Speaker 1: Tape deck Media.
Speaker 2: See the.
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to see what the Potty Rictor. My
Speaker 3: name is Chris Chapman, joined as always by my co
Speaker 3: hosts Aaron Frescus, What Up? And Joseph beccastro.
Speaker 1: Hello, que de Pyes, And.
Speaker 3: Joining us once again is our special guest Erica Shasky. Hello,
Speaker 3: thanks for coming back. Erica to continue talking about Arnold's
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety two three three three doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 3: I was a toddler anyway, nineteen ninety three action comedy. Yeah, no,
Speaker 3: I'm out of these action comedy vehicle, last Action Hero.
Speaker 3: Today we are going to be talking about some of
Speaker 3: the promotional material, So Aaron gonna tell us about stuff
Speaker 3: that was a bad intro. It doesn't matter. He'll tell
Speaker 3: us some stuff.
Speaker 4: Okay, how's it going, guys? I'm all right. That's good.
Speaker 4: Check out my cup. I can't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what's so cool about it. It's a movie.
Speaker 3: Oh oh, ship, it's a movie.
Speaker 4: You gotta talk so I.
Speaker 3: Can see it. Because I just see Joe's giant face.
Speaker 4: Don't shoot me, I got him. That's that's a whiskers.
Speaker 4: He's over there somewhere. I don't know there he is
Speaker 4: fucking blasting fools.
Speaker 3: Ship that's like a comic book.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I'm just turning it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's I meant. I meant the arts comic books.
Speaker 4: A strawby, because I don't I don't know what this
Speaker 4: guy did with the cup before I got it.
Speaker 3: That's fair.
Speaker 4: Anyway, it's a Last Action Hero cup that I that
Speaker 4: was like ten bucks eBay. Some from some pervert on
Speaker 4: eBay snagged it. Anyway. Uh So we left off late
Speaker 4: January ninety three, Universal moving up. Jurassic Parks released day
Speaker 4: two weeks so, now come out a week before Last
Speaker 4: Section Hero and then Colombia's delusional chairman Mark Canton responding
Speaker 4: by doing nothing that's right. And I'm just gonna start
Speaker 4: with le John mcchernon quote quote the John mcchernon. That's
Speaker 4: that's what John mcchann doesn't quotes against quotes.
Speaker 3: Mcquote, yeah him.
Speaker 4: The mcquote McTiernan mcgave you guys. We're just talking about
Speaker 4: Columbia over hyping.
Speaker 3: The movie, the mcmovie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the mcmovie. Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know how you have Spike Lee joints all his
Speaker 3: or mcmovies.
Speaker 4: No affiliation to McDonald wipes however, and uh, what I
Speaker 4: was saying was mcgiernan pulled Empire Magazine in twenty twelve quote,
Speaker 4: I didn't have time to get intimately involved in all
Speaker 4: the press disasters, but the advertising campaign was terrible. It
Speaker 4: did seem that if they hadn't overhyped the movie, it
Speaker 4: would have been a lot easier to sell it, because
Speaker 4: it's actually sweet and kind of small in its heart.
Speaker 4: It isn't Cleopatra. It's the anti Cleopatra. And then he
Speaker 4: finishes by saying, and if they had come on, I
Speaker 4: know that fucked me up last time too. And if
Speaker 4: they had come on a little more quietly, I mean,
Speaker 4: it does help. It probably would have worked out better
Speaker 4: for them anyway. Unquote and yeah, he ain't wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So supposedly a few people urged Columbia to push back
Speaker 4: to the release date, with Zach Penn talking in the
Speaker 4: same Empire magazine article about how he once again called
Speaker 4: up Mark Kanton saying quote, it was insane. I rang
Speaker 4: him up and said, I want to see Jurassic Park
Speaker 4: more than the last section, hero and last section. Here
Speaker 4: was my idea as a way to try to get
Speaker 4: him to like postpone the date.
Speaker 3: That's why you're not on the movie anymore.
Speaker 4: Exactly all the stuff, like every single time he says,
Speaker 4: I don't know what's most of stuff, but I'm like, dude, yeah,
Speaker 4: you're kind of you're being a pain in the ass.
Speaker 3: Truly, they weren't going to listen to you before. They're
Speaker 3: certainly not going to listen to you now, what the
Speaker 3: fuck you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it kind of sounds like Mark Kinn's secretary kind
Speaker 4: of just hated him because he's setting calls through because
Speaker 4: it's the second time that zach Kin's been able to
Speaker 4: get through no problem, just voices complaints. Anyway, Apparently competing
Speaker 4: with Jurassic Park wasn't the only reason Canton was being
Speaker 4: bugged about the release, Like the date Supposedly builth John
Speaker 4: McTiernan and uh Sorr I was gonna say, Arnold Mick
Speaker 4: Schwarzenegger ar both asked Columbia to push back the release
Speaker 4: date in order to allow for more post production time,
Speaker 4: but Kenton refused, supposedly dude, not wanting to give off
Speaker 4: the impression to the media that the movie was in trouble,
Speaker 4: which totally would have made them look like fucking idiots.
Speaker 4: After all, the bragging they were doing about it being
Speaker 4: the greatest movie ever, and apparently like not looking dumb
Speaker 4: took presidents over the well being of the movie. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because they're like, no, no, no, as long as we all
Speaker 4: look dumb, it's fine. Whatever, we'll just look dumb later. Exactly.
Speaker 4: That's the way I think about stuff too, which now
Speaker 4: I'm trying to understand Mark can a little better. By
Speaker 4: the way, John McTiernan was also kind of right as
Speaker 4: far as what he said about the Last Section Hero
Speaker 4: advertising campaign being not good because Columbia made a few
Speaker 4: odd I guess odd would call him odd choices, which
Speaker 4: Arnold talks about a little bit in his book because
Speaker 4: apparently he was heavily involved with the ad campaign due
Speaker 4: to being an executive producer on the film, and while
Speaker 4: he does discuss some of the promotional sens we're going
Speaker 4: to talk about, he wasn't exactly forthcoming about a few
Speaker 4: pretty darn crucial details, for instance, the like mishaps and
Speaker 4: like misfortunes that they'd end up dealing with throughout the
Speaker 4: run of the ad campaign or whatever. Anyway, let's hear
Speaker 4: what Arnold had to say about Last Action Heroes campaign
Speaker 4: and I'll feel in any missing details along the way.
Speaker 4: So he begins by talking about his involvement in the
Speaker 4: film's merchandising decisions, specifically the design process of the Mattel
Speaker 4: toy line, which, by the way, was just one of
Speaker 4: the many aspects of the film that he had final
Speaker 4: set over, because I think it was all the marketing
Speaker 4: and promotional stuff. But yeah, anyway, he says in the book, quote,
Speaker 4: when the toy people showed up with their prototypes of
Speaker 4: a Jack Slater doll, I vetoed the combat weapons they proposed.
Speaker 4: I said, this is the nineties, not the eighties. Instead
Speaker 4: of wielding a flamethrower, the toy Jack Slater threw a
Speaker 4: punch and said big mistake, which was Slater's tagline against
Speaker 4: the bad guys on the toy package. It said, play
Speaker 4: it smart, never play with real guns. Unquote. And yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm sure you guys will be surprised that this was
Speaker 4: not a very popular decision. They even like kind of
Speaker 4: touched on it in the Nancy Griffin book Hit and Run,
Speaker 4: which is one of the books I read, claiming that
Speaker 4: the decision for a weaponless action figure was quote the
Speaker 4: last thing anyone wanted to hear as one prominent producer
Speaker 4: pointed out an Action figure with that weapons is a doll. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So basically what I took from that is, if you
Speaker 4: ever see a little kid playing with a Superman toys,
Speaker 4: totally fine to be like nice doll pussy. I don't know,
Speaker 4: because I started thinking, I'm like, yeah, I guess I know.
Speaker 4: No sure, stretch arms, trum just like rolling over in
Speaker 4: his grave. By the way, I wanted to mention the
Speaker 4: Jurassic Park toys as well, but then I found a
Speaker 4: few old TV ads for both of them, for Last
Speaker 4: Action Hero and the Draftic Park toys, so we'll save
Speaker 4: that for when we check out the promo videos.
Speaker 3: Why wasn't the toy line called Last Action Figures. Yes,
Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever seen a Last Time. Like
Speaker 3: I've seen a lot of old toys, but I don't
Speaker 3: think i've ever seen a Last Action Year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's you might have, but they're they're they're kind
Speaker 4: of boring, so we'll see them later.
Speaker 3: It's just a dude in a red T shirt, yeah.
Speaker 4: Pretty much, or a black T shirt, so you know
Speaker 4: they got to change it up some more toys. Anyway, Well,
Speaker 4: let's get back to Arnold talking about the awesome Mad campaign,
Speaker 4: continuing singing in his book quote, we went all out
Speaker 4: on merchandising and promotion. Besides the action toys, we licensed
Speaker 4: seven kinds of video games, a twenty million dollar promotion
Speaker 4: with Burger King, a thirty six million dollar ride film
Speaker 4: to go into amusement parks. And this is my favorite.
Speaker 4: NASA picked us to be the first ever paid advertisement
Speaker 4: in outer space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is that?
Speaker 3: Just like forcing astronauts to watch commercials. I don't understand
Speaker 3: what that means.
Speaker 4: Oh no, they have the astronauts doing the sign spinning
Speaker 4: up there. It's very easy up there. No I do
Speaker 4: remember this, so really, yeah, the space do not remember
Speaker 4: this at all?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I haven't add I'm not. I don't
Speaker 4: have a link for it. But like I saw what sorry,
Speaker 4: I saw an ad for the like the number you
Speaker 4: can call anyway. But he talks a little bit more
Speaker 4: about we're gonna go through real fast. So first he
Speaker 4: mentioned about how they licensed seven kind of video games,
Speaker 4: which like made it sound like they made seven different
Speaker 4: video games, but what he meant was that it was
Speaker 4: released on seven different platforms.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, meaning like Super Nintendo why is both counted
Speaker 3: as a kind of video game to Arnold? Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that was including the original Nintendo. Yeah, which
Speaker 4: is I was surprised by it because, like the Super
Speaker 4: Nintendo had already been out for like three years. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so I was like, what Andy was still making? Apparently
Speaker 4: any the Lost any S game was released in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety five.
Speaker 3: I think Nintendo like supports their consoles for a really
Speaker 3: long time.
Speaker 4: Is that good or bad?
Speaker 3: That's good. It means you don't have to buy the
Speaker 3: new console to play the new games. Okay, yeah, well
Speaker 3: I mean I mean good for consumers. I guess I don't.
Speaker 4: I'm curious. I see, like, I'm curious what was the
Speaker 4: next one after the Super Ants? Was it sixty four? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think so, I'm now curious what year that came out,
Speaker 4: Like if they waited until.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, something like that before they like.
Speaker 4: Stopped making games for the Nintendo.
Speaker 1: Virtual Boy was in there somewhere.
Speaker 4: But sure, wait, wasn't that bad? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Was that the Red one?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, so when they gave people horrible headaches?
Speaker 4: Okay, see that and the power Glove looks so cool,
Speaker 4: but you can't afford like my parents ain't gonna pay
Speaker 4: for that shit, no, especially because they don't think it
Speaker 4: worked very well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think it was.
Speaker 4: But that Wizard movie Man was great advertising.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, on the Power Gloves so bad exactly.
Speaker 4: That and a super Mario Brothers three was just like, man,
Speaker 4: this is awesome.
Speaker 1: Well that lived up to the fucking hype. That game
Speaker 1: is still amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: That and your parents getting divorced was like I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: all about it, because like I was kind of upset
Speaker 4: about it until I watched that movie. I was like,
Speaker 4: all right, Fred Savage has a point. It's gonna be
Speaker 4: okay to anyway. Exactly. Uh. But yeah, as far as
Speaker 4: the video game, apparently it also did not include guns
Speaker 4: or any weapons at all, which I'm sure made it
Speaker 4: super fun. Yeah, it's supposed to be like kind of
Speaker 4: like a beat him up game.
Speaker 3: Yeah that makes sense.
Speaker 4: The game also wasn't released until January of ninety four,
Speaker 4: so six months after the movie hit theaters. Jesus and
Speaker 4: I guess this was to coincide with the home video release.
Speaker 3: I'm no marketing genius, but that seems like a bad choice.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yes, And I want to take a look at
Speaker 4: the Admiral Fast because it's like thirty seconds song and
Speaker 4: it contained some useful interesting info. I would guess you could.
Speaker 3: Say cool and play if you want. At you then
Speaker 3: we got it.
Speaker 5: Lashed Action Hero Now the year's most Chimpact movie is
Speaker 5: Today's Hottest video game for your Super Nintendo in Sega
Speaker 5: Genesis systems, and it's available only at your video store.
Speaker 5: So when you're returning this cassette, pick up the game
Speaker 5: and live the action.
Speaker 4: Okay, anyone noticed how they mentioned that it's only available
Speaker 4: at the video store.
Speaker 3: Yeah? Did everybody notice how you don't see the game?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I did not, Like, we're just about to take
Speaker 6: this kid's word for it that he's like staring at
Speaker 6: a TV and like having so much fun, like that.
Speaker 3: They finished the game when they made that commercial.
