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Detective John McClane, parentheses, Bruce Willis, is now divorced, alcoholic, and jobless after getting fired for his reckless behavior and bad attitude. That's the first sentence. Reckless divorce and an alcoholic and no job injected into my business. The Quadruple Crown.
When has it ever not worked? In real life, it's like, hey, having the birthday party, John McClane's coming over. Don't let him drive. In a movie, he can just diffuse a terrorist attack and it's fine.
In real life, John's getting drunk at the birthday party, whipping out his 9mm. Like, boom, boom, boom, but in a movie, it's perfect. Has John McClane ever come to a birthday party not covered in grease and blood, wearing a tank top? In real life, John McClane is hanging out with the guy who was killed that led to the Karen B trial.
He's on the third floor. Wait a second, it's literally out here in 10 seconds. It's like, oh, no, John McClane's here. Oh, he's getting into it with John O'Keefe.
He's texting his buddies. Make sure he's playing the evidence. How long does it take a body to freeze? Anyway, John McClane in movies, it's fine.
His life really fell apart. 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.
How is this guy not at least Captain Sully at this point? What else would he have to do? Do you think that this is one of the greatest testaments to the power of the internet to create celebrities out of nothing? I mean, to be fair, this guy would have a documentary about him in 2000.
Certainly. 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 talk. Like, you're at least, what was that guy, John Walsh of America's Most Wanted Guy?
You're at least hosting a show like that, just getting massive paychecks. Do you have a morning Fox show? You probably do. You know, Fox News is starting a bubble at that time.
He's probably got a show on there. He's there, law enforcement guy. But you have to remember, he's smoking on the potions. Him and Bill O'Reilly were playing John McClane in the cellos.
But you have to remember, also, this was the era of, remember, Eddie Murphy left, You saved us too much money into many lives. 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 Falcon 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. Yeah, like Val Kilmer would have happened to him with Iceman, should have at least happened to him. But see, that is, I guess why our protagonists are our protagonists.
Because they're complicated. 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. All right, counter, Captain Sully, why can't Holly move back from Los Angeles? Has this guy not been through enough?
That's what my picking is. I will say something about Sully, though, is that it actually happened in real life. So he actually saved, like, actual, like, 200 people. Yeah, so John McClane is official character.
Sully's celebrity actually comes from... But this is what happens in real life if somebody does something like that. John McClane's at least doing $75,000 speaking gigs all over the world. If this was a contemporary story, what would happen is John McClane would do this.
We would all get, like, god damn, this is really what we need for America right now. And then somebody would discover his weird Facebook posts from 2021. He's like, I'm not wearing a fucking mask! And we'd be like, no, John McClane's not allowed to even be a security guard.
Zeus is one of my best friends! Yeah, so after you save Chicago, it turns out there's some frat photo of him in 1978 that's not good. And then that kind of... Justice Richard's fire.
What were you trying to say? My biggest pet peeve with a lot of 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 feet they did. Isn't there also a chance that John, this is the only time that John is confident? Because when we first see John, he can't even get his shit together.
But then as soon as the adventure is on, he's like really Jason Bourne in this movie. In this movie, he's one step ahead of him at all times. He's making evaluations. When Zeus has, John's like, oh, real quick, boom, boom, mix the thing.
He has really... He's got jokes. Yeah, hold on. But the best part about Bruce Willis is he still gets scared.
The best part about Bruce Willis is 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. He's like, I'm still sweating out beer and I need a cigarette, I need aspirin, and I know I'm going to die. This kind of character needs to have almost nothing to lose to do the things that they do. 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. Let's go ahead and grab it. He goes, let's go ahead and grab the bomb. Zeus goes, he goes, yo, sign this edge, you're supposed to be out of that.
He's told you to help me, go grab the bomb. It's funny, the other one to grab it. It's funny. Did you see this in the theater?
Yeah, I saw it in the theater this weekend, actually, but I saw it in the theater when we came out, yeah. Yeah, I remember my excitement level was a 10 out of 10 and I remember being slightly disappointed by the last half hour. Sure. It helps to be 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 just kind of took another life. I think like literally like up through the school evacuation, it's like one of the best blockbusters ever made. Yeah.
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. It just checks out the boxes. The first 80 minutes is unassailable and like so many other great ones, it can't sustain it. Yeah.
And we'll go into some of the alternate ending and stuff like that. But holy, I love that it just starts. We're just going. We have an explosion within 90 seconds and we're off and they don't spend a lot of time with McClane.
It's just clear he's a complete fuck up and his life is falling apart and then we're off. Let's go. Yeah. Prentice heavy.
Like this guy is fucking with McClane. We don't know why, but that doesn't matter because McClane 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.
This is the tail end of that era. Yeah. And so I remember going to see the movie and being like, oh my God, 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's a year after this or maybe it's the same.
