Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Summary

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Episode Summary

Production Challenges and Franchise Uncertainty

In this episode of Blank Check with Griffin & David, hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims delve deep into the latest installment of the iconic franchise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. They kick off the discussion by addressing the significant production hurdles that have cast doubt on the future of the series.

Griffin Newman [00:50]:
"There is one singular conflict in the way of there being future Mission Impossible movies is the fact that this film cost $400 million, took five years to film, basically partly for factors beyond their control. The strikes, all this stuff."

David elaborates on the financial strain and logistical nightmares, comparing the situation to the stagnation seen in the Fast and Furious franchise due to Vin Diesel's bottlenecked involvement.

David Sims [01:05]:
"The studio is like, it's gone out of control. And if you want another one, we have a lot of control we want to put on it."

They explore how Tom Cruise’s pivotal role and influence make it nearly impossible to envision future installments without him, emphasizing that Cruise "holds all the cards."

Griffin Newman [01:49]:
"Well, yeah there's no more of these movies without him, right."

Character Dynamics and Performances

The conversation shifts to character arcs and performances within the movie. Marie Barty Salinas expresses discomfort with the episode's opening, which seemingly hints at the film's conclusion right at the start.

Marie Barty Salinas [02:14]:
"We feel very, like, discomfort bobulated that we're talking about the end of the movie at the beginning of the episode."

Griffin and David discuss the return of familiar characters like Luke Davis and the introduction of new talents such as Hannah Waddingham and Ving Rhames. They praise the performances, particularly highlighting Ving Rhames' portrayal of Luther.

David Sims [12:18]:
"The aforementioned Greg Tarzan Davis of Elementary School. Yes."

Plot Structure and Flashback Usage

A significant portion of the discussion critiques the movie's convoluted structure, especially its extensive use of flashbacks. David points out that multiple flashbacks create confusion rather than enhancing the narrative.

David Sims [03:10]:
"The first hour is a total wash. The second hour is okay. The third hour is really good."

They highlight how the movie redundantly revisits past events, leading to a disjointed storytelling experience.

David Sims [43:03]:
"Every scene, you're thinking, what was this supposed to be originally?"

Thematic and Stylistic Critiques

The hosts delve into thematic elements, criticizing the portrayal of the antagonist, the entity, as an emotionless AI lacking depth and motivation.

David Sims [35:00]:
"It's the only thing that you can make them think less of your main character and dislike the person that's making the joke."

They also touch upon the movie's handling of emotional moments, contrasting the impactful death of Ilsa with the less effective portrayal of Luther's demise.

David Sims [76:02]:
"I think he [Rebecca Ferguson] was the secret sauce. How is the rest of the movie not existing in the wake of her death?"

Comparisons to Other Franchise Movies

Griffin and David draw parallels between Mission: Impossible and other franchises like Final Destination, emphasizing how Final Destination maintains suspense through tightly controlled storytelling, a quality they find lacking in the current MI installment.

David Sims [86:00]:
"Look, Fail Safe is literally New York."

Final Thoughts

Concluding the episode, the hosts express mixed feelings about Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. While they praise specific sequences like the submarine and biplane stunts for their execution and thrill, they remain critical of the overall narrative disarray and heavy-handed storytelling techniques.

Griffin Newman [092:18]:
"I'm totally, I think macquarie's a better filmmaker than Abrams. Speaking to this rank me ranking this below three, but three for its flaws and occasional kind of, you know, lens flarey. I can't even see what's going on stuff as Philip Seymour Hoffman."

They also touch upon the future of the franchise, contemplating its potential end or the possibility of branching out into spin-offs to avoid creative stagnation.

David Sims [135:29]:
"I think they just back themselves into a corner where they can't fucking top themselves."

Conclusion

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning serves as both a culmination and a potential turning point for the franchise. Griffin and David provide a comprehensive critique, balancing praise for the film's high-octane action sequences with disappointment over its narrative inconsistencies and over-reliance on flashbacks. This episode offers listeners a thorough analysis, making it valuable for both longtime fans and newcomers to the series.

Transcript

[Griffin Newman]

Sam, Blank check.

[David Sims]

I need you to podcast with me one last time.

[Griffin Newman]

No, actually, we're going to do it all, like every week.

[David Sims]

Oh, right.

[Griffin Newman]

For the foreseeable future.

[David Sims]

Now see, here's why I picked that quote, because I'm not buying for a second. This is the last Mission Impossible movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, really? Oh, you're throwing that out right as the story.

[David Sims]

I'm saying this. Spoilers. You think more much in the way that this is not the last episode of Blank Check.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, no. Oh, yeah. I mean, unless one of us has lost the submarine.

[David Sims]

There is one singular conflict in the way of there being future Mission Impossible movies is the fact that this film cost $400 million, took five years to.

