Is Dom dreaming, and is the whole film his dream? Was Ariadne sent by his father-in-law to find out whether he killed Mal? How can Saito erase a murder charge with one phone call? Why does Mal have a French accent when her father is Michael Caine? Why can't Cobb see his children's faces?
The opening question is the entire movie: is Dom dreaming, what part is real, and is he dreaming at the end; the hosts decide to do theories as well.
A theory from Christopher Ryan's piece on TheRinger.com: beyond the broader idea that the whole film is Cobb's dream, Ellen Page's character was sent by his father-in-law, Michael Caine, posing as a student, to enter Cobb's subconscious and get him to admit he murdered Mal, which is why she asks questions incessantly, as an interrogator rather than only an audience surrogate.
Michael Caine having a completely different accent from his daughter is called a Christopher and Jonathan Nolan issue with no reason behind it; they should have cast a French actor.
One response is that she is still the audience surrogate; another is that Nolan keeps killing wives in movies without knowing why and may have written a character to find out; the theory is called poppycock and more interesting than the movie, but the film was consciously designed to let such theories propagate.
The ending is recounted: Cobb returns home, spins his totem, hears his children, goes to them, and the camera stays on the wobbling totem before cutting to credits; this made one host angry and still does, because it does not matter should never be the message of a movie, and the better ending would follow Cobb to his kids without ever showing the totem wobble.
A totally different read, noted as a rare disagreement between the two: it is not only okay but the point if the takeaway is that it does not matter, since a reality so unclear or painful that your existence becomes about combating or warping it is compelling; the Harry Potter line in which Dumbledore tells Harry that something happening inside his head does not mean it is not real is cited as the coolest idea in stories, mentioned with an apology to Sean, who is said not to like Harry Potter.
The defender of the angry view says it is specifically the wobble that bothers them, a filmmaker's aha like retweeting someone with boom written on top; the reply is that it is a heavy-handed but effective prompt asking what reality is, and that the hosts all talking about it, like The Sopranos ending, is why it is rewatchable and regenerative.
Asked if they like the ending, one host respects it as a good troll that keeps people talking, with Nolan refusing to come down either way, and so does not really like it but has to respect the hustle.
A material question: Saito, played by Ken Watanabe, hires Cobb to make Fisher break up his company and promises to clear his murder charge; after the job he makes one call before landing and customs welcomes Cobb back, which the hosts find absurd, with a side complaint that customs does not look like that and the familiar point that he could have flown the kids to France.
The film never clarifies whether Mal's mother believes Cobb killed her daughter, though she begrudgingly puts the kids on the phone and seems disgruntled with him.
Polled directly, two voices think Dom is dreaming at the end; another says it does not matter.
Whether Dom is dreaming does not matter to this host. — Sean Fennessey
That different viewers can process the film differently is called a good thing: you can take it as an adventure story where the plan worked and Cobb went home, even though Saito's phone-call power implies he could have beaten his rival on his own, or believe Cobb is forever lost in limbo by choice or by going too deep.
The meta reading is enjoyed: Nolan making a movie about a man who looks like Nolan and gets so lost in his own stories that he cannot see his kids or tell what is real; pure creation is a quote from the film, and devoting your life to movies is likened to choosing to stop living in reality, unless you are a documentarian.
Raised during unintentional comedy: nobody understands why Cobb cannot see his kids' faces; it is called movie bullshit that exists only to set up the final reveal, within a broader argument that movies are nonsense you appreciate more by accepting them on their face.
A charitable explanation nobody fully believes: viewers must accept a difference between a projection like Mal, a piece of Cobb's subconscious trying to tear him down, and a memory; the children not turning is the last real moment of his former life, when he fled before they could look at him, replayed on a loop to torture himself, so they behave freely because they are not fragments of his mind.
The rebuttal is a joke that the explanation is acceptable only if in real life Mal looks like Artie Lang (as transcribed) rather than Marion Cotillard.
Betty Gabriel chosen for discovery and showing psychological premise through one face.
Jordan Peel chosen in explicitly addressed reply for leap to highly anticipated filmmaker; another says same answer. — Sean Fennessey
America chosen with sustained audience-impact rationale: movie could have failed commercially, but audience support and mutual respect create confidence for filmmakers and studios. — Wesley Morris
Jordan Peel chosen in directly addressed final reply while other answers appreciated; earlier anonymous same-answer response may be a reaffirmation. — Bill Simmons
What actress plays Sean's wife in a flashback? How long did Will stay with Skylar, and what became of Will, Chucky, Casey Affleck's and Cole Hauser's characters? Why have Damon and Affleck not made another movie together, and why was Affleck not in Ocean's Eleven? Is this the best Boston movie of all time?
