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The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Gone Girl
Collateral
Collateral
Collateral
Collateral
Film credit
Tom Cruise
Also referred to as Cruise, Cruz, Digger Cruz
Stats
- Episodes featuring their films
- 20
- Movies in this archive
- 18
Rewatchables episodes featuring Tom Cruise’s films
Displaying episodes 13 - 20 of 20 in total
Mentioned in discussions
Picking Nits
Nearly every logistical step in Andy's escape, Red's search, prison life, the opera system, public funding, and the preserved Brooks carving
In the discussion (22)
Approx. transcript time · 01:26:12Read transcript
- Andy's escape depends on a precisely timed thunderstorm after he has already committed to the suit and book switch. — Chris Ryan
- The panel questions how Andy knew the pipe would break with only a few strikes.
- The panel asks why Andy did not enter the pipe closer to its outlet and how he knew which direction to crawl.
- The poster's ability to remain attached over the tunnel and to be replaced after each visit is difficult to explain.
- Crawling five hundred yards through hot sewage seems likely to cause vomiting, unconsciousness, or death.
- The panel doubts one bar of soap and rain could remove the sewage smell before Andy entered banks the next morning.
- Andy’s suit looks implausibly clean and pressed the next morning.
- The supposedly durable plastic bag carrying Andy's papers and chess pieces is treated as impossibly effective.
- The poster never loses a corner, and Andy appears unable to reattach it once inside his body-sized hole.
- The panel asks what substitutes for Andy during bed checks while he is inside the tunnel.
- The late-1940s prison sound system seems incapable of reproducing the opera beautifully, though deprived listeners might hear it subjectively.
- The state responding to Andy's repeated letters with library money seems less likely than officials discarding them.
- A six-foot-five man fitting through the pipe makes Tom Cruise's hypothetical casting seem logistically easier.
- Red's ability to locate the correct Buxton cornfield and volcanic rock from one old conversation is debated.
- The prison appears to contain no serious threats beyond the Sisters despite the story spanning nineteen years. — Chris Ryan
- Red's connections do not produce protection for Andy during the two years before Hadley intervenes.
- One participant says the Alan Green shoutout comes two seconds too early.
- The rooming house leaves Brooks's suicide carving untouched and assigns Red the same room.
- The warden allows an unusually large, lightly supervised prison library operation while profiting from Andy's laundering.
- The suit should seem tighter because Andy is taller than the warden.
- The library funding is defended as only five hundred dollars a year toward rehabilitation and GEDs. — Chris Ryan
- The warden allowing the library to be named after Brooks is questioned.
Casting What-Ifs
Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner, and Tom Cruise were considered for Andy; Brad Pitt for Tommy; James Gandolfini for Boggs; Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage were rumored; and Rob Reiner proposed Cruise and Harrison Ford.
This discussion recalls a choice from an earlier episode.
In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:36Read transcript
- Tom Hanks was offered Andy but could not accept because of Forrest Gump; the panel prefers Tim Robbins because the role became inseparable from him.
- Kevin Costner was offered Andy and is considered a credible alternate, although the panel thinks Robbins better preserves doubt about Andy.
- Tom Cruise attended table readings but declined over the director's inexperience; the panel thinks his intensity would distort Andy.
- Brad Pitt was intended for Tommy before Thelma & Louise created other opportunities; the panel thinks his presence would make Tommy disproportionately prominent.
- James Gandolfini was intended for Boggs but chose True Romance instead. — Chris Ryan
- Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage are discussed as rumored Andy possibilities whose dreaminess or intensity could have fit parts of the role. — Chris Ryan
- Rob Reiner offered Frank Darabont three million dollars and another financed project for the right to direct with Cruise as Andy and Harrison Ford as Red.
- Jon Favreau auditioned for the fresh-fish prisoner and later called it his worst audition.
- Bob Gunton's height helped him plausibly share clothes with the taller Tim Robbins for the escape plot.
- Tom Cruise is suggested instead for Tommy Williams.
- The hosts imagine Cruise preparing for the pipe crawl by practicing with Navy SEALs.
- Favreau is reported to have used the failed audition as motivation to lose weight before Swingers.