It is. No, True Lies was right before this. Well, True Lies was. Cliffhanger was right before this.
We had like the action guys from the 80s and early 90s had like one last run here, 395. And then 96 it starts to flip. We get Daylight with Stallone. We get Eraser.
Van Damme kind of falls apart. Who else? Arnold. He's pretty much done.
And then Stallone after Daylight. Then he gains the weight for Copland. So this is kind of the last movie. I was actually where you were probably.
Like, you know, and then the second Die Hard is done by Rennie Harlan and it's like, it's really, really good. And if you watch it over and over again, it's fine. We did the rewatchables. It's discounted.
But the crucial movie for Die Hard with Vengeance is Pulp Fiction. Yeah. 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 Die Hards because of the way that people interact.
It's a crucial point. And the same Jackson is the crucial part of this movie because he's bouncing around for years and years. Pulp happens and then within years he's in this movie. And that was the appeal for me in 1995.
One of my worst years. Be like, Bruce, just like, you know, this is my last year at the Herald trying to think like maybe the sports or anything is not going to work out. Reggie Lewis is dead. Spelt's RMS.
Red Sox RMS. But it was like, Bruce Wilson, Sam Jackson, this would be fun on a Friday. Could have hit you hard right there. The Boston Loserville thing.
It was bad. The 90s were bad. 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 is. I hope they burn in hell. Long Kiss the Night. Jackie Brown.
Star Wars remake. All of a sudden, he's like an A plus list. Whatever. That's pretty cool.
What was it? Keep doing the thing. Well, it's just that was it. All of a sudden, he was an A plus list.
And it made perfect sense that he was right next to Bruce Willis in what basically is Leetal Weapon. We got to at least address that this is basically Leetal Weapon. This script was acquired to be a Leetal Weapon. It was supposed to be Leetal 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 could, but I'm glad that it's this and I would put these guys up against those guys. All 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. 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 would kind of solidify him for the next like 30 or 40.
Like every single movie was something interesting and had some kind of quality. Yeah, maybe it's because it didn't happen early for him. So he just like knew when the window opened I'm jumping through it. So I know exactly how to do this now.
He's the toughest one for the rewatchables actor rankings because I think this is like his 10th rewatchables but like six of them he's barely in the movie. Right, like Goodfellas. Not only is in Goodfellas, he's in Coming to America as Hold Up Man. He's in Do the Right Thing.
We did that one. He's in Sea of Love in 1989 as Black Eye. Yeah. That's what he created that?
He's just Black Eye. You go through his things. Magic Sticks. Is that what you credit me as?
Is that what I am? He's like in Magic Sticks he plays Bum. You go like it's just but anyway. By the time Pulp Fishing comes it kind of and this doesn't happen as much as it used to at least not for me by the time Pulp Fishing comes you go like oh okay it's time for him now.
But by the time that because I But it wasn't probable though. This is like I'm going to be at age 30 becoming a star. I'm not saying it wasn't improbable but I had seen like Jungle Fever he was in almost everything that Spike had done. Exorcist 3 he plays Dream Blind Man but yeah Jungle Fever He's actually quite good in Exorcist 3 it's a brief part.
But Jungle Fever is when I think he goes on the radar in 91 where people are like oh this guy. Death by Temptation one of my favorite horrible he's in all of these films. Juice. Juice.
One scene in Juice. He's in Patriot's Game in 92. When's Fresh? A little bit later so that's like 95 94, 95 maybe even 96.
Then in 93 Menace to Society Jurassic Park True Romance Fresh in 94 and he's been in like 9 or 10 rewatchables movies I can't remember when Fresh came out before after Pulp Fiction but I remember being blown away by him in Fresh. Yeah. So everyone knows he had a lot of issues he had a lot of drunk stuff and cleaned up and by the 90s and then all of a sudden I can't even imagine how much money he's made. He's been in 30 plus years of movies constantly.
A 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 and stuff. He was in like every Marvel movie for 10 years. He was in the fruit line. It's a little like how Snoop Dogg just kept going and going and seems like he's as relevant in 2025 but I still feel like Sam Jackson's is relevant now.
He's become more than an actor and he's become a cultural figure. Totally. Like Snoop. Same thing.
Whereas you've seen a lot of these actors I think it's really hard to keep that going for more than 15 years. Even you watch something 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. Well the thing that I've always loved about Jackson is that he seems to operate under the idea of I want to make movies that I would want to go see. So some of the 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's just like I like shark movies.
I'm going to be a deep blue speed. 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 part of it is not shouldering a load of having all of these movies riding on your back. When that happens that means a flop or a movie that's not critically well received doesn't deem you as much as it does somebody else.
