Van chooses Dillon’s brief yeah and appearance during the motel scene for great shot, bringing a printed still and interpreting it as a spontaneous reaction.
Great-shot alternatives to Van’s Dillon still are wet Kelly in the foyer and Kelly emerging from the pool.
Sailing, the Jeep ride and Van Ryan arrival are scene candidates. Third Eye Blind into Why Can’t We Be Friends is a needle-drop choice; the later shift to jazz may be thematic. — Bill Simmons
The car wash and I Want What I Want cue are praised for deliberate excess, prompting a playful celebrity-attraction hall-of-fame digression.
Sailing, the Jeep ride and Van Ryan arrival are scene candidates. Third Eye Blind into Why Can’t We Be Friends is a needle-drop choice; the later shift to jazz may be thematic. — Bill Simmons
Sandra’s sexual dialogue and Teresa Russell’s exaggerated delivery are discussed as poor acting that suits the movie, with Black Widow and Whore career references.
The car wash and I Want What I Want cue are praised for deliberate excess, prompting a playful celebrity-attraction hall-of-fame digression.
Kelly telling Sandra and the police-station reaction are rewatchable for bad acting; Sandra’s self-centered response and dead-father line reveal character. A different-movie award is considered then rejected because the excess fits. — Bill Simmons
Susie’s police account and Murray’s second-day courtroom scene are candidates, with the sleazy brilliant-lawyer type admired.
Reported contractual and filming details of the motel scene are discussed alongside its unusual explicitness for the era; claims about alcohol need exact-source qualification. — Bill Simmons
The motel threesome is praised for revealing the conspiracy while serving the plot rather than merely adding sex, and is declared the leading scene.
The pool scene and Bacon’s filming reaction are runners-up; the shower reveal creates an expectation of a Dillon/Bacon relationship.
The ending and explanatory credits are candidates, but the motel threesome wins, with the pool scene second and the extended cut recommended.
The film is described as a sweaty, campy erotic thriller for the MTV generation. Mallory recalls adolescent sleepover viewing focused on its famous scenes; Van recalls wanting more sex and less courtroom material.
Watch-setting choices are solo viewing or a teenage sleepover; Van recalls his father reacting to the movie, prompting a proposed goddamn category. — Van Lathan
Van calls the film horror: repeated deaths, mistaken removal and loss of memory could be torture by a devil rather than benevolent heaven. Another voice argues the lovers’ souls remain connected; Van doubts it. — Van Lathan
A new spontaneous take casts Joe as selfishly using bodies for one game; objections note he was taken early and his hosts would die. The selection montage is compared with Final Destination as hidden horror. — Van Lathan
Keeping memories would be kinder but weaken the ending. Possible Jarrett family obligations complicate possession. A horror sequel imagines competing souls, a broken saxophone and the title Heaven Will Not Wait/Get My Body Back; Mr. Jordan as devil remains speculation.
Mr. Jordan’s aphorism is said jokingly to invent Jim Rome’s contrarian take culture. — Van Lathan
A speaker calls Christie the most attractive British woman, with Hurley the other finalist. Mirren is an alternate; Eva Green’s assumed British identity is corrected to French. Christie remains the original choice. — Chris Ryan
Two quarterback deaths or near-deaths in months are offered as a plot weakness; another speaker says that is a nitpick and corrects that Jarrett apparently survives. A Tua/Blanda possession scenario is a joke.
Christie’s hair and vibe are selected despite the speaker considering her exceptionally beautiful. — Bill Simmons
Rewatchable scenes: Tom learns he may lose his job, then meets Meredith and angrily tells his staff he was passed over. The workplace banter is praised as absurdly full of statements that would now prompt HR complaints. — Bill Simmons
The staff's impromptu feminism debate is praised, especially the female engineer who can trade jokes with the men while explaining obstacles they dismiss. Dennis Miller supplies the wisecracks. — Bill Simmons
The after-hours drink with Meredith is praised for Moore's intensity and described as exceptionally charged without nudity. The hosts debate how its appeal implicates viewers because she ignores refusal, while the former couple's familiarity complicates the scene. — Bill Simmons
Meredith invokes their sexual history, comments cruelly on Tom's wife and domestic life, and stresses that he has more to lose. The old-flame trope and personal familiarity help explain his initial participation. — Bill Simmons
The encounter is compared with Single White Female's scene of a man outwardly resisting while participating; that film is preferred in the comparison, and its subsequent self-righteous response is mocked. — Bill Simmons
Tom seeing his reflection and recognizing what he is doing is singled out as an exceptional Great Shot Gordo moment. — Bill Simmons
Meredith's furious reaction after Tom stops and her demand that he return are praised for Moore's commitment and the scene's magnetic excess. — Bill Simmons
Dennis Miller exposes Tom's situation at a double date; Tom's wife says she already knows. Her later accounting of his mistakes is praised, along with his defensive speech about power. — Bill Simmons
Tom's deposition is praised for both lawyers and its squirm-inducing questions, with his female attorney opposed by Meredith's traditional male lawyer. — Bill Simmons
Meredith's deposition unravels through the rare 1991 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay: ordering it weeks earlier undermines her account of an impromptu meeting. The hosts enjoy the wine knowledge and legal construction.
