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Speaker 1: All the leather outside.

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Speaker 2: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Surely You Can't

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Be Serious Podcast. Jason, How you're doing? I'm doing great?

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How you doing tonight? I'm doing fantastic. I've gotten my

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Seagrum's golden wine cooler over here, and I'm practicing some

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martial arts.

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Speaker 1: I guess we're gonna have to register you as a

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lethal weapon.

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Speaker 2: Jason. I cannot believe it. We have reached the final

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comparison of season one. We have done our first season,

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and I'm so excited and so happy. It's been amazing, Man.

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Speaker 1: I had a fantastic year.

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Speaker 2: It's been great. It has been so fun to do

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this with you. And I can't wait to tackle season

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two coming up in in the year with two of

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our favorite movies of all times, right at Christmas time

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where they need to be.

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Speaker 1: Wait to get into these two movies. Man, these are

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two of my all time favorite movies.

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Speaker 2: What a great way to end the season.

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Speaker 1: I know, Man, I literally have lost sleep thinking about

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these episodes, Like I lay in my bed going, I

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can't wait to talk about these two movies.

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Speaker 2: I've lost sleep because I feel like I'm not going

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to do justice to these movies because they're so good.

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Speaker 1: I know, right. Hey, before we get too far in

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the podcast, I want to give a quick shout out.

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We got a really nice review and I just want

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to send it out there. If you're enjoying the show,

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please rate us, give us five stars on Apple Podcasts.

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That helps people find us, that helps us kind of

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get where we want to be. Thank you to Royals

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Fan eighty three. This is what he said. The title says,

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my new favorite podcast. This is such a fun show

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that reminds me of the friendly debates my friends and

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I used to have in high school. The host are

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very upbeat, informed in their enthusiasm for music movies is infectious.

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It's also one of the few podcasts that I can

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listen to with the kids in the car and not

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worry about their profanity. Keep up the great work, and

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I can't wait for the next episode. Royals Fan eighty three, thank.

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Speaker 2: You, And we've got to give a special shout out

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to the Beckett Foundation. They on Twitter referenced something I

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said back in April. Back April twenty first, and we

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were doing coming to America versus Trading Places. I said

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something about Ralph Bellamy versus Bill Bellamy and that they

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were not related and post a picture and my gosh,

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these guys, what is it now? Eight months later they're

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the ones who posted the picture of Bill Bellamy. Thank

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you guys for getting the joke, Thank you for being

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in on it. We really appreciate you. Check out them

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at the Beckett Foundation on Twitter.

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Speaker 1: That was really cool. I had to refresh my memory.

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I was like, I don't remember what we were talking about.

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Speaker 2: Why did they send us a picture of Bill Bellamy

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that's his same.

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Speaker 1: Well, like you said, this is the end of season

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one one. We will be taking a break after the

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completion of the die Hard Versus Lethal Weapon comparison, and

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we will be back in February. Hopefully that'll give us

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a chance to get ahead, do some studying and see

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our families.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, the good news is that right as we're

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coming to our pause, the Soundtrack Show is starting to

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drop some new episodes. Check them out because the Soundtrack

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Show is the bomb.

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Speaker 1: Also check out our friends at the thirty something Movie Podcast.

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They're getting ready to start nineteen ninety one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got to go. Check out thirty something guys,

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John and Pat and Bow and occasionally Jeff and some

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of the other guys. Always brilliant, always funny.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, how you feeling.

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Speaker 2: I feel fantastic. I'm excited to be here. I'm drinking

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out of my custom engraved. Surely you can't be serious

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Podcast Stainless Steel Cup, which you listener out there? Yes,

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you the one that's listening right now. You can get this.

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All you have to do is go to our Patreon

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page and you if you subscribe at the the Duke's

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brother level we have. We have the Billy Ray Valentine level,

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we have the Lewis Winthorpe Winthorpe level, we have the

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Duke's Brothers level, and we have the Prince Acheam level.

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If you subscribe at the Duke's Brothers level, you will

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get a set of awesome headphones and a custom engrave.

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Surely you can't be serious Podcast Cup and you become

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executive producer of one of our episodes.

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Speaker 1: James Buckley, appreciate you ready, It's fantastic, Sign me up.

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I'm ready to do this.

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Speaker 2: Yes, well, you already pay for our episodes, so Cup

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for free. But yes, if you have loved what you've

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heard so far this year, please sign up. Become one

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of our Patreon subscribers. It's so much fun to engage

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with those guys, and we we can always use the support,

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all right, So, so enough of the pledge drive campaigning

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that we're doing here, Time to jump into these movies. Jason,

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are you ready?

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Speaker 1: Do you really want to jump?

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Speaker 2: Well?

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Speaker 1: Do you Well, that's just fine with me. Let's do it, man,

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Let's do it.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I gotta say this. In this entire year, it's

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been amazing to learn about the different people involved in

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all of our favorite music and movies. The guy that

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I didn't know that I am excited to have learned

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about is Shane Black. He was a guy who was

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just a name up until we started doing our research

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for this. But what an interesting guy he is. You know,

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he's like your friend, that is this just this always angry,

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hating on life guy, but he is so intelligent and

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so funny that you still love him. And that's to me,

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that's Shane Black. You know.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting that you say that I didn't know a

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whole lot about him before this. Of course, familiar with

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some of his movies, and we talked about him very

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very briefly back in our bill and Ted episode. Chris

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Mathison and Ed Solomon were in class with Shane Black

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at UCLA, and they would talk about how they would

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work and work struggle to come up with these ideas.

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And this guy barely came to class, didn't say two

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words in class, but when he turned in a writing

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assignment was the best thing that anybody in the class

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I've ever seen.

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Speaker 2: So he actually shared a house with Ed Solomon. They

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weren't just in class together. They shared a house him,

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Ed Solomon, and Fred Decker, who's the guy who wrote

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Monster Squad and Knight of the Creeps and RoboCop three.

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They all shared a house together, which they called the Pad.

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Oh guys, and they considered it a fraternity for the

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movie Buffs of Ucla, and they would go out and

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recreate John wu fight scenes in their front yard at

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three o'clock in the morning. That sounds exactly like what

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my house was like when I was in college. I

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was a theater major, so I had a house full

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of actors And this is the kind of crap that

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we would do. We just did not become internationally famous afterwards.

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Speaker 1: Tragic.

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Speaker 2: Okay. So Shane Black starts off in childhood as a reader.

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He is a book lover and he likes the Hardy Boys,

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but he also likes the Mickey Spallaine grown up books,

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and so he becomes this big mystery thriller reader. And

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when he gets into UCLA, he becomes interested in writing

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and starts developing this screenplay. And he's got an older

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brother named Terry Black, who at the time was not

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a screenwriter, but at the time with somebody that Shane

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Black adored. And Shane Black was working on this screenplay

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that he was really excited about. And he actually took

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a break from college to finish up this scene and

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the screenplay that he was working on, and he showed

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it to his brother to see what he thought of it,

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and his brother said, I don't like it. It was

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this kind of weird mix of like a platoon of

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army guys in Vietnam and some sort of supernatural stuff

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going on. And so Shane is devastated. And he's sitting

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there in front of his typewriter contemplating whether he should

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bother to go on writing anything ever again, and the

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page is just staring at him, and he's staring back

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at the page, and he decides to write a sentence,

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and that sentence gets followed by another sentence, and then

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the words just kind of start flowing out of him,

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and he writes an entirely different scene, which becomes an

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entirely different script, which ultimately he shows to somebody who

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gets him an agent who then finds a way to

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get the script that he's written sold. And that script

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that he wrote at twenty one, which he sells at

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twenty two is the script for Lethal Weapon.

