Picking Nits
Three TV-movie sequels starting in 1994 with Christopher McDonald as Jack Walsh; the FBI backing Jack's plan to take down Serrano even though he impersonated Mosley for a week; Marvin consistently getting ahead of the westbound pair and remembering Jack's Amex card; how anyone reached each other by phone; the Duke never using his money belt; Jack refusing a bribe while impersonating a federal officer and stealing Marvin's car
In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:46Read transcript
- Beyond the eight knockouts already covered, the first nit is that three sequels exist: TV movies starting in 1994 with Christopher McDonald (also transcribed 'McDonnell') as Jack Walsh, called Another Midnight Run, Midnight Run Around and Midnight Run for Your Life; they are dismissed as something to pretend never happened, and the split-second Blockbuster-era thrill of spotting a Midnight Run sequel before realizing it was the Christopher McDonald one is recalled, with a nod to a Grantland Blockbuster piece.
- The biggest nit is the ending: Jack, out of time after losing the Duke, is with Mosley of the FBI, whom he has impersonated for a week, a felony on top of everything else on the trip; on the plane he proposes handing Serrano the discs to nail him on racketeering charges, and the FBI agent played by Yafet Kodo (as transcribed) throws the full force of the federal government behind a bounty hunter's plan; the clip of the arrest is played, and it is called the flaw of the movie.
- It is hard to believe someone with Marvin's mental acuity, after all that head trauma, keeps getting ahead of the Duke and Walsh heading west: from Pittsburgh he finds their exact train and car and catches up repeatedly, and he remembers Jack's Amex number to cancel it; more broadly, Eddie reaches Dorfler by phone in his hotel room and Tony Darvo can be reached through a matchbook, raising how anyone got in touch in 1988; the four concussions are joked about again.
- Borderline nits from the ending: the Duke carries a money belt of about 500 grand yet never tries to use it, though he did offer Jack double what Eddie was paying at the start, and Jack refuses bribes while impersonating a federal officer, stealing Marvin's car and caving his head in four times; the Duke could at least have palmed a hundred and claimed to find it on the street, since he was hungry enough for chorizo and eggs.