With only two choices, Keanu Reeves or Patrick Swayze, the answer is Bodhi, repeated several times because he put his fingerprints on everybody and Utah lets him go; after clarifying the question is about the actor, the answer stays Swayze. The repeated affirmations cannot be shown to come from different hosts, so only one ballot is counted.
Utah let him go at the end despite responsibility for 12 deaths, or 20 deaths and billions in damage.
A host adds that Swayze won the movie and was putting up wins year after year, winning Roadhouse, Ghost going away, Dirty Dancing and Young Blood with Rob Lowe; The Outsiders is the one he did not win, Matt Dillon did.
Is this the best surfing movie ever?; Is it a surf movie or a bank robbery movie?; Why did Utah quit the FBI?; Why does Bodhi hit the vault at the end?; What would it take to jump out of a plane without a parachute?; Is that the craziest thing anyone has done in an action movie?; Did Bodhi die?; How good was Johnny Utah at Ohio State?; Why don't movies carry characters across films?; Why do we love bank robbery movies?; What is the best bank robbery scene of all time?; Would a Netflix series have beaten the remake?; Did Bodhi take a bigger cut?
Is this the best surfing movie ever? Alternatives come up, the one about the girl with one arm, Blue Crush, Endless Summer and Chasing Mavericks with Gerard Butler; a movie cannot only be a surfer movie, and this one is a bank robbery surfing movie, which is why it stands alone.
Why did Utah quit the FBI at the end? He had internalized Bodhi's dead-souls-on-the-freeway philosophy, which he had been looking for all along, and wanted to surf; he may also have realized he is a terrible cop who went undercover without changing his famous name and wore no mask on the stakeout, things The Fast and the Furious did better.
Why does Bodhi hit the vault at the end and betray his philosophy? Perhaps he had started to truly hate himself and was self-destructive, trying to die for the last ten minutes after ordering Rosie to kill a woman.
What chain of events would it take to jump out of an airplane without a parachute? Zero; asked about twin boys pushed out of the plane, the answer jokes about having another kid. It is called the single craziest believable thing in an action movie, more plausible than Dom diving off a crashing car to catch Letty, because Utah's fearless character is built to make it believable.
Did Bodhi actually die at the end? Yes. A host points out that the film opens alternating between Utah in a rainy FBI field test and Bodhi surfing and ends with both in the same situation, Bodhi surfing until he died and Utah in the FBI until he was not; the host who called it a bad movie is said to have walked that back.
How good was Johnny Utah at Ohio State? He was all-conference and wore number nine; Johnny Utah jerseys are seen around the Columbus campus; in the early era of athletic quarterbacks like Randall Cunningham he might have been a second-round pick rather than an Elway or Andrew Luck, and probably the greatest Ohio State quarterback to that point, with Troy Smith's Heisman noted.
Why don't movies carry characters over? Keanu in The Replacements could have been Johnny Utah instead of Shane Falco, a former FBI agent, and Bodhi could have been Dalton, who lost his mind after Kelly Lynch left him.
Why do we love bank robbery movies so much? Free money, the excitement of imagining it even in Baby Driver, and ripping off a building rather than hurting people, taking down the man and the system.
What is the best bank robbery scene of all time? The bank robbery that goes bad in Heat and leads to the shootout, recalled from the Heat Rewatchables as feeling like people were shooting in the theater; another host leans toward the opening of Dark Knight, with the robbers killing each other and the bus escape.
Raised late as a forgotten unanswerable question: would a Netflix series about bank-robbing surfers and an infiltrating FBI agent have been better than the remake? Way better, with episodes for Lori Petty, the football backstory and the gang partying and surfing in Thailand, Australia and Goa.
Did Swayze get a bigger cut than everybody? He was democratic and they all got the same, whereas LeBron as a bank robber would take 35 percent.
Nominees: 'I am an FBI agent', 'via condios' (as transcribed), McGinley's 'You're a real blue flame special, aren't you, son? Young, dumb and full of calm' (as transcribed), 'six seconds we're gonna be meat waffles', and Keanu's 'you crossed the line' speech about people who trusted Bodhi dying.
Bodhi's 'fear causes hesitation and hesitation causes your worst dreams to come true' is nominated as a good yearbook quote that nobody at that age would recognize, and 'guess we must just have an asshole shortage here' is also called great.
Asked for the best quote, one answer is McGinley's 'Young, Dumb, and Full Come' (as transcribed), called hilarious.
Another picks one not mentioned: Keanu's very last line, walking away after being told they will catch Bodhi when he comes back, 'he's not coming back', one of the best last lines.