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Speaker 1: It's fantastic.

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Speaker 2: That moment in front of the typewriter was a moment

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of precarious history because he said, had I not typed

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that sentence, had I not typed that sentence, I would

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have given up writing forever. But something just was staring

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back at me that said, just type something. It is

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because of that that we have Lethal Weapon, and that

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we have Iron Man three, and that we have the

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nice guys. I mean, pretty huge deal. And the name

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of that script that he showed his brother that he

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changed the Shadow Company.

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Speaker 1: Yay, all right, right, so those of the bad guys

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from Lethal Weapon.

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Speaker 2: Exactly if you haven't if you haven't seen Lethal Weapon

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in a while, that is the company that all of

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the bad guys got together. In Lethal Weapon. Nice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know one of the things when we were

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talking about prepping for this, So I know Shane Black

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as the writer of leth a Weapon. He wrote Kiss Kiss,

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Bang Bang, he wrote Long Kis Knight, he wrote Ironman three.

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But he's also he acts in Predator. He's the guy

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with glasses. He's like the one guy that's not totally musclebound.

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That's Shane Black.

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Speaker 2: Yes, he's the first guy to die. He sold leth

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a Weapon and so he's got two hundred and fifty thousand,

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which is pretty nice for a guy who's twenty two

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years old. Right. And so Joel Silver, the producer of

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Lethal Weapon and the producer of Diehard, both the movies

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we're talking about, he says, hey, Joel, can I be

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in this movie Predator? And Joel's like sure, we just

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we want you to come in and we want you

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to help out with the script writing on this deal.

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And he's like okay. So Shane Black goes and he

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is the he's the first soldier to die in Predator.

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He's Hawkins, that's his name. But you know who. The

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director of Predator was John McTiernan, who then goes on

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to direct die Hard isn't amazing. So these movies, I mean,

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we just we jumped on these movies because they're the

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obvious comparison.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: They're both Christmas movies.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and they.

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Speaker 2: Are both urban cowboy movies, right they are. They're the

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the urban gunslinger movies.

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Speaker 1: Right, yep, for sure, hundred sent But.

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Speaker 2: They're related in so many other ways. You have the

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you've got the overlap of at least three actors in

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both of movies. You've got the script writer of Lethal

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Weapon is in a movie directed by the director of

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die Hard, and later on he becomes a writer for

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Last Action Hero, which is also directed by the director

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of die Hard. It's all just they're just intertwined so

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so tightly. I've never seen two movies that were more

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closely related than these two.

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Speaker 1: When you look at the casting. And I know we'll

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get into casting here in a minute. But Arne Schwarzenegger

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started Predator, directed by John McTiernan. John mctiernan's next project

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is die Hard. He was going to hire Schwarzenegger. This

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was going to be a Commando sequel, yeah, right, And

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instead of his wife being in trouble, it was Alyssa

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Milano his daughter. I mean these movies are from the

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same DNA.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you were talking to me earlier and said these

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two movies could almost be in the same universe. And

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they really could. I mean they're both in LA You

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could really see, you know, Sergeant al Powell walking in

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as Merton Riggs are walking out. Right.

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Speaker 1: Oh, that would have been awesome. I would have loved that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 2: I think for whatever die Hard Lethal Weapon sequel that's

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coming up, if they did some sort of overlap like that,

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I might just lose my freaking mind.

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Speaker 1: Al Powell tosses Rigs a Twinkie on the way by,

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you know.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, we'd have to figure out how Agent Johnson

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who died now I guess he died in both of them.

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He'd have to.

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Speaker 1: I know, they were twin brothers or something. Well, let's

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talk about that for just a second. So Agent Johnson, no,

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the other one he was in Diehard, right, Grandell Bushes,

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and he was also a cop in Lethal Weapon.

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 1: Then you have Al Leon who was the guy who

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tortured Rigs with the battery cable. Yes, he was also

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ginghis Khanan.

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Speaker 2: Written by Ed Solomon, who was the roommate of Shane Black,

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as we've established.

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Speaker 1: And he was also the terrorist who, if you'll remember,

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reached under and got a baby Ruth right before they

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shot the two x two formation coming in the building.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Also, yeah, you have Roberts Mex's ex wife, Mary Ellen Trainer.

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She plays the police psychologist who says Riggs is he's

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on the edge. You don't want to be around him

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when he goes. And she's also the TV reporter in

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Diehard YEP, she's the one standing next to the news

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reporter who says, eat it, Harvey, right.

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Speaker 2: And she's also the mom and Goonies, which is directed

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by Richard Donner, who's also the director of eth a Weapon,

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It's Amazing. And the police chief in Lethal Weapon is

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also the police officer in Superman One, which is also

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directed by Richard Donner.

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Speaker 1: His name is Steve Kahan. He is the cousin a

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film writer, producer, and director Richard Donner.

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Speaker 2: There you Go. I watched some of the interviews with

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Richard Donner on Lethal Weapon back when it was first out.

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He was rocking the mullet just like Mel Gibson was.

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It was the like mullet two point zero where it's

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all feathered. Oh yeah, like swooping. Who. Okay, So we've

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we've hit Joel Silver, who produced both movies with hit

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Shane Black, who wrote the the Weapon. Then we've hit

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John McTiernan, who is the director of Die Hard. Now,

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he had come off of Predator. As you said, he

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got that job because he had written and directed a

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movie called Nomads, which had Pierce Brosenan in it. This

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was Pierce Brosnan's first role. And you probably didn't see

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that movie. It wasn't really well regarded. But if you

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happen to watch it, there's a scene where a guy falls.

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You're it's got your point of view and you're watching

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him fall off of a buildings and I and I'm like,

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what this is the same Oh well it's the same director.

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And I listened to him. He's like, yes, I stole

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it from myself. I think I didn't. You think I

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didn't know what I was doing there? Of course what

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I was doing. You've got Richard Donner directing Lethal Weapon.

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And then the guy that we haven't mentioned yet but

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we have mentioned previously in some of our other episodes,

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mister Steve even Desusa, who wrote and really kind of

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rewrote Diehard.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, you know, just to backtrack, just to touch

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Richard Donner. We have now covered Superman one, Superman two

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ish with Richard Donner, the Lost Boys, Lethal Weapon, and

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I promise you at some point we're going to cover the.

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Speaker 2: Goonies, no question. It will be one of the movies

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for season two, for sure.

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Speaker 1: Richard Donner has his fingerprints all over the eighties.

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Speaker 2: Stephen Desusa was not the original writer of Diehard. The

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original writer was a guy named Jeb Stewart. Now, Jeb

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Stewart had signed a contract with Disney. It was a

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four movie contract, and so he's obligated to write four

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movies for them, and basically they paid him so little

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that he was about to go broke. And so after

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he completed his first script for them, he had like

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this six week time period that he could write a

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movie for somebody else. And so what he did was

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to go and find a novel that he liked, and

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he decided to write that script.

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Speaker 1: He wrote Nothing Least Forever by Roder Thorpe Yes, which

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in that novel, John McClain is not named John McLain.

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Speaker 2: He has a different first name.

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Speaker 1: The character in The book is called Joseph Leland. I

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don't know if we want to dive into Yes, go

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for it, Joe Leland. Okay, so you're absolutely right. So

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die Hard is the movie version of a book called

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Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderic Thorpe. This is the sequel

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book to another book called The Detective. Now. The Detective

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was made into a movie in the late sixties starring

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Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra played Joe Leland and when they

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remade Nothing Least Forever as die Hard, contractually they had

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to offer the part to Frank Sinatra. Can you imagine

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a world where die Hard instead of Bruce Willis, we

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had a seventy three year old Frank Sinatra.