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:32Read transcript
- Bronson Pinchot has two scenes, knocks them out of the park and gets a sitcom and a five-year deal out of it, the biggest Dion Waiters success story the show has had, compared to Flip Murray's 13-game run; the brilliance is that you do not know what he is playing, only he knows, a joke on the art world where his sexual orientation and whether he is Middle Eastern are unknown.
- Earlier the Serge scenes are compared to Shawn Michaels making any wrestler better in the ring; he got a whole career from two scenes, having been only one of Tom Cruise's friends in Risky Business before, and Balky followed two years later.
Probably Unanswerable Questions
Who would play Butch and Sundance if the film were made from scratch today?
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:18:30Read transcript
- The one question is who plays these two if the movie never existed and they start from scratch in 2019, though going decade by decade would be more fun; Matt and Ben are not a bad idea, but perhaps a 2009 idea since they are older now, unless aging fits a story about the times changing under their feet.
- Butch should be older, as Newman was 13 or 14 years older than Redford, so Damon as Butch and Affleck as Sundance would draw them in; Clooney and Pitt are floated, with Pitt able to play either part, though both are mid-50s; one participant wants men who have had a whole life of robbing trains before being chased to South America.
- Pitt has done Jesse James; Tom Cruise is floated; Denzel and his son would need to be closer in age, with his son recalled as a USC receiver who did a stint with the Rams; Gosling and Leo are paired, Leo more a Sundance but Butch next to Gosling; both parts need someone truly famous; one participant would give anything to have written it; Ethan Hawke is named a great Butch, a chatterbox who talks his way out of anything, and Ryan Reynolds too.
Casting What-Ifs
Jon Hamm, slated for Nick until Mad Men's Matthew Weiner would not release him; Tom Cruise and George Clooney weighed for Nick; Reese Witherspoon, who held the rights to play Amy before Fincher talked her out of it; Charlize, Natalie Portman, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Julianne Hough considered for Amy; Emily Ratajkowski cast on Ben Affleck's recommendation
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:51Read transcript
- In the formal casting what-ifs, most having been covered already, the one new item is that Fincher cast Emily Ratajkowski on a recommendation from Ben Affleck, which the hosts find the funniest thing they have heard and worth a shout-out, joking about hiring her as a football writer to cover the NFC.
- Jon Hamm was going to play Nick but Matthew Weiner would not let him out of his contract for the last season of Mad Men, the way The Office accommodated Ed Helms filming The Hangover at night; the part could have ignited Hamm's career as Don Draper in a bad marriage, though whether Hamm would have done the side dick is called the only question that matters.
- The case against Hamm is that the role needs innate likability, and nobody ever simply liked Don Draper even if Hamm is loved in The Town and Baby Driver; the counter is that Nick is supposed to seem rationally likable yet somehow repellent, which Hamm could swing.
- The relationship we have with Hamm is with Don Draper, while with Affleck it is with Affleck the public person; a Hamm version would still have been a good movie, because the film is about marriage, what women and men say they want, stardom and the media, bigger than Fincher's narcissism explanation; another voice thinks Hamm would have been good but loves that Affleck did this at the point of his completed comeback.
- Tom Cruise as Nick Dunn is floated, with one voice calling the idea amazing, and rejected by the rest: he is too short and lacks Affleck's bulk and wide shoulders, you need to believe Nick can keep up with Amy, you need to see his belly exposed when he rolls over, and nobody can picture Cruise sitting down for Battlefield 3; Clooney fifteen years earlier is possible but a little too skinny.
- Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights intending to produce and play Amy, met Fincher and somehow gave the part up; the hosts cannot picture her riding Neil Patrick Harris covered in blood, finding her too earnest, open and likable to go dead-eyed the way Amy requires.
- Other names reported for Amy: Charlize and Natalie Portman, both of whom would have been interesting though Charlize carries baggage as an actress, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara whom Fincher had just worked with, Olivia Wilde, and strangest of all Dancing with the Stars' Julianne Hough, who got far down the road before her bid at a serious acting career stalled.
- Fincher wanted an actress with a Faye Dunaway in Chinatown persona, someone who has experienced avenues of pain no one can articulate; he settled on Rosamund Pike because at 35 she could pass for 29 or 40, she was an only child like Amy, and after four or five of her movies he had never got a beat on her, an opacity he found interesting, when the natural move would have been Charlize.
