Transcript
Jeff: I'm going to smoke a Sharpie the whole time like John Travolta was smoking his cigarette the whole time. He was freaking freaking me out with his chain smoking hands the way he was holding it.
Jeff: um
JT Spangler: He was, i was just thinking in this movie, I was like, dude, he's the coolest smoker of cigarettes since James Dean.
Jeff: I like how he kept like
JT Spangler: He was like doing the fingers.
Jeff: Yeah, he was doing the fingers. And then sometimes he would do like the whole hand. And then he would do the thing where he would like talk like this. He would like hold it like this with the cigarette pointing up, like pointing with it.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: i was like, God, this dude, he cray cray. I like it.
JT Spangler: We've talked about it before, but I think it's been a couple of years about how like you can't smoke in movies anymore cause it gets you an automatic R rating. But it was such a cool thing to do because it looks great on film and you can use it to like gesture with and you can like take a dramatic pause and like, like it's awesome. I'm not upset that people aren't smoking all the time anymore. Although having just returned from Europe, I got to tell you, people are still smoking all the time.
Jeff: Yeah, I was going to say, I don't know if you know this, but even the high schoolers that I teach are all smoking all the time. Like real cigarettes again.
JT Spangler: Yeah, but they're smoking USB. Oh, they're back on the real cigarettes.
Jeff: Oh, no, they're all doing...
JT Spangler: Jewel Americans and your thumb drive smokes.
Jeff: I'm like, dude, you're you're getting on that douche flute and getting getting down on that? And they're like, no, we don't do those vapes anymore. Those aren't good for you. We just do all natural tobacco and we roll it ourselves.
JT Spangler: Right, we're back on back on real cigarettes. It's the healthy choice.
Jeff: It's like... I'm like...
JT Spangler: I got them from the Whole Foods.
Jeff: so They have, um this kid was trying to convince me that he doesn't have any filters or any of that bad stuff. It's only the tobacco inside the papers that he's rolling himself.
JT Spangler: Right.
Jeff: i was like, cool.
JT Spangler: ah I'm not saying that that's not better, but also the tobacco is not good for you either. It turns out just bringing smoke into your lungs on purpose is not good for you.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: No matter if you picked the leaves yourself and dried them yourself.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: All those times that we went and sat at Applebee's to have ah dinner and the smoking section was right there. ah We were really doing bad stuff to our bodies.
JT Spangler: Yeah. Was Applebee's the triple dipper? That's Chili's, right?
Jeff: That's yeah, that's Chili's I think. Yeah.
JT Spangler: Dude, I fuck hard with a triple dipper. It's not any good anymore, but back in the day, it was like 11 bucks for like a huge plate of fried food with all kinds of greased on it.
Jeff: I think Chili's kind of brought it back. I think Chili, because ah Jake keeps talking about how all of his friends are talking hard about Chili's and they want Chili's again. like They're like, oh no, it's way better. i was like, okay.
JT Spangler: Are they saying, I want my baby a back, baby back, baby back.
Jeff: They don't even know what that is.
JT Spangler: and No, of course not. Movie Life Crisis Season 6, Episode 16, 1996's Broken Arrow.
Jeff: Broken arrow.
JT Spangler: This is a cool name for a movie, and it's a cool idea for a movie, and I really appreciate it.
Jeff: Yeah. Every time it's John Woo, I always give it the ah the old, woo! Because I'm super excited. It's going to be awesome. This is early John Woo, though, so this doesn't have the John Woo that I was feeling when I remembered it was John Woo.
JT Spangler: Well, I put it in my notes later, but I can just go ahead ask you right now. I don't remember why John Woo was as big a director in my mind. Because when I read his filmography and I'm like, this dude did like four movies and three of them aren't any good. Why did we think John Woo was badass back in the day?
JT Spangler: He did Mission Impossible 2, but like what?
Jeff: Okay. Yeah.
JT Spangler: And Face Off. But like, that's it.
Jeff: But here's the thing about John Woo that I liked. So even in Face Off and in the Mission Impossible movies, and even in this one a little bit, ah they had like characters facing it off with frigging weapons pointed at each other. Yeah.
Jeff: lots of explosions, uh, gunfire with choreographer, but the slow motion, this one doesn't have like the doves and the, uh, I don't know the Catholic imagery and all that stuff, but like, um, the slow motion, like shooting and watching the bullets come out and the following the bullet before it passes the guy's head. Like I love all of that. And that's the John Woo that I like. It was, he was more restrained in this one.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude, I'm not saying I don't like John Woo.
Jeff: Um,
JT Spangler: I'm saying that in the 90s and then even in the 2000s, if you'd asked me to list 10 directors, he would have probably been one of them, and he shouldn't have been because I should have named 30 other people.
JT Spangler: In my mind, I was like Michael Bay and John Woo, like neck and neck as action directors. But if you look at their filmography, they're light years apart.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: And I'm like, why did I think John Woo was such a big director?
Jeff: I don't know.
JT Spangler: He did four movies, and I didn't like two of them.
Jeff: Maybe it's because... But all four of them were in the same time frame, right? Didn't he do like...
JT Spangler: Yeah, I do i loved Face Off. I liked this one. I liked Hard Target in 93 with Van Damme.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: And Mission Impossible 2 was great, but like that was a franchise that already existed, and every one of their movies, was they made a ton of money.
Jeff: Didn't he... Wait, is he the one... What's the one with Ben Affleck? He does that one. It's after Mission Impossible, but it's like... Ben Affleck gets fired and he...
JT Spangler: What
JT Spangler: paycheck?
Jeff: Oh, is it Paycheck? Maybe that is it.
JT Spangler: 2003.
Jeff: I don't know.
JT Spangler: I don't think I ever even saw that.
Jeff: it was like a... It's like a Philip K. Dick ah storyline that they...
JT Spangler: Yeah, it's it's sci fi.
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, that one was good. that When I think of John Woo, I'm thinking of that and friggin Face Off and Mission Impossible. I like all those.
Jeff: I don't know. um Yeah, yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah, but you're missing the point. I'm not saying I don't like him. I'm saying, why did we think John Woo was such a big deal? Because his filmography does not show that he was a big deal.
Jeff: I think it's... But didn't you see Face Off in the theater? Like, that's what I'm saying. I think it's recency bias. That's why we would have said that in the 90s. I think he was just huge.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude, but who directed who directed Speed?
Jeff: Um, I know his name.
JT Spangler: Exactly.
Jeff: It's a French guy.
JT Spangler: that's that's That's a much better movie, but we we don't know the name of that guy. Why did we know John Woo's name? is I'm confused. And like, I think he had like, I think he had a bigger reputation than his like filmography would lead you to believe.
JT Spangler: Because when you look at it, you're like, ton of stuff.
Jeff: Yeah. He did a lot of stuff in Hong Kong though, before this, right?
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: But yeah, dude, Yon DeBunt is the guy who directed Speed, by the way.
Jeff: Yeah, and the Bundt.
JT Spangler: Like, I didn't know his name in the ninety s and in the 2000s. And they so they're ah about the same, like he did like five movies.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: He did Die Hard, Twister, Speed, Hunt for Red October, Lethal Weapon 3, Basic Instinct. That's it. That's a better list than John Woo.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: But i I've known John Woo since I was a teenager.
Jeff: And those are all the same time frame too. Yeah. I don't know, man.
JT Spangler: And yeah and I'm not sure why.
Jeff: That's, don't know. Maybe it's easy to say John Woo than it is to say Jan de Bundt.
JT Spangler: Sure. that That's is completely reasonable, but I, uh,
Jeff: Plus, John Woo's fun to say if you say it with the woo! Like, what's his name?
JT Spangler: yeah, absolutely.
Jeff: but what
JT Spangler: Um, keep, keep doing that.
Jeff: Baron Davis.
JT Spangler: That way no one will listen because they'll all have punctured eardrums.
JT Spangler: Anyway, dude, hit hit us with the synopsis for Broken Arrow.
