The hosts say a sequel was announced in May 2022 with Kurt Wimmer returning, Butler producing and producer Lucas Foster calling the premise more relevant than ever, but three years later it was said not to be happening. — Van Lathan
Sequel idea: Nick finds Clyde set booby traps in case he died, and Billy Bob Thornton plays a former associate who must get into Clyde's head. — Bill Simmons
The traps could include the basketball bomb or a bomb in the cello. — Bill Simmons
The money-covered sex scene after the first successful Vegas day is considered as another scene candidate, with objections deferred. — Mallory Rubin
The billiards proposition is praised for its iconic premise-setting line, riveting conversation and insight into Gage’s psychology. — Mallory Rubin
Diana answers before David, and Gage insists on hearing from him, deliberately opening a wedge between the couple.
Pool-ball continuity undermines the scene’s metaphor: a scratched cue ball reappears, and the play lacks coherent eight-ball or nine-ball rules. — Bill Simmons
The lawyer’s contract negotiation is a favorite, particularly payment without consummation and the John Garfield death-during-sex clause.
Jeremy’s insistence that he could have negotiated at least two million dollars adds to the lawyer’s appeal. — Mallory Rubin
The boat scene is praised, including Gage’s assurance that nothing will happen without Diana choosing it; it is called one of the film’s last good scenes. — Bill Simmons
The argument about whether the sex was good gives Diana an effective explanation that neither praise nor denial can satisfy her husband.
Her affirmative answer is disputed as unnecessarily hurtful; suggested reassuring lies draw the objection that he would not believe them. — Mallory Rubin
Redford’s speech about the woman on the train is nominated, with Moore appearing genuinely moved by his performance. — Bill Simmons
The supposedly relatable missed-connection story is mocked for justifying a billionaire’s extravagant pursuit of another man’s wife. — Mallory Rubin
The million-dollar-club revelation is praised for Shackleford’s visible effort to support Gage’s improvised story without exposing it. — Mallory Rubin
Sam Elliott is suggested as a cooler version of Shackleford who could appear more convincingly complicit. — Bill Simmons
Gage’s billiards offer is the agreed final most-rewatchable scene despite the pool continuity errors. — Mallory Rubin
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.
The Jolie pitch uses her age and rising Gia-era profile but is rejected because her forceful energy would make Harry’s protectiveness and her ground-bound role less credible.
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
The New York meteor strike is praised as an effects opener whose long Eddie Griffin setup resembles the era’s habit of giving comedians disposable mini-movies. — Chris Ryan
Harry discovering Grace with A.J. and firing across the oil rig announces the movie’s insanity, while Grace calling her father Harry and his physical intrusion become objections.
Harry’s crew demands—cleared tickets, citizenship, Caesar’s Palace, the Kennedy answer, White House access, and no taxes—are a funny, sharply written assembly payoff. — Bill Simmons
The crew’s slow-motion walk and the president’s global address turn NASA departure into maximal patriotic spectacle.
A.J. and Bear’s crash, Independence’s destruction, A.J.’s monster-vehicle return, and the abrupt forgetting of Max provide escalating asteroid action and dark comedy.
Harry’s goodbye, sacrifice, and the surviving astronauts’ return culminate in Sharp asking Grace to shake the hand of the bravest man he has met.
The Russian station sequence, the bomb standoff, Harry’s promise, and Billy Bob defying the president are additional major candidates.
One final pick is the astronauts landing and Sharp greeting Grace; another is assembling the crew and its Kennedy beat; a third ties Billy Bob’s briefings with the presidential speech; the last favors disarming the bomb.
Julianne Moore as Bettina is floated but rejected because the actual actress had no prior associations. — Bill Simmons
Nick Searcy's role is recast for more firepower opposite Hanks in the keep-breathing monologue scene; Billy Bob Thornton, hot after Sling Blade, is the pick, with respect to Searcy. — Bill Simmons
Loudon beating Cooch to make 178 cuts into Journey's "Only the Young", called not a top-five Journey song but in the top-ten discussion.
The state champion carrying the log up the steps is rewound often; the hosts say it was cold that day and glycerin was used to fake sweat.
Loudon watches the champion pin a man in 10 seconds while dictating notes into a tape recorder like Roger Sterling, joked to have been stolen.
The champion is mysterious rather than a villain, presented like the shark in Jaws, with the Jaws theme played as he stalks the mat.
Loudon climbing the pegboard wall to John Waite's "Change" after the big teammate says he is not a team player is the next rewatchable scene.
A bit imagines a pegboard at the Ringer's Gower Studios courtyard that a host climbs to win the right to book Michelle Obama.
Loudon losing to Lewis Smith by medical default over his bloody nose is listed, with a joke about the movie's character names and disagreement with stopping the match.
There is little wrestling technique shown, so it is unclear how good Loudon is beyond losing weight; another participant says Modine is clearly an athlete. — Chris Ryan
Modine's lat pull-down form is called the worst in history, setting the exercise back a decade, with an anecdote about a father doing it wrong.
Hollywood always botches weightlifting, such as prison gangs repping light weight; the fix would be a consultant swapping pink 20s for black 40s.