So 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? 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 I'm awesome. And he's figured out a way like he can be like kind of the cool collected brain Sam Jackson character or he can be like the bombastic character or the character like Zeus which I probably think is a top three top four Sam Jackson character like for just for pure like Jules is number one. I really enjoy Deep Blue Sea Sam Jackson we still haven't done that every watch but I think he's great in that movie.
I'd probably say Ordell from Jackie Brown is up there. Oh fuck yeah. Fresh. Fresh is up there just I love Fresh came out around the same time that Search for Bobby Fischer came out so I was going to do a chess thing and to see the two different 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, Rodell is very close to Jules. I love that character. I actually love that movie.
What else? There's an amazing sliding doors that we covered when Tarantino was on, what was that, The King of New York? The King of New York, yeah. With Sam Jackson and Lawrence Fishburne.
This is actually like, for all the slides, this is the slides. And we didn't, I didn't know it when he told the story. Lawrence Fishburne, he's trying to get her for Pulp Fiction. Wrote the role for him.
Please do it, please do it, please do it. And Fishburne's agents go. He wants leads. Yeah, it's a small part.
You have to be a lead. So he turns it down. By the way, those people are fucking morons. There's no lead in fucking Pulp Fiction.
You could argue that Travolta's the lead. There's no lead in the movie. It's an ensemble movie that has a weird circular narrative. It has a plan for him.
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 Elmbark. So Sam gets to do this.
Now Fishburne is negotiating for Die Hard 3. And they want him. They basically agree that he's going to 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. The producer, Andrew Vajna, unfortunate name. Andrew Vajna, sees Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
He's like, what am I doing with Pulp Fiction? And he's like, fuck Lauren, he locked down Sam. Now Fishburne's out. So he loses Pulp Fiction in Die Hard 3.
Sam flips spots on him and becomes Sam Jackson. And this is the biggest movie of 95, right? Yeah, if you throw in the global stuff. And then Fishburne sues and they actually had to pay Fishburne $750,000 because they had a verbal agreement.
I saw that when I was doing some research which that is actually pretty awesome. And then they also had to option the script that he wrote. But he ends up in The Matrix at all. I guess, but later they worked out.
But the same Jackson happened the same way. But the whole point, yeah, he's in The Matrix and it's cool, but he's basically like, this white man is Jesus for the entire Pulp Fiction. Right, by the way, that's 99. And there was a, between 95 and 99, I mean, Lawrence was working, but there's like Fled and there's other movies like that.
You could argue that he was a tad cold. 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. 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. And instead he goes to Atlanta as Rick Griggs, a Hall faner, some good battles. So like the Hawks are going to go. But he could have been on the Magic, on the Lakers with Magic, winning titles, posters, shoes, most famous person in the league and it didn't happen.
Hulham was in 97, by the way. I like him. I lost a fan with Dominique Wilkins. That was interesting.
Second Bruce Willis peak? Second Bruce Willis peak? Yeah. You just went to Neat guy.
I like him. I like Neat. We just found out. Bruce Willis, two Die Hard movies, makes a couple sinkers.
Hey, what's going on there, man? Let's do Die Hard 3. Ripstop, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard 3, 12 Monkeys, Armageddon, Fifth Element, The Siege, Sixth Sense, and Whole Nine Yards. Great job by him.
Great job by him. I just went for one idea out here, you guys. So one thing that's worth noting for everybody, for the listeners, is that when they make this movie, Die Hard has become a genre unto itself. Right, Die Hard has created the...
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 when this movie came out in the 90s 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 around it, right? Yeah, what were the other ones? Under Siege, Speed, Speed.
I mean, Speed was the most recent one. That was 94. Yeah, and that's like the Die Hard in a blank became one of the most influential. And Speed is the Die Hard cinematographer who goes off and makes his own kind of movie and it's crazy how good it is, but 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 Vell Johnson's good, people are good in these movies, but like he's never had like a running mate through the entire movie. But they also moved him around too in this movie, which they hadn't done in the first movie. In the first movie, he was just trapped in the spot. Well, that changes the dynamic.
Like, Reginald Vell Johnson was a guy in the theater because he was stuck inside the National Towers. This one, New York, is a character in the film. Like, there's so much about this. Like, when I was watching it, I had never been to New York before, but they're talking to me as if I hadn't.
Oh my God, New York traffic is a part of it. The parks are a part of it. If you call it now, like, it'll be a different hospital that the ambulance goes to, so we need to wait until we get below 14th Street or all that. How did you feel living in New York City with the New York City stuff in this movie?
I didn't move to New York until five years later. You saw the city, you used all the parts of it, so when you watch this movie now. It's incredible. I mean, the grid system that they adopted, thanks.
That was the first time I ever had that information. I didn't know what it had. I didn't know Wall Street didn't have school. Yeah, they didn't know Wall Street Elementary for all I know.
I have no clue what's going on, but all of that stuff is part of the script. Pretty sure you can't get to Yankee Stadium that fast. I mean, there's a lot of new picks for this. Yeah, we can get into that.