Another goes with the front runner, 'Bodhi, this is your fucking wake up call, man. I am an FBI agent', a signature line that became a calling card.
Another takes 'young, dumb, and full of cum' because it comes so early and sets the tone for what this movie is, with McGinley really going for it; the clip is played, including the asshole-shortage line, about two minutes into the movie. Whether this and the earlier vote for the same line come from different hosts is not shown.
MythBusters on 90 seconds of free fall and mid-air conversation; pulling the chute 30 feet from the ground; the surfers recognizing Johnny Utah; Keanu handcuffing Swayze in the water; Utah sent alone to an international criminal; the length of the beach football field; spotting surfers by tan lines on black-and-white cameras; Utah never fixing his knee; Keanu and Busey as bad police; the unacknowledged body count; Bodhi's 200-person party; Bodhi never standing up on the last wave
MythBusters on the Discovery Channel found that the pair could not have free-fallen for 90 straight seconds and could not have held an intelligible conversation while falling together.
One host disagrees about conversation, recalling a tandem skydive where the instructor on the jumper's back screamed in the jumper's ear and could be heard; a joke asks whether that was God.
MythBusters also found it realistic to jump out of the plane and grab the other man as Keanu does, which shocks the hosts; they doubt pulling a parachute 30 feet from the ground and joke that being grabbed in free fall would feel like a Game of Thrones dragon.
Further nits: none of the surfers recognizing Johnny Utah; Keanu somehow handcuffing Swayze in the water in the final fight; letting an American cop go alone to talk to an international criminal while backup hangs two miles back; a beach football field almost as long as the Fast Six runway.
Utah spotting that the robbers might be surfers from tan lines on black-and-white bank security cameras is doubted, though he also had the sand, and a parent of beach-going boys concedes a distinct tan line.
Why didn't Keanu just get his knee fixed, with Dr. James Andrews around in the early nineties? The injury, bent back 90 degrees with two years of surgery, is likened to Marcus Lattimore or Willis McGahee.
The main issue after 25 viewings: Keanu and Gary Busey are terrible police who miss everything, the bank is robbed while they read a comic and buy sandwiches, and Keanu gets beaten by everyone he fights, including the naked woman, before tackling a man out of a window.
Everybody dies and nobody talks about it: Bodhi causes at least ten deaths yet the hosts still root for him to surf the last wave, and it is a flaw that Utah gets out of robbing a bank that left four people dead; a host also doubts Bodhi knows enough people to throw a 200-person party, though as a bank robber he is also the life of the party.
Earlier, during the beach football scene, a host was dubious that surfers on the beach every day would know who Johnny Utah was.
Going back to nits during unanswerable questions: Bodhi never gets up on the surfboard at the end; a host wanted him to ride it for a few seconds before crashing, which would have been a better and more symbolic ending, perhaps a deleted scene.
Swayze's hair is rejected as a candidate because it would be a cool haircut today and frames him perfectly; the homoerotic tension, including Bodhi telling Utah he wants him so bad it's like acid in his mouth, is called a testament to the chemistry and Swayze's magnetism.
Other candidates: the touch football game, and 'Take your hands off me right now', a demand made while handcuffed and about to be charged as an accessory to murder, with a joke that Keanu asked for ellipses in the script; and 'I am an FBI agent' on the way to rob.
The last candidate is Keanu jumping out of the plane, with the face he makes and his 'ah, fuck', called the funniest Keanu moment in probably any movie; asked for the unintentionally funniest thing, a host says it is that line and pictures being unable ever to make that jump.
A host jokes that Tyler would have been dead long ago had it been up to that host, who would shrug at the kidnapping of someone met a week ago.
A pick of the line readings, all hilarious, such as 'So the FBI is going to pay me to surf?', with Point Break Live pulling someone from the audience to play Johnny Utah off cue cards (the Ringer's Jim Cunningham took part) and 'why can't I say what I feel' on the phone with Tyler, landing on 'I am an FBI agent' as the ultimate Keanu delivery and a running joke for the rest of the decade; this reads as one answer, not two.
On Lori Petty, one host does not know who she is beyond Tyler; her credits come up, League of Their Own, Free Willy, Patty Mayonnaise and Orange is the New Black; one host offers Tank Girl as the apex, as the moment someone thought she could carry a movie, another objects that Tank Girl tanked, and one goes with Patty Mayonnaise, so no yes for this film.
Her look in the film is called a leftover eighties one, like the Legend of Billie Jean, short hair and a little androgynous, and the hosts note she resembles Woody Harrelson, with a host choosing words carefully about a scene with Utah's FBI badge.