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Speaker 2: Not a chance, and neither could Frank Sinatra. Hey kid

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me baby, give me another drink.

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Speaker 1: Come on, I say, Yippika shooby dooby doo. Thankfully he

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had the good sense to say no, thanks, I no,

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I'm not doing that right.

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Speaker 2: So Jeb Stewart takes this opportunity to write the movie

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die Hard, and really Joel silver is just kind of

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rolling this point. Joel Silvers is a producer that has

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suddenly come out with Predator and lethal weapon. He's literally

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out promoting them. At the same time, the studio calls

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him because they say, hey, we've got this book and

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we've got this script. That's okay, can you can you

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do something with it? And he's like, sure, let's put

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it together. So Jeb Stewart's script ultimately gets substantially rewritten

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by Steven Desusa. So, like you said, they had this

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plan that it would be Commando two, which was all

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well and good until Arnold Schwarzenegger said no, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Right, he wanted to take a shot at comedy, and

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so he went and did the movie Twins.

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Speaker 2: Right. Have you seen Twins?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I like it, Okay, I have whatever.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't blow my freaking doors off like Diehard does, though.

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Speaker 2: No, of course not, because it's comedy. It's not an action.

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But he wanted he wanted to show his range, and

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that's fine. So you don't get Arnold Schwarzenegger. Obviously, the

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second choice has to be Sylvester Stallone and he says no,

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no thank you as well, and they're like, well, crap,

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who else do we have?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean we want to go. I've got the

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list of go go go. Okay, so we've already talked.

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In its original incarnation, you had Frank Sinatra offered the part.

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At that time it was a father daughter relationship rather

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than a husband and wife, so they offered to Charles Bronson,

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Burt Reynolds. Richard Gear was Joel Silver's first choice.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. He pushed hard, pushed hard on Richard Gear, and no,

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I don't really like it. I don't want to be

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running around with the gun and doing my own stunts.

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Speaker 1: No, thanks, okay, so let's keep going. Yeah, Richard Gear,

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So that's your salone. As you said, Harrison Ford, Yeah,

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Arl Schwarzenegger. As we talked about, Clint Eastwood had a

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shot at this too old. At that point, Robert de

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Niro was very close to Diehard.

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Speaker 2: That'd have been a different movie altogether.

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Speaker 1: That would have been Don Johnson.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So Don Johnson at this point is very

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hot with Miami Vice, and then Bruce Willis is very

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hot with Moonlighting.

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Speaker 1: Hang Out. I'm not done. Oh sorry, so sorry, no, no, no,

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So speaking of hot on TV, you have Don Johnson,

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you have Richard Dean Anderson ring a Bell mcguiver.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, not gonna.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and Finally, Mel Gibson was offered this part. What yeah,

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what mel Gibson.

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Speaker 2: Ah, that's amazing, that is amazing.

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Speaker 1: All those guys turned it down, all those guys not interested.

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Speaker 2: And so Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis again was a choice

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of Joel Silver like he had seen him in Blind Date,

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which was the Blake Edwards movie that had come out before,

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and obviously he had seen him in in Moonlighting, and

386
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so he didn't have big a big box office pull

387
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at this point. But Joel Silver thought that he could

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make it happen. He thought that he could do it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, we got to talk about this for a second.

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Were you a fan of Blind Date?

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Speaker 2: Never seen it? Okay?

392
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Speaker 1: I am an unapologetic fan of the movie Blind Date.

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I like Blake Edwards movies. They're freaking funny.

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Speaker 2: Blake Edwards who did Pink Panther movies? If that helps

395
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anybody out.

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Speaker 1: There, Yes, and the movie Skin Deep with John Ridder.

397
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I think they're so funny. And I think Bruce Willis

398
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is very charming and very funny in the movie Blind Date,

399
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:53,680
and it kind of gets beat on a little bit.

400
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But I I am a huge fan of Moonlighting. How

401
00:21:57,319 --> 00:21:57,759
about you?

402
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,839
Speaker 2: Absolutely watched every single U episode. Loved it.

403
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:03,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, great, great TV show.

404
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,720
Speaker 2: So weirdly, this is kind of a weird thing that happens.

405
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I mean, they've gone through a whole bunch of people

406
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and are basically kind of left with Bruce Willis and

407
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Joel silver Is having to push to get him in

408
00:22:16,839 --> 00:22:22,519
the movie. But then they offer him five million dollars

409
00:22:22,799 --> 00:22:26,200
to play this part, which is insane. That's a crazy

410
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amount of money to offer even a star at this point.

411
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And he's a guy who has has done one movie

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that's been released. It's actually two movies, but one that's

413
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been released at this point, and it only did kind

414
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of good. And so Robert Murdoch, the head of the studios,

415
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green lights it. He's like, yep, go ahead, give him

416
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five million dollars. And so the next day Richard Dreyfus

417
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fired hiss agent.

418
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Speaker 1: I heard this.

419
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Speaker 2: What he's never done anything, and I've done all that.

420
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You can't get me five million dollars to fire. So

421
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,599
the question is then at this point, hey, we've hired him,

422
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,559
We've got him for five million dollars, but he's still

423
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in Moonlighting. I mean, that's a TV show that's constantly filming,

424
00:23:11,039 --> 00:23:14,400
but they've got this little miracle that happens. Sybil Shepherd

425
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gets pregnant and they have to stop filming Moonlighting for

426
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six weeks, and so they have exactly six weeks to

427
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,799
film die Hard with Bruce Willis. They don't film the

428
00:23:26,799 --> 00:23:29,359
whole movie in that six weeks. They just filmed the

429
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,160
Bruce Willis parts in the first six weeks, and then

430
00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,440
they go on and film the other parts after that,

431
00:23:34,519 --> 00:23:36,960
which is kind of I mean, you know, we watch

432
00:23:37,039 --> 00:23:39,400
movies and we kind of, you know, we have this

433
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,000
image that it's all filmed chronologically, which of course it's not.

434
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But it's just kind of interesting to think that so

435
00:23:46,519 --> 00:23:49,559
much of the conversation that occurs on the radio between

436
00:23:50,079 --> 00:23:56,039
Al and John and Hans and John didn't really ever

437
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really happen. It was just the magic of movies.

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Speaker 1: Magic.

439
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 2: And so interestingly, the villain in die Hard this is

440
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his first major motion picture. Yep, mister Alan Rickman had

441
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never been in a motion picture before. He had done

442
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,759
some British television. He had done quite a bit of

443
00:24:17,799 --> 00:24:21,319
stage work and that ultimately is how he got discovered.

444
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He was in Liaisons Desrouse as the bad guy in

445
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that on a Broadway production and John McTiernan and Joel

446
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Silver happened to catch the play and they see him

447
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being the bad guy and they're like, there's our Hans Gruber.

448
00:24:35,039 --> 00:24:37,720
There is our villain right there, and they offer him

449
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the part. So, as we just discussed, the first scenes

450
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,799
that they're shooting are the scenes with Bruce Willison, So

451
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that means the first scene that they film with Alan

452
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:53,279
Rickman is the scene where he meets John McClain as

453
00:24:53,400 --> 00:25:01,920
Hans Gruber pretending to be Bill Clay Clay Bill, which

454
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,440
is weird because Bill Clay is of course nothing like

455
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Hans Gruber.