It's like, yeah, I'm just going to head down to Yankee Stadium. I'll see you guys in a second. Not sure that's how it goes. John McTiernan?
What a run for him, man. Christ. From 87 to 99, he does Predator, Die Hard, Hunt for Red October. I think that's good.
Is that a good one? Yeah. Who's in that? John Connery.
Yeah. Medicine Man, don't really remember that one. Last Action Hero. Medicine Man, that's with John Connery when they're down in like South America.
He's got like the cure to cancer or something like that. That was actually, that was a good movie. Only saw ones. Okay, cool.
Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a Vengeance and then Amanda Dobbins' favorite, The Thomas Crown Affair. I like that movie too. And then the wheels come off. He does Rollerball Remake.
That sucks. And it sucks so bad. And that's it for John McTiernan. Well, he also gets caught up in Anthony Calacana stuff, right?
The wiretapping stuff? Yeah, he was basically in the wheel. He went to jail, I think. Yeah, for all the wiretapping stuff.
I know about the sword. I didn't know that he was on. Written by Jonathan Hensley. Yeah, we're going to talk about later in a different category.
$90 million budget, made $366 million. Seventh biggest movie of 1995. A great movie year. So, if you look at the top 10 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, the movies that it made more money than, when I looked them up, was incredibly impressive that that film was able to outgross some of these movies. Like Batman Forever? Batman Forever. Like Batman Forever.
Which was that Val Camer? That's Val Camer. Yeah, that's the first Joe Schumacher one. The Toy Story.
Apollo 13. Goldeneye. It's a Bond movie. Ace Ventura.
Ace Ventura. This may be the most Chris Ryan year ever. Seven. Seven.
The fact that Get Shorty, Dangerous Minds. Seven could make $327 million worldwide. If they make seven today, that's going on Netflix. Bad Boy Species Clueless.
What are we doing? Why can't we have yours like this anymore? $37 million. After the top 15, and we're looking at Outbreak, Bad Boy Species Clueless, The Net, The American President.
Fucking A. Disclosure. Higher learning. Honestly, I give Under Siege 2 because our territory has been every once in a while.
I like it. Under Siege 2? Yeah. It's a funny classic.
I understand. Under Siege Die Hard on the Train. 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? I like Money Train. Well, I like it for Tommy Boy. Heat.
A little movie called Heat. Casino. Come on. Money Train.
Getting the band back together from White Man Can't Jump. And then that is J-Lo. That's the J-Lo 35-point game. Like, oh my God, this guy off the bitch can score.
That's the 48-point LeBron Detroit game. You like that? I tried to throw it back to do some NBA stuff. J-Lo scored 25 points in a row.
Roger Ebert, our guy. Three stars. Fair. I feel like if we're giving stars to Roger's reviews, I give this a two-star review.
I just feel like he took a couple miles per hour off the fastball. Maybe it's a high. Didn't really check a lot of the Roger's boxes. He did say Die Hard with a Vengeance is basically a wind-up action to a cleverly made deliver with high energy delivers what he just advertises with a vengeance.
But if the plot's just going to go sideways in the last 40% of a movie, Roger, it's not going to sign off. That's not going to go 40%. Do you guys still feel that way? Like, when you watch the movie now, do you still feel like I don't know why we go to Yankee Stadium and then from every moment on it feels like they're just trying to figure out how to end the movie.
Yeah, I was going to talk about this. I still enjoy it. I mean, we have a lot of nitpicks. 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 70s film lighting. You've done that, Sierra? I have, yeah.
We're 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 slash Prime and follow your obsession wherever it goes.
Most rewatchable scene. This is one of the fun movies where I think every scene is in my list. We just wrote down all the scenes. Up until the boat.
Yeah. I have starting opening scene right into Simon Says, which also gets the kid cut you to happen so where best needle drop for somewhere in the city. Hot time, and just an awesome swerve where you're like, oh, this will be nice. Just shots in New York and the song and then all of a sudden Bond with Howard's exploding.
And you're like, what the fuck? We've started? Yeah. And then Simon, we only hear the Jeremy Irons voice.
Should have mentioned Jeremy Irons in the first segment. Should have, yeah. Kind of that, I'm not saying he was DDL, but for that era, he had the respect, yeah. It was meaningful that he was in this movie.
He was one of the best actors in the world. Yeah, and we were talking about where's Olivier last time on Marathon Man and the British actor coming in to play the villain in an American blockbuster that started with Marathon Man. This is a great example of that. Yeah, and if you're going to do Hans Gruber's brother as a character, I would recommend the best villain ever in an action movie probably.
You're going to have to bring in a real actor. I do feel like these guys, when I see Jeremy Irons, I feel like he just wants, you know what? I just want to be in a fucking movie in a tank top. I can fucking 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 it serious. I can have violence sex. So he wins the Oscar in 1990 for Reverse of Fortune. Klaus von Bulow.