Speaker 4: I mean, I wasn't like really wanted to play the
Speaker 4: game until I saw much fun that kid was having
Speaker 4: or he was having a seizure while playing the game. Anyway. Okay,
Speaker 4: so I'm gonna throw out to Wikipedia for the reason
Speaker 4: behind the whole video store decision, because I don't know
Speaker 4: it's easier to do that, which says that each copy
Speaker 4: of the Genesis and set Super a nes versions had
Speaker 4: an unusually high wholesale price of sixty to seventy dollars,
Speaker 4: with resulting one dollars retail price Jesus, which is crazy
Speaker 4: for night Yeah, which was too high for most consumers obviously,
Speaker 4: because the retail price now for PlayStation five games is
Speaker 4: what seventy sixty nine?
Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, they're just like they're just now making
Speaker 3: games more expensive for the first.
Speaker 4: They're just now making the price of video games sexy
Speaker 4: sixty nine dollars, So that's insane for nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 4: But it continues by saying that as a result, the
Speaker 4: two game versions were originally only available as rentals for
Speaker 4: a minimum seven month period, which I think they helped
Speaker 4: did that for seven months, and then after a seven
Speaker 4: month rental period was up, the two game versions would
Speaker 4: be repriced for consumer retail. So were they trying to
Speaker 4: I guess they were trying to recoup some of the
Speaker 4: don't I don't know. That's weird. I just don't understand, Like, like,
Speaker 4: the more stuff I find out about their ad campaign,
Speaker 4: the more I'm just like, what are you guys purposely
Speaker 4: trying to like self sabotaging, Like, what are you do mean,
Speaker 4: this is so weird anyway, Okay. So, Arnold also mentioned
Speaker 4: the twenty million dollar promotion with burn King, which we
Speaker 4: watched the ad and ad fordur in the pre watch
Speaker 4: the one with the cool collectible cups. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: which I didn't know, Joe, did you have one of those?
Speaker 4: Because I didn't know it was a sleeve that was
Speaker 4: on it.
Speaker 1: I didn't have one.
Speaker 4: Do you know what do you remember him though? Like
Speaker 4: if you turn it, it like like, oh yeah, it kind
Speaker 4: of makes it look like a movie.
Speaker 1: No, I don't remember that.
Speaker 3: It was well, it's it was a sleeve.
Speaker 4: It was a sleeve that you would turn, so basically
Speaker 4: you put over that holes in it so there'd be
Speaker 4: a picture on there and as you turn it, it make
Speaker 4: it look like a movie. So yeah, So there were
Speaker 4: comments on the There were comments on like Reddit. They
Speaker 4: were like, yeah, I lost the sleeve after the first day.
Speaker 3: But anyway.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: He then mentions that the thirty six million dollar quote
Speaker 4: unquote ride film to go in amusement parks, which I
Speaker 4: could not find a damn thing about except a mention
Speaker 4: of it in a nineteen ninety three Bloomberg article, which
Speaker 4: says that a simulator ride using film footage was in
Speaker 4: the works, along with the virtual virtual reality version of
Speaker 4: the movie that was supposed to show in theaters, which
Speaker 4: I don't get how that would work.
Speaker 3: But no, but that sounds insanely. Yeah, that sounds insane.
Speaker 6: I mean I think it could work nowadays with like
Speaker 6: the four D capability.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's what it sounds like. Then.
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe like a production of like they had
Speaker 6: like I think it was that Disneyland, or maybe they didn't.
Speaker 6: They had like a I Shrunk the audience like production
Speaker 6: where you I never went to that.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, that was well that was the same thing
Speaker 4: as like forty though, isn't it?
Speaker 3: Or was it essentially essentially which was it was like
Speaker 3: three D plus a little bit of like like in
Speaker 3: room like actual effects like fog machines and shit like the.
Speaker 6: Dog actually sneezes on you and stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, have you guys done the forty movies because that
Speaker 4: seems like it would be like just.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a nightmare.
Speaker 6: That sounds like a take it off for three out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just sounds like the seed is going to
Speaker 3: be punching you the whole time.
Speaker 1: Like, I don't that sounds pleasurable. But I'm the guy
Speaker 1: that likes time massages, you know, the the chicks like
Speaker 1: staying on you and like fucking do the people's elbow
Speaker 1: in your back and shit.
Speaker 4: So okay, so the yeah, that Bloomberg article. Okay. Anyway,
Speaker 4: I'm assuming the plans for both of those, the virtual
Speaker 4: reality thing and the simulator, were dropped after the film
Speaker 4: and performed at the box office because I could not
Speaker 4: find a like, like I said a thing about him, damn.
Speaker 4: And at first I thought that maybe it had like
Speaker 4: a short run at like Universal Studios, but that because
Speaker 4: that sounds like something that they'd have there. But there's
Speaker 4: the Universal made Jurassic Parks. There's no Yeah, yeah that's true.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Once I was like, you know, was it it?
Speaker 4: Okay, I started I started looking for it, and I
Speaker 4: was like, maybe Univeral Studios. I was like, oh wait,
Speaker 4: they know that.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to like, who would even have it if
Speaker 3: not Universal Studios?
Speaker 4: Exactly?
Speaker 3: Definitely not Disney, right, yeah, so like.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it feels like it would be like the tram
Speaker 6: ride at Universal. Well, isn't like a version of it?
Speaker 4: Well, isn't a Yeah true, that actually would be kind
Speaker 4: of like Jurassic.
Speaker 6: Has its own ride there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like that's like a tour through the park or something, right,
Speaker 4: the tram ride, No, the the Jurassic Park one.
Speaker 3: It's like a it's like a water ride.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, but are you just like what's like right?
Speaker 3: I mean I feel like the concept is it's been
Speaker 3: a long time, says it's been on it, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I think the concept is that you're just kind of
Speaker 3: going through the park, but like Jssic Park.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 3: Universal Universal Studio.
Speaker 6: I thought that was the tram ride. I'm so confused. Sorry.
Speaker 6: I even watched Okay, this is how bored I was
Speaker 6: the other day. I literally I just turned on TikTok
Speaker 6: and somebody was recording the Jurassic Park like ride live.
Speaker 6: While they were on it, I was like, I'll watch this.
Speaker 6: That's fine, Like I'll just sit here and pretend I'm
Speaker 6: on the ride with you when you were there. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I've been on it twice. Can I tell you we
Speaker 6: went through the park?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I remember the end of the ride and the end
Speaker 6: of the ride. I remember thinking, oh, that was very
Speaker 6: similar to Indiana Jones.
Speaker 4: Was there no drop in that ride?
Speaker 3: Drop?
Speaker 6: There's one drop where it's like the dinosaur comes at
Speaker 6: you and then the ride ducks under the dinosaur, and
Speaker 6: it just reminded me of like Indiana Jones. Were you like, duck.
Speaker 3: Fuck that t rex.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: So it's not like a not like a splash mountain drop.
Speaker 4: It's like a little small drop.
Speaker 6: No, it's like a splash mountain drop.
Speaker 3: It's probably a little less than splash mountain. But it's
Speaker 3: it's not like a steep. It's not like it's not
Speaker 3: like a beginning of Pirates of the character.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that was the other one. No, no, no, okay.
Speaker 3: No, just fuck that t rex because apparently we went
Speaker 3: to Universe. I went to Universe Studios once with our
Speaker 3: family and we went on that ride they took. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and we you know, the fucking pictures on the ride
Speaker 3: like that they take it. We never buy those fucking pictures, right, Well,
Speaker 3: apparently my face was so fucking scared that they they
Speaker 3: thought it was hilarious and they decided to buy the
Speaker 3: fucking picture. Oh my god, the picture's up in the
Speaker 3: house somewhere.
Speaker 4: That's awesome. Jose Or I don't know if I'm sure.
Speaker 4: Erica went on too, but the Simpson's ones just riding
Speaker 4: through the springfield.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, you're like in an elevator or something. So
Speaker 1: I think, like you guys ever been on the Back
Speaker 1: of the Future, right, you're just kind of in a
Speaker 1: cart with like a screen in front. Yeah, like the
Speaker 1: cart Star.
Speaker 6: Tours, right yeah, but but not like well Star Tours
Speaker 6: is like you're in a cart with a bunch of people.
Speaker 6: This is just a cart with your people.
Speaker 4: Oh so it's per party.
Speaker 1: Yes, Oh, I don't remember. There was seven years ago.
Speaker 6: I only remember because I downed of Mitchellata inline and
Speaker 6: the whole time I was sitting in the back of
Speaker 6: the car thinking, don't throw up on the back of
Speaker 6: your brother's head.
Speaker 3: Do that.
Speaker 4: So it's a it's not even like it's a it's
Speaker 4: one of like Star toars is what do you call those?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's not moving like it is, but it's
Speaker 4: not like resturract forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how the Back to the
Speaker 1: Future one was, and I think probably that's how it's not.
Speaker 1: That's what it sounds like. They wanted to set up
Speaker 1: for last section Hero.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for thirty six million dollars, which I don't remember.
Speaker 4: How much that tto thing costs. But like I feel
Speaker 4: like it was a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a lot. I just like, if it's
Speaker 3: not at Universal Studios and it's not at Disneyland, does
Speaker 3: that mean it just ended up at like Family Fun
Speaker 3: Center or something like Bush.
Speaker 4: The Gardens that's an the place or not Berry Farm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, was Magic Mountain a thing back then? I guess
Speaker 3: six Flights.
Speaker 1: Yes, Mountain has been there since like at least the sixties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I guess I meant six Flags.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well I mean six Flags bought Magic Button.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, so yeah that never happened. And I tried
Speaker 4: to find something because there's a bunch of articles that
Speaker 4: I like talk about old rides that don't exist anymore.
Speaker 4: It's but like in ones that are based on movies.
Speaker 4: But it's not any of those. So I don't think
Speaker 4: it like once the movie bombed. I don't. I think
Speaker 4: it just they're like just quietly like, okay, we're not
Speaker 4: going to do that.
Speaker 3: Not worth it.
Speaker 4: Moving on, Arnold describes his favorite of their marketing stunts, saying, quote,
Speaker 4: NASA picked us up to be the well, like I
Speaker 4: was saying, NASA picked us up to be the first
Speaker 4: ever paid advertisement atter space. We painted Last Action Hero
Speaker 4: and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the sides of a rocket and
Speaker 4: then held a national sweepstakes whose winners would get to
Speaker 4: push the launch button. Unquote that sounds joke like that
Speaker 4: sounds kind of cool, yeah, yeah, but unfortunately it once
Speaker 4: again emits a few pretty important details. So quick background
Speaker 4: information about the whole thing. On March third, nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 4: Columbia Pictures announced that it made a deal with NASA
Speaker 4: to promote Last Section Hero but having Arnold's name painted
Speaker 4: on US six outer booster rockets and then the title
Speaker 4: logo painted across the fuselage, the payload and a science satellite.
Speaker 4: The plan was for the unmanned Conestoga rocket to launch
Speaker 4: sometime in May nineteen ninety three and then conduct micro
Speaker 4: gravity experiments as it orbits there for two years. It
Speaker 4: was supposed to be, like you said, the first time
Speaker 4: that a US rocket would be used to advertising space,
Speaker 4: with Columbia's President of Marketing Sid Ganis aka the dude
Speaker 4: that didn't know how to describe the film, yeah, him
Speaker 4: telling the United Press International that they were excited about
Speaker 4: breaking new ground in the advertising world, and apparently they
Speaker 4: because apparently they had like a bunch of different companies
Speaker 4: that wanted to participate anyway. The president of Space Marketing, Inc.
Speaker 4: Which was the marketing firm that partnered with NASA, ended
Speaker 4: up telling the La Times that they decided on only
Speaker 4: one ad because, quote, we didn't want the rocket to
Speaker 4: look like a pace car at the Indy five hundred yeah, unquote.
Speaker 4: But yeah, the ad would end up costing Columbia Pictures
Speaker 4: five hundred thousand dollars, which seems like a lot of
Speaker 4: money for an ad that nobody's ever They're never gonna
Speaker 4: say you.
Speaker 3: See precisely once like during the launch, which yeah, nobody watches,
Speaker 3: but I know it's like.
Speaker 4: It's that's not the point. It's like about doing it
Speaker 4: more like for like the hype or whatever, like getting
Speaker 4: people just thinking about the move, like exactly public. Yeah,
Speaker 4: offering the jet, offering the what.
Speaker 6: Offering the jet for PEPSI?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, offering the jet. Do we watch something
Speaker 4: about someone that like scammed his way into getting enough
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 1: I didn't scam his way.
Speaker 6: He did scamm it.
Speaker 4: He was sorry, sorry, he found a loophole.
Speaker 1: Yeah, PEPSI, where's my jet? It's on Netflix? It's good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we did watch it, okay, yes, but yeah. So
Speaker 4: in order to build that hype, they also partnered with
Speaker 4: AT and T to set up a nine hundred number
Speaker 4: where callers would leave a message that would be sent
Speaker 4: up into space with the rocket, which I'm assuming they
Speaker 4: would have done by just like duct taping an old
Speaker 4: answering machine to the side of the like you put
Speaker 4: them all on an answering machine and then like duct taping
Speaker 4: on the side of the rocket. You know.