Jeff: Synopsis, a rogue stealth bomber pilot steals two nukes in Utah, forcing his former co-pilot and badass park ranger to stop him before the nukes ah go off in the Southwest. He's asking for $250 million. dollars
JT Spangler: $250 million. dollars Smile, boys. We're about to retire. uh yeah 50 million dollar budget um 150 million dollar gross so pretty pretty big turnout for this movie it was the number one movie for a couple weeks after it was released in february it's number 20 on the year between the english patient and evita um if you want the rewatch podcast about those two movies i recommend anywhere else um
Jeff: Nice.
Jeff: I remember the English patient. What's Evita? Is that with an E? Evita?
JT Spangler: Yeah, isn't that the one that, didn't it have Madonna in it?
Jeff: Oh, maybe. Maybe. Now that you say that, that sounds...
JT Spangler: it's a mute It's a musical.
Jeff: Now that you say that, it reminds me of Madonna, yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah, Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and some other folks. Jonathan Pryce. It's the musical account of the life of Eva Peron.
Jeff: Nice. ah I missed that one.
JT Spangler: but Yeah, didn't didn't catch that one. I haven't fully absorbed that one. But point is, we're not doing it.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: We are doing this.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Did you find any awards?
Jeff: um Not really an award season movie. um John Travolta was nominated for best villain on the MTV mut movie awards and BMI film music award for Hans Zimmer for the score of this.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: But it's probably because of the um
Jeff: John Travolta's Deak, the Deak theme that they kept playing over and over.
JT Spangler: In the very beginning, yeah.
Jeff: Yeah, um that's but everybody. I mean, did you remember that or did you hear it and go, oh, like, oh, I remember that.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah, I did too.
JT Spangler: Well, it's funny because, first of all, John Travolta definitely should have gotten an MTV Movie nomination for Best Villain because he was hamming the shit out of it, and I really enjoyed it.
Jeff: Yeah, big, big time.
JT Spangler: No Oscar nomination. Very correct, but totally worth an MTV Movie nomination.
Jeff: Right. Yeah.
JT Spangler: And also...
Jeff: Especially for him.
JT Spangler: I was thinking, and even in my notes I wrote down, this is not my favorite work from Hans Zimmer. There's a lot of this I don't care that much about.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And then afterwards I'm reading and I was like, oh, people love this score from Hans Zimmer. It's on his like list of like, this is one of the best things he's ever done. I was like, shit.
Jeff: Yeah. well
JT Spangler: you know I think it was mainly from that theme, that Deke's theme.
Jeff: Well, that theme also gets used again in Scream.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah. for uh david arquette's pair yeah and they they were just like oh we'll use it as a filler but everybody loved it so much they just left they got the rights for it um that that theme i that's the first as soon as i heard it i was like oh snap that guitar i remember that and no no uh no
JT Spangler: Yeah. In a couple movies, yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: No sequels or spinoffs that I found. No novelizations. And do you do you remember seeing this for the first time?
Jeff: i don't I didn't see this one in the theater. I think this was probably ah maybe VHS rental, but more likely just found it on cable.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: So I think this was a coming late to the party type movie for me.
JT Spangler: Yeah, I rented this because this was the... Like, in high school, like, I guess I could drive, but i don't think I really had a car. So I was just freaking hanging out at home. And, like, Friday night, my parents would take us to Blockbuster. We'd pick out a couple movies.
JT Spangler: And, like, Striking Distance hit that one up.
Jeff: Striking distance.
JT Spangler: Dude, and just, like... people listening and probably do remember, but like, you just would be like, you'd be standing in Blockbuster and looking at the new releases and like, I've seen everything here that I'm allowed to see that my dad will let me rent.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: I'd be like, Ooh, this one's get frigging some shit blows up in that. I give me that. I'll try that one.
Jeff: Yeah. It's kind explosion on the cover.
JT Spangler: So yeah, ah that's why I've seen every Van Damme movie.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: I was like, freakin yeah, right. Jackie Chan, Hong Kong movies.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: Give me that. Let's try that. Like I got to watch something cause there's no internet and i'm bored.
Jeff: o
JT Spangler: So I for sure rented this and watched it and I liked it.
Jeff: That's,
Jeff: that is definitely a, um, a thing that our kids don't know about being bored.
JT Spangler: Yeah, I owned it on DVD once I was like old enough to purchase things. This needs to be a part of my permanent collection.
Jeff: i yeah Yeah, dude, I owned it. I still own it on DVD. i um I remember liking this a lot more than I like it now. Rewatching it.
JT Spangler: Yeah. I actually thought it was better than I thought it was going to be. I was like, it's probably going to be crappy. And I was like, that's actually pretty good.
Jeff: That's Jowoo. um So what'd you rate it if you liked it so much?
JT Spangler: Six out of 10. Give it right there.
Jeff: You loved it then.
JT Spangler: Well... well
Jeff: Yeah, no, I get it.
JT Spangler: There was things I really liked and there was things I didn't like as much, but the one thing that really liked is I thought the pacing was incredible. Like I was, I was looking at the runtime.
Jeff: Yeah, it was quick.
JT Spangler: It was like an hour, 48 minutes or whatever. It's ah, it's probably going to be kind of boring. was like, this shit never takes a break. The pacing is fantastic. And I really was into the characters and like the kind of battle between Christian Slater and John Travolta, like, and all the supporting act, like shit kept popping up.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And I was like, oh shit, he was even ready for that. Like this guy's awesome.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Um, so I got, and then I, as I'm doing my research, I'm like, oh, Graham Yost wrote this. This like, that's the guy who wrote speed.
Jeff: Speed. The bus who can't slow down.
JT Spangler: That dude fricking. Yes. What's the, what's that movie? Uh, and I was like, no wonder this guy speed is one of the fricking best paced action movies of my whole entire life.
Jeff: You can tell, though, because remember, we talked about when we did speed, how it like starts off in an elevator, then it goes to a bus, then it goes to ah a frigging subway train.
JT Spangler: Well,
JT Spangler: yeah. Yeah.
Jeff: This is the same thing. It's just one thing after another.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude, they just kept cranking it up and it was delightful.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And like, I, and dude, we just did phenomenon.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: So we just saw Travolta be this like sensitive, like sweet guy. And now he's being this fricking evil genius with his like fancy smoking and he's boxing.
Jeff: i
JT Spangler: was like, I really like John Travolta. He's hamming it up, but I like it. And I like Christian Slater.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And, um, but then there were some parts where like the direction felt really weird and, But I don't know, like, I liked the dialogue and the plot the pacing. like I've just never, this isn't a rip-off of another movie.
JT Spangler: Like, I'd never seen this before. No one in 96 that didn't work for the military even knew what the fuck Broken Arrow was, and now now we all know.
Jeff: Right.
Jeff: Broken arrow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I...
JT Spangler: So, like, it's so it's an original action movie, like Speed was. Shit, this is... But then it's just, like, the the final act took a little bit too long. I didn't love the score. Some of it was weird.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And like, at some point, everyone should not punch quite so much and just like just shoot the guy, turn off the nuke.
Jeff: Yeah. Stop swinging from places and trying to kick people outdoors and just go with it. um
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Dude, I agree. Pure 90s popcorn, fun, a super crisp ah pacing, practical set pieces. i love that.
Jeff: Um, I like the Hans Zimmer theme that guitar, every time they showed John Travolta on screen and they would play that little theme.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: i freaking love that. It looked like John Travolta was having the time of his life getting lung cancer. Um, and I think if you were like, Oh dude, uh, nineties action is my jam.
JT Spangler: Yeah. yeah.
Jeff: And that's the only thing I like. And I don't like anything other than that. You would probably give this something like an eight because it's crazy over the top action. Um, If you like John Woo, you probably give this, ah like I don't know, a five or a six. ah But that Hans Zimmer guitar theme kept coming back and I kept remembering it. So I bumped it up and I gave it to six and a half.
Jeff: um
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: again, it's probably something I'm not going to watch religiously all the time. Like, oh, let's put that in. But like, if it's something where I'm looking at for something and it pops up, I might watch it.
JT Spangler: Well, dude, I think this would be a good one where if it's like, if you're talking to somebody who's 30 and they're like, dude, I really like 90s action movies. I don't want any superheroes. I don't want any sequels or reboots. Like I want like a deep cut.
