‘Apollo 13’ With Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Rob Mahoney

The Rewatchables

In this episode of The Rewatchables, Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Rob Mahoney revisit the iconic 1995 film 'Apollo 13,' celebrating its

Key takeaways

• Apollo 13 represents peak studio-era filmmaking—big budget, true story-based, with practical effects and a focus on teamwork under pressure.

Main topics

• Apollo 13 as a cultural milestone of the mid-90s
• Tom Hanks' career-defining role

Notable quotes

"Failure was not an option."

Conclusion

Apollo 13 remains a timeless film not just for its historical accuracy

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) you Speaker 3 (0:05) The Rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network where you can find the big picture with Amanda Dobbins. That's Speaker 4 (0:11) right. A Speaker 3 (0:11) rare Rewatchables appearance. I'm Speaker 4 (0:13) thrilled. I can't believe it's finally happening. Back in the Speaker 3 (0:15) rotation. Rob Mahoney, Ringer NBA show, more importantly, Prestige. Speaker 2 (0:20) More importantly? I think they're Speaker 3 (0:21) equally Speaker 2 (0:21) important. Speaker 3 (0:22) No, I think Joanna. If it was a good son thing, you would save Joanna over Kyle. I Speaker 2 (0:28) have Speaker 3 (0:28) no official comment. Speaker 1 (0:28) Yes. Speaker 3 (0:30) Anyway, you can listen to both of their podcasts. But more importantly, this was... and Amanda Dobbins' request. It's been a request for years. It's finally happening. Apollo 13 is next. This episode of The Rewatchables is presented by the movie Mutiny. Only in theaters August 21st. Our guy, Jason Statham, stars in Mutiny, the new action thriller from the director of Plane. I like that movie. When an international conspiracy turns deadly... That always happens. Statham goes off the grid on a one-man mission. I love one-man missions to take down those responsible. And if you're a fan of the beekeeper, the bag or the expendables guilty, this is exactly the kind of movie you want to see Statham in. You've sold me. One of the defining action stars of the last 25 years doing what he does best. I agree with that. Think Die Hard on a boat. That sounds great. Mutiny, only in theaters August 21st, rated R for strong, bloody violence in language. There you go. Apollo 13. Speaker 3 (1:52) Isn't America just great? Aren't you just proud to be an American? Remember when we used to just solve shit? Put people on the moon. We used to dream. We used to look up there. Like someday we used to come together as people. Speaker 4 (2:03) Yeah, we didn't give up. Speaker 3 (2:05) Didn't give up. Failure was not an option. Speaker 4 (2:07) Failure was not an Speaker 3 (2:07) option. Speaker 4 (2:08) Yeah. Speaker 3 (2:08) Just solve shit. Just went up, brought our guys back. Everyone cheered in the control room. The end. Why do you love this movie? Speaker 4 (2:15) For that. To me, this is peak 90s Hollywood. peak studio, big budget movie. And it is, to your point, when we talk about they don't make them like they used to. I mean, America for sure, but also movies like this. Big budget, based on a true story. You solve something as a team with movie stars and practical effects and zero gravity. And you feel better about yourself and the world. And not in a cheesy way because, you know, it is, as Tom Hanks says at the end, the successful failure. So it's just a perfect concoction. I also, 95 was Clueless, Apollo 13, and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, which is, of course, next week on the rewatchables. But for me, those were huge movies. And kind of when I logged on as a movie watcher, most people of my generation was 94 in Pulp Fiction. For me, it was 95 and Apollo 13. And so this. sets the template. Like, this is what all movies should be. Tom Hanks carrying a movie on his back. Speaker 2 (3:20) It's also when I logged on as a movie watcher, this was, I think, the first grown-up movie I was allowed to watch. And some of it was, as a kid growing up in Texas, space, humongous deal. I had space toys. I went to space camp. Oh Speaker 4 (3:34) my God, I wanted to go to space Speaker 2 (3:35) camp. I Speaker 4 (3:35) forgot about that. It was a blast. Bad. Do you remember Disney Adventures? Oh, yeah. So they advertised in Disney Adventures like crazy, and I was never allowed to go. But this movie just fed into it big time. Can I Speaker 2 (3:47) say it's not too late? You know, you could be the adult at space camp. Speaker 4 (3:50) Do they have an adult division? Speaker 2 (3:52) I can