The block opens with the remake-as-series question, recorded separately.
If there were a flashback with Robin Williams and his wife, what actress plays her: Deborah Winger (as transcribed) is offered; she has to look like a lifelong Boston lady; Amy Ryan from The Wire, Bonnie Bedelia, not Boston-y enough, and jokes of Conan O'Brien and Mark Wahlberg.
How long did Will stay with Skylar, presuming he makes it to Stanford and finds her, which as a genius on early internet message boards he would: a semester, or three or four good weeks before it falls apart when they get drunk and she says you told me you didn't love me; Lambeau would have to be Will's reference since nobody else knows about him.
What happens to these people: Will becomes an asshole hedge fund manager and Chucky becomes Matt Patricia, Sharpie in his hat, crunching tape for Belichick; or Will shows up, she is happy, they go to a Stanford party where a kid makes fun of his accent, Will beats the shit out of him and goes to jail, she bails him out and within three weeks they have broken up; twisted further, it becomes a prison movie, a shot caller situation where he joins a gang and, being a genius, figures out how to break out, Good Will Hunting 2 in jail in Palo Alto.
Or he obviously becomes a tech billionaire, a Steve Jobs-ian figure in late-90s Northern California with a doctor wife-to-be and a difficult childhood; or he becomes Sean, a therapist, which one host refuses; or they realize it will not last, he goes back to Boston, Sean has died of a heart attack and he works construction, that friend; or 15 years later stories of his crimes and anger come out; or Chucky fulfills his promise to kill him and it becomes Face Off across Boston, Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Will.
What if Good Will Hunting 2 had been The Town, with Damon's life having failed; whether Affleck tried to convince Damon to take the Renner part is debated, and whether Damon can play that kind of crazy at all, since Talented Mr. Ripley was reactionary crazy, with the hosts directly challenging his acting.
Why have these two not made another movie together: they went separate ways professionally, have a Showtime show coming that is basically a Wire for Boston, and the Fritz Peterson Yankees wife-swap movie fell through; Affleck has proven a great director and there is a great writer in Damon who should try again instead of The Great Wall; a theory that Affleck does not want to because Damon does not look cool anymore, or is mad he was cut out of Ocean's Eleven; whether Ben would have improved those movies in Casey's place or as the Andy Garcia role, though he needed to be older.
Zach Mack (as transcribed) is asked which of the five sequels he liked most, picking Chris's; the prison pitch and Hunting Will are recalled, plus Will Hunting with a shotgun and a beard in 2018; if Skyler tells him to get lost in Palo Alto, does he spin out, become a custodian at Stanford waiting for her, which is creepy, or go Zuckerberg and create Facebook, you'll see, Erica Albright.
The biggest criticism of the movie has been that it's not your fault is treated like a cure for abuse the film takes pains to establish, a guy putting cigarettes out on him, so that he hops in a car knowing how to love; if he is cured he is wealthy and with Skylar, if it moved too fast they break up after three weeks and he becomes a shot caller, still damaged and violent.
Chucky now is 42 and leading or assistant foreman of his uncle's construction crew; Southie is much nicer and his crap house is worth five times as much, so he stayed or sold; maybe he took over the bar with Cole; Cole Hauser owns an auto shop and got murdered by an IRA customer, or was the muscle in a different Boston crew; Casey Affleck moved to LA to see Will, stayed, became a comedian and lives in the pool house; Will's friends came out within a year and it went badly.
Asked how badly the visit went: Cole killed the guy, and they buried the body. — Shea Serrano
The alternative is that the guys get arrested by TSA getting off the plane at LAX, too tanked, and are put on a jail plane back to Boston without seeing Will.
Last question, probably answerable: is this the best Boston movie of all time; The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one host's favorite; another does not really care about Boston, having been three times without knowing Cambridge from Boston, and would rather watch The Departed; the qualifications for a city's signature movie are that it is awesome, uses the city, is authentic and could only have taken place there, like Rocky and Creed for Philly; the final three are The Departed, Good Will Hunting and The Verdict, with The Town fourth.
Friends of Eddie Coyle is liked here too, with a sense one is being forgotten; the first hour of Social Network is a really good Boston movie. — Chris Ryan
The Departed did not shoot much in Boston and Good Will Hunting shot a lot in Toronto, like Den of Thieves, set across LA but shot in Atlanta; the answer given is The Verdict, which uses the city best and has the authenticity, with Good Will Hunting very close, a 1A and 1B.
