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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?

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Speaker 3: Jason?

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Speaker 2: How you doing? I'm doing great? How you doing tonight?

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I'm doing fantastic. I've got my Seagrum's golden wine cooler.

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Speaker 3: Over here, and I'm practicing some martial arts. I guess

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we're gonna have to register you as a 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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I had a fantastic year. It's been great. It has

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been so fun to do this with you. And I

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can't wait to tackle season two coming up in in

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the year with two of our favorite movies of all times,

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right at Christmas time where they need to be. I

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can't wait to get into these two movies.

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Speaker 3: Man, these are 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 3: 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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I know, right.

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Speaker 3: Hey, before we get too far in the podcast, I

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want to give a quick shout out.

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Speaker 2: We got a really nice.

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Speaker 3: Review and I just want to send it out there.

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If you're enjoying the show, please rate us, give us

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five stars on Apple Podcasts. That helps people find us,

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that helps us kind of get where we want to be.

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Thank you to Royals Fan eighty three.

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Speaker 2: This is what he said.

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Speaker 3: The title says, my new favorite podcast. This is such

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a fun show that reminds me of the friendly debates

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my friends and I used to have in high school.

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The host are very upbeat, informed in their enthusiasm for

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music movies is infectious. It's also one of the few

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podcasts that I can listen to with the kids in

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the car and not worry about their profanity. Keep up

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the great work, and I can't wait for the next episode.

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Royals Fan eighty three, thank you, and we've.

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Speaker 2: Got to give a special shout out to the Beckett Foundation.

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They on Twitter referenced something I said back in April.

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Back April twenty first, and we were doing Coming to

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America versus Trading Places. I said something about Ralph Bellamy

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versus Bill Bellamy and that they were not related and

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post a picture and my gosh, these guys, what is

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it now? Eight months later they're the ones who posted

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the picture of Bill Bellamy. Thank you guys for getting

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the joke. Thank you for being in on it. We

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really appreciate you. Check out them at the Beckett Foundation

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on Twitter. That was really cool. I had to refresh

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my memory. I was like, I don't remember what we

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were talking about. Why did they send us a picture

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of Bill Bellamy? That's a strain.

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Speaker 3: 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 3: 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. All right, well,

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how you feeling. I feel fantastic. I'm excited to be here.

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I'm drinking out of my custom engraved. Surely you can't

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be serious 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 is it

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the Duke's brother level we have? We have the Billy

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Ray Valentine level, we have the Lewis Winthorpe Winthorpe level,

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we have the Duke's Brothers level, and we have the

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prin sichem level. If you subscribe at the Duke's Brothers level,

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you will get a set of awesome headphones and a

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custom Engrave. Surely you can't be serious Podcast Cup, and

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you become executive producer of one of our episodes.

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Speaker 3: James Beckley, appreciate you, buddy, It's fantastic.

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Speaker 2: Sign me up. I'm ready to do this. Yes, well,

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you already pay for our episodes, so Cup for friend.

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But yes, if you have loved what you've heard so far,

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this year. Please sign up become one of our Patreon subscribers.

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It's so much fun to engage with those guys, and

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we we can always use the support, all right. So, oh,

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enough of the pledge drive campaigning that we're doing here.

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Time to jump into these movies. Jason, are you ready?

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Do you really want to jump?

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Speaker 3: Well?

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Speaker 2: Do you Well, that's just fine with me. Let's do it, man,

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Let's do it. Okay. I gotta say this. In this

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entire year, it's been amazing to learn about the different

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people involved in all of our favorite music and movies.

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The guy that I didn't know that I am excited

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to have learned about is Shane Black. He was a

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guy who was just a name up until we started

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doing our research for this. But what an interesting guy

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he is. You know, he's like your friend, that is

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this just this always angry, hating on life guy, but

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he is so intelligent and so funny that you still

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love him. And that's to me, that's Shane Black. You know.

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Speaker 3: It's interesting that you say that I didn't know a

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whole lot about him before that. 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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Mavison 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, A 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. Tragic. Okay,

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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 and he showed it to

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his brother to see what he thought of it, and

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

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kind of weird mix of like a platoon of army

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guys in Vietnam and some sort of supernatural stuff going on.

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And so Shane is devastated. And he's sitting there in

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front of his typewriter contemplating whether he should bother to

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go on writing anything ever again, and the page is

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just staring at him, and he's staring back at the

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page and he decides to write a sentence, and that

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sentence gets followed by another sentence, and then the words

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just kind of start flowing out of him, and he

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writes an entirely different scene, which becomes an entirely different script,

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which ultimately he shows to somebody who gets him an

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agent who then finds a way to get another script

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that he's written sold. And that script that he wrote

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at twenty one, which he sells at twenty two is

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the script for Lethal Weapon. It's fantastic. That moment in

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front of the typewriter was a moment of precarious history

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because he said, had I not typed that sentence, had

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I not typed that sentence, I would have given up

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writing forever. But something just was staring back at me

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that said, just type something. It is because of that

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that we have Lethal Weapon, and that we have Iron

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Man three, and that we have the nice guys. I mean,

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pretty huge deal. And the name of that script that

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he showed his brother that he changed the Shadow Company. Yay,

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all right, right, so those are the bad guys from

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Lethal Weapon exactly if you haven't if you haven't seen

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Lethal Weapon in a while, that is the company that

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all of the bad guys got together in in Lethal Weapon. Nice.

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Speaker 3: 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 Leth the Weapon. He wrote Kiss Kiss,

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Bang Bang, he wrote Long Kisk and Night, he wrote

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Ironman three. But he's also he acts in Predator. He's

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the guy with glasses. He's like the one guy that's

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not totally musclebound. That's Shane Black.

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

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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 the movies because they're the

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obvious comparison, right, They're both Christmas movies, yes, and abs are.

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And they are both urban cowboy movies, right they are.

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They're the urban gunslinger movies. Right, yep, for sure, one

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hundred percent. But they're related in so many other ways.

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You have the you've got the overlap of at least

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three actors in both of the movies. You've got the

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script writer of Letha Weapon is in a movie directed

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by the director of die Hard, and later on he

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becomes a writer for Last Action Hero, which is also

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directed by the director of die Hard. It's all just

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they're just intertwined so so tightly. I've never seen two

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movies that were more closely related than these two.

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Speaker 3: When you look at the casting. And I know we'll

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get into casting here in a minute. But Ur Schwarzenegger

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starred in Predator, directed by John McTiernan. John mc tee,

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you're in. His next project is die Hard. He was

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going to hire Schwarzenegger. This was going to be a

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Commando sequel, yeah, right, And instead of his wife being

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in trouble. It was Alyssa Milano, his daughter. I mean

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these movies are from the 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. Oh, that would

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have been awesome. I would have loved that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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I think for whatever die Hard Leath the Weapon sequel

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that's coming up, if they did some sort of overlap

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like that, I might just lose my freaking mind.