[Griffin Newman]

Film, basically partly for factors beyond their control. The strikes, all this stuff.

[David Sims]

And they, like, could not control Tom Cruise. Right. Where I think there's a universe much like what's sort of happening with the Fast and Furious franchise. And Vin Diesel, which is completely bottleneck now, might never get a final film.

[Griffin Newman]

Right? Because the studio is like, it's gone out of control. And if you want another one, we have a lot of, like, control we want to put on it.

[David Sims]

Their wildest hope is to, like, make a final film and be like Vin Diesel. Thank you for your service. We're never working with you ever again. These movies are cheaper and smaller and easier to make. Now we're doing spin offs. And the problem is, much like Tom Cruise with Mission Impossible, this guy is too tied to this thing. You can't say no to him. He holds all the cards.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, yeah, there's no more of these movies without him. Right.

[David Sims]

But I was just to get out of the way a little bit astounded. And I, I will get into the endings I didn't want to see, but a little astonish for how hard they're leaning into like, final reckoning. Final reckoning all leads to this. That this movie does not even attempt to pretend that it's closing any door.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I completely disagree.

[Griffin Newman]

I would say mildly disagree with you too, but go ahead.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We. Sorry, I feel very, like, discomfort bobulated that we're talking about the end of the movie at the beginning of the episode.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the kind of impossible. I don't know.

[David Sims]

I would also argue that's almost how this movie is structured in the edit.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

True. Okay. But at the end of the film, I believe that we've achieved world peace and therefore there's no, you know, he did it.

[David Sims]

I, I kind of, I kind of agree with you.

[Griffin Newman]

What if he drops the USB? He's like, whoops.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Excuse me. It's, it's a 5D optical drive.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

I was going to say, what is the USB cartridge.

[Griffin Newman]

The super usb. Right.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Because. And the entity is so glowy that it's like I make it glow.

[David Sims]

I think that's a good prop.

[Griffin Newman]

I do too.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, I love, I love how it glows.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But I'm also like, why didn't he destroy it?

[David Sims]

Well, we're gonna get to this.

[Griffin Newman]

Why not? I think that's very intense.

[David Sims]

But I, I agree with you that, like, I, I, I have a feeling this is based on nothing. But having seen the movie twice now.

[Griffin Newman]

I got a feeling.

[David Sims]

It really feels to me like there were multiple endings that had a greater sense of finality. And Tom, at the last second was like, I just want an ending where we all nod our heads and walk in separate directions.

[Griffin Newman]

What's a more final ending like that they would have abandoned?

[David Sims]

I will get into it.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, he's gonna get into it now. He's gonna get into it.

[David Sims]

That final sequence, especially seeing it a second time, looks like it is shot entirely in the volume. So several of the actors seem painted in. It does not feel like they are all in the same space. They were shooting shit on this movie within the last three months.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I mean, I, the actors not being in the same place, I buy. But those were real. Those were real humans in Trafalgar Square.

[David Sims]

They, I think went to.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

None of them were looking at their cell phones. Because we've destroyed cyberspace. Everyone is happier.

[David Sims]

Here's what I think. I think they went to Trafalgar Square. I think they filmed people, I think then they filmed all the actors separately.

[Griffin Newman]

Listen, we're starting out with complet completely. You're just out of pocket. It looks making up as there's, there's YouTube videos of them all filming in Trafalgar.

[David Sims]

All of them?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Palm?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Yes.

[David Sims]

Atwell?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. All of them. I think they did a, like a location day in Toronto Square. Who?

[David Sims]

Degas?

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know who that is.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's Tarzan.

[David Sims]

Davis.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Yeah, probably him. He's one of those guys where even when I'm looking at him, I'm like, is he in this movie? Oh, there he is. Right? Yeah.

[David Sims]

There's a moment, there's a moment in this movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Sorry, Greg.

[David Sims]

Where they're like figuring out what everyone needs to do in the final mission.

[Griffin Newman]

He's like, I just kind of a. No, Tom Cruise.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I'm just going to, I'm going to die. I Got no purpose, he says, like.

[David Sims]

I guess I'll just stay behind with Dunlow and his wife.

[Griffin Newman]

Right where he said, I just don't feel important enough to go to that place.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

I think I'll stay with the kind.

[David Sims]

Of admitting, like, I haven't earned being in that I was in Maverick and.

[Griffin Newman]

Clearly got along with this guy. Like, I must be nice.

[David Sims]

Everyone likes me. I got a cool name and a nice face. I'm sure I'm friendly and easy to work.

[Griffin Newman]

Be nice. Lovely. See? All right. Middle name is Tarzan, for crying out loud.

[David Sims]

Look, that's half the magic. This is Blank Check with Griffin and Theory.

[Griffin Newman]

He's an elementary school teacher, so he must have, like, a personality that's so nice.

