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Jack Reacher vs Robert McCall — Corkscrews & Helicopters
25 Plays20 days ago
The season finale is HERE.
Two modern legends enter. Only one advances to the APEX 8.
This week, Jack Reacher faces Robert McCall — aka The Equalizer — in one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make. Both guys have arguments worthy of advancing. So we went deep: weaponized environments, one-vs-many massacres, disarms, deductive reasoning, “Sherlock Swolmes,” corkscrews, and the tiny tactical details that decide elite matchups.
Plus:
👀 Two very special guests from the Reacher and Equalizer worlds weigh in on the fight
🎵 A listener reacts to Chris’ original Run the Gauntlet score
😳 The crew nearly breaks their brains trying to pick a winner
One survives. One moves on.
Let’s settle it.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Tournament
00:00:07
Speaker
This is the fictional fighting championship podcast, the ultimate battleground where Hollywood's deadliest warriors collide. We're a taking 48 of the most ruthless, skilled, and battle-hardened fighters from movies and TV and throwing them into a no-holds-barred tournament to see who survives.
00:00:26
Speaker
You've seen the movies, you know the legends. Now it's time to settle the score.
00:00:41
Speaker
That's the median nerve that I'm compressing. On a scale from one to ten, that's a two.
00:00:53
Speaker
That's a You don't want me to go to four. I go to four, you're shit on yourself. they don't want that. I don't want that. They don't want that.
Hosts Introduction and Podcast Concept
00:01:04
Speaker
I'm Jordan Guerrero. I'm Christian Doherty. And I'm Steve Sadler. And this is a podcast about the greatest fictional tournament in the history of the universe. And that is not an exaggeration.
Season Finale Discussion and Expectations
00:01:16
Speaker
Oh, guys, this is the last episode of season two. Finaleville. And we've got the fireworks to go along with it. I don't even want to think about one of these guys leaving. I'll be honest with you. But yeah probably within the next 45 or 50 minutes, one of these guys is going home and I'm going to be very sad.
00:01:36
Speaker
And a bunch of fans are going to be disappointed. Ugh, this is going to be controversial. Yeah, we have, they these have some passionate fans, both of these characters. You know what? Let's stop messing around. Chris, tell us who we have, just so everybody knows what we're dealing with here.
Final Match Setup: McCall vs. Reacher
00:01:50
Speaker
For the finale this week, we have the cold-blooded corrector, Robert McCall, versus the right hand of retribution, Jack Reacher. McCall beat the raging Cajun, Chance Boudreaux,
00:02:05
Speaker
And then Reacher had a tough time defeating Sarah Connor. That's all I'll say. Yeah, yeah. We'll talk a little bit more, but that was a great matchup. Yeah, we should save our commentary because that will be part of our ah tail the tape character breakdown. So we'll talk about that just for a few minutes.
00:02:22
Speaker
I want to say something here before we get started too far. We do have some housekeeping to take care of here. I have a few, I don't know, let's call it new business. I want to take care of before we really get rolling here.
00:02:34
Speaker
We had a listener comment from one of our apex listeners. Her name's Joanna. And she made a comment on Chris's new run the gauntlet song that he wrote, sang, recorded and produced all by himself without our knowledge and put that in there. And Joanna noticed and she did have a comment for you. do you want to hear it? oh that's amazing. What'd she say?
00:02:59
Speaker
She said that song was like nine 11 for my ears.
00:03:04
Speaker
I don't know what that means, but that can't be good. that's Oh my God. Wow. That's pretty funny though. Brutal. You got love the dark humor there.
00:03:15
Speaker
Then it had the exact intended... reaction that I was hoping for. Okay. I also have to say, speaking of Robert McCall, we posted a ah little hot take clip, as I call it, on social media. And our John Creasy didn't die, he became Robert McCall theory, really blew up on social media. We had, ah it was by far our top post ever. We literally got over 120 new followers just based on that clip alone. And so I love the theory myself.
00:03:45
Speaker
And I'm happy that it resonated with some of some new fans. So I'm hope I'm hoping that I'm speaking right now directly to 120 brand new followers to this episode here.
00:03:57
Speaker
Did you come up with that theory on your own? I did. Yeah. No, I did. I absolutely did. No way. think you found that on Reddit. That's incredible. You should be a, you should be a screenwriter. I 100% came up with that. In fact, remember one of our first episodes, I said that the man with no name, because they said all three of those were the same character.
00:04:17
Speaker
Sure. And then I suggested his character from Unforgiven 25 years later was the same character as an older man. But we didn't I didn't really develop that one like this.
00:04:29
Speaker
if you're enjoying what you're hearing, we've got a quick favor to ask. Hit follow on Spotify or Apple and drop us a five-star review. It really helps us out. And if you're loving the show, probably already follow us on Instagram. So send our page to a friend who's in action movies just as much as you are. Hell, even send it to the CHP officer who pulled you over for going 75 miles an hour on the freeway last week. I got to say, that's a normal freeway speed. I'm still mad about it, but I hope we now have you as a listener.
00:04:56
Speaker
Peace to relax.
Character Analysis: Robert McCall
00:05:03
Speaker
All right, let's go to the tail the tape, and we'll start with Robert McCall. He debuted in 2014 in The Equalizer, portrayed by Denzel Washington. His fight stats, he's about 5'10", about $1.90, and when we first met him, he was in his mid to late 50s.
00:05:19
Speaker
His home turf, he was fighting out of Boston, Massachusetts. And his signature move, that's a tough one. This time I wrote down the takeaway. Killing a bunch of dudes within 15 seconds and timing it.
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, the stopwatch. Unforgettable. And a vibe check for McCall. Cool, calm, and calculated. That's good. He's like the neighborhood unk who's got a weird backstory.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, he's a bit like Robin Hood. He's not taking money from the rich. He's taking lives from the corrupt. Work on that metaphor a little bit. I think you can mold it. He's taking souls from the corrupt.
00:05:56
Speaker
Okay, that's good. He's the fucking Reaper. And the kill count. Jordan won this one ah in the previous episode, but he has about 54 confirmed kills. and Jordan has about 54 confirmed kills against me in the kill count this season. Yeah, that's that's for real. Hey, we've been teasing this a little bit on social media as well. We have a really special episode here today because we were able to get something really awesome. I don't know how much I should build this up here, but I'm going to play a clip and I'll let our mystery caller introduce himself.
00:06:28
Speaker
Hi, my name is Alex Vidoff and I played Tevye in Equalizer. The day in my household known is Vino Day, AKA Corkscrew. By the way, I beat Denzel and I stand by that story. So the question came up, it was posed to me, if McCall would meet Jack Reacher, who would win?
