The recast is to replace Jeffrey Jones, against another host's preference for keeping him. — Bill Simmons
Alan Rickman is proposed after a Richmond/Rickman name mix-up; Hans Gruber as the principal is overqualified, which is why it could work. — Bill Simmons
A second host would also have voted for Rickman. — Sean Fennessey
Ronny Cox is proposed; he could do the funny stuff, and his 1983-1990 run playing men in charge is legendary. — Bill Simmons
From the Action Hero Championship Belt piece: this was an 'A-Fucking-Pex' stretch for Arnold with Kindergarten Cop and T2 within about 14 months, but asked to choose, the others pick T2 as his Apex. — Bill Simmons
Terminator 2 or 1 is the movie tied to Arnold forever; Total Recall is the deep cut, and the stretch culminates in T2. — Shea Serrano
His pay, veto power and 15% of profits may have earned him $100 million, though this was not his most successful movie. — Bill Simmons
Rachel Ticotin is contested: this might be her Apex for her action work, while another host picks Man on Fire as his personal Apex and a better performance.
Marshall Bell (George and Kuato) is picked over Ironside because he plays two characters in one scene; both are briefly allowed, and it is called the Apex of both careers. — Jason Concepcion
Ironside is then placed at Starship Troopers instead, since a host assigns Apex by the first role that comes to mind; the others accept. — Shea Serrano
For Ronny Cox, one answer is RoboCop while two voices pick this role. — Shea Serrano
Mars: the case is made that this, not The Martian, is Mars's Apex, since it is about an idealized Mars rather than a Matt Damon vehicle that could have been set on the moon. — Jason Concepcion
A host leans to The Martian but concedes; the argument cites that living on Mars still seemed conceivable in 1990 and that the way characters say 'Mars' is more fun.
Venusville is mentioned, and three-breasted and four-breasted women are named an Apex because they have never been seen since. — Bill Simmons
The scene list opens with Quaid going to Rekall on a whim for a secret-agent vacation and choosing the woman who will accompany him (athletic, sleazy, demure). — Bill Simmons
The chair freak-out ('schizoid embolism', 'You blew my cover!') is combined with the Johnny Cab ride and the airport fight as one giant scene. — Bill Simmons
The middle act recalls The Fugitive: once he is on the run after Rekall it is escape after escape and fight after fight.
Asked for other thoughts, Shea says the Rekall sequence sets everything in motion, then the movie goes in the opposite direction from what you expect and it still makes perfect sense. — Shea Serrano
Rewatching after 10 or 15 years, the reveal that Arnold was actually the bad guy felt new again; his smirking arrogant Hauser is likened to Eddie Murphy playing several characters in The Nutty Professor. — Shea Serrano
Next nominee: Lori realizing Quaid knows and their fight; Sharon Stone had bounced around Hollywood for eight or nine years (Irreconcilable Differences, the Allan Quatermain movie, Action Jackson) and knew this would be her movie. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say she got in amazing shape and learned jiu-jitsu, so she looks like she could beat Arnold, who can only use brute strength. — Bill Simmons
80s action was about being huge, unlike today's Bourne and John Wick style; Arnold breaks steel restraints, and the Lori fight, with her technical stance, is the movie's best fight, like a king cobra against a grizzly bear. — Jason Concepcion
Arnold and Stallone made 19 action movies between them in the 80s and defined the action hero, compared with Tupac defining the gangster rapper. — Shea Serrano
Patrick Swayze in Road House may have advanced non-brute-force fighting a year earlier; Arnold and Sly are compared to low-post centers like Shaq, and the John Wick era to spreading the floor. — Bill Simmons
Sharon Stone has Sandra-Bullock-in-Speed star gravity; she is in only three scenes yet feels like she is in the whole movie. — Bill Simmons
Venusville nominee: the Sleaze Bar, Marsburger, the mutant hotel, and random Sharper Image, Jack in the Box and Pepsi branding. — Bill Simmons
Asked why Pepsi advertises in Venusville, Shea says one fast-food brand always survives through time, as Taco Bell did in Demolition Man. — Shea Serrano
Venusville was filmed in a refashioned Mexico City subway station; the mutant bar has everything and deserves a 20-minute freeze-frame video, a Disneyland for mutants with a brothel and drugs that the film never explains. — Bill Simmons
Next nominee: the bald Rekall man visiting Quaid on Mars with Lori to convince him it is all a dream; the dream question is saved for later, and the sweat drop is iconic. — Bill Simmons
Stone beats Arnold a second time, then fights Rachel Ticotin in what the hosts say Verhoeven's DVD commentary calls the first real two-woman fight in a feature film; it is called the Jackie Robinson of female fight scenes, with Rachel walking so Michelle Rodriguez could run. — Bill Simmons
The sequence ends with 'Consider that a divorce,' which brought the house down in theaters; the whole run is called a phenomenal seven minutes. — Bill Simmons
Kuato is nominated because it was unbelievable in 1990 and still looks real; a host first wondered what the man turning around was doing, with Silence of the Lambs fresh in mind.
At the Kuato reveal you stop guessing what will happen; 'A man is defined by his actions, not his memory,' and Marshall Bell is said to play George and voice Kuato. — Shea Serrano
A host who let his young twins watch John Wick would not let them see the Kuato scene because it is too disturbing. — Shea Serrano
The practical puppetry works because of the slimy texture and how light plays on it, which CGI would lose; one theory says the look was influenced by Garbage Pail Kids.
The hosts puzzle over what Kuato does when not needed and settle on a coma theory in which George passes out whenever Kuato emerges. — Bill Simmons
The final sequence is nominated: the cab driver turning on them with a tank, the hologram from the suitcase (likened to the Tupac hologram), 'See you at the party, Richter,' and Ronny Cox's bulging-eyes death. — Bill Simmons
Not a pick but a must-include: Arnold disguised as the woman at customs, with the head that comes off, talks back ('Get ready for a surprise') and explodes, while 20 guards point guns and nobody fires. — Shea Serrano
The pick is the Rekall man's visit with Sharon Stone, called a favorite seven minutes; a second voice picks the same scene because it has the line everybody remembers, 'Consider that a divorce.'
A third voice agrees it is where you begin to question whether he is still in the Rekall chair, ending on an iconic line. — Shea Serrano
The hosts say the original line was 'Consider it a divorce' and that Arnold workshopped it into 'Consider that a divorce.' — Bill Simmons
