell, for me, Jules is the number one, but Ordell is very close to Jules. I love that character. I'll actually love that movie. Way up there. Trying to think of what else.
21:07 Bill Simmons? Well, there's, there's an amazing, uh, Sliding Doors that we covered when Tarantino was on, what was that? The King of New York?
21:14 Chris Ryan? It was from King of New York. Yeah.
21:17 Bill Simmons? With Sam Jackson and Laurence Fishburne.
21:20 Chris Ryan? Where this is actually like for all the sliding doors that we throw around. This is the sliding doors.
21:25 Bill Simmons? And we didn't, I didn't know it when he told the story. Laurence Fishburne, he's trying to get in for Pulp Fiction, wrote the role for him. Please do it. Please do it. Please do it. And Fishburne's agents go.
21:37 Speaker 02 He wants leads.
21:37 Chris Ryan? It's a sporting part.
21:38 Speaker 02 He wants leads.
21:39 Bill Simmons? It's a smaller part. You have to be a lead. So he turns it down.
21:42 Speaker 02 Which by the way, those people are fucking morons. There's no lead in fucking Pulp Fiction. You could argue that, that Travolta's the lead, but there's no lead in the movie. The movie.
21:52 Chris Ryan? It's an ensemble.
21:53 Speaker 02 It's an ensemble movie that has a weird circular narrative.
21:57 Bill Simmons? They had a plan for him.
21:59 Speaker 02 I.
21:59 Bill Simmons? They just were like, you can't be in ensembles anymore. You have to be a lead in the movie. So I think he did deep cover with Ellen Barkley instead.
22:06 Chris Ryan? Which is also awesome.
22:07 Speaker 02 Movie.
22:08 Bill Simmons? So Sam. So Sam gets jewels. Now Fishburne is negotiating for Die Hard, Die Hard Three. And they want him. They basically agreed that he's gonna do it. He wants a lot of money and they're arguing, they're going back and forth. They can't agree on the money. Well, the producer. Andrew Vajna.
22:28 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
22:29 Bill Simmons? Unfortunate name. Andrew Vajna.
22:34 Bill Simmons? He goes to Cannes because Bruce Willis is about to make Die Hard Three with them. And he goes to Cannes to support Pulp Fiction.
22:43 Bill Simmons? See Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
22:45 Chris Ryan? He's like, what am I doing with Lawrence Fishburne?
22:47 Bill Simmons? Fuck Lawrence Fishburne. Locks down Sam. Now Fishburne's out.
22:51 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
22:52 Bill Simmons? So he loses Pulp Fiction and Die Hard Three. Sam flips spots with him and becomes Sam Jackson.
22:58 Chris Ryan? And this is the biggest movie of 95, right?
23:00 Bill Simmons? Yeah, if you throw in the global stuff. And then Fishburne sues and they actually had to pay Fishburne 750K because they had a verbal agreement.
23:07 Speaker 02 Verbal agreement. I saw that when I was doing some research, which that is actually pretty awesome. And then they also had to option a script that he wrote.
23:15 Bill Simmons? But he ends up in The Matrix, so it all, I guess belatedly works out. But holy, I like the Sam Jackson happened in the same way.
23:21 Chris Ryan? But that whole point, like, yeah, he's in The Matrix and it's cool, but he's in a, he's basically like, this white man is Jesus for the entire Pulp Fiction.
23:28 Speaker 02 Right. By the way, that's 99.
23:30 Chris Ryan? Yeah, that's four years later.
23:31 Speaker 02 And there was a, between 95 and 99, I mean, Lawrence was working, but there's like Flit and there's other movies like that. You could argue that this, that he was a tad cold, not, he wasn't cold. He's Lawrence fucking Fishburne, but you could argue that he was a tad cold until Morpheus kind of gets him back on the right track or whatever. You could argue.
23:54 Bill Simmons? The only other example in history of this Sam Jackson, Lawrence Fishburne alternate universe flip flop is Dominique Wilkins and James Worthy in the 1982 first pick of the draft. Where the Lakers take Worthy over Dominique Wilkins. And if they take Dominique Wilkins and he's with Magic Johnson on the Showtime Lakers, doing all the stuff Dominique Wilkins would do anyway, and all the above the rim stuff, he becomes the biggest star in the league.
24:24 Bill Simmons? And instead he goes to Atlanta, has a great career, he's a Hall of Famer. Um, some good battles.
24:28 Chris Ryan? So like the Hawks.
24:29 Bill Simmons? Scoring titles. But he could have been on the Magic.
24:32 Chris Ryan? Gotcha.
24:32 Bill Simmons? On the Lakers with Magic, winning titles, posters, shoes, most famous person in the league. And it didn't happen.
24:42 Speaker 02 Hoodlum was in 97, by the way.
24:43 Chris Ryan? I like Hoodlum.
24:44 Speaker 02 I like Hoodlum.
24:44 Bill Simmons? I lost fan with my Dominique Wilkins, he just wasn't interesting.
24:48 Speaker 02 That was interesting, it was like.
24:50 Bill Simmons? Second Bruce Willis peak?
24:51 Speaker 02 That's a Bill thing, though.
24:52 Bill Simmons? Second Bruce Willis peak?
24:53 Chris Ryan? This is, yeah.
24:56 Bill Simmons? You just weren't a neat guy.
24:58 Speaker 02 He was, I like him, I like Nick.
25:00 Bill Simmons? No, we just found out. Bruce Willis, two Die Hard movies, makes a couple stinkers. Hey, what's going on with them? Ah, let's do Die Hard 3.
25:11 Bill Simmons? Rips off Pulp Fiction, Die Hard 3, 12 Monkeys, Armageddon, Fifth Element, The Siege, Sixth Sense, and the whole nine yards over the next seven years. It's a great job by him. And he's married to Demi Moore. Great job by him.
25:21 Chris Ryan? Can I, I just want to throw one, one idea out here at you guys. So, one thing that's worth noting for everybody, for the, for the listeners, is that like, when they make this movie, Die Hard has become a genre unto itself.
25:34 Bill Simmons? Right, Die Hard has created the.
25:36 Chris Ryan? Die Hard.
25:36 Bill Simmons? So dropped in a.
25:37 Speaker 02 Die Hard in a.
25:38 Chris Ryan? I'll talk more about this later, but I just also want to, one of the things that really hit me when I was looking at like when this movie came out in 90's action movie context, is that these guys not only had to top Die Hard 2 and Die Hard, but they had to top Under Siege and Speed and everything else that was like around it, right? Like.
25:56 Bill Simmons? Yeah, what were the other ones? Under Siege.
25:58 Speaker 02 Under Siege.
25:59 Bill Simmons? Speed. I mean, Speed was the most recent one, that was 94.
26:02 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
26:03 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
26:03 Chris Ryan? And that's like the, the Die Hard.
26:04 Bill Simmons? Die Hard in a Blank became one of the most influential.
26:07 Chris Ryan? And Speed is the Die Hard cinematographer goes off and makes his own kind of movie and it's, and it's crazy how good it is, but like, that, that, they were able to cobble together. A script that had been written for other purposes, you know, rejigger it so that it's in the Die Hard world and then figure out that the one thing that these movies hadn't had before is a sidekick or a partner for McLean that was on his level. Like Reginald Vel Johnson's good. People are good in these movies, but like he's never had like a running mate through the entire movie.
26:39 Bill Simmons? But they also moved him around too in this movie, which they hadn't done in the first two. He's just trapped in a spot.
26:44 Speaker 02 Yeah. Well, that changes the dynamic. Like Reginald Vel Johnson was a guy in the chair.
26:48 Chris Ryan? He's on the radio.
26:49 Speaker 02 Because he was stuck inside of Nakatomi Towers. This one, New York is a character in the film.
26:54 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
26:55 Speaker 02 Like there's so much about this, like when I was watching it, I had never been in New York before, but they're talking to me as if I had been. Oh my God. New York traffic is a part of it. The parks are a part of it.
27:06 Chris Ryan? If you call like now, like it'll be a different hospital that the ambulance goes to. So we need to wait till we get below 14th street or, you know, like all that, like.
27:14 Bill Simmons? How did you feel living in New York City with the New York City stuff in this movie?
27:17 Chris Ryan? Uh, I didn't move to New York until five years later.
27:20 Bill Simmons? No, but you, you saw the city. You used all the parts of it. So when you watch this movie now.
27:24 Chris Ryan? It's incredible. I mean, the grid system that they adopt, you know, and there's like funny, like how the fuck did you guys get up here or down there that fast? But like the fact that essentially the movie goes south, the entire chase down the island.
27:37 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
27:38 Chris Ryan? It's so ingenious because you can kind of track them like Harlem, 72nd Street.
27:42 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
27:42 Chris Ryan? Now they're at Wall Street. Now they gotta go back up to Tompkins Square Park. Like it's actually very, very, like you can visualize it really easily.
27:49 Speaker 02 What does Wall Street not have? Schools.
27:52 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
27:52 Speaker 02 What do they have a ton of? Banks. That was the first time I ever had that information. I didn't know what they had. I didn't know. There might've been a Wall Street elementary.
28:00 Bill Simmons? I didn't know Wall Street didn't have schools either.
28:02 Speaker 02 Yeah. It could've been a Wall Street elementary for all I know. I have no clue what's, what's going on. But like all of that stuff is like part of the script.
28:08 Bill Simmons? Pretty sure you can't get to Yankee Stadium that fast. I mean, there's a lot of nitpicks for this.
28:12 Speaker 02 To get off the fucking Bronx?
28:14 Chris Ryan? We can get into that. Yeah.
28:15 Speaker 02 Yeah.
28:16 Bill Simmons? It's like, yeah, I'm just gonna head down to Yankee Stadium. I'll see you guys in a second. Not sure that's how it goes. Uh, John McTiernan?
28:25 Bill Simmons? What a run for him, man.
28:26 Chris Ryan? Jesus Christ.
28:28 Bill Simmons? From eighty-seven to ninety-nine, he does Predator, Die Hard, Hunt for Red October. I've heard that's good. Is that a good one?
28:35 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
28:35 Bill Simmons? Who's in that?
28:36 Chris Ryan? Sean Connery.
28:37 Speaker 02 Alec Baldwin.
28:38 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
28:38 Bill Simmons? Oh, okay. Medicine Man, don't really remember that one. Last Action Hero.
28:42 Speaker 02 Medicine Man, that's with John Connery, Sean Connery, where they're down in like, South America.
28:46 Chris Ryan? With Madeline Stone.
28:47 Speaker 02 He's got like, the cure to cancer. And he's, or something like, that was actually, like, a good, that was a good movie.
28:54 Bill Simmons? Only saw it once.
28:54 Speaker 02 Okay, cool.
28:55 Bill Simmons? Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and then, uh, an Amanda Dobbins favorite, The Thomas Crown Affair, nineteen ninety-nine.
29:01 Speaker 02 I like that movie, too.
29:02 Bill Simmons? And then The Wheels Come Off, he does Rollerball Remake.
29:05 Speaker 02 That sucks.
29:07 Bill Simmons? And it sucks so bad, and that's it for John McTernan.
29:10 Chris Ryan? Well, he also gets caught up in the Anthony Palacano stuff, right?
29:13 Bill Simmons? I don't remember that.
29:14 Chris Ryan? Yeah, he was, he was basically in the, he went to jail, I think. Yeah, for all the wiretapping stuff.
29:20 Speaker 02 I know about the story, but I didn't know that it hit him so hard, yeah.
29:24 Bill Simmons? Written by Jonathan Hensley.
29:26 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
29:26 Bill Simmons? Who we're gonna talk about later, a different category. Ninety million dollar budget, made three hundred and sixty-six million, seventh biggest movie of nineteen ninety-five. A great movie year.
29:36 Speaker 02 So, if you look at the top ten films from that year. The fact that Die Hard with a Vengeance is the number one global moneymaker of that year is amazing. With some of the sequel stuff, some of the, the movies that it made more money than, when I looked them up.
29:57 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
29:58 Speaker 02 Was incredibly impressive that that film was able to outgross some of these movies.
30:06 Bill Simmons? Like Batman Forever?
30:07 Speaker 02 Batman Forever, like Batman Forever.
30:09 Bill Simmons? Was that Val Kilmer?
30:10 Speaker 02 Uh, that's Val, Val Kilmer, yeah, that's the first, uh, Joel Schumacher one. A Toy Story, Apollo Thirteen, GoldenEye, it's a Bond movie.
30:19 Bill Simmons? Ace Ventura.
30:20 Speaker 02 Ace Ventura.
30:21 Bill Simmons? Crimson Tide, this might be the most Chris Ryan year ever.
30:24 Chris Ryan? Seven. Seven.
30:26 Speaker 02 The fact that.
30:26 Chris Ryan? Get Shorty.
30:27 Bill Simmons? Dangerous Minds.
30:28 Speaker 02 Seven could make three hundred and twenty-seven million dollars worldwide. If they make seven today, that's going on Netflix.
30:35 Chris Ryan? Bad Boys, Species, Clueless.
30:37 Bill Simmons? What are we doing?
30:40 Bill Simmons? Why can't we have years like this anymore?
30:42 Speaker 02 Three hundred twenty seven million dollars for seven.
30:44 Bill Simmons? You go after the top fifteen and we're looking at Outbreak, Bad Boys, Species, Clueless, The Net, The American President.
30:53 Bill Simmons? Fucking A, Disclosure, Higher Learning.
30:55 Chris Ryan? Honestly, I give Under Siege Two Dark Territory a spin every once in a while.
30:59 Speaker 02 I like it. More Chasten.
31:01 Bill Simmons? Under Siege Two?
31:02 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
31:02 Bill Simmons? It's a fucking classic.
31:03 Chris Ryan? I am just saying.
31:04 Speaker 02 Under Siege is a diehard on the train.
31:06 Bill Simmons? Money Train? A movie that I feel like if it comes out in other years, maybe does better, but there's so many good movies. You don't love it?
31:13 Chris Ryan? I like Money Train.
31:14 Speaker 02 Well, I like it for two reasons.
31:16 Bill Simmons? Tommy Boy, Heat, a little movie called Heat.
31:19 Chris Ryan? Casino?
31:21 Bill Simmons? Come on.
31:21 Speaker 02 Money Train, getting the band back together from White Man Can't Jump, and then that is J-Lo. That's the.
31:29 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
31:29 Bill Simmons? That's her arrival.
31:30 Speaker 02 That's the, that's the J-Lo thirty five point game. Like, oh, my God, this guy off the bench could score.
31:36 Bill Simmons? That's the forty eight point LeBron Detroit game.
31:38 Speaker 02 You like that? I tried to throw it back to do some NBA stuff.
31:41 Bill Simmons? J-Lo scored twenty five points in a row against the Pistons?
31:48 Bill Simmons? Roger Ebert, our guy, three stars. Fair. I think three stars is fair.
31:54 Chris Ryan? If we're giving stars to Raj's reviews, I give this a two star review. I just feel like he took a couple miles per hour off the fastball. Maybe he was hot.
32:03 Bill Simmons? Didn't really check a lot of the Raj boxes.
32:05 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
32:06 Bill Simmons? He did say Die Hard with a Vengeance is basically a wind-up action toy cleverly made, delivered with high energy. It delivers what it just advertises with the vengeance, but if the plot's just gonna go sideways in the last forty percent of a movie, Raj is not gonna sign off.
32:20 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
32:21 Bill Simmons? That's not gonna get one or three stars.
32:22 Speaker 02 Do you guys still feel that way? Like, when you watch the movie now, do you still feel like it loses itself?
32:27 Bill Simmons? I don't know why we go to Yankee Stadium and then from every moment on feels like they were just trying to figure out how to end the movie.
32:33 Chris Ryan? Yeah. I, I was gonna talk about this at another point.
32:36 Bill Simmons? I mean, we, we have a lot of nitpicks. We'll, we'll save them. There's some nitpicks. We'll take a quick break and we'll do the categories. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever finish a movie and the next thing you know, you're totally obsessed? That's happened to me. Like, I'm talking about ordering a book about seventies film lighting. Have you done that, Sierra?
32:54 Chris Ryan? I have, yeah.
32:55 Bill Simmons? Or buying the soundtrack on vinyl? Kind of obsessed. Whatever it is, Prime helps you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Head to amazon.com/prime and follow your obsession wherever it goes.
33:08 Bill Simmons? Rewatchable scene.
33:10 Chris Ryan? This is one of the fun movies where I think every scene is in my, in my list.
33:15 Bill Simmons? You just wrote down all the scenes.
33:16 Chris Ryan? Up until, up until the boat.
33:18 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
33:18 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
33:19 Bill Simmons? I have, starting opening scene, right in the Simon says, which also gets the kid cutty pursuit of happiness to where best needle drop for.
33:27 Chris Ryan? Summer in the city.
33:28 Bill Simmons? Hot times, somewhere in the city.
33:54 Bill Simmons? And just an awesome swerve.
33:57 Bill Simmons? Where you're like, oh, this would be nice. Just shots in New York and yeah, the song. And then all of a sudden, Bonneville Tower is exploding.
34:02 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
34:03 Speaker 02 Yeah.
34:03 Bill Simmons? And you're like, what the fuck? We're, we've started?
34:05 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
34:06 Bill Simmons? Um, and then Simon, we only hear the Jeremy Irons voice. Should have mentioned Jeremy Irons in the first segment.
34:12 Speaker 02 Should have, yeah.
34:13 Bill Simmons? Kind of that, like, I'm not saying he's, was DDL, but was for, for that era was.
34:19 Chris Ryan? He was Oscar.
34:20 Bill Simmons? Had the respect. Yeah. It was like, it was meaningful that he was in this movie. He was one of the best actors in the world.
34:26 Chris Ryan? Yeah. And this, I mean, we were talking about, uh, Laurence Olivier last time on Marathon Man and the British actor phone coming in to play the villain in an American blockbuster. That would like started with Marathon Man. This is a great example of that.
34:39 Bill Simmons? Yeah. And if you're gonna do Hans Gruber's brother. As a character. It's Alan Rickman, the best villain ever in an action movie, probably. You were gonna have to bring in a real actor.
34:51 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
34:51 Speaker 02 I do feel like that these guys. When I see Jeremy Irons, I feel like he just went, you know what? I just want to be in a fucking movie in a tank top. I can fucking be.
35:03 Bill Simmons? I'm gonna work out.
35:04 Speaker 02 I wanna, yeah. I can be the fucking heavy. I can be physical. I can be cool. I can be sexy. And when you see him in this movie, he's playing with different accents. He's taking this serious.
35:15 Chris Ryan? I can have violent sex with a chick with a phone, with a throat scar.
35:19 Speaker 02 She's got a sickle, you know? I could throw on a desk.
35:23 Bill Simmons? It's interesting. So he wins the, he wins the Oscar in 1990. Right. Reverse of Fortune. Klaus von Buelow.
35:32 Bill Simmons? Not a, not a great hang, Klaus.
35:34 Speaker 02 Killed his wife, maybe, while he got away with it.