Earlier, the film is called possibly the best Boston movie ever, on the short list, a discussion saved for later.
The NSA courting a felon; cuttable scenes; Chucky and Cole Hauser would have beaten up Ponytail Guy before Will spoke; nobody in the MIT class could solve either equation; Chucky's earlier pick-ups when Will was simply out; Chucky enabling Will's fights while wishing he would leave; the Danny Elfman score; Sean as a fake Red Sox fan; Chucky bringing the coffee out of the car
The NSA soliloquy is a favorite scene, great filmmaking that flashes back into Sean's office and is delivered phenomenally, but why would the NSA bend over backwards to convince a felon arrested 15 times in two years to break codes; it is a vestige of the original script, incredibly illogical, feels like a different movie, and should have been pivoted to a private weapons firm.
There are three scenes you could cut and have the same movie, even the Chucky job-interview scene as comic relief; the biggest nitpick is that Chucky and Cole Hauser would immediately beat the shit out of Ponytail Guy, Damon has no dialogue in that scene, and in real life the guy ends with a broken jaw and a concussion; nobody in the MIT class could figure out either equation though these are the best people we have, with Lambeau asking Jack, was it you, Ganesh.
Were there other times Chucky came by for Will and he was not home, thought this was it, and he was just sleeping at somebody's house or getting coffee; this time he looks in and there is no furniture; it is also strange that Chucky enables all of Will's bad behavior while secretly wishing he would leave Boston with his lottery-ticket mind, so why drive around Southie getting into random gang fights with him.
The Elliot Smith music is good but the Danny Elfman score sucks and happens in a completely different movie. Pee-wee's Big Adventure is the comparison, the Castle Rock movie, all crane shots down on the campus and very 90s; Sean is a fake Red Sox fan who did not care about the team; and when Affleck arrives to collect Damon he brings the coffee to him instead of leaving it in the car, which is not happening.
Earlier nits during the scene discussion: nobody who loves the Red Sox gives up a Game Six ticket, the Fever Pitch comparison, and Affleck and Cole Hauser throwing down with Ponytail Guy before Will ever gets involved.
The Public Garden bench is now a Robin Williams memorial; a gay sex scene was written into the script to test whether anyone read it; Williams insisted on the L Street bar and ad-libbed the wife story and 'Son of a bitch, he stole my line'; Sean was based on Damon's mother and Affleck's father; Gus Van Sant painted the painting in Sean's office; Skylar was based on Damon's Harvard ex; Damon and Minnie Driver dated through the shoot and the Oscars; Terrence Malick suggested the ending
The Boston Public Garden park bench where 3,000 people watched the scene is now a memorial to Robin Williams, after people put flowers there when he died; one host lived for ten years a six-minute walk from Bunker Hill Community College, where Sean taught.
For a while the screenplay contained a gay sex scene between Will and Sean in his office, written to see if anybody was actually reading the script during the year Castle Rock would not buy it and they feared it had become poison; nobody noticed until Harvey Weinstein, who told them to get rid of it.
Robin Williams insisted on the L Street bar after being mobbed scouting it and loving the energy, though his scene was not filmed there; he ad-libbed the story about his wife farting, which is why Matt Damon laughed so hard, and son of a bitch, he stole my line, which was supposed to be him reading the note and nodding; Williams was a genius with a complicated reputation because of bad movies.
Robin Williams's character was based on a mix of Damon's mom and Affleck's dad; Gus Van Sant painted the painting in Sean's office; Skyler is based on Damon's ex-girlfriend from Harvard; Damon and Minnie Driver dated from halfway through the movie through the Oscars and had a bad breakup two months later, he apparently dumping her; the hosts decline to discuss the two adjudicating each other on Twitter.
One host's wife called Minnie Driver bad, the reason the movie has not aged as well, and did not believe the relationship; the hosts disagree and think she is really good, though she rightfully did not become the huge star people expected; another host's wife came in for the middle and said the two have no chemistry even after hearing they dated a year in real life.
The hosts feel they are in love at that table; on a very small sample size women may see no chemistry where men do; the knick-knack store googly glasses moment, the Magic 8 ball scene with her NBA jokes, the organic chemistry scene and the piano speech all argue they are in love or amazing performers; she has not been in many movies, unlike a Gwyneth Paltrow with a 20-year history that would color it; one host claims she won the Oscar for this (she was in fact nominated), as evidence people felt that way at the time.