The recording exposes Meredith's account, after which she doubles down with a speech about sexual aggression and women in power. The hosts compare the shift with Sharon Stone's interrogation and praise its theatrical excess.
The hotel-room virtual-reality sequence is a favorite for its cliff, poor effects, Meredith's avatar jump scare, and her angry computer face. Its file retrieval is contrasted with modern VR games used for amusement. — Bill Simmons
Getting into a hotel room by asking staff to clean it is praised as a 1990s movie device while questioned as real-world security, with Pacific Heights as another example. — Bill Simmons
The shareholder showdown firing Meredith is called unrealistic but entertaining. The ending gives Stephanie the job, reveals the anonymous friend, and restores Tom's family and employment. — Bill Simmons
The Donald Sutherland sexual-advance dream is called the funniest scene by one participant and an aged-worst choice by another, with its close-up treated as a jump scare. — Bill Simmons
Final scene choices: Van's sexual encounter choice is acknowledged, while another participant favors the comic hotel-room VR sequence. — Bill Simmons
The Ringer ranks fifth on the list of five movies not getting greenlit in 2026. — Van Lathan
Tropic Thunder ranks fourth because the intact film is doubted as a present-day greenlight. — Van Lathan
Juwanna Mann ranks third because a man dominates the women’s league. — Van Lathan
The Birth of a Nation ranks second, specifically the 1915 film rather than the later film with the same title. — Van Lathan
Soul Man ranks first and is considered impossible to make in 2026. — Van Lathan
The film’s anti-racist conclusion is offered as a counterargument, but another speaker argues that viewers cannot get past its premise to reach that lesson.
The Crying Game is proposed as another film likely to be attacked today, particularly because its secret would be deliberately spoiled.
Fight Club is proposed as difficult to release now because preview coverage would expose its twist; the counterdiscussion focuses on lost secrecy rather than whether production itself is impossible.
The Blair Witch Project is rejected as workable under the same modern secrecy conditions. — Van Lathan
American History X is considered still makeable. — Van Lathan
Van’s explicitly introduced top-five fictional bands are, from fifth to first: Josie and the Pussycats, the Wonders, Spinal Tap, the Five Heartbeats and Stillwater; Eddie and the Cruisers is intentionally excluded from this episode’s list. — Bill Simmons
A follow-up distinguishes best fictional band from best music: the Five Heartbeats, Wonders, Eddie and the Cruisers and Stillwater are compared, with Fever Dog considered a weaker signature than On the Dark Side or That Thing You Do!. — Van Lathan
The Revolution and the Time are excluded as actual bands despite Purple Rain’s fictional framing; Sex Bob-omb is suggested as an additional candidate.
Additional fictional-band candidates include Sex Bob-omb, the EuroTrip band, Hey That’s My Bike, CB4 and Citizen Dick; the Dan Band is distinguished as real and Citizen Dick’s onscreen performance is disputed.
Van explicitly selects How Would Van Get Out of This One, inventing a defense of a motel visit as political/cultural outreach with adult college fans; the lengthy story is a comic hypothetical, not an event. — Van Lathan
The flex proposes an actual Yankees game during the stadium scene. The baseball strike may explain access, but the film could mention it; the Mets’ stadium is another option.
Van explicitly selected flex Paulie Award for Asshole of Film, Paulie winner. Discusses sequel power-of-attorney financial ruin, objection Rocky V never happened; modest defense Rocky IV his best version.
Paulie flex continued: treats sister as commodity, blames her for unmarried life, insults her, destroys Thanksgiving turkey while keeping leg and coerces date. Rocky partly complicit in coercion; exaggerated wished-for retaliation. — Chris Ryan
Paulie flex: no redeeming deep-down goodness; proposed Paulie/Panino why-character-awful naming, neighbors would tire of yelling.
Number three is described as everyone being racist and beautiful, referring to the current film in context; The Help is second and Driving Miss Daisy first. — Van Lathan
