Alan Arkin and John Goodman; Affleck's hair; movie-business in-jokes; the Intelligence Star; the 1979 Iran feel; the heightened escape day; opening credits; soundtrack; Scoot McNairy; 70s thriller vibe and ensembles
Goodman and Arkin end the category; the casting is a 15 out of 10, and once the right people are cast there is little left to do. — Chris Ryan
The six were cast without star power, chosen to resemble the real people shown in the closing credits, while the stars went to Affleck, Arkin, Goodman and the government roles. — Bill Simmons
Goodman has one of the strangest filmographies, working constantly across hits and misses, and is best in dramas where he provides comic relief. — Bill Simmons
The movie-business in-jokes, such as the WGA line, hold up. — Bill Simmons
The Intelligence Star, an award with no ceremony that must be handed back immediately, is a favorite concept and is joked about as a Ringer podcast award for 2021. — Bill Simmons
Affleck breaks out his Good Will Hunting wistful half-smile when receiving the Intelligence Star. — Bill Simmons
It is unclear where the Iran scenes were shot, but the film feels like 1979, helped by cutting in news footage. — Chris Ryan
The decision to make the escape day far more tense holds up, though think pieces say the real departure was easy. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say Affleck was upfront about taking liberties and that the bazaar confrontation and the plane chase did not happen, and Zero Dark Thirty drew more trouble by presenting itself as closer to documentary. — Chris Ryan
Movies based on a true story should be watched for the story, not history; even Spotlight changed things, and the hosts say Arkin's character is a merger of real people. — Bill Simmons
The opening credit sequence and a soundtrack of four bangers, including Dance the Night Away and When the Levee Breaks, are praised despite a song that came out too late. — Bill Simmons
Song-year accuracy matters only if a film goes all in; still, the anachronistic song made one host think it was 1982. — Bill Simmons
Scoot McDerry is incredible as the only real foil to Affleck, though the constant doubting invites a shut-up. — Chris Ryan
His career is judged worse than it should have been; he could have had a Gandolfini-style leading turn, and his name may have hurt him. — Bill Simmons
The storming of the U.S. embassy is the first nominee, an electric eight-minute scene: the dartboard with the Ayatollah picture, the Marine commander going out to reason and being grabbed, and the order not to shoot anyone or start World War III while they burn the classified material. — Bill Simmons
The opening establishes each of the six, with Tate Donovan leading but an airhead and Scoot as the locker-room guy questioning the coach; small details include a captor taking a woman's glasses. — Chris Ryan
The frantic destruction of equipment recalls a Grantland one-hour evacuation plan near the end of the ESPN era that was never executed. — Bill Simmons
Mendez shooting down every rescue plan, such as bicycles 300 miles to the Turkish border with a tire pump, is the next nominee; it is compared to Chuck Kosterman calmly rejecting pitches at Grantland, and the scene is full of that-guy actors like Titus Welliver. — Bill Simmons
Goodman listening to the plan and the "associate producer at best" exchange lead into meeting Arkin, who is basically playing Alan Arkin with lines like the one about counting the wrinkles on his dog's balls. — Bill Simmons
Arkin was nominated essentially for playing himself; once Goodman and Arkin arrive, the film gains levity, comedy and sunlit Hollywood scenes. — Bill Simmons
Mendez meeting the Canadian six ("I get people out"), Scoot's "bad cards" speech and the intense bazaar scouting trip are singled out. — Bill Simmons
Affleck drilling everyone on their cover stories before the airport is praised as hard, tough-love coaching. — Bill Simmons
The hosts relate that Led Zeppelin allowed When the Levee Breaks but required the needle to sit near the end of the album side, matching the song's real position, so the shot was redone. — Bill Simmons
The song is called perfect for the night before the escape while things fall apart back home. — Bill Simmons
The last-minute ticket scramble with Cranston and the airport checks start the last 20 minutes, called the best part of the film, up to the announcement that alcohol can be served after clearing Iranian airspace. — Bill Simmons
Scoot explaining the movie premise to the angry guard, the call to Arkin and Goodman and the takeoff are listed. — Bill Simmons
The celebration montage is a favorite and covers the whole spectrum of celebrations, from Cranston's dry crying and Scoot's handshake to Messina's premature celebration and Arkin and Goodman dancing.
Asked for a final pick, one participant chooses the presentation of all the different escape plans. — Chris Ryan
The other pick is the stretch from the airport to the celebration montage, the part that led to watching the film over and over. — Bill Simmons
A 2021 version could star an Iraq veteran in a small town, working as a short-order cook who snaps early and drifts town to town like Bruce Banner. — Bill Simmons
The two choices are Robert Duvall in James Kahn's coach role, coming off Days of Thunder, or a young Ben Affleck, big and the right age after Dazed and Confused, as Joe Kane. — Bill Simmons
Affleck is the choice for his athletic size and connective tissue to the story. — Kyle Brandt
Duvall is the choice because Khan mails in too many scenes; Kane's age matters less since people age differently. — Ryen Russillo
The segment says Ben Affleck was originally sought to play Wahlberg's character and said no, and Nick Cage signed on but backed out because of other commitments. — Bill Simmons
Cage is suggested as a good Billy or a Captain Ahab, or as the old guy at the bar. — Bill Simmons
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.
The 150-minute runtime, Twin Towers image, training premise, Affleck’s replacement teeth, weaker romance, Rockhound’s sexual behavior, and the Godzilla swipe
Criterion inclusion is jokingly treated as an objection and then defended as recognition of an important movie. — Bill Simmons
At roughly 150 minutes the film could lose about 20 minutes, despite a playful desire for even more. — Bill Simmons
A burning Twin Tower in the opening destruction now reads as eerie and sobering. — Bill Simmons
The failure to train astronauts as drillers is a premise-breaking problem that Bay never resolves, though one defense distinguishes mathematical space training from embodied drilling instinct. — Bill Simmons
Bruce Willis’s hairpiece is mostly defended, but Affleck’s $20,000 set of enlarged white teeth is a conspicuous Bay-driven transformation. — Bill Simmons
One host rejects the Affleck/Tyler love scenes, while Rockhound’s repeated interest in barely adult women is described as not surviving to 2020.
Bay’s extended opening insult aimed at the competing Godzilla film remains inexplicably petty.
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
Whether Katarina Witt belongs in the Joey Pants award or Who Won the Movie is deferred. — Chris Ryan
Sudduth's part suits a late-1990s up-and-comer, so Ben Affleck is proposed, filming before Good Will Hunting broke when he had Chasing Amy and Mallrats. — Bill Simmons
Sudduth is recalled from TV, possibly as a precinct captain on a Chicago show. — Chris Ryan
Colin Farrell would have been too early for the part but is answered 'that would have been cool'; he could maybe also have done the Sean Bean part. — Bill Simmons
The instinct would be fury at Netflix remaking it as a ten-episode show, but the next question would be who is doing it, and the right names could suck a viewer in; after fifty years a remake seems allowed, and the pitch is written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
The problem would be the movie itself: even with ten hours of material, people would wait for the movie moments and feel them diluted, the same problem as The Godfather, since nobody can disassociate from what is ingrained; someone will find a way, there is no sanctity, Harley Davidson already did it, and it would have to be updated to 2019, perhaps as two hackers.
