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The Big Chill poster

The Big Chill

year 1983decade 80sdirector Lawrence Kasdangenre Comedygenre Drama

105 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Tom Berenger Sam Weber
Glenn Close Sarah Cooper
Jeff Goldblum Michael Gold
William Hurt Nick Carlton
Kevin Kline Harold Cooper
Mary Kay Place Meg Jones
Meg Tilly Chloe
JoBeth Williams Karen Bowens
Don Galloway Richard Bowens
James Gillis Minister
Ken Place Peter, the cop
Jon Kasdan Harold and Sarah’s son
Ira Stiltner Running Dog driver
Jacob Kasdan Autograph seeker
Muriel Moore Alex’s mother
Meg Kasdan Airline hostess

The Big Chill | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennessey format Birthday Episode
Explore episodeClose episode

Producer credits not yet identified.

Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:22Read transcript
  • The podcast states a two-and-a-half-star score from Raj.
  • The quoted review calls the film technically splendid and precise about its characters.
  • The review says the lack of payoff may itself be the movie’s message.
  • The hosts think the prose sounds more like a three- or three-and-a-half-star response.

Most Rewatchable Scene

The opening twenty minutes

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:36Read transcript
  • The dialogue-light opening uses clothes, seating, gestures, music, and the funeral to introduce the characters and Alex’s death.
  • Kasdan’s decision to withhold Costner’s deleted Alex flashback is defended, while releasing it after forty years is also suggested. Filming it first may have helped the cast understand Alex.
  • The wake moves from Harold’s broken eulogy into the Rolling Stones and lets the camera track each friend’s reaction.
  • Richard’s 3 a.m. sandwich speech accepts compromised priorities and says nobody promised life would be fun.
  • The J.T. Lancer screening, dinner, cleanup, and pot-smoking stretch is nominated; teasing Lancer feels like authentic friend-group behavior.
  • The Michigan football game shows the group instantly returning to shared habits.
  • Nick’s accusation that they knew each other only briefly collides with Sam’s insistence that their old love still matters.
  • Nick’s hug of Sam at the ending is praised.
  • The abrupt breakfast ending is debated as intentional incompleteness after the deleted flashback was removed.
  • The opening twenty minutes receive the final selection.

What’s Aged the Best?

J.T. Lancer; Kline’s comic timing; marriage and parenting exchanges; Nick’s Porsche; funeral and happiness quotes; soundtrack; getaway-weekend arc; serious comedy; Nick’s injury and Alex parallels; Santini house; watching TV; male ensemble

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:48Read transcript
  • J.T. Lancer is praised as a fully convincing spoof of early-1980s television.
  • Kevin Kline’s dry timing is called elite, and the hosts argue he could have pursued a Tom Hanks-scale career.
  • Richard and Karen’s marriage exchanges and Sarah’s changed voice with her children feel recognizable.
  • Nick’s worn Porsche and its diagonal funeral parking are appreciated.
  • The funeral-party quote and the question about how happy people act are praised.
  • The awkward-to-euphoric-to-fighting-to-departure arc of a friend getaway is called perfectly observed.
  • The film is placed among 1980s serious comedies that combine humor with existential stakes.
  • Nick’s Vietnam injury is conveyed without turning the movie into an issue statement.
  • Nick functions as Alex’s ghost, embodying what Alex believed and questioning how well the others knew him.
  • The use of the Great Santini house is praised.
  • Nick and Sam simply watching television together is appreciated.
  • The four male leads, plus the unseen Costner, are praised as an unusually charismatic group.
  • The soundtrack is already treated as an Aged Best answer when the prompt asks for answers “other than the soundtrack.”

The Great Shot Gordo Award for Most Cinematic Shot

Alex’s wrist dissolving into farmland; object triads; purposeful camera movement; spatial clarity; travel-item inserts

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:35Read transcript
  • The stitched-wrist-to-field dissolve is praised because the lines visually match.
  • John Bailey’s Ozu triads of objects communicate character through inserts.
  • Editor Carol Littleton and cinematographer Bailey’s marriage is linked to their close collaboration.
  • The camera’s subtle movement keeps seven-person conversations spatially clear.
  • Insert shots of what people pack are connected to Kasdan’s later Accidental Tourist.

The Butch’s Girlfriend Award for the Weakest Link in the Film

Karen returning to Richard—disputed

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:14Read transcript
  • Karen’s cheerful plan to visit the J.T. Lancer set after the affair feels abrupt to one host.
  • Sarah’s confession about losing Alex after their affair is offered as a warning that keeps Karen from leaving Richard.
  • The choice is defended as a temporary adventure rather than a decision to destroy her existing life.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Close’s haircut; the hipper Elaine’s club; Secaucus 7 comparisons; Hometown; late-night cold cuts; Richard’s solitary habits; Meg’s smoking

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:35Read transcript
  • Glenn Close’s short haircut is called the clearest dated style.
  • Return of the Secaucus 7 comparisons still hang over the movie as an easy criticism.
  • The short-lived television adaptation Hometown is mentioned with surprise; a participant says they have not seen it.
  • Treating insomnia with a huge cold-cut sandwich and Richard sitting alone downstairs now read strangely.
  • Meg smokes everywhere, even while folding clean laundry, while wondering why she cannot keep a man.
  • “I’m opening a club like Elaine’s, but hipper” is offered as a separate Aged Worst answer.

