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The Rewatchables ·

The Firm

year 1993decade 90sdirector Sydney Pollackgenre Thrillergenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Sean Fennesseyhost Chris Ryan
All 16 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 19:27

The chase: Mitch summoned to the partners after taking Avery's files, Tarrance's 'get out of there' call, and the escape through Memphis

The chase is the one pick: Mitch takes files from Avery's office, is stopped for a word, Brimley comes down, and the Ed Harris 'get out of there' call starts a fifteen-minute stretch the host watches every time, with Cruise running, jumping onto a truck that happens to carry pillows, riding the tram and hanging on while the two hitmen chase him; it carries the movie and is Sidney Pollack doing Three Days of the Condor twenty years later.

The scene where Mitch guesses his salary is a minor but good dramatic scene, one of the few that shows his intellect at work, and the hosts play the clip; the final maneuver that turns the ending into a court proceeding with Lambert as judge and Lamar as defense lawyer is also loved.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:15:38

"It's amazing how much you miss the sky"

Nominated lines: Ray's 'it's amazing how much you miss the sky', DeVasher's 'what do you think I am, the fucking night watchman', Mitch's line about Harvard and jail both ending up surrounded by crooks, and every Ed Harris line, including the 'chicken shit little Harvard cocksucker' speech played as a clip; one host's favorite is 'we'll take those steak sandwiches to go', and Harris is called a candidate for the overacting award too.

The film

The Firm (1993)

Directed by Sydney Pollack · Thriller / Drama

154 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Tom Cruise Mitch McDeere , a promising recent Harvard Law graduate
Jeanne Tripplehorn Abby McDeere, Mitch's wife
Gene Hackman Avery Tolar, Mitch's mentor at the Firm
Holly Hunter Tammy Hemphill, Eddie's secretary and lover who aids Mitch in copying and stealing the files in Memphis and the Cayman Islands
Ed Harris FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance, the agent in charge of the investigation into the Firm; Mitch's primary contact with the FBI
Hal Holbrook Oliver Lambert, senior partner at the Firm
Jerry Hardin Royce McKnight, managing partner at the Firm
David Strathairn Ray McDeere, Mitch's brother who was in jail for a manslaughter conviction
Terry Kinney Lamar Quinn, Mitch's friend who works at the Firm
Wilford Brimley Bill DeVasher, officially the head of security at the Firm—unofficially the Firm's main hitman
Sullivan Walker Thomas Abanks, the owner of a scuba diving business
Gary Busey Eddie Lomax, a private investigator and former cell-mate of Ray McDeere
Barbara Garrick Kay Quinn, Lamar Quinn's wife who befriends both Abby and Mitch
Steven Hill FBI Director F. Denton Voyles
Margo Martindale Nina Huff, Mitch's secretary
Paul Sorvino Tony Morolto
Joe Viterelli Joey Morolto
Jerry Weintraub Sonny Capps
Tobin Bell The Nordic Man, Morolto Hitman
Dean Norris The Squat Man, Morolto Hitman
Karina Lombard the prostitute on the beach who seduces Mitch
John Beal Nathan Locke
Paul Calderon FBI Agent Thomas Richie

Everything from the episode

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

16:36

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:36Read transcript
  • Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, which sounds about right to the hosts; he called it virtually an anthology of good small character performances.
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48:49

Casting What-Ifs

Jason Patric turned down Mitch; Meryl Streep was wanted for a gender-swapped Avery until Grisham objected; Robin Wrig...

Jason Patric turned down Mitch; Meryl Streep was wanted for a gender-swapped Avery until Grisham objected; Robin Wright turned down Abby; Halle Berry auditioned for the woman on the beach

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:49Read transcript
  • Jason Patric turned down Mitch two years before Speed 2; Cruise was probably Plan B and expensive, the biggest star in the world at the time.
  • Gene Hackman joined late because the producers wanted to gender-swap Avery and cast Meryl Streep until John Grisham objected; one host thinks it might be a better movie without the beach scene, but another says Hackman is why the film makes sense, and Streep never played that older, divorced, sexualized, secretly bad character.
  • Robin Wright turned down Abby, as she seemed to for every movie, and Halle Berry auditioned for the woman on the beach, which one host would have preferred.
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1:00:46

Half-Assed Internet Research

Hackman's name was left off the poster over Cruise's above-the-title deal; the ending differs from the book; Trippleh...