00:06:46
Speaker
I think we're gonna have to move Jack a little down the line in terms of age range. So if we bring Jack and McCall I would say and in the early 60s, I'm pretty sure McCall would take him.
00:06:58
Speaker
Granted, he needs about 15 to 16 seconds. Maybe shorter than that. But everything is meticulous, and it's obviously, he's shown at work multiple times. At least three. That would be including sequels. Anyway, cheers and ciao, my friend. And I hope you like red wine. i Don't forget to pop that corkscrew.
00:07:16
Speaker
Nice. That is so, so awesome. Big applause. Yeah. Alex Vidov played Tevi in the Equalizer. And as you figured out, he had one of the most incredible deaths in FFC history. Not only did he get the corkscrew up under the chin, but he stood there teetering for a few seconds. It seemed like forever before he finally collapsed. What an incredible death. I mean, probably my favorite death. And I was so happy that Alex agreed to do this. He was pretty into it. And quite frankly, just a really cool guy. So yeah, really pumped up about this. and And thank you, Alex, for joining and sending in that clip.
00:07:52
Speaker
Gotta love that. You gotta love seeing actors invested in their characters and invested in this type of discourse or discussion around action movies. I'm going to think about that next time I'm popping open a bottle of Barolo. Yeah.
00:08:07
Speaker
i'm going to look at that cork and see his neck. He brings up a really good point as well, which I think is a very simple metric that we compare our fighters is age, weight, and height.
00:08:18
Speaker
It's a very simple way to compare fighters, but it, I think, holds a lot of weight. No pun intended. But, you know, they put that up on the screen for UFC fights for a reason. And... I think it could be a real factor here. In Alex's example, he makes Reacher and McCall the same age, but in this setting for us in this discussion, they're not the same age. And I think that could be obviously in Jack Reacher's favor.
00:08:42
Speaker
Good point. This isn't the battle of the geriatrics. This is taking everyone at their prime as they are. And we're going to have to see. know that. That's right. Good. Okay.
00:08:57
Speaker
Let's switch over to the tale of the tape for Jack
Character Analysis: Jack Reacher
00:09:00
Speaker
Reacher. He debuted in 2022 in season one of Reacher, portrayed by Alan Richson. His fight stats, he's a monster.
00:09:08
Speaker
He's about 6'5", as heavy as about 250 pounds. And in season one, he's 37 years old. That's very consistent with the novels as well. His home turf.
00:09:18
Speaker
Well, he's a self-described drifter, so he really is from parts unknown. His signature move, my God, so many headbutts. Headbutts and bitch slaps. Oh my God. What about a vibe check? You know, I had doubt written down here that he's kind of a dick sometimes, but I think he's not really a dick. He's more of an instigator.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, but it makes for good comedy, I think. I think so too. He is kind of a dick though. All right, come He's a little pretentious. I mean, I call him Sherlock Swolmes, right? Like he's an absolute swolled up mammoth of a man. Should have used that in the intro. That's a great one.
00:09:55
Speaker
It can be a little insufferable. If you can get in someone's head before you fight them, I think that really gives you a up. And I'll tell you what, this is surprising. His kill count across three seasons is higher than Robert McCall.
00:10:10
Speaker
Approximately 74 kills, which is a pretty massive number. Damn. I got another surprise for you here, and I'll let him introduce himself as well. hi you doing everyone? It's Luke Billick here, AKA Calvin Franz, or as I like to say, it's equally Franz, because it always just rolled off my tongue better. But here we are talking about a competition between Jack Reacher and the Equalizer. Now, me personally, going to say it's no debate because I've physically seen what Reacher can do to people, okay? But for real, Reacher's nine foot nine, Okay, I'm not sure how tall the equalizer is. He's not 9'9". But he's so tall.
00:10:50
Speaker
Going back to season one, he ripped the man's hand in half. I feel like all of the fancy tricks don't mean nothing when you go to punch someone and he then grabs your hand and he directly rips it in half. Sorry, it's going to be Reacher for me.
00:11:05
Speaker
Good luck choosing. It's Reacher. That was Luke Billick. He played Franz, or as he says, Franz, in season two of Reacher. And what a great character because he is the crucial character for season two. He's the the entire reason for season two and the reason that Reacher got his team back together. And speaking of Alex Vidov's death or or Tevi's death in Equalizer...
00:11:30
Speaker
Franz also had an incredibly memorable death by being dropped out of a helicopter after being tortured. So again, super cool guy. I'm pumped up that we got two really awesome characters and really cool dudes to jump in here and talk about Reacher
Actors' Perspectives on the Matchup
00:11:46
Speaker
versus McCall. And I'm not surprised that they each picked the character that they're most familiar with. So thank you, Luke, for that.
00:11:53
Speaker
Very, very cool. He and he makes a very strong point. Ripping a man's hand in half just speaks for itself. yeah I don't blame him. He's batting for the home team here, but anyone can win in today's tournament.
00:12:12
Speaker
All right, guys, let's run up to the character breakdowns. Starting again with Robert McCall. McCall defeated Chance Boudreaux from hard target. And now this was not an easy opponent by any stretch because Chance has that decorated military background that we've seen do pretty well in in these matchups so far. So how did McCall defeat Boudreaux? In your minds, what moved him along?
00:12:33
Speaker
All right, look, his name was Boudreaux, but he never had a chance. And I stick by that. He's a great action character. He's a great hero. But there's no one like McCall. McCall, you know, if we're putting the podium up on there, who is he similar to?
00:12:48
Speaker
He's probably the most similar to Jason Bourne. Like these are the elite level. We're talking about an A level and then going up against an S tier and you just can't compete. No one is watching hard target and being like, oh yeah, everyone in this room is absolutely fucked and this guy's unarmed. It's just a different level.
00:13:04
Speaker
The skill set, they're not the same. Yeah, I think we got a little hung up on Boudreaux's intensity and how McCall might handle that. So i think Boudreaux put up a good fight, but all in all, Boudreaux was overall just more of a sloppy fighter, not as fine-tuned as McCall. Obviously, McCall just has all his ducks in a row at every moment. He's always ready to go. he is just sort of an unstoppable force. You can't really get around his perfection.
00:13:33
Speaker
I think sloppy is a word that we used before. And I think that's, that goes along with chaotic, sometimes even careless. He's a Kung Fu, Indiana Jones. That's a good one. Yes, I agree. And I think we all agreed that McCall would have a real hard time in a hand-to-hand fight. But I think we all also agreed that there is zero chance that McCall would ever let that happen. He's way too smart and way too calculating to play by someone else's rules. And for me, that was probably the biggest factor.