[David Sims]

That kind of tracks. He does have that kind of gentle authority.

[Griffin Newman]

He does. My name is David Sims.

[David Sims]

I thought you were about to say he was in Elemental and I was going to knock him down.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, exactly.

[David Sims]

F he played a cloud ball player or some.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. What a great movie.

[David Sims]

Have you been keeping up with this Cloud ball season?

[Griffin Newman]

So. Yeah, it's so good. The.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The Oklahoma City Thunder are doing really well.

[Griffin Newman]

God, don't get me started. God. The two weeks my daughter was sort of into Elemental, although I feel like she was even. She was kind of faking it.

[David Sims]

Those are the two weeks that you put her up for adoption.

[Griffin Newman]

It's just a tough movie to watch over and over. It's tough enough to watch it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So. Hey, guys. So you're Griffin, and you're David, and this is Blank Check. And what are we doing?

[Griffin Newman]

And who are you?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, I'm Marie Barty. Party. Salinas. Barty, Salinas. Whatever my name is.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's here?

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, hey, what's up? It's Ben.

[Griffin Newman]

Hi, Ben.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The Ben City.

[Griffin Newman]

The Bentity.

[David Sims]

The Ben City.

[Griffin Newman]

And we are here to discuss Christopher McQuarrie's very normal movie, Impossible M. Dash. The Final Reckoning, the last movie in this franchise, probably.

[David Sims]

I agree with you, Marie, that I do think this movie makes the choice to basically raise the stakes as high as they could possibly be raised, where you're just like, I don't know how you do another one. Galactic. Well, well, well, here comes Galactus. Every time I see some piece of Fantastic Four marketing material and I get goosebumps, I immediately go like, I'm so angry at myself for, like, it's getting me. Forget me. And the final shot of the most recent trailer where you just see Galactus's big boot. I'm just like, oh, God, they still have me. They have me. Exactly where they want me. Just seeing some big goofy boot and I'm like, he's not a cloud.

[Griffin Newman]

Remember when there was like some, you know, one comic book reporter, one of those guys who's like, they're looking for Javier Bardem, Galactus Latino. Like there was something like that. I'll never forget it. Just the idea that Marvel in some conference room was like, I think Galactus needs to be Latino.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

That's like literally that episode of the studio.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Galactus Latino, a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear. And sometimes they bounce, baby.

[Griffin Newman]

Now here it was Jeff Snyder who said, I'm the main villain is Galactus. And I'm told he will be Latino.

[David Sims]

The insider himself.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he thinks he was out snide on that one.

[Ben Hosley]

I mean, it's a big looking boot.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, well, he's a large man.

[David Sims]

Ben, do you know what Galactus does?

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, I think so. He just gobbles up planets.

[David Sims]

Correct.

[Griffin Newman]

He sure does. That's his food. Some of us like turkey subs. Galactus like planet.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, it's played by the dad and the.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, Ralph and I think that is the Green Knights.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah, the titular green.

[Griffin Newman]

They made a choice. That makes a lot of sense.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He's not Latino.

[Griffin Newman]

No, not that I checked. I mean, maybe. Maybe. I. I don't know. Something.

[David Sims]

Did you see the promotional art that leaked out, David?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, I did.

[David Sims]

The full glass look cool to me. You know what it looks like, Ralph Anderson is Galactus. Yes. It looks like a Jack Kirby drawing of Galactus. And I cannot believe we've gotten this far, that they're just like, we don't need to make this look any less goofy. We're just going to own this.

[Griffin Newman]

I really, I'm.

[David Sims]

You know, I'm very, very cautiously optimistic to take my first steps. But listen here. On this podcast, on the main feed, we talk about directors and their filmographies and their careers. Right? We have a Patreon feed, blank check special features where we talk about franchises and primarily franchises that don't have one dominant director. But Christopher McQuarrie made a little movie called Jack Reacher. True that. You and I love.

[Griffin Newman]

Great movie. We did a podcast on it once.

[David Sims]

This is the thing. So early in the days of this show when we'd be like, fuck, we gotta find more new releases to cover. Get that sweet new release bump. Jack Reacher 2 was coming out and we're like, great opportunity to do an episode on both Jack Reachers. Then on our Patreon, Mission Impossible wins our March Madness thing.

[Griffin Newman]

It definitely did.

[David Sims]

I think we cover all the Mission Impossible movies there. Then we realize, oh, if we do Way of the Gun, which we did, we've covered Christopher Macquarie episodes.

[Griffin Newman]

You weren't even on that.

[Ben Hosley]

No, but I swear I had to watch it or I got stuck in traffic, something happened. But I did watch it and it was God awful.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not my favorite.

[David Sims]

No, that had been said. I have Pre ordered the 4K steelbook because I'm a simp and it's a limited edition.