35:37 Bill Simmons? Probably. But his, you look at his IMDb and it's just all over the place. Like Dead Ringers was a really interesting movie. But for the most part was not a commercial actor. Like he wa, he, he was in Damage and Butterfly. He played the Lion King. He played Scar's voice. But for the most part was kinda over here and then just kinda flies into.
35:57 Chris Ryan? But this is what they did so well in the 90s where they would just be like Malkovich, now you're, now you're a supervillain in Con Air. You're the best. You know what I mean? Like Ed Harris, come, come play in The Rock, you know?
36:08 Bill Simmons? With that said, I don't think DDL at any point in his career does this movie.
36:12 Chris Ryan? Maybe to his, maybe to his detriment.
36:14 Bill Simmons? Yeah, but that's the thing. It would have been amazing if DDL was in a version of Die Hard 3.
36:19 Speaker 02 Hey, Daniel Day-Lewis, you think you're too good for this? Now, did you guys hear, it's funny that you bring this up.
36:25 Chris Ryan? First of all, DDL learns fluent German to play this part.
36:29 Speaker 02 Oh, he goes so fucking deep. He might scar his own face.
36:32 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
36:32 Bill Simmons? No, he, he's, yeah, he learns how to drive the dump trucks himself.
36:36 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
36:37 Bill Simmons? He's going all in.
36:38 Speaker 02 Now, did you guys hear?
36:39 Bill Simmons? He learns how to make gold.
36:40 Chris Ryan? Flood, gets flooded in an aqueduct just to know what he's doing.
36:43 Speaker 02 Marvel wants DDL.
36:45 Chris Ryan? For what?
36:46 Speaker 02 Maybe to play Doom after.
36:49 Bill Simmons? Everyone has a price.
36:51 Chris Ryan? Yeah, well, he's working with his son, so he is out of retirement. He's gonna be in his son's movie.
36:56 Bill Simmons? Robert Day-Lewis?
36:59 Bill Simmons? Johnny Day-Lewis? What's his son's name?
37:01 Chris Ryan? I think it's Sam, actually. Sam Day-Lewis. I can't remember though.
37:04 Speaker 02 Alright.
37:05 Chris Ryan? But he is back-ish. I just don't know if he's gonna do like a PTA movie and I really, really hope he doesn't do Doctor Doom.
37:12 Speaker 02 There's no fucking chance that Marvel can get him.
37:14 Bill Simmons? Are you a Phantom Thread guy?
37:16 Speaker 02 Uh, Phantom, yeah, Phantom Thread, yeah, love Phantom Thread.
37:18 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
37:20 Speaker 02 I thought you said you're a fan of.
37:22 Bill Simmons? Sean and I are gonna do that on rewatch this at some point.
37:24 Chris Ryan? You should.
37:25 Bill Simmons? I saw it twice in the theater. I thought it was, I thought it was just like.
37:29 Chris Ryan? Mesmerizing.
37:30 Bill Simmons? Mesmerizing how good he was in that movie.
37:32 Speaker 02 The only thing I'd say about him is on the DDL Before We Leave is. His reputation as being the best actor in the world is so cemented and ironclad.
37:44 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
37:44 Speaker 02 He might care enough not to fuck with it to ever give us a Simon Gruber or something where we just like watch him go wacky and.
37:54 Bill Simmons? Really, the history of all these guys is at some point they come back as they get older and like, ah, fuck it. Yeah. Like Olivier was like that. All of a sudden, we talked about that in Marathon, man. He's just grabbing gigs.
38:05 Speaker 02 I mean, Hopkins is fucking Odin.
38:08 Bill Simmons? Right.
38:08 Speaker 02 He, you know, he's, he's.
38:10 Chris Ryan? Yeah, but Hopkins would like show up for a FedEx commercial at a certain point.
38:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, he would, yeah.
38:14 Bill Simmons? Uh, next rewatchable scene. I have a lot on the Simon Says gimmick, but it's for a later topic.
38:23 Bill Simmons? John McClane puts the sign on and we meet Sam Jackson.
38:28 Speaker 02 What does the sign say?
38:29 Bill Simmons? I don't know. You tell us, Van.
38:33 Bill Simmons? By the way, this was really controversial in 1995.
38:35 Chris Ryan? Yeah, still honestly in the, so I saw this in a theater on Sunday and there were a bunch of people who hadn't seen it before. And it was a lot of younger people and there was a little bit of like, oh.
38:46 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Yeah. Like when we saw the verdict, the Newman.
38:50 Chris Ryan? Uh, slapping, yeah.
38:51 Bill Simmons? Rampage and you could, the crowd like gasped, like they couldn't believe it. So it was like that?
38:56 Chris Ryan? Kinda.
38:57 Speaker 02 So it, it's one of those interesting scenes to me because.
39:00 Bill Simmons? This is just Van's wheelhouse.
39:02 Speaker 02 It is because it's actually not.
39:03 Bill Simmons? He's been waiting.
39:04 Speaker 02 It's not the most racist thing that happens in the scene.
39:09 Speaker 02 And I love it when that happens.
39:11 Chris Ryan? Should we guess what the most racist thing is?
39:13 Speaker 02 What's the most racist thing in the scene?
39:16 Bill Simmons? I feel like somehow we both lose if we don't guess the right thing. I might do the DDL and just abstain.
39:22 Chris Ryan? Oh yeah, you're gonna retire from podcasting on me?
39:24 Bill Simmons? Just retiring.
39:26 Speaker 02 So the most racist thing in the scene is, so he's standing there with that, you know, that, by the way, it was.
39:32 Chris Ryan? Is it the depiction of the guys on the stoop?
39:34 Speaker 02 Yes. So the guys on.
39:35 Bill Simmons? Just 10 guys hanging out on the stoops?
39:37 Speaker 02 But no, they're throwing shirtless and throwing a basketball around.
39:43 Speaker 02 Go look at it. It's ten guys on a stoop crowded together. No hoop. They just tossing the basketball around. They got it. They got, they got guns. They got liquor.
39:53 Chris Ryan? Knives.
39:54 Speaker 02 They got no, they got knives. They got no shirts and they have a basketball.
39:58 Chris Ryan? And it's like eight thirty in the morning.
40:00 Speaker 02 So I have this as a picking it. And they, they have a basketball.
40:03 Bill Simmons? The kids are going to school. So school in New York City starts, I would say either eight or nine. Well, let's say eight. So multiple picking nits here. Why are all these guys just outside at seven forty-five in the morning? Why is Sam Jackson opening his pawn shop for the early eight o'clock rush?
40:21 Chris Ryan? Well, I think it's more of an electronics store. Yeah.
40:24 Bill Simmons? Is that what it is?
40:25 Chris Ryan? Yeah, I think they're asking if he would take that boombox, but I don't think he's a pawn shop. I think he's an electrician.
40:30 Bill Simmons? Oh, I couldn't tell what the store was.
40:31 Chris Ryan? Yeah, he's an electrician. He's fixing.
40:33 Bill Simmons? So it's like an electric, electrician shop?
40:36 Chris Ryan? Yeah, he's like gonna fix, he'll fix your TV. He'll fix your stereo.
40:38 Bill Simmons? Opening at seven fifty in the morning?
40:40 Chris Ryan? Look, you got, early bird gets the worm.
40:42 Bill Simmons? And just that, like, it's, it's a little too alive for seven forty-five in the morning, I would say.
40:47 Speaker 02 Yeah.
40:48 Chris Ryan? I, I guess I agree. Yeah.
40:51 Speaker 02 I think that scene is, I'll be honest with you though. I think that scene is hysterical. Like, e- e- even when Sam Jackson looks and goes, call the police, tell them somebody's about to get killed. He walks out there and they're talking. I remember being in the theater and all of a sudden you hear, what the fuck?
41:10 Bill Simmons? Right.
41:11 Chris Ryan? No, when he has to walk by the old lady and he's just like.
41:14 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
41:15 Speaker 02 That, that scene is funny to me, man.
41:17 Bill Simmons? I like, who do we not want to help us? He says to the two kids and they're like, white people. I also think they get in the cab.
41:28 Chris Ryan? And he keeps on.
41:29 Bill Simmons? John keeps on him, Jesus. He's like, stop calling me Jesus.
41:32 Chris Ryan? Do I look Puerto Rican to you?
41:35 Bill Simmons? All of it's great. The mean mugs on the, on the guys. I, I'm just gonna assume he never makes it in the cab in real life.
41:43 Speaker 02 They doesn't get there?
41:44 Bill Simmons? Yeah, cuz they hit him over there with a bottle. There's ten of them. I don't know.
41:47 Chris Ryan? Yeah, it would be tough.
41:48 Bill Simmons? I think it would be tough.
41:49 Speaker 02 I will say that. When Zeus's character gives the rationale for as for why?
41:58 Bill Simmons? He had to save him?
41:59 Speaker 02 Yeah. Number one, he knows he's a police officer. He identifies himself as a police officer. He says, "Hey, I'm a cop. Some guy made me do this." And the moment that he says, "I'm a cop", Zeus changes. He probably would have protected him anyway, but he's like, "I definitely can't let the police get killed up here because if they get killed, then..."
42:18 Bill Simmons? Yeah, it's a free for all.
42:19 Speaker 02 Right.
42:20 Bill Simmons? Uh, next one. Simon negotiates with John and John gets his badge back.
42:26 Chris Ryan? My ch-ch-ch-ch-chair with me in it?
42:29 Speaker 02 Why you trying to c-c-c-c-kill me?
42:30 Chris Ryan? You didn't c-c-c-c-kill me?
42:32 Bill Simmons? That's really great.
42:33 Speaker 02 So ableist.
42:33 Chris Ryan? I know.
42:36 Chris Ryan? That's also a great introduction to all the other cops.
42:38 Bill Simmons? Well, that's what my favorite part is when Walter, the guy with the mustache, like his boss, he's like, he tells Simon, he's negotiating, "Believe me, the jerk isn't worth it. He stepped on so many toes to this apartment. By the time next month, he's gonna be a security guard. His own wife wants nothing to do with him and he's two steps shy of becoming a full-blown alcoholic."
42:59 Chris Ryan? Kind of crossed the line, I felt like. You should do that to us.
43:01 Bill Simmons? Maybe a little too much information.
43:02 Chris Ryan? Like on pods, you should be like, "Believe me, Chris Ryan's all used up."
43:05 Bill Simmons? I was, I was gonna do this later in the pod, but it-
43:08 Chris Ryan? He doesn't take my real estate advice?
43:10 Speaker 02 Hey, hey, you don't wanna work, Van? He's nothing but a porn addict.
43:16 Bill Simmons? No, with Chris, like, I was thinking like if Chris, like Chris gets divorced and becomes an alcoholic, we're still doing pods with him? And it's like, "I don't know if CR, I don't know if we could count on him. Tell him 11 o'clock call time."
43:29 Chris Ryan? This is actually an indictment of you.
43:31 Bill Simmons? Can I get an aspirin?
43:33 Chris Ryan? It's an indictment of you that if I was in that condition, you'd be like, "Fuck him. We're still wheeling him out there."
43:38 Bill Simmons? Yeah, 100%.
43:40 Speaker 02 Chris, like, in a, on a John-
43:43 Bill Simmons? That's some good movies we haven't done.
43:44 Speaker 02 Dender, out here, in the tank top, hair fucked up, popping aspirin, the whole nine.
43:49 Bill Simmons? It would be amazing if CR just had an alcohol, alcoholic binge, just for like a year. Just the wheels came off. CR showed up, he's wearing like a Ben Simmons torn Sixers jersey, just doing pods. Ah, I didn't watch that yet, but I'm here anyway. Saw it once. Could be a good gimmick for next year.
44:08 Chris Ryan? Phantom threat. Did I read that wrong?
44:12 Bill Simmons? I really like that when he gets the badge back. Uh, next one.
44:16 Speaker 02 What last, what was it?
44:20 Speaker 02 Have we gotten away from the trope of you losing your badge? But your superior.
44:25 Bill Simmons? It keeps it in his desk drawer. Yeah.
44:27 Chris Ryan? It's so good.
44:28 Speaker 02 Every, hey, hey, you're back. And then it, the badge hits his hand like fucking Thor's hammer. He's like, fuck. I'm the man again. I'm a cop. You telling me I could be a cop again? Well, being a cop was like the most important.
44:41 Chris Ryan? Absolutely. Like the gun and the badge trope is just one of the great things.
44:45 Speaker 02 Give me your gun and badge.
44:46 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
44:47 Bill Simmons? The hungover cop thing too. So where, where was he drinking?
44:50 Chris Ryan? I think like.
44:51 Bill Simmons? What was he up to the night before?
44:52 Chris Ryan? Like the gentleman on the stoop in Harlem, he might've just been out all night. You know what I mean? New York City, you can really push the limits.
44:59 Bill Simmons? He really tested Holly over the years.
45:02 Speaker 02 Is Walter in love with Holly? How many times is Walter gonna bring up this man's ex-wife? It would be so weird.
45:08 Bill Simmons? Getting in him with Holly?
45:08 Speaker 02 Maybe, or he's in love with Holly. How many times, if, if I came in here and every time I did something wrong, you went, Van Kalika deserves better. I'd be like, yo, what the fuck?
45:16 Bill Simmons? Yeah, why do you keep bringing her up?
45:18 Speaker 02 Yeah.
45:19 Bill Simmons? Yeah. It's between you and I.
45:22 Chris Ryan? Can I just two, two more things from the office when that happens? I love Charlie coming in and setting off a minor bomb. And Colleen Camp be like, Charlie, you're gonna be wearing that chair up your ass. And, uh, yeah, just Graham Greene. And it's really funny that like, this was a run in movies where I still feel like we were making fun of the act of getting therapy. So the therapist guy, everybody's just like, yeah, fuck you, man.
45:46 Speaker 02 Well, who are you? Yeah, you're a fucking shrink, piece of shit.
45:49 Bill Simmons? I do miss that era. I also, we've talked about this before, but the seventies, eighties, just the police stations.
45:54 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
45:55 Bill Simmons? Just moved in a way more fun way. And they just seem to capture it way better than now.
45:59 Chris Ryan? It's all printed out papers, hard paper and landlines.
46:02 Bill Simmons? People busting each other's balls. Nobody likes each other. Everybody's like, you going to get coffee?
46:07 Speaker 02 The, the fucking pricks from IA are here again. You know, the whole fucking.
46:12 Bill Simmons? Right.
46:15 Speaker 02 I mean, the whole, the whole thing is like in every cop movie, it's the same shit.
46:19 Bill Simmons? Forty-eight Hours, I still think is the best with that.
46:22 Chris Ryan? All of those guys are getting paid like 32 grand a year. You know, they're just skimming coke out of the evidence room.
46:30 Bill Simmons? All right. So I'm gonna go most rewatchable for this next part, which I think.
46:38 Bill Simmons? It's multiple scenes, but I feel like it all ties together. The phone game with the seven wives.
46:43 Chris Ryan? Yes.
46:44 Bill Simmons? Into the cab ride, driving through Central Park, cutting through New York City, and then him jumping on the train and the train bomb going up. Whatever. I just feel like that's one scene. Wall Street is south.
46:56 Chris Ryan? Man, stop yelling at me. I got a bad headache. And the best way south is not 95, it was through the park.
47:03 Chris Ryan? Oh, dear.
47:06 Chris Ryan? I told you the park drive is always jam. I didn't say park drive.
47:13 Chris Ryan? I said through the park. It's, I think it's like 15 minutes. It's 15 of the most electrifying minutes in action movie history.
47:20 Bill Simmons? It's just so good.
47:20 Chris Ryan? And the, one of my favorite parts about it is that the moment when McLean goes into the park is the moment that Zeus realizes he's in an action movie.
47:32 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
47:32 Chris Ryan? Where he's just like, oh shit. And this is like that kind of 90s meta. Like a character is almost aware of the absurdity of their thing. Like most action movies now are like, no, it's the accountant and it's normal that Ben Affleck will kill 35 guys.
47:48 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
47:49 Chris Ryan? And nobody ever comments on it. You know what I mean? But in this movie, Zeus is us and is like, what the fuck are you doing? We're driving through. Are you aiming at these people? You know?
47:59 Bill Simmons? And he said he did say he was aiming at the mime.
48:02 Speaker 02 And he's, he's in it, he's in it with a crazy white boy. He's with a crazy white boy, taking them on a crazy white mission, crazy white problems. He keeps coming back to that. He never loses his worldview. I honestly think that there's a couple of really unintended funny scenes, or maybe intended funny scenes. But the scene where Simon's fucking with them at the phone booth and they die.
48:28 Speaker 02 I don't know why that is so hysterical to me. No, no, the answer is one, he has a bomb. And they jump on the, it's hysterical to me.
48:36 Chris Ryan? Also, this has got, um, Grace Papaya in the background of the 72nd Street payphone. Then they go and they do like traffic talk. Oh, you want to take 9th Avenue to get south? No, the fastest way south is through the park. And then it's like.
48:51 Speaker 02 Through the park.
48:52 Chris Ryan? Then there's the ambulance, uh, blocking scheme, which is based entirely on him knowing what hospital responds to which call at a certain point in the city. And it's just like the whole thing. And then it's the whole getting into the subway part. It's so New York that you are like so grounded in like this experience. You're so like, I'm right here in this city.
49:12 Bill Simmons? And it really feels like they're filming in New York, which they are. Yeah. Like I, I really genuinely feel like people were in danger.
49:18 Chris Ryan? I was like, we were talking about it when we saw it on the side. It's like, this movie would cost a billion and a half dollars because you have to shut down so many parts of New York.
49:25 Speaker 02 Then there's another New York thing that they're doing, and I see my New York friends do all the time, is they're arguing over who's more New York. Like they're arguing over who has the right way to get to this place. Who knows this? Who knows that? Nah, it's not what you do. You go there, nah, you don't know. This is what you do, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like, that's my introduction to all of that type of shit.
49:45 Bill Simmons? It was a great spot for a name drop there, but you avoided it.
49:48 Speaker 02 I'm, I'm trying to.
49:49 Bill Simmons? But you're New York friends and then you could've just listed like three people to impress us. But you didn't do it because you're not that kind of guy.
49:55 Speaker 02 Not anymore.
49:56 Bill Simmons? The Central Park piece. There's a couple, how the fuck did they do that moments in this movie? Even the Bond with Tower blowing up. I, I was rewinding and watching. I'm like, did they actually blow up Bond with Tower? Like, how'd they do this? Cause I don't feel like CGI was good enough for 95. I don't know how they did it.
50:13 Chris Ryan? Also, like so many funny visual psych gags, like when, uh, when Walsh, the cop is following them and he loses them as they come out of the park and he just sees like fucking cafe tables exploding. And he's just like, ah, I lost him.
50:30 Bill Simmons? And it, we always talk about the concept of the rewatch. As if it's on and you're like, oh my God, I'm getting sucked in. And sometimes there are movies you can come in halfway through like, yes, I'm gonna fucking ride right now. Um, or like Boogie Nights, you like when Dirk shows up at Jack Horner's, I was like, oh, this is gonna be amazing forty minutes. Yeah, or the world, whatever you want.
50:50 Chris Ryan? This is the, this is the.
50:52 Bill Simmons? You wanna catch the opening, it's like Die Hard Three's starting right now.