00:14:02
Speaker
Were we firing blanks with this pick? No. Absolutely not. Can we just put these two guys through to like the apex nine? We'll have nine instead. Yeah. Well, according to ah Mr. Dover from Scottsdale, Arizona, we should maybe move them both on and get rid of the accountant because he still has a hard time with the accountant.
00:14:24
Speaker
guy doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't know shit. It's just unfortunate that they ended up facing each other. This, you know, this happens in tournaments. I know. I know. It's going to happen even more, man.
00:14:35
Speaker
All right. Why don't we get down to the brass tacks here? Who's ready to run the gauntlet for Robert McCall? Run the gauntlet. Run the gauntlet. I just saw we lost one listener. it Literally, I just saw it click backwards. It was Joanna for sure.
00:14:52
Speaker
andnna I'm going to take singing lessons. That would be nice of you. All right, what are we on? All numero uno. Hell in a Cell.
Who Would Win: McCall vs. Reacher?
00:14:59
Speaker
Out of 10, how many times could Robert McCall take Jack Reacher? Okay. Yeah, again, getting right into it, right into it. Love it. Let's do it. This is a really tough one. um Not at all like Jack Reacher's Hell in a Cell against Sarah Connor, where 10 of 10 times we decided that he would beat her to a pulp. Definitely...
00:15:18
Speaker
Not that high of a chance for Jack Reacher. He does have the height, weight, age advantage. And I really see this as a fight where someone of McCall's caliber coming out of retirement to beat down on the young blood newcomer, like, you know, a Jake Paul or something.
00:15:37
Speaker
This hand to hand would be insane. i would say to McCall not to let Reacher get hold of him and take him down wrestling style. think if it goes to the ground, Reacher has this one. But if McCall can use all of the, you know, close quarters combat and hand to hand that he has to deflect anything that Reacher brings to him, it's going to be a close one. I'm going to give this one to Reacher just because of his size and strength. Six out of 10 times. Six out of 10.
00:16:03
Speaker
You know, i you guys know I followed MMA very closely for a number of years. And you learn two things. One, size doesn't always tell the story. It happens all the time. Smaller, more skilled fighters beat bigger, stronger guys regularly. Think of BJ Penn over Matt Hughes. Think of Frankie ed Edgar beating Gray Maynard. These are all kind of in my era, right? Daniel Cormier knocking out dudes much, much bigger than him. It happens. i Love these references. Yeah, thank you. But the second thing that I've always learned that goes right along with this is when both fighters are elite, size does tend to matter. Yeah.
00:16:38
Speaker
That's the problem for McCall is that Reacher is also skilled. He's not just some big O he's a skilled hand to hand fighter. I have Reacher. The size is just too much. I say seven out of 10 times.
00:16:50
Speaker
Wow. I think both of you are generous. I'm giving this one to McCall. Zero out of ten. Oh boy. Hear me out. McCall, you see the way he takes people down. He takes them down with a corkscrew. He takes them down with a teapot. He takes them down with XYZ. He reminds me of like Vin Diesel Chronicles of Riddick. You know, in the second movie where he's in prison and he's telling those cronies, I'm going to kill you with my teacup.
00:17:13
Speaker
That is the vibe that he brings to this is he will take an inanimate object and he will kill everyone in the room with it. But just put him up barehanded up against this Hulk of a man. Not seeing it happen even once.
00:17:25
Speaker
Wow. Hot take, hot take. Robert McCall is probably in the entire tournament. 48. Where do you think he ranks? Just give me a round number. Where does he rank handto- hand to hand? Top eight. Chris? Yeah, tough I was just going to say top eight. or two I was thinking eight or ten. And he's 0-2.
00:17:40
Speaker
He lost to Boudreaux. And in ah in a fair fight, Jordan thinks he'd get his ass kicked. Unbelievable. I don't know if I disagree. Yeah, me neither. I mean, you might have swayed me there a little bit. Yeah, Steve, you're talking about how, you know, when they're both elite, size does matter.
00:17:56
Speaker
To the same point, we're looking at this. There's a reason that there are weight classes in fighting because they are four weight classes apart from each other. You see someone taking down the bigger guy within their weight class, maybe one weight class up. you You never see something like that, though, yeah where they're going four weight classes up and dropping them. I don't see it for a second.
00:18:14
Speaker
That would be a good one. Compare the fighter to someone in the UFC. Yeah. Well, Reacher is definitely Lesnar. I was going to say he reminds me of Drakus Duplessis. Oh, okay. Yeah. Hey, how about casting couch 2.0?
Tag Team Partner Suggestions for McCall
00:18:27
Speaker
Could Denzel Washington play Jack Reacher? Okay. Well, and hey, while you're answering this, let me throw this out. If you have an opinion in 2026, who could play Robert McCall?
00:18:40
Speaker
Yep, yep. This is a tough one. I was thinking Michael B. Jordan would be a good one for McCall, but it would be like prequel. That was my good take. It'd be a prequel to how did McCall become McCall. Part of the allure of watching The Equalizer is he's kind of like the old neighborhood grandpa that just takes care of everybody and just a really nice guy that you want to talk to, but he's a badass deep down. But ah for Reacher, you know, I don't think Richen barely got the role and he's 6'3", Jack. Like, I just don't see Denzel in that role. Not for Reacher.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, first of all, Denzel could play anyone. He could play anybody, right? Because he's a great actor. But remember that Tom Cruise controversy? For that reason, i have to say, no, he can't play Jack Reacher.
00:19:25
Speaker
All right. Here's a question. Who should he have killed? Who did he not kill that he definitely should have? he killed everyone kills everyone me too he does anyone standing all right all right how about this give me an ideal tag team partner for robert mccall man i love this one i've got one i'm going with maximus from gladiator both these guys are elite just of course in different eras and different arenas but what makes this team dangerous is that is just kind of everything beyond the physical parts Maximus, think about him. He's a general, unrivaled leadership, battlefield experience and chaos. McCall, on the other hand, he brings the intellect. He brings the calculated reason. They're both super skilled. I'm going to call them my 80s WWF team name. I'm going to call them Empire and Execution.
00:20:15
Speaker
Great name. Yeah, I love that. they They both have very similar vibes. I think they're good together. Chris, who do you have? For me, I got to go with Django Freeman from Django Unchained. Is he still in the tournament?
00:20:28
Speaker
Next season, yeah. and Okay, cool. He's in, yeah. So part of the reason I love Django Unchained, the film, is um that he has an older teacher in Christoph Waltz. And ah you know Christoph Waltz takes him under his wing, ah teaches him everything he knows about killing.