Speaker 3: Again, my question is like, for who, like are the
Speaker 3: astronauts forced to listen to these messages? Is it for aliens?
Speaker 4: I think it's just like a like again, an advertising,
Speaker 4: like a promo gimmick, like your stuff will be up
Speaker 4: in space. I don't know. And this wasn't free, by
Speaker 4: the way, Oh yeah, that's true. It's a nine Yes,
Speaker 4: calling up that nine hundred number and leaving a message
Speaker 4: would put you back three dollars and fifty cents per message.
Speaker 6: Man, my dad made me pay the phone bill one
Speaker 6: time because I called my friend too many times. They
Speaker 6: had my friend had got a cell phone, and I
Speaker 6: don't know that it was a nine hundred number. What
Speaker 6: but they got a cell phone unless.
Speaker 4: Your friend was like a special friend.
Speaker 6: It was not a special friend, Okay, but I called
Speaker 6: my friend so much on the landline to talk to
Speaker 6: them over here. My dad made me pay the phone bill.
Speaker 4: Eric learned money management really early. I didn't. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it also entered the three dollars and fifty cents whatever,
Speaker 4: or just the call in general just entered you into
Speaker 4: a contest. The contest that Arnold mentioned, but the two
Speaker 4: winners joining Arnold for the launch and even helping him
Speaker 4: push the button that launches the rocket. Yeah, which I'm
Speaker 4: assuming he probably needed do to. Like I guess the
Speaker 4: button was probably small, and you got the sausage fingers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like, what do you need to problem?
Speaker 4: Ye're like, yeah, that's from the Simpsons where it's like
Speaker 4: where or Homer gets fat and he's trying to like
Speaker 4: dial phone. The things you were dealing with are to.
Speaker 1: Obtain the special telling at uh.
Speaker 4: Fortunately for them, Arnold's extra beefy digits wouldn't be a problem,
Speaker 4: because about two months later Variety Variety reported that NASA
Speaker 4: had confirmed that the rocket would not launch until at
Speaker 4: least July or August, which would be one to two
Speaker 4: months after the film was released. Columbia still try to
Speaker 4: play it cool by saying that the delayed launch still
Speaker 4: worked as far as marketing for like the international release. Sure,
Speaker 4: but the media just spun it as pretty much like
Speaker 4: another sign that the if the movie's in trouble. The
Speaker 4: launch eventually ended up being canceled completely, which uh I
Speaker 4: didn't write down, but it was like due to like
Speaker 4: the president of that's the uh the company that NASA
Speaker 4: partnered with.
Speaker 3: The marketing company.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he wanted to get that going like as
Speaker 4: a thing, and there was such pushback against it that
Speaker 4: apparently they outlawed it in the US. They still do.
Speaker 4: They This wasn't the first time that they. Russia was
Speaker 4: already doing this like advertising in space, oh oh okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: but they outlauded in the US, like.
Speaker 3: Like the concept of contests.
Speaker 4: No advertising in space, setting any any sort of advertise,
Speaker 4: like any sort of advertisement in space, gotcha. Yeah. So
Speaker 4: I think it was Clinton that ended up signing something
Speaker 4: that just completely outlawed it. But yeah, the launch being
Speaker 4: canceled didn't really get any coverage because at this point
Speaker 4: the movie had already been released, and like I'm saying,
Speaker 4: leading up to that release, the media would just latch
Speaker 4: onto any sort of negative news about the movie. It's
Speaker 4: only because they were so supposedly, and that's what pretty
Speaker 4: much any sort of article that was saying about it
Speaker 4: even after its release, they were like fuck this movie,
Speaker 4: like they came out of the.
Speaker 3: Gate so like whatever, but like overconfident, yes exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 3: which sucks because that really hit, Like none of this
Speaker 3: stuff really has anything to do with the movie. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and there was it suffers for it.
Speaker 4: Like I read an article that was it was old too,
Speaker 4: but it was talking about how how much influence the
Speaker 4: media has over how well movies do. But by doing
Speaker 4: that kind of stuff, like it called Sleepless in Seattle
Speaker 4: a sleeper hit before the movie came out, and like
Speaker 4: it was it was commenting on that, sorry that how
Speaker 4: it kept getting called a sleeper hit, and it was like,
Speaker 4: you can't be a sleeper hit if your movie hasn't
Speaker 4: come out yet. Yeah, like that's something that what happens.
Speaker 3: The data has to bear out afterwards, like yeah, yeah, no, I.
Speaker 1: Mean it's literally called sleepless in Seattle.
Speaker 3: Oh see. They were just well that it can't be
Speaker 3: a sleeper Joe. It has to be a Sleepless hit.
Speaker 1: No, the characters are sleepless in Seattle. But if you
Speaker 1: watch it in anywhere not Seattle, then then you'll be
Speaker 1: you'll be the sleep sleep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Bay, you're a sleeper. You know what.
Speaker 6: I can't tell you that I've watched or purchased anything
Speaker 6: from Russia because I've seen their advertisements in space.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I didn't even look I didn't look into that
Speaker 4: space for me, I didn't look into that. But it
Speaker 4: was like, oh, interesting Russia. Like, if we are going
Speaker 4: to beat them in one thing, it will be shooting
Speaker 4: ads into space. I want Dolgatlovich at in space anyway. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 4: But as far as like the just the media latching
Speaker 4: on of stuff like Entertainment Weeklies cover article the week
Speaker 4: before the movie came out was all about the negative
Speaker 4: rumors surrounding the film, although I will admit it includes
Speaker 4: my favorite bit of info about the rocket launch, with
Speaker 4: them writing that the idea of advertising in space was
Speaker 4: getting pushed back from the National Coalition of on Television Violence. Apparently,
Speaker 4: they were picketing outside the Sony lot and according to
Speaker 4: the article, they were quote calling for the studio to
Speaker 4: paint children's drawings about Peace on the Rocket instead, which
Speaker 4: unquote but sounds like something like out of like a
Speaker 4: Simpsons episode that makes fun of hippies. Like for sure,
Speaker 4: you gotta because like you're working.
Speaker 1: For your car men.
Speaker 4: But like it's just like when I read that, it was like, what,
Speaker 4: that's what you want? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, as I mentioned before, there's a whole
Speaker 1: uproar about this movie and violence in the media and everything,
Speaker 1: and yet out anybody trying to find it. Fucking with Donahue.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, So it was not looking good as far
Speaker 4: as marketing at this point, but at least it can't
Speaker 4: get any worse.
Speaker 3: Right for sure?
Speaker 4: Certainly, Yeah, let's find out by finishing off that quote
Speaker 4: from Marls book with him saying, quote, we put up
Speaker 4: a four story tall, inflatable statue of Jack Slater on
Speaker 4: a raft just off the beach at can during the
Speaker 4: film Festival in May, and I set a personal record
Speaker 4: there by giving forty TV interviews and fifty four print
Speaker 4: interviews in a single twenty four hour period.
Speaker 3: Wow, Jess, Yeah, Jesus.
Speaker 4: And so the only thing I wanted to mention about
Speaker 4: the interview thing, and I can't remember where I read
Speaker 4: this but anyway, it was like how he'd gotten his
Speaker 4: answers down pretty much down to like three minutes or
Speaker 4: sorry he didn't. He got each interview down at three minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and he's got he's got his answers like to where
Speaker 4: they were like mechanical, like uh, basically, the journalist was
Speaker 4: like that it kind of sucks with the interviewer, which
Speaker 4: I get, but also like, yeah, I'm sure doing press
Speaker 4: junkets fucking suck yeaheah, So he's trying.
Speaker 3: To shove that nearly one hundred and yeah, it's.
Speaker 1: Like, let's just get it through postgame interview. You know,
Speaker 1: we're like we just went in there and played the
Speaker 1: game and executed, Like all right, what you can you
Speaker 1: tell me about that? But like, man, we executed like
Speaker 1: we're out of Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: You know, that's why the crazy ones get so much attention,
Speaker 4: because it's like something that's, oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody's trying to fucking bait him into like giving
Speaker 1: him a good sound clip or whatever. But like the
Speaker 1: smart ones, you know, we'll just be like or even
Speaker 1: like Marshawn Lynch because you know, Marshaw Lynch is like
Speaker 1: a very like friendly and open guy and he was
Speaker 1: like that at the beginning of his career, but the
Speaker 1: press kept taking a ship and doing it, so like
Speaker 1: at Super Bowl and He's like, I'm just here so
Speaker 1: I don't get fined.
Speaker 3: Like that was literally he said that.
Speaker 1: At least twenty times. That was his answer to every thing, like, oh, Marshaun,
Speaker 1: tell me about this. He's like, I'm just here so
Speaker 1: I don't get fined. That's all he did.
Speaker 3: Nice, Okay.
Speaker 4: So as far as the four story inflatable jacks Slater
Speaker 4: that Arnold mentioned, it was the same one that they
Speaker 4: used in the movie during the the Jack Slater premiere
Speaker 4: at the end, which they actually shot in New York
Speaker 4: City in Times Square. And I'm going to add a
Speaker 4: picture to the chat, but for anyone listening, it basically
Speaker 4: looks like a balloon you'd see at the Macy's Thanksgiving
Speaker 4: d parade. It's just like a big inflatable Jack Slater
Speaker 4: that's holding a gun in one hand and a police
Speaker 4: badge in the other hand. So they first used the
Speaker 4: balloon during filming in New York City and then brought
Speaker 4: it to the promote the film at the Can Festival.
Speaker 4: So sorry, Can Film Festival, not it wasn't the goat
Speaker 4: festival that we were was? It sounds like a festival
Speaker 4: for goats, like can Yeah, I couldn't think of a
Speaker 4: better joke. It was like just anyway. Now, I'm going
Speaker 4: to send a picture of the original version of the balloon,
Speaker 4: and I know it's not the best quality picture, but
Speaker 4: do you guys notice a difference between the two. I
Speaker 4: doubt it because the picture quality is so shitty.
Speaker 3: I mean, the gun looks double guns.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the gun looks like it's deflated a little bit.
Speaker 4: Like It's like I was.
Speaker 3: Almost wondering if it was supposed to be nunchucks instead of.
Speaker 6: Kind of looks like st Alone instead of Arnold.
Speaker 4: It kind of does.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, it kind of looks like Jack Palance instead
Speaker 3: of Shortznegger.
Speaker 4: But this version isn't holding a badge in it's left hand.
Speaker 3: Oh it's not.
Speaker 4: No, is that a grenade?
Speaker 1: Is the infinity gunlet?
Speaker 4: That's actually good, Like it kind of looks like that.
Speaker 4: I was thinking like a meatball sub or something like that,
Speaker 4: but it's actually a bundle of dynamite. Oh yeah, well.
Speaker 6: That's right in front of his ding gung.
Speaker 7: Yes, that's great.
Speaker 6: That's lighting your subject matter right.
Speaker 1: There For anybody listening, this picture looks like it was
Speaker 1: took in like ninety eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like World War One.
Speaker 6: It definitely looks like it is one hundred percent Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 1: It's all fucking black and white and grainy as shit.
Speaker 4: Now I want to put a top hat on him.
Speaker 6: He's all like ready to take over the cell, saying.
Speaker 4: It's based on one of like the promo pictures for
Speaker 4: the film. It's with him holding a gun in one
Speaker 4: hand and the sick But uh.
Speaker 3: I've seen that. But why did they change up for
Speaker 3: the festival?
Speaker 4: So they originally planned to use this version of the
Speaker 4: balloom for the film. It wasn't just a festival boat
Speaker 4: for the film because like in the film Edge, Yeah,
Speaker 4: this version was all set up in like on March first,
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety three in Times Square. Unfortunately, three days earlier,
Speaker 4: six people died and over a thousand were injured when
Speaker 4: error set off a bomb in the parking garage below
Speaker 4: the World Trade Center and an attempt to collapse the
Speaker 4: North Tower into the South Tower.
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4: So people were understandably upset about a seventy five foot
Speaker 4: inflatable man showing off his meatball sub looking dynamite, like
Speaker 4: like basically they took it down, deflated it, and then
Speaker 4: changed the dynamite a place pitch.
Speaker 1: What makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just a giant German man holding some dynamite.
Speaker 3: It's like that sounds more like Diehard than Schwartzeneger movie man.
Speaker 6: He cannot catch a break.
Speaker 4: With the seriously, seriously, like this movie is. It's just
Speaker 4: one thing after another. No, I mean, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: which we'll get to in a second.
Speaker 6: But real trade center stuff for him is just.
Speaker 4: Well you think like at least one person involved with it.
Speaker 4: This happened three days after, Like they put that up
Speaker 4: three days after the bombing, so you think that like
Speaker 4: at least one person would be like maybe a bomb's
Speaker 4: a bad choice. Yeah, that's nothing.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean and like I don't know how long
Speaker 1: it takes to switch out what inflated fucking tensory inflatable
Speaker 1: dude is holding, So yeah, I don't know. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: also what was blown off was a bunch of Bnewer
Speaker 1: in a van. Was that they didn't throw a bunch
Speaker 1: of T and T in there.
Speaker 3: Well I don't know that TNT kind of looked like
Speaker 3: a handful of anwer.