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Speaker 3: 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 I know, they were twin brothers or something.

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Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about that for just a second. So

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agent Johnson, no, the other one, he was in Diehard, right,

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Grandell Bush, and he was also a cop in Lethal Weapon.

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Speaker 2: Then you have Al Leon, who.

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Speaker 3: Was the guy who tortured Rigs with the battery cable. Yes,

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he was also ginghis Khanan.

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Speaker 2: Written by Ed Solomon, who is the room made of

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Shane Black, as we've established.

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Speaker 3: 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 3: Also, yeah, you have Roberts Mex's ex.

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Speaker 2: Wife, Mary Ellen Trainer.

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Speaker 3: She plays the police psychologist who says Riggs is he's

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on the edge.

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Speaker 2: You don't want to be around him when he goes.

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And he's also the TV reporter in Diehard yep.

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Speaker 3: She's the one standing next to the news reporter who says,

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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 3: 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. Hit Shane Black,

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who wrote Lethal Weapon. Then we've hit John McTiernan, who

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who is the director of die Hard. Now he had

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come off of Predator. As you said, he got that

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job because he had written and directed a movie called Nomads,

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which had Pierce Brosnan in it. This was Pierce Brosnan's

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first role. And you probably didn't see that movie. It

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wasn't really well regarded. But if you happen to watch it,

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there's a scene where a guy falls. You're it's got

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your point of view, and you're watching him fall off

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of a building as I was, And I'm like, what

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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 Steven desusa who wrote and really kind of rewrote Diehard.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, you know, just to backtrack, just to touch

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Richard Donner.

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Speaker 2: We have now.

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Speaker 3: Covered Superman one, Superman two ish with Richard Donner, the

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Lost Boys, Lethal Weapon, and I promise you at some

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point we're going to cover the Goonies.

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Speaker 2: No question. It will be one of the movies for

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season two, for sure.

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Speaker 3: Richard Donner has his fingerprints all over the eighties.

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Speaker 2: Stephen Desuso 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 3: He wrote Nothing Last Forever by Roder Thorpe.

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Speaker 2: Yes, which in that novel, John McLain is not named

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John McClain he has a different first name.

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Speaker 3: 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.

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Speaker 2: Called Nothing Lasts Forever by Roder Thorpe.

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Speaker 3: This is the sequel book to another book called The Detective.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: The Detective was made into a movie in the late

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sixties starring Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra played Joe Leland and

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when they remade Nothing Last Forever as die Hard, contractually

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they had to offer the part to Frank Sinatra. Can

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you imagine a world where die Hard instead of Bruce Willis,

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we 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 3: Come on, I say, Yippi Kaya, Shooby dooby doo. Thankfully

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he 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 do something

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with it? And he's like, sure, let's put it together.

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So Jeb Stewart's script ultimately gets substantially rewritten by Steven Desuso. So,

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like you said, they had this plan that it would

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be Commando two, which was all well and good until

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Arnold Schwarzenegger said, no, thank you.

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Speaker 3: 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? Yeah? I like it, Okay,

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I have whatever.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't blow my freaking doors off like Diehard does, though, no,

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of course not, because it's comedy.

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Speaker 2: It's not an action. But he wanted he wanted to

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show his range, and that's fine. So you don't get

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Arnold Schwarzenegger. Obviously, the second choice has to be Sylvester

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Stallone and he says no, no thank you as well,

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and you're like, well, crap, who else do we have? Yeah,

346
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I mean we want to go. I've got the list

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

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Speaker 3: In its original incarnation, you had Frank Sinatra offered the part.

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Speaker 2: At that time it.

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Speaker 3: Was a father daughter relationship rather than a husband and wife,

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so they offered to Charles Bronson, Burt Reynolds.

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Speaker 2: Richard Gear was Joel Silver's first choice. Yeah, he pushed hard,

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pushed hard on Richard Gear, and no, I don't really

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like it. I don't want to be running around with

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the gun and doing my own stunts. No, thanks, okay,

356
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so let's keep going.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Richard Gear, Sylvester Stalone, as you said, Harrison Ford

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l Schwarzenegger, as we talked about Clint Eastwood.

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Speaker 2: Had a shot at this too old.

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Speaker 3: At that point, Robert de Niro was very close to Diehard.

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Speaker 2: That had been a different movie altogether, that would have

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been Don Johnson. Yeah. Yeah, So Don Johnson at this

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point is very hot with Miami Vice, and then Bruce

364
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Willis is very hot with Moonlighting. Hang on, I'm not done.

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Speaker 3: Oh sorry, so sorry, no, no, no, So speaking of

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hot on TV, you have Don Johnson, you have Richard

367
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Dean Anderson ring a Bell mcgiver.

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

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Speaker 3: 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. All those guys it down,

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all those guys not interested. And so Bruce Willis, Bruce

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Willis again was a choice of Joel Silver like he

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had seen him in Blind Date, which was the Blake

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Edwards movie that had come out before, and obviously he

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had seen him in in Moonlighting, and so he didn't

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have big, a big box office pull at this point.

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But Joel Silver thought that he could make it happen.

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He thought that he could do it.

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Speaker 3: 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?

383
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Speaker 3: I am an unapologetic fan of the movie Blind Date.

384
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I like Blake Edwards movies. They're freaking funny.

385
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Speaker 2: Blake who did Pink Panther movies? If that helps anybody out.

386
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Speaker 3: There, Yes, and the movie Skin Deep with John Ritter.

387
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I think they're so funny. And I think Bruce Willis

388
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is very charming, very funny in the movie Blind Date,

389
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and it kind of gets beat on a little bit.

390
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But I am a huge fan of Moonlighting.

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Speaker 2: How about you? Absolutely watched every single episode. We loved it. Yeah, great,

392
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great TV show. So weirdly, this is kind of a

393
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weird thing that happens. I mean, they've gone through a

394
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whole bunch of people and are basically kind of left

395
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with Bruce Willis and Joel silver Is having to push

396
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to get him in the movie. But then they offer

397
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him five million dollars to play this part, which is insane.

398
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That's a crazy amount of money to offer even a

399
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star at this point. And he's a guy who has

400
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done one movie that's been released. It's actually two movies,

401
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but one that's been released at this point, and it

402
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only did kind of good. And so Robert Murdoch, the

403
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head of the studios, green lights it. He's like, yep,

404
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go ahead, give him five million dollars. And so the

405
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next day, Richard Dreyfus fired his agent. I heard this.