The Slow Ride / Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop

Unresolved: The Weight; Rolling Stones wake cue; Ain’t Too Proud to Beg; Bad Moon Rising; A Natural Woman

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:49Read transcript
  • The Rolling Stones wake song is the first leading choice.
  • The Weight is selected for the diner-table sequence and visual progression of shoe boxes.
  • Ain’t Too Proud to Beg during cleanup, Bad Moon Rising, and Natural Woman are also nominated.
  • The Weight is praised as still forceful rather than trapped in period nostalgia.

Mallory Rubin Award: Did This Movie Need a Better Sex Scene?

No; an explicit climax jokingly proposed

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:00Read transcript
  • The gentle missionary scene is considered sufficient, followed by a joke asking for an explicit climax and comments about Meg’s nightgown.
  • Meg approaches or considers several men as sperm donors; Sarah ultimately offers Harold, which is linked to guilt over her affair with Alex.
  • One host calls Sarah’s offer guilt-driven loser behavior, while another treats it as era-specific generosity and free love.
  • Harold’s intermittent South Carolina accent is criticized inside the scene.
  • The scene’s strangeness and Glenn Close’s reactions are central to why it remains memorable.
  • Whether the attempt worked is unresolved; Sarah is skeptical because it does not always take the first time.

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

Reunion sequel instead of Grand Canyon; Kasdan’s greatest-ever screenwriting run

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:23:18Read transcript
  • A college-reunion sequel is preferred to Grand Canyon because the ensemble still has story left.
  • The imagined sequel has Meg’s grown son return for his piece of Running Dog shoes and become a Pacific Heights-style threat.
  • Kasdan’s Empire Strikes Back, Raiders, Body Heat, Continental Divide, Return of the Jedi, and Big Chill run is called the greatest opening screenwriting stretch.

Casting What-Ifs

Hurt’s tailored role; Williams and Close as Meg; Cates as Chloe; Kline wanting Michael; disputed Penn rumor

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:25:41Read transcript

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

The preacher; Costner’s eligibility disputed; the cop suggested

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:27:56Read transcript
  • Costner is proposed because the hosts spent twenty minutes talking about him despite never seeing his face.
  • The hosts question whether the visible wrists are even Costner and whether an unseen face can qualify.
  • The preacher is favored if Costner is ineligible, and the cop is another alternative.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Santini house; Michigan football; studio rejections; Nasatir; deleted Costner scene; hostile retrospective

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:29:39Read transcript
  • The Great Santini house in Beaufort, South Carolina, was reused for this movie.
  • A reunion documentary recounts a sound technician recording what the crew treated as a ghost.
  • The Michigan footage came from a 27–23 win over Michigan State in 1980.
  • The account says studios rejected the screenplay through seventeen pitches despite the writer’s hot career.
  • Marcia Nasatir backed the screenplay and is described as an early powerful female studio executive.
  • The reported deleted flashback recreated 1968 and showed Alex as a scruffy James Dean, but it did not work.
  • A 1998 Entertainment Weekly retrospective blamed the film for soundtrack albums, 30-something, boomer smugness, and Bill Clinton.
  • The hosts insist Kasdan’s self-critical view of the characters already anticipates that complaint.

Apex Mountain

Kasdan; Tilly’s Big Chill–Psycho II year; Mary Kay Place; JoBeth Williams’s Poltergeist–Big Chill period (qualified); the sperm-donor arrangement; “hog is broken” jokingly

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:33:27Read transcript
  • Glenn Close and Kevin Kline are rejected as being at their apex.
  • Meg Tilly is debated between this film and Masquerade before the shared Big Chill–Psycho II year is endorsed.
  • Mary Kay Place is placed at her apex here.
  • Berenger is placed at Platoon and Hurt at Broadcast News.
  • JoBeth Williams receives a yes qualified as the period spanning Poltergeist and The Big Chill.
  • The Santini house is placed at its Great Santini peak.
  • The Porsche remains unresolved for lack of comparative research.
  • The arrangement of sleeping with one’s wife’s ovulating friend is jokingly endorsed.
  • Saying “hog is broken” receives a joking apex nomination.
  • Kasdan receives the final apex for writing and directing the movie immediately after his Star Wars work.
  • Backyard football is considered against Wedding Crashers without a resolution.