JT Spangler: What's a good deep cut action movie?
Jeff: This is it.
JT Spangler: you're like, Broken Arrow, man.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: Like, cause it's not like Speed and Mission Impossible and like Twister and Jurassic. Everybody knows about those. Like this is one like, people be like, what and what movie is that?
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: And it's not it's not a cop movie, you know what saying?
JT Spangler: And also, Yeah.
Jeff: Like Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon and all those.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: It's not those kind of action movies either.
JT Spangler: we And you said, too, I forgot to, but there's a great point. Like, the setting, like, the whole, like, American Southwest, it was freaking gorgeous.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Like, I was like, a lot of the shit, i was like this looks like green, but I know they're actually in Utah.
Jeff: Yeah, they're actually there in, except in the the train do that was in Montana.
JT Spangler: The train, which they shot in Montana.
Jeff: Did you, out dude, I pulled up the spot where it is.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: There's nothing around it by the way. um
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: And it's cool. They just kept driving the train back and forth and recording it over six.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Dude, that's, that seems cool. I want to make movies like that.
JT Spangler: Yeah, man. That's awesome.
Jeff: ah That's good stuff. Yeah.
JT Spangler: All right, man, let's do let's do best scenes. ah Top three, what's your first one?
Jeff: Um, this is in, uh, not chronological order. Uh, this is in how much I liked it. Um, the, uh, train finale was my favorite part.
Jeff: Uh, that third scene, it did take a little while to get to, uh, to get through it.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Um, but it's like an actual train speeding down the track again in Montana.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: There's a nuke, there's helicopters, there's gunfights, there's hand-to-hand combat. There's like a remote detonator, frigging huge Howie Long, Christian Slater's hanging onto the side of things.
Jeff: um ah Travolta's smoking crazy and acting all nuts and shooting stuff. I love that. And the whole time, yeah,
Jeff: I like how Travolta died by getting pinned against the the warhead when it when what when it yeah when it when it stopped and it slid forward.
JT Spangler: Yeah, shot by the nuclear missing missile.
Jeff: I like all that. So I put the train as my first one.
JT Spangler: Yeah, that was not my first one. um There was parts of it that I really liked, parts of it that I thought were super badass, but on the whole, I just thought that last chunk of the movie just took way too long.
JT Spangler: like I was like, why did why do we have to have two more helicopter explosions in a movie where we'd already had like three?
Jeff: It didn't. It didn't.
Jeff: One of them wasn't even flying.
JT Spangler: ah It seems like Yeah, it seems like we could have probably shaved that 30 minutes down to about 15 and gotten there a little quicker.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: And also it's like like of Roger Ebert, I think, was just destroyed this movie. He's like, this whole thing is just an exercise in like when the villain talks too long, where if he had shot, he would have won.
Jeff: Yeah. It would have been over.
JT Spangler: And I was like, dude, that's definitely it's definitely doing that.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: So I did not have that one, even though there were some really cool parts of it and I really liked it um a lot.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: um My first one was the Hummer chase scene. they' forget They're freaking there. if Travolta and Christian Slater are like freaking bomber pilots and Travolta's mad that he's never gotten promoted so he decides he's going to fake a crash and steal these nuclear weapons and then ransom him back to the United States and he but tries to kill Christian Slater but he doesn't and so that's the whole movie and it's like now they're chasing each other on Hummers Christian Slater's Hummer has the nuclear vessels in them ah and Travolta and freaking Howie Long are chasing them and he's Christian Slater's like
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: He's like climbing to the back and he's grabbing gas cans and he's taping them with a flare.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And then like John Travolta is like riding right back behind him and smoking a cigarette. he's like, what do you doing, Hale?
Jeff: yeah
JT Spangler: And he sees that he's like throwing a flaming thing of gas on the chop on his ah Hummer and Travolta's character.
Jeff: ah hummer Yeah.
JT Spangler: It's like just prepared for every eventuality. And his every time something happens, he's like, I was ready for that. I knew that shit was to happen. Yeah.
Jeff: I knew that already.
JT Spangler: But also Christian Slater finds a like radiology badge from St. Jude's Hospital, and he's like, oh, he's going to take him to Salt Lake City. He's going to hide it in the hospital because it won't show up on the radio on the radiation scans. And then if the government doesn't pay, he's going to nuke Salt Lake City.
JT Spangler: like That whole thing was there. like these They're trying to like cat and mouse figure it out. I don't know.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: i just like There was a lot of shit that happened in that one that I liked.
Jeff: Yeah, no.
Jeff: Yeah, my favorite, one of my favorite quotes is from that spot too. I don't, um I forgot that they were both in Hummers to start out with. So you just said that. um Yeah, I like that.
Jeff: That's a, The fact that John Travolta needs so many things to go right for his plan, but he's ready for all the other eventualities is pretty cool.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Like he needs Christian Slater to lose in the in the cockpit.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Then he has to have the bomber crash properly. He has to have the weapons land where they're supposed to go. Then he has to have the retrieval team get there first. Then he's got to have the government not locate where they are.
Jeff: Like all of those things have to...
JT Spangler: But dude, no, he like he he plants Howie Long on the retrieval team and Howie Long kills all the retrieval team and then makes a fake radio call and is like, oh, the core is open.
Jeff: right
JT Spangler: And then Travolta's like telling the money man, frigging principal, what's his name?
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And wait, Frank Whaley?
Jeff: Mr. Pritchett.
JT Spangler: No, not him. Yeah, Mr. Pritchett, Shawshank Redemption, Warden Norton.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And also ah Chief Earl in Demolition Man.
Jeff: Yeah, he is.
JT Spangler: he's He's the money man. He's telling him, he's like, now that there's an exposed core, they can't send another search and rescue team out. That's going to delay him by at least two hours. They got to call a nest team out.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: The closest one is in wherever. He's like, he's freaking planned all of it, like Lex Luthor style.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And I love that.
Jeff: Yeah. I love that he had it all planned out. um My next one was the underground nuclear explosion. um
JT Spangler: Yeah, I got that one too.
Jeff: There's like the EMP wave that goes out. ah By the way, just turning off your electronics, does that stop it from getting ruined by the EMP? Yeah. I didn't.
JT Spangler: No, it doesn't.
Jeff: Yeah, that's because he was telling like, all right, turn off all your electronics. And they just kind of waited there until it passed. And then he started up the car again and left. Not that the car needed electronics, but I'm saying like, I didn't think turning it off.
JT Spangler: Well, it had an electronic ignition, so it did...
Jeff: Oh, yeah, that's true.
JT Spangler: Well, so hold on, set it up.
Jeff: But.
JT Spangler: So like Travolta has two nuclear missiles. One of them, he's going to set off underground in an abandoned copper mine.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: And that's going to be his signal to the United States government that he's not messing around. He really will detonate one. I was, I was thinking like how much this movie was similar to the rock.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: And I wonder if they were like parallel development, like we talked about, but like he's getting chased by a helicopter and fricking, uh,
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: uh, Warden Norton is like, what if, what's about the helicopter? Did the warship factor into your plans? And Travolta freaking hits him with a mag light and kills him.
Jeff: Right in the throat.
JT Spangler: Like while he's driving the, right he's while he's driving the Hummer.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And, uh, and then he, he's like checking his watch. And and right when he gets to the exact time, it's going to explode. He stops the Hummer. He's a turn off all your electronics and the thing explodes underground, but the EMP from the nuclear blast makes the helicopter crash and everything explodes magnificently.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And it was just another, like, he planned it to perfection.
Jeff: Magnificently.
JT Spangler: It was awesome. Even though any MP will absolutely fry electronics, whether or not they are turned, ah they have to be like in a Faraday cage if you don't want them to be fried.
Jeff: Right. That's what I was wondering. Like I didn't like even his watch that would that still work?
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: That would that doesn't work afterwards. Right.
JT Spangler: I don't know if it was a, it was a digital watch, right? So he yeah, no, it probably wouldn't work.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: But I mean, dude, we'll i will get into the like nitpicking for the worst. The ah warheads on this bomber, or B-83 nuclear bombs, they weigh 2,400 pounds.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: He and Howie Long were just carrying them with one hand apiece. It's like, it's not, I mean, that's what happens when you make a movie before there's the internet. You're like, yeah, it'd be fine.