Elmo's Pele story is recounted: watching Pele score upside down on a Mexican channel, crying alone, and a human being lifting the rest of us up for a minute.
A sports movie needs a chill scene, a requirement from an old 30 best sports movies column; this speech gets you ready for the match.
The speech evokes an era of limited access to global sports, and "it's not the six minutes, it's what happens in the six minutes" is called one of the most dramatic lines in movies.
The setting is perfect: the hotel chef who is more of a father than Loudon's father, toilet paper on his shaving cut, beer cans in the back, and calling in sick to watch; it is called the best scene of the movie.
The speech belongs to a tradition from The Longest Yard through Rocky and Victory; such speeches are hard to write in character, unlike Billy Bob Thornton's in Friday Night Lights, but this one fits Elmo.
The movie often moves too fast, such as Loudon sniffing Carla's panties; The Way Back's trailer speech is cited as a current chill moment.
Pacino in Any Given Sunday is called the best version; a Mount Rushmore of sports movie speeches has Pacino, Reynolds in The Longest Yard and this one, with the fourth undecided.
Carla returning to the locker room before the match ("Hey Loudon, kick his ass"), Lunatic Fringe and the jump rope lead into a great final match.
The speech (transcribed "the almost speech") is named the most rewatchable scene, with an agreeing reply that is also partial to the "Change" pegboard scene.
An alternate pick is the drive to the grandfather's cabin, with a truck that tops out at 31 mph, a campout and Loudon's nocturnal-emissions talk.
Kurt Russell first, with the reminder that the question is the highest point of his career, not the favorite: one case is The Thing in 1982, after Escape from New York and with Silkwood, Swing Shift and Big Trouble in Little China coming; a no is cast because Escape from New York was only later a cult hit, raising whether apex is judged at the time or on reflection.
Reading about Tombstone makes it sound like Russell was able to finance the movie coming off Backdraft, a relatively big hit he starred in, likened to LeBron in the 2018 Finals; a controversial case is made for Tango and Cash, when after the well-liked Tequila Sunrise with Michelle Pfeiffer a hit with Stallone, an absolutely ridiculous movie only those two could pull off, left him looking like an A plus list star.
Tango and Cash was not a huge hit, costing $55 million and making $66 million, though $55 million in 1988 is like $160 million today, and it is not that good; the counter is that it opened up Backdraft and his ability to finance Tombstone; the actual answer may be that there was no apex at all, a range of rolling hills, which is what is cool about his career.
Russell was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Silkwood, which is why his Apex Mountain is around The Thing in 1982 or 1983, when Escape from New York was becoming a cult movie. — Sean Fennessey
Whether Russell was ever Oscar-nominated is disputed, Miracle floated and rejected, until the Silkwood nomination is recalled; the host who forgot it concedes, a 180 the others tease.
Russell could have had a different career as a serious dramatic actor rather than leaning into the masculine hero; he and Harrison Ford are cut from the same cloth, smart throwbacks to Paul Newman charisma, but Ford got two franchises while Russell alternates three good films and three bad; he is also just a good-looking dude, at his most handsome here, a man who should be on a poster.
Val Kilmer: a no, with Top Gun imagined as his apex, since coming out of it people saw him neck and neck with the star, though another calls that the star's movie and goes Heat, where as De Niro's wingman in the biggest mid-90s movie he is the next wave; his pre-Batman run is traced through True Romance, Tombstone, The Real McCoy, Thunderheart and The Doors.
1987 right after Top Gun is floated, when Willow was hopefully going to be his Han Solo and did not work out; one host's personal apex for him is The Doors, where he was out of control, and a Doors rewatchable is wanted, though JFK would have to come first among the Oliver Stone movies.
Jason Priestley is a thousand-percent yes: 90210 was never bigger, he is in a movie with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer and has a couple of heat-check scenes, the steepest mountain of all time, very high with a precipitous drop on either side; a caution that a later show (transcribed 'Natuna') was big for three and a half years does not change the view that this literally was his Apex Mountain and his first dabbling in movies.
Dana Delaney's apex has to be China Beach, which was probably already gone by this point, so she is not a yes; nobody else is proposed except George Cosmatos as ghost director, already covered, with the joke of a Ringer video secretly directed by someone else.
The late Bill Paxton: this is not a Mount Rushmore Paxton performance next to Aliens, Near Dark, One False Move, Weird Science, True Lies and Twister, though it may be his sweetest spot while figuring out how to be Bill Paxton; in Aliens Sigourney Weaver is the hero but Paxton and Biehn would in any other world have been the stars, and One False Move is incredible though arguably Billy Bob's movie too.
Twister was Hollywood's first concerted effort to make Paxton a major star, marketed with Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman as people who were going to be stars rather than actual stars; the shift from needing a movie star to needing a tornado, meteor or alien invasion is traced to Speed, where Keanu was the guy and Sandra Bullock turned out to be one of the biggest stars of the next twenty years.
Paxton is one of the all-time great number two or three guys: here he sets picks and makes a couple of corner threes, telling Wyatt he is the one, spits a lot, works the scorer's-table handshakes at the start, and gets the 'hey' when Doc responds to Wyatt's description of his new wife with 'pure as the driven snow'.
