Screenplay development history; the novel's video-game origin; Cruise's Oblivion turnaround; the helicopter line; the Matrix-like Louvre scene; beach plates; heavy battle suits; Rita's blade

In the discussion (17)

Approx. transcript time · 00:21:57Read transcript

Getting ahead of half-ass internet research, the hosts read that eight people contributed to the screenplay and that the producers developed a spec script, sending writer Dante Harper the novel.
They read that Harper found the book too complex but risked not being paid and spent eight months on it; Warner Brothers bought it for $3 million in April 2010, hired Liman, and Harper's script made the 2010 Black List.
The story prompts a Barton Fink joke, corrected from Michael Gambon to Michael Lerner ("It's a wrestling picture").
The Butterworths were later brought in; Jez is called an accomplished playwright who worked on some of the Craig Bond movies and Simon Kinberg also took a shot.
The hosts say Cruise compared Cage's violent deaths to a Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon, and that McQuarrie finally found the funny tone the earlier drafts lacked.
Movies with eight screenwriters are usually bad; the guess is that Harper's shape, the Butterworths' plotting and McQuarrie's dialogue survived.
Resuming the segment, the hosts say Sakurazaka got the idea for the novel from resetting video games until finding the winning strategy.
Asked about resetting FIFA, the answer is going further: looking up cheat codes online for 100 lives, which dates the last time he played video games. — Chris Ryan
The movie integrates first-person-shooter and video-game logic seamlessly, making it the best video game movie without being an adaptation; Scott Pilgrim is the only comparison, while boss-level logic in Star Wars movies is annoying.
The hosts read that Cruise began pre-production on July 20, 2012, less than a week after wrapping Oblivion.
The farmhouse line about knowing how to take off but not land is linked to Cruise later flying helicopters in Mission Impossible.
The hosts read that the Louvre scene with aliens attacking the ship resembles the sentinels at the end of The Matrix.
They read that visual effects artists extended the beach with plates shot at Saunton Sands in North Devon, and that the battles were meant to recall Normandy and Dunkirk, discussed with Quentin Tarantino last year.
They read that Cruise and Blunt wore the battle suits for real, averaging 85 pounds and up to 130 pounds, and hung from chains on iron frames between takes, which is likened to Aliens.
They read that in the novel Rita uses a melee weapon because she ran out of ammo on resets; her blade is iconic but practically stupid, alongside the Full Metal Bitch bus graffiti and her crew's skeleton masks.
Blunt's introduction doing the plank is called probably the movie's most iconic shot.
Asked whether he can do that plank, the answer is no. — Chris Ryan

Casting What-Ifs

Jeremy Piven's cut scenes; Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling as Cage; The Artist star as Rita

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 00:50:06Read transcript

The hosts read that after filming concluded by August 2013, Jeremy Piven was added and extra scenes were shot, but he does not appear in the finished film; they call it an editing what-if.
Piven's energy would not have worked, though a liked comedian popping up in J Squad would have been welcome.
A sarcastic line about marveling that Tom Hardy was in J Squad leads to the point that none of the J Squad actors have become big names in six years.
The hosts read that Brad Pitt was originally considered for Cage; it would need the winking Pitt of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Mr. and Mrs. Smith rather than the self-serious World War Z version, and Cruise is judged the better fit.
The hosts read that Ryan Gosling was also considered because Cage is younger in the novel; comic Nice Guys Gosling would work, but blank Drive, Only God Forgives or Blade Runner Gosling would not.
The hosts read that an actress best known for The Artist was up for Rita, which seems odd; she is called a good actor, possibly also in a Bond movie, and both hosts are glad they got Blunt.

Easy hospital escape; Rita's simulator offer; the daily re-explanation; how Rita knew she lost the power; the mimics' blood-loss plan; repeat farmhouse trips; fleeing with the transponder; Rita's executions

In the discussion (9)

Approx. transcript time · 01:06:06Read transcript

After being locked up near the end, they break out of the hospital suspiciously easily.
The scene where Rita offers to train Cage in the simulator, though she has been training him all along, feels left over from another script, maybe footage for the techno song, or meant to show accumulated experience.
How many hours of every day go to explaining the situation to Rita before training can start?
Rita could not know she had lost her reset power unless she died and the day did not reset; who explained that possibility to her is confusing.
The mimics bleeding Cage at a dam makes no sense, since blood-loss death is like any other death; they would need to give him a transfusion.
If they had been to the farmhouse many times, they could have found gas elsewhere and had no reason to return; the counterpoint is that the area may have no gas.
After stealing the transponder from the General in London, they could have used it in his office and killed Cage rather than fleeing, or asked him to call off the guards.
Rita's body count: she shoots Cage every time he is injured in training, so what happens when there is a dead major in her gym? A court-martial, with a Daniel Kaffee joke.
The lesson is don't write your movie while shooting it, at least not one about time travel and alien robots.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

How many times did Cage die?; Is the movie responsible for the 2016 election?

In the discussion (3)

Approx. transcript time · 01:16:34Read transcript

Rita watching Hendricks die 300 times is the baseline; applying Gladwell's 10,000 hours, Cage probably died close to a year's worth of deaths. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say the opening news montage includes Hillary Clinton, implying she is president in 2020, in a movie released in 2014 before the 2016 election; the question is whether the movie is responsible for the 2016 result.
The joking answer: disaffected voters saw it and said not my president; others blame the Russians, Facebook disinformation or a heartland backlash, but it's Doug Liman's fault, and the other host agrees.