00:20:48
Speaker
And it's just a really great duo. And they really play off each other well. I could totally see Robert McCall you know playing the same role as Christoph Waltz and taking Django under his wing. And I think they would have really great banter. I think that's pretty good because you have McCall, who's kind of the tactician and he's been through all the wars already. And then you got Django, who maybe it has just the intensity that he needs to become Robert McCall at some point, but he's um more unpolished. So that's where that's where McCall would come in. I think that's pretty solid.
00:21:19
Speaker
Also Jamie Foxx and Denzel Washington, kind of an unstoppable force right Oh my God. Yeah, that's great. 100%. All right. Here's who I've got. I've got Jason fucking Bourne.
00:21:30
Speaker
I think that they are incredibly close in their skillset, in their background. McCall is like, we were talking last time, Brian Mills is like an older Jason Bourne, but Robert McCall is like if Brian Mills never lost in his edge. He's still as fast, still as deadly. I don't have a team name for them, but I've got a great slogan.
00:21:49
Speaker
We're like Uber for wet work.
00:21:52
Speaker
I'm going to start working wet work into my everyday vocabulary. You're going get a call from HR. yeah If I refer to jujitsu as wet work, is that weird? I mean, you really like it. Only if you shard on the mat. Okay. Hey, you don't want roll with Chris as wet work.
00:22:10
Speaker
I do sweat a lot, actually. I'm a very sweaty dude. I apologize to all my rolling partners. All right. I love that category. That's a great category. One of my favorites. um Should we switch to the character breakdown for Jack Reacher?
00:22:32
Speaker
We know that Reacher beat Sarah Connor. And I'll tell you what, it was close. And I just want to mention this to you guys. Not only was it two to one from us and we're who matters, but I ran a poll on social media and the voting was equally as close. It was 53% Reacher, 47% Connor.
00:22:49
Speaker
I had to run a second poll because the first one was dead even. I'm not kidding. It was 50-50. So I ran a second one, and i when I replayed it, added them together, it came out 53% to 47%. So this thing was unbelievably close. Jesus. Why do you guys think... Steve, your sort of cap on the on the whole episode, I think you you were the last to give your verdict. Oh, yeah. really put the nail in the coffin for me. And it personally definitely swayed me more toward Reacher in that you described his ability to think three steps ahead, um analyze situations. So you made me realize he's more than just a big brute and that he has the skills to you put himself in in situations that allow him to come out on top and you know kill his aggressor or his hunter. And um I think that was the the turning point.
00:23:40
Speaker
Cool. I think I think you got it right. He has the brains and the brawn. You see the brawn, but he has just as much brains to back to back that up. I think that if he were in the Terminator world, I don't know.
00:23:51
Speaker
Kyle Reese might still be alive. Very possibly. little dig on Sarah That's a good one. Yeah, for me, the biggest factor was, you know, kind of what Jordan said on that episode, which is Reacher is a Sherlock Holmes type. And I think that's exactly right. Sarah, you know, she's elite at survival, but I think her entire game relies on kind of setting the terms and Reacher just isn't going to let that happen. But I just think he shuts that down before it gets going. That's how I think Reacher kind of took a very narrow victory for me.
00:24:22
Speaker
And were we firing blanks on that? Yeah, some people thought so for sure. Like I said, 47% of our listeners thought that we messed that up. Like with any you know UFC matchup or any fight, there's there's always an underdog and you're always going to have people rooting for the underdog. And Sarah Connor is a really likable character. You can see why people would would want her to win.
Analyzing Weaknesses of McCall and Reacher
00:24:44
Speaker
Totally. Totally.
00:24:45
Speaker
You're mute. Apologies, had to go run to do some wet work. All right, guys, you know what time it is. oh my God, we're still going with this thing? Let's run the gauntlet 2.0. This one goes out to Joanna.
00:25:01
Speaker
All right, we already did Hell in a Cell. Let's skip right to the casting couch. Could Alan Richson play McCall? Fair question. Not a fucking chance. Not even close. He is so obvious. I know. I just want to say that. was just about to say that. He sticks out like a fucking sore thumb.
00:25:18
Speaker
Like a sore thumb. It's not even close because here's the thing. The Equalizer, his whole deal, every movie, all these scenes, everyone underestimates him. You walk into the room and you say, who is this? Who is this old dude right here? Reacher, it's like, what the fuck am I dealing with before he even opens his mouth? And then he says something witty and kind of dickish and you want to fight him anyway. So no, he has none of the Robert McCullough lore.
00:25:43
Speaker
I will say though, between the two of them, they do tend to kind of say what they're going to do. And then follow it up. So there is a little part of Reacher that is similar to McCall, but i agree.
00:25:55
Speaker
ah yeah ah Yeah, Jordan, great point. I mean, i'm I'm sitting here trying to figure out ways and I'm like, yeah, okay, I'm being really open to, you know, Richen could play McCall. Sure. Yeah, it's too late. We already know Denzel is McCall, so it's going to be ruined for me. So, okay, he's not going to be able to do it.
00:26:12
Speaker
He's a lot more jacked than who I'm about to call out, but I could see him becoming, you know, a grizzled old handsome man, not too dissimilar from Clint Eastwood. So I could see him becoming someone like Clint Eastwood. That would be really cool. um it It would be so odd. It'd be like an episode of Rick and Morty alternate reality television where you watch it and the television is just completely backwards. And you're like, what the fuck am I watching? This is how TV works in this reality.
00:26:41
Speaker
Not even a chance. Who should he have killed? There's probably a lot throughout the, what are we what are we at? Four seasons? Well, it's going to have a fourth season, so we have three seasons.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah, I felt like he killed everyone, just like McCall. Did he? Yeah. There were a few sort of low-grade jabronis that he sort of just slapped around or like, shoved their head through a car window. Yeah. um Could we say, should he have killed those guys? Do they deserve to be killed?
00:27:08
Speaker
Might You know what? Fuck it. yeah Yeah. Just do it. Might as well. Okay. Yeah. That or if not killed, who who should he have brought the beat down to? Like, let's talk like season one, those kids who are trying to pick a fight with him in the parking lot. Like they don't realize he is...
00:27:23
Speaker
300 fucking pounds of muscle. Right. And he beats up like five of them and leaves the sixth one. Totally fine. Like, yeah, you got to drive in the hospital. It's like, all right, but like, come on, give him a kidney punch or something. Like there's still being douchebags. All they need is one finger so they could call an ambulance. They didn't have to drive to the hospital.