Jeff: It was, it was Howie Long though.
JT Spangler: no Yeah, I think Howie Long's probably carrying 80% of that, but that still is like 1,800 pounds with one hand.
Jeff: Right, right. um No, and so the, of course, um Christian Slater has the ah wherewithal to get the hell out of there underwater and goes, it brings him to the Colorado River.
Jeff: i don't know where he was.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Is is that the Colorado River?
JT Spangler: I think for real they were in Lake Powell, but I don't know where they were in the movie.
Jeff: Probably not.
Jeff: Yeah. um So um it's a huge explosion. It does that concentric circles and you can see the ground moving away.
JT Spangler: Yeah, shockwaves.
Jeff: um And then like you could see, you could see the ground sink after it explodes a little. I freaking love that part. And I thought the CGI looked great in that. ah So I went with that for my second one, the underground nuke.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: That was a great one, dude. That's on my list. I also really liked that they're just sitting there in the Hummer. It's like dead quiet. The helicopter's freaking crashed and is on fire. And Travolta's just like smoking a cigarette, just telling Howie Long.
JT Spangler: He's like, it's like, I never killed anybody before. Like not with my bare hands. He's like, I dropped bombs on people in Iraq. And so that's the first time I ever did it.
Jeff: Baghdad, yeah.
JT Spangler: Like, he was like, I don't see what the a big deal is. And just freaking shoves Warden, whatever his name is out into the sand. They just keep driving.
Jeff: Oh, man. That's brutal.
JT Spangler: Like, dude, this guy is so crazy. i kind of love it.
Jeff: He is definitely crazy. And you were right to say he was hamming it up because hammed it up big time.
JT Spangler: Yeah. yeah Yeah.
Jeff: Um...
JT Spangler: Dude, also, if you want to nitpick, I don't know why the money man needed to be riding in the Humvee anyway. seems like he could have been somewhere else, like in his penthouse and just like, call me when the money's there.
Jeff: Yeah. wait Waiting in the penthouse.
JT Spangler: i don't want to be there for the, like, I don't want to stand out in the freaking desert sweating while they do a military operation.
Jeff: Right.
Jeff: You know, there are people, though, that are just type A personalities that have to stand over your shoulder and make sure you're doing everything right. and Make sure you park right there. And why would you put the trash bag in the bat in the can like that? Why don't you put that part right here at the dishwasher?
Jeff: ah There are people like that. I mean, not from personal experience or anything.
JT Spangler: Yeah, man.
Jeff: I'm just saying there are people that, you know, live in my house.
JT Spangler: I've heard those rumors too. And it's great casting. Bob Gunton, the Warden, Norton.
Jeff: That's because my wife was busy.
JT Spangler: Yeah, Chief Earl. Well, it's because she was a teenager.
Jeff: Yeah. Uh,
JT Spangler: Great casting for that. What's your last scene? Yeah.
Jeff: ah my last one is, uh, just when they're in the B3, the fictional stealth bomber, um,
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: And he's smoking in the bomber, which is weird to me that they allow that. But they start fighting in the ah cockpit.
JT Spangler: Yes.
Jeff: I forgot it was that early that they do the thing.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah. So as soon as he started doing that, I was like, oh, snap, because ah Christian Slater looks out the window because he's like, hey, what's that goat doing in this cloud bank? And he points over there.
Jeff: And when he looks out the window, he sees in the reflection that he's got the gun up and he turns around and they're fighting, but they're still buckled in.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: So it's like karjitsu and they're just going after each other. i like that.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: And, you know, the the warheads end up getting dropped out. and it's It's pretty good. that That was a good, good jumping off point.
JT Spangler: I like that one, dude. I liked that his plan was to shoot him inside the cockpit of the stealth bomber. And also, like, he's it's freaking clear that he can see in the reflection that he's about to shoot him.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And then, like, for as much as he planned everything else, it seemed like that part of the plan was really slapdash.
Jeff: Just, he was just, he was just winging He was just winging it.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Oh,
JT Spangler: I liked the, I had had a couple of scenes I was considering here, but the one I ended up going with is the opening scene. The movie starts with the two of them, Deke and Hale, Travolta and Christian Slater, boxing each other.
Jeff: Oh, yeah.
JT Spangler: And like, but like not wearing fricking any headgear or mouthpiece. It's just like beating the shit out of each other. And the whole time Travolta's talking, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, uh,
JT Spangler: He's like, what happened? He's like, what happened there? And Slater's like, well, you hit me. He's like, right. He's like, no, no. He's like, I gave you left, left. He thought I was going to do another left, get you with a right. It's a misdirection. It's just what like what Ali did to Foreman and Zaire. He rope-a-doped him.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: He's like, he kept doing him this and then doing like Travolta foreshadowed the whole fucking movie with exposition while they were beating shit out of each other.
Jeff: Told him right there. Yeah.
JT Spangler: And I was just like, and then like right after that, they're freaking like, cause one of my quotes is like talking about the $20 bill. I'm like, I just, I liked that. That set them, that set up those personalities and what was going to happen in the movie perfectly.
JT Spangler: And I loved it.
Jeff: Yeah. Dude, speaking of rope-a-dope, when he starts to explain rope-a-dope to Delroy Lindo, and he's like, I know what rope-a-dope is.
JT Spangler: Delroy Lindo.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Dude, that was great. ah Yeah, dude, that beginning boxing part was was good. And I was wondering why they weren't wearing headgear and mouthpieces and maybe even the thing around their body.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: ah But then you can't talk with mouthpieces. And it was...
JT Spangler: Yeah. You can't explain the whole movie.
Jeff: Right, right. I'm surprised he wasn't smoking while they were fighting. Dude smoked like 40 cigarettes in the first 10 minutes of the movie.
JT Spangler: Dude, I also liked right after that, they were um they're in the locker room, like, you know, showering and changing. ah and ah And John Travolta's like, do you know why I beat you? And Christian Slater's like, could it be that you've been boxing for 20 years and you're better than me at it?
Jeff: who Oh, man.
JT Spangler: I like their interactions. i It was funny.
Jeff: I could tell that was a set and not a real locker room because there weren't any guys walking around with just t-shirts on and nothing on their dangly parts.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Like actual...
JT Spangler: They didn't film in it they didn't film in at the YMCA.
Jeff: God, I hate that. um Yeah, good call. Good call on the boxing.
JT Spangler: All right, let's do let's do quotes. What's your first quote?
Jeff: ah Would you mind not shooting at the thermonuclear weapons? ah
JT Spangler: That's mine.
Jeff: Yeah, dude.
JT Spangler: That's my first one.
Jeff: I love that. Yeah.
JT Spangler: That's one of the ones I always remember from this movie.
Jeff: Me too. um I thought it was hilarious back then. I thought it was funny now. And Howie Long's like shocked face is just like, huh? What? Oh, okay.
Jeff: I loved it.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And he's super calm about it. He's like, would you mind not shooting at the thermonuclear weapons?
Jeff: Yeah. And he has to tell him again, I'll remind you again. Like I said before, don't shoot at the weapons.
JT Spangler: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff: um That's awesome.
JT Spangler: That's my first one as well. And my second one is right after that opening boxing scene. And like Christian Slater's like, Hey, here's 20 bucks. You won the fight. And there's talking about, he's like, do you know why I beat you? He's like, yeah, cause you've been doing this for a long time and you're better than me. He's like, no, it's because you always let up. You had an opening and you didn't take it He's like, we're just sparring. He's like, and that's why i always kick your ass.
JT Spangler: And then Travolta is trying to give it back. He's like, look, he's like, just she's like just take the money. And Christian Slater's like, no, no, it's yours. Take it. He's like no, if you didn't try your hardest, I don't want it And he's like, no, really, it's yours. I took it out of your wallet while were in the shower.
Jeff: Yeah, that's my that was my second one. I took it out of your wallet while you were in the shower. ah Dude, that's freaking great.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: i
JT Spangler: What's your third one?
