The short scene of Bogomil being gunned down after Brigitte Nielsen’s car cuts him off opens the category, including the wig removal and Mercedes convertible getaway. — Chris Ryan
Axel commandeering the Andersons’ house under construction is nominated, with the foreman’s exasperated no-right-angles reaction and the flow into Johnny Wishbone as highlights.
The gun club scene is praised for the Monique and Unique bit and Nielsen’s introduction, though shooting the screen with a real gun seems odd and the villain lineup feels overcrowded, including Dean Stockwell’s character.
The 385 North strip-club bit presenting a man as former President Gerald Ford remains funny, helped by the outfit and the crowd’s applause.
The fish-tank fingerprint visit to Rosewood’s apartment, with its Cobra poster, could have lasted twenty minutes. — Bill Simmons
The City Deposit armored-truck robbery is Tony Scott flexing, ending with a cement truck and Chris Rock as a valet; the whole Playboy Mansion sequence is called one of the most ‘80s scenes of the ‘80s. — Bill Simmons
The racetrack robbery is chosen for Tony Scott’s cross-cutting with running horses and Brigitte turning on her partner. — Chris Ryan
The Detroit scenes with the returning cigarette salesman and Paul Reiser’s strung-out Ferrari payphone calls are also named. — Chris Ryan
The final choice splits by genre: City Deposit through the Playboy Mansion for action, and the Andersons house scene for comedy, which the other host matches with the gun-club bag bit as an alternative. — Bill Simmons
Willis is incredible, but the pick is Damon Wayans for a dynamite movie-star performance he never got the chance to repeat. — Chris Ryan
The pick is agreed with: multiple people could have played the Bruce Willis role, including Don Johnson, but nobody else in 1991 could have been Jimmy Dix (Eddie too old, Denzel too established, Wesley Snipes weird, Jamie Fox too early). — Bill Simmons
It was right time, right place for Wayans, who is likable, and it is a bummer he never got better scripts. — Bill Simmons
Tony Scott was considered but rejected because this is not seen as a signature Tony Scott movie and it sounds agonizing to make. — Bill Simmons
In a book about cocaine-era late 80s and 90s movies, this would be a chapter. — Bill Simmons
Early-90s kooky L.A. still goes to True Romance. — Chris Ryan
The $650 leather pants are called an apex. — Chris Ryan
The movie is proposed as the Apex Mountain for hangover acting, but Sonny Crockett and Jack Cates are raised against it and the claim is left contested rather than settled.
Later, dripping blood from the mouth and nose is added as an apex for this movie. — Bill Simmons
Admittedly a stretch: Tony Scott hated Joel Silver so much that he based Lee Donowitz in True Romance on him, played by Saul Rubinick, and Silver went nuts when he saw it. — Bill Simmons
An open question is which Joel Silver movie Coming Home in a Body Bag parodies. — Bill Simmons
Joe's hatred for rap music; the Jimmy Carter look-alike; the first dad-daughter scene; Tony Scott's conception of football contact; the Joel Silver–Bruce Willis relationship
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
Schwarzenegger was offered the part of John Patrick Mason and said in a Reddit AMA he regrets not taking it; relief is expressed that he did not.
Tony Scott was supposed to direct but turned it down and did The Fan; a Scott version would be tighter but lose the over-the-top layer, including the air conditioner falling on the guy's head.
The weapons-theft scene is praised: the "bubble face" guy trapped in the vault, the rockets with green balls inside, and David Morris's "sorry, dude"; a take follows that Bubbleface deserved to die for dropping the rocket. — Bill Simmons
Connery's first scene, 25 minutes in, with long hair in prison, is called one of the coolest entrances ever; the "lead left in your pencil" line and William Forsy's needlessly cutting insults are singled out. — Bill Simmons
The balcony escape (haircut on the balcony, lobster for the Secret Service, flipping John Spencer over the rail with a rope) is everything wanted in a rewatchable action scene: nine things wrong with it, but super fun; it shows a 66-year-old being underestimated, after the quarter cutting the interrogation window.
Any San Francisco movie with an out-of-control trolley going down the hills gets a defense of the car chase. — Bill Simmons
"Welcome to the Rock" follows Connery remembering the fire pattern; Bay himself pointed out the boiler would not still be working at Alcatraz, and remembering the sequence 30-plus years later is questioned. — Bill Simmons
The shower room shootout sets a record for slow-motion bullet deaths with arms-out convulsions; "I cannot give that order / you will give that order" is as good as it gets, and Michael Bean's commander scene is the first test of Hummel's morals, with Harris visibly upset.