456
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so there's an interesting story with this. So they're

457
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sitting around at lunch one day. Of course, Alan Rickman

458
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has a heavy English accent, but they're asking him, Hey, Alan,

459
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,799
do you do an American accent? And he said, well,

460
00:25:18,839 --> 00:25:22,240
I don't. I don't really do an American accent, but

461
00:25:22,279 --> 00:25:26,839
I do do like a California accent. And he cracked

462
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,359
everybody up and everybody was dying laughing, and they're like, man,

463
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:32,599
we got to do this. The characters have to meet,

464
00:25:32,799 --> 00:25:35,559
and to me, this blows my mind. Okay, so we

465
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have this really amazingly well constructed action movie, maybe the

466
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,559
best action movie ever. And they were building it on

467
00:25:45,599 --> 00:25:48,160
the fly. So Steven DeSUS is sitting right there and

468
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:49,759
they're like, hey, we got to figure out a way

469
00:25:49,799 --> 00:25:51,960
to get these two guys together. They have to meet,

470
00:25:52,279 --> 00:25:54,759
and we have to use this accent so you know,

471
00:25:54,839 --> 00:25:57,960
John McLean doesn't know. And so Steven Jes Susan gets

472
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,519
busy writing this scene and then they think and they're like, no, shoot,

473
00:26:03,039 --> 00:26:06,920
he sees him shoot Takagi And Stephen DeSUS is like, well,

474
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,200
wait a minute, have we shot that scene yet. They're

475
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,839
like nope, it's set for tomorrow. And so they have

476
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,000
to play with the angles to make sure that John

477
00:26:14,039 --> 00:26:16,400
McClean never sees Hans's face.

478
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,880
Speaker 2: Oh, so that's why he's under the table. That's it.

479
00:26:20,039 --> 00:26:22,559
Speaker 1: He's under the table. And then if you watch the scene,

480
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,200
you don't see Hans from John's perspective.

481
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:30,519
Speaker 2: So they shoot that first scene between Bruce and Alan,

482
00:26:31,319 --> 00:26:35,519
John and Bill and John and Hans. Too many things

483
00:26:35,559 --> 00:26:38,920
going on there, and so they start showing dailies to people,

484
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,480
and they've got people from the studio there, and when

485
00:26:41,519 --> 00:26:45,680
they're watching the scene with Alan Rickman playing Bill Clay,

486
00:26:46,039 --> 00:26:50,640
there's a casting director there named Nancy Klopwright who loses

487
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,960
her mind. She gets like super upset, and it's like,

488
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:55,519
we can't have this guy as the bad guy. He's

489
00:26:55,559 --> 00:26:59,519
too weak. And Joel Silver's like, that's what it's supposed

490
00:26:59,559 --> 00:27:02,960
to be. In a scene, he's he is playing Week.

491
00:27:03,039 --> 00:27:05,839
He's not actually week, He's playing Week. And she goes

492
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,920
on this huge campaign to get Alan Rickman fired, which now,

493
00:27:10,319 --> 00:27:13,200
I mean, can you imagine that? I mean, if there

494
00:27:13,319 --> 00:27:17,279
is I love, love, love Bruce Willis, but if I

495
00:27:17,319 --> 00:27:20,359
got to pick one actor that made this movie, it

496
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,759
was Alan Rickman. So that is kind of the beginnings

497
00:27:23,839 --> 00:27:26,039
of Diehard, which I don't know why we talked about

498
00:27:26,039 --> 00:27:29,160
it first, because it was the second movie. What had

499
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,880
come out a couple of years before was a movie

500
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:34,559
called Lethal Weapon.

501
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: Yes freaking length Weapon, And this is the.

502
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:44,799
Speaker 2: One that Shane Black wrote that we were talking about.

503
00:27:44,839 --> 00:27:49,440
So Shane Black has this script. Richard Donner hates action movies,

504
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,039
but he reads this script and he enjoys the humor

505
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:58,279
and he enjoys the fault in each of the main characters,

506
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:02,359
like you've you've got the guy who's suicidal and a

507
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:05,279
little bit crazy, and you've got the guy who's too

508
00:28:05,319 --> 00:28:08,599
old for this shit, and so to him makes it

509
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:11,640
a much more compelling story. And then, like I said,

510
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,640
it's got the humor in it. And so Richard Donner's like, yes,

511
00:28:14,839 --> 00:28:17,839
this looks like a great movie. Now, they had wanted

512
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,119
other people for this. You ready for casting on lethal Weapon?

513
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:22,599
Speaker 1: Heck, yeah, let's do it.

514
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 2: Okay, you jump on it, man.

515
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: So initially when they were hiring for Lethal Weapon, they

516
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:31,519
had no ethnicity specifically in mind. So the black family

517
00:28:31,559 --> 00:28:34,480
cop and the white suicidal cop that wasn't necessarily in

518
00:28:34,519 --> 00:28:37,799
the script. They just kind of came together through casting. Initially,

519
00:28:37,839 --> 00:28:40,160
they wanted Brian Denahey to play Roger Marta.

520
00:28:40,279 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 2: I could see that he had just.

521
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: Done First Blood and thought, no, I've already done the

522
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:48,960
cop thing for Riggs. They looked at Alec Baldwin, Jeff Bridges,

523
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:54,039
Pierce Brosnan, Robert de Niro, Don Johnson, Michael Keaton. I

524
00:28:54,039 --> 00:28:56,519
could see him being the suicidal cop. Oh, for sure,

525
00:28:57,319 --> 00:29:05,640
you want to get nuts, Liam Neeson, Sean Penn, Dennis Quaid,

526
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,920
Kurt Russell, I mean, Tom Seller, Charlie Sheen. These are

527
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,000
all eighties action stars. But here's the one that I

528
00:29:12,039 --> 00:29:16,400
find the most interesting. Yes, Christopher Reeve was considered for

529
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,599
the role of Martin Riggs. Right right, I worked with

530
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:24,119
Donner previously on Superman. Yeah, seems like maybe a fit.

531
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:25,720
But no, I don't.

532
00:29:26,119 --> 00:29:29,119
Speaker 2: Uh uh, I'm gonna go ahead and disagree on that.

533
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: Bob Well not a fit for the character. A familiar

534
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,119
face with Donna, right right?

535
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:41,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, but yes, very interesting choice. But I would

536
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:48,200
say probably the most interesting consideration is Bruce Willis.

537
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,079
Speaker 1: See that's crazy, right, I'll tell you a little secret

538
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,920
what I'm not crazy? These movies are so connected it's unbelievable.

539
00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 2: Right, So Mel Gibson was considered for John mc and

540
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,640
Bruce Willis was considered for Martin Riggs.

541
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,599
Speaker 1: Do you know who Shane Black wanted to play Martin Riggs?

542
00:30:08,039 --> 00:30:09,519
William Hurt.

543
00:30:10,759 --> 00:30:13,559
Speaker 2: I can see that, and as we know, William Hurts

544
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:15,119
a guy who's not afraid to say no.

545
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: Right, he turned down flashed back to our Jurassic Park episode.

546
00:30:19,039 --> 00:30:21,079
He turned down the role of doctor Grant.

547
00:30:21,279 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 2: Oh is it doctor Grant? Oh?

548
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: Okay, Grant, But he is the most boring actor in

549
00:30:25,759 --> 00:30:26,279
the world to me.

550
00:30:31,279 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 2: Oh gos, that's funny.

551
00:30:33,079 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 1: Castiing agent Marion Doherty wanted to cast Danny Glover after

552
00:30:37,279 --> 00:30:40,119
seeing him in the movie The Color Purple YEP. So

553
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:44,079
she arranged to fly Mel Gibson from Sydney and Danny

554
00:30:44,079 --> 00:30:47,680
Glover flew from Chicago. They met in Los Angeles and

555
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:50,440
the buddy Cop movie of the eighties was made.