50:56 Chris Ryan? Yeah, can we push that reservation to seven thirty?
50:58 Bill Simmons? Just give me like an hour here.
51:00 Speaker 02 But if they are in that cab, like if they are in that cab, I'm multi-viewing it, whatever sports I'm watching, I'm.
51:07 Bill Simmons? Just, you just wanna see.
51:08 Speaker 02 I'm finishing the fucking movie, bro.
51:13 Bill Simmons? If you, oh, this also has Sam with the phone ringing, one of my favorite gimmicks, the nervous cop. Phone ringing and he's like, if you wanna shoot me right now.
51:23 Chris Ryan? But first the yuppie who's like, I was here first, bro.
51:25 Bill Simmons? Yeah, yeah. Yuppies take a beating in this movie. There's like multiple bad ones. Uh, that whole scene's great. I do feel like, nitpick, I do feel like the bomb would have caused a lot more damage.
51:37 Chris Ryan? But.
51:37 Bill Simmons? I feel like some people are dying.
51:38 Chris Ryan? It's worth mentioning that they, this is when we were a nation. And we would blow up a subway train for a movie and it would travel at forty-five miles per hour within there and like the entire film crew was like.
51:51 Bill Simmons? Actually like running for their lives.
51:53 Chris Ryan? And the film crew was like, I'm really glad no one died when we, like when we made that.
51:56 Bill Simmons? Speed was like that too, it was another one where it was like, poof, thank God, no casualties for that scene. They would never, they would just CGI it now.
52:06 Bill Simmons? Simon breaks into Fort Knox.
52:10 Bill Simmons? A very hot entrance from Chris's girlfriend in this movie. I don't know, do you wanna save it?
52:14 Chris Ryan? Save it for one of those ages.
52:14 Bill Simmons? Okay.
52:15 Chris Ryan? Yeah, thanks.
52:19 Bill Simmons? This really seems like it's Fort Knox. They do a good job of like, I don't know what Fort Knox is actually like, but.
52:25 Speaker 02 It's actually not Fort Knox.
52:26 Bill Simmons? It's, well, but you know what I mean, like the, where all the gold would be, it's just like, is this what it would be like? You're just all these gold with different countries and.
52:34 Chris Ryan? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:35 Speaker 02 I mean, there's one scene where they bring out that gigantic drill. Know that big drill that they're drilling through the thing? When I watched the movie, I'm like, they really had that drill drilling into the shit. They, you know.
52:47 Bill Simmons? There's a lot of stuff like that, a lot of care. Uh, the elevator scene.
52:52 Speaker 02 I have a, I have a breakout here.
52:54 Bill Simmons? What was the lottery number last night?
52:55 Chris Ryan? You mean like I had to turn the TikTok camera on thing?
52:58 Speaker 02 No, it's, it's, no, it's not. When I see the elevator scene, you know what I thought? Fucking Captain America Winter Soldier.
53:06 Chris Ryan? Yeah, they stole it.
53:06 Speaker 02 They stole the scene.
53:07 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
53:09 Speaker 02 I mean, sure, I'm sure it's been done.
53:12 Speaker 02 You know what? It, it, you gotta stop. Cause it makes the ring of verse. It, it makes the ring of verse feel orphaned when you do that.
53:20 Bill Simmons? Captain America Winter Soldier?
53:22 Speaker 02 Captain America the Winter Soldier.
53:24 Bill Simmons? Colin Winter Soldier?
53:26 Speaker 02 Yeah.
53:27 Bill Simmons? Who's the Winter Soldier?
53:29 Speaker 02 Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier.
53:30 Bill Simmons? Oh, I forgot about him.
53:31 Speaker 02 Captain America's best friend, then he, whatever.
53:33 Bill Simmons? So, so they steal shit from Die Hard.
53:35 Speaker 02 There's an iconic, there's an iconic elevator scene where Captain America is on the elevator. And all these people behind him are actually Hydra agents.
53:45 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
53:46 Speaker 02 Um, and he realizes that, he doesn't know that they're Hydra agents yet, but he realizes that they're trying to capture him. And so he looks around, he goes, before we get started, does anybody want to get off the elevator? And then he proceeds to fuck all of these people up. And that's essentially the same scene, it's the exact same thing that happens in Die Hard with a V.
54:05 Chris Ryan? Yeah, except John, John McClane puts a gun in a guy's head and is just like, got the fucking gun! This is, this is fucking reservoir dogs right in this thing.
54:14 Bill Simmons? I slow-mo'd it, um, to figure out how he did it. And my wife was just in the, in the TV room with me doing Unraveling Pad and just looking over at me like, wow, this is just never gonna end.
54:25 Chris Ryan? You're deranged.
54:25 Bill Simmons? You're just like a deranged human being.
54:27 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
54:27 Bill Simmons? But he's got the two people behind him. They edit it really fast, so you almost don't know what's happening, but he takes the gun, he shoots through his coat behind him at the two guys. And somehow nails both of them. Then turns it around, somehow kills the third guy, and then is in the standoff with the fourth guy. But I'm gonna say the degree of difficulty is about an 11.2 out of 9.
54:47 Chris Ryan? Yeah. I don't think John's getting out of there, but it's, it's a great line when Zeus is like, are you okay? And he's like, oh yeah, it's not my blood.
54:53 Bill Simmons? Yeah, it's not my blood is a classic. That elevator scene's great. I like when the guy, he calls it a lift.
54:59 Chris Ryan? Yeah, they fuck up.
55:00 Bill Simmons? A little tip-off.
55:00 Speaker 02 Calls it a lift. He also says it's raining like dogs and cats.
55:03 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
55:04 Bill Simmons? So.
55:04 Chris Ryan? And then nobody knows.
55:05 Bill Simmons? Lottery number, which is like the number one.
55:07 Speaker 02 John's like.
55:08 Chris Ryan? And he's wearing Walsh's badge. He sees Walsh's badge number in the.
55:12 Speaker 02 So all of you are going to die. John, by the way, his policing, he doesn't say, hey.
55:17 Chris Ryan? You're under arrest.
55:18 Speaker 02 In Y F D. No, John just, he notices that you're a bad guy and then he kills you.
55:23 Bill Simmons? I think that scene could have been longer where he could have just done more things to realize those guys weren't real like be like. What's up with Patrick Ewing? Is he ever gonna get over the top?
55:32 Chris Ryan? Tino Martinez got a soft glove.
55:35 Bill Simmons? Right?
55:35 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. Can you believe that Matt and Lee is a Yankee?
55:39 Bill Simmons? Just could have kept going for me. Um.
55:42 Speaker 02 But Wade Box, I mean.
55:43 Bill Simmons? Couple more quick ones.
55:44 Speaker 02 Cause you spoke for a.
55:45 Bill Simmons? The little Wade Box.
55:46 Speaker 02 Yeah.
55:47 Bill Simmons? The kid saying, look around, man, all the cops are into something. It's Christmas. You could steal City Hall. It's just a great voila moment. John McLean, good at the voila moments. One of his, one of his signature things. Um, I like on the boat, just when Irons takes the. Gun from Sam and just shoots him in the leg.
56:04 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
56:05 Speaker 02 That, that's a swag out.
56:06 Chris Ryan? While he's eating, while he's eating the egg.
56:08 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
56:08 Speaker 02 He's eating the egg. He is never afraid of him. He realizes guys is not combat tested.
56:13 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
56:14 Speaker 02 And let me see that real quick. Got to take the safety off. Where's McLean? That's like cool villain shit.
56:18 Bill Simmons? And then the ending is ridiculous, but I do enjoy. Say hello to your brother. Uh, what do you have for most rewatchable CR?
56:24 Chris Ryan? Uh, I have the same sequence that you're talking about. If I had to pick one, I'd probably go cab ride downtown.
56:28 Bill Simmons? Van?
56:29 Speaker 02 Exactly. Same thing.
56:30 Bill Simmons? Okay.
56:32 Bill Simmons? What's the most nineteen ninety-five thing about this movie CR?
56:37 Chris Ryan? I got payphones.
56:39 Bill Simmons? I had those as well. I had crucial scenes with payphones.
56:42 Chris Ryan? Crucial payphones and crucial taxi cabs. World Trade Center is there and Rodney King references.
56:49 Speaker 02 Rodney King references. Uh, there were only forty-two presidents.
56:53 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
56:54 Bill Simmons? So.
56:54 Chris Ryan? That's a good one.
56:55 Speaker 02 So that's a big part of it.
56:56 Bill Simmons? I'm gonna add that one.
56:57 Speaker 02 And, um, the look of New York City. This is one of the last movies because when you get movies filmed or set in New York now.
57:08 Speaker 02 It's a, I guess, post Giuliani New York cleanup. So you get a different version of New York almost. I know this is New York month, but New York existing as the Warriors New York, or as the New York that, you know, was in all of these different movies, kinda gone now.
57:25 Bill Simmons? Happier, sunnier New York.
57:26 Speaker 02 Happier, sunnier.
57:28 Bill Simmons? No internet yet, no bikes.
57:30 Chris Ryan? More corporatized now.
57:31 Bill Simmons? No electric bikes.
57:32 Chris Ryan? Businesses, yeah.
57:33 Bill Simmons? No pot.
57:34 Speaker 02 If you do this. If you do.
57:37 Bill Simmons? Hot smoke everywhere now.
57:39 Chris Ryan? All right, Pam Bondi, relax.
57:41 Bill Simmons? Maybe clean up the pot a little bit.
57:43 Speaker 02 New York, but in New York, when I go there now, you drive by places, there are activations everywhere. There's all kinds of stuff. You can tell that the city has kind of a different ethos to it now. But this is one of the movies where you could still have that New York as a character in the film.
57:56 Bill Simmons? I have the lady saying, and I'm gonna marry Donald Trump.
57:59 Chris Ryan? Yeah. And a Hillary Clinton reference in this one, too.
58:02 Speaker 02 Yeah.
58:03 Bill Simmons? I have the Twin Towers that you mentioned, but I blew it out. Bruce and Sam jogging, both with hair, with the Twin Towers behind them.
58:11 Speaker 02 Yeah.
58:11 Bill Simmons? Very 1995.
58:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
58:15 Bill Simmons? And then Bonwit Teller.
58:17 Chris Ryan? Yeah. Department stores.
58:19 Bill Simmons? Jack, you have any idea what Bonwit Teller is? Absolutely not.
58:22 Speaker 02 I don't know either.
58:22 Chris Ryan? What was the, what was the big Boston department store?
58:28 Bill Simmons? I mean, they were, all the same ones.
58:29 Chris Ryan? We had Wanamakers.
58:31 Bill Simmons? JCPenney's, all those. I mean, the big one in Connecticut was Calder's.
58:35 Chris Ryan? Okay.
58:35 Bill Simmons? Or Caldo's.
58:36 Chris Ryan? Caldo's?
58:37 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
58:37 Speaker 02 We had Gotchas.
58:39 Bill Simmons? Yeah. I don't know what happened to Caldo's.
58:40 Chris Ryan? Gotchas?
58:41 Speaker 02 Yeah, Gotchas is, um, it was, it was, it lasted through the eighties into the nineties. But then they got Macy's Bottom or something like Gotchas was like a, like a Louisiana.
58:54 Chris Ryan? Department store.
58:55 Speaker 02 Department store chain, yeah. Gotchas.
58:57 Bill Simmons? Bloomingdale's was big in Boston, but I think that's.
59:00 Chris Ryan? Bloomingdale's is all around.
59:01 Bill Simmons? It's all around.
59:02 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
59:02 Bill Simmons? It is funny when you only live in one place for a while and then you go to other places. They have a Bloomingdale's here? Like, just like completely shocking.
59:09 Speaker 02 Did you guys have Dillard's?
59:11 Bill Simmons? No.
59:12 Chris Ryan? No.
59:12 Speaker 02 We had Dillard's in the south.
59:13 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
59:14 Speaker 02 Loved Dillard's.
59:16 Bill Simmons? We don't always do this category, but did this movie need a better title? Can we talk about the Die Hard with a Vengeance thing for a second?
59:23 Chris Ryan? Yeah, I mean, is there a New York thing that we could have? I mean, if you just call it Die Hard in New York, that's pretty good.
59:29 Bill Simmons? How about Die Hard 3, Simon Says?
59:32 Chris Ryan? Well.
59:33 Bill Simmons? Is that just a better title? Am I crazy?
59:34 Chris Ryan? Here's the thing is.
59:36 Bill Simmons? By the way, why can't this be Die Hard 3: Something? Why did we get away from that?
59:41 Speaker 02 Well.
59:42 Bill Simmons? I call it Die Hard 3.
59:43 Speaker 02 Honestly, when I said that I wasn't super jazzed about going to see it, I went to see it. I was seeing movies so much at that time. It was kind of because of the title a little bit. It's like, what is?
59:54 Chris Ryan? I mean, there is vengeance. It's Simon's vengeance.
59:57 Speaker 02 It is Simon's vengeance.
59:58 Bill Simmons? Die Hard 3, Simon Says. I don't know. It's just better. Or just call it Die Hard 3.
1:00:04 Chris Ryan? Die Hard 3, the other Gruber?
1:00:07 Bill Simmons? Second Gruber. We'll take one more break and we'll do What Said You Best? When the sun goes down, the appetizers come out. Yeah, you heard that right. Late night half-priced appetizers are here at Applebee's. Saucy, sweet and spicy boneless wings. Crispy, cheesy mozzarella sticks. Creamy spinach and artichoke dip. Your favorite apps half-price, available every single night because why should appetizers have curfews? Tap the banner to learn more. Dining only for a limited time at participating locations. Restrictions apply. Copyright 2026 Applebee's Restaurant LLC. This episode is brought to you by Panda Express. Telling someone you love them, it isn't always easy, but showing them through food?
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1:01:16 Bill Simmons? This episode is brought to you by NOS Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised. Every lap, every race, every hard fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of NASA energy. High performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage and pedal to the metal. Human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of NASA energy and get after it. All right, what's aged the best? I have a bunch. What do you have, CR?
1:01:41 Chris Ryan? I gotta say, I have a, I have a bunch as well.
1:01:45 Chris Ryan? I fucking love a black guy and a white guy working together. You know what? Sometimes we've been at odds, but Jesus Christ, when it clicks, it clicks.
1:01:54 Speaker 02 That is my what's aged the best by far. The first thing you learn about Zeus is we don't need no help from white people. Really, the movie is about a racial reckoning.
1:02:07 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:02:07 Speaker 02 Where white people and black people help each other. White people and black people help against.
1:02:12 Chris Ryan? Like when they're in Tockin Square Park, he's like, say it. He's like, I was gonna call you an asshole.
1:02:17 Speaker 02 I'm like, yo, yo, that's actually the center of the movie. And it's a, a big, against the crazy Europeans. The crazy Europeans are the enemy.
1:02:25 Bill Simmons? As the OJ trial is happening in real life.
1:02:28 Speaker 02 OJ trials happening. That's what's aged the best. That's the lesson of this movie. McLean always has, well, went away from it, but McLean is with us. He always has a brother that's helping him out.
1:02:38 Bill Simmons? It's funny, 48 Hours basically starts that. And it just keeps going in that thread. So this movie's both ripping off 48 Hours and ripping off itself. Cause it's a diehard movie, but that.
1:02:50 Speaker 02 But this movie doesn't, a lot of those other films, they play the racial differences. Like it's subtext, right? It's jokes, it's whatever. 48 Hours is obviously, but in this one, you have the, um, the Zeus character. Who has a direct way of looking at things. And that's kind of, uh, the times were a little fraught. So it's kind of McLean who just wants to get to mission accomplishment. And Zeus who has all of these other, uh, views on society.
1:03:21 Bill Simmons? The gun thing is funny where he goes, look, all brothers don't know how to shoot guns, you racist motherfucker.
1:03:26 Chris Ryan? Right. Yeah.
1:03:27 Bill Simmons? It has a lot of moments sprinkled like that that just work.
1:03:29 Chris Ryan? Uh, at the payphone is like, police business, hang the fuck, get fuck, get a new fucking phone or whatever. And he's like, don't do that shit. Like you're here like, as like my assistant, basically, but you're not a cop. And he's like, I'm gonna fucking walk away then. How about that?
1:03:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:03:42 Chris Ryan? You need me more than I need you. Like it's, it's got like power dynamics in a really cool way. It, anyway, it's just like, I, I. I think every five years we gotta have this.
1:03:52 Speaker 02 So Zeus does, so Zeus says, all brothers don't know how to use the gun. And then he does exactly what McLean tells him to do. He goes, he does exactly what McLean has him to do.
1:04:03 Bill Simmons? What else you have?
1:04:04 Chris Ryan? Uh, can I do Katya now?
1:04:07 Bill Simmons? Save it for the end.
1:04:08 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:04:09 Bill Simmons? What do you have for what's age the best?
1:04:10 Speaker 02 Hangovers.
1:04:12 Chris Ryan? Yeah, it's one of the great hangover movies.
1:04:13 Speaker 02 One of the great hangover movies.
1:04:14 Bill Simmons? He just needs a couple of aspirin.
1:04:15 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:04:16 Speaker 02 Couple of aspirin, but then.
1:04:17 Bill Simmons? His head's really hurting him.
1:04:18 Speaker 02 Yeah, hangovers.
1:04:20 Bill Simmons? Filming this much of New York we mentioned. I have for what's age the best.
1:04:26 Bill Simmons? Anytime a character, the phone rings and somebody in the police station answers and the cop doesn't want any part of it. And they go, I think you better take this.
1:04:35 Chris Ryan? Walter.
1:04:36 Bill Simmons? I think you better take this is always good.
1:04:40 Bill Simmons? I like when evil brothers turn out to be the one wreaking the revenge.
1:04:43 Chris Ryan? Yep.
1:04:43 Bill Simmons? Which is had mixed results, another 48 hours.
1:04:48 Bill Simmons? Gans's.
1:04:48 Chris Ryan? Sure.
1:04:49 Bill Simmons? Gans's brother didn't totally work, but it's just fun.
1:04:51 Chris Ryan? You know what this movie does great is they hide Simon like the shark from Jaws. Shows up at minute 50.
1:04:57 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:04:57 Chris Ryan? And when he shows up and you're like, god damn Jeremy Irons is blonde and he's fucking killing people? This is crazy.
1:05:03 Speaker 02 Then they let him, then they let him rip for a little while.
1:05:04 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:05:05 Speaker 02 Then you get him acting like somebody else. You get the moment where, one of my favorite moments in the movie.
1:05:10 Chris Ryan? When he's Mr. Vanderflug?
1:05:12 Speaker 02 Yeah, Mr. Vanderflug. And then at the end of the movie where McLean thinks he's gonna die and he just goes, your brother was an asshole.
1:05:22 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:05:22 Speaker 02 And it hurts Simon.
1:05:23 Chris Ryan? Sure.
1:05:24 Speaker 02 And you could tell and, and so, you know, no one's wrong with that.
1:05:29 Bill Simmons? If fantasy had been murdered at the Braves game.
1:05:31 Speaker 02 Jesus Christ.