assure you they do. Should we have done that for the ringer's 10-year anniversary? Space camp, everybody. Did you get to do Speaker 4 (3:57) the zero gravity machine where they spin you upside down? Speaker 2 (3:59) Well, actually, yes. We did that version. Okay, but Speaker 4 (4:01) no vomit comment. Speaker 2 (4:02) No vomit. This Speaker 3 (4:03) is a great point, though. Texas and space, it's like the official home team for space. Absolutely. People don't realize that. I was Speaker 2 (4:10) going to kids' birthday parties where the whole theme was just like space. It was weirdly, even for the 90s, considering how late in the game all this stuff was, a genuine sensation. And so this brought me to adult movies for the first time. This and that thing you do are also the first times I ever saw Tom Hanks on screen. Oh Speaker 4 (4:26) my God, hold my hand for that thing you do. I'm not saying anything in front of you, but there is an anniversary coming up later this year. Speaker 3 (4:34) You're that thing you doer? Are you kidding me? You Speaker 4 (4:36) guys Speaker 3 (4:36) don't have to hold hands anymore. Speaker 4 (4:38) And this is a moment of union between me and Rob, because you know the deal on the big picture is that he comes onto the big picture and takes all my stuff. He drafts all of my movies, and so normally we're opposed. He's Speaker 3 (4:50) a Speaker 4 (4:50) foil. Yes, but now, together, we love Apollo 13, and we love that thing you do. In Speaker 2 (4:55) space, Speaker 4 (4:55) in America, in Tom Speaker 2 (4:56) Hanks. Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:57) See, Speaker 2 (4:57) we Speaker 4 (4:57) love those movies, Speaker 2 (4:58) too. We're just allowed to be on the same side here. That's true. It's the structure. It's the system that's against us. We're Speaker 3 (5:03) not Speaker 2 (5:03) opposed. Yeah. Speaker 4 (5:04) It's teamwork. See, Speaker 3 (5:05) I saw Apollo 13 when I was in my mid-20s, my most cynical. Speaker 4 (5:09) Okay. Speaker 3 (5:10) Right? So I was more in, like, that kicking and screaming, like, I just want to, like... smoke cigarettes and think everybody's like wrong. And I saw this and I was like, ah, it's a little schmaltzy. Yeah, all right. And then over the years, it was on all the time. I'm like, ah, this is the carbon dioxide part. Yeah. All right. And you just kind of get sucked in. I find myself liking it more and more, but especially the last five, six years. It's just a go-to safe one. Yes. Right? You just kind of plunge in. It's your friends. It's like, Speaker 1 (5:43) oh, Bill Paxton. Oh, Gary Sinise, he doesn't get to go. Speaker 3 (5:46) Hey, Speaker 1 (5:47) there's Speaker 3 (5:47) Ed Harris. He's going to smoke another dart. Speaker 4 (5:49) Right. And now they've got to solve this problem. It is a procedural. It is. So Speaker 2 (5:53) you can Speaker 4 (5:53) dip in and out. And it did play on cable all of the time. I had the VHS. All Speaker 3 (5:59) the time. Because Speaker 4 (5:59) it would Speaker 3 (6:00) be the three-hour. It could go from 8 to 11. Right. Because it's like two hours, 20. Right. But then 40 minutes of commercials. It's like perfect. Speaker 4 (6:07) And so you would log on for the, oh, okay, they got to fix the carbon dioxide monitors or, oh, they got to do the burn and keep the earth in the window. And you can just watch these various hurdles pop up. Speaker 3 (6:21) Or Speaker 4 (6:21) when Speaker 3 (6:21) they're doing the little TV show that nobody's watching because none of the networks just hamming it up. But as they're hamming it up, you're like, ah, this is going to flip in a second. These guys have no idea. Bacon's going to switch that flip. Speaker 2 (6:34) Well, I mean, with the problem-solving stuff, though, like, not only did Apollo 13 kind of symbolize the mid-'90s Hollywood in general, but I think it changed space movies forever from this, like, isn't it wonderful and amazing and awesome to be in space, kind of, like, fantastical journeys into space to every minute is, like, a fight for survival. Yeah. You can see the... Like, we don't get Project Hail Mary without this movie. Like, we don't get that book. We don't get The Martian. We don't get Interstellar. To me, that type of storytelling... Kind of starts from a movie-making perspective right here. And we have, I Speaker 3 (7:05) had the Premier Magazine found it. Hanks. But this was like, you mentioned 95. The infrastructure, the mechanism of like, Apollo 13's coming and Ron Howard's going to direct and Tom Hanks is in it. Like, you were aware of this stuff well before