00:27:41
Speaker
I don't have a better one than that. Ideal tag team partner for Reacher. I mean, you've got your classic sort just jacked WWE wrestler. Yeah, this is perfect to have an 80s style WWF tag team to get somebody with Reacher. I think there's probably a bunch of good examples, but you guys got anybody good? I think I've got a pretty good one.
00:28:01
Speaker
I have sort of a out of left field one for you. The old trope in films where you have a villain and it's, you know some wrinkly disheveled old scientist and he has a henchman that is just absolutely massive, just an absolute monster.
00:28:18
Speaker
And it's always like, you know, them as the final boss fight, you can't, you can never get to the old disheveled guy. You got to get through the yeah the Frankenstein. For me, pairing Reacher with Hannibal,
00:28:29
Speaker
kind of meets this sort of a thing that I'm describing. Okay. And you know i could see hannibal I could see Hannibal sort of lingering in the background being like, get him, Reacher, go get him. And sending sending Reacher to do his bidding. That's not bad.
00:28:43
Speaker
It's like a master toady dynamic. Yes. I went the absolute opposite direction of that. I went total stereotypical 80s WWF tag team. I got John Matrix from Commando.
00:28:56
Speaker
And, you know, again, WWF, there's no way that an 80s Vince McMahon could resist putting Jack Reacher with another one of these massive beasts. And I'm going to give him a totally 80s tag team name, too. I'm going call him Body Count.
00:29:11
Speaker
Nice. That's badass. I'm looking at them like they're both out of retirement, vengeance based killers. I'm pairing him up with John Wick. Oh my God. And here's what I'm calling them is the funky, fresh boogeymen. We got funky, fresh floors meets the boogeyman. They've got that same vibe. These are the funky, fresh boogeymen. Who are we talking about?
00:29:33
Speaker
i Are using a McCall reference with the funky floor? really confused, Steve. Give me a second. ah All right, they can both be the boogeyman. It's John Mike. You know, my opinion is so important here. All right, I like it anyway.
00:29:54
Speaker
All right, guys. So here's what we're going to do. We got to switch gears here. We got figure out a winner because this thing has been keeping me up at night. Two absolute monsters with very few weaknesses, if any. Now, I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. Once you get to a certain elite level of competitors, not only do you have to look at their strengths, you got to look sometimes at even tiny, tiny, small dents in their armor and just see if there's something that we would hold against them. So I'm starting a new segment called two questions.
00:30:24
Speaker
Good chance that this is the only time that it ever runs. The answer could be one word. It could just be yes ah yes or no. So i'm going to ask you this and see if either of these questions means that we should be concerned in any way. And if we penalize them in any way, first question, does Jack Reacher relying on his team in season two hurt at all?
00:30:47
Speaker
his apex one man army type vibe. Do we penalize him for that? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. I've done this in my head when I'm trying to come up with a decision. These types of things really factor in for me. I brought actually did bring it up in ah the Sarah Connor episode that she relies too heavily on yeah um the T-800 in the second film. So yeah, a hundred percent for me, him going up against someone like Robert McCall, who's just a one man wrecking crew, you know, McCall wins that one. Yeah. Okay. Okay, good. That's why I'm asking these. I think that's great. And I like your process too.
00:31:21
Speaker
So question number two, has McCall ever faced anyone the size and strength of Reacher? And is ah is that a negative? No and no. Okay. he's He's never faced anyone that size and you don't think it matters.
00:31:35
Speaker
He's never faced anyone. And with his fighting and takedown style, I don't think it matters. I'll come to that. I'm thinking to one particular moment in the third film.
00:31:46
Speaker
um He takes out one of the Italian henchmen with a wine bottle. I actually wanted to bring this up because i feel like this is the first film i have ever seen where a guy uses a bottle a glass bottle to smash over someone's head and the glass doesn't smash.
00:32:01
Speaker
It was amazing to me because I was like, yes, they finally got it right. Because if you do that to someone, the the wine bottle is not breaking. Their head is breaking. So that was really cool to see. But anyway, that that henchman was big. It's the one that follows around the smaller Italian guy. there but So, so McCall for someone like Reacher's size, he's going to have to use the element of surprise. yep All right, good. I'm glad we did that.
00:32:25
Speaker
One scene in particular that I wanted to come back to for Reacher is when he fights poorly. the Big dude. The big, big dude. Big dude. Anyway, Reacher's trying to use the element of surprise against this big brute that's even bigger, surprisingly, than Reacher, if that is even possible. And Reacher jumps the guy and tries to strangle him from out of the truck and fails miserably. When I saw that scene, I just thought to myself, McCall would never make that kind of mistake. Okay.
00:32:52
Speaker
Why didn't Reacher use a knife and just slit his throat? Why didn't he just shoot him in the back of the head? Big mistake from Reacher. Like I said, don't see McCall making that type of mistake. That's a great point. Let's talk about some awesome scenes that point toward the strengths of these guys. Because again, we got to weigh out the strengths and weaknesses. What comes to mind for you guys?
00:33:10
Speaker
I also want to bring up like if they were to swap universes, how would they do in each other's universe? Because they're both action movies, but I think they are fundamentally different universes. Let me give you my take here. So in each other's universes, they would both be arch nemesis. They are both arch baddie level people. But in the Reacher universe, what you're seeing is corruption and cover-up with intelligent enemies and him, Sherlock Holmes, his way to a solution. McCall feels like a fundamentally different universe.
00:33:41
Speaker
It's less intelligent and it's more organized crime, assassin henchmen with violence as the rule. McCall has the more violent universe here with organized crime and Reacher is the more corruption and cover-up one where he has to do investigation. And so I guess what I'm asking myself is, If Reacher didn't rely so much on his investigation skills and he had to go down to beating people up in a violent world, how would he do? At the same time, how would McCall do if he had to suddenly be a Sherlock Holmes? Yeah, that kind of brings up the question, you know, is Reacher the one who's able to track down McCall or is McCall going to Reacher's home turf? Reacher is, i think, much more aggressive. He's arrogant. That could be his downfall. Whereas McCall is much more calm,
00:34:28
Speaker
um and I think could really get into Reach's head. Oh, that's great point. Yeah, you know, there's a scene in that quiet Italian restaurant, and I think it perfectly captures what makes McCall so uniquely dangerous in this thing. You've got three of the bad guys, right? They walk in, they approach him, and then the main one, whose name is Marco, by the way, and he quietly kind of made a run at being the number two Marco villain that we've seen so far in the tournament, right behind Marco from Trapoya in Taken. Yeah. I want to know how many times you've said Marco from Trapoya in this season. We need t-shirts with that. What's funny is Brian Mills is already out of the tournament, but Marco from Trapoya keeps popping back up. We're to have a henchman tournament. That's right. Yeah. No, that'd be awesome. Alex. Alex. Yeah, we'll get Tevi and his corkscrew. Tevi in it. Yeah. But no, anyway, McCall, when Marco approaches him, right? He's completely calm. It's like he's still eating his meal. He's wiping with his face, with his napkin. You know, there's no tension. There's no panic. He's just in complete control. And then he does what McCall always does. He gives the guy a chance. He tells him basically, you know, hey, you know what? We don't have to do this here. And he kind of gives him an off ramp.