406
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What he's never done anything, and I've done all that,

407
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you can't get me five million dollars to fire. So

408
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the question is then at this point, hey, we've fired him,

409
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We've got him for five million dollars, but he's still

410
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in Moonlighting. I mean, that's a TV show that's constantly filming,

411
00:23:06,839 --> 00:23:10,160
but They've got this little miracle that happens. Simple Shepherd

412
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gets pregnant and they have to stop filming Moonlighting for

413
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six weeks, and so they have exactly six weeks to

414
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film die Hard with Bruce Willis. They don't film the

415
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whole movie in that six weeks. They just filmed the

416
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Bruce Willis parts in the first six weeks, and then

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they go on and film the other parts after that,

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which is kind of I mean, you know, we watch

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movies and we kind of, you know, we have this

420
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image that it's all filmed chronologically, which of course it's not.

421
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But it's just kind of interesting to think that so

422
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much of the conversation that occurs on the radio between

423
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Al and John and Hans and John didn't really ever

424
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really happen. It was just the magic of movies, movie magic.

425
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And so interestingly, the villain in die Hard this is

426
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his first major motion picture. Yep, mister Alan Rickman had

427
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never been in a motion picture before. He had done

428
00:24:10,279 --> 00:24:13,519
some British television. He had done quite a bit of

429
00:24:13,559 --> 00:24:17,119
stage work and that ultimately is how he got discovered.

430
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He was in Liaisons Dejeruse as the bad guy in

431
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,000
that on a Broadway production and John McTiernan and Joel

432
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Silver happened to catch the play and they see him

433
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being the bad guy and they're like, there's our Hans Grueber.

434
00:24:30,839 --> 00:24:33,519
There is our villain right there, and they offer him

435
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the part. So, as we just discussed, the first scenes

436
00:24:37,799 --> 00:24:40,559
that they're shooting are the scenes with Bruce Willison, So

437
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,640
that means the first scene that they film with Alan

438
00:24:43,759 --> 00:24:49,039
Rickman is the scene where he meets John McClain as

439
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:57,720
Hans Gruber pretending to be Bill Clay Clay Billy, which

440
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,960
is weird because Bill Clay, of course nothing like Hans Kruber.

441
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's an interesting story with this. So they're

442
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,359
sitting around at lunch one day. Of course, Alan Rickman

443
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has a heavy English accent, but they're asking him, Hey, Alan,

444
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do you do an American accent?

445
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Speaker 2: And he said, well, I don't.

446
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Speaker 3: I don't really do an American accent, but I do

447
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do like a California accent. And he cracked everybody up

448
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and everybody was dying laughing, and they're like, man, we

449
00:25:26,279 --> 00:25:29,119
gotta do this. The characters have to meet, and to me,

450
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this blows my mind. Okay, so we have this really

451
00:25:33,279 --> 00:25:39,279
amazingly well constructed action movie, maybe the best action movie ever,

452
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and they were building it on the fly. So Stephen

453
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DeSUS is sitting right there and they're like, hey, we

454
00:25:44,759 --> 00:25:46,079
got to figure out a way to get these two

455
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guys together. They have to meet, and we have to

456
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use this accent so you know, John McClean doesn't know,

457
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And so Steve J. Susan gets busy writing this scene

458
00:25:55,039 --> 00:25:58,200
and then they think back when they're like, no, shoot,

459
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he sees him shoot to Kagi and Stephen DeSUS is like, well,

460
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,000
wait a minute, have we shot that scene yet. They're

461
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,640
like nope, it's set for tomorrow. And so they have

462
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:09,759
to play with the angles to make sure that John

463
00:26:09,839 --> 00:26:12,200
McClain never sees Hans's face.

464
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Speaker 2: Oh, so that's why he's under the table. That's it.

465
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Speaker 3: He's under the table, and if you watch the scene,

466
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,960
you don't see Hans from John's perspective.

467
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:26,319
Speaker 2: So they shoot that first scene between Bruce and Alan,

468
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:31,279
John and Bill and John and Hans. Too many things

469
00:26:31,319 --> 00:26:34,400
going on there, and so they start showing dailies to

470
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:36,960
people and they've got people from the studio there, and

471
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:41,440
when they're watching the scene with Alan Rickman playing Bill Clay,

472
00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:46,440
there's a casting director there named Nancy Klopwright who loses

473
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:48,759
her mind. She gets like super upset, and it's like,

474
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:51,319
we can't have this guy as the bad guy. He's

475
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:55,319
too weak. And Joel Silver's like, that's what it's supposed

476
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:59,039
to be. In the scene he is playing Week. He's

477
00:26:59,079 --> 00:27:01,759
not actually week, He's playing Week. And she goes on

478
00:27:01,799 --> 00:27:05,720
this huge campaign to get Alan Rickman fired, which now,

479
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,000
I mean, can you imagine that? I mean, if there

480
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:13,079
is I love, love, love Bruce Willis, but if I

481
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,160
got to pick one actor that made this movie, it

482
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,519
was Alan Rickman. So that is kind of the beginnings

483
00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:21,799
of Diehard, which I don't know why we talked about

484
00:27:21,839 --> 00:27:24,920
it first, because it was the second movie. What had

485
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,640
come out a couple of years before was a movie

486
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:38,079
called Lethal Weapon, Yes freaking length a weapon, And this

487
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:40,000
is the one that Shane Black wrote that we were

488
00:27:40,039 --> 00:27:43,759
talking about. So Shane Black has this script. Richard Donner

489
00:27:44,079 --> 00:27:47,319
hates action movies, but he reads this script and he

490
00:27:47,759 --> 00:27:52,680
enjoys the humor and he enjoys the fault in each

491
00:27:52,799 --> 00:27:55,839
of the main characters, like you've you've got the guy

492
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,880
who's suicidal and a little bit crazy, and you've got

493
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,599
guy who's too old for this shit, and so to

494
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:06,680
him makes it a much more compelling story. And then,

495
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:08,599
like I said, it's got the humor in it. And

496
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,119
so Richard Donner's like, yes, this looks like a great movie.

497
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:15,440
Now they had wanted other people for this. You ready

498
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,680
for casting on lethal Weapon? Heck, yeah, let's do it. Okay,

499
00:28:18,799 --> 00:28:19,759
you jump on it, man.

500
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,240
Speaker 3: So initially when they were hiring for Lethal Weapon, they

501
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:27,279
had no ethnicity specifically in mind. So the black family

502
00:28:27,319 --> 00:28:30,279
cop and the white suicidal cop that wasn't necessarily in

503
00:28:30,279 --> 00:28:30,680
the script.

504
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 2: They just kind of came together through casting.

505
00:28:33,039 --> 00:28:35,279
Speaker 3: Initially, they wanted Brian Denahey.

506
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:35,920
Speaker 2: To play Roger Marta.

