The hosts say the character was originally named Danny Weber and renamed LaRusso once Macchio was cast; Macchio auditioned for Johnny because he did not want to play another good guy. — Bill Simmons
Zabka is cited saying Robert Downey Jr. and Charlie Sheen were considered for Daniel; Downey might have made a better movie, but the counterpoint is that Macchio's odd combination is what makes it stand out, and a likable Downey would have muddied whether Johnny was the villain. — Bill Simmons
Sheen is not seen as Daniel and would have fit Johnny better. — Bill Simmons
The studio originally wanted a famous Japanese actor from Seven Samurai for Miyagi (name garbled in the transcript), but he did not speak English; Bill Cosby is also said to have been mentioned, which would have aged worst. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Crispin Glover was considered for Johnny before Zabka, and Helen Hunt and Demi Moore for Ali before Shue, who reportedly got it partly from a Burger King commercial and took leave from Harvard. — Bill Simmons
Recent episodes seem to end with a case for Pacino; the pick here is Cruise, with Blunt raised as the alternative. — Chris Ryan
A joke answer of Donald John Trump; Cruise, Liman and Blunt all have a lot to be proud of, and this will be one of the most liked Blunt and Liman movies. — Sean Fennessey
For Cruise it probably sits somewhere in his top 20 on a tough curve, with War of the Worlds well ahead; the other host agrees. — Chris Ryan
The movie is still great and really rewatchable, and its resetting quality is still surprising. — Chris Ryan
No, but a General Brigham show with Brendan Gleeson as the Patton of an alien invasion would be welcome. — Chris Ryan
A sequel is reportedly written; the hosts say Liman claimed it would redefine sequels, Cruise and Blunt are asked about it every six months, and Blunt now sounds busy. — Chris Ryan
Uncharted is joked about as the major film covered on Sean Fennessey's The Big Picture podcast. — Chris Ryan
Liman's next blockbuster is uncertain; there was talk of him doing Justice League Dark. — Sean Fennessey
Chaos Walking is described as one of the great misbegotten productions: the hosts say it has seven credited screenwriters including John Lee Hancock and Charlie Kaufman, stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, began shooting around summer 2017 and is still awaiting release. — Sean Fennessey
That experience might make it hard for Liman to get a sequel made, though the hosts hope he does. — Sean Fennessey
Screenplay development history; the novel's video-game origin; Cruise's Oblivion turnaround; the helicopter line; the Matrix-like Louvre scene; beach plates; heavy battle suits; Rita's blade
Getting ahead of half-ass internet research, the hosts read that eight people contributed to the screenplay and that the producers developed a spec script, sending writer Dante Harper the novel. — Sean Fennessey
They read that Harper found the book too complex but risked not being paid and spent eight months on it; Warner Brothers bought it for $3 million in April 2010, hired Liman, and Harper's script made the 2010 Black List. — Sean Fennessey
The story prompts a Barton Fink joke, corrected from Michael Gambon to Michael Lerner ("It's a wrestling picture"). — Sean Fennessey
The Butterworths were later brought in; Jez is called an accomplished playwright who worked on some of the Craig Bond movies and Simon Kinberg also took a shot. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts say Cruise compared Cage's violent deaths to a Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon, and that McQuarrie finally found the funny tone the earlier drafts lacked. — Sean Fennessey
Movies with eight screenwriters are usually bad; the guess is that Harper's shape, the Butterworths' plotting and McQuarrie's dialogue survived. — Sean Fennessey
Resuming the segment, the hosts say Sakurazaka got the idea for the novel from resetting video games until finding the winning strategy. — Sean Fennessey
Asked about resetting FIFA, the answer is going further: looking up cheat codes online for 100 lives, which dates the last time he played video games. — Chris Ryan
The movie integrates first-person-shooter and video-game logic seamlessly, making it the best video game movie without being an adaptation; Scott Pilgrim is the only comparison, while boss-level logic in Star Wars movies is annoying. — Chris Ryan
The hosts read that Cruise began pre-production on July 20, 2012, less than a week after wrapping Oblivion. — Sean Fennessey
The farmhouse line about knowing how to take off but not land is linked to Cruise later flying helicopters in Mission Impossible. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts read that the Louvre scene with aliens attacking the ship resembles the sentinels at the end of The Matrix. — Sean Fennessey