556
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:55,319
Speaker 2: It was instant chemistry, like they were immediately playing off

557
00:30:55,359 --> 00:30:59,640
each other, riffing off each other and just immediately had

558
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:07,440
that chemistry right meet your new partner. And that, by

559
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,279
the way, is one of the things that makes this

560
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:16,359
movie so good is they've got this animosity throughout the

561
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,000
movie and that's you know, we talked. We talked in

562
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,240
our Raiders and Back to the Future episode about the

563
00:31:22,319 --> 00:31:25,519
hero's journey and how characters, you know, have to go

564
00:31:25,559 --> 00:31:30,240
through this cycle of change as they go through the movie. Well,

565
00:31:30,279 --> 00:31:33,119
these two guys both go through that cycle of change,

566
00:31:33,119 --> 00:31:35,920
but it's really the relationship that goes through the change,

567
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,799
because at the beginning of the movie, it's like, you

568
00:31:38,839 --> 00:31:41,960
know what, I don't want to work with you. But

569
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,200
and by the end of the movie, he's given him

570
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,400
back the bullet and he's going to eat the crummy

571
00:31:47,519 --> 00:31:50,559
Christmas dinner with the family. So when we get to

572
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,039
Lethal Weapon two. By the way, they've become good friends

573
00:31:54,039 --> 00:31:55,319
at this point. So what are you gonna do to

574
00:31:55,359 --> 00:31:57,759
have bickering. Well, you're gonna have Joe PESHI. That's what

575
00:31:57,799 --> 00:31:58,359
you get to do.

576
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 3: What you need.

577
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,119
Speaker 1: Leo gets, you get it. I use it all the

578
00:32:04,119 --> 00:32:05,440
time to break the ice when I meet people.

579
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 2: You know.

580
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,319
Speaker 1: I asked my wife right before I came out here.

581
00:32:08,359 --> 00:32:09,920
I'm like, all right, I'm getting ready to record Leth

582
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,440
the Weapon, die Hard, what's your favorite part of Leth

583
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:17,559
the Weapon? And she's like, here's what she said. She goes, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

584
00:32:20,039 --> 00:32:22,519
Speaker 2: I thought you were gonna say they get the drive through.

585
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: Leave the Weapon two takes it. So this this franchise

586
00:32:30,559 --> 00:32:31,279
is so great.

587
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,720
Speaker 2: Listen, we're not here to talk about Leth a Weapon Too,

588
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:39,839
but since we're since you brought it up. The script

589
00:32:40,279 --> 00:32:42,799
for Leith the Weapon Too was originally written by Shane

590
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:47,160
Black and they didn't use it. He got frustrated, walked

591
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:51,519
off the movie, and they brought in Jeff Bauham, who

592
00:32:51,559 --> 00:32:55,799
we talked about in The Lost Boys. Yeah, right right,

593
00:32:55,880 --> 00:33:00,559
that's right at which you mentioned, makes and appears in

594
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:04,160
Lethal Weapon because of Richard Donner. It shows up on

595
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,960
the movie Marquee behind them as they were walking along

596
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,680
having their hot dog. It says lost Boys hit of

597
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,960
the year, and so Jeff Boheme is the one that

598
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,200
comes in and rewrites this script to give it more

599
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:19,680
comedy and not as dark. Shane Black had written a

600
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,680
very very dark Lethal Weapon two that ends with the

601
00:33:24,759 --> 00:33:29,400
death of Martin Riggs, and they said thanks, but no thanks.

602
00:33:29,759 --> 00:33:32,119
You know, here's your money, thank you, have a nice day.

603
00:33:32,319 --> 00:33:36,440
But he maintains to this day that it is the

604
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,160
best script he has ever written.

605
00:33:38,319 --> 00:33:41,359
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, I would love to see that.

606
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,079
Speaker 2: I'm sure there are lots and lots of people who

607
00:33:43,079 --> 00:33:45,200
would love to see it, but I don't think anybody

608
00:33:45,279 --> 00:33:46,640
ever will. Man.

609
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: Hey, just a little side note, mel Gibson turned down

610
00:33:50,599 --> 00:33:54,799
starring roles in the movie The Fly and the Untouchables.

611
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:58,039
Can you imagine Mel Gibson as Elliot Ness and the Intouchables?

612
00:33:58,680 --> 00:33:58,880
Speaker 2: Yes?

613
00:33:59,599 --> 00:34:00,559
Speaker 1: Ye, kind of cool?

614
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:01,839
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, he could have done that.

615
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,200
Speaker 1: I love all these what if scenarios, these eighties what ifs.

616
00:34:05,759 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 2: Well, the interesting thing about mel Gibson is he had

617
00:34:09,039 --> 00:34:12,119
not done a movie in over a year at the

618
00:34:12,159 --> 00:34:15,079
time that they started filming Lethal Weapon. He had had

619
00:34:15,199 --> 00:34:19,760
some crazy success with Mad Max and he had done

620
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,719
I think like four movies in one year, which is

621
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:26,960
a huge undertaking, and he just he is like Russell Crowe,

622
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:28,679
He's like, I gotta go back to the farm. He

623
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,159
went back to the farm on Australia and just put

624
00:34:32,199 --> 00:34:34,719
a do not disturb sign on the door. And so

625
00:34:35,679 --> 00:34:40,559
there is there is an original opening for Martin Riggs

626
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,880
that nobody unless you've seen like the outtakes or the

627
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,639
special features, you haven't seen it. Where he is in

628
00:34:48,679 --> 00:34:50,920
a bar drinking and he gets into this fight with

629
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:53,719
these other guys and he's looking in the mirror before

630
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:56,719
all this happens, and he looks like he was roaded

631
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,880
hard and hung up wet. He looks bad, and he says,

632
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,360
I look that way because I had gotten any sleep

633
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,159
the night before we shot this scene, because it had

634
00:35:07,199 --> 00:35:09,559
been so long since I filmed a movie. I was

635
00:35:09,599 --> 00:35:10,280
scared to death.

636
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty cool. I love that story. Hey, I

637
00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:17,639
want to drop a little eighties tidbit real quick, very minor,

638
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:20,360
I say, a minor character. The whole plot revolves around

639
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,880
this character, but she's only in it for a few moments.

640
00:35:23,119 --> 00:35:27,559
Jackie Swanson plays Amanda Huntsecker. She is the.

641
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,559
Speaker 2: Prostitute to her death, jumps to her death.

642
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,079
Speaker 1: Jumps to her death at the very beginning of the movie, right,

643
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:37,079
you know, topless drugs, prostitute.

644
00:35:37,159 --> 00:35:38,320
Speaker 2: Your growing boy needs.

645
00:35:40,159 --> 00:35:42,440
Speaker 1: So the whole plot of the movie revolves around her death.

646
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,119
Jackie Swanson plays Kelly on Cheers.

647
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,639
Speaker 2: She plays Kelly Kelly. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly

648
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:56,800
k e L L. Why because she's Kelly Kelly Kelly.

649
00:35:57,599 --> 00:35:58,440
She's Kelly.

650
00:35:58,599 --> 00:35:59,800
Speaker 1: She's Woody's wife.

651
00:36:00,039 --> 00:36:01,480
Speaker 2: On Cheers.

652
00:36:01,599 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 1: She's the pretty little rich girl who's pristine and prude

653
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:10,639
and sweet and playing absolutely the exact opposite of that character.

654
00:36:11,039 --> 00:36:14,360
I love it, okay, real quick. Gary Busey was hired

655
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:18,920
as mister Joshua nephew. Would kindly tell me everything you know,

656
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:21,079
I promise you I'll kill you.