507
00:28:36,079 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 3: I could see that he had just done First Blood

508
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:41,559
and thought, no, I've already done the cop thing for Riggs.

509
00:28:42,079 --> 00:28:46,559
They looked at Alec Baldwin, Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Robert

510
00:28:46,559 --> 00:28:50,400
de Niro, Don Johnson, Michael Keaton. I could see him

511
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:51,480
being the suicidal cop.

512
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:53,599
Speaker 2: Oh for sure, Yeah, you want.

513
00:28:53,400 --> 00:29:02,359
Speaker 3: To get nuts, Liam Neeson, Sean In, Dennis Quaid, Kurt Russell,

514
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:06,359
I mean, Tom Selleck, Charlie Sheen. These are all eighties

515
00:29:06,359 --> 00:29:08,119
action stars. But here's the one that I find the

516
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:12,559
most interesting. Yes, Christopher Reeve was considered for the role

517
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:13,319
of Martin.

518
00:29:13,119 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 2: Riggs, Right right.

519
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 3: I worked with Donner previously on Superman.

520
00:29:17,319 --> 00:29:21,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, seems like maybe a fit. But no, I don't know.

521
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,920
Uh uh, I'm gonna go ahead and disagree on that.

522
00:29:25,279 --> 00:29:27,799
Bob Well not a fit for the character.

523
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 3: A familiar face with Donna, right right?

524
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:37,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, but yes, very interesting choice. But I would

525
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:45,000
say probably the most interesting consideration is Bruce Willis. See

526
00:29:45,279 --> 00:29:48,799
that's crazy, right, I'll tell you a little secret what

527
00:29:49,519 --> 00:29:53,119
I'm not crazy? These movies are so connected it's unbelievable. Right,

528
00:29:53,279 --> 00:29:57,119
So Mel Gibson was considered for John McClain and Bruce

529
00:29:57,160 --> 00:29:59,920
Willis was considered for Martin.

530
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:02,960
Speaker 3: Do you know who Shane Black wanted to play Martin

531
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:05,400
Riggs William Hurt.

532
00:30:06,519 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 2: I can see that, and as we know, William Hurts

533
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:10,920
a guy who's not afraid to say no.

534
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,799
Speaker 3: Right he turned down flashback to our Jurassic Park episode.

535
00:30:14,839 --> 00:30:17,359
Speaker 2: He turned down the role of doctor Grant. Oh is

536
00:30:17,359 --> 00:30:18,440
it doctor Grant? Oh?

537
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,839
Speaker 3: Okay, but he is the most boring actor in the world.

538
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 2: To me, I'm not, Oh my gosh, that's funny.

539
00:30:28,839 --> 00:30:33,039
Speaker 3: Casting agent Marion Doherty wanted to cast Danny Glover after

540
00:30:33,079 --> 00:30:35,880
seeing him in the movie The Color Purple YEP. So

541
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:39,880
she arranged to fly Mel Gibson from Sydney and Danny

542
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,480
Glover flew from Chicago. They met in Los Angeles and

543
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,240
the buddy cop movie of the eighties was made.

544
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:51,079
Speaker 2: It was instant chemistry, like they were immediately playing off

545
00:30:51,119 --> 00:30:55,440
each other, riffing off each other and just immediately had

546
00:30:55,480 --> 00:31:02,960
that perfect chemistry right meet you, new partner. And that,

547
00:31:03,079 --> 00:31:05,920
by the way, is one of the things that makes

548
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:12,000
this movie so good is they've got this animosity throughout

549
00:31:12,039 --> 00:31:14,640
the movie and that's you know, we talked. We talked

550
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,759
in our Raiders and Back to the Future episode about

551
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,079
the hero's journey and how characters, you know, have to

552
00:31:21,119 --> 00:31:24,559
go through this cycle of change as they go through

553
00:31:24,559 --> 00:31:28,079
the movie. Well, these two guys both go through that

554
00:31:28,119 --> 00:31:31,000
cycle of change, but it's really the relationship that goes

555
00:31:31,039 --> 00:31:33,680
through the change, because at the beginning of the movie,

556
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:36,079
it's like, you know what, I don't want to work

557
00:31:36,079 --> 00:31:40,079
with you. But and by the end of the movie,

558
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,319
he's given him back the bullet and he's going to

559
00:31:42,319 --> 00:31:45,839
eat the crummy Christmas dinner with the family. So when

560
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,319
we get to leth A Weapon two. By the way,

561
00:31:48,759 --> 00:31:50,599
they've become good friends at this point. So what are

562
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,480
you going to do to have bickering. Well, you're gonna

563
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:54,160
have Joe PESHI that's what you're gonna do.

564
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:58,359
Speaker 3: Whatever you need Leo gets, you get it.

565
00:31:59,279 --> 00:32:00,559
Speaker 2: I use it all the time to break the ice

566
00:32:00,599 --> 00:32:01,359
when I meet people. You know.

567
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,119
Speaker 3: I asked my wife right before I came out here.

568
00:32:04,119 --> 00:32:05,759
I'm like, all right, I'm getting ready record leth the

569
00:32:05,759 --> 00:32:08,720
webon die Hard, what's your favorite part of Leith a Weapon?

570
00:32:09,359 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 2: And she's like, here's what she said.

571
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 3: She goes, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

572
00:32:15,799 --> 00:32:17,559
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say they get the

573
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:18,319
drive through.

574
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:26,279
Speaker 3: Leave the weapon two takes h So this this franchise

575
00:32:26,359 --> 00:32:26,839
is so great.

576
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,519
Speaker 2: Listen, we're not here to talk about leth a Weapon Too,

577
00:32:30,519 --> 00:32:35,640
but since we're since you brought it up. The script

578
00:32:36,039 --> 00:32:38,640
for Leith the Weapon Too was originally written by Shane

579
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:42,960
Black and they didn't use it. He got frustrated, walked

580
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,319
off the movie, and they brought in Jeff Baum, who

581
00:32:47,319 --> 00:32:52,200
we talked about in The Lost Boys. Yeah right right,

582
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:57,200
at which you mentioned, makes an appearance in Lethal Weapon

583
00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,799
because of Richard Donner. It shows up on the movie

584
00:33:00,839 --> 00:33:03,200
Marquee behind them as they were walking along having their

585
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,799
hot dog. It says Lost Boys hit of the year,

586
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,160
and so Jeff Boheme is the one that comes in

587
00:33:08,279 --> 00:33:12,240
and rewrites this script to give it more comedy and

588
00:33:12,839 --> 00:33:16,519
not as dark. Shane Black had written a very very

589
00:33:16,759 --> 00:33:21,079
dark Lethal Weapon two that ends with the death of

590
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:25,759
Martin Riggs, and they said thanks, but no thanks. You know,

591
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,160
here's your money. Thank you, have a nice day. But

592
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:32,519
he maintains to this day that it is the best

593
00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:34,400
script he has ever written. Really.