Not a great hang, Klaus. Still was one. Probably. But you look at his IMDb and it's just all over the place.
Dead Ringers was a really interesting movie. But for the most part, it was not a commercial actor. He was a damage and butterfly. He played the Lion King.
He played Scar's voice. But for the most part, it was kind of over here. And then it just kind of flies in through. But this is what they did so well in the 90s, where they would just be like, Malkovich, now you're a supervillain.
You're the best. You know what I mean? Like, Ed Harris, come play in The Rock. With that said, if DDL was in a version of Die Hard 3.
Now, did you guys hear? It's funny you should bring this up. First of all, DDL learns fluent German to play this part. Oh, he goes so fucking deep.
He might scar his whole thing. Yeah, he learns how to drive the dump trucks himself. Yeah. He's going all in.
Now, did you guys hear that? He learns how to make gold. Gets flooded in an aqueduct so you don't know what he's doing. Marvel wants DDL.
For what? Maybe to play Doom after... Everyone has a price. Yeah.
Well, he's working with his son, so he's out of retirement. He's going to be in his son's movie. Robert Day-Lewis. Johnny Day-Lewis.
Yeah, Phantom 3 again. Love Phantom 3. I thought you said you were a fan of... Sean and I were going to do that on rewatching this at some point.
I saw it twice in the theater. I thought it was just like mesmerizing. Mesmerizing how good he was in that movie. 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.
Yeah. He might care enough not to fuck with it to ever give us a Simon Gruber or something where we just watch him go wacky. Really, the history of all these guys is at some point they come back as they get older and they're like, ah, fuck it. Like, Olivier was like that.
All of a sudden, we talked about the marathon man. He's just grabbing gigs. I mean, Hopkins would like show up for a Fenix commercial. Yeah, he would.
Next rewatchable scene. I have a lot on the Simon Says gimmick but it's for a later topic. John McClane puts a sign on and we meet Sam Jackson. What does Sam say?
I don't know. You tell us, man. By the way, this was really controversial in 1995. Honestly, so I saw this on Sunday and there were a bunch of people who hadn't seen it before and a lot of young people and there was a little bit of like, oh, yeah.
Yeah, like when we saw the verdict and Newman hit Charlie Rampling and the crowd gasped I couldn't believe it. So it was like that. Kind of. It's one of those interesting scenes to me because this is just Van's wheelhouse.
He's been waiting. It's not the most racist thing that happens in the scene. And I love it when that happens. Should we guess what the most racist thing is?
What's the most racist thing in the scene? I feel like somehow we both lose if we don't guess the right thing. I might do the DDL and just abstain. Oh, yeah.
You're going to retire from podcasting. Just retiring. The most racist thing in the scene is so he's standing there with that. Is it the picture of the guys on the stoop?
Yes. So the guys on the stoop. But no, they're throwing shirtless and throwing a basketball around. Go look at it.
Ten guys on the stoop crowded together. No, they're just tossing the basketball around. They got guns. They got liquor.
Knives. They got knives. They got no shirts. And they have a basketball.
And it's like 8.30 in the morning. And they have a basketball. The kids are going to school. So school in New York City starts at 8 or 9.
Let's say 8. So multiple picking hits here. Why are all these guys just outside at 7.45 in the morning? Why is Sam Jackson opening his pawn shop for the early 8 o'clock rush?
I think it's more of an electronic store. Yeah. I think they were asking if he would take that boombox, but I don't think he's a pawn shop. I couldn't tell what the store was.
He's an electrician. He's fixing. So it's like an electrician shot. He'll fix your TV.
He'll fix it at 7.50 in the morning. You've got to really get to work. It's a little too alive for 7.45 in the morning, I would say. Yeah.
I guess I agree. Yeah. I think that scene is, I'll be honest with you though, I think that scene is hysterical. Like, even with Sam Jackson.