[Ben Hosley]

Did you get that, Fletcher?

[David Sims]

No. The Fletch box is for you, Ben.

[Ben Hosley]

Huh?

[David Sims]

Chevy Chase on chevychase.com is selling a limited edition Flex fletch box.

[Ben Hosley]

It's actually official ChevyChase.com.

[David Sims]

I'M sorry.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

That is a combination ID cards and pins and buttons and stickers. Stickers. There's seven typos.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. It refers to Gina Davis. G I n a couple things that maybe like an intern to give a.

[David Sims]

Once over here there's a post it note where Chevy wrote Fletch on it and then that's signed by Burton Gilliam. We were trying to convince Ben to buy the Fletch box.

[Ben Hosley]

Listen, there's no way I'm doing it.

[David Sims]

We did the Way of the Gun episode, right? Because we were like, if we've done this, then we've covered all Macquarie and we can make it like Mission Impossible. Like a sneaky mission under everyone's noses that we have retroactively now covered this man's entire career and he counts as a main feed director. And so last year we talked about Mission Impossible Colon Dead Reckoning.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Previously, Part one.

[David Sims]

I'm sorry, Mission Colon Impossible. M Dash Dead Reckoning. Space Part one.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure.

[David Sims]

And of course today we are talking about Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part two. Wait, no, scratch that. The final reckoning.

[Griffin Newman]

The final reckoning.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

This time it's final.

[Griffin Newman]

Christopher McQuarrie's film with Tom Cruise is in it.

[David Sims]

Tom Cruise is in this movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Haley Atwell. Bing Rhames. Simon Pegg. Henry's Ernie.

[David Sims]

Are you going in billing order?

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, well, because I think Palm Clementif is up before the billing order.

[Griffin Newman]

Is Tom Cruise. Haley Atwell, Ving Rham. Simon Pegg. No, no, because there's some ands and with. So I don't actually know.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Angela Bassett gets the.

[Griffin Newman]

And I feel she only get the end.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

She's the only one who Gets the end Cerny.

[David Sims]

So then it's only Bassett with an answer then? I think that's correct.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, great.

[David Sims]

I think that's right.

[Griffin Newman]

That's a good job. And you've also got Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso. Tramell Tillman of Severance. Shay Wiggum of My Dreams.

[David Sims]

The aforementioned Greg Tarzan Davis of elementary School. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Chris Parnell and Mark Gaston.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Charles Parnell. Chris Parnell.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, girl. Charles Perel. Right. But no, Chris Parnell's here too. Actually.

[David Sims]

Parnell would be good in A Mission.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Slot him in. He would be great.

[Griffin Newman]

Because they had what. Who's the Twitter guy with the mustache?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Rob Delaney.

[David Sims]

Basically placed in this movie by Nick offerman. Also Holt McElhenny. McElhenny is there also two time Academy Award nominee Janet Mc here.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. And she was good.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

She kind of has the, the, the presence required, I feel like. You know what I mean? Like, like she's playing like a sort of a nothing character, but like she just, she's good at just kind of.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

She seems really responsible.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure.

[David Sims]

But all of this is even just enlisting this cast emblematic of some of the core issues of this movie for me, which is basically like. You have Hannah Waddingham and Janet McTeer and Angela Bassett.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, absolutely.

[David Sims]

You have Holt McElhinney and Nick. You want two square jawed, slow talk to gravel voiced men who explain how important things are in the same room?

[Griffin Newman]

If they're sitting down.

[David Sims]

Yeah, they're both sitting down.

[Griffin Newman]

You know who I really liked? I mean, Terrell Tillman I think is sort of like secret mvp, but Katie o' Brien.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh my God, I love her.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Anytime she's in a movie, I'm happy.

[David Sims]

I agree. But we're like 20 names down on this list. And she shows up and immediately I'm like, fuck, this movie's not going to give her enough to do. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

I just like that. The submarine is gay.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Did you get. I. Thank you.

[Griffin Newman]

Everyone on the submarine is gay.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So I said Ben and I were the first ones here today.

[Griffin Newman]

And so even Ethan Hunt's like, should I just like get in my briefs?

[David Sims]

Marie. I'm just. Sorry, can we check the notes quickly? Who is the third one here?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So Ben number one, Marie number two. Griffin number three.

[David Sims]

Interesting and bringing up the rear.

[Griffin Newman]

I welcome this debate. As I said on a different episode.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But when it was just me and Ben, I was like, I loved the gay submarine. And Ben was like, what? And I was like, the submarine's gay. And he was like, Interesting opinion. And I'm like, no, not interesting. It's very obvious canon, but that they're like, gay ass submarine in the middle of the movie.

