Jimmy shrugging off his girlfriend's murder; football continuing after the Billy Cole shooting; the daughter not in school; Joe as a Jimmy Dix fan; the fall from grace ending his love of football; the reconciliation; Joe's pay; the bleeding-hand throw
Jimmy should be far more upset that his girlfriend was murdered in front of him, seeming more worried about his football comeback. — Chris Ryan
Football continues after the Billy Cole shooting with no consequences, and a senator attends a game soon after. — Chris Ryan
Craig, who had never seen the movie, is invited to comment; the reply says the Billy Cole scene was shocking and the stadium was pitch black. — Chris Ryan
Whether the NFL would shut down depends on the week; the first game is placed in Cleveland in late fall or early December. — Chris Ryan
Why the daughter was not in school, perhaps Christmas break since Shane Black movies are Christmas movies. — Bill Simmons
Joe, who hates rap and just likes getting drunk, being a big fan of the young Black quarterback Jimmy Dix is doubted. — Bill Simmons
Nobody stops liking football because one player turned out to be a prick. — Chris Ryan
Joe and his wife getting back together three days later is questioned, as is whether Joe gets paid, though they have the suitcase of money. — Bill Simmons
A bleeding-hand perfect spiral into the upper deck to save a senator from a sniper is the main nitpick, with mock calls imagined.
Troubled production; O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings as football experts; a Lethal Weapon deleted scene; a near riot of extras; the body count; the original script
The assistant director attributed on-set tension to an overabundance of alpha males; Joel Silver told the New Yorker it was one of the three worst experiences of his life. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black was forced to keep rewriting; the studio wanted a Die Hard-style Bruce Willis follow-up, and the save-the-wife plot was changed because it repeated Die Hard. — Bill Simmons
The two football technical experts were O.J. Simpson and A.C. Cowlinks, per a Taylor Nagrond interview; it is called possibly the best research item ever. — Bill Simmons
The $650 pants conversation was a deleted Lethal Weapon scene Shane Black repurposed. — Bill Simmons
During filming at the Los Angeles Coliseum, extras who were told to go home after a canceled recall nearly rioted. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black's original script had a different second half: bigger roles for Milo and Shelley Marcombe, Milo directing snuff films and killing a family, a boat chase, two more shootouts, and Joe's wife killing Milo. — Bill Simmons
Script scenes like Jimmy throwing a football at a player abusing a woman build character, and the shooting script is worth reading or maybe making as a Netflix series. — Chris Ryan
The scene is set at halftime of a Cleveland versus Los Angeles game with Vern Lundquist, Dick Buckkiss and Lynn Swan as sideline reporter, who berates the L.A. owner about ratings, attendance and where all the heroes have gone. — Bill Simmons
The hosts want sideline reporters to ask NBA players like Brandon Ingram and LeBron James where all the heroes have gone. — Chris Ryan
Billy Cole is alleged to take PCP in the locker room, though one host always thought it was cocaine until reading Wikipedia. — Bill Simmons
Early nits: whether he had the gun in his pants the whole quarter, how it did not affect his burst while breaking four tackles, and whether his touchdown would count for gamblers. — Bill Simmons
He says 'Ain't life a bitch' as he shoots himself, and the broadcast presumably cuts to a test signal. — Chris Ryan
Only one spotlight seems to be on in Cleveland Stadium, like a German expressionist film; Tony Scott's football is closer to Zach Snyder's 300 and the rain device returns in The Fan. — Chris Ryan
The scene was a watershed; the movie arguably peaks in the first six minutes, helped by the Bill Medley Friday Night Football song. — Bill Simmons
Other rewatchable scenes offered: Joe finding the guy in the closet, which leads to the first of several car bombs. — Bill Simmons
Jimmy's speech on the NFL stance on drugs and gambling, played back by Craig, reads like Shane Black at 3:30 in the morning.
Joe versus Kim Coats, where Joe warns him not to touch him again and then kills him. — Bill Simmons
The quirky hitmen, like Pablo playing piano and Taylor Negron, feel Tarantino-like before Tarantino made a movie. — Bill Simmons
The stuffed-animal scene with the car chase, despite not knowing how the gun fits in the stuffed animal. — Bill Simmons
The Hollywood Hills car chase with cars going down the hill that lands in the pool. — Bill Simmons
The strip club with Corey and the Corey car-chase murder right after it are offered as another rewatchable scene; the other side left it out because seeing Halle Berry murdered hurts, wishing she had just taken one in the shoulder. — Bill Simmons
Asked for a most rewatchable pick, the answer is the opening scene, watchable a hundred times in a row; it is jokingly why football had to leave L.A. — Bill Simmons
Theory: the movies aged Glover about 30 years in our subconscious although he was 43, taking him out of contention for roles he could have played. — Van Lathan
He has appeared in about 200 movies, around 100 since 2000. — Bill Simmons
Predator 2 was supposed to be his star turn, but Murtaugh is feeble and he got trapped by the character; Angels in the Outfield maybe broke out a little.