They read that visual effects artists extended the beach with plates shot at Saunton Sands in North Devon, and that the battles were meant to recall Normandy and Dunkirk, discussed with Quentin Tarantino last year. — Sean Fennessey
They read that Cruise and Blunt wore the battle suits for real, averaging 85 pounds and up to 130 pounds, and hung from chains on iron frames between takes, which is likened to Aliens. — Sean Fennessey
They read that in the novel Rita uses a melee weapon because she ran out of ammo on resets; her blade is iconic but practically stupid, alongside the Full Metal Bitch bus graffiti and her crew's skeleton masks. — Chris Ryan
Blunt's introduction doing the plank is called probably the movie's most iconic shot. — Chris Ryan
Asked whether he can do that plank, the answer is no. — Chris Ryan
Only one name is written down: Gleeson. — Chris Ryan
Paxton is raised as an alternative, noting the hosts had mentioned Aliens three times without discussing him; Gleeson is still the choice. — Chris Ryan
The late Bill Paxton is praised as an icon of One False Move, Aliens and Near Dark, doing a bit of R. Lee Ermey and Hudson from Aliens and crushing the repeated Farell speech; he's never done anything but make a movie better. — Chris Ryan
In a making-of featurette, Blunt and Cruise love Liman's chaotic style while Paxton, a veteran of James Cameron movies such as True Lies, looks uneasy as Liman rewrites his lines between takes, though he stays respectful. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts read that after filming concluded by August 2013, Jeremy Piven was added and extra scenes were shot, but he does not appear in the finished film; they call it an editing what-if. — Sean Fennessey
Piven's energy would not have worked, though a liked comedian popping up in J Squad would have been welcome. — Sean Fennessey
A sarcastic line about marveling that Tom Hardy was in J Squad leads to the point that none of the J Squad actors have become big names in six years. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts read that Brad Pitt was originally considered for Cage; it would need the winking Pitt of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Mr. and Mrs. Smith rather than the self-serious World War Z version, and Cruise is judged the better fit. — Chris Ryan
The hosts read that Ryan Gosling was also considered because Cage is younger in the novel; comic Nice Guys Gosling would work, but blank Drive, Only God Forgives or Blade Runner Gosling would not. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts read that an actress best known for The Artist was up for Rita, which seems odd; she is called a good actor, possibly also in a Bond movie, and both hosts are glad they got Blunt. — Sean Fennessey
Emily Blunt as an action star is the first answer, with a great two-year run here and in Sicario; the hosts want more, questioning whether Jungle Cruise counts but counting A Quiet Place. — Sean Fennessey
A Quiet Place's ending, cutting hard to credits after she does something cool, looks borrowed from this movie by Krasinski and again casts her as a Ripley-like survivor against aliens. — Sean Fennessey
She is tough, cool, funny when needed and no-nonsense, which nobody would have guessed from Devil Wears Prada. — Sean Fennessey
Smarmy Cruise has aged well, recalling Jerry Maguire, like Daniel Kaffee from A Few Good Men 20 years later. — Sean Fennessey
The mix of green screen and practical effects, and not being afraid to riff on Groundhog Day, are also cited. — Sean Fennessey
The sci-fi World War II setting, a Rosie the Riveter, keep-calm-and-carry-on England in 2020 with everyone working for the war effort, is a world worth spending time in. — Sean Fennessey
Blunt is named as what has aged best and the other host gives her his vote. — Sean Fennessey
The movie cuts so quickly that it has more flashes of scenes than scenes, but about eight rewatchable scenes are listed. — Sean Fennessey
First on the list is Major Cage's first meeting with General Brigham, where he is told he will be on the beach with the first wave. — Sean Fennessey
Casting Brendan Gleeson in a small part signals the character matters, like a Montgomery or Patton; it is contrasted with a day-player walk-on in Devs, discussed with Greenwald. — Chris Ryan
Gleeson, who can ham it up as in Troy, underplays the moment, has his shirt tucked in and looks as big as the wrestler Big Van Vader. — Sean Fennessey
Waking up in Master Sergeant Farell's J Squad is next; the speaker's wife gets anxious at how unfair it is that Cage is stripped of rank, and the movie wisely avoids showing it too many times. — Sean Fennessey
A joke asks whether the mimics would have won if Cage had simply agreed to make the documentary. — Sean Fennessey
