Doug Cahan

Stats

Episodes featuring their films

0

Movies in this archive

0

Rewatchables episodes featuring Doug Cahan’s films

No episode credits in the archive yet.

Mentioned in discussions

All the Right Moves · The Rewatchables ·November 3, 2026

Recasting Couch

Matt Dillon as Salvucci; Journey for the car hookup scene; Prince at the party; Bob Seger at the diner or ending; 'I can feel it coming in the air' for the bus ride

In the discussion (3)

Approx. transcript time · 01:22:59Read transcript

• Matt Dillon, in range at the time and doing Rumble Fish and Coppola stuff, is cast as Salvucci, a ramp-up from an actor never seen again.
• The music gets recast: Open Eyes from Journey (as transcribed) for the car hookup scene, Prince, maybe 1999, in the party scene, and Bob Seeger (as transcribed) in the diner or the ending.
• 'I can feel it coming in the air' is offered for the bus scene, recalling Tubs (as transcribed) and Crockett, which is tough for Doug Cahan (as transcribed).

All the Right Moves · The Rewatchables ·November 3, 2026

The Slow Ride / Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop

The bus ride to Walnut High

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 01:08:03Read transcript

• The Kid Cudi Pursuit of Happiness award for best needle drop goes to the bus ride to Walnut High, already talked about.
• That bus ride plays The Last Stand by Doug Cahan (as transcribed), whose lyrics about moments and victory by inches sound written to a note asking for sports cliches about a big game.

All the Right Moves · The Rewatchables ·November 3, 2026

Most Rewatchable Scene

The Walnut Heights game

In the discussion (28)

Approx. transcript time · 00:31:01Read transcript

• The opening scene comes first: the credits, the theme song's all-the-right-moves lyrics sung by Jennifer Warrens (as transcribed) and Chris Thompson, and Cruise staring out the window outside Pittsburgh.
• Movies from 83 to 86 peaked with bad title songs, like Just One of the Guys and No Way Out, apparently from a producer's note to work the title into the chorus; even John Hughes did it in Weird Science, where Thomas Tolby (as transcribed) got the note.
• The locker room scene where the team dances and the coach joins for a second before saying okay ladies is called the precursor of the Top Gun locker room scene: guys in underwear thrusting their hips, with three or four players who look to be in their mid-30s.
• In the recruiting scene Steph is cocky, saying there are other schools he would rather look at first, and his dad warns he hopes he knows what he is doing; it is called hubris for a little Serbian corner.
• The coach's quitter and loser speech and the drills on the practice field could have gone six, seven or eight more minutes.
• An overhead crane shot of a running back and a cornerback running into each other with the crowns of their heads startles a participant now coaching seventh and eighth grade tackle football, who figured both were paralyzed or at least concussed.
• Steph's hit at practice, which has everyone running laps, is called complete pass interference for a cornerback supposed to be going div one.
• The stretch from the Bulldogs pep rally, where Steph finds out Bri is having a kid, into the bus ride set to The Last Stand by Doug Cahan (as transcribed) may not get better in the 80s; the song reads like a list of big-game sports cliches written to a note.
• It keeps cooking with touching the 1960 ball, Salvucci flipping out about the tape roll, Cruise hitting his head on the wall and the coach's crazy speech that probably crosses a line, an incredible 10 minutes.
• The bus ride into the other team's town, with Brian's tear as he thinks about the baby and the 10 tackles he still has to make, gave a participant chills and positive PTSD back to 1996.
• The game is called a filet mignon of high school football that skips from halftime to the last four minutes; the Cruise dive tackle, Rifleman's deep throw to Leon and the Cruise pick six follow, and the pass on the pick six looks fake while the run after it looks good.
• The best take of the celebration being Steph yelling in your face Walnut Heights is called a tough one; then Cruise gets an egregious pass interference call and the goal line stand is awesome.
• The last 12 seconds recall a recent Vanderbilt and NC State game; everyone watching thinks QB sneak, take the safety and punt, a guy in the bar scene says exactly that, and botching it is why Nickerson was never going to be a head coach.
• As a regular on First Take, a participant imagines Stephen A. demanding the coach be fired before he gets to the bus.
• One fix is to have the team up by one so the safety option is gone, though it was pouring rain; the ending seemed egregious even in eighth or ninth grade, and the score confused a participant because a field goal is never shown.
• What Dan Quinn did with the Commanders last week, leading to a tie, may have been even worse at the professional level.
• Salvucci, the backup running back wound tight after the tape tantrum, gets the game in his hands; Rifleman should have taken the snap and fallen forward, as the coach realizes lying in bed that night.
• The worst scene in the movie is Nickerson at the chalkboard, up all night, announcing a 6-2 defense no one has tried; six-man fronts were not revolutionary, since Notre Dame won the national title in 1977 with one.
• Riley's big run comes on a draw play that fools the 6-2 stack monster, and the kickoff team in three-point stances, the rustic jerseys and the chunky white halfback wearing 41 are loved.
• Steph's 'full house, you fucking bastards' call on fourth and goal and the Walnut Heights lineman's 'we're coming after your ass, Riley', answered 'do it, man, make me happy', sound like real high school shit talk.
• By contrast, the wordy taunt from the offensive lineman in The Program is fake; a 17-year-old talks in six words or less.
• After the loss Salvucci is the one crying, and a locker room like that is devastating because after your last game you never put on pads again.
• Nickerson gets mad at Salvucci, Cruise sticks up for him, and the coach, not wrong that they should have practiced what he taught and held on to the ball, says it in front of 36 teammates and kicks Steph off the team.
• Steph sticking up for Salvucci and the dap-up afterward are called his coolest moment, while nobody in real life would coach the way Nickerson handles it, putting his own choke on a helpless kid.
• The scene is shot with Cruise in tears by the squat rack against the wall, and the bullying pushes Salvucci toward an armed robbery within a month.
• The Pittsburgh pub scene, with Bosco holding court playing pool like an emergency pod, could have run 10 more minutes, and the coach shoots Steph down when he goes to apologize the next day.
• The ending gets Blue Skies Forever because they couldn't get Bob Seeger (as transcribed), and the credits oddly lead with the soundtrack.
• Asked for the most rewatchable, a participant is never turning the Walnut Heights game off because it is the actual football, and the other agrees.