594
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:37,119
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would love to see that.

595
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 2: I would. I'm sure there are lots and lots of

596
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,440
people who would love to see it, but I don't

597
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:41,759
think anybody ever will.

598
00:33:42,079 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 3: Man Hey, just a little side note, mel Gibson turned

599
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:50,599
down starring roles in the movie The Fly and the Untouchables.

600
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,799
Can you imagine Mel Gibson as Elliott Ness and the Intouchables?

601
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 2: Yes, kind of kind of cool, right, Yeah, he could

602
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:57,640
have done that.

603
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 3: I love all these what if scenarios, eighties what if Well.

604
00:34:01,759 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 2: The interesting thing about mel Gibson is he had not

605
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,159
done a movie in over a year at the time

606
00:34:08,159 --> 00:34:11,280
that they started filming lethal Weapon. He had had some

607
00:34:11,679 --> 00:34:15,639
crazy success with Mad Max and he had done I

608
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,599
think like four movies in one year, which is a

609
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:23,079
huge undertaking, and he just is like Russell Crowe, He's like,

610
00:34:23,119 --> 00:34:24,719
I got to go back to the farm. He went

611
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:28,039
back to the farm on Australia and just put a

612
00:34:28,079 --> 00:34:31,639
do not disturb sign on the door. And so there

613
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:38,039
is an original opening for Martin Riggs that nobody unless

614
00:34:38,039 --> 00:34:41,119
you've seen like the outtakes or the special features, you

615
00:34:41,599 --> 00:34:45,480
haven't seen it. Where he is in a bar drinking

616
00:34:45,519 --> 00:34:47,599
and he gets into this fight with these other guys

617
00:34:48,039 --> 00:34:50,280
and he's looking in the mirror before all this happens,

618
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,079
and he looks like he was roaded hard and hung

619
00:34:53,159 --> 00:34:56,559
up wet. He looks bad, and he says, I look

620
00:34:56,639 --> 00:34:59,559
that way because I had gotten any sleep the night

621
00:34:59,639 --> 00:35:03,320
before we shot this scene, because it had been so

622
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,440
long since I filmed a movie. I was scared to death. Yeah,

623
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:08,000
that's pretty cool. I love that story.

624
00:35:08,199 --> 00:35:11,320
Speaker 3: Hey, I want to drop a little eighties tidbit real quick.

625
00:35:12,679 --> 00:35:14,800
Very minor, I say, a minor character.

626
00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:16,280
Speaker 2: The whole plot revolves.

627
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 3: Around this character, but she's only in it for a

628
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,960
few moments. Jackie Swanson plays Amanda Huntsecker.

629
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 2: She is the prostitute to her death, jumps to her death.

630
00:35:26,559 --> 00:35:28,880
Speaker 3: Jumps to her death at the very beginning of the movie, right,

631
00:35:29,159 --> 00:35:32,920
you know, topless drugs, prostitute.

632
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:34,199
Speaker 2: Your growing boy needs.

633
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 3: So the whole plot of the movie revolves around her death.

634
00:35:38,519 --> 00:35:41,719
Jackie Swanson plays Kelly on Cheers.

635
00:35:42,079 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 2: She plays Kelly Kelly. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly

636
00:35:45,519 --> 00:35:51,199
k e l L. Why because she's Kelly Kelly Kelly.

637
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:57,639
That's it. She's Kelly. She's Woody's wife on Cheers. She's

638
00:35:57,719 --> 00:35:59,000
the pretty little rich.

639
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:04,119
Speaker 3: Girl who's pristine and prude and sweet and playing absolutely

640
00:36:04,159 --> 00:36:06,440
the exact opposite of that character.

641
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:08,519
Speaker 2: I love it, okay, real quick.

642
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 3: Gary Busey was hired as mister Joshua. Now, if you

643
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,360
would kindly tell me everything you know, I promise you

644
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:16,880
I'll kill you.

645
00:36:18,079 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 2: He asked for the part, did he Yeah? So he

646
00:36:21,039 --> 00:36:22,920
hadn't done a lot like he was kind of on

647
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:25,559
the downward slide. He had obviously had a lot of

648
00:36:25,599 --> 00:36:30,400
success with what's the Buddy Holly movie called. I think

649
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:33,039
it's called The Buddy Holly Story. Okay, well that makes sense,

650
00:36:33,039 --> 00:36:35,679
all right. So anyway, he had quite a bit of success,

651
00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:38,559
but then he had not been getting good quality offers

652
00:36:38,599 --> 00:36:40,840
for a while and he saw a lot of promise

653
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,760
in this script, and so he asked. He was like,

654
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,719
can I be in this movie? I'm like, of course, sure.

655
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,800
Because it's weird to think about both of these movies.

656
00:36:50,559 --> 00:36:53,280
They were not expected to be big hits. Neither one

657
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:55,159
of them were expected to be big hits. It was

658
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:57,599
just kind of a hey, see what you guys can

659
00:36:57,639 --> 00:36:59,639
do with this crazy bunch of stuff. And like you said,

660
00:36:59,679 --> 00:37:02,320
they were both of them throwing them together on the fly.

661
00:37:02,679 --> 00:37:05,440
And so that's why you get. I mean, Gary Busey

662
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:07,360
you kind of think of as a major actor, but

663
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,199
I mean, he does have the final fight scene, but

664
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:11,719
he was number two in the movie, and so it

665
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,039
was interesting to see him in that part instead of

666
00:37:14,079 --> 00:37:16,599
the head bad guy. He was just kind of the

667
00:37:16,679 --> 00:37:17,360
biggest heavy.

668
00:37:17,599 --> 00:37:19,639
Speaker 3: His most memorable scene in the whole movie is when

669
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:21,920
the general tells him to hold out his arm so

670
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,480
he can hold a flame under his arm to show

671
00:37:24,519 --> 00:37:26,760
how tough he is and how devoted and loyal he is.

672
00:37:27,119 --> 00:37:30,000
Speaker 2: So who's the other guy in that scene? You guys

673
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:36,119
are gone man, you're like, out there, Edo Ross, Edo

674
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,880
Ross is that guy, And I feel like I could

675
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,480
never figure out why that part wasn't bigger because he was.

676
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:46,000
He was, I mean, obviously a major part in that scene,

677
00:37:46,039 --> 00:37:48,239
but he was a pretty big actor at that time.

678
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:51,119
He seemed to be like, it was this big, big

679
00:37:51,159 --> 00:37:53,159
scene that goes on. I expected to be in more

680
00:37:53,159 --> 00:37:56,320
in the movie. But the interesting thing is the role

681
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,360
he had done just before he did this movie was

682
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:07,840
in Moonlight. It had two episodes of Moonlighting as mister Navarone.