657
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,199
Speaker 2: He asked for the part. Did he Yeah? So he

658
00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:27,119
hadn't done a lot like he was kind of on

659
00:36:27,159 --> 00:36:29,760
the downward slide. He had obviously had a lot of

660
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,920
success with what's the Buddy Holly movie called.

661
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:35,920
Speaker 1: I think it's called the Buddy Holly Story.

662
00:36:36,199 --> 00:36:38,199
Speaker 2: Okay, well that makes sense, all right, So anyway, he

663
00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:40,719
had quite a bit of success, but then he had

664
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,960
not been getting good quality offers for a while and

665
00:36:44,039 --> 00:36:46,119
he saw a lot of promise in this script, and

666
00:36:46,159 --> 00:36:48,760
so he asked, He was like, can I be in

667
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:50,920
this movie? I'm like, of course, sure.

668
00:36:51,159 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 4: Because it's weird to think about both of these movies.

669
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,519
They were not expected to be big hits. Neither one

670
00:36:57,519 --> 00:36:59,360
of them were expected to be big hits. It was

671
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:01,920
just kind of, hey, see what you guys can do

672
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:03,920
with this crazy bunch of stuff. And like you said,

673
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,519
they were both of them throwing them together on the fly,

674
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,639
And so that's why you get. I mean, Gary Busey

675
00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:11,599
you kind of think of as a major actor, but

676
00:37:11,679 --> 00:37:13,440
I mean, he does have the final fight scene, but

677
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:15,920
he was number two in the movie, and so it

678
00:37:16,039 --> 00:37:18,280
was interesting to see him in that part instead of

679
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,880
the head bad guy. He was just kind of the

680
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:21,519
biggest evvy.

681
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:23,840
Speaker 1: His most memorable scene in the whole movie is when

682
00:37:24,039 --> 00:37:26,119
the general tells him to hold out his arm so

683
00:37:26,159 --> 00:37:28,719
he can hold a flame under his arm to show

684
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,000
how tough he is and how devoted and loyal he is.

685
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 2: So who's the other guy in that scene?

686
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,039
Speaker 1: You guys are gone, man, You're like out there.

687
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,719
Speaker 2: Edo Ross, Edo Ross is that guy, and I feel

688
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:44,519
like I was. I could never figure out why that

689
00:37:44,599 --> 00:37:47,800
part wasn't bigger because he was. He was, I mean,

690
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:50,639
obviously a major part in that scene, but he was

691
00:37:50,679 --> 00:37:53,880
a pretty big actor at that time. He seemed to

692
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,119
be like, it was this big, big scene that goes on.

693
00:37:56,199 --> 00:37:58,280
I expected to be in more in the movie. But

694
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,760
the interesting thing is the role he had done just

695
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:07,679
before he did this movie was in Moonlighting. It had

696
00:38:08,599 --> 00:38:13,079
two episodes of Moonlighting as mister Navarone. So there you go.

697
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,320
It's interesting again, intertwined these movies.

698
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:19,320
Speaker 1: Very intertwined, kind of. The next big movie that he

699
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:23,280
did was Red Heat with Oro Schwarzenegger, who was in Predator,

700
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:24,760
directed by Johnny Tiernan.

701
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,119
Speaker 2: I just cannot I still can't figure out why that

702
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,199
was our one brief moment we got with this guy

703
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:30,679
and then he wasn't in the rest of the movie.

704
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,760
Speaker 1: Other people that were considered for mister Joshua James Woods,

705
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:38,800
Christopher Walkin, Tommy Lee Jones, Scott Glenn, John Saxon, I

706
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:40,800
don't know. I like Gary Busey.

707
00:38:40,639 --> 00:38:43,960
Speaker 2: Then the main bad guy. The only other movie that

708
00:38:44,039 --> 00:38:46,800
I can remember him in is liar liar. He's like

709
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,679
the head partner at the law farm that gets roasted

710
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:53,360
and he's his laugh and that is awesome. I think

711
00:38:54,599 --> 00:38:57,199
his comedy is great. I was impressed.

712
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:01,559
Speaker 1: Tracy Wolf plays Rhanne Murta in Lethal Weapon. I have

713
00:39:01,679 --> 00:39:04,519
not seen her in anything else that I can think of. Yeah,

714
00:39:04,559 --> 00:39:07,280
every time I see her, I'm like, that's Roger Murta's daughter.

715
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:09,920
She was twenty five when they filmed this. Playing a

716
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:10,719
sixteen year.

717
00:39:10,639 --> 00:39:14,840
Speaker 2: Old makes her upsession with Martin Riggs a little less creepy.

718
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,199
Speaker 1: Every time I see this, I'm so empathetic with the

719
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,960
Murta character. Roger Murta, uh that. I'm like, yeah, she

720
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,360
does need to go upstairs and put on small pers

721
00:39:26,639 --> 00:39:30,159
She's not going out dressed like that. Mel Gibson's character,

722
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,679
Martin Riggs is supposed to be thirty eight in Lethal Weapon.

723
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,079
H Gibson was only thirty at the time he shot this.

724
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:39,519
Roger Murta is supposed to be fifty. They make a

725
00:39:39,559 --> 00:39:42,480
big deal of this. He even blows out a birthday

726
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:44,920
cake candles while he's sitting in the bath with his

727
00:39:45,079 --> 00:39:46,159
entire family around.

728
00:39:46,519 --> 00:39:49,159
Speaker 2: Most uncomfortable scene in both of these movies.

729
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,280
Speaker 1: And he makes a big deal fifty years old. Fifty

730
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:55,840
years old, I'm supposed to be retiring fifty. Danny Glover

731
00:39:56,199 --> 00:39:58,599
was actually forty years old, how when he shot.

732
00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:02,599
Speaker 2: This, Yeah, and was in incredible shape, Like they constantly

733
00:40:02,639 --> 00:40:04,840
talk about how good a shape he was in, and

734
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,400
so you I mean, you know the scene where they're

735
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:11,320
running down the road, right like Mel Gibson trucking along,

736
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:13,519
sprinting down the road with the machine gun in his hand,

737
00:40:13,679 --> 00:40:16,639
and then Marta Danny Glover is kind of hobbling along

738
00:40:16,679 --> 00:40:19,280
down the road, dragging his foot out of breath, has

739
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,599
to sit down, all this stuff. They shoot this scene

740
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:28,159
and Richard Donner comes over to Danny Glover. He's like, okay, okay, Danny,

741
00:40:28,159 --> 00:40:30,440
can we can we try to do this one more time?

742
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,239
And Danny's like, what do you mean, Mike? Okay? He

743
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:35,639
gets up, runs around the block, comes back. He's like,

744
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:36,239
let's do it.

745
00:40:38,599 --> 00:40:42,119
Speaker 1: He's like, I think genius, Thank you, Okay, just a

746
00:40:42,159 --> 00:40:44,760
couple more things, fut back to Diehard really quick. Bonnie

747
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,960
Vidilia was hired as Holly Gennaro. Bruce Willis really went

748
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:50,760
to bat for her. He had seen her in a

749
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,480
movie called Heart Like a Wheel where she played a

750
00:40:52,559 --> 00:40:53,960
race card driver. I don't know if you remember that one,

751
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:56,039
but he really just loved her performance in that movie,

752
00:40:56,039 --> 00:40:59,320
and he personally recommended her to play his estranged wife,

753
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,199
Holly Jennero. Other people that they were interested in were

754
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:07,239
Linda Hamilton, Geena Davis, Debra Winger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis,

755
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:09,199
Kelly McGillis, and Kerrie Fisher.