- Fincher has always had an eye for unproven, on-the-cusp talent, Pitt in Seven, Eisenberg and Rooney Mara in The Social Network, Mahershala Ali and Taraji Henson in Benjamin Button; the hosts expected Pike's career to go somewhere else after her Oscar nomination, and before this her notable role was Jack Reacher, an embarrassing part two years earlier.
- Asked whether baggage with a real celebrity hurts a part like this, the answer is that for Amy you need to be totally confused about the person, the opposite of the Affleck character whom you must root for implicitly, so somebody you have never seen before makes it scarier. — Shea Serrano
- Pike's biggest role until then was Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, the book that turns up in the bookshop where they have sex.
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:04Read transcript
- Michael Mann is the strongest alternative, with Foxx assigned the notional third star. — Bill Simmons
- Cruise’s villain performance wins both audible choices and is framed as the end of one version of his career before it changes the following year; no additional panel vote is inferred. — Bill Simmons
Podcast choices
- Speaker not identified
- Tom Cruise
- Speaker not identified
- Tom Cruise
Probably Unanswerable Questions
How Felix’s case proceeds, why a major witness visits Fever, whether Max and Vincent should switch roles, and why Mann repeatedly names characters Vincent
In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:19Read transcript
- With most witnesses dead and Annie alive, the panel is unsure whether Felix faces a mistrial, a retrial, or a viable prosecution. — Bill Simmons
- A key witness going to a crowded nightclub instead of witness protection exposes the prosecution’s weak security. — Chris Ryan
- Switching Foxx and Cruise is judged worse but intriguing; a Gosling and Michael B. Jordan remake is another hypothetical. — Bill Simmons
- Mann’s repeated use of Vincent, including in Heat, remains unexplained. — Bill Simmons
Apex Mountain
The unusually clear 105 freeway and possibly pre-L.A.-Live Los Angeles are the only plausible apexes; none of the principal artists peak here.
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:17Read transcript
- Fox peaks later with Ray, and Cruise, Mann, Ruffalo, Bardem, and Jada all have stronger power or performance cases elsewhere. — Chris Ryan
- The empty 105 wins the joke apex because it has never looked clearer. — Bill Simmons
The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award
Cruise’s “notes behind the notes” intensity in Daniel’s jazz club
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:04Read transcript
- Ruffalo’s facial hair is jokingly proposed as overacting even while his actual performance is praised. — Chris Ryan
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:00Read transcript
- Cruise’s sharklike evil look and trained gun technique remain among his best work. — Bill Simmons
- A cab, dispatch system, and clean dedicated interior create intimacy that an ordinary rideshare vehicle would not reproduce. — Bill Simmons
- Jason Statham’s brief airport exchange raises an unresolved Transporter-universe possibility and demand for side-character episodes. — Bill Simmons
- The unscripted coyote crossing is read through the reported bad-omen meaning attached to a traveler’s path. — Bill Simmons
- Digital photography that disoriented contemporary viewers now looks singular and current, while the performances stay restrained. — Bill Simmons
Most Rewatchable Scene
The Fever nightclub
In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:02Read transcript
- The opening cab ride combines Groove Armada, an implausibly empty 105, chemistry, and a rare narcotic feeling of effortless Los Angeles motion. — Bill Simmons
- The corpse falling onto the cab is a terrifying first-viewing shock, followed by Cruise’s calm calculation, Max’s panic, and the darkly comic distinction that the fall killed him. — Bill Simmons
- Vincent’s rapid two-chest-one-head recovery of his briefcase establishes his practiced violence. — Bill Simmons
- Daniel’s Miles Davis story lets Max briefly forget his peril before Vincent kills Daniel, with Barry Shabaka Henley’s expression selling the reversal. — Bill Simmons
- Bardem controls a tiny role as Felix, while Max implausibly but compellingly learns to impersonate Vincent under pressure. — Bill Simmons
- The Fever sequence uses hundreds of repeating extras, physical choreography, and Ruffalo’s abrupt death to produce the clear final choice. — Bill Simmons
- Annie’s dark office pursuit and the subway death use darkness and sound to complete Mann’s preferred confrontation between paired professionals. — Bill Simmons
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:43:46Read transcript
Displaying discussions 205 - 216 of 263 in total
Films in the archive
Risky Business
1983
The Color of Money
1986
The Firm
1993
Top Gun
1986
Top Gun: Maverick
2022
Tropic Thunder
2008