Nominees: Ethan typing internet access into a computer, the Netscape browser the IMF uses to watch news clips, floppy disks, the attention-drawing surveillance eyewear worn by Hannah and Sarah in the Prague scene, the masks, and the whole Claire plotline.
The masks are disputed: one side finds them unbelievable with no rules, while the other says these movies need something preposterous, and the masks, inherited from the TV show, are that thing, even as later films add voice strips; the objection is that with good mask use half the movie need not happen, since Ethan could just walk in as Don Lowe (as transcribed) and take the knock list, prompting the joke about Andy Greenwald in a mask.
The senator mask Ethan wears is the worst offender: he has ostensibly been impersonating a sitting U.S. senator for an untold time, doing interviews; the hosts argue whether the senator exists, with the theory that he is a real adversary of the IMF taken on fishing trips to County Kildare while the IMF uses his face, versus an entirely invented man elected to high office and only ever played by Tom Cruise.
In 1996 the political landscape was different: a teenager would have accepted old Senator Walter without question, since nobody knew their senators or how to contact them, and a political category is jokingly suggested after the Quint campaign bit from the Jaws episode.
Pressed for a final answer, the masks are chosen over the computer tech, which should be graded on a curve, though the forward-looking movie suffers when a floppy disk appears, the Langley screen just reads download complete, and Luther hacking Max's computer on the train amounts to typing plain instructions; the masks are confirmed with a fist bump.
Oak trees were helicoptered in for the Lake Berryessa murder scene; all the gore was added with CGI because repeated takes made fake blood impractical; the film was shot digitally apart from the opening sequence; James Ellroy called the three lead performances inadequate yet the film great; Downey left jars of urine on set to protest the long hours
When the crew arrived to shoot the lake murder scene in Napa the oak trees were no longer there, so Fincher had oak trees flown in by helicopter and temporarily planted with water to keep them alive for the shot; the hosts joke about the trees flying commercial to Santa Rosa next to Groot.
Fincher used CGI for everything gory because with so many takes fake blood would have meant wiping down the set each time, so for the taxicab murder he could shoot a hundred takes of Mark Ruffalo unlocking a door and add the blood splatter later; the opening sequence was shot on film and the rest digitally, edited on an Avid rig, and much of the tangible period feel the hosts admire is actually post-production.
James Elroy (as transcribed), whose Black Dahlia Fincher was going to direct before Brian De Palma did, is quoted finding it most interesting that Gyllenhaal, Downey and Ruffalo are miserable in the film, three inadequate and unconvincing performances he does not believe a word of, and that it is still a great movie; the hosts observe he is in harmony with Andy Greenwald.
An earlier research aside on Fincher's methods: Downey reportedly left jars of urine around the set to protest the long hours and decided to give Fincher what he wanted because he understands gulags; Gyllenhaal is quoted on takes running from five to ninety plus reshoots that left him asking where the risk was; Fincher's reply was that he is not interested in earnestness, the thing he hates most in acting, and that about fifteen takes gets actors out of it.