he walks out there and they're talking I remember being in the theater and all of a sudden you hear what the fuck that scene is funny to me I'm like who do we not want to help us he says to the two kids I also think they get in the cab and he keeps telling me he's like stop telling me Jesus I'm just going to assume he never makes it in the cab he doesn't get there I will say that when Zuzu's character gives the rationale for why 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 he says I'm a cop Zuzu's changed 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 yeah it's a free-for-off next one Simon negotiates with John and John gets his badge back my chair with me in it that's really great that's also a great introduction to all the other cops well that's my favorite part is when Walter the guy that must actually 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 in his apartment by the time next month he's going to 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 kind of crossed the line you should do that for a little too much information on pods you should be like believe me Chris Ryan's all used up I wasn't going to do this later in the pod he doesn't take my real estate advice hey you don't want to work with a fan he's nothing but a porn addict no with Chris like I was thinking like if Chris like Chris gets divorced and becomes an alcoholic and we're still doing pods with him and it's like I don't know if we can count on him tell him 11 o'clock call time and Chris just shows up can I get an aspirin it's an indictment of you that if I was in that condition you'd be like fuck him we're still wheeling out there yeah 100% Chris like on a John McClane in the tank top hair fucked up popping aspirin it would be amazing I just had an alcoholic binge just for like a year just the wheels came off see I showed up he's wearing like a Ben Simmons torn 60s jersey I didn't watch that yet but I'm here anyway could be a good gimmick for next year did I read that wrong? I really like that when he gets the badge back next one have we gotten away from the trope of you losing your badge but you're superior it's in his death drawer yeah it's so good hey you're back and then the badge hits his hand like fucking Thor's hammer he's like fuck I'm the man again I'm a cop you tell me I can be a cop again being a cop was like the most important thing absolutely the gun and the badge trope is just one of the great things the hungover cop thing too so where was he drinking? like a gentleman on the stoop in Harlem he might have just been out on it you know what I mean New York City you can really push the limits he really tested Holly over the years is Walter in love with Holly? how many times is Walter going to bring up this man's ex-wife?
it would be so weird maybe he's in love with Holly if I came in here and every time I did something wrong you went yeah it's between you and I can I just do two more things from the office when that happens I love Charlie coming in and setting off a minor bomb and Charlie can't be like and uh yeah just Graham Greene and it's really funny like this is 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 who are you? you're a fucking trick who piece of shit? I do the center I also we've talked about this before but the 70s 80s just the police stations just moved in a way more fun way and they just seem to capture it way better than that it's all printed out papers hard paper and landlines just people busting each other's walls nobody likes each other's everybody's like you going to get coffee? the fucking pricks from IA are here again the whole fucking thing the whole thing is like in every cop movie it's the same shit 48 hours I still think is the best with that all of those guys are getting paid like 32 grand a year they're just skimming coke out of the evidence room alright so I'm going to go most rewatchable for this next part which I think it's multiple scenes but I feel like it all passed away the phone game with the seven wives 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 I think it's like 15 minutes it's 15 of the most electrifying minutes it's just so good and my favorite part about it is that the moment when McLean goes into the park is the moment that Zeus realizes he's in an action movie 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 it's normal that Ben Affleck will kill 35 guys 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 and he's in it he's in it with a crazy white boy he's with a crazy white boy taking him on a crazy white mission crazy white problems he keeps coming back he never loses his worldview I honestly think that there's a couple of really unintended funny scenes or maybe unintended funny scenes but the scene where Simon's fucking with him at the phone booth and they die I don't know why that is so hysterical to me oh no he had a bomb and they jump on him it's hysterical to me to your point also this has got Grace Papaya in the background of the 72nd Street pay phone 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 through the park then there's the ambulance 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 the city it feels like they're filming in New York which they are I really genuinely feel like people were in danger we were talking about that when we saw this movie would cost a billion and a half dollars because you have to shut down so many parts of New York 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 and that's my introduction to all of that type of shit it was a great spot for a name drop there but you avoided it but you're New York friends and then you could just list it like three people to impress us but you didn't do it because you're not that kind of guy not anymore 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 was rewinding and watching did they actually blow up Bond with Tower like how they do this because I don't feel like CGI was good enough in 95 I don't know how they did it also like so many funny visual sight gags like 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 we always talk about the concept of the rewatchables 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 or like Boogie Night 2 like when Dirk shows up at Jack Horner's I was like oh this is gonna be yeah or the world whatever you want this is the part you want to catch the opening it's like Die Hard 3 starting right now yeah can we push that reservation just give me like an hour here but if they are in that cab like if they are in that cab I'm multi-unit whatever sports I'm watching I am finishing the fucking movie oh this also has Sam with the phone ringing one of my favorite gimmicks the nervous cop the phone ringing and he's like if you want to shoot me right now I was here first bro yeah yeah you always think of eating in this movie there's like multiple bad ones that whole scene's great I do feel like nitpick I do feel like the bomb would have caused a lot more damage but it's worth mentioning that this is when we were a nation and we would blow up a subway train for a movie and it would travel at 45 miles per hour within there and the entire film crew was actually running for their lives and the