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The Rewatchables ·

The Warriors

year 1979decade 70sdirector Walter Hillgenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Sean Fennessey
All 16 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 18:05

Cyrus's speech

The movie is described as six scenes that are fun to watch over and over with lagging in between; Cyrus's speech is amazing, including the little wooden platform built for him that fell apart when he bumped it, and his 'can you count, suckers?' to 900 juvenile delinquents.

The production could not afford 900 extras and used real gang members, whose cheering during the speech was genuine; Roger Hill's performance is called all-time, with three lines in the lexicon ('can you count, suckers', 'can you dig it', 'the future is ours if you can count'), and The Rock's late-nineties wrestling persona seemed like a Cyrus impersonation.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:02:13

"Warriors come out to play"

Candidates: 'I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle', 'Warriors come out to play', 'can you dig it' and 'the Warriors are good, real good, the best'; the popsicle line is one host's favorite, but the iconic quote that has lasted forty years is probably 'Warriors come out to play', and it comes down to that and 'can you dig it', which has been good too.

The film

The Warriors (1979)

Directed by Walter Hill · Drama

92 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Michael Beck "Swan", the second-in-command and interim War Chief of the Warriors
James Remar "Ajax", the vulgar mouthy enforcer of the Warriors
Deborah Van Valkenburgh "Mercy", girlfriend of the Orphans leader who accompanies the Warriors to Coney Island
Marcelino Sánchez "Rembrandt", the youngest member and Graffiti Artist of the Warriors
David Harris "Cochise", a member of the Warriors who sports Native American gear
Tom McKitterick "Cowboy", a member of the Warriors who wears a cowboy hat
Brian Tyler "Snow", an enforcer of the Warriors with a taste for music
Dorsey Wright Cleon, War Chieftain and leader of the Warriors
Terry Michos "Vermin", a member of the Warriors who is the known bearer of the group
David Patrick Kelly Luther, the psychotic leader of the Rogues who was responsible for Cyrus's assassination and who clicks empty bottles together to taunt The Warriors while repeating "Warriors - come out to play-ee-eh..."
Roger Hill Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs and host of the Van Cortlandt Summit
Edward Sewer Masai, second-in-command of the Gramercy Riffs who personally trains the gang members [ N 1 ]
Lynne Thigpen the D.J.
Thomas G. Waites "Fox", the Scout for the Warriors [ N 2 ]

Everything from the episode

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

12:40

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:40Read transcript
  • Gene Sisko (as transcribed) gave the film one star, called a tough beat; Roger Ebert gave two out of four, which one host likes, writing that despite Hill's cinematic scale the film is implausible and the characters lack depth and spontaneity.
  • Ebert also wrote that whatever impression the ads give, this is not remotely intended as an action film but a set piece, a ballet of stylized male violence; one host agrees with the description but thinks holding it against the film is a weird criticism.
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49:03

Casting What-Ifs

The novel's characters were not white and Paramount refused an all-black cast; Tony Danza was to play Vermin before t...

The novel's characters were not white and Paramount refused an all-black cast; Tony Danza was to play Vermin before taking Taxi, so Terry Michos was cast

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:03Read transcript
  • In the book none of the characters were white, and Walter Hill has said Paramount did not want an all-black cast for commercial reasons; the hosts would like to see that movie.
  • Tony Danza was supposed to be Vermin, the slick Italian-American comic-relief guy, but took the sitcom Taxi; Terry Michos got the part and is now a news anchor in Wappinger Falls, New York.
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51:17

Half-Assed Internet Research

Rushed to beat The Wanderers; Fox was meant to end up with Mercy; the Dingoes subplot was cut after Beck and Van Bakk...

Rushed to beat The Wanderers; Fox was meant to end up with Mercy; the Dingoes subplot was cut after Beck and Van Bakkenberg's chemistry showed; the Rogues drove a 1955 Cadillac hearse; Michael Beck became born again; Sunny Landon was hit by the bat; Mercy's stitches and broken wrist; production paid off gangs via an NYPD contact