Gary Busey is a no: one host offers Surviving the Game, another calls the Buddy Holly story the correct answer because of the Oscar nomination, and another goes with Eye of the Tiger, in which a biker gang kills his wife and daughter after he comes back from Nam and goes to prison.
Keanu Reeves is a no way; his apex is debated as The Matrix or John Wick 2, and one host, expecting the others to be mad, says Speed, the 94 smash hit that created the early-released summer action movie and that he carries in nearly every scene; John Wick 2 is floated again as the global-superstar answer.
In Speed he took a different cop role, cutting his hair and bulking up to look squared away like a Marine, and Bullock is fantastic in it, which makes sense of her becoming a massive star.
Swayze is a yes when asked whether this is his apex: he is in the Milky Way galaxy in this movie, with a box score of 37, 12 and 15 on Isaiah Thomas minutes; a host recalls Michael Douglas on the Ghosts in the Darkness (as transcribed) DVD commentary describing the ideal role, talked about early, appearing a third of the way in and dying at the end, which is what Bodhi was.
A Roadhouse case follows: it still has to be Roadhouse, because watching Roadhouse makes you need to be Patrick Swayze, to become Dalton; another calls it the hardest one, likening Point Break to winning the title on a great team and Roadhouse to Kobe carrying the 2006 Lakers to 48 wins, number 8 Kobe versus number 24 Kobe.
Working titles Johnny Utah and Riders on the Storm; Keanu Reeves had never surfed and later took it up; Swayze had surfed only a couple of times; Lori Petty had never been in the ocean; two real surfers among the ex-presidents; Swayze really skydived, over 30 jumps, until a cease and desist; a body double in the foot chase while Swayze promoted Ghost; Swayze cracked four ribs; surf scenes at Latigo Beach in Malibu and the finale at Indian Beach in Oregon; Catherine Bigelow said Bodhi died
Point Break was first called Johnny Utah, the working title for years, then Riders on the Storm, which the studio liked less and which brings the Doors song to mind; Point Break is called a perfect, short, fast action title.
Keanu had not surfed and learned for the film; Swayze had surfed a couple of times but was not good yet; Lori Petty had never been in the ocean; the researcher admits not being positive any of it is true.
The ex-president crew included two real surfers who were not actors; Swayze really did his own skydiving out of the plane; Keanu took up surfing as a hobby afterwards; a body double was used for Swayze in the foot chase because he was overseas promoting Ghost.
Swayze became Bodhi during filming, cracked four ribs, did almost all of his chase scenes and over 30 parachute jumps until the production company issued a cease and desist; in the end fight he really kicks Keanu in the chest, with the camera staying on Keanu's face.
The surf scenes were mostly shot at Latigo Beach in Malibu, but the final scene was not shot at Bells Beach, home of the 50-year storm; it was Indian Beach in Oregon, which bums a host out.
Added late: Catherine Bigelow, the director, said in an interview that Bodhi did die at the end, which the hosts jokingly call a spoiler.
Utah's water tackle of Bodhi; Bodhi's 'never about money' speech; Busey's 'LA's changed' line; the lawnmower in the gunfight; the first Fast and Furious as a Point Break copy
Candidates include Utah's water tackle of Bodhi and Gary Busey playing someone with a job and credibility, but the hosts push back: Busey is actually good, the chemistry with Utah is well written and acted, and he is like the reporter in The Incredible Hulk with the right theory nobody believes.
The old-cop, young-cop gimmick is flipped: instead of the veteran teaching the rookie to calm down, the young cop gets the old cop mad on purpose so he can feel something again and work the theory; a host jokes that Titus does that to them.
Bodhi's speech that it was never about money but about standing against the system, showing the dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins that the human spirit is alive, is read out; it is called a little awkward and over the top for a bank-robbing surfer, while another jokes about getting it tattooed.
For over-the-top lines, Gary Busey staring into the distance saying LA has changed in 22 years, the air got dirty, the air got cleaner, is offered.
One host does not feel anything in the movie has aged badly, since it all fits; another names the lawnmower in the gunfight, adding that a man keeps mowing the lawn during a massive gun battle, and the naked woman beats everyone up, earning a joke Best Supporting Actress.
The first Fast and Furious has aged worst, since watching Point Break closely shows it was ripped off beat by beat, right down to the Coronas; a host saw an unverified claim that the restaurant where Keanu meets Lori Petty is the same one where Dom and Brian sit down.
