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The Rewatchables ·

Midnight Run

year 1988decade 80sdirector Martin Brestgenre Actiongenre Comedygenre Crime
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryan
All 14 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 23:45

The boxcar scene

Every scene is called rewatchable, so a few are thrown out: the counterfeit-twenties con in the bar (the 'litmus configuration' test), Jack visiting his daughter, the coffee-shop scene with the chorizo and the 53-cent coffee where the Duke needles Jack about Serrano, the boxcar scene, and the late chase where Jack loses the Duke, stops the car under the helicopters and says he has come too far.

The boxcar is the pick for both: it is where the two finally break down and become real friends, a cathartic release after the car chase through the desert, apparently mostly improvised, and a lived-in, funny, genuine scene between two great actors; any scene with Farina or Pantoliano is a rewind, but the boxcar is the rewatchable one.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:04:10

"Here come two words for you. Shut the fuck up"

The whole movie is quotable, but the one iconic quote is the exchange where the Duke tells Jack he is a grown man with control over his own words and gets two words back; it is hilarious and timeless and the one said most often.

The film

Midnight Run (1988)

Directed by Martin Brest · Action

126 minutes

IMDb
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Robert De Niro Jack Walsh
Robert De Niro Jack Walsh
Charles Grodin Jonathan Mardukas
Charles Grodin Jonathan Mardukas
Yaphet Kotto Alonzo Mosely
Yaphet Kotto Alonzo Mosely
John Ashton Marvin Dorfler
John Ashton Marvin Dorfler
Dennis Farina Jimmy Serrano
Dennis Farina Jimmy Serrano
Joe Pantoliano Eddie Moscone
Joe Pantoliano Eddie Moscone
Richard Foronjy Tony Darvo
Richard Foronjy Tony Darvo
Jack Kehoe Jerry Geisler
Jack Kehoe Jerry Geisler
Tracey Walter Diner counter man
Tracey Walter Diner counter man

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

39:20

Casting What-Ifs

Paramount lined up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh and Chevy Chase as the Duke; Chase had a conflict and Ford dropped out...

Paramount lined up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh and Chevy Chase as the Duke; Chase had a conflict and Ford dropped out; De Niro came aboard only after being turned down for Big; Albert Brooks turned down the Duke; Paramount wanted Cher, then Robin Williams, as the Duke; Brest insisted on Grodin and Paramount sold the film to Universal; Ron Perlman, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta and Alec Baldwin were considered for Serrano

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:20Read transcript
  • Called a pantheon casting what-if: Paramount obtained the script and lined up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh and Chevy Chase as the Duke around 1986-87, post-Fletch, which would have been a pretty good backup movie, although Ford, basically in his Blade Runner outfit, might be too handsome and has rarely been heard cursing that much; Chase had a conflict with Funny Farm and another film, and Ford dropped out.
  • De Niro opted in only after being turned down for Big; Albert Brooks was then offered the Duke and turned it down, which would also have been incredible, since Brooks and Grodin could have swapped parts for fifteen years and Brooks probably wins head to head.
  • Paramount then decided Cher should play the Duke, which is unimaginable, during a brief three-year peak of Cher as a top-tier actress; the research came from a piece written five years earlier, with a shout-out to Alan Seppinwall (as transcribed) as one of the few listeners.
  • Paramount pushed for Robin Williams, who wanted to audition, the same year as Good Morning Vietnam; Brest refused and wanted Charles Grodin, so Paramount sold the rights to Universal with Grodin and De Niro attached, and Universal had a major success.
  • Better or worse with 1988 Robin Williams: a sliding-doors note that doing it before or after Good Morning Vietnam might have affected Dead Poets Society; one view is that Williams would have done bits throughout and turned it into a comedy, while Grodin's measured, deadpan complaining plays perfectly off De Niro; the counter is a mellow Garp or Dead Poets Williams could have done it, and the endless takes might have driven him to become Robin Williams anyway.
  • Williams is judged the better actor but Grodin played it better; Williams only grew into his body by Good Will Hunting and was still slight in the eighties, so nobody but Grodin can be pictured in the part, with Grodin the safer pick though Williams playing it correctly would have been great; a crude aside recalls an anatomical revelation from the HBO Williams documentary.
  • The only other what-if is Jimmy Serrano, played by the late Dennis Farina: Ron Perlman, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta and Alec Baldwin were all considered; late-eighties Baldwin would have been interesting, Liotta a little too young, and nobody could be better than Farina.
  • Earlier aside: De Niro wanted the lead in Big to show a lighter side, the studio said no and went to Tom Hanks, who was nominated, while De Niro settled for Midnight Run and was not; which was the better career choice is left open, but De Niro as Josh Baskin, a thirteen-year-old at the piano with Robert Loggia, would have been creepy, so the studio made the right move.
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51:15

Half-Assed Internet Research

Grodin has permanent scars from the real handcuffs he wore; the boxcar scene was entirely improvised on set; De Niro ...

Grodin has permanent scars from the real handcuffs he wore; the boxcar scene was entirely improvised on set; De Niro actually punched John Ashton during the train fight; the script originally had Marvin die when Serrano's thugs knocked him out, and he was shoehorned into the McCarran Airport climax

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:15Read transcript
  • Grodin has permanent scars from the real handcuffs he wore for much of the film across all those takes, which a hypothetical Grodin podcast would ask to see; the boxcar scene was entirely improvised; according to John Ashton, De Niro got so into the train fight that he actually punched him; the script had Marvin die when Serrano's thugs knocked him out, but the climax would have been less dramatic without him, so he was shoehorned into the McCarran Airport scene.
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57:46

Picking Nits

Three TV-movie sequels starting in 1994 with Christopher McDonald as Jack Walsh; the FBI backing Jack's plan to take ...

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.
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1:01:25

Probably Unanswerable Questions

How long does the Duke actually stay alive? Does Jack Walsh use the money to open the coffee shop, and where?

How long does the Duke actually stay alive? Does Jack Walsh use the money to open the coffee shop, and where?

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:25Read transcript
  • How long does the Duke stay alive: probably dead within six months, since even with Serrano in jail the word is going out through the bosses.
  • Does Jack open the coffee shop, and where in Los Angeles: a dream that it is the diner Neil McCauley uses in Heat, with the 'book about metals' exchange recited; one guess is Ojai, moving to the country to start over and smoke, the other Koreatown, where he got in early before it was destroyed in the riots, which is rejected as a sequel for not matching the movie's tone.
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