it came out. And Hanks was like, the most important person who could have been in this. And there's, I'll step on one cast and wind up now. You guys probably know, but they offered it to Costner first because Costner was, they knew they were doing this like at the end of 93. Costner is the biggest star in the world. Hanks has always wanted to do an astronaut movie. So his agent's like, you should give it to Hanks. So Hanks is locked in. And then Hanks has the Philadelphia-Forrest Gump combo. And now it's like, this is, we've won the lottery of Hanks. Hanks has season tickets Hanks now. It's like whatever he's in next, people are going. And he's, I can't imagine this movie with Kevin Costner. Speaker 2 (7:57) This is not a Kevin Costner movie. Like, he's way too glib for it. Like, the energy would be so strange. He's getting horny at the party early. He's Speaker 3 (8:06) going Speaker 2 (8:06) to say, Speaker 4 (8:06) it's also after No Way Out, so you can't trust him. The champagne Speaker 3 (8:09) with Kathleen Quinlan. Like, now I have to watch him, like, get it on a little bit there. Yeah, I don't, he wouldn't be, he'd, in the. Apollo 13 for two hours with guys. I don't know. He'd be looking around. Speaker 4 (8:21) And it's also so essential to the Hanks lore as the history nerd guy. Totally. Because then after this, you get Band of Brothers and you get Saving Private Ryan and you get the... And he's like really into astronauts. Yeah. And really into space is what they say in all the coverage of this time. But then it just turns out he's just really, really into... 1941 to 1970, I guess. But Speaker 3 (8:45) not Speaker 4 (8:45) in a Speaker 3 (8:45) weird way. Speaker 4 (8:45) But not, no, in a cool celebratory way. That's the thing. Speaker 3 (8:49) Well, he's trying to basically be Jimmy Stewart for like two generations of people. Kind of worked. And it worked. Speaker 4 (8:55) To me, it worked. It's good that Sean's not here for this one. Speaker 3 (8:58) Why? Speaker 4 (8:59) Because in Cruise versus Hanks, there's always, you're always fighting for Hanks and I'm fighting with you. And Sean- I love Speaker 3 (9:06) Cruise too, though. I Speaker 4 (9:07) love Cruise too, but I just think there's- Sometimes. Sean Speaker 3 (9:10) just shades it way towards you. Yes, exactly. Do you feel that way, Craig? Do you think Sean shades it too far to Cruz? To Cruz? Like he's anti-Hanks a little bit? I do think he's anti-Hanks. Speaker 4 (9:20) He does. Speaker 3 (9:20) Yeah. Speaker 4 (9:21) And I'm happy he's not here. This is Speaker 3 (9:23) Tom Hanks' 11th rewatchables. He has now moved up the rank. Cruz is first at 18. Pacino, 14. De Niro, 13. Denzel and Stallone, 12. Hanks, 11. Okay. Moved out of a two-way tie with Matt Damon. Speaker 4 (9:35) Oh. So long, Matt. Okay. Speaker 3 (9:37) How do we not Speaker 2 (9:38) have a graph with every Ringer staffer plotted Hanks versus Cruz? Like how far you are leaning on the spectrum one to the other. It just feels like free content for Speaker 3 (9:46) us. Speaker 2 (9:46) I Speaker 3 (9:46) do have to pick a side. Speaker 4 (9:47) That's hard though. If I actually had to pick. Speaker 1 (9:50) Yeah. Speaker 4 (9:50) I don't know if I could do it. You guys all have Speaker 1 (9:53) to pick. Speaker 4 (9:53) No, I won't. This is America. This is a movie about America. And they have to pick whether to go to the moon or go home. But they don't have to pick between Hanks and Cruz. Speaker 3 (10:03) Tom Cruise could not have played Jim Lovell, I don't think. No. I just think it would have been a weird use of Tom Cruise. No. Whereas Hanks, this was perfect for him, but I wouldn't have wanted to see Hanks in Eyes Wide Shut. Speaker 4 (10:12) Correct. Speaker 3 (10:13) And I would not have wanted to see him in the firm. Eyes Speaker 2 (10:16) Wide Shut Hanks would be really something to behold. He's really an issue. Speaker 3 (10:19) As Speaker 2 (10:19) he's shooting into America's dad, he's also in Eyes Wide Shut. Yeah. I kind of need that. Speaker 3 (10:23) So Hanks goes, league of their own, sleeps in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump. Apollo 13 toy story in the same year. He's just ripping them off. Yeah. Ridiculous. This is the biggest heater. We've talked about it before in the rewatchables. This is the biggest heater anybody's had in the last 35 plus years. Speaker 4 (10:41) Yeah. Undefeated. Speaker 3 (10:42) Roger Ebert, who we're going to get to later, but he said, when we're talking about the America thing, Apollo 13 never really states its theme. except perhaps in one sentence