The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award
Dallas’s death is scarier; Scott’s influence; movie cats are bad
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:20Read transcript
- One hot take says Dallas’s tunnel death is scarier than the iconic chestburster; The Exorcist III and Friday the 13th provide jump-scare comparisons without a completed ranked list.
- Another hot take suggests the Rewatchables might not exist without Alien launching Ridley Scott’s influence on Tony Scott.
- Ridley Scott and Tony Scott are described as foundational to the show's taste; Scott's genre range and enduring set pieces keep his films culturally present.
- Scott's storyboards, lighting, textures and spaceship details reward repeat viewing, sometimes despite limited attention to actors.
- The hottest take attacks movie cats and argues Jones mainly leads people toward danger; The Godfather cat and Mr. Bigglesworth are offered as counterexamples but dismissed as villain props.
- Ripley's late determination to rescue Jones is challenged because earlier crew behavior does not establish comparable attachment and the cat might carry the alien.
- The pet rescue is compared with James Brolin returning for the dog in The Amityville Horror despite escaping a visibly dangerous house.
- Alternative defenses suggest the cat provides crew comfort and a narrative parallel between predators; saving it may help audiences identify with Ripley.
- A personal cat-and-mouse anecdote supports the anti-cat provocation; another speaker defends cats as normal pets while declining to take them into space.
- Ripley's rescue of Jones is defended as empathy toward innocents, continuing through Newt, the prisoners and the Winona Ryder character; the opposing view depends on not caring about cats.