Picking Nits

Touch-football staging; bedroom count; Running Dog stock and insider tip; bat reaction; recovered eulogy; Chloe staying

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:36:04Read transcript
  • The two-on-two game is criticized for instant blitzes, no Mississippi count, a cramped yard, and no route tree.
  • They suggest asking Letterboxd for better touch-football scenes. A participant remembers realizing he wanted to marry his wife after watching her beat a college roommate in three-on-three football.
  • The sleeping arrangements and size of the house and guest house are difficult to reconcile.
  • A small running-shoe company having tradable stock and Harold freely disclosing the deal seem implausible.
  • Nick is judged too calm when a bat flies through his window after cocaine.
  • Harold collapses during the eulogy but immediately becomes a composed host without anyone addressing it.
  • The hosts ask whether Meg Tilly’s character should hang around because she seems like a detached and weird outsider.
  • Her presence is defended as a younger outsider who exposes the group’s fixation on the past.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

All five options; Nick-in-Vietnam prestige series; all-Black version

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:44:20Read transcript
  • The hosts say sequel, prequel, prestige television, and all-Black remake all work.
  • A Nick-in-Vietnam series and an all-Black version are imagined, with The Wood mentioned as a related attempt.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Pregnancy; Rutledge fellowship; Alex’s decline; Michael’s club; generational identification; Lancer’s career; couples’ futures; Harold’s possible scheme

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:46:19Read transcript
  • Whether Meg got pregnant is explicitly left unknowable.
  • The importance of Alex’s declined Rutledge fellowship and whether he served in Vietnam remain unresolved.
  • The hosts debate whether they would invest in Michael’s club and doubt a club’s odds.
  • A generational tangent places the hosts between Gen X, boomers, and millennials.
  • Competing Sam career paths include four Lancer seasons followed by a legal drama, or leaving for unsuccessful films before returning to television; later sitcom roles and a revival are imagined.
  • Nick is predicted to be arrested before Harold divorces, while Harold and Sarah’s long-term marriage is doubted.
  • Nick and Chloe are expected to last only briefly because his Vietnam injury leaves him impotent.
  • Harold secretly hiring Nick to dislodge Chloe is proposed as a playful conspiracy.

The Andy and Red – Zihuatanejo Award for What Happens the Next Day?

Nick arrested before Harold divorces; eventual separation for Harold and Sarah; brief Nick–Chloe relationship

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:52:17Read transcript
  • Nick’s drug arrest is predicted to occur before Harold’s divorce.
  • Harold and Sarah are doubted as a lasting couple despite imagined wealth.
  • Nick and Chloe are predicted to last about a week and a half.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

Nick’s Porsche; Village Voice shirt; Running Dog sneakers; records; coffee maker; Richard’s sandwich

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:54:37Read transcript
  • The Porsche is the first memorabilia choice, followed by the warning that it probably does not run.
  • The Village Voice shirt, game-worn Running Dog shoes, record collection, and coffee maker are alternatives; Richard’s sandwich is also desired.
  • The video camera is discussed as period texture rather than the winning object.

The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson

Everyone sells out; a cold world can make you cold

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:55:32Read transcript
  • Everyone sells out is proposed as the movie’s lesson.
  • Meg’s concern that the cold world may be making her cold is offered as a smaller life truth.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:57:39Read transcript
  • Kasdan is the immediate choice because the movie is personal and generational.
  • The directly addressed first-time viewer calls it an immediate top-five movie among Rewatchables episodes about films he had not seen.
  • The film’s realism, friendship, and people-in-rooms storytelling are praised as scarce in 2023.
  • Michael’s late-sleeping outsider role and Berenger’s charisma receive final appreciation.
  • The birthday-movie choice is judged successful and placed alongside prior birthday episodes.
  • A present-day reunion soundtrack of college-era dance music is jokingly compared unfavorably with Motown, whose appeal is defended as more than nostalgia.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Lawrence Kasdan
Speaker not identified
Lawrence Kasdan

More from the conversation

The episode is Bill Simmons’s annual birthday selection and marks the movie’s fortieth anniversary.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:50Read transcript
The film is framed as an inherited parental-generation rewatchable whose college-friend reunion remains universal even when its boomer politics do not.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:33Read transcript
The ensemble’s rehearsal period is credited with producing the ease and shared history visible on screen.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:29Read transcript
Kasdan is read as affectionate toward the friends while critically examining their movement from collective idealism to self-interest.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:06Read transcript
The soundtrack becomes both inherited family memory and an example of how people keep replaying the music of their own youth.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:04Read transcript
The cast is praised for playing successful people without reducing them to caricatures or condemning their compromises.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:03Read transcript
The opening’s use of Heard It Through the Grapevine is praised for combining catchy familiarity with grief and information arriving through a social network.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:57Read transcript
Kasdan and Barbara Benedek developed the semi-autobiographical screenplay while he was making Body Heat.
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:51Read transcript
The film’s three Oscar nominations and William Hurt’s omission anchor a discussion of the 1983 field.
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:12Read transcript
Pauline Kael’s skeptical review and The Return of the Secaucus 7 comparison are treated as part of the movie’s polarizing reception.
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:08Read transcript