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:17Read transcript
  • The movie was rushed to get ahead of another gang movie, The Wanderers, by Philip Kaufman of The Right Stuff, with Ken Wall (as transcribed) of Wise Guy; two hosts have never seen it, prompting a joke about being only 26.
  • Fox was originally to end up with Mercy; in the book and original script Swan was captured by a gay gang called the Dingoes, who had Dobermans, and escaped later, but Walter Hill saw the dailies, noticed Beck and Van Bakkenberg (as transcribed) had chemistry, and rewrote everything to drop the Dingoes; Dobermans are compared to Halle Berry's dogs in John Wick 3.
  • The Rogues drove a 1955 Cadillac hearse; Michael Beck partied too much during filming and became born again; Sunny Landon (as transcribed), later in Predator, was the cop Swan hits with the bat, and in one take Mercy was hit in the face and needed stitches.
  • Mercy broke her wrist running with the stunt double, which is why she wears the jacket for the rest of the movie, explaining the odd 'where'd you get that jacket' exchange; to film anywhere in the five boroughs production paid off whoever ran that turf, with an NYPD contact telling Marshall the producer which gang members needed paying.
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56:13

Picking Nits

The Orphans fold after one Molotov cocktail; no police after the Union Station death; the Lizzies' shooter misses eve...

The Orphans fold after one Molotov cocktail; no police after the Union Station death; the Lizzies' shooter misses everyone; the Turnbull ACs drive past instead of running them over; where Luther's bullet went; Luther's reaction to a knife in the hand; nobody could hear Cyrus; the Orphans' dirty faces; cops arrive too fast for the whistle; Ajax's hormones; nobody has a car; where are the other Warriors; the Warriors are not the best

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:13Read transcript
  • The Molotov cocktail routs the Orphans, showing why they are a bottom-tier gang not invited to the party; the lack of police or ambulances after a Warrior dies at Union Station (as transcribed) is repeated.
  • The Lizzies have the Warriors in a confined room, fire about nineteen shots and miss everybody; the gangs are terrible with missed opportunities, and the Turnbull ACs should have run them over instead of driving past.
  • When Swan's knife hits Luther as he fires, there are three people behind him and nobody is hit, raising where the bullet went, like a magic JFK bullet; Luther reacts to a knife in the hand as if dying, and the Rogues freeze rather than use their numbers, perhaps because nobody liked him; he is a bad leader picked for his chin.
  • Nobody could hear Cyrus outdoors to 900 gang members without a baso profundo or Sonos beams; the Orphans' dirty faces and jersey-style shirts raise whether they are actual orphans.
  • The cops arrive in a minute and a half after the undercover cop handcuffs Ajax and blows her whistle; Ajax misplayed a race home by letting his hormones take over.
  • A Texan perspective: nobody in the gang has one friend with a car or makes one phone call; the nine delegates per gang suggests Terry Rozier and Jalen Brown (as transcribed) style tension over minutes, and the tenth guy might have had a car.
  • Where are the other Warriors, since Cyrus's math implies a hundred members per gang; nobody is waiting at Coney and nobody calls for backup, and other gangs never go to Coney Island to finish them, compared to what Michael Corleone did between 1946 and 1951.
  • The Warriors are not the best when several of them die, though they did fight 28 miles from the Bronx to Coney Island; the Riffs are clearly the best, and the Furies with nine guys made a complete strategy error.
  • Earlier, the subway stops seem mostly correct but the jump from 96th and Broadway to Central Park and the unknown timing of the summit and the arrival at Coney Island are flagged for picking nits.
  • During the scene discussion, how the Furies lose a nine-against-three fight with bats is raised and parked for picking nits.
  • Another nitpick during the gang rundown: the Rogues pass the gun down the line instead of having it ready, which is read as dramatic effect or as Luther deciding on a whim while Cyrus spoke.
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1:05:02

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Which gangs were not invited? Would a coded gang radio station have worked in 1979? How long did Swan and Mercy stay ...

Which gangs were not invited? Would a coded gang radio station have worked in 1979? How long did Swan and Mercy stay together? What happened to Ajax? Did the Riffs kill Luther?

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:02Read transcript
  • Which gangs were too weak to be invited was already covered; whether a DJ communicating in code to gangs would have worked in 1979 or whether the police would have simply listened is asked, with the defense that it is underground and nobody talks.
  • The DJ is the most clever part of the movie for solving how to reach everyone at once, and the shot of Lynn Thinkpen's (as transcribed) mouth against pink-red light dropping the needle is slick.
  • How long Swan and Mercy stayed together: maybe a week, tops, since Coney is far, and he needed to see her after a shower.
  • Ajax is probably dead within three years, going to jail and then shot in an armed robbery; the alternative where he grows up to be the rich guy from Sex and the City is enjoyed.
  • Later, whether the Riffs killed Luther at the end is called an unanswerable question; one host thinks they killed him slowly over many days in that dark cement parking garage compound.
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