of narration at the end, but the whole film is suffused with it. When was the last time you heard that word? Suffused. The space program was a really extraordinary thing, something to be proud of, and those who went into space were not just heroes, which is a cliche, but brave and resourceful, Speaker 4 (11:10) which Speaker 3 (11:11) somehow we don't feel that way anymore. Well, Speaker 4 (11:13) we Speaker 3 (11:13) don't really go into space like this anymore. And nobody cares if we go or not. I was thinking about like the six... Artemis 2 just happened. Speaker 1 (11:19) I Speaker 3 (11:19) was going Speaker 1 (11:19) to Speaker 3 (11:19) say, Artemis Speaker 1 (11:19) 2. Speaker 3 (11:19) That felt like Speaker 4 (11:20) a Speaker 3 (11:20) moment. Was it actually a moment? Yeah. Did you and Liz talk Speaker 4 (11:24) about it? My kids were super excited. Yeah? Yeah. That's good. Yeah. And they could say Artemis 2, and they thought that they were going to see it land in San Diego from our house. I watched it. It was like an Speaker 1 (11:34) appointment watching. I heard that we were going around the dark side of the moon, that we were going to lose connection with them for an hour. I was into it. Speaker 4 (11:40) And listen, Bill, let me tell you something. At the last minute, they had some heat shield concerns. I swear to God. I always have heat shield concerns. I Speaker 3 (11:48) mean, who Speaker 4 (11:48) doesn't? 4,000 degrees. Not to step on what age is the worst, but heat shields. Apparently, we have not figured this out. I read so many articles about other engineers trying to get in front of their version of the Apollo 13. All of the journalists essentially tracked down the people who built this heat shield, the Artemis II heat shield. To allow them to distance themselves from various... Jesus. And Speaker 3 (12:14) more Speaker 4 (12:14) scientists who are like, we didn't agree on this. They were fine. They made it. But heat shields, still an issue. Speaker 3 (12:19) Yeah, it's... I don't know. When I was growing up, we had had all this stuff and we had kind of achieved it. Speaker 4 (12:24) Yeah. Speaker 3 (12:25) And it was already felt like this whole decade where it was like tumultuous where all these great things happen and now the 70s, now all of a sudden great things aren't happening. Speaker 4 (12:33) Right. Speaker 3 (12:34) Right. And then you see a movie like this that comes out. literally 25 years afterwards. And there's this underlying theme in the whole movie of like, and they don't say it, which I think the more I've watched this movie, it's the coolest thing about the movie. They don't hit you over the head with anything. There's not one moment where somebody's like telling you what the movie's about, no character, but it's all underlying of like, back then you just kind of had a dream and that's what you wanted to do. And it's about like this guy, all he wanted to do was walk on the moon. He didn't get to do it. And he presided over a successful failure. And he kind of knows in the moment, this is what I'm going to be remembered for, being able to be pulled back out of space and not dying. And that's kind of where I am. Speaker 2 (13:15) I think the closest we get to someone saying it out loud is Jim Lovell at the beginning. And I think it's in his book of the like, it wasn't a miracle that we went to the moon, we just decided to. And that kind of ambition that you're speaking to, I think is kind of undergirding the whole movie. But then it's like, what happens when an ambition... leads you to take a faulty oxygen tank into space? What are the repercussions of just deciding to do something like that? Speaker 3 (13:38) And then also how crazy it was that in the 60s with the fucking technology we had that we were able to even do this. Speaker 2 (13:44) That Speaker 3 (13:45) gets more amazing by the year. Think about the TVs they're watching in this. And just the stuff, the radios, the things are so primitive. Speaker 4 (13:53) I think about when they're trying to find the extra power that they need to reboot the command module and they're in search of... four amps. And they compare it to what would run a vacuum cleaner or something so small and so inconsequential. And that's the technology that they're dealing with. And they're floating around in this tiny tin can just trying to find a vacuum cleaner's worth of juice. And Speaker 2 (14:18) they're constantly doing that too. They're like, this is what we're doing with a vacuum cleaner. And Speaker 4 (14:21) we Speaker 2 (14:21) need enough energy for a coffee pot. It's