[Griffin Newman]

It's just funny that Trebell Tillman's like, and who are you? You know, like, he's just having so much fun with it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He could be like, hello.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, I am the captain of the most important submarine in the world now.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Tom Cruise is, like, just in his underwear for most of the time that he's on the boat. Katie o' Brien just showing her muscles. Oh, you want to poke the bear?

[David Sims]

A man to do it the way he says. Mister.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Mr.

[Griffin Newman]

Rocks. Where did that guy come from? Like, where. Where do you get plucked out of?

[David Sims]

He, like, only started acting in his mid-30s. I want to say he was on Wikipedia recently.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, because he was on the official Severance podcast, which I very much enjoy talking about his journey, where he was like. He was like a pre med. He was like a science major in college or whatever and was like, going to be a surgeon.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But I think he went to school for acting.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he got an MFA in acting.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, he did a lot of theater work.

[Griffin Newman]

He was the first African American man to graduate with an MFA in acting from the University of Tennessee.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

That's depressing.

[Griffin Newman]

It's kind of weird.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. Because it's not a big program.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know.

[David Sims]

But that's. That's in 2014.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he didn't. He didn't really start. He got some TV roles, I guess.

[David Sims]

Yeah. His first theater credit is 2018. Like, he's a very recent.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he fucking rocks.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He rules. While we're on the subject of Trammel.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, the whole magic of Severance is it's either guys where you're like, jesus, this is like a heavyweight. Or guys you're like, I've never seen this before.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I've never seen in my life. And now I love her. But. Okay, so not only is Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham in the show, in the movie, yes.

[Griffin Newman]

She's an aircraft carrier captain or whatever.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And we've got severance's Mr. Milchick. Did you notice that one of the, like, naval helicopter pilots is played by Sidney Cole Alexander, AKA Natalie from Severance, the one with the crazy smile who's the speaker to the board.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, she's wonderful on Severance. I didn't notice that. She's great, though. Good. Good for her.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Which means in my head, at least Tom Cruise watches Severance.

[David Sims]

Almost definitely.

[Griffin Newman]

He knows Ben Stiller.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I know. He Knows Ben Stiller. But I'm like, when I watch Severance, I'm like, there are a lot of Scientology vibes in this. So I think it's very interesting that Tom is a Severance fan.

[Griffin Newman]

You mean that it's like kind of making fun of certain. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure.

[David Sims]

You know, what's another movie we know he watched?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The Master.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Griffin Newman]

What do you mean? Well, but what do you mean by we know he watched?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, I mean, I think we watched. No, didn't PTA say that he.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, and it was awkward.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Didn't he. Didn't PTA say it was like it didn't go well?

[Griffin Newman]

Right. That's what I.

[David Sims]

They asked him like, how do you respond? And he was like, that's a private matter.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, yeah. So I'm just like. I don't know, I'm curious.

[David Sims]

Look, these are. Yes. As we've talked about, we've talked a lot of Tom in the 10 years, the decade of dreams of doing this show. And we've talked all the Mission Impossible movies on top of that. Right. He is such a fascinating black box of a person. We were texting a lot yesterday in a group chat of a lot of his recent press interviews and his. He's so good at being like, movies go popcorn. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

It's truly what he's cornered right in this for the last few years of like, I am movies.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And then it was so sad. Someone at E. News asked me about his father Father's Day plans, and it was like he short circuited.

[David Sims]

I watched it again, and so sad. They phrased the question as Father's Day is coming up. What would your ideal Father's Day be? I'm like, they gave him so much wiggle room in that answer. It wasn't even, what are you doing this Father's Day? And his answer was, you know, making movies. Big screen, adventure, live it up. It was truly.

[Ben Hosley]

It looked like he short circled.

[David Sims]

Really did.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So.

[David Sims]

He was like the woman in the airport in Total Recall before Arnold lifts his head off. Making movies. Big screen, big adventure.

[Griffin Newman]

That's why we love him, because it is a thing where when he went to see Tenant, he was like, tenet, big screen. And I was like, did you process what an insane movie Tenant was?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Or are you just like scream, eat big.

[David Sims]

We were in another group text talking about the videos of him eating popcorn.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So.

[David Sims]

And one of our friends was like, the technique of how he's getting the popcorn in the mouth, the popcorn, like he's popping it is. Any popcorn actually getting in his mouth?

[Griffin Newman]

Right. So what Tom Cruise movies have we discussed on this podcast?

[David Sims]

We have discussed because, of course, he was, for Most of the 90s in the early 2000s, an Autor driven director.

[Griffin Newman]

So Mission Impossible.

[David Sims]

And Mission Impossible is on tour. Driven franchise.

[Griffin Newman]

We've never discussed a movie from kind of the first 15 years of his career.

[David Sims]

The.

[Griffin Newman]

The earlier.

[David Sims]

Let me see if I can get all the Cruise movies. We've talked about Jerry Maguire, Collateral, Obviously we've covered Ghost Protocol on Patreon, Minority Report.