Speaker 4: I'm surprised that I'm surprised we don't have a a
Speaker 4: like a quote from the head of marketing saying that
Speaker 4: also it was maneure Okay, yeah, there wasn't T and
Speaker 4: T come on anyway. And yeah, like Eric was saying,
Speaker 4: arnold his hat. He has a complicated relationship with those towers,
Speaker 4: because just a few years later, another one of his
Speaker 4: films would encounter a similar issue when the Clatteral Damage
Speaker 4: crew was forced to take down their four story balloon
Speaker 4: of Schwarzenegger because he was holding a kind of jet
Speaker 4: fuel in one hand and then he was like like
Speaker 4: one of those like Red Sox pennants in their hand,
Speaker 4: which was just like a weird marketing tactic to put
Speaker 4: in New York, Like, I don't know, Plus, what did
Speaker 4: they have to do with the movie? What do they
Speaker 4: have to do with the movie anyway? Okay, sorry uh
Speaker 4: And then before we get back to filming, the last
Speaker 4: thing I wanted to mention about the marketing has to
Speaker 4: do with the film's poster design and is probably my
Speaker 4: favorite of the behind the scenes stories.
Speaker 6: This dinosaur with the nun in the background. I don't
Speaker 6: remember seeing dinosaur with the nun yeah on this.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I forgot to put the poster up there.
Speaker 6: Looks like it that looks like a habit.
Speaker 4: Oh wait none, none, none, Oh yes, a nun ends
Speaker 4: up at the funeral shooting at them because everyone starts
Speaker 4: pulling out. Oh yeah, but the leo the fart he
Speaker 4: passed gas one last time. You know, I love the joke.
Speaker 4: Shane Shane Black is a genius anyway. Uh okay, so
Speaker 4: uh sorry. So, as a way to be more accessible
Speaker 4: as an executive producer, Arnold set himself up in a
Speaker 4: forty foot long trailer on the Sony lot. Yeah. During
Speaker 4: filming and apparently due to having a final say over
Speaker 4: all aspects of the film's marketing and promotional material, he
Speaker 4: had a phone installed with the direct line to the
Speaker 4: marketing executives' offices, whose executives he would summon throughout the day,
Speaker 4: and would often be seen running back and forth from
Speaker 4: the Sony offices to arnold trailer, Which is just awesome
Speaker 4: that he's like got that kind of power and making
Speaker 4: them just like rue back and forth as he's like
Speaker 4: tinkering this stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's got his own personal bat phone just to
Speaker 3: tone something exactly.
Speaker 4: So one day, he summons the VP of marketing to
Speaker 4: the trailer to discuss the film's poster, and supposedly Arnold
Speaker 4: was not happy with the poster. He wasn't a fan,
Speaker 4: supposedly telling the executive that, quote, my hair isn't flying
Speaker 4: no matter how much hairspread you have with the win
Speaker 4: in the head, it should be flying all over the place. Yeah.
Speaker 4: He insists the poster be redrawn in order to bring
Speaker 4: them from quote a totally static look to something that
Speaker 4: represents what the film is saying, which is bang uncorrect.
Speaker 4: He then allegedly pulled out an alternate poster that he'd
Speaker 4: had commissioned without informing the studio, which supposedly pissed off
Speaker 4: the marketing department. This supposedly led to Mark Kenton, the
Speaker 4: head of the studio, stopping like running over to Arnold's trailer,
Speaker 4: not to yell at them or like even give them
Speaker 4: a hard time, but yeah, but to assure them that
Speaker 4: they'll we're gonna keep working on the poster until you're happy, basically,
Speaker 4: which I'm like whatever, Like I don't know, Like at
Speaker 4: this point, you're just like, Okay, it's guess in charge
Speaker 4: to be fair if you look behind me, Arnold's hair
Speaker 4: does look like it's flying in that poster a sure, like,
Speaker 4: so they nailed that part at least. Yeah, Like apparently
Speaker 4: it was like just like, you know, like slick but
Speaker 4: not flying like perfectly kaifed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly as all things should be.
Speaker 4: Okay. So getting back to the actual filming of the movie.
Speaker 4: So before getting sidetracked, we're about halfway through principal photography,
Speaker 4: with production moving to New York City at the beginning
Speaker 4: of March, where they spend a little over a week
Speaker 4: pulling a double whammy by shooting on location in Times
Speaker 4: Square while also indvertently offending the public with their giant
Speaker 4: ORNLD balloon. And the balloon wasn't the only only thing
Speaker 4: being deflated, because it was during this time that Arnold
Speaker 4: first begins worrying about the film, which I don't think
Speaker 4: actually works as far as like the whole deflated metaphor
Speaker 4: going for but you guys go, I mean it's an
Speaker 4: enthusiasm is deflated. There you go, there you go e
Speaker 4: ego a little bit. Yeah, So to set up the
Speaker 4: quote from Arnold, and also because I don't think I
Speaker 4: mentioned it before, which is done because it's supposedly part
Speaker 4: of the reason that the film bombed. But Last Action
Speaker 4: Hero was always supposed to be rated PG thirteen. There
Speaker 4: was never any like it was huh yes with a
Speaker 4: Hit and Run the book Hit and Run, claiming that
Speaker 4: a survey at the time had shown that a PG
Speaker 4: rated film was three times more likely to make a
Speaker 4: one hundred million dollars at the box office than an
Speaker 4: R rated film, which I think it's always.
Speaker 1: You said, that's PG.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so the lower the writing, I'm assuming just like
Speaker 4: because pretty much, yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh so PG first ours is three times more likely.
Speaker 1: But what about PG thirteen?
Speaker 4: PG thirteen they didn't have the thing for, but I'm
Speaker 4: assuming it can't be far off.
Speaker 3: Also, when was PG thirteen invented.
Speaker 4: Eighty right after Template Doom? So like eighty five or
Speaker 4: eighty four? Eighty five? Gotcha? Which I was reading about it,
Speaker 4: and I was like, what are you doing? Why are
Speaker 4: you wasting your like this? You're not going to talk
Speaker 4: about this at all, are you? Nope? Okay, then stop
Speaker 4: reading about it, because I was like, oh, what was
Speaker 4: the first PG thirteen movie? But now I could have
Speaker 4: told you, guys, but I don't remember because I stopped
Speaker 4: reading about it anyway, okay, and then, in order to
Speaker 4: cash in on that by appealing to the whitest possible audience,
Speaker 4: Last Action Hero was first rewritten and then eventually shot
Speaker 4: as a PG thirteen film.
Speaker 3: Got it, yes, because white people love PG thirteen films,
Speaker 3: do they?
Speaker 4: I don't know?
Speaker 3: Sorry, you said whitest, and I kept.
Speaker 4: Hearing white the whitest, yes wideest.
Speaker 6: Yes, well whitest too, Yes.
Speaker 3: To the whitest whitest yep, w whitest possible.
Speaker 4: AUDI know the white wide like you know? Like I
Speaker 4: don't know? W I d e wh whitest anyway?
Speaker 3: So yeah.
Speaker 4: According to Ardlne's book, apparently a late night conversation with
Speaker 4: John McTiernan during these eight days that they were filming
Speaker 4: in New York was when he realized there might be
Speaker 4: an issue, saying, quote, John always had great clarity of
Speaker 4: and on Last Action Hero. That gave me my first
Speaker 4: hint of trouble. We were having a drink after shooting
Speaker 4: until three in the morning one night in New York
Speaker 4: and John said, what we're really making here is et.
Speaker 4: When I heard that, I had a sinking feeling that
Speaker 4: maybe the whole PG thirteen thing was a mistake. Even
Speaker 4: though we had a kid costar in the movie, people
Speaker 4: might not buy me doing a family friendly action film.
Speaker 4: That was okay for Harrison Forden Raiders of Lost Arc,
Speaker 4: but not for me. I made these comedies, of course,
Speaker 4: but those were different because no one expects you to
Speaker 4: blow people up in a comedy. When you're selling a
Speaker 4: movie with the word action in the title, you better
Speaker 4: deliver some Conan two had fizzled because we'd made it PG.
Speaker 4: Now we were betting we could pack enough amazing stunts
Speaker 4: and energy to make Last Action Hero live up to
Speaker 4: its name. End quote. And I'm sorry if I'm sitting
Speaker 4: in the office, but I'm pretty sure John mcturns et
Speaker 4: comment was meant less as like an insightful take on
Speaker 4: Like It wasn't like insightful, like you know what we
Speaker 4: are making here? It kind of seems like we're making et.
Speaker 4: It wasn't mean like there was more like a dude
Speaker 4: that's just exhausted from working eighteen hours a day on
Speaker 4: a movie that bears like very little resemblance to the
Speaker 4: one he actually signed off for. Yeah, he's fucking tired
Speaker 4: at this point. Basically. Also, that quote had me super
Speaker 4: looking forward to watching Conan Destroyer.
Speaker 3: Now, I'm all right, yeah, that's gonna be great.
Speaker 4: The whole time I was watching the first one, I
Speaker 4: was thinking, Man, this movie is so much better if
Speaker 4: you didn't have all that icky like violence and nudity
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 3: You know what this movie needed, less titties, less blood. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The more we learn about this, the more I see
Speaker 1: why it was a flop. But I've always watched this
Speaker 1: movie and been like, this movie's fucking good. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I agree, Like it just sounds like it's a
Speaker 1: victim of its own like, and we'll get to this
Speaker 1: when we actually fucking watch the movie and like get
Speaker 1: done even like a.
Speaker 4: Little bit of hubrious the studios part, for sure, that the.
Speaker 1: Hubris is the money making part, but the rest of it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the actual film is a little victim of its own circumstance,
Speaker 1: Like a lot of people just trying to like we
Speaker 1: want to make like the best movie, but we feel
Speaker 1: like we're going this way or that way, so we
Speaker 1: might want to not do that. And then the studio
Speaker 1: just being like, let's fucking make money. I think if
Speaker 1: it weren't like an Arnold movie in nineteen ninety three, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it would have been fine, but they just kind of
Speaker 1: they they fumbled.
Speaker 4: I disagree with what John mctriner said, Like if they
Speaker 4: just would have toned down the fucking marketing and just
Speaker 4: like because like you said, it's it's not a gigantic film,
Speaker 4: like it's yeah, it's like a smaller kind of story.
Speaker 7: So it's basically your fucking rich, dick white guy who
Speaker 7: fucking like goes to like Duke or whatever and like
Speaker 7: fucking gets like a couple of too many d.
Speaker 1: Wise, and it has become CEO, you know, and they're like.
Speaker 4: Like a million West events from the Men Ducks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's basically that, like, yeah, he's still fucking extremely successful,
Speaker 1: but yeah he's not like the fucking eighth richest man
Speaker 1: in the world.
Speaker 4: He's like the two.
Speaker 1: Hundred and forty seventh. Like ooh, would have fucking disaster.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, fuck that. Like you had fucking lightning
Speaker 1: in a bottle, but they're not lightning in a bottle
Speaker 1: and actually the opposite of that, but this is the
Speaker 1: asset or bottle inside lightning.
Speaker 4: I don't know the head of Columbia tude, it's just
Speaker 4: a fucking eat like which we'll find out as it
Speaker 4: goes further along, even though we kind of already showed
Speaker 4: it anyway. Okay, so as far as last section here,
Speaker 4: I think it goes without saying that the closer they
Speaker 4: got to the film's immovable release date, the more stressful
Speaker 4: things were becoming, especially for John McTiernan, who would tell
Speaker 4: Empire magazine in twenty twelve that the last stretch of
Speaker 4: production was quote the worst time I've ever had in
Speaker 4: this business. And keep in mind that directing Rollerball basically
Speaker 4: resulting in that fucker going to prison. So because first
Speaker 4: day there was probably like eight hour workdays. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's actually a story in that same Empire article that's
Speaker 4: like a great example of how tight of a schedule
Speaker 4: they were under while filming. It comes from Austin O'Brien,
Speaker 4: and he's talking about working with an obviously stressed out
Speaker 4: John McTiernan. He says, quote, I do remember that the
Speaker 4: deeple we got in, John looked more tired, more haggard.
Speaker 4: He was great with me when we got something right,
Speaker 4: he turned into a little kid and started jumping around.
Speaker 4: But there was one day when I got a sense
Speaker 4: of how under the gun he was. We'd built a
Speaker 4: new York Skyline inside the studio, and I was hanging
Speaker 4: from a gargoyle wearing a harness. So it was like
Speaker 4: one of the last scenes in the movie. But anyway,
Speaker 4: so he says, it was so tight that I literally
Speaker 4: couldn't breathe, but I was too nervous to say anything,
Speaker 4: and I passed out for a few seconds. People were
Speaker 4: cutting off my clothes and I got kind of scary.
Speaker 4: But I do remember m Churning coming up afterwards and saying,
Speaker 4: in situations like these, I don't care what's happening, You
Speaker 4: tell me and we'll fix it. Don't be afraid. You
Speaker 4: haven't done anything wrong, but we cannot afford to stop shooting.
Speaker 3: Oh cool, But yeah, wait, those are two completely different messages. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so wait, I don't understand like he said, hey, hey,
Speaker 3: your safety, no matter what happens, you got to tell
Speaker 3: me when sit like that is happening so we can
Speaker 3: fix it.