like, you got to take a toaster through a car wash. It's like, how do we make all this stuff feel? grounded and real in a way where, yeah, we don't feel hit over the head. It's just like, oh, I get exactly what the struggle is because many astronauts are coming on screen holding bottles of beer and cups and like mocking it out for us. Speaker 3 (14:38) Yeah, there's a lot of people together and you know they're all smart. And they're just on the move all the time trying to figure out solutions. And there's like, I think two different times in the movie. where they all kind of freeze because they know this is bad. Speaker 4 (14:52) Yeah. And it Speaker 3 (14:52) gets quiet for like three seconds. Speaker 1 (14:54) You Speaker 3 (14:55) know, and Ron Howard directed. And Ron Howard, you know, if he was an athlete, we'd be like, great career, definitely a Hall of Famer, but like there's not like a ton of Ron Howard fans. We'd be like, who's your favorite director? My favorite director is Ron Howard. Speaker 2 (15:09) So Speaker 3 (15:10) what's the cop? Is Speaker 2 (15:10) he DeMar DeRozan? Speaker 3 (15:12) Who is he? He's kind of one step out. Sorry, Speaker 2 (15:15) I'm Speaker 3 (15:15) going to steal it. Speaker 2 (15:16) No, Speaker 3 (15:17) it's like a, I don't know, like a Philip Rivers or somebody that made the playoffs every year. Wholesome family man. I was going Speaker 4 (15:23) to say he's been with a lot of kids, right? But they Speaker 3 (15:25) thought they were going to win the Oscar for this and they didn't. They lost to Braveheart. Outrage, Speaker 4 (15:29) in my opinion. Speaker 3 (15:30) There's this great story about Brian Grazer with the speech and his thing of standing up and then it's Braveheart. I watched it on YouTube. They didn't show him, but he said that. Speaker 4 (15:39) And then they did an oral history last year, and someone said that Jim Lovell said to him, it's okay, I didn't get to go to the moon. Speaker 3 (15:45) Right. Speaker 4 (15:46) Which is very charming, but also really puts it in perspective. However many years later, he's still thinking about it. Speaker 3 (15:53) Everyone thought that year, though, that was like, it was... It Speaker 4 (15:56) won the PGAs. One of the first times I Speaker 3 (15:58) remember the framework of the Oscars tying into the movies coming out, where it's like, oh, this could win. And I don't remember really... I know they always talked about it, but just for people like me in Boston, like doing nothing. Having the sense of what an Oscar movie was. Speaker 4 (16:11) Right. Speaker 3 (16:12) You know? And this felt like, oh, they have Hanks, they have all these dudes, Ed Harris steals all his scenes, like he's going to win. And Speaker 4 (16:19) then Speaker 3 (16:19) it only ended up winning two Oscars. Speaker 4 (16:21) Yeah. Speaker 3 (16:23) Forrest Speaker 4 (16:23) Gump, meanwhile. But I do feel like that Forrest Gump the year before, and you have both Hanks and Gary Sinise, and that was such an Oscar heavyweight. And also about a similar... period of history told in a slightly different way, but revisiting the boomer generation. I Speaker 3 (16:39) have theories Speaker 4 (16:39) on that. Yeah. Speaker 3 (16:40) I'm pushing that to later. Okay. The successful failure. Speaker 4 (16:43) Yeah. Speaker 3 (16:45) The lessons from this. Just like, it didn't work. Let's do it again. I'm going to go back in and... Sinise. Both Sinise and Hanks are like, all right, well, let's just... And just like the process, which you talked about, like a procedural. This is like the ultimate procedural. And all of these guys just trusting like their expertise and there's a calmness to everybody. Apparently in real life, it's even more calm. And that was like the one time they deviated from what real life was like. Like astronauts would never yell at each other. People in the control room would never freak out. Like even the worst disasters we've had, everybody's pretty even keel because you have to be. But I just like watching that. That's the same reason with the pit. I think that's one of the reasons the pit works because it's complete chaos and you're just watching these people problem solve constantly. And it's one of those Speaker 2 (17:35) things that when you talk to people who make movies and TV shows, it's like one of the hardest things to stage is crosstalk. Anytime there's many characters interjecting, cutting each other off like I just did to Amanda, unfortunately. But like all the control room scenes, I have no idea how you mock that out without like intense preparation and