[Griffin Newman]

Yep.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Reacher.

[David Sims]

We covered Reacher.

[Griffin Newman]

Both of them.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Both Reacher, Yeah.

[David Sims]

And then obviously all the other missions on Patreon. There's one more. Two more.

[Griffin Newman]

You're forgetting a big one.

[David Sims]

I'm forgetting a big one.

[Griffin Newman]

And it ain't lines for lambs yet. The Milagro Beanfield podcast is coming up.

[David Sims]

Oh, I swear.

[Griffin Newman]

Eyes Wide Shut.

[David Sims]

Is that the big one?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, that's the big one. And we also, of course.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, there is one more.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, we did meet the Mummy.

[David Sims]

We met. Oh, my God. On Patreon.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's in this coffin here? A sexy mummy.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I saw this movie twice. I saw Mission Impossible Dead, no, Final Reckoning twice.

[David Sims]

I've seen this twice as well.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

First, at a press screening. Rex Reed was there. It was really exciting.

[Griffin Newman]

Was he having fun?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He. He was.

[David Sims]

Did Superman say hello to him?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, but the lady who was checking everyone in the screening was like, hello, Rex.

[David Sims]

Did you notice Rex Reed in 1978 Superman? I know you just watched it for the first.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, I didn't know until you guys called it out on the episode.

[Griffin Newman]

He's looking good.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Anyway, I saw. I saw this movie twice. Once at a press screening and once last night at Nighthawk. The pre show they did at Nighthawk was like, impeccable.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, yeah, they do a good job there.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They do a great job. They played the Ben Stiller, Tom Cruise, MTV Movie Awards classic bit. But then they also played the wrong export of the mummy trailer.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Which is so.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

With the.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it's just sound effects. But then Tom Cruise goes like.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's just screams.

[Griffin Newman]

Right, right, right, right. It's like, there's birds or whatever. Because she sends, like, evil birds to crash plane. But you're not hearing the birds.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, you're just.

[Griffin Newman]

You're just hearing.

[David Sims]

Go, like.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And I'd only seen that on, like, you know, YouTube or Twitter or whatever. To watch that in a theater with a crowd rocks. It was amazing.

[Griffin Newman]

I just remember watching a trailer being like, I like it. And then they were like, It's a mistake. And I'm like, oh, well. Well, it was kind of cool.

[David Sims]

No, no, I thought it was good.

[Griffin Newman]

What I thought was good was the Mummy. The film. Great film.

[David Sims]

I was. I was thinking what I. What I was doing the math on is, is that the only like complete total zero of his career?

[Griffin Newman]

No Tom Cruise. Yeah, I think he's got a couple others, doesn't he? I mean, it's definitely the biggest zero sort of since entering this action movies primarily like Phase.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But you think about it and it's like, there are some movies like Rock of Ages are like terrible. But he's like doing something in it that makes it ultimately like.

[Griffin Newman]

I really do think he tries his best in Rock of Ages and has fun. That movie's definitely a cultural zero.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's a cultural.

[David Sims]

I agree. I've never seen it. But I do think he's given some credit for. He tried something he hadn't done before for no one, the Mummy.

[Griffin Newman]

But the Mummy has a weird, tiny little bit of cachet because the dark universe.

[David Sims]

Such a movie is the failure.

[Griffin Newman]

But that's the same with any of his.

[David Sims]

What about Nick Morton? Do we have anything to say about Nick Morton?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, we don't.

[Griffin Newman]

What do you mean? Keep your eye on that guy versus Stacy. Jack Jacks. Who are these? I will say. I think Jack Reacher Never Go Back is a total zero.

[David Sims]

I agree with you on that.

[Griffin Newman]

And more of a zero than either of the two movies. Like, I think people have actively memory. Hold that there was a second.

[David Sims]

I also, I find that movie more offensive because I'm like, you guys had the road map.

[Griffin Newman]

You actually did a good job.

[David Sims]

You up everything you got right in the first one.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I also think that Lions for lambs is a zero.

[David Sims]

L is a zero.

[Griffin Newman]

No, that's like a negative 100.

[David Sims]

Yeah, but some of these other ones.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm like, Lions for Lambs.

[David Sims]

He wanted to take a supporting dramatic role in a Robert Redford movie. I'm like, that movie's a zero. But I get the move, right?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Meryl Streeps in it.

[David Sims]

That movie's. I agree with you. The movie's a zero.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But no, it's. It's a. It's a major disappointment in how boring, forgettable and whatever it is.

[David Sims]

But the Mummy is the one where I'm just like, why are you doing this? And why is Alex Kurtzman directing this?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Is he the one who died? No, that was the other one.

[Griffin Newman]

The other one is the really weird American made rock kind of fun.

[David Sims]

America made.