Hackman's name was left off the poster over Cruise's above-the-title deal; the ending differs from the book; Tripplehorn dated Ben Stiller for six years; Pollack voices the prison warden; a 2012 TV series continued the story; the Hyatt Regency Grand Cayman was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan; Hackman has not made a film since 2004

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:46Read transcript
  • Gene Hackman's name did not appear on the release poster because Cruise's Paramount deal allowed only his name above the title; Hackman asked to be removed entirely and appears only in the end credits.
  • The ending differs significantly from the book, where Mitch swindles ten million from the firm and there is a manhunt; Jeanne Tripplehorn dated Ben Stiller for six years, and the hosts think she was a nineties face who had a better career than remembered, including Big Love, with one calling her better than Holly Hunter here.
  • Sidney Pollack voices the prison warden on the phone to Ed Harris's agent; a 2012 TV series picked up Mitch ten years later; the Cayman hotel was the Hyatt Regency Grand Cayman, destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and later demolished.
  • Hackman's last film was Welcome to Mooseport in 2004; Grantland accidentally made people think he had died through a headline Sean Fennessey wrote; Tarantino wanted him for the Robert Forster role in Jackie Brown; a 2018 bicycling article shows him at 88 riding an electric bike in New Mexico.
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1:12:05

Picking Nits

Mitch trusts Tammy instantly; Avery's flip; the firm never tails Mitch; the premise collapses under scrutiny; Mitch w...

Mitch trusts Tammy instantly; Avery's flip; the firm never tails Mitch; the premise collapses under scrutiny; Mitch would be shot walking into the mob boss's suite

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:05Read transcript
  • Mitch trusts Holly Hunter's character within seconds on the word of a maniac felon, and Abby then does too; Avery flipping and telling Abby everything is explained as depression in a middle-aged spiral; the firm should have been tailing Mitch from the forty-minute mark, though he may be assuming surveillance in the diner.
  • The premise does not hold: Harvard's crackerjack lawyer never asks who the clients are or how the firm makes money, representing the mafia is not illegal, no firm would launder money this way, and attorney-client privilege means the firm would never need to kill departing lawyers; the reluctant host says this is why he resisted the episode, yet the Xeroxing-and-overbilling plot still makes it rewatchable.
  • Walking into Sorvino's hotel suite, Mitch would simply be shot rather than heard out.
  • Earlier, while still on what aged worst, the hosts admit they are already picking nits: the FBI having the mob family's itinerary, Mitch getting the overbilling idea from the client being overbilled, and Avery rolling over for Abby.
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1:16:38

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Did Avery die or kill himself? Did Mitch kick DeVasher to death? What happens to Lamar? What is the best Grisham movie?

Did Avery die or kill himself? Did Mitch kick DeVasher to death? What happens to Lamar? What is the best Grisham movie?

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:38Read transcript
  • Why Lamar is introduced as a big character, with the Heineken-and-sprinklers image, then vanishes; the answer offered is that the film is already too long, and he fits Cruise's pattern of a loser buddy sidekick.
  • The best Grisham movie is called unanswerable: a sentimental favorite is The Client, another prefers A Time to Kill for Samuel L. Jackson, McConaughey's closing and evil Kiefer Sutherland; Ed Harris's bald look and the 'they don't own me' line lifted from Thief come up along the way.
  • Earlier, whether the firm killed Avery or he killed himself was parked as an unanswerable question.
  • Whether Mitch kicked DeVasher to death was debated during the Brimley section: he was probably groaning, with a concussion and broken ribs rather than dead.
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