The candidates are all the bank robbers, the parachute scene, Swayze versus Keanu (compared with Cage versus Travolta, two actors at relatively the same spot), and the concept of a 50-year storm, which a host still enjoys and once tried to Google the next occurrence of.
The last candidate is whoever came up with bank robbers in ex-president masks, called great and the number one movie mask; the film could be made now with Donald Trump and George W. Bush masks.
The president masks are unquestionably better than the Halloween Michael Myers mask or the Scream mask; the runner-up masks are the nuns in The Town and the painters in Dead Presidents.
Pick: the Swayze-Keanu thing, from a host who came late to Point Break three or four years ago after watching other Keanu and Swayze movies and realizing Gary Busey was in it too; the second answer is the Richard Nixon impression, with a wish to see the audition tapes.
Another agrees the Swayze-Keanu pairing is the hook and has aged like a fine wine ('fine line' as transcribed): tell a stranger Swayze, Keanu, surfers, bank robbers and Gary Busey and they are in; it is like Bird and Magic finally meeting in the 84 finals.
Candidate one is the beach football game, which one host has analyzed enough to nearly keep score: heavy air yardage to Lori Petty wide open in the end zone, unclear light from the car headlights, an offensive and a defensive line unheard of in backyard football, and Keanu always having time although Swayze nailed him once.
Other candidates: the surfer brawl, where Anthony Kiedis turns out to be one of the dudes, shoots himself in the foot and Busey has to intervene; the big bank robbery leading to the foot chase, the moderator's own preference; the airplane and parachute scene; the airport shootout; and the ending.
One host takes the parachute scene because it holds every part of the movie in three minutes: the two men battling for alpha-male status, Keanu backing down as Bodhi out-crazies him, the injury, and Bodhi letting the injured Utah know he has been beaten while staying just out of reach.
Picks the beach football game because it grounds these counterculture characters, who look weird and spout philosophical things, in an American tradition: good old American boys playing football on the beach. — Jason Concepcion
The football game also shows Bodhi's magnetic charisma, and when it devolves into Utah versus Bodhi, Utah earns his respect; it is a great introduction scene, with Bodhi's 'You don't know who this is?'
Another backs the first bank robbery, the stakeout: Busey sends Utah for two meatball subs ('give me two'), and at the very end Utah has the shot on Bodhi and does not take it, the moment the movie becomes a psychological contest with Bodhi holding the upper hand.
A host says 'I've changed my opinion' and goes with the beach football game, a scene they stay for even when the family is heading out to dinner, adding 'as you said' that it introduces the crew through the old eighties formula of bringing the new guy into the group with a contrived activity; the speaker is not identified.
The football scenes are hilarious: Keanu shows the seeds of The Replacements, scrambling like a little white Mike Vick; Swayze sacks him off the edge like DeMarcus Ware; Keanu sheds seven or eight tacklers and runs Swayze down after 840 yards, out of bounds and into the water.
When the surfers rush over and Bodhi introduces Johnny Utah as all-conference, the hosts say the writers could have made him a Heisman finalist, doubt surfers on the beach every day knew who he was, and one defends it because he beat SC in the Rose Bowl, so Southern California fans would know.
Broderick as Johnny Utah does not work: picture him in the beach football scene, or playing basketball in The Cable Guy; Ferris Bueller cannot be a former football superstar, so the whole script would have to change.
Asked Johnny Depp or Keanu Reeves for the lead, the answer is Keanu: the role needs the doofus surfer voice and airheadedness played completely seriously without blending the two, which only Keanu can do, whereas Depp would have done it well and accidentally turned into a surfer for real.
Another agrees with everything said: Depp would have taken it a little too seriously, while Keanu had the unintentional comedy part of it; Depp as a football quarterback might have been its own unintentional comedy.
Nobody can picture Depp running, much less chasing Swayze sixty yards down the longest football field of all time, shedding nine blockers; the joke is that a quarterback who can tackle like that must have thrown a lot of picks, capped with 'Ohio State, baby.'
Early on, while setting up who Keanu was in 1991, a host mentions reading that Matthew Roderick (as transcribed) was considered for the Keanu role and is told this steps on the half-assed internet research corner.
Keanu Reeves is reported as a near Billy Hoyle choice who could not play basketball; Denzel Washington is reported as an early Sidney Dean possibility who chose Malcolm X.
Keanu Reeves is described as close to the Billy Hoyle role and wanted by the production, but his basketball limitations are given as the obstacle. — Chris Ryan
Denzel Washington is described as being in the mix for Sidney Dean before choosing Malcolm X, after which Wesley Snipes received the role.
