Vision Quest The Rewatchables
Vision Quest poster
Vision Quest

Most Rewatchable Scene

Elmo's Pele speech

In the discussion (20)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:17Read transcript
  • Loudon beating Cooch to make 178 cuts into Journey's "Only the Young", called not a top-five Journey song but in the top-ten discussion.
  • The state champion carrying the log up the steps is rewound often; the hosts say it was cold that day and glycerin was used to fake sweat.
  • Loudon watches the champion pin a man in 10 seconds while dictating notes into a tape recorder like Roger Sterling, joked to have been stolen.
  • The champion is mysterious rather than a villain, presented like the shark in Jaws, with the Jaws theme played as he stalks the mat.
  • Loudon climbing the pegboard wall to John Waite's "Change" after the big teammate says he is not a team player is the next rewatchable scene.
  • A bit imagines a pegboard at the Ringer's Gower Studios courtyard that a host climbs to win the right to book Michelle Obama.
  • Loudon losing to Lewis Smith by medical default over his bloody nose is listed, with a joke about the movie's character names and disagreement with stopping the match.
  • There is little wrestling technique shown, so it is unclear how good Loudon is beyond losing weight; another participant says Modine is clearly an athlete.
  • Modine's lat pull-down form is called the worst in history, setting the exercise back a decade, with an anecdote about a father doing it wrong.
  • Hollywood always botches weightlifting, such as prison gangs repping light weight; the fix would be a consultant swapping pink 20s for black 40s.
  • Elmo's Pele story is recounted: watching Pele score upside down on a Mexican channel, crying alone, and a human being lifting the rest of us up for a minute.
  • A sports movie needs a chill scene, a requirement from an old 30 best sports movies column; this speech gets you ready for the match.
  • The speech evokes an era of limited access to global sports, and "it's not the six minutes, it's what happens in the six minutes" is called one of the most dramatic lines in movies.
  • The setting is perfect: the hotel chef who is more of a father than Loudon's father, toilet paper on his shaving cut, beer cans in the back, and calling in sick to watch; it is called the best scene of the movie.
  • The speech belongs to a tradition from The Longest Yard through Rocky and Victory; such speeches are hard to write in character, unlike Billy Bob Thornton's in Friday Night Lights, but this one fits Elmo.
  • The movie often moves too fast, such as Loudon sniffing Carla's panties; The Way Back's trailer speech is cited as a current chill moment.
  • Pacino in Any Given Sunday is called the best version; a Mount Rushmore of sports movie speeches has Pacino, Reynolds in The Longest Yard and this one, with the fourth undecided.
  • Carla returning to the locker room before the match ("Hey Loudon, kick his ass"), Lunatic Fringe and the jump rope lead into a great final match.
  • The speech (transcribed "the almost speech") is named the most rewatchable scene, with an agreeing reply that is also partial to the "Change" pegboard scene.
  • An alternate pick is the drive to the grandfather's cabin, with a truck that tops out at 31 mph, a campout and Loudon's nocturnal-emissions talk.