00:35:37
Speaker
And that's the moment because Marco laughs in his face right there. And you can see a shift in McCall. Look at his face. Look at his eyes. It's very subtle, but you can see it. He didn't make a decision to attack this guy. That guy made McCall's decision for him. And that's the switch. He gave you the opportunity. You didn't take it.
00:35:57
Speaker
Now it's about to get clinical for with McCall. He asked to see his watch. And then he puts him in that painful hold. It wasn't rage. And that makes this guy really terrifying for me. It's that he waits until you force him to to flip that switch. And that's what is going to be a real pain in the ass for everybody that McCall meets.
00:36:16
Speaker
Especially someone like Reacher. Totally. He's going to be the instigator. um I love that you brought that scene up because he has ah an amazing one-liner right before he destroys Marco. He says, i believe everything in life is about timing. Unfortunately for you, yours isn't very good.
00:36:31
Speaker
That's such a good quote. I'm just letting everybody know it's 11 o'clock Eastern time right now. And guess what? After we're done recording, I'm going to go watch equalizers one, two, and three.
Scene Analysis: McCall vs. Reacher
00:36:42
Speaker
Steve's calling in sick to work tomorrow.
00:36:45
Speaker
Why is he watching Equalizer 1, 2, and 3? Because if you go on Spike TV, they are always playing It's Equalizer TV, man. I pay 30 bucks a month for... Only interrupted by Gladiator and Little House in the Prairie. Goddammit, Jordan. Told you not to mention that I watched that.
00:37:04
Speaker
ah Let's switch the subject here. What are you thinking? Is there a crucial scene for for either or both of these guys that that come to mind? I think a couple that at least show their brutality.
00:37:15
Speaker
Reacher with the syringe of air to painfully kill someone with an embolism. And McCall in opener of the third movie, the revolver punch through the face and shooting the other guy. Like these two, when you push them into a corner, they're,
00:37:29
Speaker
They are rats who will chew their own arm off to get out. And they they are brutal and violent and they can be efficient. But when they need to send a message or really hit a message home, they will be cruel.
00:37:41
Speaker
And I think that's important to consider. Cruel is a perfect word. I'm surprised by the amount of the the kill count for Reacher in a TV series. um Usually TV series um tend to be a little more tame and you see it throughout the series that there is a pretty dark side to Reacher. Like he doesn't give a fuck. When it comes time to kill someone, he he does it and doesn't hesitate. Same with Equalizer. I think by the third film, especially the third film, is very dark and much more gruesome. So to think these guys are facing off, it's it's such a hard decision. And they they have so many similar qualities, even though they're also very different.
00:38:20
Speaker
I'm glad you brought that up about having similar qualities because I noticed a lot of similarities in the movies, the characters, the scenes, everything about it. And remember, I told you just told you about that scene from the Italian restaurant with Equalizer and Marco and McCall. I brought that scene up for a reason. And it's because Reacher actually gives us kind of a mirror image in season three. You remember he's sitting across from this punk named KJ.
00:38:46
Speaker
Kind of one of these douchey, looks like a fucking finance frat bro. don't know if he's the mayor's punk son, but you know who I'm talking about. Visually, this scene is almost identical.
00:38:57
Speaker
There's two foes sitting next to each other in a restaurant, or in this case, a diner, and they're kind of sizing sizing each other up here. it's It's what I call the heat scene, where you have De Niro... and Pacino sitting across from each other, two adversaries. And it was kind of a buildup when the movie Heat came out. Just like McCall, Reacher starts out calm. He's kind of circling the moment. He's dropping vague, ominous lines to this KJ dude. But here's where the like the scenes differ and where they flip. KJ thinks it's his turn to talk after Reacher pauses.
00:39:28
Speaker
And then he immediately takes it somewhere where he shouldn't. He starts in on Roscoe, who's kind of the love interest, right? And he calls her a cock tease. And in less than a second, Reacher just bitch slaps him right across the face with an open hand, no buildup or anything. just He just snaps into violence.
00:39:45
Speaker
On the surface, that scene could look just like the McCall scene, but they're actually, i think, opposites. McCall gives Marco an out. I think Marco could have walked out of there, no problem.
00:39:56
Speaker
If violence occurs, like I said before, it's because Marco chose the violence, not McCall. But Reacher, if you watch that scene again, he's baiting KJ, like saying, give me a reason. You give me a reason so I can do this. And the second KJ gives him one, boom, that is just pure rage. And in FFC, I wonder if that hair trigger that Reacher has, i mean, I think for sure that's a problem for someone. And I think in most cases, an advantage for Reacher.
00:40:23
Speaker
Maybe we should slide over into the X factor and maybe path to victory. McCall's path to victory is leaning into what he's always done. And that is just remain calm, analyze the situation.
00:40:37
Speaker
i think this is a great matchup for McCall, despite him being a slight underdog in this matchup. Reacher is really the type of instigator that plays into McCall's hands perfectly. And for me, that's McCall's path to victory, just sort of letting Reacher do what Reacher does, sort of, you know, be arrogant, be an instigator, and then at the last second strike when he's least expecting it.
00:41:02
Speaker
On the other hand, I think that McCall, while he has great hand-to-hand skills, he's typically leaning on improvised weapons a lot. And for me, Reach's X Factor is his access and his ability with weaponry, specifically guns. I think he uses them a lot throughout the series. You know, we see him using a sniper rifle, machine guns, all different types of weapons. And so I think If he brings the heat to McCall with that type of offense, then I think McCall is going to have a really hard time.
00:41:34
Speaker
McCall is typically in such close quarters that people don't get a chance to get shots off. But again, if a Reacher is coming out firing, then McCall is going to have a hard time. yeah I think that's fair.
00:41:45
Speaker
I think you make a good point there. And I think to a degree, Reacher almost gets typecast as the big brute. We know one of his biggest X factors is his size. vengeance and things like that. He plows through people like they're toys. But like you just said, Chris, that's not his only thing. He's not a big Oath. He's so smart. He's good with weapons. He is so well-rounded. And on top of it, he's the biggest, strongest dude around.