1:05:32 Bill Simmons? And then, then CR becomes, he becomes the Simon Gruber. He goes to Atlanta for revenge. He goes to a Hawks game. Trying to blow up a Hawks Hornets game to get revenge for Sean. That's basically, I'm just doing action movie premises.
1:05:48 Speaker 02 I get it.
1:05:49 Bill Simmons? Why are you staring at me like that?
1:05:49 Speaker 02 You're a sick motherfucker, bruh.
1:05:51 Bill Simmons? Hungarian army. Hungarian army explosive expert now working for the Iranians.
1:05:58 Chris Ryan? Targo.
1:05:59 Bill Simmons? A quote actually said in this movie.
1:06:01 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:06:02 Bill Simmons? Hungarian army explosive expert now working for the Iranians.
1:06:05 Chris Ryan? It's a fucking triple crown. The last draft pick of the bullets.
1:06:08 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:06:11 Bill Simmons? I really like when they do the, does the name Gruber mean anything to you? And they do the flashback of Hans falling.
1:06:17 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:06:17 Bill Simmons? And he's like, yeah, rings a bell.
1:06:18 Chris Ryan? This is my biggest nitpick, but yes.
1:06:20 Bill Simmons? What?
1:06:21 Chris Ryan? That, that reveal.
1:06:23 Bill Simmons? Oh, you wish?
1:06:24 Chris Ryan? When the therapist is like, he spoke with a German accent, you'd be like, yeah, I know a German guy.
1:06:30 Bill Simmons? Ah.
1:06:31 Speaker 02 Oh, you think you would have caught that earlier. Good point.
1:06:34 Bill Simmons? Good point, CR.
1:06:35 Chris Ryan? Any experience with German people in your past?
1:06:37 Bill Simmons? Yeah, right.
1:06:38 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:06:39 Bill Simmons? Here's another what's aged the best. When we have an action film and a car chase, but somebody's in a cab and then just a random passenger gets in the cab thinking it's entering a cab. Hundred percent success rate. It's never not worked ever in the history of movies.
1:06:53 Chris Ryan? Also love when they steal their Mercedes.
1:06:55 Speaker 02 Commandeering people's vehicles.
1:06:56 Chris Ryan? And the guy, and they're like, who is the 42nd president? He's like, go fuck yourself.
1:07:01 Bill Simmons? Commandeering vehicles seems like it would be the single most fun thing about being a police officer. Be like, I'm just gonna take your car.
1:07:07 Chris Ryan? It's a slightly more controversial act now, but yeah.
1:07:09 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:07:10 Bill Simmons? Uh, alcoholic hero cops who have people say to them, Jesus, you look like shit.
1:07:16 Speaker 02 Can't be, this.
1:07:18 Chris Ryan? Every pod you start with me.
1:07:20 Bill Simmons? You look like shit, Chris.
1:07:22 Chris Ryan? CR, you look like shit.
1:07:23 Speaker 02 But like, out of a place of your concern.
1:07:27 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:07:27 Speaker 02 Like, what the fuck is going on with you? By the way, that Bruce, that's Bruce Willis's place in the action movie pantheon.
1:07:35 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:07:36 Speaker 02 That's his place.
1:07:37 Bill Simmons? Yeah, the everyman cop who looks like shit, but can rise to the occasion.
1:07:41 Chris Ryan? Yes.
1:07:41 Bill Simmons? Because stuff's at stake.
1:07:42 Chris Ryan? I have a two storytelling mechanisms that have aged the best.
1:07:45 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:07:46 Chris Ryan? There is a constant ticking clock in this movie, a series of ticking clocks, basically. Cause every task they have to do is you have 15 minutes, you have this. Sometimes they actually keep the action to the amount of time that they have to get there.
1:08:00 Bill Simmons? Real time?
1:08:00 Chris Ryan? They go real time. So that plus the, uh, the changeover in the middle of the movie where they're, they can't use the radios anymore. And everybody is now, we're, we're in the dark. We can't call, like, we can't, you know, and it's like, you have to use the switchboard. I also love the switchboard. She's like, the whole fucking world just called 911. Yeah.
1:08:20 Speaker 02 Also the fact, this movie gets into like dueling plots because Die Hard is. Intimate, right?
1:08:27 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:08:27 Speaker 02 But not this one. This is not an intimate Die Hard. And obviously the subsequent sequels, which we haven't talked about at all. They're not intimate at all, right? But this one is.
1:08:37 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:08:37 Speaker 02 Not intimate.
1:08:37 Chris Ryan? Free Die Hard is pretty tough.
1:08:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, but like this one is.
1:08:40 Bill Simmons? Justin Long as a tech hacker?
1:08:42 Speaker 02 This one is.
1:08:43 Bill Simmons? No thanks.
1:08:43 Speaker 02 Uh, McLean's dummy mission that he's actually on. Then the existential threat of the bombs at the school with the.
1:08:52 Chris Ryan? Mm-hmm.
1:08:52 Speaker 02 The guy trying to defuse the bombs. There's multi-front wars and then the heist going on at the same time. So it's kind of a blueprint to a contemporary action movie where it's just not about the thing.
1:09:04 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:09:04 Speaker 02 There's four or five different things happening.
1:09:08 Bill Simmons? I think this is a What's Age the Best. You tell me, because everyone does Sam Jackson impersonations, right?
1:09:16 Bill Simmons? Does it come from this movie or Pulp?
1:09:18 Speaker 02 Pulp Fiction.
1:09:18 Chris Ryan? Pulp.
1:09:20 Bill Simmons? You could argue he's doing more of the Sam Jackson impression of Sam Jackson in this movie than in Pulp.
1:09:25 Speaker 02 No, you couldn't.
1:09:27 Bill Simmons? I think you could.
1:09:27 Speaker 02 It's Pulp. This is, this, this is like on the level of my, uh, Joe Pesci was better in Lethal Weapon 2.
1:09:39 Speaker 02 This is on the same level. It's Pulp Fiction.
1:09:41 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:09:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:09:44 Bill Simmons? On my way to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife has seven sacks. Every sack had seven cats. Every cat had seven kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks and wives. How many were going to St. Ives? John just nails it. I, there's no way I'm knowing that.
1:09:58 Chris Ryan? Zeus nails it.
1:09:59 Bill Simmons? Zeus nails it, I mean. Uh, no way I'm figuring that out.
1:10:03 Speaker 02 Just one.
1:10:04 Bill Simmons? I think if you. You just hear it once. There's no way.
1:10:06 Chris Ryan? It's hard. It's hard.
1:10:07 Bill Simmons? So Zeus nailing it is a What's Age the Best because I'm just so impressed that.
1:10:11 Chris Ryan? It's cool that he's like, I'm good at puzzles. Like, let me, let me, let me think about this for a second.
1:10:15 Bill Simmons? That's too fucking hard.
1:10:16 Speaker 02 Movie is, Zeus is kind of the brains of the operation when it comes to that whole thing. It's another little thing that the movie is doing, so very expectations. But that's a nitpick for me is some of these things that they have to do. I just don't have any faith they would have figured them out.
1:10:31 Chris Ryan? The question is whether or not they were supposed to or not.
1:10:34 Speaker 02 True.
1:10:36 Bill Simmons? Uh, and then any action movie villain playing Simon says, sign me up.
1:10:40 Chris Ryan? I, oh, can I talk about Katya now?
1:10:43 Bill Simmons? Do you have, I thought for sure you would use that as your CR flex category. You want to just do that here? Go ahead, do it.
1:10:50 Speaker 02 You want it so badly.
1:10:51 Chris Ryan? Katya is played by the country music singer Sam Phillips.
1:10:54 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:10:54 Chris Ryan? Her entrance in this film is among the three or four greatest character entrances of all time. She is wearing-
1:11:00 Bill Simmons? The cigarette in her mouth?
1:11:01 Chris Ryan? Popped collar, green army shirt, her blonde hair is slicked back, she's got sunglasses on and she's got a cigarette dangling from her mouth. And then she cuts a guy to pieces so that she's covered in his own blood. And it's the hottest thing I've ever seen in my life, save Edie.
1:11:15 Bill Simmons? Even better than Edie Falco Copland? This is really the heyday for you. Those movies are a year apart.
1:11:21 Chris Ryan? These are the two, this is like, like, Ollie Frazier of blonde smoking is Edie Falco.
1:11:27 Bill Simmons? Does she ever actually smoke or she just has the cigarette in her mouth?
1:11:30 Chris Ryan? Dangling out of her mouth, yeah.
1:11:31 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm. I think he's dead, my dear.
1:11:34 Chris Ryan? She's mute.
1:11:35 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:11:35 Chris Ryan? And the Israelis tried to kill her.
1:11:36 Bill Simmons? It's funny that she's a country western singer who just by mere body language and a smear in her face, a sneer in her face, looks like a German.
1:11:45 Speaker 02 I didn't learn this till I started doing research last night. I would have bet anything that she was in Eastern Europe.
1:11:53 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:11:53 Speaker 02 And that didn't speak any English at all.
1:11:55 Chris Ryan? No.
1:11:56 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:11:56 Chris Ryan? She's like a critically adored country music singer.
1:11:59 Speaker 02 She was married to fucking the guy.
1:12:01 Chris Ryan? T-Bone Burnett.
1:12:01 Speaker 02 T-Bone Burnett. Like, I'll, I'll literally look that up last night.
1:12:05 Bill Simmons? I mean, this does lead to, did the, the Malley Rubin Award for did this movie need a better sex scene?
1:12:10 Chris Ryan? It would have been nice.
1:12:11 Bill Simmons? They said they threw that in because McTiernan's like, we're getting an R anyway, let's get a little-
1:12:15 Chris Ryan? Also, can I just say?
1:12:16 Bill Simmons? We could have maybe unleashed her a little bit.
1:12:17 Chris Ryan? That's the kind of vision we need.
1:12:18 Speaker 02 Exactly.
1:12:19 Chris Ryan? Is guys who are like, I'm getting an R anyway.
1:12:22 Bill Simmons? We're getting an R anyway is the greatest sentence any director could say.
1:12:25 Chris Ryan? And there's gonna be some fucking-
1:12:27 Speaker 02 I love that. But you know what killed that? Remember when we, Craig, Craig was not here today, but remember when we talked to Craig? Uh, a little while ago, like last year, two years ago, and he was like, this movie had unneeded boobs. Like, why did this movie need boobs? Remember when we were having that conversation?
1:12:44 Bill Simmons? Yeah, that was.
1:12:45 Speaker 02 You know why the movie needs boobs?
1:12:46 Bill Simmons? Generational.
1:12:47 Speaker 02 Cause this is fucking America. That's why the movie fucking needs boobs.
1:12:51 Bill Simmons? Couldn't there have been a bomb in a strip club in this movie?
1:12:53 Speaker 02 Exactly. Like, that's why the movie needs boobs.
1:12:56 Bill Simmons? What's the name? Cheetahs? What's the, what was the Scores in the 90s?
1:12:59 Chris Ryan? Oh, in New York?
1:13:00 Bill Simmons? Yeah. I'm trying to think what, um, you know, my wife might be watching. What was the one, 90s?
1:13:09 Bill Simmons? Pandas?
1:13:09 Chris Ryan? You think Carrie is like?
1:13:13 Bill Simmons? Well, yeah, Scores.
1:13:14 Speaker 02 Yeah, Scores, yeah.
1:13:15 Bill Simmons? We could have put a bomb in Scores over the school.
1:13:17 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:13:18 Chris Ryan? Don't give away free IP.
1:13:19 Bill Simmons? Alright, sorry.
1:13:20 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:13:21 Bill Simmons? What do you have for Big Kahuna Burger Award for best use of food and drink?
1:13:24 Chris Ryan? Aspirin.
1:13:24 Speaker 02 The aspirin, yeah.
1:13:25 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:13:28 Bill Simmons? Great shot, Gordon Award, most cinematic shot. For me, bomb, wet, tower, exploding, uh, was just really good.
1:13:34 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:13:34 Bill Simmons? What do you have?
1:13:34 Chris Ryan? I, that, that is actually, I was gonna say the opening three or four shots of the sun coming up in New York City. And you're just like, I'm now hot.
1:13:42 Bill Simmons? Great stuff.
1:13:43 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:13:44 Bill Simmons? Ches Rockwell, Brock Laners Award.
1:13:45 Speaker 02 Hold on, I have one for great shot, Gordon.
1:13:47 Bill Simmons? What's here?
1:13:47 Speaker 02 The fucking guy getting cut in half.
1:13:49 Chris Ryan? Oh, from the wire.
1:13:51 Speaker 02 The wire.
1:13:54 Speaker 02 That is when I realized, oh, fuck it. They, they, they said fuck it.
1:13:57 Bill Simmons? I like when they drag him too. We should put that on what's age the best, when they're pulling the two different parts.
1:14:00 Chris Ryan? Yeah, you get the legs.
1:14:01 Bill Simmons? There's intestines everywhere, by the way. That's, it's way messier. Ches Rockwell, Brock Laners Award, best character name. Zeus Carver is pretty tough to beat. Yeah.
1:14:09 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:14:11 Bill Simmons? What do you have for flex category, CR?
1:14:13 Chris Ryan? Okay, I got two. One, that's pre-existing. It's when would I have died and it would have been water jugs? I still don't understand it. I've read extensive explanations to how they figure it out, and it's just.
1:14:26 Bill Simmons? Weird. My brain just figures this shit out.
1:14:28 Chris Ryan? I couldn't do it. So you would be able to do water jugs?
1:14:31 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:14:31 Chris Ryan? But you wouldn't, you wouldn't have gotten through St. Ives.
1:14:34 Bill Simmons? I just, he said it so fast. I don't think I could have remembered it.
1:14:38 Chris Ryan? But I did make up a new category for my flex here.
1:14:42 Chris Ryan? Yeah, Razzo Rizzo, I'm walking here. Most New York quote.
1:14:47 Chris Ryan? We did. Why keep calling me Jesus? Do I look Puerto Rican to you? The Wall Street guy saying, your lights are on. Look, I'll make this very simple. One twelve Wall Street, or I'll have your medallion. What? You don't like white people?
1:15:03 Chris Ryan? I like Zeus going, I'm not jumping through hoops for some psycho. That's a white man with. You deal with him when he calls, when he crosses a hundred and tenth street. And then Walter saying, get a hold of Musson in Triborough. Tell him to close the East River Bridges north of fifty ninth street, looking for dump trucks. And Connie goes, dump trucks? And Walter's like, McLean says there are dump trucks headed up the FBR, loaded with gold. Connie, Walter, they don't allow dump trucks on the FDR. So I like that one the most.
1:15:36 Bill Simmons? That's a good category. I wish we had that three, three episodes ago.
1:15:42 Bill Simmons? All right. Butch's girlfriend award for weak link of the film.
1:15:47 Chris Ryan? So this movie has the apocalypse now Flight of the Valkyries problem. Where like the action in the beginning of the movie is so good, there's no way to have a finale. It's like the helicopters in Apocalypse. So it's like, the first one hundred and thirteen minutes of this movie are fucking perfect. And you just can't top it. You can't top the subway car with the end of this film. And they, they kinda, they kinda give up. They kinda shrug their shoulders.
1:16:13 Bill Simmons? Yeah, we'll go, when we do half ass, we'll go into the, the alternate ending. I had the basically the same thing, but I'll even go a little more precise. Why is Zeus involved in the last forty minutes of this movie? It's fucking ridiculous. He's, he's a normal person. There's a moment in this movie where it's like, all right, Zeus, thanks for everything. Maybe you should go back to your store and your family and this is now like a police matter.
1:16:40 Chris Ryan? Simon no longer needs you.
1:16:41 Bill Simmons? Simon, you're not involved. You're not, this isn't a buddy cop movie anymore. Thank you for everything. But instead, he's just now a cop.
1:16:49 Chris Ryan? He's on the, he's in a chopper, leading the attack.
1:16:52 Bill Simmons? He's shot in the leg, he's fine.
1:16:54 Chris Ryan? You're doing Wind Horse fingers.
1:16:56 Speaker 02 Yeah, cuz I was gonna fucking get at Bill, but there's no reason to. It's a good point. You know what? This happens so often in these mid 90s action movies. Do you remember how Erika Eliniak becomes a fucking commando?
1:17:16 Speaker 02 She pops out to one of the great, great adolescent Van Lathan moments of milk of the early 1990s. It's just, bro, I'm not even gonna fucking try to act like I wasn't like, oh shit, when that happened. Then by the end of the movie, she a fucking Navy SEAL.
1:17:36 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:17:36 Speaker 02 So it, that does happen in these films and it's something that they've gotten away from. They don't do that that much anymore.
1:17:42 Chris Ryan? No, that is probably for the best.
1:17:45 Bill Simmons? I mean, 48 Hours invented it. Reggie Hammond goes from, he's on a 48 hour, you know, whatever. By the end of the movie, he's shooting guns, trying to find guns.
1:17:57 Bill Simmons? Did you have a weak link or no?
1:17:58 Speaker 02 I did. Holly. Got sick of it. The wife. No more mention of her. Hey, McLean, call your wife right now. Go call Holly. Man, fuck all that. We gotta get to the end of the mission here. Stop bringing Holly back into the movie. I know she was a big presence in terms of the driving narrative force of particularly the first Die Hard. And you could say.
1:18:22 Chris Ryan? Second two. She's on the plane.
1:18:23 Speaker 02 She's on the plane, but like, at this point, it's over. He saved basically two different cities and Holly's still not fucking with him.
1:18:32 Bill Simmons? Can I, can I give you, I had this for casting couch, a twist that would have made this movie better? The Colin Camp character. We make her Annabelle Shiora and John McClane's involved with her post divorce. But she's dumped him because he's an alcoholic, but she works in the, in the police department with him. And now we have a little sexual tension and she's pissed and blah, blah, blah. And the movie's just better.
1:18:56 Speaker 02 And then it makes her.
1:18:57 Chris Ryan? You take the phone call. We have the meeting.
1:19:00 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:19:01 Chris Ryan? If that's a pitch.
1:19:01 Bill Simmons? It's just a better movie.
1:19:02 Speaker 02 And then it gives it a little more stakes.
1:19:04 Bill Simmons? Oh, I gotta call Holly. Oh, now I gotta call her.
1:19:07 Chris Ryan? Is Spadilla in any other Die Hard movies? I don't think so, right?
1:19:12 Bill Simmons? And honestly, probably we talked about this. You could talk yourself into her not being in Die Hard 2. I know they, they shoehorn her in.
1:19:19 Chris Ryan? I think it's sort of like they, they basically make it. That's why John isn't like, I'm just gonna turn this over to airport ops.
1:19:24 Bill Simmons? I get it. It's just, it's a little shoe rung. The Die Hard 3 is ridiculous. What's age the worst? We got it. McClane has a bad head egg. He mentions it 42 times. But I like the ninth reference. Little stale. What else do you have?
1:19:39 Chris Ryan? Uh, I mean explosions in the New York City financial district are, are a little touchy. And then this whole thing came out around the Oklahoma bombing.
1:19:49 Bill Simmons? Yep.
1:19:49 Chris Ryan? Um, so they had to do a lot of like, basically like preemptive press to say like, it had nothing, you know, obviously we're not making light of this, but we're also.