Speaker 4: I think I think he meant like he like just
Speaker 4: the fact that sorry, this is just me sticking for
Speaker 4: Johnny Kernon, I guess, but I think he meant that, like,
Speaker 4: if it's too tight, you gotta tell us before where
Speaker 4: it becomes an issue where you pass out and we're wait,
Speaker 4: like we have to.
Speaker 3: We have to wait for you. The real problem with
Speaker 3: the situation is we just wasted I don't know, forty
Speaker 3: five seconds waiting for you to wake up. That was
Speaker 3: fucking that's that's like half a million dollars right there.
Speaker 4: When we could have like we had to wait for
Speaker 4: you to like wake up and then they had to
Speaker 4: double check you, and like there's an hour gone now
Speaker 4: when we could have just loosened the straps, you know,
Speaker 4: So just like just tell us next to me. Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Get where the bus man's coming from. You know. It's
Speaker 1: just like, look, if you die, we're fucked. So don't die.
Speaker 1: So if you tell us this thing to recast, we'll
Speaker 1: spend three minutes having you not die, but we want
Speaker 1: to spend twenty five minutes of you dying, because fuck, you're.
Speaker 4: Like a Bruce Lee into the Dragon thing with him die.
Speaker 4: It's where they're like like what are they just like
Speaker 4: they're using like doubles and stuff like that or so
Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know. Brindley with the crow, well, yeah,
Speaker 4: Bradley with the Crow, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: The end of the movie Rest in Peace.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, unquote, but mccernyon basically admitted in that same
Speaker 4: article that the reason the tone of the movie is
Speaker 4: kind of all over the place is because the head
Speaker 4: of the studio, which was Mark Canton, kept going back
Speaker 4: and forth about whether their last Action hero should be
Speaker 4: more of a kid's movie or more of an action movie,
Speaker 4: which mciernan says led to a watered down version of
Speaker 4: the script, and that as they entered the last few
Speaker 4: weeks of production, they were quote just trying to get
Speaker 4: the damn thing finished. It also seems like the stress
Speaker 4: was making mcinernan paranoid, with Shane Black talking about a
Speaker 4: time that he and David are not visited the set
Speaker 4: and one of the studio executives told him that they
Speaker 4: should stop by Arnold's trailer, which they did. Apparently this
Speaker 4: pissed off John mctoernan, who later accused them of conspiring
Speaker 4: against him. And this just makes me definitely start seeing
Speaker 4: how this is the same dude who went to prison
Speaker 4: for line to the FBI about hiring someone who illegally
Speaker 4: wired tap like the roller because he ended up like
Speaker 4: he ended up hiring someone who illegally wire tap the
Speaker 4: Rollerball producer's phone, Like once he started having problems on Rollerball,
Speaker 4: he's probably like getting flashbacks from last section. Year was
Speaker 4: like never again, never again, and then just hire someone
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the only difference is whatever illegal shit he pulled
Speaker 3: on last section, Hero, he didn't get caught for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a crime if you don't get charged.
Speaker 1: It's true, just saying, but.
Speaker 4: Not everyone was having a bad time. It seems like
Speaker 4: most of the actors enjoyed the experience. Austin O'Brien speaks
Speaker 4: pretty fondly of it, as does Charles Dance, who spoke
Speaker 4: very highly of Arnold, saying, quote, he creates an extraordinary
Speaker 4: atmosphere on set because everybody in the film business is
Speaker 4: rampant with insecurity and paranoia, which, yeah, apparent. Yeah, everybody's
Speaker 4: nauseatingly nice to each other for fear of their next job.
Speaker 4: But the more I worked, the more I realized that
Speaker 4: the good atmosphere actually came from Arnold unquote. I kind
Speaker 4: of a feeling that like he just kind of seems
Speaker 4: like he brings that intergy to any movie set that
Speaker 4: he's working on. Yeah. Sure, but I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 4: if he dialed it up a little bit for this
Speaker 4: movie due to him being like executive producer and the
Speaker 4: director being under an incredible manst like basically having to
Speaker 4: like bring the situation back after you got John mc cunnan.
Speaker 3: Like, oh my god, yeah that's true.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you guys are conspiring against me. He's joking. He's joking,
Speaker 4: like stirming off.
Speaker 1: The only other thing I know Charles Dance from is
Speaker 1: from Game of Thrones, and he's fucking amazing that And
Speaker 1: I know you haven't watched it, Aaron, because it's fantasy
Speaker 1: and okay, really like the prime time of that show
Speaker 1: was when fucking Charles Dance was on it. Because that
Speaker 1: guy just he's just the fucking he's just the beast.
Speaker 1: I don't know a better way to put it, but
Speaker 1: like him as a fucking character and him as an
Speaker 1: actor in him as whatever fucking dad Lanister whatever his
Speaker 1: name is. In that scene when he's talking to Taiwan, yeah,
Speaker 1: and a scene when he's talking to the other kid
Speaker 1: and he's fucking like, uh taking the skin off a
Speaker 1: deer or whatever. I'm like, this guy's fucking amazing.
Speaker 4: Like just good acting or the characters a badass or
Speaker 4: just both it's.
Speaker 3: Oh, well written character, but he's probably like perfectly cast in.
Speaker 1: It, perfectly cast. So I imagine either he is going to
Speaker 1: be like the fucking best dude, like a fucking professional,
Speaker 1: you know, he's just out there like carving and cut.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh man, hey, fucking good, take good take, Govda.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you know he's out Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you were just like super intimidating too, Hello, that's a
Speaker 1: fucking good okay, gov Da. Uh, I'm hungry. I am
Speaker 1: a worst kind of sell us. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: can't do. But just anyways, he's either like that or
Speaker 1: just a giant fucking asshole. But what you're saying about
Speaker 1: him and like Arnold bringing the levity and everything, I'm
Speaker 1: just hoping he was out there fucking giving a good time.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, no, that guy seems school as fuck.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad he was in Game of Thrones and
Speaker 1: in Last Night shar I'm glad he's saying good things
Speaker 1: about Last Night Actioncenaro because it makes you feel better
Speaker 1: about Game of Thrones because later on on that show
Speaker 1: things probably didn't go so well.
Speaker 4: But as soon as there, yeah, he definitely had a
Speaker 4: good time with this, but uh yeah, so anyway, the
Speaker 4: only other thing I wanted to mention that happened during
Speaker 4: these last few weeks of production was that Arnold received
Speaker 4: the International Star of the Decade award at the nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety three Show West Convention in Las Vegas, which was
Speaker 4: hosted by the National Association of Theater Owners or NATO,
Speaker 4: which was an odd choice because that acronym was definitely
Speaker 4: already being used by the time, but like by a
Speaker 4: much more well known organization, like when they came up
Speaker 4: with that. But whatever, I guess.
Speaker 1: North American Tang observers, right, yeah, exactly, people who make
Speaker 1: sure Tang's good.
Speaker 4: They did actually change their name in March of this
Speaker 4: year to the to Cinema United, So yeah, which hopefully
Speaker 4: inspires the Independent Theater Owners Coalition the IOC to do
Speaker 4: the same.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the SOFIA MANN and that Cinema United men,
Speaker 1: so you're.
Speaker 4: Come see, like, that's exactly why I was wanted the
Speaker 4: Independent Theater Orders Coalition the same, which is i t
Speaker 4: o C. Maybe they'll't block me on Instagram for suggesting
Speaker 4: that they change the name the Coalition of Unaffiliated National
Speaker 4: Theaters because their theaters are usually filled with a bunch
Speaker 4: of pretentious to unts, you know, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, this is basically the fucking Team America thing, or
Speaker 1: it's like Screen Actors Guild, Film Actress Guild. You can
Speaker 1: figure out.
Speaker 4: The exactly Joseph is better because it was off the
Speaker 4: top of his head and mind took me an hour
Speaker 4: to right. But whatever, probably I.
Speaker 1: Always get come comeing off my head.
Speaker 2: Was just on Joe's tongue, come on the tip of
Speaker 2: all right, cut all this out.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's comedy Gold.
Speaker 4: I can't it's comedy Gold. Okay, anyway, okay, okay, Now
Speaker 4: we got to leave it in because of that show West,
Speaker 4: which is actually a convention that's still held today, although
Speaker 4: it's called CinemaCon. Now have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard of CinemaCon.
Speaker 4: Okay, which and I believe it's Cinema con. So that's
Speaker 4: a convention. Yeah, I believe it's. It's five days long,
Speaker 4: and according to their website, it's the largest and most
Speaker 4: important gathering of movie theater owners from around the world.
Speaker 4: It was also and still seems to be a pretty
Speaker 4: important event for movie studios as well, who use the
Speaker 4: event to persuade the attending theater owners to book their
Speaker 4: movies because they're going to be huge box office hits
Speaker 4: that you should probably like goett to put them in
Speaker 4: multiple theaters because these movies are gonna be huge. So
Speaker 4: it's basically like from what I understand, they just by
Speaker 4: hosting a presentation event that seems like it's similar to
Speaker 4: the San Diego Comic Con panels.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Cinema Con is now a huge source of trailers. Yes,
Speaker 3: anay exactly.
Speaker 4: So they show extended trailers or reels from upcoming big releases,
Speaker 4: which I believe sometimes include intros or panels featuring the
Speaker 4: actors that start in the films, like the pictures that
Speaker 4: are looking at back then had like a bunch of
Speaker 4: like a Sylvester Stallone and Sharon I was gonna say Stone,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I was gonna say Stallone, but yeah, Sharon
Speaker 4: Stone is like a bunch of actors. But the Sharon
Speaker 4: s it's still yes she it was her ghost actually,
Speaker 4: But this the one they had this year was what
Speaker 4: I say, it's in. It was in March, I think,
Speaker 4: but Tom Cruise was there. He had pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio,
Speaker 4: like still like a bunch of there was Ryan Gossling
Speaker 4: on stage. I think the Thunderbolts did a panel, okay,
Speaker 4: and Disney is like the only There was an article
Speaker 4: complaining about the fact that Disney is the only one
Speaker 4: that live streams it because it's extremely uh exclusive, yes
Speaker 4: to the press and the theater owners. So there's treaders
Speaker 4: that they do sink to drop now like that Nick
Speaker 4: Naked Gun trailer came out. Yeah, Jack, Yes, after a
Speaker 4: debut from that, it's obviously changed a little bit because
Speaker 4: they'll actually drop stairs. But before, like back in ninety three,
Speaker 4: they would see stuff before anybody else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, quick question. You said Tom Cruise was there and
Speaker 1: he had pictures of leonnauto attach.
Speaker 4: No, sorry, there were pictures of the pictures on their
Speaker 4: website of Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio. Okay, there, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think pictures of video.
Speaker 1: I don't know either you did or didn't, but that's
Speaker 1: what I heard.
Speaker 4: He was passing out pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker 1: He's just signing it. I don't know what he was saying.
Speaker 1: Would Tom Cruise sign a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio as
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise or you sign it as Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker 4: I mean, all I can think of his Lenning signing
Speaker 4: his own picture and giving it.
Speaker 1: But I okay, this is completely off topic, but if
Speaker 1: you ever got a office shop eron, this has been
Speaker 1: in my brain for twenty years. I am going to
Speaker 1: do that, like I've been waiting because picture me and
Speaker 1: it says have a good summer, Joe, And you're gonna
Speaker 1: put that on your fucking desk.
Speaker 4: So you gotta do it. You gotta do it as
Speaker 4: a as like an actual like a headshot though yeah yeah, no, yeah.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be like bad shot. So I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: like I've kept this a secret forever.
Speaker 4: I mean, you can do it now and we can
Speaker 4: hang it up. I've never had it, no, I know.
Speaker 4: I'm just trying to think, like I mean, I I
Speaker 4: could do yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But I think what he's really aiming for is
Speaker 3: the awkward conversations you have.
Speaker 1: To have with you.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't be awkward for me, Like why is this
Speaker 4: for other people? Who's this?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: Why is this forty year old guicing have a good summer?
Speaker 4: That's uh, that's that's Joe. Yeah, I just don't explain
Speaker 4: past that.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so it basically it's like comic con, but
Speaker 4: like not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the reason a lot of like especially before,
Speaker 3: a lot of trailers didn't come out is because they're
Speaker 3: selling the theater owners. It's not like they.
Speaker 4: Wanted exclusive and yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's also not always like trailer trailers. It's
Speaker 3: always just like clips from the movies. Yeah, probably ship
Speaker 3: that's unfinished.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, so I'm assuming it's a lot more
Speaker 4: finished now though, because if they're gonna yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: but yeah, it's a very big event now, but I'm
Speaker 4: pretty sure it was a smaller scale back in the
Speaker 4: day because like even comic Con wasn't always like the
Speaker 4: big announcement event that it is now, right, which I
Speaker 4: guess no would make sense because superhero movies weren't like
Speaker 4: a yeah age thing until like movies were not a
Speaker 4: thing that you got a comic con until like the
Speaker 4: mid two thousands, Like I guess, well, I guess there
Speaker 4: was some stuff earlier than that, but it wasn't that
Speaker 4: was not the point.
Speaker 3: Comic Con really was like just a bunch of comic
Speaker 3: nerds and that's it. It's very around.