Station scenes are loved: the cops betting and the bet called off over the station wagon, and the rubbers gag. — Bill Simmons
The straitjacket shoulder-dislocation bet is a terrible example for impressionable teens, shows his athleticism and pain tolerance, and is Chekhov's shoulder dislocation because it returns when he is almost drowned.
The psychiatrist popping up is like Jimmy Cricket; if Riggs endures that pain for a bet, imagine what he will endure for something righteous. — Van Lathan
The chili scene is not the most rewatchable but is really important for the Riggs character and why the movie is special. — Bill Simmons
Pesci arrives, followed by an evil 80s room-service guy with a mullet who is obviously a South African villain. — Bill Simmons
The pool drop is a great 80s stunt that ups the ante on the first movie's pool shootout. — Bill Simmons
The house-bust car chase and surfboard are among about four scenes with a beginning, middle, end and money shot. — Bill Simmons
The original trailer was just the toilet scene, and it worked. — Bill Simmons
The toilet bomb is one of the great action premises; he sat 12 to 18 hours, the smell is never addressed, and he noticed the bomb when reaching for toilet paper. — Bill Simmons
A complaint follows that this was going to be the speaker's most rewatchable scene and the romance is being taken out of it.
'Guys like you don't die on toilets' is called one of the better lines, and Riggs refuses to leave. — Chris Ryan
The unspoken 'I love you' between the partners, said with the eyes, reminds a host of his dad; Shane Black 'just got it' and the leads play like a symphony. — Van Lathan
The escape is ludicrous but set up so it seems possible; in reality they would have concussions and hearing issues, which was flagged as a nitpick. — Bill Simmons
Gibson breaking into the office ('it's the master race'), shooting the fish tank and 'pick them up with your hands' are loved. — Bill Simmons
Gibson's trailer getting shot up is a great action scene, and during the escape he asks what she is doing Saturday. — Bill Simmons
The underwater image of the dead girlfriend sticks in the brain like the head in Jaws. — Bill Simmons
Riggs yanks the stilt house down, a great pickup-truck ad; per a Premiere November 1989 breakdown it cost $500,000 and used a replica house. — Bill Simmons
The Gibson versus 'Adolf' fight and Glover's diplomatic immunity revocation close it out; one host has about 12 scenes. — Bill Simmons
Material planned for Half-Assed Internet Research is moved up because the Shane Black subject had come up. — Bill Simmons
Superstar screenwriting arrived with Shane Black and then Joe Esther House with Basic Instinct in 92, after Hollywood began treating books and articles as IP, as when Robert Stigwood bought the New York magazine article that became Saturday Night Fever. — Bill Simmons
The script, called Play Dirty, is not available online; its described version is a pretty different movie and outcome that would have been the perfect endpoint for Riggs, though probably not a popular sensation. — Chris Ryan
Not killing Riggs was a brilliant decision that allowed at least two more sequels, with a fifth possibly coming. — Bill Simmons
Black's version was reportedly really dark and bloody, with Riggs sacrificing his life for Murtaugh after a fight in a forest fire; two endings were filmed, and test audiences rejected the one where Riggs dies in Glover's arms. — Bill Simmons
Allegedly Play Dirty included a scene where a plane full of cocaine explodes over Los Angeles, dusting the city. — Chris Ryan
The only new research item: Grand Theft Auto 5 pays homage, with a protagonist pulling a house down off stilts after finding his wife cheating with a tennis coach.