1:19:57 Bill Simmons? Yeah, Willis does the press tour for it and they're like, there will be no bombing questions.
1:20:02 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:20:02 Bill Simmons? We're just talking about the movie. We made it a year ago.
1:20:04 Chris Ryan? So probably that, I would say, the two age the worst.
1:20:08 Speaker 02 So McClane's policing. Uh, John gets to the point to where he just, if he thinks that he just kills you. Okay?
1:20:16 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:20:16 Speaker 02 Like he doesn't give a fuck.
1:20:17 Chris Ryan? Yeah. If you have an Eastern European accent, you're dead.
1:20:20 Speaker 02 You're dead. Like particularly when he walks up on the guys and the thing just boom, boom, boom. I get it though. He's in a combat situation. And although I like it aesthetically, the heist where there's been an explosion and they're.
1:20:36 Speaker 02 Five or 10 dump trucks that are going down there and taking all of that gold. And the cops are just like, oh, okay, this guy said that just doesn't make that much sense. That's something that you have to believe in order for the movie to work.
1:20:48 Chris Ryan? Do you know what actually also has aged the worst is probably the the reputation of like city services? Cause like in this movie, when they're like, we're gonna have to find the bomb ourselves. And it's like the sanitation workers and the librarians and the firefighters are all just like, we're gonna fucking walk into schools. There might be a bomb. We gotta do it. And now it's kind of like, everybody's like, I don't know, these guys, they take too long to respond. Who needs libraries?
1:21:14 Bill Simmons? What's aged worse?
1:21:17 Bill Simmons? Well, they, uh, even McTernan has acknowledged this. The the gold is just way heavier than this.
1:21:25 Chris Ryan? The dump trucks, they would need like a hundred dump trucks, right?
1:21:28 Bill Simmons? Would have needed 480 dump trucks to take out as much gold as they took out. Each gold bar weighs 25 pounds.
1:21:34 Chris Ryan? One of the funny things is that they just only.
1:21:36 Bill Simmons? Completely fucked it up.
1:21:37 Chris Ryan? There's in the Fed, the Federal Reserve, there's only apparently a billion and a half dollars or something like that.
1:21:42 Speaker 02 So where did it get the other 300 million? Oh, it was 174 billion.
1:21:45 Bill Simmons? They they took some liberties.
1:21:47 Chris Ryan? Okay, but it's like, that even like, that's not even like a piece of the Lakers at this point.
1:21:52 Speaker 02 Right, because the Lakers sold for 10 billion.
1:21:55 Chris Ryan? 10 billion dollars.
1:21:56 Speaker 02 Valuable franchise.
1:21:57 Chris Ryan? Of all time.
1:21:58 Speaker 02 Ever.
1:21:59 Bill Simmons? 10 billion dollar valuation.
1:22:04 Bill Simmons? Got 4.8 billion for 4.8 billion dollar check, actually.
1:22:08 Speaker 02 10 10 billion bucks, you know, and by the way, the the late, the Minnesota championships don't count thing is absurd. It's absurd.
1:22:18 Bill Simmons? Okay, so if OKC wins on Sunday, we're taping this before game seven.
1:22:21 Chris Ryan? We should have a.
1:22:22 Bill Simmons? Is OKC like, we've won our second title.
1:22:24 Chris Ryan? Honestly, it's ridiculous. What you should do, if OKC wins on Sunday, you should do like a live pod from Seattle congratulating them.
1:22:32 Bill Simmons? Yeah, congratulate the Sonics fans for pulling off their second title.
1:22:35 Speaker 02 If the Sonics fans want to say that's our franchise, they can, but it's the same franchise, right?
1:22:41 Bill Simmons? You won 11 titles. It's fine. You've still won a shitload.
1:22:44 Speaker 02 It's they've won 17 titles.
1:22:46 Bill Simmons? Five titles in Minneapolis, when then they moved to LA.
1:22:49 Speaker 02 But it's the same franchise.
1:22:50 Bill Simmons? And they just kept the name Lakers.
1:22:52 Chris Ryan? It's not the Bus Family. Like, what are you talking about?
1:22:54 Speaker 02 They're the Lakers, though. They're still the Lakers, though.
1:22:57 Bill Simmons? Bullshit. Okay, you win a title in a city. That's where you won the title.
1:23:00 Speaker 02 17 championships.
1:23:02 Bill Simmons? Minus.
1:23:03 Chris Ryan? Ten billion dollar valuation.
1:23:05 Bill Simmons? Sixteen championships.
1:23:07 Speaker 02 Sixteen.
1:23:11 Bill Simmons? Wait, now, now you made me screw up my. Okay.
1:23:15 Speaker 02 Boston blitzed your mind.
1:23:16 Bill Simmons? No, uh, the ending stinks.
1:23:19 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:23:20 Bill Simmons? It's bad.
1:23:20 Chris Ryan? This is.
1:23:21 Bill Simmons? This is the flaw of the movie. It's, it's the what's age the worst. Um, and then you can see the alternate movie, the alternate ending on the special edition, all the stuff, and it's on YouTube. I sent it to you guys. The actual ending of this movie didn't happen.
1:23:38 Bill Simmons? McLean goes and finds him in Hungary.
1:23:42 Bill Simmons? And plays McLean says with Jeremy Irons and eventually kills him with a rocket launcher.
1:23:47 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:23:47 Bill Simmons? And it's really interesting. It's the most interesting John McLean scene of the first three movies. And of course, the studio is like, this is too dark. We can't end the movie this way.
1:23:57 Chris Ryan? It's like he's a vigilante.
1:23:58 Bill Simmons? Yeah. So they basically hustle this reshoot. They spent a lot of money on it. They, oh, it's like, oh, it turns out because he has the, the location on that aspirin.
1:24:08 Chris Ryan? It's crazy. You're like, so there's like a.
1:24:10 Bill Simmons? Idiotic.
1:24:11 Chris Ryan? Like a Quebec bottle of aspirin means you know, he's going to be back there now.
1:24:16 Bill Simmons? Like literally at that location. And then there's a helicopter and then they shoot him and then it's like Zeus is just sitting on the.
1:24:23 Chris Ryan? They don't arrest.
1:24:23 Bill Simmons? Sidewalk. Why is he in Quebec?
1:24:25 Speaker 02 If I, if I'm Zeus, I've had enough.
1:24:28 Bill Simmons? Yeah, I'm not going to Quebec.
1:24:29 Speaker 02 I'm not going to Quebec.
1:24:30 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:24:31 Chris Ryan? Or when we get to Quebec, we're not going to go jump this guy and put the spotlight on him when he's trying to have sex with Katya. We're gonna just go arrest him.
1:24:38 Bill Simmons? Yeah, or.
1:24:39 Chris Ryan? Send in SWAT.
1:24:40 Bill Simmons? This is like, my leg's fucked up.
1:24:42 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:24:42 Bill Simmons? I'm gonna skip Quebec. I've walked with a limp now. What, where's my money for all of this? Uh, it's really dumb. So, all right. So we're gonna go now to.
1:24:55 Speaker 02 My flex category.
1:24:56 Bill Simmons? The Ralph Lauren and Ruben and Patrick Joe Brack thing word?
1:24:58 Chris Ryan? Or that. I, I mean.
1:24:59 Bill Simmons? Sam dials it up a couple of times.
1:25:01 Chris Ryan? Sam dials it up and, and Iron styles it up a couple of times.
1:25:04 Bill Simmons? Dan, what's your flex category?
1:25:06 Speaker 02 It's the Ed Norton reverse dunk award. Did this movie need a random sports scene?
1:25:11 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:25:11 Chris Ryan? You don't consider the, the brothers on the, the stoop?
1:25:13 Bill Simmons? Yeah, there's some good passes.
1:25:15 Speaker 02 Yankee Stadium should have had a game going on.
1:25:18 Chris Ryan? Well, yeah.
1:25:20 Speaker 02 Yankee Stadium should have had a game going on. There should have been a game going on like.
1:25:22 Bill Simmons? You know what I think happened?
1:25:23 Speaker 02 Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly, Paul O'Neal, Danny Tartabull, all of those Yankees.
1:25:27 Bill Simmons? I have the answer for you.
1:25:28 Speaker 02 What?
1:25:29 Bill Simmons? I think the lockout had happened, the strike.
1:25:31 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:25:32 Bill Simmons? I think that's how they were able to film in the stadium.
1:25:34 Chris Ryan? So was Yankee Stadium just available for people to drop by and check it out?
1:25:37 Bill Simmons? I think it was. I don't think there were games.
1:25:40 Speaker 02 But.
1:25:40 Bill Simmons? Should have been mentioned in the movie, though.
1:25:42 Speaker 02 I look back at that era, because that's right before the Yankee golden era starts.
1:25:48 Bill Simmons? Year before.
1:25:49 Speaker 02 Year before.
1:25:49 Bill Simmons? They're in the 95 playoffs against Seattle.
1:25:53 Speaker 02 So, you know, some of these guys that would go on to become, you know, mainstays is pre-Jeter.
1:25:57 Bill Simmons? It's a good call.
1:25:58 Speaker 02 Yeah, but there should have been a game going on.
1:26:01 Bill Simmons? Could have gone to, yeah, or they could have done, the Met Stadium probably makes more sense for this movie.
1:26:06 Speaker 02 Yeah, probably.
1:26:09 Bill Simmons? The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford hottest take award.
1:26:13 Chris Ryan? Not sure how hot this is.
1:26:14 Bill Simmons? Okay.
1:26:15 Chris Ryan? How hot is it to say it's the best Die Hard movie? And to go along with your points earlier, how hot is it to say that it's perhaps improved by not imperiling Holly? By not having that kind of like, like weight on McLean? That it's really just more about him trying to save the city and save himself.
1:26:35 Bill Simmons? Die Hard's one of the best movies of all time.
1:26:38 Chris Ryan? I'm just, I just, the hottest take award.
1:26:39 Bill Simmons? I think everybody needs to calm down on that take. No, I, no, because I think there are people out there who are like, Die Hard 3 is the best Die Hard movie. And not even hottest taking it. Like, they actually genuinely believe it.
1:26:50 Speaker 02 So it's interesting. I wanted to say it, but I didn't have the nuts for it. But this is my favorite one.
1:26:57 Bill Simmons? That's fine.
1:26:57 Speaker 02 It, it, I'm not saying that this is better than Die Hard, right?
1:27:01 Bill Simmons? But I think that's okay.
1:27:03 Speaker 02 It's, it's, has a perfect ending, whereas this ending is not. So.
1:27:08 Bill Simmons? Rocky IV is my favorite Rocky movie.
1:27:11 Speaker 02 This is my.
1:27:11 Bill Simmons? Or Rocky III.
1:27:12 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:27:12 Bill Simmons? I can't even remember.
1:27:13 Speaker 02 This is my favorite.
1:27:15 Bill Simmons? One of those two is my favorite.
1:27:16 Speaker 02 Right. It changes all the time. It's not the best one, but this is my, I could, I could see how people.
1:27:20 Bill Simmons? It's the most entertaining.
1:27:21 Speaker 02 It's my favorite one. Yeah.
1:27:23 Bill Simmons? I think it's fair.
1:27:26 Bill Simmons? All right, I'm going full hot.
1:27:27 Chris Ryan? Good.
1:27:30 Bill Simmons? I think they blew it using the Simon Says gimmick for this movie. And I think it was a franchise. And I think it was just sitting there and I don't know why. Initially, it was a script called Simon Says, written by the same screenwriter. Lethal Weapon grabbed it, couldn't figure it out.
1:27:47 Chris Ryan? Joel Silver bought it.
1:27:48 Bill Simmons? They kind of give it to Die Hard 3 and they use it. I think it's either an action movie franchise or a horror movie franchise. And I actually think you could say it's a better horror movie franchise.
1:27:57 Chris Ryan? I mean, it just basically saw.
1:27:59 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:27:59 Speaker 02 Yeah. It did saw.
1:28:00 Bill Simmons? But the whole Simon Says gimmick, I didn't say Simon that time.
1:28:05 Bill Simmons? I think, I think I just see murders, blood and sequels with it.
1:28:08 Chris Ryan? Wouldn't it be crazy if we found out that Trump has been getting Simon Says'd for like years?
1:28:15 Chris Ryan? And like, like every, every day he gets a phone call. It's like, Simon says, you gotta do this. And he's like, fuck, all right, I gotta tweet this out.
1:28:21 Bill Simmons? Right.
1:28:25 Speaker 02 That's actually kind of the plot of Captain America: Brave New World.
1:28:27 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:28:28 Speaker 02 But.
1:28:28 Bill Simmons? Well, so Simon Says was supposed to be a Brandon Lee movie and then he died.
1:28:32 Speaker 02 He passed away, yeah.
1:28:33 Bill Simmons? So if he doesn't die and Simon Says just because, like, could they have made like five Simon Says movies?
1:28:39 Chris Ryan? It's been 30 years. We literally could probably get Simon Says going right now.
1:28:43 Speaker 02 They could probably get it made, bring our film.
1:28:44 Bill Simmons? Jack, does your generation care about Simon Says?
1:28:46 Speaker 02 Sure.
1:28:47 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:28:47 Speaker 02 Oh, y'all played that? Oh, yeah. Interesting. Um, you know what I didn't see? And maybe I missed this. Why did Joel Silver not produce this movie?
1:28:56 Bill Simmons? They had a Falling Out.
1:28:57 Chris Ryan? They had Falling Out.
1:28:58 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:28:58 Speaker 02 Who had a Falling Out?
1:28:59 Chris Ryan? I think Willis.
1:29:00 Speaker 02 Oh, Willis. Okay, cool.
1:29:02 Bill Simmons? You know, Willis was feeling it a little bit. He was married to Demi Moore.
1:29:04 Chris Ryan? Joel, a combative personality, I think.
1:29:06 Bill Simmons? Yeah, I think Joel wasn't.
1:29:08 Chris Ryan? I think, cause that was, um, there was a piece in the research about like Shane Black was maybe gonna write this. When it was Joel Silver and then it didn't.
1:29:18 Speaker 02 Interesting that Joel Silver, this movie does not get made with Laurence Fishburne.
1:29:24 Chris Ryan? And he goes on to make.
1:29:25 Speaker 02 Makes The Matrix with him.
1:29:28 Bill Simmons? I, I think this is true. I'm not positive for casting what ifs. We did Fishburne, but that Sean Connery was their first choice for Simon
1:29:36 Chris Ryan? McTiernan wanted him.
1:29:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, I saw it.
1:29:38 Bill Simmons? So we think that's true?
1:29:39 Chris Ryan? I mean, I think he makes the phone.
1:29:40 Speaker 02 I saw that in the research, but Sean said he didn't want to play like a, a.
1:29:44 Bill Simmons? It's such a, but then he.
1:29:46 Speaker 02 Remember they did Medicine Man though? Remember the Medicine Man movie?
1:29:49 Bill Simmons? I just think that movie bombs if he's, I don't think it's the same movie. I don't think it works.
1:29:53 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:29:54 Bill Simmons? I don't buy him as like an evil, plus him trying to do a German accent.
1:29:57 Chris Ryan? Also, Irons when he takes the, the, he's like got the tank top on, he's ripped.
1:30:01 Bill Simmons? It just doesn't work.
1:30:02 Speaker 02 When did Sean, has Sean gone bad in anything?
1:30:05 Bill Simmons? Fantasy?
1:30:06 Speaker 02 No.
1:30:07 Chris Ryan? In Atlanta.
1:30:09 Speaker 02 Connery.
1:30:09 Chris Ryan? Has, uh, Connery gone bad in anything?
1:30:12 Speaker 02 Besides.
1:30:12 Chris Ryan? He in like the seventies and stuff. He's like, I mean.
1:30:15 Bill Simmons? I haven't seen Hunt for Red October, but is he a bad guy in that?
1:30:18 Speaker 02 He defects to, no.
1:30:21 Bill Simmons? So does that count?
1:30:22 Speaker 02 No, he defects to the.
1:30:23 Chris Ryan? The Americans.
1:30:24 Speaker 02 The Americans.
1:30:25 Bill Simmons? Is that on, is that streaming?
1:30:26 Speaker 02 What is this Hunt for Red October thing? I'm, I'm not in on this joke.
1:30:29 Bill Simmons? It's a white whale for CR.
1:30:31 Chris Ryan? It's like one of the most obvious.
1:30:32 Speaker 02 You've never seen that before?
1:30:33 Bill Simmons? No, I've seen it.
1:30:34 Speaker 02 Oh, I was about to, oh, okay.
1:30:34 Bill Simmons? I like it. We just haven't done it yet in CR.
1:30:37 Chris Ryan? And he keeps giving me like, it's, he's Simon saysing me. He's like, Simon says, if you want to do Hunt for October, you gotta watch Inside Movies.
1:30:43 Speaker 02 A phenomenal, insanely good movie.
1:30:45 Bill Simmons? Becomes a divorced alcoholic. Then we're gonna do it.
1:30:50 Bill Simmons? Showed up just fucking smoking cigs.
1:30:52 Chris Ryan? God, CR, you look like shit.
1:30:54 Bill Simmons? He's bringing this little airport liquor bottles with him, pouring his coffee. Uh, McTiernan turned down Batman Forever so he could do this. That's a good casting lineup. Best that guy award. Is Colleen Camp count or is she Colleen Camp?
1:31:08 Chris Ryan? I think she's calling Camp.
1:31:10 Bill Simmons? The, uh, Kevin Chamberlain as bomb expert Charles Weiss?
1:31:14 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:31:14 Bill Simmons? The bald guy with the glasses?
1:31:16 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:31:17 Bill Simmons? Just if you saw him after that, it would be this. But I think the answer is Walter Cobb.
1:31:22 Chris Ryan? Larry Bregman.
1:31:23 Bill Simmons? Larry Bregman. Never knew what his name was. And, uh.
1:31:27 Chris Ryan? Big time New York theater actor. Uh, he's in the Al Pacino, Richard the third movie that got made like a little bit after this, but he like when in that movie, you can see he's like a big time.
1:31:37 Bill Simmons? And he's in Injustice for all.
1:31:39 Chris Ryan? Yes. Yeah. Uh, I had Anthony Peck as Walsh is up there. He's also in Hunt for Actour. Um, John Doeman, who's Rawls from the, the Wire is the construction foreman when they go into the tunnels. And I don't know if this is a that guy, but it's a that guy. Like if you, if you know, you know, is Elvis Duran.
1:31:58 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. Young Elvis Duran.
1:32:01 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:32:01 Speaker 02 Young Elvis Duran. I have Phyllis Yvonne Stickney. The black lady.
1:32:06 Chris Ryan? Oh, yeah.
1:32:07 Speaker 02 Who says in the movie, who says, everybody just call 911 at the same time. A mainstay. You see her everywhere.
1:32:13 Chris Ryan? Hmm.
1:32:14 Speaker 02 This is Malcolm X, all different types of roles. Shout out to her. I don't want to call her. She's a fantastic career, but I just wanted to shout her out.
1:32:23 Bill Simmons? I'd never do this, but I have to go back to a movie we did last week because I messed up a best that guy word.