756
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 2: My gosh, all of those just scream eighties movies. So

757
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:15,440
it's interesting, you know the part of the wonderfulness of

758
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:18,880
this movie is that it doesn't spoon feed you everything

759
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:22,639
that's going on. Like, we know there's a problem with

760
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,880
John and Holly, but we really don't know what it is.

761
00:41:27,119 --> 00:41:29,719
There isn't some big exposition as to what went wrong

762
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,239
in their marriage, why they're a strange. We just have

763
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,559
this kind of general idea that she's pursuing a career

764
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,760
and he's not happy with that. But what we have

765
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,360
is this fantastic, short little scene right before all of

766
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:46,440
the action starts, where he's just finished walking around making

767
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:51,639
fist with his toes in the carpet and they're doing

768
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:55,840
their best to get along for about thirty seconds before

769
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:00,400
he has to torpedo the ship and say what does

770
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:01,360
he say? Do you remember what he says?

771
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:03,559
Speaker 1: She's like, she says, I missed you, and he's like,

772
00:42:03,639 --> 00:42:05,440
you miss me. I guess you didn't miss my name?

773
00:42:05,519 --> 00:42:07,360
Huh except when you're signing checks.

774
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:15,079
Speaker 2: So yeah, So that the classic dumb head husband thing

775
00:42:15,119 --> 00:42:19,000
to say, and he does it, and they've got this vicious,

776
00:42:19,079 --> 00:42:23,519
short little exchange, but it informs so much as to

777
00:42:23,559 --> 00:42:29,239
their relationship, and you believe their love and animosity for

778
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,920
each other in just that brief little scene and the

779
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:35,519
way that they did that. Steven Desusa had Bruce Willis

780
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:40,119
and Bonnie Badelia improv some stuff, and they would improv

781
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:44,400
long bits that go into the detail. But then once

782
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,679
they actually shoot the scene, they don't give you all

783
00:42:46,679 --> 00:42:49,639
that detail. They just let it be the subtext behind

784
00:42:49,639 --> 00:42:52,079
what they're saying, and they did it fantastically.

785
00:42:52,199 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: I love how you even get a little bit of

786
00:42:54,519 --> 00:42:57,800
that with our gyle in the limo on the way there, right, yep?

787
00:42:57,880 --> 00:42:58,599
Why do you go with him?

788
00:42:58,760 --> 00:42:59,239
Speaker 2: What's up?

789
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:02,639
Speaker 1: Because I'm a New York cop, I got a six

790
00:43:02,679 --> 00:43:04,400
month back log in New York's Scumbags.

791
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,239
Speaker 2: I'm still trying to put behind bars. I can't just

792
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:08,480
pick up and go that easy. In other words, you

793
00:43:08,519 --> 00:43:10,000
thought she was gonna make it out here is he

794
00:43:10,119 --> 00:43:11,119
come calling them back to you?

795
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:12,159
Speaker 1: So why bother it back?

796
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 2: Right?

797
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:16,599
Speaker 4: Like I said, you're very fast, I go.

798
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,800
Speaker 1: The actor dever White, who plays Argyle, is hilarious in

799
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:21,480
this movie.

800
00:43:21,559 --> 00:43:22,199
Speaker 2: Absolutely.

801
00:43:22,239 --> 00:43:24,119
Speaker 1: A couple other people we really need to talk about,

802
00:43:24,159 --> 00:43:26,639
casting wise and Diehard. I want to talk a little

803
00:43:26,639 --> 00:43:28,000
bit about Reginald Villa Johnson.

804
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 2: He'd making thirty to Dispatch.

805
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:32,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a wild goose chase over here at knocking

806
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:34,239
Tony pleasant everything he is.

807
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:40,559
Speaker 2: Okay over but nobody has let it.

808
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:45,800
Speaker 1: Snooker, who played a cop in Peri Strangers who then

809
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,760
became the lead character in the TV show Family Matters

810
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:57,800
That but he does an awesome job of kind of

811
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,079
being in the heart of the movie, right everybody of

812
00:44:00,199 --> 00:44:01,159
Sergeant al Powell.

813
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 2: I had this thought, you just you tell me what

814
00:44:04,519 --> 00:44:07,639
you think about this. So obviously, leitha Weapon is a

815
00:44:07,639 --> 00:44:11,599
buddy cop movie, right, right? Is Diehard a buddy cop movie? Yeah?

816
00:44:11,639 --> 00:44:12,639
Speaker 1: Absolutely it is.

817
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,719
Speaker 2: With that I mean out, I mean, he's really like

818
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:21,039
h Sergeant al Powell is the mentor, he's the guy

819
00:44:21,039 --> 00:44:23,719
who leads John McClain through all of this stuff. He

820
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,960
leads him through the tough times. It's their exchange that

821
00:44:27,119 --> 00:44:29,960
leads to the character transition. I don't know. Maybe this

822
00:44:30,039 --> 00:44:31,639
is a buddy cop movie. I think it is.

823
00:44:31,679 --> 00:44:34,480
Speaker 1: I think it's a buddy cop movie where the cops

824
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,159
are separated and it belonged to be back together.

825
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:37,440
Speaker 4: You know.

826
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,159
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love the relationship that they build and it's

827
00:44:41,199 --> 00:44:44,480
still again, like I said before, fascinating to me that

828
00:44:44,559 --> 00:44:48,719
they probably shot all of Reginald val Johnson's scenes after

829
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:50,840
Bruce had gone back to the moon lighting and wasn't

830
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:51,639
even there anymore.

831
00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:54,159
Speaker 1: I do know for a fact on my research they

832
00:44:54,559 --> 00:44:57,280
Bruce Willis and Reginald vell Johnson did not meet until

833
00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:01,159
the last scene of the movie. They never ever met

834
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:08,119
until the famous It's snowing Bear Bond scene. Right, let's

835
00:45:08,119 --> 00:45:10,760
talk about William Atherton for just a second. This guy

836
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:16,239
played the world's greatest eighties butthole in every movie they

837
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:20,199
give us a break thorn burden at Harvey, Right, he

838
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:22,000
like tops himself in every movie.

839
00:45:22,199 --> 00:45:27,440
Speaker 2: Well him or Paul Gleeson. It's a real toss up, right,

840
00:45:28,039 --> 00:45:33,360
But somehow the brilliance of Joel Silver or John mcturnon

841
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:37,360
or whoever got both of these guys in the same movie.

842
00:45:37,679 --> 00:45:38,920
How freaking awesome is that?

843
00:45:39,159 --> 00:45:42,760
Speaker 1: I'm telling you so. William Atherton plays the professor in

844
00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:45,960
Real Genius who is out to flunt Chris Knight Val

845
00:45:46,039 --> 00:45:49,760
Kilmer's character yep. And then he's also the health inspector

846
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,880
or the safety inspector in Ghostbusters, the one who does

847
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,239
not know the magic word.

848
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:56,519
Speaker 2: It's true, this man has to pick.

849
00:46:01,039 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 1: And then, as you said, Paul Gleeson plays the principal

850
00:46:04,159 --> 00:46:07,199
in the Breakfast Club. Yeah right, don't mess with the bull,

851
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:08,000
you get the horns.

852
00:46:08,119 --> 00:46:12,320
Speaker 2: Also the corrupt inspector in Trading Places.

853
00:46:12,639 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 1: Oh, I totally forgot about that. And then one guy

854
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,199
I really wanted to bring up before we go any further,

855
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:22,519
Alexander Gudanov. We could do a whole podcast and maybe

856
00:46:22,559 --> 00:46:25,440
we'll do a mini one off on him. He was

857
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:30,800
a Russian ballet dancer yep, who effected yep. They hired

858
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,760
him because they knew he could be athletic enough to

859
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:35,000
do fight scenes.