683
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:12,039
So there you go. It's interesting again, intertwined these movies.

684
00:38:12,159 --> 00:38:15,119
Speaker 3: Very intertwined, kind of. The next big movie that he

685
00:38:15,159 --> 00:38:19,159
did was Red Heat with Oor Schwarzenegger, who was in Predator,

686
00:38:19,199 --> 00:38:20,519
directed by Johnny Tiernan.

687
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:22,920
Speaker 2: I just cannot I still can't figure out why that

688
00:38:23,039 --> 00:38:24,960
was our one brief moment we got with this guy

689
00:38:25,079 --> 00:38:26,480
and then he wasn't in the rest of the movie.

690
00:38:26,519 --> 00:38:29,519
Speaker 3: Other people that were considered for mister Joshua James Woods,

691
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:34,599
Christopher Walkin, Tommy Lee Jones, Scott Glenn, John Saxon, I

692
00:38:34,599 --> 00:38:34,960
don't know.

693
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,679
Speaker 2: I like Gary Busey then the main bad guy. The

694
00:38:38,679 --> 00:38:41,239
only other movie that I can remember him in is

695
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,480
liar liar. He's like the head partner at the law

696
00:38:44,519 --> 00:38:47,880
firm that gets roasted and he's his laugh and that

697
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:53,000
is awesome. I think his comedy is great. I was impressed.

698
00:38:53,079 --> 00:38:57,360
Speaker 3: Tracy Wolf plays Rhianne Murtau in Lethal Weapon. I have

699
00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,320
not seen her in anything else that I can think of. Yeah,

700
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:03,079
every time I see her, I'm like, that's Roger Murta's daughter.

701
00:39:03,159 --> 00:39:05,679
She was twenty five when they filmed this. Playing a

702
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:06,480
sixteen year.

703
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:10,639
Speaker 2: Old makes her obsession with Martin Riggs a little less creepy.

704
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 3: Every time I see this, I'm so empathetic with the

705
00:39:14,079 --> 00:39:16,719
Murta character, Roger Murta, uh huh that.

706
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:18,800
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, she does need to go upstairs and

707
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:20,760
put on small pers.

708
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 3: She's not going out dressed like that. Mel Gibson's character,

709
00:39:26,119 --> 00:39:29,400
Martin Riggs is supposed to be thirty eight in Lethal Weapon.

710
00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:32,880
H Gibson was only thirty at the time he shot this.

711
00:39:33,199 --> 00:39:35,320
Roger Murta is supposed to be fifty. They make a

712
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,239
big deal of this. He even blows out a birthday

713
00:39:38,599 --> 00:39:40,719
cake candles while he's sitting in the bath with his

714
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:41,960
entire family around.

715
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 2: Most uncomfortable scene in both of these movies.

716
00:39:46,639 --> 00:39:49,039
Speaker 3: And he makes a big deal fifty years old. Fifty

717
00:39:49,119 --> 00:39:52,039
years old, I'm supposed to be retiring. Danny Glover was

718
00:39:52,079 --> 00:39:53,559
actually forty years old.

719
00:39:53,639 --> 00:39:56,880
Speaker 2: When he shot this, Yeah, and was an incredible shape.

720
00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,639
Like they constantly talk about how good a shape he

721
00:39:59,679 --> 00:40:02,480
was in, and so you I mean, you know the

722
00:40:02,519 --> 00:40:05,679
scene where they're running down the road, right like Mel

723
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:08,639
Gibson trucking along, sprinting down the road with a machine

724
00:40:08,639 --> 00:40:11,400
gun in his hand, and then Marta Danny Glover is

725
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:13,960
kind of hobbling along down the road, dragging his foot

726
00:40:14,079 --> 00:40:16,639
out of breath, has to sit down, all this stuff.

727
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,639
They shoot this scene and Richard Donner comes over to

728
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:24,840
Danny Glover. He's like, okay, okay, Danny, can we try

729
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,159
to do this one more time? And Danny's like, what

730
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,079
do you mean to Mike? Okay? He gets up, runs

731
00:40:30,079 --> 00:40:34,159
around the block, comes back. He's like, let's do it.

732
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:36,280
He's like, I think genius, Thank you.

733
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,599
Speaker 3: Okay, just a couple more things flip back to Diehard

734
00:40:39,639 --> 00:40:43,960
really quick. Bonnie Badillia was hired as Holly Gennaro. Bruce

735
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,159
Willis really went to bat for her. He had seen

736
00:40:46,199 --> 00:40:47,480
her in a movie called Heart Like.

737
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:48,840
Speaker 2: A Wheel where she played a race car driver.

738
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember that one, but he

739
00:40:50,039 --> 00:40:52,039
really just loved her performance in that movie, and he

740
00:40:52,079 --> 00:40:55,880
personally recommended her to play his estranged wife, Holly Gennaro.

741
00:40:56,039 --> 00:40:58,800
Other people that they were interested in were Linda Hamilton,

742
00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:04,079
Gena Davis, Debra Winger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kelly McGillis,

743
00:41:04,159 --> 00:41:05,000
and Kerrie Fisher.

744
00:41:05,079 --> 00:41:07,679
Speaker 2: My gosh, all of those just scream eighties movies. So

745
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:11,199
it's interesting, you know the part of the wonderfulness of

746
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:14,639
this movie is that it doesn't spoon feed you everything

747
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,440
that's going on. Like, we know there's a problem with

748
00:41:18,599 --> 00:41:22,679
John and Holly, but we really don't know what it is.

749
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:25,480
There isn't some big exposition as to what went wrong

750
00:41:25,519 --> 00:41:28,039
in their marriage, why they're as strange. We just have

751
00:41:28,159 --> 00:41:31,320
this kind of general idea that she's pursuing a career

752
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,599
and he's not happy with that. But what we have

753
00:41:34,679 --> 00:41:38,079
is this fantastic, short little scene right before all of

754
00:41:38,159 --> 00:41:42,199
the action starts, where he's just finished walking around making

755
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:47,400
fist with his toes in the carpet and they're doing

756
00:41:47,559 --> 00:41:51,599
their best to get along for about thirty seconds before

757
00:41:51,679 --> 00:41:55,639
he has to torpedo the ship and say, I can't

758
00:41:55,679 --> 00:41:57,119
remember what does he say? Do you remember what he says?

759
00:41:57,239 --> 00:41:59,320
Speaker 3: She's like, she says, I missed you, and he's like,

760
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:01,199
you miss me, but I guess you didn't miss my name,

761
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,119
huh except when you're signing checks.