[Ben Hosley]

It's weird that he's in it.

[David Sims]

American Made.

[Griffin Newman]

That movie is like. Right.

[David Sims]

Is like Cruz deciding to make a porch classic. I know at a moment where all of his movies are, like, so big.

[Ben Hosley]

And he gets kind of scummy in it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he's a little scummy. What's the biggest zero from, like, early in his career?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I guess it's like, I haven't seen all the Right Moves.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it ain't that. That movie rocks.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, cool. I'll watch it.

[David Sims]

Also, I'll tell you, that movie's not a zero. It's got about six inches.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Far and Away.

[Griffin Newman]

But, you know, Far and Away, which is bad, was definitely a hit at the time. But yeah, I mean, Far and Away is pretty close to kind of. It's sort of forgotten these days. He's really bad.

[David Sims]

This is my bigger point is, like, all the other zeros like that. You're like, well, he wanted to work with Ron Howard and Nicole Kidman. Like, the movie's nothing, but there's power surrounding the movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, but he didn't he meet Nicole on the set of Days of Thunder.

[David Sims]

Oh, you're right. That was their. That was their victory laugh.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. Because I was. I was going deep through Tom Cruise Getty Image Archive this week, you know, pulling out all my favorites.

[David Sims]

You found a really good one of Tom and Sidney Pollock at a UN conference.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, it wasn't a UN Conference.

[David Sims]

It was the.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, it was like the John Houston symposium. It was when the. It was when Ted Turner started colorizing movies. And so it was like, we need to band together to protect artists rights.

[David Sims]

But they're wearing, like, un. Like, translation headphones. Everyone's, like, leaning in behind.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's like a panel, and it looks really serious, and they're looking really serious.

[David Sims]

Tom has an unbelievable look. He almost looks like he has an ombre.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, he's got. He's like, kind of grunge era. It's, like, really cute. But it's him and Sidney Pollock sitting next to Amy Heckerling and Twink Kaplan.

[David Sims]

Just Eagle Eye Marie Bar.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I will post the photo the week between look who's talking to and this episode because, you know, as to mark the transition. But there were, like, photos of. And I could be, like, misremembering the timeline here, but it was like Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers at NASCAR races, which I'm like, oh, so he's in Days of Thunder mode here.

[David Sims]

Oh, sure.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

That's where he's falling.

[Griffin Newman]

She divorced him in 1990.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Mimi Rogers normal Lady as well.

[David Sims]

Look, let's just get a. Let's get. Let's just say this. This movie's a mess, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But a little bit you can say it's a mess, which I agree with. I think it's a mess. I just want to get out there and say, like, I don't care.

[David Sims]

So, sorry. In a nutshell, the first time I.

[Griffin Newman]

Would say that I care quite a bit. David. To say.

[David Sims]

David and I saw this at a press hearing as well. Kind folks at Paramount helped us out all getting in to see this movie early, which made our lives a lot easier in terms of our score schedules and such. So thank you for that. David and I saw at a press screening. I went again last night for, like, the IMAX fan first. Whatever. It is officially coming out today on the day that we're recording it. Going into the screening, we had two friends who had seen it in advance, and one was like, it's good. And one was like, it's bad. And I was like, huh, no middle ground between these two, right? Was really worried. I sat there, was so stressed out. During our screening, I had this feeling that I was stressed out because the.

[Griffin Newman]

Movie wasn't working for you.

[David Sims]

I was like, this feels like a bumpy takeoff on an airplane. I just felt myself, holy things is gonna crash. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, I was just more like, why am I not, you know, doing the thing I do with Fallout or whatever, where I'm like, yep, up, up, up, up. You know, like, yes, yes. I never got second gear.

[David Sims]

I was feeling that. And then the longer I wasn't feeling that, I. The more I got worried of, like, is this a disaster? Like, I started having that Sinking Rise of Skywalker feeling. The best thing, like, well, the best thing I can say about this movie is it does get better as it goes along rather than worse. So it ends on a pretty good note. And I came out of it, and I was like, first hour is, like, a total wash. The second hour is okay. The third hour is really good. And then I saw it again last night. It's three hours.

[Griffin Newman]

It's very long.

[David Sims]

I saw it again last night, and the stuff that really fucking bugged me the first time didn't go down any smoother for me. But I had removed the stress of being like, is this thing gonna fucking crash? Which made me a little more analytical about it. I got a little bit more into I don't care mode. I find this very disappointing. I saw with a group of people, including our friend Ben, David Grabinski past and Future guest. And he said, I cannot think of a movie with higher highs and lower lows. Like where the best stuff in it I think is like as good as modern blockbuster filmmaking can be. And the stuff that is bad in it is like so emblematic of the cancer of what drives me crazy about modern movies. And I feel that kind of way I come out, I'm like, this movie ultimately lands on the positive for me. Some of it is I just like Mission Impossible movies. I like these characters.