The mine cart chase is the walkthrough's favorite: it feels like an abandoned Disney World or Pirates of the Caribbean ride, with a cart impenetrable to bullets like a protective bathtub.
Connery versus Harris is fun as two preeminent bald actors go head to head, though Connery wears a toupee; a Robert Duvall cameo is wished for. — Bill Simmons
Asked whether the mutiny shootout (with Tony Todd killed by a rocket) was Tarantino's one uncredited contribution, the reply is that after Reservoir Dogs everybody wanted every character pointing a gun at one another at the same time, perhaps with Tarantino suggesting a mutiny within the mutiny, as in John Wu and Tony Scott movies until about 2001. — Chris Ryan
The mutiny shows who is hardcore: Tony Todd (Candyman) signals he is not fooling around, Boeem Woodbine is softer, and David Morris delivers the ultimate betrayal; Harris should not have chosen new guys for the mission. — Mina Kimes
The green flares finale gets slow motion from many angles and green smoke; Bay flashes back to the Chekhov's flares rather than trusting viewers, it is unintentionally funny, Cage does another Christ pose, and it is guessed to be Bay's favorite part, with F-16s under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Favorite scene: the decontamination chamber where Stanley Goodspeed is first seen in action ("you want me to stick this into my heart?"), which sets a grittier tone for an R action movie. — Chris Ryan
Also rewatchable: the situation room call where Ed Harris calls in, with John Spencer, the White House Chief of Staff and Philip Baker Hall in the room; no movie has ever suffered from a situation room. — Chris Ryan
The situation room is felt to be a couple of that-guy types short (where was Robert Ridgely?); Harris announcing "Hummel from Alcatraz" and looking straight into the camera after the shower room scene are highlighted.
Favorite is the "Cistern scene" with a "Welcome to the Rock" attempt; second is the morgue scene, with the knife throw ("You must never hesitate"), the air conditioner kill, "that's just about the most awful thing I've ever seen," and the kicking feet. — Mina Kimes
A further most-rewatchable answer names the shower assault (SEALs versus Marines in the shower) and the mine cart chase; the answering voice is unresolved. — Bill Simmons
A counterargument says this is the Apex because The Fan, his next film, only got greenlit because he was Tony Scott. — Bill Simmons
With Frasier's Jack Russell also around in 1995, the preference is this Jack Russell, in a more consequential situation. — Chris Ryan
It could be the Apex for mutinies on subs.
For best submarine movie it is this or Hunt for Red October; Das Boot, older submarine films and K-19 come up, with K-19 called bad. — Sean Fennessey
This one performed better and feels more modern, but Hunt for Red October's outside plot and its Ramius versus Jack Ryan material are richer; it is called neck and neck. — Chris Ryan
Jason Robards cameos come up, with Enemy of the State mentioned and a preference voiced for this one. — Chris Ryan
The movie is really nobody's Apex: good people passing through, not peaking. — Bill Simmons
Tarantino's scenes are the Silver Surfer scene, the Star Trek Captain Kirk exchange, and the dialogue about the submarine films The Enemy Below and Run Silent, Run Deep. — Bill Simmons
The hosts cite a 1995 Premiere article saying Denzel confronted Tarantino on set about the N-word in his films and refused to take it private; per GQ, Denzel later apologized and called him a fine artist, and Denzel's daughter was a PA on Django. — Bill Simmons
Robert Towne got an urgent call from Simpson and Bruckheimer to rewrite the nature-of-war scene and dictated it over the phone while they recorded. — Bill Simmons
Dinner for Five with David Milch and Jon Favreau is recommended for Milch's story of a Simpson rewrite call; the 7 a.m. texts are called far milder than Simpson. — Chris Ryan
High Concept, a biography of Simpson, is recommended as salacious and fascinating. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Robert Mueller as FBI director often quoted Hackman's 'we're here to preserve democracy, not to practice it'. — Bill Simmons
After a two-year process, including videotaping the lieutenant commander Denzel based his performance on, the U.S. Navy pulled out once it learned the script involved a mutiny. — Bill Simmons
The Navy had backed Top Gun; Tony Scott responded that if mutiny never happens, why is there mutiny training for naval officers. — Bill Simmons