One more research bit: in the original script Will and Skylar leave town together; through a friend of the Affleck family Ben and Matt met Terrence Malick, who had read it and said Will should chase her, she is gone and he has to go find her, so Malick is the reason for the ending, one of many lucky notes and ad-libs that pushed the movie up levels.
Why did Rob Reiner, William Goldman and Terrence Malick want to help two unfamous guys when people struggle in Hollywood for 25 years, and this is the only movie Harvey Weinstein did not chop up as he saw fit; they had some success already, unlike Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, though Vaughn was in Rudy as Jamie O'Hara; the only guess is that people sensed they were headed somewhere and wanted to be thanked.
Castle Rock wanted to replace Matt and Ben with Leo and Brad, and Mel Gibson producing and directing would have been weird.
Nobody else seems to have been seriously considered for Sean until the tail end; there is an argument that Williams is more replaceable than Damon and Affleck, yet the movie is completely different with Jeff Bridges or Dustin Hoffman, and nobody else gets the community college bit about Freud doing cocaine, which must have been freestyled from his 70s stand-up.
After Gibson dropped out, Michael Mann wanted to direct, making the two slightly different, as car thieves; he also wanted to replace Matt Damon, which is why it went no further; the hosts joke about James Caan or a Hemsworth and tell Mann to buy the rights and remake it.
Earlier context: at Castle Rock the roles were at one point meant for Brad Pitt and Leo in a twice-as-long script whose second half had Chucky and Will on the run from the CIA; Mel Gibson was attached and developing it after Braveheart, and the writers asked him to let them have it back because they needed to make it faster.
The host could not narrow the categories to five or six because this is not just a great movie but the quintessential cable movie, on some channel for 20 years and constantly tested by people coming in partway; the nominees are the slow-motion playground fight, the battle with Ponytail Guy, the I Will End You scene, the park bench monologue, Pudge Fisk, the twelve-minute stretch from Will laying into Lambo through the baseball glove and the shepherd scene, the Chucky construction best-part-of-my-day scene, It's Not Your Fault, and Chucky realizing Will left.
The Red Sox story, the Pudge Fisk story, is the scene you stay for when you come in with five minutes: funny coming from a Philly fan, relatable, with a twist you know is coming; Damon cracking up and getting genuinely locked in shows the connection being made without talking about therapy, the physical acting Robin Williams does is great, and the filmmaking cuts in the game footage and the overhead shot of him reenacting the scene. — Chris Ryan
In the overhead shot the furniture is set up like the bases; the filmmakers were not sure they would get the baseball footage, having licensed nothing at that point, and Harvey Weinstein had to make it happen, because the scene would not work as well without the baseball.
The issue with the scene is that nobody who loves the Red Sox gives up a Game Six ticket at Fenway after only two World Series in 28 years, in 67 and 46, however much he likes the girl; it is the same problem as Fever Pitch, where Jimmy Fallon gives up fourth-row tickets for Drew Barrymore; this host would have been the friend saying there is no way you skip this game, and concludes Sean was an artsy-fartsy smart guy whose friends were like Jerry Lambeau and not real Red Sox fans, which the others call a take and a half and compare to a limousine liberal quoting Leo from The Departed.
The ponytail scene with Clark sets the movie in motion and is the only nominee that gives a bit of what makes every character great: Ben Affleck charming and funny without being threatening, Minnie Driver making her little comment to Clark that makes Matt Damon smile, Damon flexing for the first real time how much smarter he is, not wanting to do it and being forced into it to save his friend, and the quick Casey Affleck shot, boy, he's wicked smart; there is no way to skip past that scene. — Shea Serrano
The nitpick with the Clark scene is that Affleck and Cole Hauser would throw down with Ponytail Guy immediately, before it ever gets to the Will Hunting part, since these are guys who randomly drive by a playground and fight five guys; the hosts also ask why it matters that Casey is bouncing at a bar in Cambridge, concluding the Southie guys wanted to try a new bar, mix it up and make fun of people, and that it is a totally realistic Boston scene of people drifting from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Why a local group from Southie would want a Harvard bar: a different type of girl than they are used to, and they cut the line because the bouncer lets them in; yet inside it is not populated and is basically a sports bar with Papa Shot (as transcribed) and Bud Light, though Harvard Square had popular holes in the wall like Charlie's; one host recalls the townies-versus-college-kids separation in Huntsville, Texas, and those guys looking for conflict is the point, with Cole Hauser punching that guy in the face immediately.