Jeff: The third one is just ah vic Victor Deakins really just hamming it up. And he's like he's like, you know, you're out of your mind. ah Slater's like, you're out of your mind. And he's like, yeah, ain't it cool?
Jeff: um Just like, i I know that was in the script and he had to say it and there's not much different ways to say that. But man, when he said that, I was just like, good God, this guy's hamming it up so much. He's got it cranked to 11.
Jeff: it's just
JT Spangler: Dude, it's so funny to me because that's my third quote. And I can't remember the last time you and I had the exact same three quotes. And I don't even know why i picked, I know why I picked two of them, but that ain't it cool. And I was like, I don't even know why I picked that one, but I can just, I can always picture him in my mind, the face he's making when he says that.
Jeff: yeah ah me too and that's why I was just when he's just like yeah ain't it cool like i dude I don't yeah that's weird that we had the same three
JT Spangler: He does such a good job of playing a completely unhinged, like megalomaniac.
Jeff: But I, and even separating this and never seeing any other Travolta, you would think, yeah, this guy's freaking cray cray.
JT Spangler: It was delightful.
Jeff: But like, I think it's also, like you said, he just played that really sensitive guy. He's the Saturday night fever guy. He's the look who's talking guy. And then you see him doing this and you're like, Whoa, this dude is crazy.
Jeff: Um,
JT Spangler: Well, we talked about it with Phenomenon. I was saying, like I think I've just maybe underrated John Travolta. like I just kind of forget about him, but like dude, I start looking at his filmography and it's like not even like Saturday Night Fever in Greece.
JT Spangler: I don't even give a shit about that, but like Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Broken Arrow, Michael Faceoff, Primary Colors, Punisher, f freaking Swordfish.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: like There's just so many Travolta movies where i'm like damn, that movie's awesome.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah, he's good. He's got a lot of, he's got a lot of, what's the cowboy movie?
JT Spangler: Look who's talking, all the look who's talking shit.
Jeff: or Urban Cowboy? Cat loves that one.
JT Spangler: Urban Cowboy.
Jeff: um Yeah, dude. i I know we talk about underrating him, but he is good. He is awesome.
JT Spangler: All right, dude, let's do let's do characters.
Jeff: Let's it.
JT Spangler: Who's your first character?
Jeff: It's John Travolta. He turned into 11, dude.
JT Spangler: Mine is also John Travolta.
Jeff: Like, I know that he, like you said, one of the biggest stars of the 70s, just brings it, comes back in Pulp Fiction. We talked about that when we did Pulp Fiction.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: I heard that they originally, i was reading something and they wanted him to be the hero guy, the the Christian Slater part.
JT Spangler: They wanted him to be Riley Hale that Christian Slater played.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. um But he chose to take the this the the other role. He chose the villain. And I think that's awesome.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: I think that's why this movie is more remembered. I think if he was the the not the villain and he was the hero, I don't think... I think it would have worked, but it wouldn't have given it the defining personality that this movie has in my brain when I'm thinking about it.
JT Spangler: Yeah. Well, I was thinking about, um when I read that, I was thinking about School Ties, which we did in 92, where it's like, Brennan Frazier is the lead, but he's just like the kind of like golden boy, and Matt Damon is the like football player, rich buddy of his who's anti-Semitic.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And it's like, Brennan Frazier is the lead, but Matt Damon's part is way more interesting, like being the bad guy.
Jeff: Right. Yeah.
JT Spangler: But like, in that movie, it's like a bad guy with depth and like really no character arc at all, because at the end, he's still like, He's like, you're going to work for me someday. And it's like, this guy learned nothing from this movie.
Jeff: Nothing. Right.
JT Spangler: um But yeah, I was like, ah no, he's learned not to shoot at the nuclear weapon.
Jeff: Did Travolta learn anything in his character arc in this movie? now no but
JT Spangler: um But yeah, this is one of those wonder its like, you could be the good And he's but the bad guy's actually way more fun. It's like, that's awesome, dude.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: Good for you.
Jeff: Yeah. Take that every time. ah So who's your second one?
JT Spangler: My second one is Christian Slater. I feel like Christian Slater didn't get enough opportunities. mean, he did a lot of stuff.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And like, you look at his, like, dude, like I always remember him from Robin Hood, Prince Thieves because I watched that movie 11 billion times when I was a kid.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah. Fuck me, he quit it. um I remembered him from that in Young Guns 2.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: I think it was 2. Young Guns 2 are the 2 that I remembered him from.
JT Spangler: Yep.
Jeff: um But dude, he was in... ah
JT Spangler: True romance.
Jeff: we We did Interview with the Vampire.
JT Spangler: Interview with a vampire.
Jeff: I think he was in that. um Pump Up the Volume I always liked when I was younger. That's an 80s movie with him doing the pirate radio station.
Jeff: um
JT Spangler: yeah Yeah, dude.
Jeff: I like him in Archer. His character he plays in Archer is good.
JT Spangler: He's great in Archer. He's great in Mr. Robot.
Jeff: Oh, yeah. Mr. Robot. Yeah. guy I gotta go back and watch that. I wonder if I finished it. um
JT Spangler: Yeah, he's in ah Very Bad Things and freaking...
Jeff: Oh, snap. Dude, let me tell you. We went and saw that at the Harahan Movie Theater. The one that's out in um Wood 20. Johnny and I.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: We saw it at the Late Show. So it's like the latest possible
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: showing. So we're getting out of there and it's like 12, both of us have to work at like nine o'clock on that Saturday the next morning. Uh, we're driving across the spillway and some guy's boat comes off of his trailer and turns sideways and stops traffic completely. So like there's a guy in an 18 wheeler that like got up and stood on his hood and looked ahead to see what it was. And that's when he told us. So we were next to him. We just locked the doors, put on the take six, uh,
Jeff: soft singing album uh and we laid down in johnny's uh red truck and fell asleep um we took a freaking power nap and the trucker woke us up when it was time to leave and it had been like four hours we sat on the spillway at night middle of the night it was horrible all because of that movie and johnny blames that movie every time he's like i can't even watch jeremy piven i hate that guy because that stupid movie we watched i was like yeah dude
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Nice.
Jeff: um That's Christian Slater's in that.
JT Spangler: Ah.
Jeff: I totally forgot. Daniel Stern's in that too.
JT Spangler: That's fantastic.
Jeff: Yeah, that's a good movie.
JT Spangler: But dude, speaking of late showings, wait Nashville has one of the only 70 millimeter IMAXs in the US, which I've known for a long time, but we got back from our vacation and Wendy's like, we should go see the im the Odyssey.
Jeff: Oh, yeah, yeah.
JT Spangler: should we We should do it in IMAX. You said we have one of the only real ones. Yeah, we do. She's like, we'll get us tickets. And I look, they're doing, it's a three hour plus movie. They're doing showings starting at 7 a.m. m ending at 3 a.m., m which means they're doing showings around the clock.
Jeff: Oh, man.
JT Spangler: and And even looking at the middle of the day, unless we want to wheel in there in a wheelchair, the only time we can get seating is like three weeks from now.
Jeff: Dude, the the dude the the thing that I keep thinking, I thought you were going to say the only seats you could get were way, way in the front.
JT Spangler: And so I'm like i'm like hey, how's 11 a.m. on Thursday and the third week of August? And she's like, that's fine. was like, okay.
Jeff: The people that are...
JT Spangler: Oh, the first two rows are wide open, but I'm like, we're not doing that.
Jeff: oh dude Have you seen the pictures that people are posting on Reddit?
JT Spangler: Yes.
Jeff: They're like, hey, make sure you check your seats.
JT Spangler: Yes, I am.
Jeff: Oh, man. A three story Tom Holland head.
JT Spangler: Oh, dude, i can go can go tonight at 7 p.m. if I want to sit in the front row. it's that If you look at all the showtimes, the first row is always available. The second row is usually available.
Jeff: Why do they even have that row?
JT Spangler: I have no idea.
Jeff: ah
JT Spangler: I mean, dude, this that shows you.
Jeff: Who could want to sit there?
JT Spangler: people are like People are flying to Nashville to see the movie in this theater, and they're not no one's booking the first two rows.
Jeff: That's crazy. I like it.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: That's awesome.