762
00:42:05,599 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 2: So yeah, So that the classic dumb head husband thing

763
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:15,199
to say, and he does it, and they've got this vicious, short,

764
00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:20,239
little exchange, but it informs so much as to their relationship,

765
00:42:20,559 --> 00:42:25,519
and you believe their love and animosity for each other

766
00:42:25,599 --> 00:42:28,000
in just that brief little scene and the way that

767
00:42:28,039 --> 00:42:32,639
they did that. Steven Desusa had Bruce Willis and Bonnie

768
00:42:32,639 --> 00:42:37,079
Badelia improv some stuff and they would improve long bits

769
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:40,800
that go into the detail. But then once they actually

770
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,119
shoot the scene, they don't give you all that detail.

771
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:46,039
They just let it be the subtext behind what they're saying,

772
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:47,840
and they did it fantastically.

773
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 3: I love how you even get a little bit of

774
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:52,679
that with our guyle in the limo on the way there,

775
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:54,519
right yep? Why do you go with them? Man?

776
00:42:54,559 --> 00:42:55,000
Speaker 1: What's up?

777
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 2: So I'm a New York cup, I got a six

778
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:00,719
month back log in New York's come. I'm still trying

779
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:02,519
to put behind bars. I can't just pick up and

780
00:43:02,559 --> 00:43:04,880
go that easy. In other words, you thought she wasn't

781
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:05,559
gonna make it out here.

782
00:43:05,599 --> 00:43:07,320
Speaker 3: It's he'd come carawling up back to you, So why

783
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:08,239
bother it back? Right?

784
00:43:10,679 --> 00:43:13,559
Speaker 2: Like I said, you're very fast, I go. The actor

785
00:43:13,599 --> 00:43:17,960
Deverro White, who plays Argyle, is hilarious in this movie. Absolutely.

786
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 3: A couple other people we really need to talk about

787
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,400
casting Wise and Diehard. I want to talk a little

788
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:23,800
bit about Reginald Villa Johnson.

789
00:43:24,119 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 1: Ain't making thirty to dispatch a Yeah, that's a wild

790
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:29,800
goose chase over here at Knocking Tomy pleasant everything he

791
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:35,239
is okay over but nobody has.

792
00:43:36,079 --> 00:43:37,119
Speaker 2: Let it Snoo.

793
00:43:38,119 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 3: Who played a cop in per E Strangers, Yes, who

794
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,800
then became the lead character in the TV show.

795
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,320
Speaker 2: Family Matters that.

796
00:43:51,679 --> 00:43:53,760
Speaker 3: He does an awesome job of kind of being in

797
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,760
the heart of the movie. Right, everybody loves Sergeant al Pau.

798
00:43:57,280 --> 00:44:00,239
Speaker 2: I had this thought, you just you tell me what

799
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,400
you think about this. So obviously leitha Weapon is a

800
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:07,400
buddy cop movie, right right? Is Diehard a buddy cop movie? Yeah?

801
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,440
Absolutely it is. With that I mean out, I mean,

802
00:44:10,519 --> 00:44:16,440
he's really like Sergeant Awl. Powell is the mentor. He's

803
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:19,400
the guy who leads John McClain through all of this stuff.

804
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:22,199
He leads him through the tough times. It's their exchange

805
00:44:22,599 --> 00:44:25,599
that leads to the character transition. I don't know. Maybe

806
00:44:25,599 --> 00:44:27,440
this is a buddy coop movie. I think it is.

807
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,239
Speaker 3: I think it's a buddy cop movie where the cups

808
00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:32,960
are separated and it belonged to be back together.

809
00:44:33,039 --> 00:44:36,599
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah. I love the relationship that they build

810
00:44:36,639 --> 00:44:39,639
and it's still again, like I said before, fascinating to

811
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:43,360
me that they probably shot all of Reginald val Johnson's

812
00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:46,239
scenes after Bruce had gone back to the moon lighting

813
00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:47,400
and wasn't even there anymore.

814
00:44:47,519 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 3: I do know for a fact on my research they

815
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,039
Bruce Willis and Reginald vel Johnson did not meet until

816
00:44:53,079 --> 00:44:57,800
the last scene of the movie. They never met until

817
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:01,280
the famous It's Knowing Bear Bond scene.

818
00:45:03,639 --> 00:45:05,800
Speaker 2: Let's talk about William Atherton for just a second.

819
00:45:06,159 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 3: This guy played the world's greatest eighties butthole in every

820
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:12,519
movie they give us.

821
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:16,559
Speaker 2: A break thorn burden at Harvey right, he like tops

822
00:45:16,599 --> 00:45:20,920
himself in every movie. Well him or Paul Gleeson. It's

823
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:26,280
a real toss up right, But somehow the brilliance of

824
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:31,159
Joel Silver or John mcturnon or whoever got both of

825
00:45:31,199 --> 00:45:34,679
these guys in the same movie. How freaking awesome is that?

826
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:36,000
I'm telling you so.

827
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:39,920
Speaker 3: William Atherton plays the professor in Real Genius, who is

828
00:45:40,119 --> 00:45:42,599
out to flunt Chris Knight Val Kilmer's character.

829
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:44,079
Speaker 2: Yep. And then he's.

830
00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:47,880
Speaker 3: Also the health inspector, or the safety inspector in Ghostbusters,

831
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:50,039
the one who does not know the magic word.

832
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:52,320
Speaker 2: It's true, this man has to sick.

833
00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,760
Speaker 3: And then, as you said, Paul Gleeson plays the principle

834
00:46:00,039 --> 00:46:00,920
in the Breakfast Club.

835
00:46:01,159 --> 00:46:03,760
Speaker 2: Yeah right, they'll mess with the bull you get the horns.

836
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:08,119
Also the corrupt inspector in Trading Places.

837
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:12,719
Speaker 3: Oh, I totally forgot about that. And then one guy

838
00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:15,000
I really wanted to bring up before we go any further,

839
00:46:15,119 --> 00:46:18,320
Alexander Gudanov. We could do a whole podcast and maybe

840
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:21,199
we'll do a mini one off on him. He was

841
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:26,559
a Russian ballet dancer yep who effected yep. They hired

842
00:46:26,639 --> 00:46:29,519
him because they knew he could be athletic enough to

843
00:46:29,559 --> 00:46:30,800
do fight scenes.

844
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,679
Speaker 2: Right, and the fight scene between him and Bruce Willis

845
00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:37,480
was not like a choreographed thing. It was very much

846
00:46:37,519 --> 00:46:41,199
an improvisational we're just fighting away, but they did a

847
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:42,480
fantastic job with it.

848
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,159
Speaker 3: I saw an interview with Joel Silver and when he

849
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:49,280
was discussing Alexander Goudnoff, he said, great guy, drunk all

850
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:49,960
the time.

