The production reportedly built planetary terrain in a warehouse and sourced bomber scrap for the designs. — Chris Ryan
Unusual organic materials and children beside oversized landing gear reportedly enhanced the design and perceived scale. — Chris Ryan
Weaver's Alien Resurrection salary reportedly exceeded the entire budget of Alien.
The egg chamber's blue lasers reportedly came from the Who rehearsing nearby at Shepperton; the panel discusses the timing around Keith Moon's death.
For the director's-cut slap, Cartwright reportedly switched hands at Scott's instruction after Weaver kept ducking, producing a visibly surprising hit. — Bill Simmons
Scott reportedly instructed Kotto to annoy Weaver off camera; the panel questions this directing tactic and jokes about method acting.
A German shepherd hidden behind a screen reportedly frightened the cat for its reaction to the descending alien.
Ash's artificial head reportedly contained milk, caviar, pasta and glass marbles. — Chris Ryan
Hurt's head and arms projected through the table into a mechanical torso filled with animal guts; the smell and effect reportedly distressed the cast, including Kotto. — Chris Ryan
Actors reportedly fainted in inadequately ventilated spacesuits; Scott reconsidered the problem when his own children fainted during shots using them for scale. — Bill Simmons
The dead facehugger reportedly used oysters, sheep kidney and fresh shellfish. — Bill Simmons
Four different cats reportedly played Jones. — Bill Simmons
The director's cut reportedly followed discovery of one hundred boxes of footage in a London vault in the early 2000s. — Bill Simmons
Walter Hill reportedly noticed Weaver and Michael Beck in a film transcribed as Mad Men, leading to Weaver's Alien opportunity and Beck's Warriors casting; the title remains uncertain in this ASR.
Rushed to beat The Wanderers; Fox was meant to end up with Mercy; the Dingoes subplot was cut after Beck and Van Bakkenberg's chemistry showed; the Rogues drove a 1955 Cadillac hearse; Michael Beck became born again; Sunny Landon was hit by the bat; Mercy's stitches and broken wrist; production paid off gangs via an NYPD contact
The movie was rushed to get ahead of another gang movie, The Wanderers, by Philip Kaufman of The Right Stuff, with Ken Wall (as transcribed) of Wise Guy; two hosts have never seen it, prompting a joke about being only 26.
Fox was originally to end up with Mercy; in the book and original script Swan was captured by a gay gang called the Dingoes, who had Dobermans, and escaped later, but Walter Hill saw the dailies, noticed Beck and Van Bakkenberg (as transcribed) had chemistry, and rewrote everything to drop the Dingoes; Dobermans are compared to Halle Berry's dogs in John Wick 3.
The Rogues drove a 1955 Cadillac hearse; Michael Beck partied too much during filming and became born again; Sunny Landon (as transcribed), later in Predator, was the cop Swan hits with the bat, and in one take Mercy was hit in the face and needed stitches.
Mercy broke her wrist running with the stunt double, which is why she wears the jacket for the rest of the movie, explaining the odd 'where'd you get that jacket' exchange; to film anywhere in the five boroughs production paid off whoever ran that turf, with an NYPD contact telling Marshall the producer which gang members needed paying.
Ajax's language and sexual assault (disputed); what is said to Mercy; Cleon's death; Fox's stunt double being thrown onto the tracks and never mentioned again
Ajax is simultaneously a great character and badly aged for his language and being a sexual assaulter.
The counterargument is that a movie about gangs who stalk the streets needs a bad guy, and Ajax contrasts with Swan's King Arthur moral code; a bad guy in a 1979 New York gang is plausible, though some of his words are hard to hear now, and what is said to Mercy is not great.
Cleon dying has aged terribly and hurts every time; the stunt double thrown onto the tracks and the character never being mentioned again is one host's vote.
The story recited: Michael Beck as Swan and Thomas Waits (as transcribed) as Fox were to be the two stars, but Fox's actor feuded with Walter Hill, who killed the character off midway, rewrote the last 45 minutes, and used a crew member with the same hair as a stunt double, seen from behind with Mercy before a cop throws him into the train; nobody later asks what happened to Fox the way they ask about Ajax.
The actor told the story at a 2015 reunion where the cast rode the subway to Coney; another host disliked his face in the zoom-in and was glad he died.