JT Spangler: But yeah, Slater is my second one.
Jeff: ah yeah um Yeah, mine too. And then for my third one, ah you know I always like to pick a girl. We always talk about that. And I liked um the the girl.
JT Spangler: Samantha Mathis.
Jeff: Yeah, Samantha Mathis.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Terry is the character's name. I liked her, but man, Delroy Lindo, he wasn't even really in the movie, but he just... um brought it i brought it home i think i'm gonna pick delroy lindo uh as my third one i had both written down yeah
JT Spangler: That was my exact struggle because I thought Samantha Mathis was really good and Delroy Lindo was freaking fantastic. And I gave it to Samantha Mathis because she's in more of the movie.
Jeff: yeah yeah
JT Spangler: But that's that is the top three build. like That's the straight chalk pick. ah But she was awesome, dude. And i I was like, I recognize her, but I can't think of... what all she's been in. And it's like, she's in Super Mario Brothers with John Leguizamo.
JT Spangler: She was did one of the voice of Fern Gully, but then it's all like little women and how to make an American quilt, like shit that I didn't really see.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah, she was in Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater.
JT Spangler: She was in Pump Up the Volume.
Jeff: I remember that. Oof.
JT Spangler: Yes, she was. And then I was reading about her and I was like, like dude, she was dating River Phoenix when he overdosed. in And she broke up with John Leguizamo, who she met in Super Mario Brothers to start dating River Phoenix.
JT Spangler: And I was like, that is a crazy, I want to read her autobiography whenever she writes it because seems like she was like real close to some very wild shit in the ninety s
Jeff: Yeah. um Dude, she's, so she was definitely recognizable when I, as soon as I saw her, was like, oh yeah, i totally remember this chick now.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: um I do. I think she did a great job. The the only reason I picked Delroy Lindo is a, it's Delroy Lindo. We just had him in, yeah, we just had him in, what you call it?
JT Spangler: He was fantastic.
Jeff: um The, uh, What the hell's the movie with, ah he was the, he was the FBI agent that was trying to tell him not to answer the phone.
Jeff: What the hell movie were we?
JT Spangler: Yeah. And and Ransom.
Jeff: Ransom. Yeah. I liked, as soon as I saw him again, i was like, Ooh, this is going to be good.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: He like, I don't know, dude. He's just always calm. um He brings um credibility to the military scenes as far as I'm concerned, even though he's just looking at big monitors and calling people and asking for stuff.
JT Spangler: And he's got a badass shaved head.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude, he's doing a lot. Like, if you look at his filmography, like, he does, like, Malcolm X in 92, and then he does two movies in 93, two in 94, three in 95, four in 96. Like, he's doing a ton of stuff.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: But, like, and he it seems like he's playing a cop a lot. Like, he's in Gone in 60 Seconds, he's the freaking cop.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And then The One, he's the federal agent. Remember that one with Jet Li's, like, multidimensional character?
Jeff: yeah ah Yeah, dude, I definitely remember that one. Yeah, yeah.
JT Spangler: But yeah, I love Delroy Lindo.
Jeff: Dude, I like... The
JT Spangler: He was great. Yes.
Jeff: Sinners movie that just came out recently, he's in that, and he freaking kills it.
JT Spangler: Yes. Yeah.
Jeff: um I just... I like Del Reyland. I went with him, even though I try to pick a chick when there's ah when there's availability.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah, man. He was badass. You can't go wrong there. All right, let's do writer, director. So the writer is Graham Yost. He's the screenwriter of Speed. This is this the first screenplay he writes and sells after Speed.
JT Spangler: So I think part of the like feelings around this movie is like this movie should have been bigger because of how big Speed was.
Jeff: Right.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: Um, and honestly, dude, it was, this movie was good. The writing I thought was really good. I would have loved to have seen this script in someone else's hands because I didn't think John Woo did all that great a job for it.
Jeff: Yeah. Um, I, I, I guess now that I'm looking at what this guy did, um like his it's always a mechanical problem to start out the movie you know like a bus that can't slow down freaking the nukes have been stolen when he does uh the next movie he does or not maybe the next one but he does hard rain with christian slater after this that's where it's like a flooded southwest town and they're gonna rob it um or uh mission to mars he does uh and that one is um
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Right.
Jeff: Oh man, I think it's Brian De Palma ends up doing that one. i I used to love that movie too. And that's just, you know, yeah.
JT Spangler: That was Brian De Palma.
Jeff: and It's like a space mission that's gone wrong. I like the idea that he has like that big problem at the very beginning and the whole rest of the time they're trying to fix it, but he just keeps stepping.
Jeff: There's always something that gets thrown in their way to slow them down.
JT Spangler: He also did The Last Castle, which I really liked.
Jeff: Last castle. Is that a Rob Redford?
JT Spangler: Remember that one where Robert Redford is the military prison?
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: He's like moving the rocks from one side to the other.
Jeff: I remember that one. It's got Hulk in it too.
JT Spangler: That one's also okay it's got James Gandolfini.
Jeff: I think
JT Spangler: It's got Mark Ruffalo. It's also got Delroy Lindo.
Jeff: Ruffalo does it. Nice.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: I do.
JT Spangler: But yeah, dude, he's, he's really good.
Jeff: i do remember that.
JT Spangler: I thought the script was outstanding other than the third act took a little bit too long and I didn't love the direction for chunks of it, but, ah but yeah, he did a great job.
Jeff: Right.
Jeff: Yeah. Also he's been, have you watched that? I don't know. Dystopian sci-fi show, the silo.
JT Spangler: I read the books that they're based on, but i haven't seen the show.
Jeff: Nice. He wrote the the thing for that. The screen.
JT Spangler: Yeah. The adaptation.
Jeff: Yeah, the adaptation. Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude. And John Woo, we've talked about a lot. He comes to America from Hong Kong in 93, does Hard Target with Van Damme. Does this, is this is his second movie. He does Face-Off in 97, Mission Impossible 2 in like 2001, something like that.
JT Spangler: I think Face-Off and MI2 are this like peak of his career.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Those are both really good. This is good. I just think this this is some stuff I wish it was a little different.
Jeff: I think he needs, um I think Chow Young Fat that he worked with in all of his, not all of his, a bunch of his Hong Kong movies.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: He liked him because he is super charismatic and, and I totally agree. But I, I think he's missing that in a lot of his movies that he's doing.
Jeff: Like, it the The reason I think face-off works is because the two guys in face-off are Travolta, super charismatic, and what's-his-nuts, friggin' Nicolas Cage, and he's super charismatic.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Nicolas Cage.
Jeff: So, like...
JT Spangler: Well, and John Woo said that he got a lot more control over the production for Face Off than he did on this movie.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And he blames, I mean, doesn't blame, but says like, that movie would have been better if I could have done what I wanted to, but the studio wouldn't let me.
Jeff: Right.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: was like his kind of thing. And like Face Off, it's like it was supposed to be a futuristic movie.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: He's like, no, it's going be set in modern times.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And like when you visually that movie, Face Off looks way better than this one, even though they are still both turning it up to 11 again.
Jeff: Yeah, no.
JT Spangler: And I think maybe even though I don't love the direction here, I think maybe I'm underrating how influential John Woo was it as a direct as ah as an action director because a lot of the like slow motion bullet action sequences, like people think it's like that kind of led to the Matrix.
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: So so that that's a pretty big like technical thing to go like, you guys could do this, pretty badass.
Jeff: yeah
JT Spangler: And everyone's like, fuck yeah, let's do that.
Jeff: Right, right.
JT Spangler: So I mean, maybe that's why he's a bigger deal than I'm thinking.
Jeff: Yeah. I got to, dude. And then ah now that I've talked about paycheck, I kind of want to go back and watch it. um Dude, i I can't even remember what the whole thing was about. I want to say like Ben Affleck worked for a company and he had to reverse engineer something.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Um, and then they were going to pay him and then Uma Thurman's in it.
JT Spangler: Yeah, and Aaron Eckhart, Paul Giamatti.
Jeff: Uh, yeah, Eckhart, that's it. Um, uh, dude, i that's, I need to go back and watch it. I know it probably didn't, it's not going to be as good as I remember.
