Everyone is on a heat check; Anthony Clark tries to win it but it goes badly.
The first inanimate-object nomination in Rewatchables history: VX gas, with very small screen time, looking great, and as bad as imagined when stuffed in a mouth, "a literal heat check"; the nomination is welcomed. — Chris Ryan
A vote for William Forsyth as the FBI man: an early asshole who is kind when Cage pukes (a Cage improvisation), then lets it slide that Mason is alive; with Raising Arizona history, quietly very good; he gets it if a person must win. — Mina Kimes
Alcatraz; San Francisco car chases; Simpson-Bruckheimer logo card; characters who don't exist; former That Guys; Claire Forlani what-if; Connery's Alcatraz cabin; the film's politics
Alcatraz: no movie using it has failed to be cool. — Bill Simmons
San Francisco car chases are one speaker's pick, over the others' disagreement. — Bill Simmons
The "losers always whine about their best; winners go home and fuck the prom queen" line is raised: it seemed the coolest thing at 13 but now reads as bizarre and very 90s. — Bill Simmons
The Simpson-Bruckheimer logo card, and RIP to Don Simpson, whose last film this was; a 1996 EW piece quoted Connery that Simpson did not look right on set, and his legendary appetite for cocaine is noted.
Action-movie characters who "don't exist" because their records were wiped clean are a winner every time. — Bill Simmons
Claire Forlani's what-if: after Mallrats it seemed she would happen until Meet Joe Black; the belief that it still could happen has aged best. — Bill Simmons
Too good for half-assed internet research: Connery made the producers build him a cabin on Alcatraz rather than travel to the mainland, compared with Arnold's private-plane demands on T2.
The politics have aged well, unusually for Bay: a nuanced view of government and patriotism in the Hummel-Mason conversation, where Connery cites Oscar Wilde; the bluff ending, where Hummel refuses to kill a million people, keeps the film resting on whether he would do it. — Mina Kimes
Picked early: would the rope break or rip off Connery's arm pulling the 180-pound John Spencer, and how does a 20-foot rope come from a shower curtain; nitpicking a Bay movie is like criticizing a child's drawing.
Moved up from Picking Nits: why is there a Disneyland world of mine carts, burners and storage under a prison on an island, and was it filmed separately; an attempt to research it is mentioned. — Bill Simmons
Flagged as a nit: characters supposedly wiped from the record, yet Cage's friend finds Jade Angelou and her address in 30 seconds, though the scene establishes trust. — Mina Kimes
Carla is questioned as a character: she is told the underwater strategy in the situation room with top officials; the part feels shoehorned, possibly from notes to include Vanessa Mercell and Claire Forlani so it was not all dudes.
Connery has not driven for 35 years yet zooms a Hummer around San Francisco and knows the streets.
Did the hostages ever eat or go to the bathroom over about three days? Die Hard accounts for it; this film does not address it. — Bill Simmons
Recapped nits: the Secret Service at the balcony haircut, the working boilers (which even Bay admitted was ridiculous), and Connery remembering the basement 30-plus years later. — Bill Simmons
There is no reason for Cage to take the green egg into a fight in his chest pocket; he lands on it and it stays intact, and shoving it in a mouth should fail, though it is still enjoyed. — Bill Simmons
Major nit: Cage's resistance to atropine; its listed side effects (light sensitivity, blurred vision, dry mouth, constipation and more) are mild compared with VX gas, so taking five shots would make sense. — Chris Ryan
The government should just pay the $83 million, roughly what Barry Bond signed for in 1996, rather than put San Francisco at risk. — Mina Kimes
Leaving the one man who can stop the mission alone in a cell, unguarded despite 30 men and stray Marines around Alcatraz, is illogical. — Mina Kimes
Connery would miss some of his rope-and-hook throws to pull the doors; he would win an Olympic event for it. — Bill Simmons