film crew was like I'm really glad no one died with me speed was like that too it was another one where it was like poof thank god no casualties for that scene they would never do they would just CGI Simon breaks into Fort Knox a very hot entrance from Chris's girlfriend in this movie I don't know do you want to save it 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 it's actually not Fort Knox but you know what I mean where all the gold would be is this what it would be like or just all these gold with different countries yeah there's one scene where they bring out that gigantic drill you know that big drill that they're drilling through the thing when I watch the movie I'm like they really have that drill drilling into the thing there's a lot of stuff like that a lot of care the elevator scene I have a break out here what was the lottery number last night you mean like I had to turn the tiktok camera on thing oh it's no it's not when I see the elevator scene you know what I thought fucking Captain America Winter Soldier they stole the scene I mean sure you know what you gotta stop because it makes the ringer verse it makes the ringer verse feel orphaned Captain America Winter Soldier Captain America like Colin Winter Soldier yeah Captain Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier oh I forgot about him Captain America's best friend so they steal shit 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 yeah and he realizes that he doesn't know the Hydra agents yet but he realizes that they're trying to capture him and so he looks around and he goes before we get started this thing I want to go off the elevator and he proceeds to fluff all these people up and that's essentially the same it's the exact same thing that happens at the hour of the video yeah except John McClane puts a gun in a guy's head and is just like God the fucking gun I slow-moved it I slow-moved it to figure out how he did it and my wife was just in the TV room with me doing on her iPad and just looking over at me like wow this is just you're the range human being but he's got the two people behind him they edit it really fast you almost don't know what's happening but he takes a gun and he shoots through his coat behind him at the two guys and he nails both of them then turns around somehow kills the third guy and then is in the same outfit with the fourth guy but I'm going to say degree of difficulties about an 11.2 I don't know I know that John's getting out of there but it's just a great line when he's just like are you okay he's like oh yeah it's not my blood yeah it's not my blood it's a classic that elevator seems great I like when the guy calls it a lift calls it a lift he also says it's raining like dollars and cash and then nobody knows the lottery number which is like the number one and he's wearing Walsh's badge he sees Walsh's badge and then the ending is ridiculous but I do enjoy say hello to your brother what do you got for most rewatchables here I have the same sequence you're talking about if I had to pick one I'd probably go cab ride downtown exactly the same thing what's the most 1995 thing about this movie CR I got pay phones I had crucial scenes with pay phones crucial pay phones and crucial taxi cabs World Trade Center is there and Rodney King references Rodney King references there were only 42 presidents yeah that's a good one so that's a big part I'm going to add that one and 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 it's a I guess post-Guliani 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 was in all of these different movies kind of gone now Happier or Sonier New York Happier or Sonier no internet yet no bikes more corporatized now instead of electric bikes businesses yeah no pot if you do hot smoke everywhere now all right damn body let me clean up the pot a little bit New York right over there now you drop out a lot of 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 can still have that New York as a character in the film I have the lady saying and I'm going to marry Donald Trump yeah and Hillary Clinton referenced in this one too 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 me very 1995 and then Bond with Teller yeah Department of Towers Jack you have any idea about Bond with Teller absolutely not what was the big Boston Department of Towers I mean all the same we had lawmakers JC Penney's I mean the big one in Connecticut was Caldors or Caldors Caldors yeah we had Gatchos yeah I don't know what happened Gatchos yeah Gatchos it was it lasted from the 80s into the 90s but I think on Macy's bottom or something like Gatchos was like a Louisiana Department of Towers yeah Gatchos Bloomingdale's was big in Boston but I think that's Bloomingdale's is all around it's all around we had Dillard in the South 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 yeah I mean is there a New York thing that we could I mean if you just called it Die Hard in New York that's pretty good how about Die Hard 3 Simon Says well is that just a better title here's the thing by the way why can't this be Die Hard 3 colon something why did we get away from that well I call it Die Hard 3 honestly when I said that I wasn't super jazzed about going 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 Simon's Vengeance it is Simon's Vengeance Die Hard 3 Simon Says I don't know she's better or just call it Die Hard 3 Die Hard 3 the other Gruber second Gruber we'll take one more break we'll do what's age the best alright what's age the best I have a bunch what do you have CR I gotta say I have a bunch as well I fucking love a black eye and a white guy working together you know like sometimes we've been at odds but Jesus Christ when it clicks it clicks that is my what's age 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 where white people and black people help each other white people and black people help each other he's like say it I'm gonna call you an asshole that's actually the center of the movie and it's against the crazy Europeans the crazy Europeans as the OJ trials happening in your life.
That's what's aged the best. That's the lesson of this movie. McClane always has, well, wait for me, but McClane is, well, he always has a brother that's helping him out. It's funny, 48 Hours basically starts that and it just keeps going in that thread.
So this movie is both ripping off 48 Hours and ripping off itself because it's a diehard movie. But this movie does it, a lot of those other films, they play the racial differences, like it's stuff text, right? It's jokes, it's whatever, 48 Hours is obviously. But in this one, you have the Zeus character who has a direct way of looking at things and that's kind of, the times are a little fraught.
So it's kind of, McClane who just wants to get to mission accomplishment and Zeus who has all of these other views. Well, the shoot the gun thing is funny where he goes, look, our brothers don't know how to shoot guns, you racist motherfucker. It has a lot of moments to bring it like that. Even when Zeus at the payphone is like, police business, hang the fuck, get the fuck, get the fuck phone or whatever and he's like, don't do that shit.