00:42:08
Speaker
Not only is that his X factor, but also his investigation skills. I think his path to victory here is he can find clues where there is almost nothing. And he's an expert interviewer. He will talk to people.
00:42:20
Speaker
If I'm thinking of the format of this tournament where everyone's given their card, their notification that they're going to have to meet up in 24 hours, Reacher's going to find McCall. i mean, that's what he does. He's a pretty elite tracker and investigator. And so I think that's his path to victory.
00:42:34
Speaker
I think Reacher is going to be able to find him. And we know when he gets in close with someone, he is absolutely brutal. McCall's to have to look out. yeah Yeah, I think those are all good points. And i want to I want to bring this up. I think there's a perfect example in in Reacher, the Robert Patrick character. He sends a team to track Reacher's squad in Atlantic City, if you remember this scene. And they try exactly what I think an FFC opponent would try, which is they set an ambush at a construction site. I think that's very likely in the FFC, in fact.
00:43:03
Speaker
But yeah, it's a controlled environment. You got the element of surprise. So on paper, I think it makes sense to get a guy like Reacher. But it doesn't matter. Reacher, it's like he senses it immediately. So before they can even spring the trap, he's already flipped the entire situation because he knew it was coming. It's like he felt it or saw it coming. Just like Robert McCall at his best, he does it unarmed.
00:43:24
Speaker
He hurls cement blocks at the guy's head like a football. He's stabbing dudes with what he called it, a trowel, ah cement trowel. He's throwing people off scaffolding, concrete blocks ah onto people's heads, you know, ah that type of thing. Not only does it show how dangerous Reacher is against multiple attackers, which I think is important here, it proves something else. I think it's absolutely impossible to sneak attack Jack Reacher.
00:43:48
Speaker
He's just too aware. He's just too quick to process what's happening around him. So I think even a guy like McCall, the element of surprise is going to be very, very difficult. You're trying to ambush the guy.
00:44:00
Speaker
In most cases, it's going to backfire and that person probably is already dead. That's a definite X factor for Jack Reacher. All right. Well, hear me out here. I mean, McCall, I think one of his X factors is he's one of the kings of Home Alone. He's got Macaulay Culkin in his DNA. I'm thinking back to Equalizer 2 when he's got them tracking him in his hometown there and they're going in the bakery, right? And he's setting off the fans, the flour, everything like that. So good, right?
00:44:30
Speaker
These two, I think they're equally smart. And it's not like book smart, street smart. They both have both. They're really top tier. But what you never see Reacher do is these like Home Alone type trap shenanigans that McCall shows he is an absolute expert at.
00:44:44
Speaker
And so I think the way that McCall leans into it... is that he knows that Reacher is the investigation type and he lets on to let himself be found, that he leans into his skills as not the cat, but the mouse.
00:44:59
Speaker
And i think he's going to attempt to Tom and Jerry his way out of the situation. Yeah, really good. Great analogy. yeah I think I finally figured out what McCall's greatest strength is.
00:45:10
Speaker
And it's not the combat training. It's not the decades of experience that we learn about. I think it's the way he processes the world around him. Bear with me for just a second here.
00:45:20
Speaker
I feel like McCall is constantly collecting information. Every room, every person, every object he runs across, he's logging things. He can't help it. He just does it. He's taking a mental blueprint everywhere he goes. but he's He's like Google. He's tracking everything, whether you know it or not. Look at Slavi's office.
00:45:39
Speaker
Look at the Turkish train scene. Look at the hotel penthouse with those other finance bros. Those are all rooms that he had never been in before. So he needs a few seconds to evaluate it and you can see it happening. You can see it through his eyes. He's looking at everything around it. I call those away games for him. But now think about that home mart scene.
00:45:59
Speaker
That's his home field. I used to think that his improvisation skills were superhuman, but now I don't think it was improvisation at all. I think it's just recall. He's, he has walked those aisles hundreds of times. He knew the layout of that place. He knew where every tool was. He knew the spacing. He knew everything about that store. So when that fight starts, he wasn't trying to figure anything out in real time.
00:46:21
Speaker
The information I think was already collected in his head and it was stored in his hard drive but before these goons even arrived. I don't think he's improvising at all. He's executing. And once I realized that McCall stopped feeling dangerous to me and he just started feeling unstoppable to me.
00:46:39
Speaker
Love it. That's a great point. How he memorized all of that. And I'm thinking back to the bakery too. I'm trying to think of the scenes where he has done his home alone type shenanigans and And it was the bakery of his hometown. All of those were places where he knew he had hometown advantage. And that's where he squished his strategy. Interesting.
00:47:02
Speaker
Now it's time to settle the score.
00:47:14
Speaker
Seriously, on paper, it was very possible that we had two of the top five competitors in this entire 48-man tournament here. We've gone back and forth. Both of you guys made some really good points for each of them.
00:47:26
Speaker
But I'm afraid we're about to the point where we have to make a decision here. How you guys feeling? Not great. Confident. Does anybody want to kick this thing off? I know. i'm i'm I'm nervous. I can kick it off. Okay. I feel like you guys are great at capping cap the verdict for us, putting that nail in the coffin. This is such a perfect matchup, I think. um And to me, both of these fighters are just going to play into who they are. um I don't think they're going to change for each other at all to try to win. They're going to stick to what they're good at.
00:48:00
Speaker
For me, how this plays out is that Reacher being the Sherlock Holmes, as Jordan always says, is going to be the one tracking down McCall. McCall, as we see in the third film, wants out of this life. He is trying to get away from it. And much like, you know, in the first two films as well, he lives in the shadows, especially when it's time to kill. He's going to be hiding from Reacher.
00:48:26
Speaker
If they do have to face off with each other, McCall is going to make sure that it happens in a public setting so that Reacher can't just go nuts and spray bullets and throw his weight around.
00:48:37
Speaker
McCall is going to get into Reacher's head if this situation were to come up. Reacher, as we've seen many, many times, is very arrogant. He likes to talk. He likes to tell you what he's going to do to you. McCall just sits there and lets the instigator do what he does.
00:48:54
Speaker
And that's all talk for McCall. All McCall cares about is action. When it comes time, McCall is going to strike. Reacher is not going to be expecting it at all. I think Reacher's downfall is going to be his ego. And his hubris, McCall is going to have the upper hand with the psychological warfare.
00:49:15
Speaker
Despite Reacher's brutality, his strength, I don't think it's enough to overcome McCall's finesse and just absolute perfect execution. This guy never misses. He never messes up. but McCall, for me, takes this one.
00:49:30
Speaker
Okay. One to nothing. You have David beating Goliath. Wow. Once again, people are going to think i have something against Reacher, but... That's right. You're the anti-Reacher guy.