Jeff: Uh, but I liked it and I'm going to, you should, you should check it out too.
JT Spangler: I mean, ah you can have a fun time just watching movies based on Philip K. Dick's stories because there's some incredible ones in there.
Jeff: Yeah, that guy's cray-cray.
Jeff: um You want to talk about the score?
JT Spangler: Yeah. well Yeah. Well, real quick, just cause I can do it pretty easily.
Jeff: Oh.
JT Spangler: Film adaptations of Philip K. Dick stories, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Scanner Darkly, Adjustment Bureau, Screamers, Paycheck, Impostor, Next, Man in the High Castle.
JT Spangler: It's, uh, Philip K. Dick's got some, uh, got some shit out there.
Jeff: Yeah, he's... ah He thinks outside the box for sure.
JT Spangler: Yeah. All right dude, let's do the worst. The worst I had was like some of the like technical, like actually like the nuclear weapon wastes 2,400 pounds.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: You can't pick it up with one hand. That's not how that works.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And also like stuff that like Roger Ebert says, like why would there be a display on the nuclear bomb? It's you launch it from a fighter. That makes no sense at all.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: But like so a lot of that stuff, I don't like, I know like when you see somebody like tossing a gold brick to somebody in a heist movie, you know, like that that's not how that works.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: I don't really care that much.
Jeff: Right. Now I get that.
JT Spangler: This movie suffers a lot from like villain over monologuing and also like guns have infinite ammunition.
Jeff: Boy, do they. Nobody threw a gun to the side.
JT Spangler: Like,
Jeff: i only saw like three people reload. like I didn't know what was going on.
JT Spangler: i was thinking like, how did the park ranger's pants not fall off? Because she was carrying like 200 rounds apparently in her pockets.
Jeff: Oh man, that would have made it a way better movie had her pants fallen off. um
JT Spangler: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff: The, yeah, dude, I had the same thing. Like um the whole military command room material other than Delroy Lindo, like when they were in the big room with all the ah political people, I was like, good Lord, this is not good. They can do way better than this. ah The fact that there was a romantic ending.
Jeff: I didn't like that part.
JT Spangler: ah well i did like I did like Secretary of Defense Red Foreman from that 70s show.
Jeff: ah Yeah. he was
Jeff: Oh man. How did you even get this job? um ah did Did you want them to hook up at the end? Did you want them? Like, is that, I know that I don't like that.
JT Spangler: Yeah, why not?
Jeff: I know.
JT Spangler: I mean, yeah, they're two attractive single people who've just been through a very traumatic experience together. Seems ah pretty obvious that they're going to do that.
Jeff: Oh man.
JT Spangler: and And also, they didn't like we didn't like in the movie over like a steamy like bedroom scene. They just like held hands and they're like, oh they're going to go do some stuff.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: like I like that. That's the perfect way to do it.
Jeff: They're going to go do some stuff.
JT Spangler: Yeah, she's like, maybe we'll check out your place later. like It just was like implied. It's like,
Jeff: Oh, man. They never show anything. They just pan and show the curtains for a couple of minutes and pan back. They never. Um,
JT Spangler: But also, like, she's, like, the end of the movie, they literally introduce themselves. He's like, hey, my name's Riley Hale. Like, they've they've just done the whole thing together, like, saved the world, and they're just they're just now, like, hey, I like that. I thought that a good ending.
Jeff: Yeah, I don't like the name Riley Hale also. Riley doesn't seem like a hero name.
JT Spangler: Oh, yeah?
Jeff: I'm not feeling it. I don't know why. I'm just not feeling it.
JT Spangler: That's why they're military guys.
Jeff: Sorry to all the Rileys out there.
JT Spangler: They just, they call each other by their last names, like Hale and Deakins.
Jeff: Yeah. Right. Deke.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: I had some of the worst. ah Again, we talked about the practical effects and the actual train and all that stuff. ah But there was some there was some shots that were not good.
Jeff: The part where the helicopter gets shot down or he shoots between past her between the rocks through the bottom foot glass of the helicopter and hits the guy in the head.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: yeah
Jeff: And then he lands forward and the helicopter flips over and the tail rotor is spinning and it's spinning one way but the rocks are shooting the other way um that that bothered me I didn't like that part um
JT Spangler: Well, the other helicopter that crashed during the EMP, like it went nose down and then the nose impacted the ground. And then you could see the explosion just happened at the tail.
JT Spangler: And I'm like, that's not how that, and i mean, also like shit just doesn't automatically explode if it touches the ground. We know that, but it didn't even happen when the part that exploded hit the ground.
Jeff: Hit the ground, right.
JT Spangler: It was still in midair.
Jeff: um
Jeff: Yeah, maybe now that I know that the gas line is back towards the tail behind the motor, maybe that's why, because he opens that panel on the train and cuts the gas line.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: um Yeah, but the effects with the bomber shots and a couple of those looked pretty pretty crappy.
JT Spangler: Yeah, I'm looking at the cinematographer, Peter Levy, and he um hasn't really worked on a lot of, like this is maybe one of his biggest movies.
Jeff: I didn't like that.
JT Spangler: And I was thinking like, I don't know exactly what a cinematographer does, but I feel like maybe they should have gotten a better one.
Jeff: um Let me, I'm pulling them up and seeing. Ooh, Lost in Space. That's no good. um Oh, before this in 94, he does Blown Away.
Jeff: That one was pretty good with Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones.
JT Spangler: Yeah, but that's like, it's not a big movie. Judgment Night's not a big movie.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Predator 2's not a big movie. Nightmare on M Street 5 is not a big movie. Like, he's, this guy's not done like, there's no like Diehards or Speeds or T2. Like, there's not, if this is supposed to be a big action movie and you're paying John Travolta $7 million dollars and you paid Graham Yost a bunch of money for his screenplay, like, it seems like he would have gone like, let's get a badass cinematographer
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: ah because John Woo just got off the boat from Hong Kong. Like, let's make sure somebody is on set that really knows what, how to point the camera at stuff.
Jeff: Maybe they just...
JT Spangler: But again, I'm not even entirely sure what the cinematographer does, so that might be nonsense.
Jeff: Right. Maybe um they really like the cinematography from Cutthroat Island starring Geena Davis and um Matthew Modine.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude. That Cutthroat Island, the reason why Long Kiss Goodnight didn't do well, because Cutthroat Island was the biggest bomb of the year before.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: and then And then everyone was mad about it, according to...
Jeff: $115 million dollars it costs and they made 16 million.
JT Spangler: yeah
JT Spangler: Not what you want.
Jeff: Not the right, not the right way.
JT Spangler: You're not trying to lose $90 million. dollars
Jeff: Holy crap.
JT Spangler: You'd rather not do that.
Jeff: That's bad. That's bad, bad.
JT Spangler: Yeah. All right, dude.
Jeff: Um,
JT Spangler: You got any other worsts?
Jeff: um No, I don't think so. Dude, the heavy chain smoking. Again, i know we talked about it. I don't know why that was bothering me so bad, but there was just way too much smoking.
Jeff: Oh, one last thing.
JT Spangler: I just, dude, on the smoking, the movie opens with the two of them boxing, and I know a boxing round is supposed to be three minutes, and if you've ever boxed, that feels like an unbelievably long time, and I can't imagine being like, you know what I do to stay in shape is I box, and then as soon as I take my gloves off, I fucking fire up a heater in the locker room.
Jeff: Wait, go ahead. Go ahead.
JT Spangler: Like, why would you do that? That's a horrible idea.
Jeff: It's how he stays so thin
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: i um
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: ah Yeah Something about it was was bothering me I had two more things under bed One is I didn't like how I mean I know it's the 90s But they didn't think that ah The park ranger Terry was capable of doing anything at all and But then when they really realized that She was okay Then they were fine with giving her stuff That was kind of shitty And then the last thing is, is there was a helicopter that was ah near the train um that flew really close to some people standing on the train and it chopped those people in half with their helicopter blade.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: it Would that mess up the helicopter at all? It feels like it would.
JT Spangler: It definitely, ah it definitely seems like if I'm flying a helicopter, I probably don't want to like run the propellers into people. Like it seems like that would be not good. Although I will say that helicopter did crash into a mountain right after that.