1:32:29 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:32:30 Bill Simmons? And it really bothered me all week. Cause I didn't realize it was the same person.
1:32:33 Chris Ryan? Best marathon man, that guy?
1:32:35 Bill Simmons? So the guy who recognizes Zell.
1:32:38 Chris Ryan? Uh huh.
1:32:39 Bill Simmons? But doesn't recognize him right away and then falls him on the sidewalk.
1:32:42 Chris Ryan? And then gets.
1:32:43 Bill Simmons? Was also the gardener at the beginning of Bad News Bears, Breaking Training.
1:32:48 Speaker 02 Oh shit.
1:32:49 Bill Simmons? Who was like mentally.
1:32:50 Chris Ryan? What was up with Marathon Man and Bad News Bears, Breaking Training?
1:32:53 Bill Simmons? In Bad News, they use him. He's like basically the special needs gardener and they pretend he's the coach. And Kelly Lake teaches him.
1:33:00 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:33:00 Bill Simmons? How to say hello, how are you?
1:33:01 Chris Ryan? How bad did you want to do Bad News Bears, Breaking Training?
1:33:04 Bill Simmons? I just can't, but I love that movie. I can't believe I missed it.
1:33:06 Speaker 02 Is that the Astroworld one?
1:33:08 Bill Simmons? Astrodome.
1:33:09 Speaker 02 Uh, Astrodome one?
1:33:10 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Kelly Lake drives, he's 13.
1:33:13 Speaker 02 I'm sorry.
1:33:14 Bill Simmons? That was controversial Bad News Bears when they went to Astroworld.
1:33:18 Chris Ryan? When Travis Scott takes over the little league team.
1:33:20 Speaker 02 They lose a couple of the kids.
1:33:21 Bill Simmons? Kelly Lake drives the van to the Astrodome.
1:33:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, they go play.
1:33:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:33:24 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:33:25 Bill Simmons? But that guy was the.
1:33:26 Speaker 02 They play against a, no, no.
1:33:27 Bill Simmons? The Houston Toros.
1:33:28 Speaker 02 The Houston Toros, yeah. And then there's another one where they play against a Japanese team.
1:33:32 Bill Simmons? We don't talk about that. That's the sequel. We don't discuss. Dion Waiters a word?
1:33:37 Chris Ryan? It's San Phillips.
1:33:38 Speaker 02 It's San Phillips, without a doubt. That's easy. Or, or, there's only one more person. The Chester A. Arthur, Arthur truck driver.
1:33:45 Chris Ryan? Oh, Jerry. Yeah.
1:33:47 Speaker 02 Jerry comes in.
1:33:47 Chris Ryan? Played by Joe Zalun.
1:33:49 Speaker 02 Cooks for a little bit, solves a riddle, gets the fuck out of Dodge.
1:33:54 Bill Simmons? We did, I already did my recasting couch of Annabelle Ciura in Colin Camp with some history of John McClane. If Joe Panteliano is in here as Walter Cobb, I'm not, I'm not gonna argue.
1:34:05 Chris Ryan? Or like as the, I mean, Graham Greene's really good in this movie.
1:34:08 Bill Simmons? Joe Panteliano's in the movie, I'm not gonna argue. This is like peak Joey Pants. I feel like we could have snuck him in somewhere, but him as Walter Cobb, just getting mad at McClane and calling him a drunk. I don't think the movie's worse.
1:34:19 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:34:20 Bill Simmons? What do you have?
1:34:21 Chris Ryan? Uh, for recasting, I was thinking more about city. Could this have been in any other city?
1:34:26 Bill Simmons? San Francisco.
1:34:27 Chris Ryan? Cause LA, it's just, you're just in traffic and you're dead. Simon wins.
1:34:34 Chris Ryan? Simon says, do the collateral drive of LAX to downtown for 20 minutes.
1:34:39 Speaker 02 You're done, yeah.
1:34:40 Bill Simmons? Simon says, go to Eagle Rock. Fuck! It's gonna take three hours!
1:34:46 Chris Ryan? What, they're putting in a bike lane in Hollywood Boulevard? I'm dead!
1:34:50 Bill Simmons? Half-Assed Internet Research. So, they were trying to make Die Hard 3 for a couple of years, and Bruce is just rejecting scripts left and right. And especially because there'd been so many Die Hard ripoffs. But one of the scripts was called Troubleshooter, which had McClane fighting terrorists on a Caribbean cruise line.
1:35:11 Speaker 02 Speed 2.
1:35:12 Bill Simmons? And Bruce Willis said, "No thanks, sounds too much like under siege." They repurpose it, make it Speed 2.
1:35:20 Chris Ryan? Can I, can I do a little number here? Cause I, I was looking at IMDB.
1:35:25 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's, that's, that's Speed, Speed 2.
1:35:27 Bill Simmons? It's literally became Speed 2.
1:35:29 Chris Ryan? And one of the issues with them developing this at the time was that there were so many stu-, studios had so many scripts in development that were just diehard in a, you know, like that, just basically. So here are some of the ones that they had going at the time, but some of them got made, some didn't. Sandblast, which was Die Hard in a Sandstorm. No Safe Haven, Die Hard on Martha's Vineyard. Resillo, let's go!
1:35:50 Bill Simmons? Oh, yeah. Oh, my god.
1:35:51 Chris Ryan? Track Down, Die Hard in English, in the English Channel Tunnel.
1:35:55 Bill Simmons? Wait, what was the Martha?
1:35:55 Chris Ryan? Yeah. Sandblast. No, that, no, No Safe Haven was Die Hard on Martha's Vineyard.
1:35:59 Bill Simmons? Can we make that now with Resillo?
1:36:01 Speaker 02 Rusillo is, he's the leader, he's John McClane in that.
1:36:05 Bill Simmons? Rusillo's a sports podcaster, like hanging out Martha's Vineyard?
1:36:09 Speaker 02 He's on the Vineyard.
1:36:10 Chris Ryan? Him and Chris Long go out for a really long night on Martha's Vineyard, they're hungover. And then it's like the fairies, they're not running.
1:36:21 Chris Ryan? So Track Down is diehard in the English Channel Tunnel. Suspension, diehard on the George Washington Bridge. Platform and Rig were both diehard on oil rig movies. High Roller was diehard in Vegas, which is basically Con Air at the end, I guess, right?
1:36:37 Bill Simmons? Yeah, but they never, Vegas was still sitting there in the 90s as a full action movie.
1:36:43 Speaker 02 You could have done Die Hard.
1:36:44 Bill Simmons? By the way, sitting there right now.
1:36:45 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:36:46 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:36:47 Chris Ryan? Uh, what else? In Contempt, diehard in a courthouse. He Who Dares, diehard in the British Embassy in the United States.
1:36:53 Bill Simmons? I feel like you're making these up.
1:36:54 Chris Ryan? No, these are all from IMDb. L4, diehard at the Center for Disease Control. That is just like, and a bunch of diehard in Hurricanes.
1:37:03 Speaker 02 Diehard Wuhan.
1:37:04 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:37:07 Speaker 02 We gotta, gotta keep the virus in. That's actually, you gotta kill the terrorists, but you gotta keep the virus in.
1:37:13 Bill Simmons? Pretty good.
1:37:13 Speaker 02 Diehard Wuhan is pretty good.
1:37:15 Bill Simmons? They're gonna release this if we don't stop them. Damn. Man, that Martha's Vineyard one, what a great location for an action movie. There's no way in, no way out.
1:37:24 Chris Ryan? And you could have like, maybe Rusillo, like, over the course of the movie, he falls in love with like a yuppie girl who's only there for the summer.
1:37:33 Speaker 02 Right.
1:37:36 Bill Simmons? Diehard Catalina is sitting there too.
1:37:39 Speaker 02 Driving around in buggies.
1:37:40 Bill Simmons? Yeah, just like wedding at Catalina, oh my God, such a pain in the ass to get there. And then it's just the, you know.
1:37:48 Bill Simmons? The screenwriter, Jonathan Hensley, was detained by the FBI because the Federal Gold Reserve stuff in this movie was so accurate that they thought he had like inside intel.
1:38:00 Bill Simmons? Actually brought him in for questioning.
1:38:01 Speaker 02 What was his research? Where'd he get it from? Where'd he get his stuff?
1:38:03 Bill Simmons? He just said he read everything in the New York Times.
1:38:08 Bill Simmons? Bruce Willis's sandwich board was blank.
1:38:12 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:38:14 Speaker 02 Didn't want to take the chance.
1:38:15 Bill Simmons? They CGI'd it.
1:38:16 Chris Ryan? Yeah, they didn't want paparazzi.
1:38:17 Bill Simmons? They thought it was offensive.
1:38:18 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:38:19 Bill Simmons? Um, and then.
1:38:23 Bill Simmons? Dan, how did they do the four gallon jug thing? Just wanna see if you could do this right now.
1:38:28 Speaker 02 I, I can't. The four gallon jug thing, uh, I, I really don't know how you would do it.
1:38:36 Chris Ryan? I, I told you, I would die during that. I have no idea. Like, i- if the idea is that you can't subtract, you can't be off by a couple of ounces, then I wouldn't be able to do it.
1:38:48 Bill Simmons? You take the three gallon jug.
1:38:49 Chris Ryan? Uh huh.
1:38:50 Bill Simmons? You pour all of it into the five gallon jug.
1:38:51 Chris Ryan? So now there's three in there.
1:38:53 Bill Simmons? You take the three gallon jug again, you pour all of it into the five gallon jug, but only two of the gallons go, one gallon stays in the three gallon jug.
1:39:00 Chris Ryan? But how do you know you only got one gallon left?
1:39:03 Bill Simmons? So you keep that one gallon in the three gallon jug, cuz you've, you've poured five of the six gallons into the five.
1:39:08 Chris Ryan? Oh, okay, yeah.
1:39:09 Bill Simmons? Then you pour out the five gallon jug.
1:39:13 Bill Simmons? You take the one gallon that's left in the three gallon jug, you pour that into the five gallon jug, so now that has one gallon.
1:39:17 Chris Ryan? And then you do it again.
1:39:18 Bill Simmons? Then you do the three gallon, pour it in there for. It's actually pretty easy.
1:39:22 Chris Ryan? That's pretty smart.
1:39:23 Speaker 02 Okay, well, how about this, since it's so easy? Uh, yeah, yeah. What we'll do, since it's, cuz I, cuz you're talking your shit right now, that's fine.
1:39:33 Chris Ryan? I'm not talking about shit, I'm just saying.
1:39:34 Bill Simmons? It actually wasn't that hard. The other one, I think, was way harder.
1:39:37 Speaker 02 There's room over there, get FanDuel to fucking sponsor it, the Bill Simmons Jug Challenge for the Ringer Network. And I, I, I will take odds and will make bets about whether or not you can get this done.
1:39:51 Chris Ryan? But we have to switch it up.
1:39:52 Speaker 02 Well, yeah, we.
1:39:53 Chris Ryan? Switch up the numbers, cuz he's, he's obviously nailed.
1:39:54 Speaker 02 Switch up the numbers, cuz you'll figure this out.
1:39:56 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:39:56 Speaker 02 But if you really feel like you can do this, I'm actually.
1:39:59 Bill Simmons? I already said I could, I already said how to do it.
1:40:01 Speaker 02 We'll figure out a different one, the Bill Simmons Jug Challenge.
1:40:06 Bill Simmons? You just wanna do the Bill Simmons Jug Challenge.
1:40:13 Bill Simmons? That's where that was all going. Uh, Apex Mountain, Bruce Willis?
1:40:18 Speaker 02 No.
1:40:19 Chris Ryan? Well, you could say that these couple of years are, but.
1:40:21 Bill Simmons? I don't know, man. I think there's a case that's right here.
1:40:23 Speaker 02 Bruce Willis, Apex Mountain?
1:40:25 Bill Simmons? I think you make a case that's right here.
1:40:27 Speaker 02 Okay. Okay, I mean, I wanna hear the case.
1:40:31 Bill Simmons? Well, so he's red hot as an actor.
1:40:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:40:34 Bill Simmons? Then it dies down, then he has pulp in 94 and this in 95. And that leads to the 12 Monkeys Armageddon, Fifth Dome and Siege, Sixth Sense, Whole Nine Yards.
1:40:45 Speaker 02 This is his run.
1:40:46 Bill Simmons? I feel like he's kind of the number one call in 95 for anything with action or kind of cool anything, right? Like Hanks is like, Hanks has the Hanks corner.
1:40:56 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:41:00 Bill Simmons? I just think Bruce, this is it.
1:41:02 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:41:02 Bill Simmons? I think he has, I think if you're making a movie, it's like, can we get Hanks? Can we get Bruce? Can we get Cruz?
1:41:08 Chris Ryan? Right.
1:41:08 Bill Simmons? Those are the first three calls.
1:41:10 Speaker 02 I see what you mean.
1:41:11 Bill Simmons? And then Denzel's probably fourth.
1:41:12 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:41:13 Speaker 02 And when you talk about like culturally, the Demi Moore.
1:41:17 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:41:18 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:41:18 Bill Simmons? Also, like, Demi Moore, this is right around when she got the 20 million for Striptease.
1:41:23 Speaker 02 I think it was 12, but yeah.
1:41:25 Bill Simmons? As a couple.
1:41:26 Chris Ryan? Well, you just Lakers valuationed him.
1:41:28 Speaker 02 Yeah, exactly.
1:41:33 Bill Simmons? As a couple, it's about as good as it gets for a couple.
1:41:36 Chris Ryan? He's a huge, huge star.
1:41:37 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:41:38 Bill Simmons? Sam Jackson, I don't think so, but I also couldn't tell you when it was. Maybe Jackie Brown?
1:41:47 Chris Ryan? No, I think it's.
1:41:48 Bill Simmons? Later?
1:41:49 Chris Ryan? I think it's this, this area. This area doing pulp and Die Hard with a vengeance?
1:41:54 Bill Simmons? Still feel like it's like, how long is this guy gonna be up here? And then at some point that flipped.
1:42:00 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:42:01 Speaker 02 He, he's just done so many different types of movies. It would be difficult to pin down like when he was the most relevant and most at the peak of his powers because he maintained.
1:42:10 Bill Simmons? It's somewhere in the 90s that we can agree on that, right?
1:42:13 Speaker 02 Maybe.
1:42:13 Bill Simmons? Like at some point he became like, oh, Sam Jackson's just here now and that's how it's gonna be.
1:42:18 Speaker 02 Maybe, but you could then argue that it's Nick Fury. Yeah, you know.
1:42:22 Bill Simmons? So maybe when he gets Star Wars?
1:42:24 Speaker 02 That's 99.
1:42:25 Bill Simmons? Yeah, so it's right around there.
1:42:27 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:42:30 Bill Simmons? Jeremy Irons probably winning the Oscar.
1:42:34 Chris Ryan? Or margin call.
1:42:37 Bill Simmons? How about Harlem as a movie location?
1:42:39 Speaker 02 Shit, no.
1:42:41 Bill Simmons? What would you have?
1:42:42 Speaker 02 Harlem as a movie location?
1:42:44 Bill Simmons? Yeah, in a movie.
1:42:46 Speaker 02 I mean, I said that so quickly and now. What about Harlem Nights?
1:42:52 Bill Simmons? I mean, not very well liked movie, but I think it's had a. A re reckoning. No, I get, I know, but it was a bomb when it came out.
1:43:01 Speaker 02 So you got Harlem Nights, you got the Cotton Club, you got Hoodlum, these are all gonna be black movies, you got. I don't know, I would just wouldn't think about Harlem as a movie location, Die Hard with a Vengeance being.
1:43:13 Chris Ryan? It's only like in Harlem briefly, yeah.
1:43:16 Speaker 02 Yeah, I wouldn't think.
1:43:17 Chris Ryan? What about a movie set during the summer? Like summer movie?
1:43:24 Bill Simmons? Action movies, maybe.
1:43:25 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:43:26 Bill Simmons? That needed the summer as part of what they were doing.
1:43:29 Chris Ryan? Crazy, yeah.
1:43:29 Bill Simmons? Yeah, I think that's fair. The Wall Street School System?
1:43:32 Speaker 02 Yeah, for sure.
1:43:33 Bill Simmons? Apex Mountain, never discussed before since?
1:43:38 Bill Simmons? Gold Reserve, Bond with Teller, hundred percent.
1:43:41 Chris Ryan? For sure.
1:43:42 Bill Simmons? Hundred percent.
1:43:42 Chris Ryan? Maybe the first and last time it's been mentioned, mentioned in a film.
1:43:46 Bill Simmons? Colleen Camp, Who's Your Girl?, The Cigarette Smoker, Sam.
1:43:49 Chris Ryan? Sam Phillips.
1:43:50 Bill Simmons? Sam Phillips, all of them. Uh, Cruise or Hanks for this?
1:43:54 Speaker 02 Oh, I got a couple of other Apex Mountains.
1:43:56 Bill Simmons? Go, let's hear it.
1:43:57 Speaker 02 Die Hard's Eagles?
1:43:59 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:43:59 Speaker 02 Yeah, for sure. John McClane's sidekicks.
1:44:03 Chris Ryan? Yes, yes.
1:44:04 Speaker 02 So this is bigger than Bill Johnson, bigger than Justin Long.
1:44:09 Chris Ryan? Who's the dude in, in two that helps him with the air traffic control? He barely has a, like a partner in that movie.
1:44:14 Speaker 02 Yeah, so John McClane's sidekick, this is definitely an Apex Mountain of John McClane's sidekick.
1:44:19 Bill Simmons? Cruise or Hanks? To me, easy Cruise.
1:44:24 Speaker 02 The running.
1:44:26 Chris Ryan? Cruise is McClane?
1:44:27 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:44:28 Chris Ryan? I could also see Cruise as, as Simon.
1:44:30 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:44:31 Bill Simmons? Oh.
1:44:32 Chris Ryan? Blonde Cruise?
1:44:33 Bill Simmons? OCR, now we're talking.
1:44:34 Speaker 02 Fucking rocks.
1:44:35 Bill Simmons? OCR. Trying to do a German accent?
1:44:37 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:44:38 Speaker 02 Say OCR one more time.
1:44:42 Speaker 02 And then it's got a problem, it's a gigantic pause.
1:44:47 Bill Simmons? All right, Bill Simmons drugs movie.
1:44:54 Speaker 02 No, that's actually awesome.
1:44:56 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:44:57 Bill Simmons? So Cruz with the collateral hair?
1:44:59 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:44:59 Bill Simmons? Where he just goes blonde, tries a German accent.
1:45:02 Chris Ryan? Like Valkyrie, he tries it for like 10 minutes and then he's like, I forget it.
1:45:05 Bill Simmons? What thing would Cruz have learned how to do?
1:45:07 Chris Ryan? Um, he probably.
1:45:09 Bill Simmons? Drive a dump truck?
1:45:10 Chris Ryan? Learn how to do all the construction stuff.
1:45:15 Chris Ryan? He's like, we don't need Targo. I can, I can do all that.
1:45:18 Bill Simmons? I've actually studied gold.
1:45:19 Speaker 02 What if you dropped the racial component?