00:49:41
Speaker
Good argument. Chris, you had great points, and I think I'm going to echo a lot of those. McCall, I think he's he's a little better with weapons. When he goes into a room, we're comparing, like, when Reacher's in a room in the prison scene, he kills all those people. But McCall does it just the same. They have different strategies.
00:49:58
Speaker
With Reacher, though, he doesn't do any setups. He can walk in any room, and he can do it anywhere. And that's one of his strengths. But I think he also relies on that happening because of his ego. He wants to show off that he's the biggest, baddest around. Yeah. He's even ah a little arrogant, which you kind of get in his personality. Let me give you an example. Season one, where he rips off the cuffs that they put on him. He could have done that anyway, but when they were letting him go, he ripped it off just to make a show. Like maybe tactically he could have kept it on and had that in his back pocket, but he likes showing off that he's Reacher and that he's a badass. Whereas McCall has none of that ego himself.
00:50:35
Speaker
Here's what I think is going to happen. Reacher really is prideful of the fact that he has no unsolved mysteries and he's an expert tracker. And I believe Reacher will find him. He will discover his background. He's going to find out he's a CIA badass, but he's not going to expect the Home Alone style takedown.
00:50:52
Speaker
I think McCall will get this because he's going to set a trap and we've seen that he can set a trap anywhere. Reacher wants to solve a mystery and McCall will lead him right into it. Even when led into a trap in his own hometown, McCall was still able to manipulate the environment. And I think that's a really important skill because that's something that we only see in our elite level fighters here. We're going beyond the one-man army, and we're talking about the elite skills, where you're not just beating them with your body or your weapon skills, you're beating them with your mind, and you're letting the environment take them down, because you can manipulate the environment to be even more deadly than you ever could be. And I think that's where McCall is going to become an elite-level fighter here.
00:51:32
Speaker
They're going to meet up. Reacher's going to think he has the upper hand, and then fall into some kind of McCall trap. And at the end of it all, McCall's going to stop his watch every 27 seconds. That's incredible. I think this is already an upset, to be real honest. McCall, two votes. Reacher, zero.
00:51:49
Speaker
It's already a slam dunk. I still get to make my argument, but this is really shaping up to be something here. I really do think this is an upset. I can't dispute anything that either of you guys said, but let me make my argument here. I really do think this is an incredible matchup.
00:52:02
Speaker
They have so many parallel scenes that I kind of uncovered here. I talked about one already. Same scenarios, same tactical problems. Let me compare some more very similar scenes and I'll do it almost side by side. Instead of relying on hypotheticals and everything, I want to compare these right next to each other. When I found these three examples, I found my winner.
00:52:24
Speaker
The first one, the disarm. They both do this. Reacher has really strong disarm scenes where he strips weapons away, kind of turns them back on on his opponent. They're very physical. They're very messy. There's a lot of grappling. In one scene, there was either even some stray shots fired and a lot of brute force involved.
00:52:44
Speaker
McCall's disarm scenes though, way more surgical. Think about the drug warehouse scene in the first equalizer. That fight was over before the bad guy even realized what happens. There's no wasted motion.
00:52:54
Speaker
I got to give that advantage to McCall in the disarm category. Another scene that we see multiple times for each guy, weaponizing the environment. Reacher's construction site ambush, awesome.
00:53:07
Speaker
I told you, cement blocks, scaffolding, wet concrete, there's tools everywhere. Bad guys are getting thrown all over the place. Pure improvisational brutality. Awesome scene.
00:53:17
Speaker
Now, McCall's signature Home Mart scene, totally next level. Nail guns, barbed wire, power tools, microwave bombs. He doesn't use the environment necessarily. He owns the environment. I talked about it being his home field advantage. it It feels less like surviving a fight and more like just watching someone conduct an execution as he's going through there.
00:53:39
Speaker
I got to say, advantage McCall again. Now, finally, here's what I'm calling the one versus many. and so I think it's an important category for this thing, right? How do you handle multiple opponents? Reacher just bulldozes groups constantly, okay? He's so physically strong. He's very imposing. He absorbs damage and can keep advancing. But he does take shots. And honestly, a lot of the opponents that I see him fighting are kind of low to mid-level thugs. So I have to keep that in mind too.
00:54:07
Speaker
McCall, he dismantles trained killers, organized crews, and he does it with precision. Again, Slavi's office. How about Pushkin's compound? How about the hurricane finale of Equalizer 2? He does it so clinically, you know, 16 seconds, armed men scattered all over the place, but he's barely got a scratch on them at the end.
00:54:27
Speaker
Guys, I have my winner. It's not based on speculation. It's based on three nearly identical traits where both guys showed us exactly who they are and both guys excel. I thought the bigger, stronger, younger guy had this matchup for weeks. I thought that. But once I compared these things side by side, I just couldn't get away from it.
00:54:47
Speaker
And I think we all agree. This is crazy. McCall wins unanimously. Amazing breakdown. Huge upset. It's an upset. But i'm I'm happy with this.
Season Finale Conclusion: McCall Victorious
00:54:59
Speaker
It's the perfect storm for Reacher, unfortunately.
00:55:02
Speaker
In the first one, you keep talking about him, and I'm like, God, do you know who McCall is? It's like watching a Saw movie. It's like he's Jigsaw. And you hear his voice come over the megaphone to the goons, and he's like, I want to play a game.
00:55:15
Speaker
If we did this tournament with different brackets, would it surprise you if he made it to the final four? Not just the final eight, the final four. Not at all. No, I just, I think it was ah a bad, it was a bad matchup for him.
00:55:25
Speaker
We know he's king of hell in a cell, but I don't think he take the tournament. All right, guys. Well, this was quite a matchup. Not only did we have, I'm going to say, our highest profile match yet, but we had two awesome characters from those universes chime in on who they think would win. So again, let me thank Luke and Alex for jumping in here and weighing in on McCall versus Reacher. You guys made the show much better, and I can't wait to see if we can work with these guys again. Thank you very much, guys. Thanks, guys. You're really going to love that. ah good A good connection to the material.
00:56:03
Speaker
Alex Vidoff and Luke Billick, you can find them both on Instagram. And go ahead and give them a follow. Tell them Fictional Fighting Championship sent you. Let's go over there and and show some love to these dudes because very cool guys. And and again, really appreciate it.
00:56:18
Speaker
So in the season two finale, the winner of this matchup is Robert McCall, who would be advancing to the Apex 8 over Jack Reacher. It's not an opinion anymore.
00:56:29
Speaker
It's a goddamn fact.