The death should have established the stakes of the all-night journey and made the arrival a relief, but it is so quick and so hamstrung together that it has no emotional payoff.
Today a studio would recast as with Eric Stoltz and Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future rather than concoct a stunt death; it also creates a hole when Swan returns to an empty station with no ambulances or police after a man was thrown in front of a train.
Why the Warriors run from police is debated: they are a gang in colors where they should not be, and the fire, the assassination and the DJ keep police on alert; starting the fire five stops down is called a smart move by the other gangs, and Masai is said to have been pulling the strings like Masai Uhiri (as transcribed).
The movie is described as six scenes that are fun to watch over and over with lagging in between; Cyrus's speech is amazing, including the little wooden platform built for him that fell apart when he bumped it, and his 'can you count, suckers?' to 900 juvenile delinquents.
The production could not afford 900 extras and used real gang members, whose cheering during the speech was genuine; Roger Hill's performance is called all-time, with three lines in the lexicon ('can you count, suckers', 'can you dig it', 'the future is ours if you can count'), and The Rock's late-nineties wrestling persona seemed like a Cyrus impersonation.
The film had a renaissance around the video game some twenty-plus years later after being on cable for twenty straight years, a rap song sampled 'can you dig it', and like Scarface it was adopted by a later generation; the Craig Mack 'Flava in Ya Ear' video with Puffy saying 'come out and play' is cited, and Scarface's own arc from bust to cable classic is compared.
Other rewatchable moments: the run to the first train station after Cyrus is shot while the Turnbull ACs cruise around in a school bus with 25 guys and two-by-fours, and the Baseball Furies reveal, Ajax's 'what the fuck is that' as the camera cuts to four dudes in painted faces and baseball uniforms.
The sprint through Central Park, where they run about a mile and then stop to fight, prompts admiration for the cast's cardio; Michael Beck described on a making-of shooting all night, sleeping six hours and doing two hours in the gym, and this is called one of the most running movies ever, with running in about twelve scenes shot twenty or thirty times.
One host tells an airport story about a delayed flight in Oregon and a half-mile sprint to a gate that ended after a quarter mile, concluding the Furies would catch them fast.
An imagined SNL sketch has the gang asking the Furies to wait ninety seconds before fighting; the bathroom battle with the Punks, the roller-skate gang, was reportedly filmed for five days, only one guy had skates, and a tall 6'5 member compared to Miles Plumlee should have done more in the fight.
'Warriors, come out to play' was reportedly ad-libbed by David Patrick Kelly with the three bottles, and the hosts wonder why the Golden State Warriors do not use it before games, though the Rogues are an evil gang the team may not want to ride for.
The ending, where Swan throws the knife into the Rogues' leader and 150 Riffs materialize in silence before 'You warriors are good. We are good. The best', is compared to the tri-lamps (as transcribed) showing up in Revenge of the Nerds; the Gramercy Riffs all know kung fu and have a number two ready to lead right after Cyrus dies.
A theory that Masai, with the mirrored sunglasses and looking born to lead the Riffs, may have had Cyrus killed while working with the Rogues, which would explain why the Riffs kill Luther at the end without asking questions because he knows they set it up.
Asked for the most rewatchable scene, the answer is the Cyrus speech, the favorite part and the scene seen most from the movie. — Sean Fennessey
The asker concedes they have to go with the Cyrus speech; the fight with the Lizzies is held for later and would not totally make the list.
Another host personally likes the Baseball Furies scene most, for the moment they stop running and ask if they lost them as the Furies come over the hill, with the first Fury called an assassin.
The Furies' loss is already picked at: a nine-man baseball gang that swings bats all day loses to three after the cowboy goes down; Ajax does the popsicle line and fights one at a time while the others stand around, which is called terrible planning, too much honor, and all gimmick, no substance, more Florida Marlins than Boston Red Sox.
The Furies' face paint, silence and cleats are questioned; they are read as bad athletes inspired by the 77-78 Yankees, somewhere near Union Square or 96th, and a corny white-guy frat gang from Murray Hill rather than Harlem or the Bronx; the Tyson-Douglas analogy is that everyone has a plan until they get hit, and maybe James Remar as Ajax is simply underrated as a badass.
Swan's play of cutting around a corner with two guys to double back and catch the out-of-shape Fury and take his bat is called amazing.