1:45:23 Bill Simmons? Cruz is Zeus?
1:45:24 Speaker 02 It's Cruz and Hanks together.
1:45:27 Chris Ryan? Why drop the racial component? Why not have Cruz running an electronics store in Harlem? Just be like, hey, I'm the first gentrifier.
1:45:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, I'm the guy. Like, everybody knows him.
1:45:37 Bill Simmons? They love me here. Scorsese or Spielberg? I would say Scorsese.
1:45:42 Chris Ryan? Yeah, Marty, New York City.
1:45:44 Bill Simmons? What role would Phil Hoffman have played?
1:45:46 Chris Ryan? Simon. Good.
1:45:48 Bill Simmons? Good Simon?
1:45:48 Chris Ryan? He'd also be good.
1:45:49 Bill Simmons? The weed cop with a, with a.
1:45:50 Chris Ryan? Or he could have done maybe, uh, um, the Graham Greene part.
1:45:54 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:45:54 Speaker 02 Oh, that would have been funny.
1:45:56 Bill Simmons? Pick a knits.
1:45:57 Speaker 02 John.
1:45:58 Bill Simmons? We mentioned, um, everything being open at 7:45 in this neighborhood is a little, little dicey. Zeus leaves the store, doesn't lock up, nothing, just leaves it open.
1:46:09 Chris Ryan? Well, I mean, it's not like the, I think he tries to get back to his store multiple times.
1:46:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:46:14 Bill Simmons? Never says at any point, we hear about Holly 45 times. We never hear Zeus stay over the next 15 hours. Shit, I left my store open.
1:46:22 Speaker 02 He's also a staple in the community, so maybe they're not gonna.
1:46:24 Chris Ryan? Doesn't he think his store's getting destroyed though?
1:46:27 Speaker 02 Yeah. Oh, he said those guys are, oh, he does say that.
1:46:30 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:46:30 Speaker 02 Because he does, actually, he does say that because.
1:46:33 Bill Simmons? I just feel like he'd be a little, be on his mind a tiny bit more that his entire livelihood is about to.
1:46:38 Speaker 02 Because he stuck up from a claim and he says what those guys are doing to my store right now.
1:46:42 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:46:42 Speaker 02 He does say that.
1:46:45 Bill Simmons? How did Simon know that McLean wore the sign?
1:46:48 Chris Ryan? He's, it seems like they are watching them at any moment. Like, he knows like when they're in the van with the FBI.
1:46:55 Speaker 02 Oh, he's wa- yeah, he's looking at them everywhere.
1:46:56 Chris Ryan? And the NSA guy that they're like, are you still, you know, putting your glasses in your mouth to butcher?
1:47:01 Bill Simmons? Let's talk this out. Simon's playing in this whole thing. He's got 100 people working for him because we see them all at the end.
1:47:07 Speaker 02 Yeah, there's a lot of dudes.
1:47:07 Bill Simmons? Yeah, he's got two football teams of people.
1:47:10 Speaker 02 Well, yeah.
1:47:10 Bill Simmons? Is there like a Mike Frable, meet, meet the group moment in three months before the heist? Hey, guys.
1:47:17 Chris Ryan? So you're asking-
1:47:18 Bill Simmons? I'm Simon Gruber. Uh, so you guys are gonna do this?
1:47:21 Speaker 02 There's some kind of paramilitary organization or something like that.
1:47:24 Chris Ryan? Yeah, they're all like mercenaries.
1:47:25 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:47:26 Chris Ryan? But you're asking, does, does Simon Gruber have a Connor Stallions? Who's constantly on rooftops looking at McLean?
1:47:33 Bill Simmons? Yeah, it's like, uh-
1:47:34 Speaker 02 Well, the, the dudes in Yankee Stadium, they're all-
1:47:37 Bill Simmons? Luther, you're gonna be, uh, you're gonna do, drive the truck with me. And Bobby, you're gonna be over, you're gonna be in Harlem making sure McLean's gonna wear that sign?
1:47:45 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:47:46 Bill Simmons? Like, how, or did they just put a camera there?
1:47:48 Chris Ryan? Well, my unanswerable question for this, which is tied directly to this, is how mu- many of these tasks did Gruber reasonably expect McLean to complete?
1:47:57 Bill Simmons? And how did he know they were being completed?
1:47:59 Chris Ryan? Uh, I mean, yeah.
1:48:00 Speaker 02 Whatever he was doing, he was obviously keeping them busy until-
1:48:03 Chris Ryan? But if they fucked the St. Ives thing up, was there even a bomb in the trash can?
1:48:07 Speaker 02 Well, well, you know, at the end, when they ask him, they go, there was never any bomb in the school, and he goes,
1:48:14 Chris Ryan? I'm not a monster.
1:48:15 Speaker 02 I'm a soldier, I'm not a monster.
1:48:15 Chris Ryan? Right.
1:48:16 Speaker 02 So I don't know how many people-
1:48:17 Chris Ryan? But he does blow up the train.
1:48:18 Speaker 02 He does blow up the train.
1:48:19 Chris Ryan? And the train, if it stayed on the train, would have killed thousands or hundreds of people.
1:48:23 Bill Simmons? Yeah, so I'm gonna go, maybe you were a monster. You were about to blow up 200 people.
1:48:27 Speaker 02 Right. But he had to blow them up to achieve his goal because he needed to go in there. So, yeah. Definitely a monster, though.
1:48:35 Bill Simmons? We mentioned the 480 dump trucks. Uh, my internet pick for me, I think movies fuck this up a lot. I just think McClain is just covered in blood.
1:48:43 Chris Ryan? Yeah, I had our main characters.
1:48:45 Bill Simmons? I think blood is every, I think he's had sprains. Like, think about Marvin getting his brains all over, like Sam Jackson's hair in Pulp Fiction, getting shot point blank. There's four Marvins in the elevator. Like, there's just, there's stuff all over John McClain.
1:49:01 Chris Ryan? So, taking it a step further, if I bang my shin in the middle of the night, like getting back into bed, I'm limping for like a day. They get a train derailment, they get shot, Zeus gets shot, they get splinters from a winch wire stuck in shoulders, they get trapped in a flood, then shot through a manhole cover, flip a Mercedes traveling at high speed, fall halfway off a bridge onto a hard surface, and they're more or less like walking around at the end of this movie.
1:49:26 Bill Simmons? And McClain gets hit and headed with a bottle.
1:49:28 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:49:29 Speaker 02 This character, the John McClain character is the same character from Unbreakable, that's him in Unbreakable.
1:49:34 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:49:35 Speaker 02 Because he is so fucked up. There's actually one scene where he's all fucked up, blood everywhere, and it's almost as if the water rejuvenates him, because he tastes the water, he wipes the blood off, and then
1:49:48 Bill Simmons? He's fine.
1:49:48 Speaker 02 He's ready to go back in the game.
1:49:51 Bill Simmons? Hung over, just needs some aspirin.
1:49:52 Speaker 02 I got a couple picking nits.
1:49:53 Bill Simmons? Go.
1:49:55 Speaker 02 So McClain doesn't even think about taking the 12 billion dollars.
1:50:01 Chris Ryan? Right. Or even just being like, what's important is we each get a gold bar here.
1:50:04 Speaker 02 Right. So the gold bars are everywhere. He says, we'll make a deal. There's 12. Think about the stakes here. People are gonna look at Van like he's an asshole, but I have to just put it out there. This is not like, hey, we got a suitcase full of a half a million for you, $200,000. It's 12 billion bucks. McClain, the boy scout, doesn't even think about it. Doesn't go, ah, or even, doesn't even tell Zeus or somebody else, they did offer us 12 billion.
1:50:32 Bill Simmons? It's happened in Marathon Man last week.
1:50:34 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:50:34 Bill Simmons? Hoffman just could have left with all the diamonds. He's like, nah, I'm too good for the diamonds.
1:50:37 Chris Ryan? A diamond.
1:50:38 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:50:39 Chris Ryan? A diamond, that's tuition for the rest of the.
1:50:40 Bill Simmons? Jesus Christ.
1:50:41 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:50:42 Speaker 02 Secondly. The henchmen that are in this are all six foot four German dudes with crew cuts.
1:50:49 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:50:49 Speaker 02 There's just no fucking way you're gonna believe that these guys are cops or guys that work on Wall Street.
1:50:54 Chris Ryan? This up when they all arrive.
1:50:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:50:56 Chris Ryan? And all these guys get off and Simon gets off the truck is like, hey there, partner. And it's like, why is there like a fake German Texan man who's in charge of city services here? Like, who's gonna do all the like demolition work?
1:51:09 Bill Simmons? Simon was like Sam Presti, like he liked length and athleticism.
1:51:12 Speaker 02 Right.
1:51:14 Bill Simmons? Lot of three and D guys.
1:51:19 Bill Simmons? We didn't talk about the biggest pick and knit. McLean, first of all, he drowns in the tunnel. But even if you're gonna say he doesn't, then the thing shoots him out. He gets shot up in the air. Who's driving by Zeus Carver coming back from Yankee Stadium? What's all fucking ridiculous? That's where like, to me, that's the jump the shark moment of this movie. We're like, all right, this is now getting stupid.
1:51:42 Chris Ryan? I do for the same way that you were, you were talking about how you'd like to test yourself with the, the water jug thing. I do wanna do the move that McLean does where he's like, take the anti-lock brakes off.
1:51:55 Speaker 02 That's a badass fucking shot, bro.
1:51:57 Bill Simmons? Yeah, that was good.
1:52:00 Chris Ryan? And every time I see him, I'm like, yeah, man, are anti-lock brakes holding me back?
1:52:07 Bill Simmons? Uh, last one is a big one. Did you have any more?
1:52:09 Chris Ryan? No. No.
1:52:12 Bill Simmons? Simon.
1:52:12 Chris Ryan? Oh, just the German thing. Like the second you hear a German accent, you're like, wait a second.
1:52:16 Bill Simmons? Right. Simon's this mastermind.
1:52:18 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:52:19 Bill Simmons? Planned everything out meticulously. And then just gives McLean the aspirin bottle that has the address of where you got the aspirin bottle.
1:52:27 Chris Ryan? Well, also, how did Simon think he was gonna get away with all the dumpsters being full of like metal pieces on Targo?
1:52:34 Bill Simmons? Just wouldn't be like, sorry about your headache, John.
1:52:37 Speaker 02 Yeah. Tells him to keep the bottle, basically tells him, hey, there's the bottle. Why don't you check it out?
1:52:42 Bill Simmons? It's like he wanted to get caught.
1:52:43 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:52:43 Chris Ryan? Yeah, maybe.
1:52:45 Bill Simmons? Sequel, prequel, prestige, TBR, Black Cast, Untouchable, where they did multiple sequels.
1:52:52 Speaker 02 You guys didn't like Live Free or Die Hard, not even a little bit?
1:52:54 Chris Ryan? I thought Olafant's good in it.
1:52:56 Speaker 02 I thought it was, I thought it was pretty cool, yeah.
1:52:58 Bill Simmons? I, if I'm on an airplane and I don't have a lot of choices, maybe?
1:53:01 Chris Ryan? Hacking is a good Die Hard thing.
1:53:03 Bill Simmons? No.
1:53:05 Speaker 02 Saw it in theaters.
1:53:06 Chris Ryan? Me too.
1:53:07 Bill Simmons? Oh, I did too. I saw it the day of the NBA draft. Yeah.
1:53:10 Chris Ryan? What a day for you.
1:53:11 Bill Simmons? Well, I was trying to get ready to write the running diary. Needed, went to like an 11 o'clock Die Hard 4 at The Grove to kind of take my mind off it. And was disappointed.
1:53:23 Chris Ryan? Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that.
1:53:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trell, Doris Burke, Sam Jackson, no, Byron Mayo, Barney Cousins, Tony Romo, Harling Mays, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview, Long Legs? Or Wilford Brimley and The Firm?
1:53:38 Chris Ryan? Gotta do one more DB before the, you know, as we end the NBA season. And I, I fucked up by never mentioning that earlier in the playoffs, she said, "Bonjour, Mr. Hartenstein."
1:53:51 Chris Ryan? So I would probably go DB saying, "Oh, Federschins, Eric Gruber."
1:54:02 Bill Simmons? Simon Gruber, just a mastermind.
1:54:06 Chris Ryan? You've played through headaches, but we see you.
1:54:09 Bill Simmons? He sees the whole city as a launching pad.
1:54:14 Bill Simmons? Just one Oscar who gets it. Man.
1:54:16 Chris Ryan? McTiernan.
1:54:17 Speaker 02 Yeah, direction.
1:54:19 Bill Simmons? Is there an Irons case?
1:54:21 Chris Ryan? No.
1:54:21 Speaker 02 Nah, that doesn't do enough.
1:54:23 Chris Ryan? Out of curiosity, what was this Oscars year like?
1:54:26 Bill Simmons? Uh, no chance for anything.
1:54:28 Chris Ryan? Yeah, that's what I thought.
1:54:28 Bill Simmons? 95 was rough.
1:54:31 Bill Simmons? Unanswerable questions.
1:54:36 Bill Simmons? What's the next day like with the newspaper coverage? What's the lead story?
1:54:43 Bill Simmons? Is it the subway explosion?
1:54:44 Chris Ryan? That's a fucking awesome question.
1:54:46 Bill Simmons? Subway explosion, is it the water thing going on?
1:54:48 Chris Ryan? Can we be specific about how does the New York Post cover it versus how the New York Times covers it?
1:54:52 Speaker 02 So you have-
1:54:53 Bill Simmons? New York's under attack? What are the headlines?
1:54:55 Speaker 02 You have multiple explosions, you have the flood, you have McLean himself, then you have somebody getting cut in half on a boat.
1:55:07 Bill Simmons? You have a boat blowing up, you have three things blowing up.
1:55:10 Chris Ryan? Cause a lot of stuff doesn't quite happen. I think the number one story is the subway crash. Number, subway crash is on the front page in the New York Post.
1:55:18 Bill Simmons? I think it's almost a New York under attack.
1:55:20 Speaker 02 Kind of, because the bombs in the school-
1:55:22 Bill Simmons? Mad Men gets away.
1:55:23 Speaker 02 Finding a bomb in a school is a fucking crazy story.
1:55:27 Chris Ryan? But they didn't. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, it's, it's an almost story.
1:55:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, it is. It's a part of the narrative.
1:55:34 Speaker 02 Then Simon dies, so they get, they got his face on the deal. This is the mastermind of the New York-
1:55:43 Chris Ryan? It would've been cool if Simon had made it a multi-day thing so that we could've had New York Post, Simon says we're dead.
1:55:49 Speaker 02 Simon says the headline.
1:55:50 Bill Simmons? Could've been like an eight-day thing. And then the other thing I was thinking was 1994, which was an amazing time in New York City, because you had the Rangers, you had the Knicks, you had the heyday of Mike and the Dog.
1:56:04 Bill Simmons? And then you have diehard filming in New York, probably Apex Mountain.
1:56:08 Chris Ryan? Wait, you're skipping a very important question. How, how do Mike and the Dog react to this?
1:56:13 Bill Simmons? Well, so that was my third thing.
1:56:14 Chris Ryan? If, if this is really New York City, what is the next day Mike and the Dog?
1:56:18 Bill Simmons? Well, so, or is it 1995 Mike and the Dog or 1994?
1:56:22 Chris Ryan? I don't know, what is it?
1:56:23 Bill Simmons? Hey, we have- Cause they're filming this in 94, but I, I, because the movie came out in May 95, we have to assume it happened in May 95. So the Knicks are in the playoffs, and I think Dog's like, "Mike, we gotta talk about what's going on in New York City later, but first game three, Knicks paces. Let's talk about, uh, what, what does Huey got to do? Later on, we're gonna talk about how things blowing up, Mike." I think it was a huge day in New York.
1:56:48 Chris Ryan? I just went to Bonwit last week.
1:56:51 Bill Simmons? I, I went to Bonwit Tella three weeks ago. It's a staple of the city.
1:56:57 Bill Simmons? But driving through Central Park, Dog, it's just crazy. I just can't believe they did that.
1:57:04 Bill Simmons? Yeah, I think they get to- Second hour.
1:57:07 Speaker 02 Take some calls.
1:57:08 Bill Simmons? Yeah. And then we gotta talk Rangers, Mike.
1:57:11 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:57:12 Bill Simmons? Uh, what piece of memorabilia would you want or not want from this movie?
1:57:19 Speaker 02 I want her knife.
1:57:22 Chris Ryan? The scythe?
1:57:23 Speaker 02 The little scythe that she has.
1:57:25 Bill Simmons? That's good.
1:57:26 Speaker 02 I thought I wanted a gold bar, but it's gonna be a fake gold bar. How much is one of those gold bars worth?
1:57:29 Bill Simmons? I'd want one of the bricks, like a game used, diehard gold brick.
1:57:34 Speaker 02 Bricked up.
1:57:34 Bill Simmons? Movie, movie used.
1:57:35 Speaker 02 Like, how, how, how much, how much would one actual gold bar like that, for real? Like, how much?
1:57:39 Bill Simmons? So apparently they're 25 pounds.
1:57:41 Speaker 02 But how much is it worth? A 25 pound gold bar?
1:57:43 Bill Simmons? Depends on the price of gold at the time.
1:57:45 Chris Ryan? Yeah, at any given moment.
1:57:46 Speaker 02 Just, I know, I understand financial shit, but like, what's the ball?
1:57:50 Bill Simmons? Well, I don't, it would depend on gold by the pounds. So what is it by the pound? If it's like a hundred dollars by the pound, then that's the price. So it's a brick.
1:58:01 Chris Ryan? See.
1:58:01 Bill Simmons? They always say buy gold. It's like, gold never goes down.
1:58:05 Chris Ryan? I can't figure this out.
1:58:06 Speaker 02 Okay. Do this.
1:58:08 Bill Simmons? I'm sure somebody will email us.
1:58:09 Chris Ryan? It's a hundred and eight dollars by the gram today.
1:58:11 Speaker 02 By the gram?
1:58:13 Chris Ryan? Thirty-three hundred dollars by the ounce.
1:58:16 Bill Simmons? By the ounce? Thirty-three hundred dollars by the ounce?
1:58:18 Chris Ryan? That's what it said.
1:58:20 Speaker 02 How many ounces in a pound? Fucking, uh, math.
1:58:24 Chris Ryan? Gold price per ounce, three thousand, three hundred and sixty-seven dollars right now.
1:58:29 Bill Simmons? So each brick was like over a hundred thousand dollars?
1:58:31 Speaker 02 Yeah. Look at you. Jugs.
1:58:36 Bill Simmons? Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. What do you got?
1:58:39 Speaker 02 If we can beat racism, we can beat Europe.
1:58:43 Speaker 02 They work together, they beat racism, and then they beat the Germans, just like we did in fucking forty-four, baby.
1:58:51 Bill Simmons? I love it. I, I was gonna say, just don't count out the divorced alcoholics in your life.
1:58:55 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
1:58:55 Bill Simmons? They never know when you're gonna surprise you.