851
00:46:50,119 --> 00:46:54,199
Speaker 2: Yes, which is hilarious until you learn that he died

852
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:58,000
in the mid nineties of cirrhosis of the liver, which

853
00:46:58,039 --> 00:46:58,599
is tragic.

854
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, just a couple more on pre production d before

855
00:47:01,679 --> 00:47:03,840
we wrap it up. I thought it was interesting, now

856
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:06,400
this is this is pre production, it's also a production,

857
00:47:06,519 --> 00:47:10,760
but the fictional Knacotomy Plaza is actually the headquarters of

858
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:16,360
twentieth Century Fox. Yes, this building was incomplete, but there

859
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:17,800
were people working.

860
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:18,199
Speaker 2: In this building.

861
00:47:18,679 --> 00:47:20,800
Speaker 3: Yes, at the time they were filming this movie. The

862
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:24,320
company actually had to charge itself rent to use this building.

863
00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:29,360
Speaker 2: Had to or or used it as an excuse to

864
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,400
spend money that didn't that was now tax deductible. I

865
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:34,519
would say, yeah, there was a there was a lawyer

866
00:47:34,559 --> 00:47:37,599
downstairs who didn't represent anybody. He was a pretty high

867
00:47:37,639 --> 00:47:40,599
powered lawyer in la but he did not represent anyone

868
00:47:40,679 --> 00:47:42,760
in the picture, and so he was none too happy

869
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:46,199
about the full sound effect blasts of all of them,

870
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:48,559
the machine guns going on.

871
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 3: Imagine trying to do work and you know you've got

872
00:47:53,079 --> 00:47:57,159
machine guns and people jumping off buildings with fire hoses

873
00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:00,880
and helicopters and miss launchers.

874
00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:09,280
Speaker 2: I mean, here's something interesting. Nakatomi Plaza. Nakatomi is the

875
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:13,280
name of a Japanese battleship. That's the way they got

876
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:17,199
this name. They came across this list of and I

877
00:48:17,199 --> 00:48:20,159
think they're named after like Japanese clans of the past

878
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:22,960
and stuff the battleships are. And so they're going through

879
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:26,079
the list of Japanese battleships and they see Nakatomi and

880
00:48:26,079 --> 00:48:28,400
they're like, yeah, that sounds cool, let's go with that.

881
00:48:28,599 --> 00:48:31,920
So Nakatomi just look cool, and that's why they decided

882
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:34,840
to go with it. But then the logo. I never

883
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:37,679
realized this before, but Joel Silver was talking about how

884
00:48:37,679 --> 00:48:40,760
they came across the logo. He found it in a

885
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:44,559
catalog that had Samurai helmets on it. If you go

886
00:48:44,679 --> 00:48:47,760
back and look at the logo, it's these it's these

887
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:50,719
bars that kind of come up and two little circles

888
00:48:50,719 --> 00:48:53,599
in it above the name Nakatomi, and it looks like

889
00:48:53,639 --> 00:48:56,480
a samurai helmet. I never noticed until he said that,

890
00:48:56,519 --> 00:49:01,079
But I was like, holy cow, Nakatomi the samurai. Pretty

891
00:49:01,079 --> 00:49:05,480
freaking awesome. And this movie did fantastic in Japan. You know,

892
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:08,280
if there's any concerns about, you know, the weird kind

893
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:11,960
of cultural things that go on with the Japanese comments,

894
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:16,840
this movie killed one awards in Japan. That's awesome.

895
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,199
Speaker 3: So a couple of things on pre production, We've talked

896
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,280
a little bit about how they kind of wrote this

897
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,519
on the go. Bruce Willis and John McTiernan talked publicly

898
00:49:24,519 --> 00:49:27,760
about how they didn't really know who John McLean was

899
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:32,079
until about halfway through shooting. WHI then just the flying,

900
00:49:32,159 --> 00:49:35,840
the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, the pain in

901
00:49:36,159 --> 00:49:37,840
ish right, But.

902
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 2: I thought this was interesting.

903
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:44,360
Speaker 3: Jib Stewart, who wrote the original screenplay for Diehard, was

904
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:49,079
having difficulty writing the screenplay, and while he was driving

905
00:49:49,119 --> 00:49:52,639
at night in Los Angeles after a fight with his wife,

906
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,440
he was driving behind a truck carrying refrigerators.

907
00:49:55,559 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 2: Do you hear the story? No, this is good, Go ahead, Okay,

908
00:49:58,800 --> 00:49:59,239
So he was.

909
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,000
Speaker 3: Driving behind a truck carrying refrigerators and one of the

910
00:50:02,039 --> 00:50:05,599
refrigerator boxes fell out of the truck. He thought he

911
00:50:05,679 --> 00:50:10,559
was going to die. He swerved and thought, I'm this

912
00:50:10,599 --> 00:50:12,880
is it, this is it for me. And it turns

913
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:14,800
out the box was empty. It didn't have a fridge

914
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,159
in it. It is just the box. And so he

915
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:19,800
plowed through it with his car folded over the top.

916
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:22,719
And he realized that if he had died, he would

917
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:26,599
not have been able to apologize to his wife. And

918
00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:30,199
that made it into the movie, the whole thing about

919
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:33,719
how she's heard me say I love her a thousand times,

920
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:37,000
but she's never heard me say I'm sorry. That's because

921
00:50:37,079 --> 00:50:39,159
Jeb Stewart plowed through a refrigerator box.

922
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:42,760
Speaker 2: That's awesome. That is a great story. Wow, that's fantastic.

923
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:48,079
Speaker 3: The original script called for terrorists to hijack the building.

924
00:50:48,159 --> 00:50:51,280
John McTiernan he didn't like the idea of terrorists season

925
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:55,000
control of Knokotoni Tower. Nobody likes terrorists, right, right, But

926
00:50:55,079 --> 00:50:59,719
if their robbers, a bank heist is way more fun

927
00:51:00,119 --> 00:51:00,880
to common thief.

928
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 2: I'm an exceptional thief. Since I'm moving up to kidnapping,

929
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,760
you should chose some more respect, You should be more polite. Okay,

930
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:12,920
So that does it for pre production? Are you done?

931
00:51:13,079 --> 00:51:14,559
I haven't even got started yet.

932
00:51:15,159 --> 00:51:20,199
Speaker 3: Forget that, I forget that.

933
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:21,719
Speaker 2: You have to be done, because that's the end of

934
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:28,480
this episode. We'll start back up on the rest of

935
00:51:28,519 --> 00:51:32,519
it for our next episode. Thank you everybody so much

936
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:36,559
for being here. Jason, you know what one shepherd said

937
00:51:36,559 --> 00:51:38,440
to the other shepherd, Get the block out of here.

938
00:51:40,159 --> 00:51:41,360
We'll see you all next time.