Urban-western origin; Gibson's horseshoe kidney; Jackie Swanson's own high fall; a blank in the suicide scene; the Beretta 92F; director's cut and alternate opening and ending; the original Shane Black script
In the suicide-contemplation scene there was a blank in the chamber of the gun Gibson pointed at his head. — Bill Simmons
The gun was a Beretta 92F, also used by Bruce Willis in Die Hard and since retired. — Bill Simmons
A director's cut runs about seven minutes longer; an alternate opening had Riggs drinking alone in a bar and beating up thugs. — Chris Ryan
The original 1985 Shane Black script is online and much darker, with a possible school-shooting opening, a rocket launcher and more Vietnam material. — Chris Ryan
The alternate ending, on YouTube, has Riggs telling a retiring Murtaugh not to retire; the fight was four minutes longer. — Chris Ryan
Willis could have had Lethal Weapon and Gibson Die Hard; a hot take follows that Willis in 1986 was not believable as a super soldier, while his Die Hard hero is streetwise. — Chris Ryan
Willis looks like an everyman while Gibson looks cut from limestone; one host would have loved to see them switch, likened to a Brady-Brees swap. — Bill Simmons
Gibson turned down The Fly and The Untouchables for this film. — Bill Simmons
Gibson pursued Bond in The Living Daylights, but Broccoli turned him down for not being British and Timothy Dalton was cast; Dalton's Bond films are debated and called terrible. — Bill Simmons
Brosnan was held to Remington Steele and had to wait about ten years for Bond. — Bill Simmons
After the $250,000 script purchase, Ridley Scott was considered but had Blade Runner tensions with Warner Brothers; Leonard Nimoy was busy with Three Men and a Baby; Donner got it. — Bill Simmons
Brian Dennehy was lined up for Murtaugh but did not want to play a cop again; F/X is praised as influential. — Bill Simmons
The Joshua role was offered to Steve Railsback and John Saxon; Busey, ice cold after his Buddy Holly Story nomination, auditioned and lost weight. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black wanted William Hurt as Riggs; Hurt would play a damaged vet, not a super soldier, and a Hurt-Dennehy version would be a movie few watch. — Bill Simmons
Riggs's mobile-home trailer; Gibson's hair; the Elvis Christmas ending; Christmas in L.A.; Gibson and Glover's chemistry; the helicopter scene and L.A. locations
Messed-up characters in mobile-home trailers hold up, as in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: the depressing sofa, a small TV, beer and a sad loyal dog nobody seems to feed. — Bill Simmons
Gibson's NHL hair is phenomenal and apparently his real hair; the style lasted a five-to-six-year stretch from 1987. — Bill Simmons
The film ends with an Elvis Christmas song; Elvis's Christmas album is called iconic. — Bill Simmons
Christmas in L.A.: Murtaugh's wife is Darlene Love, Shane Black sets movies at Christmas, and L.A. at Christmas is beautiful and lonely; Black's taco-truck Virgin Mary anecdote is retold. — Chris Ryan
The two leads' chemistry holds up, especially the shooting-range banter inventing a story about Dixie and Amanda. — Chris Ryan
The helicopter scene's wide cliffside shots and the film's coverage of L.A. (beach, downtown, Hollywood, Mojave) show good filmmaking. — Chris Ryan
The Christmas-tree drug bust opens the list, with the 'this is a real fucking gun' badge exchange called amazing.
Two scenes establish Riggs, whose introduction has him swallowing cocaine off a switchblade; the Christmas element is called bigger here than in Die Hard. — Chris Ryan
Riggs's Three Stooges bit and cocaine use flip the usual cop-movie arc; his 'shoot him' standoff before turning it on the dealer is called brilliant. — Chris Ryan
The handcuff jump with the jumper is next: it has no plot need but proves how crazy Riggs is and poses whether he is chasing a psycho pension or truly suicidal. — Bill Simmons
Viewers forget the jump is coming, jumps onto the big inflatable cushion are always great, and the cushion is never shown being set up. — Chris Ryan
The jumper is wished to have been a known actor, like Ellis from Die Hard. — Bill Simmons
The post-dinner talk in a boat parked in the driveway is the chemistry scene that shows why the movie works. — Bill Simmons
The desert exchange feels Joel Silver-ish; its location (White Sands or the Mojave) is a drive of hours from downtown L.A., and one host had it in nitpicks; Riggs's sniper work there is enjoyed despite 1987 communication limits. — Bill Simmons
Riggs's escape through the strip-joint and 101 freeway shootout is called 11 incredible nonstop minutes; the torture scene with Busey is 'all of the 80s in one room'. — Bill Simmons
The strip-club shooting reflects a rough decade for pedestrians in action movies, and the 101 shootout is underrated; taking over that stretch of freeway is marvelled at. — Bill Simmons
Riggs is judged faster than 1986 Cruise in a sprint and barefoot for the last half hour without the problems of Die Hard's hero; Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 tops the running hierarchy. — Bill Simmons
The front-yard fight ('would you like a shot at the title?') is a favorite despite the many implied violations; research says four more minutes of the fight were cut. — Bill Simmons
It ends with the 80s trope of the villain getting up to be shot one last time; Joshua winning then would have topped the 2004 Red Sox comeback. — Bill Simmons
Final pick: everything from Riggs's escape through the 101 shootout. — Bill Simmons
The other pick is Hunsaker's killing and the helicopter shootout, with Riggs emptying two clips toward the ocean; Shane Black redid it in Iron Man 3, and Hunsaker is shot through the eggnog. — Chris Ryan
The cliffside helicopter pullback is praised; Palos Verdes is the location guess, and a mid-80s run of helicopter stunts (Airwolf, Blue Thunder) is recalled. — Bill Simmons