planning to make it happen. Speaker 4 (17:52) And I read that Howard told all the control room guys, like the more you know, The actors, the more you know about your stuff and the more specificity and material you can give me, the more likely it is that you make the final cut of the movie. So I don't think that means they were improv Speaker 3 (18:07) -ing. I Speaker 4 (18:07) like that he did Speaker 3 (18:07) that. But I do too. But Speaker 4 (18:09) they speak in specifics. And you think about all of these guys being like, no, no, no, I got one more thing and throwing out some jargon. And it still is also legible. Speaker 3 (18:19) Yes. Plus keeping, like basically obeying a lot of the transcript. Speaker 4 (18:23) Yeah. Speaker 3 (18:24) And not... freelancing with it because really trying, this movie tried so hard to be authentic, which was another thing that was relatively new for the 90s. And now it's like everybody, anyone who made a movie like this now in 2026 would be fanatical about, I've got to get this, I've got to do this. But back then it was a little, you just take liberties. Who was going to say? We didn't have the internet. But this movie was really fanatical and he sent those guys to like camp to learn, you know, he sent them. Mounds of transcripts to read and wanted them to listen to how the control room people talk to each other. And it's impressive. It was an impressive achievement. Speaker 4 (19:01) Yeah. Speaker 3 (19:02) Not to mention, like, the CGI stuff's pretty early. It's pretty good. Yeah. The rocket launch is, like, really solid. Speaker 4 (19:08) It's Speaker 3 (19:08) really Speaker 4 (19:08) good. Yeah. Speaker 3 (19:10) And then the most famous thing was the zero gravity stuff that they did, which we'll talk about later. Our guy Steve Spielberg gave him the key suggestion. Speaker 4 (19:19) Yeah. Just Speaker 3 (19:19) getting one of those zero G planes fly around. That'll do it. That'll do it. Ron Howard. Speaker 3 (19:26) Won my heart with Night Shift, which we've done on the Rewatchables. Speaker 4 (19:29) It's incredible that Night Shift was before Apollo 13. Speaker 3 (19:34) Way before. I guess you're Speaker 4 (19:36) working chronologically through the zoo. Oh, Speaker 3 (19:38) you Speaker 4 (19:38) mean on Speaker 3 (19:38) Rewatchables? Yes. Speaker 4 (19:39) But this was, Speaker 3 (19:41) I was like basically, I was basically the age for Night Shift that you were for Apollo 13. Okay, so I Speaker 4 (19:46) get it. Yeah. Speaker 3 (19:47) Also, Night Shift was a huge win. Craig came in. With one of the biggest smiles on his face I've ever seen. We just don't make them like these anymore. We don't. We Speaker 1 (19:55) really don't. Speaker 3 (19:56) A pimp in a funeral home? Yeah, some morgue Speaker 1 (20:02) thing. Speaker 3 (20:03) Alright, Night Shift, Splash. Good start. Anx. Cocoon. Big movie. Gung Ho. Did well. Hasn't aged great. Willow. Speaker 4 (20:16) There are people who are into it. There's some willow eggs. Are they in the room with us right now? They're Speaker 3 (20:20) not Speaker 4 (20:20) in the room with us today. Parenthood, Speaker 3 (20:22) we've done on rewatchables. Yeah. Good one. A little flawed, but really fun. Atypical. Set up a TV series. Backdraft, same thing. A lot of people. Sure. Far and away, bad. Speaker 4 (20:34) Quite bad. Speaker 3 (20:34) Fun, though. Enjoy it. The accident work is really something. Are you aware of far and away? No. In like year 17 of the rewatchables, we might have to do it. You should make Sean Speaker 2 (20:44) come on for that. Make him defend that cruise. Cruise has an Irish accent and bare knuckle boxes. Speaker 4 (20:49) When we did the Cruise Hall of Fame, I do think that Sean drafted it and tried to defend the portrayal of Ireland and the Irish accent. Speaker 3 (20:58) Sean saw that movie once. I think Sean sometimes pads his stats. I think Far and Away was a one-timer for Sean. He's like, yeah, Ireland, bare-knuckle boxing. Sure, yeah. Nobody's queuing that up twice. Speaker 2 (21:10) I went to a blind Tom Cruise movie marathon. Five movies back-to-back all day. And Speaker 3 (21:15) you didn't know what they were? Speaker 2 (21:16) Didn't Speaker 3 (21:16) know Speaker 2 (21:16) what they were. In Speaker 3 (21:16) a theater? Speaker 2 (21:16) In a theater. You watched five in a row? Five in a row. That sounds amazing. Movie three was Far and Away. It's like right when you're starting to get punchy, they throw in the Irish accents. It really played in that setting. But do you remember the order of Speaker 3 (21:29) the Speaker 2 (21:29) five? I think... Days of Thunder was first? No, Color of Money first. I would have put that third. I would have started with Far and Away as like an appetizer. Speaker 3 (21:39) Yeah. Speaker 2 (21:40) Collateral second. Days of Thunder last. I'm blanking on what the fourth movie was. Speaker 3 (21:44) Wow, putting Far Speaker 1 (21:45) and Away third Speaker 2 (21:45) is just aggressive. Speaker 1 (21:46) Were Speaker 3 (21:47) you Speaker 1 (21:47) doing like yoga in between the movies? How are you staying loose? Speaker 2 (21:49) It's just my natural state. Speaker 2 (21:52) Honestly, this sounds like a great day. Now I really need Speaker 4 (21:55) to know what movie four was. I Speaker 2 (21:57) got to peg it down. Probably The Firm or Few Good Men is crammed in there. I feel like there were no obvious ones. It was cocktail. Oh my Speaker 4 (22:03) God. How are you not there? Because Speaker 2 (22:05) they gave us customized cocktail shakers as a little party favor for this movie. It was incredible. So he far and away in the paper is before Apollo. Speaker 4 (22:13) Yeah. Are you a paper guy? Speaker 3 (22:16) Sierra and I have discussed it a lot. It's not good. Speaker 4 (22:19) I want to like it. I really wanted to like it. I like everything about it except the movie itself. You know? Do Speaker 3 (22:25) you get flipping around amnesia where you're like, the paper! Speaker 3 (22:30) Maybe I need one more chance. And then it's like, oh yeah, no, this is... It just doesn't work. It just never gets there. And it's really Speaker 2 (22:36) dated. Can we just say the theme of a lot of this, which is I wanted it to work as kind of the Ron Howard story 80 % of the time? Until Speaker 3 (22:43) Apollo 13. Yeah. He kept like taking these big swings at lots of people and finally hit with this. It's weird because I think my single favorite Ron Howard movie is Rush. Rush is pretty good. It Speaker 4 (22:55) was pretty good. I really Speaker 3 (22:56) thought he, I thought that was such a well done, awesome, well acted, everything. But that and this and Night Shift are probably my favorite. What are your three? Speaker 2 (23:06) I don't know that there are three to be honest with you. He's not one of my guys, which makes this feel aberrational, but he was born to direct exactly this movie. What do you think? Speaker 4 (23:15) Parenthood, Apollo 13, and Rush. Probably. I mean, I did also like Rush and the Chris Hemsworth performance, but this is on its own pedestal. This is singular. Speaker 1 (23:26) Beautiful Mind? That was a movie I like weirdly watched a ton when I Speaker 3 (23:29) was like 12. Speaker 1 (23:29) It's really good. You only want to watch it once. Yeah. It might Speaker 2 (23:32) be in the three by default, but I don't love it. It's very like Speaker 1 (23:34) sincere, old, like early aughts kind of movie. Yeah. Speaker 2 (23:38) I Speaker 3 (23:38) actually really like Frost Nixon. I thought that was good. Oh, yeah. That would be probably my number Speaker 4 (23:41) five. Oh, okay. Speaker 3 (23:43) I like Frost Nixon. That's Speaker 4 (23:44) okay. Speaker 3 (23:45) Kevin Bacon? Speaker 4 (23:47) Yes. Speaker 2 (23:48) Always yes. Is Speaker 3 (23:49) Kevin Bacon a Hall Speaker 2 (23:50) of Speaker 3 (23:50) Famer? Speaker 2 (23:50) Of course he is. Tremors alone. How dare you? Is he a Hall of Famer? He's not a Hall of Famer. So like how Michael Cooper is a Hall of Famer? Speaker 4 (23:59) Why do men say this? Why do men not respect Kevin Bacon? Okay, this is also an issue. I like Kevin Bacon. Speaker 3 (24:06) I'm just Speaker 2 (24:07) provoking conversations. It sounds like you don't. Speaker 4 (24:09) Riverwild. Speaker 3 (24:10) I have a bunch of... Apollo Speaker 4 (24:11) 13. Animal Speaker 3 (24:12) House Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, JFK, Few Good Men, Riverwild, Apollo 13, Sleepers, Mystic River, Frostnecks, and Crazy Stupid Love. Sure sounds like them. And Speaker 2 (24:20) I didn't Speaker 3 (24:20) mention 70 other movies. I think he's in, but I don't think he gets in on the first ballot. Speaker 2 (24:25) And Speaker 1 (24:25) I Speaker 2 (24:25) think people are Speaker 3 (24:26) upset and they're like, he didn't get in. Oh my God, he didn't get 75 % of the vote. And then the next ballot he gets like 77 Speaker 4 (24:32) % Speaker 3 (24:32) and gets in. I Speaker 4 (24:33) think that actually sounds right. I think he's deserving. But maybe it's not obvious to everybody. So what's Speaker 3 (24:39) the single best Kevin Bacon performance? Because I don't think it's this. Is it the Riverwild? Speaker 