Gary Sinise’s reported audition and recommendation of Petersen inform recasting alternatives: Sinise, Andy Garcia and John Malkovich, with Garcia considered too handsome and Pankow’s chase acting defended. — Bill Simmons
Young is a singular screen presence whose unrealized career possibilities exceed a routine short run of stardom.
Killing Susan forty-five minutes in is an effective surprise, although contemporary reviews often spoiled it.
Tom might have saved Susan by leaving through the front door and forcing a confrontation with Brice. — Chris Ryan
This is proposed as the best twist of the 1980s and 1990s, ahead of The Sixth Sense, with later identity-reversal thrillers owing it a debt. — Sean Fennessey
Old-fashioned Russian spies are missed as clear, readily understood movie antagonists. — Bill Simmons
The invited producer was not alive for the 1980 game, was 10 when the movie came out, and has seen it a couple of times.
The floor for sports movies is really high, and with a story this good the movie is really up there among sports movies. — Chris Ryan
Remember the Titans remains the favorite, with the Will Patton speech.
The filming of the real hits into the boards is unbelievable, raising how it was planned; the reply is that liberties were few, such as a slashing penalty.
The Joey Pants award needs a younger-generation version, since picks like Noah Emmerich are that guys to people in their 20s and 30s; it is called a really fair point.
Gibson is argued as a great, wild-eyed Garrison who would better represent Stone's mind, and who later made Conspiracy Theory; another questions casting an Australian. — Sean Fennessey
Harrison Ford doesn't make sense but is a big what-if, with a wish he had more movies like this.
Don Johnson tried hard for Garrison and has post-Miami Vice appeal, but doesn't read smart enough to be the district attorney. — Brian Koppelman
Jeff Bridges would have been amazing; 'Hank' (as transcribed) might work but may be two years too young and too aw-shucks. — Brian Koppelman
Frank Whaley was going to be Oswald, and after the part went to Oldman he was made the imposter.
Willem DeFoe (as transcribed) and John Malkovich turned down the Ferry role; Malkovich in the red wig would have been mind-boggling.
Stone considered Marlon Brando for Mr. X, joked to need SNL monologue-style cue cards.
Origin: Stone met Warner Brothers about a Howard Hughes film, but Warren Beatty had the rights, so JFK was the backup pitch; jokes follow about carrying three pitches and a Doug Collins 1972 Olympics pitch.
Two voters choose Thornton because his magnetic competence and gravity keep the fourth-billed NASA role—and the movie—credible.
One voter chooses Will Patton in an openly personal selection that the others call a homer pick.
Bay owns the film stylistically but is denied the win for disowning it after criticism and for later excess; the hosts urge him to claim the masterpiece.
Willis has a second-summit case because he converts extraordinary leverage into this film, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable, though Die Hard remains his stricter apex. — Bill Simmons
Bay uses Armageddon’s success to obtain total freedom and Pearl Harbor-scale resources; all agree this accumulation of power is the Baypex.
Billy Bob Thornton’s grounding authority, patriotism, product placement, supporting performances, commentary, Los Angeles doubling, and urgency-as-exposition
Thornton’s NASA director is compared favorably with his Friday Night Lights work and Ed Harris in Apollo 13; his “global killer” explanation makes outlandish science sound authoritative. — Bill Simmons
The brief asteroid discoverer naming it after his wife contributes an unexpectedly funny one-scene performance.
The film’s unapologetic patriotism still creates emotional force. — Bill Simmons
The Affleck/Tyler hill scene operates as an exceptionally conspicuous BMW commercial and marker of Bay’s early embrace of product placement against the era’s anti-selling-out culture.
Aerosmith underscoring Steven Tyler’s daughter during erotic animal-cracker play is preserved as deliberately noted psychosexual discomfort rather than ignored as romance. — Bill Simmons
Keith David’s skeptical military authority and the closing-credit wedding footage and memorial portraits are praised for giving the broad movie opposition and an emotional coda.
Affleck’s commentary challenge—why teach drillers to be astronauts instead of astronauts to drill—became a legendary critique, with Bay telling him to stop questioning it. — Bill Simmons
Will Patton’s reunion reactions, Liv Tyler’s durable career, and Bay using Los Angeles for distant cities are additional favorites.
The constant command that there is no time is identified as efficient exposition that keeps complicated space mechanics legible and the film moving. — Chris Ryan