Like you're here like as my assistant basically when you're not a cop and he's like, I'm gonna fucking walk away then, how about that? You need me more than I need you. Like it's got like power dynamics in a really cool way. Anyway, it's just like, I think every five years we got out of it.
So Zeus says, all brothers don't know how to use the gun and then he does exactly what McClane has to do. What else do you have? Can I do Katya now? Save it for the end.
Okay. What do you have for what's the best? Hangovers. Yeah, it's one of the great hangover movies.
One of the great hangover movies. He just needs a couple aspirin. Yeah, couple of aspirin, but then heads really hurt him. Filming this bunch in New York we mentioned.
I have for what's the best. Anytime the 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. Walter, I think you better take this. It's always good.
I like when evil brothers turn out to be the one wreaking their revenge, which had mixed results. Another 48 hours. Gans' brother didn't totally work, but it was just fun. What's great is they hide Simon like the shark from Jaws.
Shows up at minute 50 and when he shows up and you're like, God damn, Jeremy Irons is blonde and he's fucking killing people. This is crazy. Then you get him acting like somebody else. You get the moment where one of my favorite moments in the movie.
Mr. Vanderfluid? And then at the end of the movie where McClane thinks he's going to die and he just goes, your brother was an asshole and it hurts Simon. Sure.
And you could tell and so, you know. If fantasy had been murdered at the Braves game, Jesus Christ. Then CR becomes, he becomes the Simon Gruber. He goes to Atlanta for revenge.
He goes to a Hawks game. He's trying to blow up a Hawks hornet's game to get revenge for Sean. That's basically, I'm just doing actually. Why are you saying anything?
You're a sick motherfucker, bro. Hungarian army, Hungarian army, explosive expert, now working for the Iranians. Hard go. A quote actually said in the movie.
Hungarian army, when they do the does the name Gruber mean anything to you and they do the flashback of Hans Falling? Yeah. This is my biggest minute to pick, but yes. What?
That reveal. Oh, you wish? When the therapist is like, he spoke with a German accent, you'd be like, yeah, I know a German guy. Oh, you think you would've caught that earlier.
Good point. Good point, CR. Any experience with German people in your past? Here's another what's age the best.
When we have an action film in a car chase, but somebody's in a cab and then just a random passenger gets in a cab thinking it's entering a cab, 100% success rate. It's never not worked when they steal the Mercedes and they're like, who's the 42nd president? He's like, go fuck yourself. Commendeering vehicles seems like it would be the single most fun thing about being a police officer.
I think it's a slightly more controversial act now, but yeah. Alcoholic hero cops who have people say to them, Jesus, you look like shit. Every body start with me, you look like shit, you look like shit. But like, out of a place of concern, what the fuck is going on with you?
By the way, that's Bruce Willis' place in the action movie. Yeah, that's his place. The everyman cop who looks like shit but can rise to the occasion because stuff's at stake. I have two storytelling mechanisms that have aged the best.
There is a constant ticking clock in this movie, a series of ticking clocks basically because every task they have to do is you have 15 minutes, you have this. Sometimes they actually keep the action too, the amount of time that they have to get there. They go real time. So that plus the changeover in the middle of the movie where they can't use the radios anymore and everybody is now, we're in the dark, we can't call them, and it's like, they have to use the switchboard.
I also love the switchboard so you're like, the whole fucking world just called 911. Also the fact, this movie gets into like dueling plots because Die Hard is intimate, right? Yeah. But not this one.
McLean's dummy mission that he's actually on, then the existential threat of the bombs at the school with 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. There's four or five different things happening.
I think this is what saves the best. You tell me because everyone does Sam Jackson impersonations, right? Does it come from this movie or Pulp? Pulp Fiction.
You can argue he's doing more of the Sam Jackson impression of Sam Jackson in this movie than in Pulp. I think you could. This is like on the level of my Joe Pescik 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. There's no way I'm doing that.
Zeus nails it. No way I'm figuring that out. Just once. You just hear it once?
There's no way. It's hard. So Zeus nailing it is what's the best because I'm just so impressed that he's doing it. He's like, I'm good at puzzles.
Let me think about this. That's too fucking hard. The 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 to bring 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.
The question is whether or not they were supposed to run out. Sure. And then any action movie that I'm playing Simon Says, Simon. Oh, go ahead.
Can I talk about Katya now? I thought for sure you would use that as your CR flex category. You want to get that hair guy? You want to get that hair guy?
Katya is played by the country music singer Sam Phillips. Yeah. Her entrance in this film is among the three or four greatest character entrances of all time. She's wearing a cigarette in her mouth.
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. Even better than Edie Coughlin.