Speaker 1: Okay, I was saying, I've went to one comic con
Speaker 1: that was two thousand. I probably mentioned this before on
Speaker 1: the show, but no, Brett and I met san Lee. Hey,
Speaker 1: so how's it going?
Speaker 4: Could did you Okay?
Speaker 1: That's a different that's a different story. Yeah, we just
Speaker 1: like cut liners like stand here, like what's this signed for?
Speaker 1: Like Alford Malina. I'm like, hell cool. It was just
Speaker 1: like handling. I had no idea who that was. I
Speaker 1: went out there fucking talked to him like, hey man,
Speaker 1: big fan. He's like thanks, and he signed a Spider
Speaker 1: Man two hat and he like gave it to me.
Speaker 1: I'm like cool. I'm like, I have no idea what
Speaker 1: this guy is.
Speaker 3: Oh, oh, you mean like a baseball cap that says
Speaker 3: Spider Man two. I thought you meant you got doc
Speaker 3: Ox Fedora signed.
Speaker 1: No, he was just like sign and ship or whatever.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who he was.
Speaker 4: Like your story was like, yeah, we just walked in
Speaker 4: front of somebody and like, what are they gonna do? Nerds?
Speaker 1: They did that and that was the other thing. We
Speaker 1: did that in another line too, and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's for the Hobbits or whatever, like cool, and it
Speaker 1: was like Elijah Wood and fucking Sam No, no, no,
Speaker 1: Sean Aston and everything, and like everybody kept like pushing
Speaker 1: towards the front and those fuckers like like Elijah Wood
Speaker 1: and kicking Sean Aston. They got they got fucking Sarah.
Speaker 1: They like left and they were like running and motherfuckers
Speaker 1: were chasing him. Jesus Christ. They were like, we got
Speaker 1: to get away from these nerds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Simpsons buy mo on Sci Fiicon.
Speaker 4: It's like the Simpsons.
Speaker 3: Yeah with Luke Skywalker exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right here, never mind, Hey, wait, I thought you
Speaker 4: was hurt.
Speaker 3: I think about that is.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you got you got patus. But I think
Speaker 1: that was like right on the cusp of being like
Speaker 1: comic like comics. Yeah, con and then wait, what are
Speaker 1: they doing everything?
Speaker 4: So were they doing the panels and stuff?
Speaker 3: Obviously they were so like. But the thing is about
Speaker 3: hall H. Hall H is like the big, big hall
Speaker 3: and that's where they do all the huge, huge movie
Speaker 3: releases now but back in the day, there weren't that
Speaker 3: many huge movie releases, so you might get one or
Speaker 3: two of those like nowadays. If you go to hall H,
Speaker 3: Warner Brothers will do a presentation. They'll they'll do like
Speaker 3: two comic book movies and then they'll just give you
Speaker 3: a bunch of other ship like a bunch of their
Speaker 3: other big summer blockbusters. Yeah, like like I saw the
Speaker 3: mad Max Fury road trailer there. I saw trailers for
Speaker 3: a bunch of horror movies when I was in there. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just you know, it's just studios unloading. Yeah, exactly. But
Speaker 3: back in the day, it's like there was one or
Speaker 3: two really big panels and then it was just a
Speaker 3: bunch of you know, bullshit. It was just a bunch
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the one time we went.
Speaker 4: I don't remember any panels that obviously, right, so that
Speaker 4: would have been like Yeah.
Speaker 3: Also you have to like plan to go to the panels.
Speaker 3: They're not just happening on the on the con floor,
Speaker 3: so you have to like you have to like get
Speaker 3: in lines. Yeah, yeah, for hall h you have to,
Speaker 3: like at least when I was going lines. Yeah, clearly apparently.
Speaker 1: Clearly the way it was a total diigmad It was
Speaker 1: a total big move by me, But it was just.
Speaker 3: So somebody didn't get to see Elijah Wood and Seawan
Speaker 3: asked and run away because of you.
Speaker 1: I just like walked up there. I was like I'm
Speaker 1: standing there and I was like cool.
Speaker 3: It's one last person who got to meet Alfred Molina
Speaker 3: of Frieda.
Speaker 1: You know, I had that fucking spider Man two hat
Speaker 1: signman for a long time.
Speaker 4: Somehow it got center yeah at the Big House.
Speaker 1: Somehow it got very moldy, and eventually at some point,
Speaker 1: like the mold took over the bill which she signed out,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is kind of useless now and
Speaker 1: I think I just chucked it.
Speaker 4: It's so weird.
Speaker 1: So that's my Alfred show. Hey Alfred, if you're listening,
Speaker 1: christ well, thank you. Second of all, you know, get
Speaker 1: on the show. Maybe you give me another hat. I
Speaker 1: know who you are now, I'm a big fan. Now
Speaker 1: I was lying in two thousand day, but in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five.
Speaker 3: I know that's no reason to give me a moldy
Speaker 3: hat exactly.
Speaker 1: Anyways, back on there.
Speaker 4: Okay, So yeah, so show Wes nineteen ninety three was
Speaker 4: held at Bally's Las Vegas, which I thought, you'm a
Speaker 4: total fitness Yeah, well there's got to be a gym
Speaker 4: in there somewhere, Like it's the same company, right.
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I'm not.
Speaker 4: I don't know, or it was the same company. No,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I think this seems like I swear.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Well there's also the pinball company Bally's.
Speaker 3: Just I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, anyway, So Columbia hosted a luncheon because that's what
Speaker 4: they did back then. They did luncheons, So that's what's
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like, I don't think it was nearly
Speaker 4: as big. So Columbia hosted a luncheon that included Arnold
Speaker 4: intowing a four minute Last Action YEARLD trailer, and then
Speaker 4: the Columbia execs hyping it up, saying it's more than
Speaker 4: just a movie, it's the epitome of a film for
Speaker 4: the entire global marketplace, which damn, yeah whatever, But yeah,
Speaker 4: the luncheon part is also why I think it was
Speaker 4: like a smaller film, which whatever. At least they're consistent
Speaker 4: with their praise, I guess. Anyway, there were two reasons
Speaker 4: that brought this up to convention. One has to do
Speaker 4: with the impact on theaters when it was released, which
Speaker 4: we'll end up talking about later, which actually forgot to include.
Speaker 4: We'll get back to it anyway. But the other is
Speaker 4: how Universal handled their presentation of Jurassic Park, which was
Speaker 4: basically the complete opposite approach that comb from the way
Speaker 4: Columbia presented last section Hero. So from what I found,
Speaker 4: it seems like Jurassic Park wasn't announced as part of
Speaker 4: Show West, even though Universal did end up holding an
Speaker 4: event for it. So according to the Chicago Tribune, sorry, so,
Speaker 4: according to a Chicago Tribune article, instead of holding a luncheon,
Speaker 4: which I believe was like, like the was anyone can
Speaker 4: attend those? Like that was okay? Yeah, instead of it
Speaker 4: holding a luncheon, apparently, Universal rented out one of Bally's
Speaker 4: suites where they hosted a jungle themed invite only screening
Speaker 4: shindig of the Jurassic Park trailer for about one hundred exhibitors,
Speaker 4: which I'm assuming we're the owners of, like the big
Speaker 4: theater chain. Yeah, and Universe Will reportedly accomplished two things
Speaker 4: by doing this. One was generating positive buzz for the
Speaker 4: trailer while also alienating pretty much anyone not invited to
Speaker 4: the screening, which I'm sure Universe was like, so and yeah,
Speaker 4: what are they gonna do with not show Jurassic Park? Okay, hey, yeah,
Speaker 4: I want you to understand, but it's like it's just weird,
Speaker 4: Like if I'm interesting, how Universal can You continues to
Speaker 4: show how confident they are that the Jurassic Park is
Speaker 4: going to be successful without resorting to any of like
Speaker 4: the boastful bullshit that Co of Columbia was pulling with
Speaker 4: Last Second Hero, Like confident enough to whard they're actually
Speaker 4: excluding potential theater owners from trailer screenings because they know
Speaker 4: they're going to book the movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course they're not going to have any choice.
Speaker 3: You're just they want to make movie. Sorry, if they
Speaker 3: want to make money during the summer, they're gonna have
Speaker 3: to play our movie exactly.
Speaker 4: So again, it just ruins me that that mad Men
Speaker 4: meme taking that wrong way. But still like, I don't
Speaker 4: think about you it all, dude, Like yeah, So moving on,
Speaker 4: filming wraps on Last Section Hero either April first, April third,
Speaker 4: depending on the source, which as I believe that I
Speaker 4: mentioned before, or which left ten weeks for post production
Speaker 4: instead of the average And I think it was like
Speaker 4: according to Google search, was like six months like anywhere
Speaker 4: with tween weeks. Yeah, so ten weeks what uh and
Speaker 4: a half? Two and a half months. Yeah. In order
Speaker 4: to do this, the post production team ended up working
Speaker 4: six eighteen hour days per week, for ten goddamn weeks Jesus,
Speaker 4: which I was gonna say was insane, but then it
Speaker 4: made me curious, like, do you guys think that this
Speaker 4: consisted of different shifts that didn't stop for eighteen hours,
Speaker 4: or is it like did each individual person have working
Speaker 4: eighteen hour shifts six days a week, because, like, each
Speaker 4: person working eighteen hour shifts six days a week is
Speaker 4: fucking crazy, especially when you consider the time it takes
Speaker 4: to wind down after a shift. And I'm curious if, like,
Speaker 4: although I'm curious if like these like after working a
Speaker 4: week of these shifts, you're so tired that it's like
Speaker 4: there's no wind down, Like it's just you just fall
Speaker 4: fucking asleep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I.
Speaker 4: Don't know, Like there's no way that they wouldn't mention
Speaker 4: if it was like, yeah, they were working like it
Speaker 4: was an eighteen hour overall shift. No, it was different people.
Speaker 3: And I think people in film.
Speaker 4: It's like working in The Men in Black, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: No, I think people in film are used to working
Speaker 3: like that because film is kind of feast or famine. Right,
Speaker 3: you're either working on a movie or you're not. Yeah,
Speaker 3: if you're not working on a movie, you're doing nothing
Speaker 3: and making up the time exactly.
Speaker 4: Working on the movie but uh so yeah. In order
Speaker 4: in order to relieve stress, Columbia reportedly hired an in
Speaker 4: house messus, which just reminded me of like the half
Speaker 4: assed gestures that they pull out restaurants when they're trying
Speaker 4: to They're like, you know, you're working on Christmas, even
Speaker 4: though you requested it off. But it's okay because we
Speaker 4: bought you guys costco pizza, because.
Speaker 3: We allowed you guys to have a pot luck in
Speaker 3: the break.
Speaker 4: Crew exactly, it only costs us nine dollars, Like yeah, but.
Speaker 1: We like, you can't use any of ourse civil rhythm
Speaker 1: yeahs money to actually wash whoa.
Speaker 4: You know you're not supposed to drinking soda, okay, Jesus,
Speaker 4: isn't that like I don't we're allowed to open the
Speaker 4: apple juice is at the restaurant Erica. I don't know,
Speaker 4: something like that, but the apple just were like actually
Speaker 4: like tree top apple juices that you would have to like,
Speaker 4: you know, like.
Speaker 3: Martin Elly.
Speaker 6: They got upset about the waters with somebody one time too,
Speaker 6: and I was like, it's the sawny nobody wants to drink.
Speaker 6: You'd rather drink the tap.
Speaker 3: Yeah, drinking because I'm desperate, right, Like I quickly looked
Speaker 3: it up.
Speaker 1: Bally's, Bally Total Fitness, Bally's Slash Midway, the Pinball Company,
Speaker 1: and Bally's Betting are all kind of related. They've all
Speaker 1: been kind of uh, exchange hands over and over and over,
Speaker 1: but they're not like separate like like other.
Speaker 4: It's not the same company though.
Speaker 1: It's not, but they're all It's like, uh, it.
Speaker 3: Might be a situation where one company was split into
Speaker 3: three parts, like three.
Speaker 1: Divisions, not necessarily that. It's kind of like, you know
Speaker 1: a couple of people who'se L his name is Smith.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, like they're related.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean his father and son.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like I see, okay, gotcha.
Speaker 4: Anyways, So, for some for some reason, about halfway through
Speaker 4: post production, Columbia Pictures, specifically Mark Canton, watched the movie
Speaker 4: and decided that even though they hadn't finished the film's score,
Speaker 4: or finished the special effects for the action scenes or
Speaker 4: finished dubbing it yet, which made a lot of the
Speaker 4: dialogue impossible to understand, despite all that, Mark cann was like, Hey,
Speaker 4: let's have a test screening. Like it was so unfinished
Speaker 4: that even Arnold later admitted that the movie was quote
Speaker 4: shown in the roughest form I've ever seen a movie
Speaker 4: screen Jesus. So they were really setting themselves up for
Speaker 4: success on that one. Yeah, yeah, so on May.
Speaker 3: First, the worst version of this movie you could possibly see?
Speaker 3: What are your notes?
Speaker 4: So on me? On May first, nineteen ninety three, they
Speaker 4: held a screening just north of Long Beach in Lakewood, California,
Speaker 4: and in addition to John McK tiernan and Arnold, Columbia's
Speaker 4: top executives were also in attendance. A research firm filled
Speaker 4: the one thousand seat theater, which is that is that
Speaker 4: a gigantic theater.
