Three explicit Rickman choices establish the winner, with agreement that a replacement-level villain would make the film far less worthy of discussion. — Chris Ryan
A separate revised scale puts Powers Boothe at one, the Passenger 57 villain at two and the Toy Soldiers villain at three, reversing an earlier preference between Boothe and Toy Soldiers. — Bill Simmons
The villain scale initially puts the Toy Soldiers villain at one, criticizing his intimidation speech despite strong entrance, pivot and final-fight stages; a later utterance calls him two. — Bill Simmons
An alternate opinion places Jones at nine and would rank Lithgow and Hopper higher; Toy Soldiers is again called the worst while Boothe is another participant’s least favorite. — Bill Simmons
With respect to Kim Coates, Taylor Nagron is everything wanted from the award, in the best performance of his career. — Bill Simmons
He is one of the better bad guys, walking out of a burning car in a pool to keep shooting people; he is mesmerizing, and it is surprising he did not become a bigger star. — Bill Simmons
His formal-introductions scene set up the ironic, funny but scary villain later seen in Conair; Alan Rickman may have invented it, but Negron showed a lesser-known actor could do it. — Chris Ryan
Negron was a Los Angeles stand-up comic seen on Letterman and in Punchline; a modern equivalent would be Kyle Mooney. — Chris Ryan
Lines like 'Officer, there are too many bullets in this gun' push the movie to another level. — Bill Simmons
There are arguably three movies (the military-government thriller, Connery's and Cage's), but by the Judd Nelson standard Ed Harris is in a completely different movie because he takes it so seriously. — Chris Ryan
Pushback that the core three were praised all along draws the reply that Harris is liked, just in a different movie, unlike Gene Hackman's quirks in Crimson Tide.
Counterpoint: an obvious villain would make a different film; the story rests on the bluff, which Connery reads ("he's a soldier, he's not a madman"). — Mina Kimes
The core three are rated more like Westbrook, Beale and Bertons, with a Chris Bosch comparison retracted, while Harris is called amazing. — Mina Kimes
The recast is to replace Jeffrey Jones, against another host's preference for keeping him. — Bill Simmons
Alan Rickman is proposed after a Richmond/Rickman name mix-up; Hans Gruber as the principal is overqualified, which is why it could work. — Bill Simmons
A second host would also have voted for Rickman. — Sean Fennessey
Ronny Cox is proposed; he could do the funny stuff, and his 1983-1990 run playing men in charge is legendary. — Bill Simmons
Bruce Willis is accepted despite the later Pulp Fiction revival because Die Hard created the action-star track that enabled the rest of his career. — Sean Fennessey
John McTiernan is accepted by one participant, while another prefers The Hunt for Red October.
Alan Rickman is accepted for the career-making Hans Gruber debut.
The film is accepted as a plausible Apex Mountain for 1980s action movies. — Jason Concepcion
Argyle is accepted as reaching his apex here. — Jason Concepcion
Bonnie Bedelia is rejected in favor of Presumed Innocent or Heart Like a Wheel.
Bruce Willis was chosen after an extraordinary list of stars; Sam Neill was considered for Hans Gruber, while Tom Berenger and Don Johnson are the panel’s plausible McClane alternatives.
Because the source novel followed an earlier Roderick Thorp book adapted with Frank Sinatra, Sinatra reportedly held a contractual right of refusal.
Tom Berenger and Don Johnson are proposed as alternatives who could have worked, though the released film would have been less iconic.
Nick Nolte is rejected as physically and tonally wrong for the required action.
Sam Neill is reported as considered for Hans Gruber, but Alan Rickman is treated as impossible to replace after seeing the performance. — Chris Ryan
The panel wonders whether Chris Rock or a Wayans brother was considered for Argyle and asks what the final Argyle shortlist looked like; the transcript does not resolve it. — Bill Simmons
Nominees are young Eddie Murphy, James Remar as Gans, and James Horner's soundtrack crossed with San Francisco; the score is one of the all-timers, and some of it was reused in Commando three years later to one host's annoyance; Horner likes his steel drums and scored much of one host's movie childhood, including, as recalled, Alien, Aliens and Terminator.
The three-minute cue before the subway stakeout, when they wait outside the parking garage in the morning, with the clarinet, is wanted as the theme for the BS podcast, with an appeal to James Horner's estate to hand it over. — Bill Simmons
The Torchy's scene has aged phenomenally; the Police's Roxanne is a time capsule that would have been a baffling intro if the song had fallen out of popularity, but it turned out to be one of the most iconic songs of the era; a Walkman-with-microphone memory and the thought that Dexys Midnight Runners there could have gone very wrong.
The Busboys have aged really well, leaving the question of why they never made it; the final scene, when Reggie finally gets laid and comes out to find Jack waiting with the car, the exchange about the money ending with Reggie wanting only enough for a new car, and Reggie stealing Jack's lighter and getting caught, is incredibly well written; the pick is Reggie, the Eddie Murphy performance, and the other agrees on young Eddie.
A bar-band tangent: every city had its own Huey Lewis ripoff, like the Young Rumblers in Philly, and the Busboys songs all seem to be about going downtown for new shoes or being back in town, written to land a Friday residency at a place like Torchy's or Roman's rather than to write the White Album; both songs could have been Blues Brothers numbers; the country band at Torchy's was pretty good too, and young Eddie is reaffirmed.
Without stepping on the Gans section to come, James Remar is one of the great psycho-on-the-loose characters, maybe number one among realistic ones, a man a prostitute character says prefers shooting cops to sex and who has been in jail three years; competition is thin, perhaps Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege ten years later, since eighties villains were slick businessmen like Alan Rickman in Die Hard.