860
00:46:35,039 --> 00:46:37,880
Speaker 2: Right, and the fight scene between him and Bruce Willis

861
00:46:38,559 --> 00:46:41,719
was not like a choreographed thing. It was very much

862
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:45,400
an improvisational. We're just fighting away, but they did a

863
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:46,679
fantastic job with it.

864
00:46:47,039 --> 00:46:49,400
Speaker 1: I saw an interview with Joel Silver and when he

865
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:53,480
was discussing Alexander Gudanoff, he said, great guy, drunk all

866
00:46:53,519 --> 00:46:54,239
the time.

867
00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 2: Yes, which is hilarious until you learn that he died

868
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:01,960
in the mid nineties of cirrhosis of the liver yep,

869
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:02,800
which is tragic.

870
00:47:03,119 --> 00:47:05,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a couple more notes on pre production d

871
00:47:05,559 --> 00:47:07,880
before we wrap it up. I thought it was interesting,

872
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,639
now this is this is pre production, it's also a production,

873
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,960
but the fictional Knakatomy Plaza is actually the headquarters of

874
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:20,559
twentieth Century Fox. Yes, this building was incomplete, but there

875
00:47:20,639 --> 00:47:23,800
were people working in this building. Yes, at the time

876
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:25,960
they were filming this movie. The company actually had to

877
00:47:26,039 --> 00:47:28,599
charge itself rent to use this building.

878
00:47:28,519 --> 00:47:33,559
Speaker 2: Had to or or used it as an excuse to

879
00:47:33,599 --> 00:47:36,599
spend money that didn't that was now tax deductible. I

880
00:47:36,679 --> 00:47:38,719
would say, yeah, there was a There was a lawyer

881
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:41,840
downstairs who didn't represent anybody. He was a pretty high

882
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,840
powered lawyer in la but he did not represent anyone

883
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:46,960
in the picture, and so he was none too happy

884
00:47:47,039 --> 00:47:50,400
about the full sound effect blasts of all of them,

885
00:47:50,639 --> 00:47:52,760
the machine guns going on.

886
00:47:53,639 --> 00:47:57,119
Speaker 1: Imagine trying to do work and you know you've got

887
00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:01,320
machine guns and people jumping off building with fire hoses

888
00:48:01,519 --> 00:48:05,119
and helicopters and missile launchers.

889
00:48:06,519 --> 00:48:13,480
Speaker 2: I mean, here's something interesting. Nakatomi Plaza. Nakatomi is the

890
00:48:13,639 --> 00:48:17,519
name of a Japanese battleship. That's the way they got

891
00:48:17,519 --> 00:48:21,400
this name. They came across this list of and I

892
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:24,400
think they're named after like Japanese clans of the past

893
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:27,159
and stuff the battleships are. And so they're going through

894
00:48:27,199 --> 00:48:30,280
the list of Japanese battleships and they see Nakatomy and

895
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:32,679
they're like, yeah, that sounds cool, let's go with that.

896
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:36,119
So Nakatomi just look cool, and that's why they decided

897
00:48:36,159 --> 00:48:39,039
to go with it. But then the logo. I never

898
00:48:39,159 --> 00:48:41,920
realized this before, but Joel Silver was talking about how

899
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,000
they came across the logo. He found it in a

900
00:48:45,159 --> 00:48:48,800
catalog that had Samurai helmets on it. If you go

901
00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:51,960
back and look at the logo, it's these it's these

902
00:48:52,159 --> 00:48:54,960
bars that kind of come up and two little circles

903
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:57,800
in it above the name Nakatomi, and it looks like

904
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:00,679
a Samurai helmet. I never noticed Inn till he said that,

905
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:05,280
But I was like, holy cow, Nakatomy, the Samurai, pretty

906
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:09,679
freaking awesome. And this movie did fantastic in Japan. You know,

907
00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:12,480
if there's any concerns about, you know, the weird kind

908
00:49:12,519 --> 00:49:16,159
of cultural things that go on with the Japanese comments,

909
00:49:16,679 --> 00:49:20,280
this movie killed one awards in Japan.

910
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,800
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So a couple of things on pre production.

911
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:24,960
We've talked a little bit about how they kind of

912
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:28,079
wrote this on the go. Bruce Willis and John mciernan

913
00:49:28,119 --> 00:49:31,079
talked publicly about how they didn't really know who John

914
00:49:31,199 --> 00:49:35,760
McLean was until about halfway through shooting. Who then just

915
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,960
a flying the ointment Hans, the monkey in the wrench,

916
00:49:39,559 --> 00:49:42,440
the pain in the ish, right, But I thought this

917
00:49:42,519 --> 00:49:47,199
was interesting. Jib Stewart, who wrote the original screenplay for Diehard,

918
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:52,920
was having difficulty writing the screenplay, and while he was

919
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:55,559
driving at night in Los Angeles after a fight with

920
00:49:55,639 --> 00:49:59,639
his wife, he was driving behind a truck carrying refrigerators.

921
00:50:00,159 --> 00:50:02,599
Speaker 2: The story no, this is good, go ahead, okay.

922
00:50:03,039 --> 00:50:05,760
Speaker 1: So he was driving behind a truck carrying refrigerators and

923
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,320
one of the refrigerator boxes fell out of the truck.

924
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:13,159
He thought he was going to die. He like swerved

925
00:50:12,679 --> 00:50:15,960
and thought, I'm this is it, this is it for me.

926
00:50:16,599 --> 00:50:18,519
And it turns out the box was empty. He didn't

927
00:50:18,519 --> 00:50:20,360
have a fridge in it. It is just the box,

928
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,400
and so he plowed through it with his car folded

929
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:26,480
over the top. And he realized that if he had died,

930
00:50:26,559 --> 00:50:29,400
he would not have been able to apologize to his wife.

931
00:50:30,679 --> 00:50:34,000
And that made it into the movie, the whole thing

932
00:50:34,039 --> 00:50:37,199
about how she's heard me say I love her a

933
00:50:37,199 --> 00:50:40,239
thousand times, but she's never heard me say I'm sorry.

934
00:50:40,679 --> 00:50:43,400
That's because Jeb Stewart plowed through a refrigerator box.

935
00:50:43,559 --> 00:50:47,000
Speaker 2: That's awesome. That is a great story. Wow, that's fantastic.

936
00:50:47,159 --> 00:50:52,280
Speaker 1: The original script called for terrorists to hijack the building.

937
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,519
John McTiernan he didn't like the idea of terrorists seizing

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control of Knokotoni Tower. Nobody likes terrorists, right, right, But

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if they're a bank heist is way more fun.

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Speaker 2: Just a common thief.

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Speaker 3: I'm an exceptional thief. Since I'm moving up to kidnapping,

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00:51:09,679 --> 00:51:12,960
you should chose some more respect, You should be more polite. Okay,

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00:51:13,039 --> 00:51:15,920
So that does it for pre production?

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00:51:16,519 --> 00:51:17,119
Speaker 2: Are you done?

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00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:24,440
Speaker 1: I haven't even got started yet, forget that, I forget that.

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00:51:24,599 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 2: You have to be done because that's the end of

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00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:32,679
this episode. We'll start back up on the rest of

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it for our next episode. Thank you everybody so much

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for being here. Jason, you know what one shepherd said

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00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:41,920
to the other shepherd.

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Speaker 1: Get the flock out of here.

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Speaker 2: We'll see you all next time.