Speaker 3: That's a big theater.
Speaker 4: I think that's like a that's like that iMX theater.
Speaker 4: That's got to be close to Yeah, I think so Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 4: they filled it with an audience that was unaware of
Speaker 4: what film they'd be watching, which I'm pretty sure is
Speaker 4: how it always works with test audiences, right, Like, yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to know an advantage.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I sent up for a thing where you
Speaker 4: can be a part of a test audience and the
Speaker 4: only info they give you before him is what type
Speaker 4: of movie it's going to be, and I think maybe
Speaker 4: the potential rating, like I know, if it ended up
Speaker 4: going to Wicked, but I think she first she's like,
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's gonna be Wicked or movefasa.
Speaker 3: So it was just like family movie, yeah or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did that at SS State in like two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, and it was like a kind of
Speaker 1: it was like an American idol type thing. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't remember. It was like a I mean, this
Speaker 1: is nineteen years ago. I don't remember. It was like
Speaker 1: a satire on it or like a trying to capitalize.
Speaker 3: Wait, like, oh, you mean the movie was about like
Speaker 3: an American idol context. So I remember what was that called.
Speaker 4: I have no idea what you guys are talking about.
Speaker 1: There was, yeah, but that that see that might have
Speaker 1: been a different or it just came out many years later.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll have to look it up. But
Speaker 1: there was like there was one with fucking Andy Samberg
Speaker 1: that came out like a couple.
Speaker 3: Oh that was with it was a top star not
Speaker 3: pop star?
Speaker 1: Was it was not that the comedy the hot Rod movie, yes,
Speaker 1: Hot Rods, the Hot Red movie yes, No, is that
Speaker 1: what it's called? Hot Rod? Hot Rod?
Speaker 4: Yes, I have seen that. I heard it's good too.
Speaker 3: No, it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't one of those. It was something else.
Speaker 3: That other stuff is an Andy Samberg movie.
Speaker 1: No, I'm saying it is not the Andy Samberg So.
Speaker 4: It was kind of like pop Star, but it wasn't Pop.
Speaker 1: America exactly American Dream that I was thinking, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: that come out.
Speaker 3: That was two thousand and six, April two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: Okay, then it was probably that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good movie.
Speaker 4: Huh. I've never seen it, obviously, I can remember that
Speaker 4: I've seen it, and I watched test screen and it
Speaker 4: was so you gave it up? Eh? I mean, did
Speaker 4: you scorecards?
Speaker 1: I don't remember. This was nineteen years ago. They're barking
Speaker 1: up the wrong fucking bush like a bunch of fucking
Speaker 1: like early twenties, jaded, fucking San Francisco State kids are
Speaker 1: not going to go fuck about that movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Anyway, According to the Nancy Griffith Bookitt and Run, the
Speaker 4: test audience started hooting and hollering with excitement once it
Speaker 4: was announced that they'd be watching armed Schwarzenegger movie. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: the excitement didn't last long once, they wouldn't say exactly
Speaker 4: how incomplete the movie was, with the book saying that
Speaker 4: the audience started becoming bored about halfway through it, and
Speaker 4: by the third act, when Danny and Slater cross over
Speaker 4: into the real real world, the audience was basically sitting
Speaker 4: there in a catatonic state Jesus, with one person later saying, quote,
Speaker 4: the movie lay there like a big fried egg unquote,
Speaker 4: And I know that's supposed to be like it sounds
Speaker 4: like it's not supposed to be a good thing. But
Speaker 4: I love like Fridays, Like you get a couple of
Speaker 4: slices of toast, some hash brands pole with a hot sauce.
Speaker 4: Baby got a breakfast going like sounds good to me.
Speaker 4: But I get that's not supposed to be good, like
Speaker 4: a big fried egg.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know because.
Speaker 6: I'm like a Friday egg. What did you add it to?
Speaker 4: Because when you said you had Friday, like I had
Speaker 4: a Friday this morning, I was like, oh that sounds yeah.
Speaker 6: You just you just you just took me back to
Speaker 6: breakfast right now, and I was like, oh, that was
Speaker 6: a good breakfast.
Speaker 1: I mean shit, I can't wait till Laura fucking heres
Speaker 1: this episode, because good lord, that woman has been obsessed
Speaker 1: with that's my wife obsessed with eggs recently. Like it's
Speaker 1: a whole thing where I'm like, I'm going to the store,
Speaker 1: don't fucking don't say it, don't fucking say it, get eggs,
Speaker 1: and I buy eggs and then like three days later,
Speaker 1: I'm like an egg they're all fucking higher bolt or eating.
Speaker 1: That woman's just obsessed with eggs now.
Speaker 4: It's all where she's just like hard boiling them then
Speaker 4: like eating them.
Speaker 1: Well okay, ship, Well she's very so she doesn't heart
Speaker 1: boil them. It's medium boiled at best, but she's just like.
Speaker 4: Wait medium, how does that does it leave? Like the
Speaker 4: egg run? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the oak's a little running, so it's good in
Speaker 1: like ramin and stuff. But okay, that woman's just been
Speaker 1: fucking obsessed with eggs like the last like three months.
Speaker 1: Of course that's when the prices go up. So I marry.
Speaker 6: There's a song from Lamb before Time too that I
Speaker 6: gotta send you.
Speaker 1: Is like, yeah, forbidden Fruit.
Speaker 6: It's just about eggs.
Speaker 4: So it's okay, do you guys do like eggs salad?
Speaker 4: Because I like eggs salad.
Speaker 1: No, Chris, No, I like eggs pretty much.
Speaker 4: Every way, but your head down to your legs. That
Speaker 4: was the something from the nineties.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Good it's stupids it your head down to your legs.
Speaker 4: I like eggs from my head down.
Speaker 3: To my legs, all right.
Speaker 1: No, anyway, speaking of eggs, I had a conversation yesterday.
Speaker 1: My friend was drinking some water and then started choking.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, who's fucking dumb? This is why God
Speaker 1: doesn't exist, because like, uh, you know, whose fucking idea
Speaker 1: was to have like the the drinking hole in the
Speaker 1: breathing hole in the same place in your throat? And
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, I saw some like TikTok of like,
Speaker 1: uh you know whose idea was to have the balls
Speaker 1: on the outside. And I'm like, yeah, that's dumb. It's
Speaker 1: like elephants don't have that. I'm like, yeah, but elephants could,
Speaker 1: like they have a trunk, they could just like go
Speaker 1: and like suck their own balls with their trunk. So
Speaker 1: why so maybe that is a proof of God. Maybe
Speaker 1: God doesn't want you to fucking suck your own balls
Speaker 1: because elephants gonulna be doing all day. But their balls
Speaker 1: are on the inside, so it kind of it kind
Speaker 1: of shook my world.
Speaker 3: That's that line from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's a dogs, No,
Speaker 3: it's Jack McBrayer is having trouble having sex with his
Speaker 3: wife on their honeymoon, and he's like, I just don't
Speaker 3: understand why God would put a playground next to a sanitation.
Speaker 4: Dump or something. Well that the whole thing with that
Speaker 4: makes like anytime anyone mentions evolution for some reason, my
Speaker 4: mind goes to, like, yeah, that makes sense because like
Speaker 4: your butthole is like exactly the way it should be
Speaker 4: because like imagine like it has to be exactly that
Speaker 4: tight but exactly able to do what it does, because
Speaker 4: otherwise you'd have to buy a plug.
Speaker 8: For it, because they'd be like we're gonna start thinking,
Speaker 8: like they'd be this whole industry of like plugs that
Speaker 8: you have to buy, like, oh, I just bought a
Speaker 8: plug like for it, like check out this new plug
Speaker 8: that I got, the new plug or whatever.
Speaker 4: Just like because it's not tight enough. So like like
Speaker 4: it's the weirdest thing because every time I think it,
Speaker 4: then I started thinking about, like, man, what you don't
Speaker 4: tell people this? It is fucking weird. Don't tell people this, well,
Speaker 4: I will tell you this.
Speaker 1: You've never been in the dead sea, because.
Speaker 3: I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1: You're in there, you you're pure clenched that whole time
Speaker 1: because that salt water will get into your buttle super fast.
Speaker 4: Wait, so really you can you does it just hurt?
Speaker 1: It just it's just it like you know, the ocean,
Speaker 1: the ocean salty, like the ocean salty, but fucking dead
Speaker 1: sea is like fucking the ocean's a little bitch like
Speaker 1: float yeah, super EASi, so much like I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody's ever drowned in the dead sea before because like
Speaker 1: I don't think that's possible because it's fucking super salty.
Speaker 1: But you have to like clench your.
Speaker 3: You're just saying, the salt gets everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's coarse, it's but yeah, I'm just saying like
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like you're living your life. You're like,
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about everything getting in there.
Speaker 1: You don't need to worry about the best loose butthole
Speaker 1: line exactly. But then you go on the dead sea,
Speaker 1: You're like, fuck, maybe I do need a butt plug.
Speaker 1: I mean not for the usual reasons people need butt plugs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I should do cake, yeah, shit, saying it's it's rough
Speaker 1: out there, man.
Speaker 4: So another audience member reportedly said quote, I don't want
Speaker 4: to see arm being dragged down to where he's helpless
Speaker 4: like that. He's standing there talking about the boys father's
Speaker 4: death and the rain. It's very upsetting. And I suppose
Speaker 4: I guess we have heard it. Thank for that scene
Speaker 4: being cut that we watched, although I yes, like I
Speaker 4: think I said it before, but that scenees just what
Speaker 4: has slowed the pace of the film way down. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I'd love to give you guys more a few
Speaker 4: more reviews, but unfortunately, in an attempt to prevent low
Speaker 4: test scores from leaking to the press, Mark Kinton had
Speaker 4: the audience report cards collected before the research company could
Speaker 4: get them, and then later had them.
Speaker 3: Shredded and then barry in the desert next to ET's
Speaker 3: all those et video games.
Speaker 4: So, in addition to not wanting the scores leaked, Ken
Speaker 4: also did this in order to prevent Schwarzenegger or McTiernan
Speaker 4: from finding out about them due to their already tight schedule,
Speaker 4: later explaining saying like quote, I didn't want the director
Speaker 4: who had literally literally been working eighteen hour days or
Speaker 4: and our star to come up with fourty more ideas
Speaker 4: that would take three weeks. We didn't have three weeks.
Speaker 4: So when did the Shredder?
Speaker 1: They went, yeah, Mark, Mark Kenton's the reason this movie.
Speaker 4: Like what you were saying, like what was earlier? Like
Speaker 4: a guy that like I don't know anyway, So after
Speaker 4: the screening, Arnold mc ternan and the Columbia executives ended
Speaker 4: up having an emergency meeting at Shatzi on his restaurant.
Speaker 4: Of course, they all agreed that the reshoots needed to
Speaker 4: be done for the third act, but according to the book,
Speaker 4: it was understandably tough to judge what did and didn't
Speaker 4: work because the movie had been shown in such a
Speaker 4: rough form, which is what I don't understand about doing
Speaker 4: the whole thing. But okay, anyway, when we finished the meeting,
Speaker 4: thing real fast before I start pitching about stuff. But
Speaker 4: so yeah, before the meeting ended, Schwarzenegger McTiernan once again
Speaker 4: brought up the possibility of pushing back the release date
Speaker 4: in order to allow for like proper time for reshoots
Speaker 4: and any any sort of like fine tuning that the
Speaker 4: movie might need. Of course, Can once again shot them down,
Speaker 4: saying that postponing the release date would make it seem
Speaker 4: like the film was in trouble, with John mcinernan later
Speaker 4: saying of the studio's decision to stick with the June
Speaker 4: eighteenth release date, quote, the studio folks assured us that
Speaker 4: the movie was more likely to make money this way,
Speaker 4: that the amount of money that the studio would see
Speaker 4: would decrease by ten million per week for each week
Speaker 4: of the summer that you cut off. I'm not about
Speaker 4: to argue with things like that, unquote. And yeah, so
Speaker 4: like you can definitely start to understand like why he's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: like this is never happening again. Yeah, fucking bug him,
Speaker 4: bug him like with roller Wall, because like he just
Speaker 4: I don't know it. And something that sucks is that
Speaker 4: just a lot of it gets put on him and
Speaker 4: I don't know. But anyway, So the thing I don't
Speaker 4: understand about all this is like, what was the point
Speaker 4: of having the test screening then, because there obviously wasn't
Speaker 4: enough time to really do any of the stuff that
Speaker 4: you might usually do as a result of a poor
Speaker 4: test screening, Like the only thing I could think of
Speaker 4: is that Mark Canton was just like that delusional about
Speaker 4: how like about showing like a super rough cut of
Speaker 4: the film would go Yeah, Like maybe he was just
Speaker 4: like a like completely confident that it would go well
Speaker 4: and was then counting on that to generate positive like
Speaker 4: word of mouth basically about the movie.
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe where they.
Speaker 6: Were running out of that, like they're running out of
Speaker 6: time to get it done and.
Speaker 4: Just but there's no point of doing like to doing
Speaker 4: to do a.
Speaker 6: Help test s green it helps them decide on cutting.
