Was the movie named Con Air before or after the script? How many people died when the plane landed on the Strip? Would Poe really stay to save Baby O and the guard? Would the plane have been shot down in the first five minutes? Did Billy Bedlam's wife live? Was Denzel asked to be in the movie? Would you tell your daughter not to visit you in prison? Can you drink insulin? Would Monica Potter's character stick around? Why was there no sequel?
Did they name this movie Con Air before or after writing the script? Before: Con Air is the pitch, imagined as someone washing his hair in the shower, seeing a conditioner bottle and realizing it sounds like a flying prison.
How many people actually died in real life when they landed on the Strip? Guesses run to hundreds, 580, or 250 easy; a grisly question.
Would Nick Cage really care about saving Baby O and the female prison guard this much when he could just get off the plane and be with his wife and daughter? No; redemption and his being a good guy are offered, but he should have got off and then made a fuss.
In real life, wouldn't they have shot the plane down in the first five minutes? Yes; Colin Meaney (as transcribed) deciding not to shoot it down before it lands on the Vegas Strip as a fireball should put him on trial, hopefully not before Cameron Poe's judge, with the same lawyers urging a guilty plea.
Did Billy Bedlam's wife live after he killed her whole family, including the dog? Yes: he wanted her to live with the pain, 'heartbreak'; her story is pitched as another prequel, postquel or sequel.
Diamond Dog, Nathan Jones, former general of the Black Gorillas (as transcribed), wrote 'Reflections in a Diamond Eye' in prison, a bestseller and wake-up call that, according to the New York Times, has Denzel in talks for the movie; the hosts wonder whether Denzel was actually asked to be in this film, since Cusack's delivery sounds like a little shot at him. Denzel would have been great, though he would have had to play Cyrus, basically as the Training Day cop, making it a different movie with a different vibe.
Earlier: if you were in prison for eight years, would you tell your daughter not to come see you until you got out? One host would want to see the kids for something to look forward to every week; another counters that it depends whether you want to blend in or run the block, blood in, blood out; Poe's choice is called a little too unselfish.
A self-described dumb question: with no syringe to inject the insulin, could you not just drink it? Nobody knows how blood sugar works, and listeners are asked to answer.
Not to nitpick, but what is the likelihood that Monica Potter's character sticks around for Cage, who went into the Army to grow up, came back and went to prison the same night, showing up on a boat? She is probably married to a realtor in her area by year four, and Casey's new dad is pitched as the Con Air sequel, with Poe killing the real estate guy in Mobile.
Why wasn't there a sequel? Five or six new convicts and a hunt for the Marietta Mangler would do; you could make this movie every two years with new prisoners introduced the exact same way.
Everyone was written down, but the pick is Rictus, with the 'I had a baby brother, he's perfect in every way' reading recalled as so good; the wives in the back seat after Rosie Huntington Whitley's character dies are also cited, where the direction could only have been to act really sad.
Rictus Erectus is played by Nathan Jones, named earlier among the Dion Waiters nominations as really going for it.
A further nomination, offered without full conviction: the moment late in the film when the Gastown general runs over the sniper Vuvillini and makes a strange face that is the visual representation of 'they knew', first misattributed to the Bullet Farmer, who had been blinded; the same character is regularly touching his nipples throughout his screen time, prompting the remark that Bill should have been on this podcast.
Recommendations: Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus, who was really going for it with expert line readings; Zoe Kravitz in a flex performance before the hosts had much of a relationship to her; and Hugh Keaton's Keysburn (as transcribed) as Immortan Joe.
The pick is the Doof Warrior, played by iOTA (transcribed 'Oda'), described as a musician, writer and painter from New Zealand who apparently beat Hugh Jackman for a Tony Award; in a landscape of dust, brown, chrome, neutral colours and monotone voices he wears a red pajama suit and plays a flaming double-neck guitar, impossible not to look at, and wakes from a hammock of guitar straps straight into his riff like G.E. Smith coming out of a commercial break.
In a Noisy (as transcribed) interview iOTA described being strapped into the harness for eight hours after six-a.m. makeup, noodling ACDC songs to himself and eventually banging out nonsensical riffs because staying animated mattered most; the thinking behind the character is left as a question: is it that an announcement of destruction was needed?
Though also nominated as what aged the worst for its wasteful nu-metal excess, the Doof Warrior is loved, and the Dion Waiters Award goes to the Doof Warrior.