1:58:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:58:58 Chris Ryan? I was gonna say, for the piece of memorabilia that I would want is the packaged shirt they hand John McClane at the police station. To be like, here, you gotta put something else on. And then I would wear that shirt for my entire alcoholic era of podcasting.
1:59:14 Bill Simmons? If the sandwich board was
1:59:19 Speaker 02 Oh shit. Get the fuck out of here.
1:59:21 Bill Simmons? It was CGI.
1:59:22 Speaker 02 I don't wanna have to defend.
1:59:24 Bill Simmons? No, and you're at somebody's house and they're like, yo, I have the sandwich board. Do you want it?
1:59:29 Speaker 02 You know what's funny is all the random shit.
1:59:31 Chris Ryan? You know, if he wore that in Boston, people would be like, hey, man, how's it going?
1:59:35 Speaker 02 See, yeah.
1:59:36 Chris Ryan? What the hell?
1:59:37 Speaker 02 Probably hanging.
1:59:38 Chris Ryan? Can I get one of those?
1:59:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, where'd you get that at?
1:59:40 Bill Simmons? Would you want the blank sandwich board?
1:59:42 Speaker 02 No, no, I don't want the blank sandwich board.
1:59:44 Bill Simmons? Pretty good artifact from the 90s movies. I wouldn't want it either. Uh, best of a feature choice. I'm gonna go with Die Hard.
1:59:51 Chris Ryan? Okay.
1:59:52 Bill Simmons? Go Die Hard, right to Die Hard 3.
1:59:54 Chris Ryan? That's good.
1:59:54 Bill Simmons? Skip Die Hard 2, which is kind of in its own universe.
1:59:57 Speaker 02 You know what I got?
1:59:58 Bill Simmons? Under Siege?
1:59:59 Speaker 02 I got The Siege.
2:00:01 Chris Ryan? Oh, cuz it's another New York. That's really good.
2:00:04 Speaker 02 All whatever with Bruce Willis, who kind of starts off like he's gonna be the hero and that, then ends up being an asshole.
2:00:08 Bill Simmons? I still haven't decided whether I like that movie and it came out like almost 30 years ago.
2:00:12 Speaker 02 Fucking every time I look at it.
2:00:14 Bill Simmons? I might have to watch it again.
2:00:15 Speaker 02 It, it, well, yeah.
2:00:16 Bill Simmons? My dad's here all weekend. Maybe I'll make him watch it.
2:00:18 Speaker 02 It gets better every time I look at it.
2:00:19 Chris Ryan? It's really good, Denzel, and it's really good Willis.
2:00:23 Speaker 02 Like a, a off kilter, uh, kinda Annette Bening?
2:00:26 Chris Ryan? Mm-hmm. Uh, I would probably, I'll just go Pulp Fiction.
2:00:33 Bill Simmons? Who won the movie?
2:00:36 Chris Ryan? I'm gonna, I'm gonna say Sam Jackson.
2:00:39 Speaker 02 Oh.
2:00:39 Chris Ryan? Because I think.
2:00:41 Bill Simmons? I had Sam as well.
2:00:42 Chris Ryan? It's the breath of fresh air that the franchise needed. It's one of those rare moments when you can tell, I don't know if this is literally true, but at least on screen, you can tell that the star is happy to share the screen with the person and is like, you, you got this scene. Like, you can, you can make, you can make fun of me. You can like make me look stupid. You can make me look small minded or whatever. I, I love acting with you. And I think he just gives this movie a new life.
2:01:09 Speaker 02 I'm gonna go Willis. It's just hard to beat the character of, of, uh, of John McClane.
2:01:14 Bill Simmons? I think Sam Jackson wins because Pulp Fiction no longer becomes a fluke.
2:01:19 Speaker 02 I see what you mean.
2:01:20 Bill Simmons? He is now there. He can help carry a major, major movie and now the rest of his career falls into place. And the movie stands the test of time. People love it. Like, like CR was at, what, what theater were you at?
2:01:35 Speaker 02 Vidiot, yeah.
2:01:35 Chris Ryan? Vidiot on Sunday night.
2:01:36 Bill Simmons? How many people?
2:01:37 Chris Ryan? Packed house.
2:01:38 Bill Simmons? People loving it.
2:01:39 Chris Ryan? Yeah, on a Sunday night.
2:01:42 Speaker 02 Have, have you guys done, have we done the last Boy Scout?
2:01:46 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
2:01:48 Speaker 02 That was-
2:01:48 Bill Simmons? Left-handed throw is tough.
2:01:52 Bill Simmons? Don't know why they had to sink that in. Let me ask you, what is more intriguing to you, Florida Keys Month or New Orleans Month?
2:02:01 Chris Ryan? What do, what do we got for the Keys?
2:02:02 Speaker 02 Yeah, what's in there?
2:02:04 Bill Simmons? Out of Time?
2:02:05 Speaker 02 Oh shit. Out of Time is that shit.
2:02:07 Chris Ryan? What's the Hackman movie?
2:02:09 Bill Simmons? When I say I've been scouting Out of Time, it's like the fucking Mavericks studying Cooper flag tape at this point. Like, it's gonna happen this summer. Just telling you.
2:02:17 Speaker 02 Here's the only thing about New Orleans Month versus Florida Keys Month. It really comes down to, in my opinion, a battle between Angel Heart and Out of Time. And like, which movie do you wanna do more? And that is a tough decision to make. And Angel Heart rewatchable-
2:02:34 Bill Simmons? Heaven's Prisoner-
2:02:34 Speaker 02 Fucking unhinged.
2:02:36 Bill Simmons? It's on the list.
2:02:37 Speaker 02 Heaven's Prisoners, Angel Heart.
2:02:40 Bill Simmons? What are the other two New Orleans movies? Big Easy?
2:02:43 Speaker 02 I mean, I would say we should do-
2:02:44 Bill Simmons? Can I throw a Florida Keys?
2:02:45 Speaker 02 Let's do it again, but-
2:02:46 Bill Simmons? Have you ever watched Night-
2:02:47 Speaker 02 Let's Do It Again. The movie Let's Do It Again.
2:02:50 Bill Simmons? Oh, Let's Do It Again.
2:02:51 Speaker 02 Uptown Saturday Night with Bill Cosby and-
2:02:54 Bill Simmons? Oh, you're going way back.
2:02:55 Speaker 02 And then Let's Do It Again, uh, with-
2:02:58 Bill Simmons? How about Tightrope with Clint Eastwood?
2:03:00 Speaker 02 Tightrope with Clint Eastwood.
2:03:01 Bill Simmons? Going through the French Quarter looking for-
2:03:02 Chris Ryan? Oh, yeah.
2:03:03 Bill Simmons? Looking for a sexual assaultor and kinda gets pulled in. He's into deep, he's getting into the dark side.
2:03:09 Chris Ryan? Maybe we should do Into Deep Month.
2:03:12 Speaker 02 Into Deep Month is good.
2:03:14 Chris Ryan? Crossing the line month.
2:03:15 Bill Simmons? Tightrope's a good one.
2:03:16 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:03:16 Bill Simmons? He's like, you know what? I kinda, kinda like the dark side of the French Quarter.
2:03:21 Speaker 02 We could re-eight millimeter.
2:03:24 Chris Ryan? Well, that would be a good time to do the re-Miami Vice.
2:03:28 Bill Simmons? We're doing that live in LA.
2:03:30 Chris Ryan? Uh, my favorite Florida Keys, I think, is Night Moves, which is about Ha- Hackman plays an ex-football player turned private eye.
2:03:38 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
2:03:38 Chris Ryan? Who has to go search for the teenage daughter of a B-movie actress in the Keys.
2:03:43 Bill Simmons? Wild Things is Keys too, right?
2:03:45 Speaker 02 Wild Things is Keys. Wait, Wild Things might just be Miami.
2:03:49 Bill Simmons? I think it's the Keys.
2:03:50 Speaker 02 Is it?
2:03:51 Chris Ryan? We could do.
2:03:53 Speaker 02 South Florida.
2:03:53 Chris Ryan? We could do South Florida Month and get Scarface in finally.
2:03:56 Bill Simmons? South Florida Month.
2:03:57 Speaker 02 South Florida Month would be Scarface, Wild Things, Miami Vice.
2:04:02 Bill Simmons? Florida Month.
2:04:03 Speaker 02 South Florida Month, yeah. Scarface, Wild Things.
2:04:05 Bill Simmons? That gets a little more interesting. I feel like the Keys are the most underrated, uh, movie location.
2:04:11 Speaker 02 Miami.
2:04:11 Bill Simmons? Movie TV. What was that? What was that Netflix show?
2:04:14 Chris Ryan? Uh, Bloodline.
2:04:16 Bill Simmons? Really used the Keys nicely.
2:04:17 Chris Ryan? Good first season, yeah.
2:04:18 Speaker 02 I just can't think of that many movies that are set in the Keys that like, besides the ones we talked about.
2:04:23 Bill Simmons? I'm upset that New Orleans hasn't been in more movies.
2:04:25 Chris Ryan? Well, it stands in for everything. They shoot so much there.
2:04:28 Speaker 02 But there's a ton that we're, we're forgetting. There's, obviously the movie, The Big Easy. Did you like that movie?
2:04:33 Chris Ryan? What's the?
2:04:34 Bill Simmons? I did, but it hasn't aged great.
2:04:35 Chris Ryan? What's the Alec Baldwin?
2:04:37 Bill Simmons? Pretty dated. The Heaven's Prisoners is a classic.
2:04:39 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:04:40 Speaker 02 Yeah. So, I mean, there's, there's, there's films on it. We just, we're not, we're not thinking about them. And then there are a lot of movies that go down.
2:04:46 Bill Simmons? I knew you'd be here, Robishaw.
2:04:49 Speaker 02 Hey, can I tell you something about that? That movie is the movie where I realized that it wasn't quite gonna happen for Alec Baldwin.
2:04:57 Chris Ryan? Is Angel Heart New Orleans?
2:05:00 Speaker 02 It is.
2:05:00 Bill Simmons? Come on, CR.
2:05:01 Chris Ryan? That's what I thought.
2:05:03 Speaker 02 Louis Seifert. Because Heaven's.
2:05:04 Bill Simmons? That's the, that's the movie that gets the rewatchables canceled and from Spotify. They're like, we, we'd no longer like to see it.
2:05:13 Speaker 02 Can I be real? When you go back and you look at that movie, there was a lot of scandal around it during that time. It ages actually better than some of the other films that, I mean, obviously she's doing wild shit in the movie.
2:05:29 Bill Simmons? Cliff Huxtable's daughter being in that movie was the single craziest thing that happened in the 1980s. I would put it against anything else that happened in the 80s.
2:05:38 Speaker 02 It was a conversation.
2:05:40 Bill Simmons? You can't even understand what that was like.
2:05:41 Speaker 02 My mother was like, what is that girl doing? Because the movie was set in New Orleans. It was a big deal. Like, my mother was like, what is that girl doing? Like, cause it was like Angel Heart was a devil worshiping movie and stuff like that.
2:05:52 Chris Ryan? Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that.
2:05:54 Bill Simmons? That was America's Family.
2:05:55 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:05:57 Bill Simmons? Still can't believe it.
2:05:58 Speaker 02 You could also do.
2:05:59 Bill Simmons? Like, just hearing rumors about, oh, there's a big sex scene in this movie. It's like, with Lisa Bonet?
2:06:05 Speaker 02 Covered in blood.
2:06:06 Bill Simmons? And then you go to the movie and you actually see it and you're like, ah, I, I, I just. Ah.
2:06:14 Speaker 02 You could also do controversy month. Movies that went crazy with.
2:06:19 Chris Ryan? Oh, really controversial films.
2:06:21 Speaker 02 Really controversial films.
2:06:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah, could almost be like, holy fuck, this was a big deal month.
2:06:27 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:06:28 Bill Simmons? Yeah, Angel Heart was one of those. Well, then there was the whole thing with Angel Heart about whether they actually had sex or not.
2:06:32 Speaker 02 Whether or not they were actually.
2:06:33 Bill Simmons? That would be a good month. Did they actually have sex or not?
2:06:36 Chris Ryan? Don't look, yeah.
2:06:38 Speaker 02 Uh, Monsters Ball.
2:06:41 Speaker 02 Where there's some talk.
2:06:45 Speaker 02 There's some talk. There's talk.
2:06:47 Bill Simmons? Don't Look That with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. That was a famous one.
2:06:50 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:06:51 Speaker 02 Last Tango in Paris. Was there talk?
2:06:54 Bill Simmons? Can't remember that one.
2:06:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:06:56 Chris Ryan? Uh, that one was problematic, yeah.
2:06:57 Bill Simmons? Yeah, that became a problematic one later. There's been, there's been over the years, there's been. There was one where the couple, oh, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in The Getaway.
2:07:06 Speaker 02 And they.
2:07:07 Bill Simmons? Oh, yeah. Maybe they.
2:07:08 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:07:08 Bill Simmons? Maybe they took some liberties.
2:07:10 Speaker 02 See, this is my thing with Alec Baldwin. I don't know, I know we've got to wrap up, but all of these movies mean something to me. The Getaway, I fucking loved. Heaven's Prisoners, I loved. I like these movies, but people just. They weren't fucking with him. Like, it just wasn't.
2:07:25 Chris Ryan? I think they were fucking with him. I think Alec was like making some weird choices.
2:07:29 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
2:07:29 Chris Ryan? I mean, he talked his way out of Jack Ryan. It's not like they were like, you know, this fuck hunt for October, we gotta get.
2:07:35 Bill Simmons? Where do you stand on the Mexican?
2:07:37 Speaker 02 Uh, the Brad Pitt one?
2:07:38 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Julia Roberts, Gandolfini.
2:07:40 Speaker 02 Saw her once or twice. Don't really have a real.
2:07:44 Bill Simmons? It's not very good, but Gandolfini is great in that movie.
2:07:47 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:07:48 Bill Simmons? Gandolfini was just great for the entire nineties and nobody was kind of on it.
2:07:52 Speaker 02 It's Jordy, True Romance.
2:07:54 Bill Simmons? Eight Millimeter.
2:07:54 Chris Ryan? He was so demented in True Romance, yeah.
2:07:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, whatever. But like, he, he, he was like fantastic. And then, once again. Kind of gets to that point. And I don't know, it doesn't happen as much anymore to me, where by the time Tony Soprano comes around, you go, oh, so it's his turn now. They're finally giving him something.
2:08:12 Chris Ryan? Right.
2:08:13 Speaker 02 Good.
2:08:14 Bill Simmons? Watched Swingers with my wife and, uh, my daughter and her boyfriend who was in town. And, uh, it was my wife was insisting that they would like it. And I was like, all right, they're not gonna like it. And we watched it. They both loved it.
2:08:26 Chris Ryan? Oh, that's good.
2:08:27 Bill Simmons? Yeah, Swingers. Still like really solid. Movie's almost thirty years old. We did it on the rewatchables a million years ago, but I was like surprised how much they liked it.
2:08:36 Chris Ryan? That's cool.
2:08:37 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
2:08:37 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:08:38 Bill Simmons? Yeah. You never know what's gonna age and not age.
2:08:40 Chris Ryan? Yeah, I wonder if they would like Go, for instance.
2:08:43 Speaker 02 We let go.
2:08:44 Bill Simmons? We let go.
2:08:45 Speaker 02 It, I love swingers, but I always think about the scene where Fabro's character calls that girl like 90 times.
2:08:53 Bill Simmons? That's what, they were going nuts what a loser he was.
2:08:55 Speaker 02 And that, that, that is so tough to watch.
2:08:58 Bill Simmons? It's, he has like three or four scenes in that movie where like my daughter was like, oh my God, what's wrong with this guy? But she kinda liked it, but it's a really fun snapshot of LA. Even as the years pass and LA has changed since we've even been here.
2:09:12 Chris Ryan? Yeah.
2:09:13 Bill Simmons? Um, just what LA was like back then, pre-internet.
2:09:15 Speaker 02 Last thing I'll say. There's no defining piece of whatever of LA culture like now. And that's what some of these things kinda miss. During that time, it was like, oh my God, I wanna go to LA because it's like, uh, I mean, there's Beverly Hills, 90210, there's Melrose Place, there's swingers, there's even.
2:09:36 Chris Ryan? Entourage.
2:09:37 Speaker 02 And then Entourage.
2:09:37 Bill Simmons? There's indie movies happening.
2:09:39 Speaker 02 For the next, like, generation. And now, cities having personalities like that. It's, everything's so homogenous, it's kinda like, doesn't exist unless I'm missing some stuff.
2:09:49 Chris Ryan? No, I mean, I think the last big LA thing was probably Insecure.
2:09:52 Bill Simmons? Listen, I hope Joanna.
2:09:53 Speaker 02 Insecure is great.
2:09:55 Bill Simmons? Hopefully Joanna didn't hear that, cause we're trying to convince her to move to LA.
2:09:59 Speaker 02 I mean.
2:10:00 Bill Simmons? LA's great, it's so cool here, there's so many different awesome pockets.
2:10:04 Speaker 02 Yeah, I'm telling you, it's very, it's very politically active, you know what I mean?
2:10:08 Bill Simmons? It's really a special place.
2:10:09 Speaker 02 They got great cats here.
2:10:10 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
2:10:10 Speaker 02 All that kinda stuff.
2:10:11 Bill Simmons? I liked your point about Die Hard with a Vengeance just ending 30 minutes in because somebody couldn't have gotten from Manhattan Beach to Brentwood.
2:10:18 Speaker 02 Boom!
2:10:21 Bill Simmons? Fuck, how do I get to Brentwood? 405's clogged. Uh, all right, Chris Ryan, thank you, Ben Lathan, thank you, Jack Sanders. Do you, is your mic on or no?
2:10:31 Speaker 05 It is.
2:10:32 Bill Simmons? What was your take on Die Hard with a Vengeance?
2:10:34 Speaker 05 I think when Bruce Willis found out that Sam Jackson was going to be his co-star in this film, it was the closest any person on the planet Earth has felt to the moment when LeBron James found out the Cavs traded for Kevin Love.
2:10:46 Speaker 02 Oh shit.
2:10:47 Bill Simmons? Wow.
2:10:47 Speaker 02 Look at Jack!
2:10:48 Bill Simmons? Jack!
2:10:50 Speaker 05 I just think like, this is my favorite Die Hard. I think it's better than the original one, personally, even though I think there are plenty of nicks to pit. Yeah. But when Sam Jackson shows up in the beginning of the movie, you're locked in. Yeah. He's, he elevates the movie so much, it's
2:11:09 Chris Ryan? Call 911.
2:11:10 Speaker 05 It's amazing.
2:11:10 Chris Ryan? About to get killed.
2:11:11 Speaker 02 Call, tell them somebody, you're dying, somebody's about to get killed.
2:11:13 Bill Simmons? I was afraid to even go to Jack after the Mets got annihilated by the Braves. I didn't know what kind of
2:11:18 Speaker 05 Not worried.
2:11:19 Bill Simmons? But I thought that was pretty good.
2:11:20 Speaker 02 It's a long season.
2:11:20 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Alright guys.
2:11:22 Speaker 02 Great seeing you.
2:11:23 Bill Simmons? Great seeing you.
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