Speaker 4: No, it doesn't because you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 3: Though he wanted his biases confirmed, like that's what he wanted,
Speaker 3: that it was good. Yeah, exactly, but he wanted to
Speaker 3: hear from a bunch of people. He needs his ego stroked.
Speaker 4: And it's been too long since I get that, Like,
Speaker 4: like I would get the cutting thing, but like you
Speaker 4: can cut little tiny stuff, but like the stuff that
Speaker 4: they were seeing was a whole third act thing. I
Speaker 4: don't know, Like you already know the media is gunning
Speaker 4: for your movie. Why would you show a version of
Speaker 4: it that's so unfinished that people can't understand the dialogue?
Speaker 4: Like it's just a movie full of bane from the
Speaker 4: Dark Knight Rises just like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, I'm sorry, you just got me upset.
Speaker 4: Like Chris, I'm seriously starting to think like Mark Canton
Speaker 4: had only seen he's only seen six movies before last year,
Speaker 4: that might actually be true. It's just this the Bonfard
Speaker 4: of the Vanities and like the first four places Academy movies,
Speaker 4: and that's it, that's always seen. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 4: Like almost every choice of the studio made for this
Speaker 4: movie is just fucking baffling to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah that yes, I.
Speaker 1: Mean it is like I I was alive and I
Speaker 1: was a Schwarzenegger fan back then, but I was a child.
Speaker 1: I didn't understand like studios and white things are bombs
Speaker 1: and everything, and like as I've discussed spending many times
Speaker 1: in this talking about this movie, and other times I'm
Speaker 1: just like I just don't get it. I don't know
Speaker 1: why this wasn't the ship because it's the ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But now like I'm I'm realizing this fucking Mark Head
Speaker 1: and guy in the studio interference is just like totally
Speaker 1: kind of fucking everything up and a joke out of it,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's already a joke. The whole fucking
Speaker 1: movie is a joke.
Speaker 3: You don't need to make.
Speaker 1: A joke out of a joke.
Speaker 4: You know, it's not even I just figured.
Speaker 6: I just figured the audience like I was like, man,
Speaker 6: everybody was just stupid in nineteen ninety three, like they
Speaker 6: just didn't get it.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well no, true. I mean technically, Samruanci Sisti.
Speaker 4: Professor, like Erica didn't mean to like cut you off
Speaker 4: with what you were saying. As far as like that, no, no,
Speaker 4: as far as like the test screen, like you do
Speaker 4: usually do that, but when you put it out in
Speaker 4: that rough of a form, it's, like the book was saying,
Speaker 4: it's fucking hard. You can't tell what doesn't work.
Speaker 3: So like if you're like also, you know, you're still
Speaker 3: gonna make a bunch of changes to it, like again
Speaker 3: to the point, I.
Speaker 4: Don't know, because that's what you usually do, you uh.
Speaker 4: What ic was saying, you fix the stuff that they're
Speaker 4: not laughing at. But if they can't understand the dialogue,
Speaker 4: they're not laughing. But the book even said like they
Speaker 4: were still kind of optimistic about it. So once we
Speaker 4: fix the dialog a little bit and whatever, like the
Speaker 4: jokes will start landing, which I'm sure was true. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but still, like, what was the fucking point of the
Speaker 4: of the I don't know, no clue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like when you show you don't show it
Speaker 1: to a test outings, you show it to other like, uh,
Speaker 1: people in your industry.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's like your fucking fifteen minute county sketch. You know,
Speaker 1: you're fucking like your song or whatever. You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know it would be tight if you added like
Speaker 1: a banjo here or whatever like that. That's the shit
Speaker 1: that you need. You know, you don't want to like
Speaker 1: like it, Go find your favorite band and go like
Speaker 1: on fucking YouTube or YouTube music or Spotify and listen
Speaker 1: to like rough Cut, like even the that was like yeah,
Speaker 1: the rough Cut shit, and you're like, or the fucking
Speaker 1: demo like this sounds like dog.
Speaker 4: Listen to some like the the biggest one I can
Speaker 4: think of off dub my head is, uh want the
Speaker 4: Spice girls want to be listen to the demo of that.
Speaker 1: It sounds like shit. I mean I don't know that, but.
Speaker 4: Well no, it's it's it doesn't have I was reading
Speaker 4: about it and that's all I know. Like the last
Speaker 4: person that tweeked it put the like the hook into it.
Speaker 4: So if you listen to an old demo of it,
Speaker 4: it's just like the song is like it's not it
Speaker 4: wouldn't have yeah anyway, Okay, So of course the media
Speaker 4: finds out about the screening, with Variety reporting a few
Speaker 4: days later that Columbia marketing guru said Gainess said that
Speaker 4: the audience reaction was absolutely sensational, adding quote, we now
Speaker 4: know that last section Hero is not only on target
Speaker 4: for opening day, but also that it's headed towards bullseye unquote.
Speaker 4: So yeah, they've decided to lie about it, and that
Speaker 4: makes sense whatever, Like, if you don't want anyone thinking
Speaker 4: that the movie's in trouble, well, if they're gonna lie
Speaker 4: about how the screening went, they might as well keep
Speaker 4: it up when asked about the audience test numbers. You're right, Like,
Speaker 4: as long as the lies that they make are somewhat believable,
Speaker 4: no one should catch on, right exactly. Yeah, well that
Speaker 4: might have worked, but unfortunately they talked to Mark Canton.
Speaker 4: He did them no favors, but obviously lying when asked
Speaker 4: about the audience numbers of the test screen. Does anyone
Speaker 4: want to take a guest as to like, what kind
Speaker 4: of lie he told? How he lied about it?
Speaker 3: It was so good. Everyone in the theater died. They
Speaker 3: just all died. They all had heart attacks.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we didn't get scores from everybody, but the
Speaker 1: scores we got were very high because he's a partial
Speaker 1: lush because what sty scores? It was a count thing.
Speaker 4: That's that's actually kind of close, Joe, Joe are very close.
Speaker 3: Good on you, Joe, thinking like a white color criminal.
Speaker 4: Okay, so the official word from Columbia slash Canton where
Speaker 4: there there were no numbers, man, no numbers. They didn't
Speaker 4: actually click any because apparently they hailed a test screen
Speaker 4: just for funzies. Yep, they't colick numbers. There were no
Speaker 4: numbers at all. We don't believe in scores. Didn't collect numbers.
Speaker 1: Score cards working for the movie name.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. Like Joe got closest because I
Speaker 4: was like, it's actually kind of close. Didn't collect any numbers.
Speaker 4: When asked by Entertainment wikly.
Speaker 1: About it, they tried to hand it to us, but
Speaker 1: they fell right in the trash.
Speaker 4: It was our fault.
Speaker 1: We had guys with Cyril PARSI harzy, they couldn't fucking
Speaker 1: rip it. You know, we're out here, reach out of
Speaker 1: the community, and shit not our fault.
Speaker 4: When when asked by Entertainment Weekly about it, Canton told them, quote,
Speaker 4: the truth is, I purposely had no screen numbers done.
Speaker 4: I had my assistants take the cards, file the cards,
Speaker 4: and never add them up. It's the same thing we
Speaker 4: did with Batman at Warrener Brothers. Because I knew that
Speaker 4: even if we scored a ninety, someone would say it
Speaker 4: was a ten. And sure enough I heard Action Hero
Speaker 4: was seventy eight, or it was forty eight, or it
Speaker 4: was thirty eight. So I kind of laugh when I
Speaker 4: hear the numbers. It is the ultimate irony of how
Speaker 4: low people will go. We'll go unquote and holy fucking
Speaker 4: fucking he like, how does this motherfucker? Like how did
Speaker 4: he get as high as he did? The holy fuck Like,
Speaker 4: how the hell do you think anyone's gonna believe that?
Speaker 4: So Mark Canton, Yes, Mark Canton, which he just didn't
Speaker 4: even end his career at Columbia. He was there for
Speaker 4: another few years and then getting fired and he moved
Speaker 4: to somewhere else in like of course, oh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they always get a job again.
Speaker 4: So reshoots begin in early May nineteen ninety three, with
Speaker 4: the media, of course, claiming that the movie was in
Speaker 4: trouble because of the fact they're doing reshoots, although Columbia
Speaker 4: assured them that they do reshoots with the like on
Speaker 4: most of their movies, which I know is true now.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if it's true back then, but if
Speaker 4: it is true, there's no way that the media didn't
Speaker 4: already know that. And so at this point it just
Speaker 4: seems like they're just like, fuck this movie, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: this guy's fucking lying to us, Like obviously, no, fuck
Speaker 4: this movie, Like yeah, yeah for sure, no, no numbers, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: what are you guys doing reshoots? They're doing reshoots anyway,
Speaker 4: Like I'm not sure if it was the thing like
Speaker 4: as like, because I know it's like especially for action movies.
Speaker 3: I think, like, yeah, yeah, it's just built in now. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they know they're going to do reshoots.
Speaker 6: Pause, Yes, they're doing reshoots in May. When does this
Speaker 6: come out?
Speaker 4: June eighteenth. They're doing reshoots in early May, and they're
Speaker 4: editing it. Post production is happening at the same time. Anyway.
Speaker 4: Entertainment Weekly ended up covering the reshoots and got a
Speaker 4: couple of good quotes from both Arnold and McTiernan with
Speaker 4: McInerny and telling them, quote, they did reshoots for Terminator
Speaker 4: just two weeks before it came out. It's become a
Speaker 4: part of making making an Arnold movie. He's like a
Speaker 4: physical trainer, always pushing.
Speaker 3: Do you want more rep?
Speaker 4: Do want more rep? You can do it? Unquote?
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then Arnold's quote concerning the rumors surrounding the film
Speaker 4: is just great with him telling Entertainment Weekly quote, every
Speaker 4: movie I've done, there's always a buzz about how it
Speaker 4: is over budget, how it wouldn't come out on time,
Speaker 4: and how was a disaster. That's because everyone in this
Speaker 4: town is jealous of the next guy. They're all a
Speaker 4: bunch of jail's bitches sitting around saying, I hope he
Speaker 4: takes a dive. What do you think I've been hearing
Speaker 4: about Spielberg's picture the most hideous things unquote. But I
Speaker 4: love the sassiness of that quote. Yeah, that wasn't you. No, No,
Speaker 4: they're all a bunch of around saying I hope he
Speaker 4: takes a dive.
Speaker 6: That sounds like you though, Erdavid.
Speaker 4: Weekly also talk to them about the test s grunning,
Speaker 4: with the magazine claiming that they were told by attending
Speaker 4: audience members that last action was quote off the mark
Speaker 4: juvenile and my personal favorite will I Wonka with guns,
Speaker 4: which it just sounds awesome.
Speaker 3: That doesn't Yeah that, guys, I've got a movie idea.
Speaker 6: That would make that movie ten times better. Yeah, let
Speaker 6: me tell you, especially if it was like a chocolate gun.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, there's so many possibilities.
Speaker 1: Or a gun made out of bullet, say spray chocolate, a.
Speaker 6: Gun like gushers, like gushers.
Speaker 3: Oh, I asked some gushers, and oh yeah, the gushers
Speaker 3: are like trenations are.
Speaker 4: Good and gross at the same time.
Speaker 3: They're they're they're not good, They're just gross.
Speaker 1: They're kind of gross.
Speaker 4: Well, at least Arnold wasn't like at least he was
Speaker 4: smart enough not to give some stupid at fuck lie
Speaker 4: that like Mark Kanton did, and he also managed to
Speaker 4: make his life someone entertaining. When asked about the yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I've asked about the h the test screening, he said, quote,
Speaker 4: we had a test running. The audience reaction was fantastic
Speaker 4: through the roof, but there were some people, maybe a
Speaker 4: few seventeen year old girls, who said.
Speaker 1: Who said that I should say that, yes says, but.
Speaker 4: There was some speaches. There were some people, maybe a
Speaker 4: few seventeen year old girls, who said they wish there
Speaker 4: were one or two more action scenes. When you had
Speaker 4: the word action in the title, and when you see
Speaker 4: me on screen, people have certain expectations. It's just one
Speaker 4: of those things. So we figured, why not shoot the scene.
Speaker 4: So yeah, they did the reshoots, all right, and we're
Speaker 4: gonna stop right there, but join us next week to
Speaker 4: find out how last section Hero did during its opening weekend,
Speaker 4: as well as all the dumb ways that the studio
Speaker 4: tried to course correct it's marketing campaign. Oh and by
Speaker 4: the way, I know we always say join us next
Speaker 4: week and then we don't end up releasing a new
Speaker 4: episode for like a few weeks after that. But we
Speaker 4: just finished recording and editing the next few episodes, so
Speaker 4: the next one actually will one be released next week.
Speaker 4: And yeah, apologies that we've had such a super delayed
Speaker 4: release schedule, like with these episodes. Everything's been a bit
Speaker 4: crazy lately and I've just been slacking big time. Anyway,
Speaker 4: As always, thanks so much for listening, and please don't
Speaker 4: forget to leave us a rating and review on either
Speaker 4: Apple podcast or Spotify. It's a perfect place to give
Speaker 4: us a five star writing while also complaining about our
Speaker 4: really release schedule. Anyway, Thanks again and we'll see you
Speaker 4: next week.
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