JT Spangler: And I was like, was that guy not looking at where, like the train's going into a tunnel, like where's his peripherals?
Jeff: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah. He should be looking forward. Delroy Lindo's got the gun. He should.
JT Spangler: I'm like, did he train the guy who flew Kobe Bryant places? Because he was not paying attention at all too soon.
Jeff: Oh, man. I'm putting that joke in the worst. That's terrible. but um Yeah. I just, yeah dude, I, I think, um I think you can't keep flying a helicopter if you chop somebody in half with the blades while you're flying, but it was cool.
JT Spangler: Helicopters, you know, likey pass.
JT Spangler: Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm not, and don't know how to find the answer to that.
Jeff: It
JT Spangler: Cause I don't know that anyone's ever done it, but yeah, let's do, let's do five questions.
Jeff: it was cool. um Okay. What's the first question?
JT Spangler: Is it okay for kids?
Jeff: ah Dude, I put 12. This is action. ah So it's got violence um and language, but dude, it's stylized.
Jeff: It's like ninety s popcorn fun action. It's not like graphic gore.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: So I know we just talked about a guy getting chopped in half, but it's not like...
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: they show his innards pouring out. They just, you know I'm saying? Like, it's got profanity. It's got ah violence, but it's not, it's not over the top.
JT Spangler: This one is entirely based on what your appetite is for violence. Like this is like a, this would be like ah f freaking PG movie in the U S and an R rating in Germany because they care about violence and we don't, there's no, there's no sex.
Jeff: You're right. Right.
JT Spangler: like there's some words that your 12 year olds definitely already heard, but yeah, it's just like, what's your comfort level with a lot of violence?
Jeff: All of them.
JT Spangler: Like a guy getting cut in half by a helicopter blade.
Jeff: Right.
Jeff: Right.
JT Spangler: Would this movie get made if it were pitched now? I think this would be a fucking awesome action movie to make right now.
Jeff: Yeah, dude. It would cost $200 million. dollars It'd be filled with CGI. Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah. It would be on Netflix.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Like every three minutes someone would say on screen, but I don't want you to r to take the nuclear weapons and sell them back to the United States government in order to get the money for yourself. I oppose that.
Jeff: And then I could ah enjoy the movie while I'm still looking at my phone. Um,
JT Spangler: Yeah, and you could be sitting on the toilet be like, turn it up. By the way, speaking of turn it up, i I watched this movie with the captions because this movie had one of the biggest like sound variations between the sound of people talking and the sound of shit blowing up, and a lot of shit blew up.
JT Spangler: So I was, for the first 30 minutes, dude, I was just riding the freaking remote control, volume control, like I was like i was driving a car race
Jeff: No, pass. I don't do that. i just I turn it down for the explosions and I just read the rest. i i do Yeah, I can't.
JT Spangler: So that's when I turned on the captions. And the caption, I think, must have been the actual script because almost every line was slightly different.
Jeff: I can't.
Jeff: Oh, nice.
JT Spangler: And I really enjoyed seeing how they changed the dialogue for the movie.
Jeff: That's cool.
JT Spangler: I was like, dude that's so that seems fun. that they ah They were like tweaking, especially Travolta and Christian Slater. Almost every line was different.
Jeff: that um That's weird. I wonder if somebody was just typing out the subtitles from memory. I'm just joking.
JT Spangler: I'm sure they just uploaded the script, but yeah, dude, the movie or TV show movie for sure.
Jeff: Yeah, I think it's got to be a less than two hour movie. Could it be a six hour, like I mean, a six episode, like limited series?
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Or that's too long?
JT Spangler: I don't know why you, I don't think he people make like action movies that are, it's just, it's a perfect Netflix movie.
Jeff: Yeah, it is. It is. um I did some recasting on this one.
JT Spangler: Okay.
Jeff: I had some extra time. um the All right. So for Riley Hale, which is the best hero name ever, Riley, there's two people I was thinking about.
JT Spangler: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff: One, Will turned me on to this show, Reservation Dogs, which is fantastic. There's a guy named Deferro Wunatai. that That guy would be perfect ah for this. Although i just... um was introduced to through an article, Mason Gooding, who is the son of a one Cuba Gooding Jr. think he would be kind of good at this too, looking at some of his little clips. um So either of those guys would be good. Then there's a guy that plays the um computer, plays the agents on the new Matrix, Matrix Resurrections.
Jeff: I had to look up his name.
JT Spangler: yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jeff: Yaya Abdul Mateen or something like that. he um He's a Aquaman. He's in the Aquaman movies. ah he'd He'd be really good at the bad guy because I think he could be...
Jeff: uh, kind of crazy, but calm. Like you're saying, like Travolta is just like, would you mind not like, just like being, being straight. Uh, and then for, uh, the, the girl I picked, uh, the girl from the bear, the TV show, the bear, uh, I can't put her name somewhere.
Jeff: It's a name that I didn't know. It's like ao a debris or something like that. Uh, uh, She, I think, would be the perfect girl to bring in slight comedy, but also badassness. So I put her.
Jeff: And then the and the guy for Delroy Lindo should be the guy from back the back rooms. ah Ejepor, whatever his name is.
JT Spangler: Yeah, Chiwetel, age of four.
Jeff: Chiwetel. Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: He's badass. i got I have a couple for this as well. I got for John Travolta for the lead actor. I've got Andrew Garfield because I think he could be scary and crazy.
Jeff: Nice. You can do crazy. Yeah.
JT Spangler: I think he'd have fun doing it.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: I've got for the Christian Slater part, ah gender flipped it, and i I would like Daisy Edgar Jones from Twister.
Jeff: Ooh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JT Spangler: She's really good. And I also think she's like physical enough that she could convincingly, uh, fight Andrew Garfield.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: And then for the park ranger, I gender flipped that one as well. And I've got, uh, Michael Gandolfini who, he just looks like a park ranger to me.
Jeff: Nice. I like that kid.
JT Spangler: I feel like he's could do it. Just got like the beard and I could put, he put him some cargo pants.
Jeff: please
Jeff: Nice. Maybe his pants won't fall down with his 200 rounds. um Yeah, dude, i I was trying to go um more ah not all white people.
Jeff: So I was trying to go that route.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: But like the whole thing, the whole time while I was watching it, I always try to think about, oh who would be good in this part?
JT Spangler: I appreciate that.
Jeff: Yeah.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: Who the hell is Han Solo's son? What the hell's his name? The big horse guy? He looks like a horse. What's his name? ah
JT Spangler: I have no idea talking about.
Jeff: Who's Han Solo's son? um
JT Spangler: Who's Harrison Ford's son or Han Solo's son?
Jeff: Han Solo. What's his name? And he plays Adam Driver.
JT Spangler: Adam, Adam, what's his name?
Jeff: Driver, that's it.
JT Spangler: Adam Driver.
Jeff: He would be a good... ah he i think he would be a good John Travolta. ah That's who I originally wrote down.
JT Spangler: Yeah, dude, he's freak creepy as shit.
Jeff: But I wrote, I wanted the guy from the Matrix Resurrections because I was watching clips of that the other day.
JT Spangler: Nice.
Jeff: The kid's good.
JT Spangler: Meant to it. Can you still watch this in 2026? You can. It's not streaming anywhere that I saw. You have to rent it for $399.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
JT Spangler: But dude, if you just want a 90s action movie, deep cut, this is actually, it's a really fun one.
Jeff: If you like beautiful desert um stuff, a weird score that's kind of memorable, a fast runtime, train, climax, clear premise.
JT Spangler: Yeah. Good dialogue.
Jeff: It's very straightforward.
JT Spangler: Yeah.
Jeff: I like it. Yeah.
JT Spangler: Nice.
Jeff: Six and a half.
JT Spangler: All right. Anything else?
Jeff: I don't think so. What are we doing next?
JT Spangler: Next up, Bulletproof.
Jeff: Nice. Didn't it, Lance?
JT Spangler: danielle I love how he said levais says that. All right.
Jeff: yeah
JT Spangler: Vaya con Dios.
Jeff: Bye good deals.