2 (24:45) He's pretty good in the Riverwild. He's really Speaker 4 (24:46) good. I rewatched it a while ago. Meryl crushes in that. Is it not Speaker 2 (24:50) actually Footloose? I think it's actually Footloose. Very good in that. Like the physical performance is a part of performance. I really Speaker 3 (24:56) honestly think it's a few good men. Speaker 2 (24:58) Captain Jack Ross? I think Smiling Jack Ross is... He just is... Every moment Speaker 3 (25:02) he's great in it. I also... It's a terrible movie, but one of the rom-coms... What was the one he made with Aniston? Picture Perfect? No. He's like the cad. I Speaker 2 (25:12) like when he's a cad. He's a good cad. He's like the Speaker 3 (25:15) bad guy that you don't want our rom-com Speaker 2 (25:16) heroine to fall in love with. Speaker 3 (25:18) And then she ends Speaker 2 (25:18) up picking somebody else. Speaker 3 (25:20) I think it was picture perfect. But I always like when he's a dick. I don't feel like he's been a dick enough. Speaker 2 (25:25) I mean, he's been a dick. He's been a pedophile. He's been lots of things in many movies. The range is what I'm saying. Speaker 3 (25:31) Yeah. In this one, he's a 60s bachelor, which is one Speaker 4 (25:35) of Speaker 3 (25:35) my favorites. It's usually like scenes like that where there's some… It's the opening scene, some goofy 60s house and him flirting with somebody who has some crazy hairdo and being like, here's a beer. And it's like, oh, this guy. Okay. And Speaker 4 (25:50) then he's pictured in the shower with another woman, you know? But they don't really comment on it that much. You don't see anything? You just... You don't know. It could be the Speaker 2 (25:58) same woman. We don't see her. Actually, we do see her later. It is definitely a different woman. It's Speaker 4 (26:02) a Speaker 2 (26:02) different Speaker 4 (26:02) woman. Very beautiful. Good for him. New Speaker 2 (26:04) woman Speaker 3 (26:04) in every port. High approval rating in general for Kevin Bacon. Then Bill Paxton, who I think has close to 100%. Yes. Speaker 4 (26:10) Yeah. Speaker 3 (26:11) And this is the Apollo, Twister, Titanic threesome for Bill Paxton. Vaulting him, too. Speaker 4 (26:18) Perfect. Speaker 3 (26:18) Tremendous. Holder level. Culminating with him having to listen to the old lady. Speaker 3 (26:26) Tell me more about the necklace. Everyone's Speaker 2 (26:30) favorite part of Titanic. Speaker 3 (26:30) Some of the worst scenes ever filmed for a classic movie. Speaker 2 (26:35) And then what happened? Speaker 3 (26:37) So you dated this guy for nine months and you still talk about him 60 years later, but you had a whole family with this other guy? Speaker 4 (26:44) Nine months? It was like three days. Speaker 3 (26:47) Oh, yeah. No, it was, yeah, two days. Yeah. Speaker 4 (26:49) Yeah, two days. Nine Speaker 3 (26:50) hours. Speaker 4 (26:50) How long was the Titanic voyage? Nine hours. Well, yeah. Very short. Speaker 3 (26:55) Would Zach and your children take that personally? If like on your deathbed, you're like, yeah, this guy in my early 20s in New York, and that was it. You just talked about him the whole day. Because I would be furious if that was my wife. Speaker 2 (27:07) Y'all have clearly never been painted like a French girl before. It's a life-changing experience. Speaker 4 (27:12) I honestly hope they'd be mad that I got rid of the necklace. You know? I would hope that they... Speaker 3 (27:18) See, you're too smart. You'd keep the necklace. Speaker 4 (27:20) Yeah, of course. Speaker 3 (27:21) You'd take care of future generations. Bill Paxton, everybody loves him. The closest here to Weird Science Bill Paxton because he's got the crew cut and kind of the goofy whatever. Doing Speaker 4 (27:31) math. Speaker 3 (27:32) But then more importantly, we have the overqualified sidekicks, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise. Gary Sinise coming off Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan gets to be reunited with Hanks. And then Ed Harris, who's just like, I'm stealing every moment I'm in this movie. You're going to remember me. Speaker 2 (27:47) He's unreal. Is there a better guy at being in a control room than Ed Harris? Between this and Truman Show, that's as good as it gets. Speaker 4 (27:56) I mean, it's an all-time performance. Speaker 3 (27:59) Did it make you think if Ed Harris was an NFL head coach just on the sideline with the headset but knew nothing that was going on but they just would cut to him and he looked like Ed Harris? I'd feel like we were going 12-5. Speaker 1 (28:11) Can