An honorable mention is the Retainer scene, Ben Affleck flexing in front of the three guys; this was way more Ben Affleck's movie than remembered, so funny, charming and weird that it is a shame he is not this actor all the time; the scene responded to most is the fight, though it is so short it may not draw you in on cable, and it is the weirdest thing ever, since why are they fighting these guys. — Sean Fennessey
Will fights the guy because he got picked on in kindergarten; Will Hunting should be in prison for life, and when the judge, who is not Vonnegut but an actor who was a member of Whitey Bulger's Winter Hill gang, reads the rap sheet of assault, grand theft auto, larceny and mayhem, this guy clearly cannot be let out to clean hallways; a Gus Van Sant fight scene is not something that crosses your mind, and Casey Affleck's face as he falls to the punch is phenomenal.
One host's single favorite is the Chucky construction scene, when Chucky gets mad at Will for still being there and says before he knows it he will be 50 and still doing this: a Massachusetts thing of living and dying in your parents' house, with Chucky the perfect character whose friends are the most important thing to him, down to the casual mention of still watching Patriots games, nuances William Goldman never could have written; Affleck had been ready to do that scene for years and nailed it in the first take, doing two more takes but the first was used.
The construction speech is mostly shot over Affleck's shoulder going in on Damon across the hood of the car, not the usual framing for a memorable scene, so you expect Damon to have a big rebuttal and he does not; the clip is played, from 'it'd be an insult to us if you're still here in 20 years' through the best part of my day being the ten seconds hoping Will will not be there.
Part of the rewatch pleasure is the 20 years of history with Damon and Affleck, who are both obviously stars in this movie, like an NBA team with two future superstars; the script started with Damon at Harvard, based on his relationship with a woman named Skyler, before he brought it to Ben, and the movie forecasts the tension of what happens when one of them makes it and the other does not.
The last eight or nine minutes are as rewatchable as any movie's ending: Will saying goodbye to Sean, Sean and Lambeau getting a beer, Chucky going to pick him up and finding him gone, and the credits rolling over the car with Elliot Smith; the hosts cannot place the highway, which feels like the Mass Pike but was probably outside Toronto.
The field is framed as basically Downey, Fincher and Gyllenhaal, though Sean's case for Ruffalo is called pretty convincing; a hedge is offered as suitable for a film that gives no easy answer, and artistically Fincher is expected to be remembered for this as his most interesting film to date.
The case for Downey: he comes into the film and leaves two-thirds of the way through with perhaps one last glimpse, gets no hero moment or coda where filmmakers less concerned with ambiguity would have given him one, goes from liking a tipple or two to being taken over by it, and still has the majority of the quoted lines; the award is given to Downey.
A dissent is less mesmerized by the Downey performance and goes with Ruffalo, pointing to how the case degraded the people involved, Avery a hotshot at the top and clutching an oxygen tank by the end, and to the scene where Graysmith reintroduces himself to Inspector Toski (as transcribed) after they met at the movie premiere and gets, after a beat, 'I'm sure it was magical', a very dry, unimpressed cop moment.
Ruffalo never has the 50-home-run seasons of a Downey and never goes for it, which is the hallmark of what makes him mesmerizing and rewards rewatching; Downey's shtick has to some degree aged badly when seen through the filter of Tony Stark, The Judge and Due Date, though there is more gravity and weight here, so recency bias may make it harder for some to slide into the performance.
Fincher is also named as the winner, for the level of scholarship and depth of understanding of the world on display: despite scenes feeling samey, the narrative geography always locates you relative to the paper; his films are read as wars between filmmaker and actor, less successful when the actors gave up, and it is fascinating to watch him do battle with Affleck in Gone Girl or Eisenberg in Social Network, with Downey and Eisenberg seeming born for these films; Gyllenhaal is paraphrased as saying Downey has fifty ideas in a scene where most actors have five, so take 88 has a new idea just like take three, the 'Jesus Christ on crutches' line was probably improvised, and without Downey the film would be a little flat.
A joke names Kevin Feige as one more big winner for getting to see two-sevenths of the Avengers on screen together, so the film invents modern television, the MCU and, thanks to Chloe Sevigny, Bloodline.
Sean explicitly chooses When Would I Have Died and answers essentially every early scene; another answer is the tunnel. Kate’s bulletproof-vest injuries prompt a Dörfler’s Door reference and speculative recovery discussion.
Sean explicitly selects a stealth-homage flex: Ourumov shooting his own disobedient soldier recalls The Wild Bunch. Later invented homages are jokes, not findings. — Chris Ryan
