Apex choices explicitly affirm Gooding, Crowe, Bonnie Hunt, the Gifford–Michaels–Dierdorf trio, Zellweger and Lipnicki. Crowe versus Almost Famous is debated before the larger hit and creative leverage prevail. Zellweger first faces a Bridget Jones alternative but is later confirmed yes. Jerry O'Connell is only raised, while Mohr gets a tentative maybe.
Cruise's 1996 Mission:Impossible/Jerry Maguire combination is affirmed as career Apex despite the objection that audiences chiefly associate him with Maverick. The film demonstrates pure star power through talking, running and emotion rather than an action concept.
Mission statements lose to the Unabomber manifesto; sports-agent Apex remains a discussion of Falk/Jordan and Boras rather than a settled Jerry Maguire win.
Cruise laughing during sex is proposed without a clear ruling; bass-fishing accidents receive a yes. The Arizona Cardinals are proposed but their later near-Super-Bowl win challenges it. Sad Springsteen needle drops lose to Philadelphia.
Jerry's firing lunch and the ensuing fight to save his clients is the first rewatchable-scene nominee; Sugar's confrontation is also proposed for the toe-to-toe award. — Bill Simmons
The competing client calls culminate in Show me the money; Cruise's progression from reluctant participant to desperate commitment is praised as his other lines disappear.
Jerry's office exit is treated as a separate scene, including the goldfish, Dorothy joining him and the signed You complete me in the elevator. — Bill Simmons
Jerry discovering that Cush has signed with Sugar is a favorite among the initial nominees; Cruise's restrained anguish, legal pad and inability to say Sugar's name are praised.
Jerry getting drunk with Rod at the airport and on the plane is another nominee, before the sunglasses visit to Dorothy. The cloak-of-failure line, the child, Bonnie Hunt and Clarence Thomas joke are highlighted. — Bill Simmons
The shower confrontation is praised for both actors at their best, screaming and Help me help you. Cruise is proposed for overacting but defended as effective because Jerry loses the control established at the start; Kelly Preston is another personal overacting answer. Rod's athlete-not-entertainer stance is considered distinctly of its era.
Jerry arriving for the date, the women's group, Dorothy's dress and the Secret Garden hug are scene nominees. Needle-drop choices divide Free Fallin' and Secret Garden, with one vote changing to the latter on seeing the scene. — Bill Simmons
Bonnie Hunt is praised but may appear too much for Dion Waiters. The wedding scene highlights Rod singing Marvin Gaye, Jerry's visibly unhappy video face and Bonnie's warning. — Bill Simmons
The confrontation about Rod playing with his head rather than heart is another scene nominee, ending in I'm all heart; Gooding is praised for going toe to toe with Cruise.
Rod's touchdown, dance and postgame press conference are nominated. Cruise reportedly supplied one script note asking where Jerry was during the celebration so he could build toward the ending, leading to his run onto the field. — Bill Simmons
Jerry's return and the You complete me/You had me at hello exchange introduce the final scene nominee. — Bill Simmons
The final reconciliation is proposed for the Rick Dalton best-acting award; Cruise in the shower is another best-acting preference. — Chris Ryan
Final rewatchable-scene votes mostly favor the client-saving phone sequence including Show me the money, with one shower-scene preference. The firing lunch is included in another vote for the client struggle.
The music and Hans Zimmer score; Charlie's Ferrari; the Rain Man would save me line; asshole Cruise; the Bonnie Hunt cameo; the old Vegas view from Caesars; the traffic, bathtub and smoke-alarm sequences; the autistic-savant premise; Raymond crashing the sex scene; Valeria Golino; The Hangover's parody; the Rain Man Suite; Cruise's 1988; Qantas
The music holds up: a great 80s score, the Iko Iko use, and the two Hans Zimmer pieces.
Asked for Hans rankings, the answer is Zimmer number one, Gruber being pretty problematic. — Chris Ryan
Charlie Babbitt's 1983 Ferrari ("400 I") and the line "when I was a kid, I always thought the Rain Man would save me," framed as foreshadowing. — Bill Simmons
Asshole Cruise ages best: telling Raymond to shut up, and ordering large pepperoni after being told pepperoni is not wanted; this is straight asshole rather than the cocky version in The Color of Money, Top Gun or Days of Thunder. — Chris Ryan
A question is raised whether hotel room service ever let guests freestyle an order like beer for two and the closest thing to tapioca pudding. — Bill Simmons
Freezing on the view from the Caesars suite shows old Vegas: a "holiday in" across the street, none of today's casinos, and the Barbary Coast, thought to be the Cromwell now. — Bill Simmons
The smoke-alarm scene was left out of the rewatchable-scene picks because it is disturbing; the traffic, bathtub and smoke-alarm moments are praised as tension-building sequences. — Bill Simmons
The autistic-savant concept in movies and TV has aged well because it keeps being revisited. — Bill Simmons
Raymond crashing the sex scene is weird but works, a 9.9 degree of difficulty; he just wanted to see what was on TV. — Bill Simmons
Valerie Galena (as transcribed) is great in this; she became the queen of Hot Shots, made a couple of American thrillers, went back to Italy and appeared in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. — Sean Fennessey
The Hangover's parody of Rain Man is an addendum that plays all the same notes. — Bill Simmons
The Rain Man Suite lives on as a Vegas idea; the hosts recall being given a suite during a Summer League trip, with high ceilings and multiple rooms. — Bill Simmons
Cruise's 1988, with Cocktail and Rain Man making him the biggest under-35 star in the world.
Qantas is called the biggest pick: still no crashes, apart from early propeller crashes.
Asked how often he has flown Qantas, the answer is never; only Air New Zealand. — Chris Ryan
This was tough: Grodin is in it, Ving Rhames is mentioned even though he's not really a heat check, and the initial choice is Oliver Stone, in the movie for 20 seconds and making about seven threes.
Bonnie Hunt is nominated for the 'we're walking, we're walking, and we're stopping' White House tour bit introducing Bob Alexander and the 42 presidents and their wives; the scene is really funny, she is pretty good, and the award is given to Bonnie Hunt.
Cameron Crow is proposed as peaking here; Almost Famous is countered as his life story and therefore easier material to assemble. — Bill Simmons
This film is proposed as Tom Cruise’s best movie and as the complete Cruise experience; 1996 is accepted as a career year because it also included Mission: Impossible. — Bill Simmons
The performer rendered as Jay Moore is treated as a probable peak, with a later agent television show recalled but not named. — Bill Simmons
The performer rendered as Glenn Fry is initially placed above the Eagles and his Miami Vice appearance, then removed after the Miami Vice comparison wins out. — Bill Simmons
Roy Firestone’s Rod Tidwell interview is called his peak. — Bill Simmons
Jerry O'Connell is proposed as peaking here; Stand By Me is raised, but the response prefers his Cush role. — Bill Simmons
The Springsteen soundtrack is nominated over Philadelphia, while the Philadelphia lawyer-office scene is offered as a strong counterexample. — Bill Simmons
Beau Bridges is added as a late-career peak. — Chris Ryan
The Michaels-Deerdorf-Gifford broadcast trio, using the transcript’s observed spelling, and Wayne Fontes’s lobby appearance are added as peaks. — Bill Simmons