The first airdrop and beach battle are called incredible and heart-racing, with Cruise's great scared-stiff performance ("How do I turn the safety off?"). — Sean Fennessey
Casting unknowns in J Squad means no one seems protected, so the hit on the plane before the doors open is shocking. — Chris Ryan
The beach storming works despite coming in Saving Private Ryan's wake; the mimics are just CGI and not very interesting, and the movie wisely stops dealing with them for a while after the first alpha death and reset. — Sean Fennessey
Cage seeking out Rita and the training montage are listed; training montages are called mostly corny, with Creed the exception and Blades of Glory a joke contender. — Sean Fennessey
The drive that leads to the farmhouse and the return engagement with General Brigham are on the list; the final battle is called bad, with a steep drop-off in about the last 35 minutes. — Chris Ryan
The farmhouse is like finding water in the desert: a human moment in which the characters actually go on a journey. — Chris Ryan
An added pick is Cage walking into the J Squad camp and reading everyone's poker hands ("Kimmel's working on a flush"). — Chris Ryan
Cage becomes the smartest guy in every room; despite a flawed final 30 minutes, the final action shot of his hand opening to show grenade pins and the zippy ending where Rita asks if she has something on her face are praised. — Sean Fennessey
The pick is the drop landing and storming of the beach: the heavy, tactile mech suits recall Ripley's loader in Aliens, the speaker says they were mostly real rather than CGI, and the scene is redone four or five times. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say the CGI is sparing: per making-of featurettes, portable green screens were carried alongside running actors, a beach was built in a studio, and an entire Heathrow airport army base was built instead of shooting at Heathrow. — Sean Fennessey
Understanding how mainstream action movies get made is fun; Cruise, the quote-unquote hardest-working guy who does his own stunts, tends to get results that feel more real. — Sean Fennessey
The other host agrees that the first battle sequence is the most rewatchable scene. — Chris Ryan
Neither host cares about the romance; it ranks about eighth or ninth in importance, the kiss plays as a farewell, and critics called it unearned. — Sean Fennessey
Cruise as a romantic lead is harder to accept as he keeps pairing with actresses about 31; Kubrick and his personal life ended his youthful sex-icon status, and the movie could have done without the romance. — Sean Fennessey
De Niro wanting to play Vincent, with Pacino aged up, seems true; Coppola did think about it. — Bill Simmons
Sinatra for Altobello is carried into the what-ifs alongside the names mentioned for Vincent. — Bill Simmons
The actor who played Willie Cicci (transcribed "Joe Spinelli") was supposed to work for Zasa but died before the movie, so the character was written out. — Bill Simmons
Paramount approached Sly Stallone, Scorsese, Cimino and Warren Beatty over the years; in the early 80s Stallone was to write and direct with John Travolta, and there is an internet rumor that Eisner took a run at the script.
No part needs recasting, though the Cusack version would be interesting to see.
Tom Cruise in the Estevez role is floated, drawing an objection that he is too old, countered that they are the same age; Estevez is said to be as close as possible to a high school wrestler. — Wesley Morris
An actor transcribed as 'Edward James Almost' is nominated for the role of Vernon, which would make the movie go very differently. — Wesley Morris
The hosts say Ringwald was meant to play Allison but wanted Claire, and Hughes initially resisted because it was close to her Sixteen Candles role; switching would have broken her persona. — Bill Simmons
As the hosts relay Ringwald's account, Hughes wrote Sixteen Candles around her headshot, and their mentor relationship changed after she began dating Anthony Michael Hall during this film. — Bill Simmons
Estevez was originally to be Bender but switched when Hughes couldn't find an Andrew; Tom Cruise was unavailable and is called perfect for it.
Nicolas Cage was considered for Bender and is judged too much.
John Cusack was originally cast as Bender and replaced by Nelson for not being threatening enough; it would be a totally different, more sensitive film.
Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor and left over creative differences.
Bruce Dern was not the first choice; the hosts say the first choice was Bert Reynolds, who died during rehearsals. Reactions to Dern are mixed; one view is that Reynolds would have been a better touch because he was almost a Rick Dalton, while Dern was always the bad guy in westerns. — Bill Simmons
Tim Roth and James Marsden were cut from the film; Marsden played Bert Reynolds in a deleted scene and is said not to look or sound like him.