[Griffin Newman]

That's why I was basically always.

[David Sims]

And these outfits and their location and whatever. My bar is really high for these movies. And it like ultimately delivers just enough of what I want out of them. And yet there's so much of this movie I find so maddening that is like so sloppy in a bizarre. In a way that just kind of boggles my mind. Like most of all, I felt this the first time, I felt it even more the second time. And I really like studied it to see if this held up. I basically think you can lose the entire first act of that movie. Everything in the first hour other than Luther dying. Doesn't need to happen.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's the bigger take.

[David Sims]

And the movie's three hours.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's. But here's the bigger take. Yeah, the two movies are one very good three hour movie.

[David Sims]

Yeah, here's. Let's zoom all the way back. The moment they decide we're making one two part movie. Disastrous Faustian bargain. Screwed all of them. They obviously never really work. Have anticipated global pandemic and multiple industry strikes on top of that. That made this thing just like a cursed production that took half a decade. But that was the original sin of this film.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, for this movie to basically, for Rebecca Ferguson to be publicly like, I had to get out of there. Like the way this, these things work, it takes too long. You can't do anything. It sucks up all your life. And she exited in the seventh movie. She's in it like. And even then she was just like, no, I didn't want to even rap like one more movie. No, no, no. I had to go. God bless Dom and Chris and all those folks. Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I just kept about the two parter of it. I keep thinking about. I kept thinking about Wicked. Where again, Heaven.

[Griffin Newman]

Unlimited. Do you think Tom Cruise said to Paramount this production is unlimited? You should have said that.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been.

[David Sims]

And like Sherry Red, I'm picturing Tom Cruise in a bed and Netflix in the bed next to him. He's going low Thing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, but like, you know how everyone's like, why the are they splitting Wicked into two movies? Because the second act is boring and all the good stuff, all the good songs are.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, but then I saw Wicked and I was like, oh, I understand why.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, you understand why. But you're like, I'm just anticipating Wicked Part 2 to not have as much of the juice.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm no longer anticipating that. But you can say my joke.

[David Sims]

David had the joke that I think about all the time and quote back to people all the time. I think it was on our Thomas Crown of Pair episode with the great Amanda Dobbins where you said the splitting the Wicked into two parts is like, when I make dinner and decide that washing the dishes is a Tomorrow David test.

[Griffin Newman]

That's Morning David's problem, right?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

And you're part two. It's like, I have to wash all these dishes. I'm sorry.

[David Sims]

Right. But you're like, tonight is incredible.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Right.

[David Sims]

I made a meal, I eat it. It tasted great and I didn't have to do any of the cleanup or.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm in bed patting my big belly. It's perfect.

[David Sims]

10 out of 10. And then you wake up the next morning, you're like, oh my God, this movie has a ton of Tomorrow David business. It has to take care of where it's like, oh, Jesus Christ, we passed all this stuff on to part two. And a lot of it, they just go like, never mind. Well, that's some of the sloppiness. Being like, you're not even gonna fucking talk about this thing.

[Griffin Newman]

But the movie caught up in, oh gosh, we have to figure out that we never figured out. But then. Right. It doesn't actually even try to figure everything out just to speak on Wicked. Just to make my point clear. Wicked for good out this Thanksgiving or whatever. Right.

[David Sims]

By the way, I think them calling it For Good instead of Part two is because they want to keep making these forever.

[Griffin Newman]

Maybe there's a bunch more books.

[David Sims]

Yeah. And they'll loosely adapt them, but they'll just. They want this to be an every.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

There aren't a bunch more books.

[Griffin Newman]

There's tons of the books.

[David Sims]

They just did a new one.

[Griffin Newman]

That guy's that. Yeah, he pumps.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I thought he made only one book.

[Griffin Newman]

No, no, there's lots of them.

[David Sims]

It's all steer off in weird directions.

[Griffin Newman]

The books are not.

[David Sims]

So they will barely adapt them, but I think they will keep doing.

[Griffin Newman]

I read them all.

[David Sims]

They're alphaba.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Interesting. Cuz I only. I only read the. The first book When I had stomach flu in high school.

[David Sims]

The other thing, they announced like, overall deals with Arivo and Grande and then retitled Wicked and took the two out of it. And I'm like, that's them being like, oh, my God. We want them playing these characters.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

News to me.

[David Sims]

And also maybe building a land in the theme parks.

[Griffin Newman]

Go on, D. God, everything's got to be a land now.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We should have Mission Impossible land.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, you just die.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, it's. I get to wear like a fun mask.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I want like Leah Sedu to shoot me. That's my Mission Impossible. Or Bo Clementia stabs me or something. I'm just like, I just want some lady to. That's my land. But re for good. When I watched Wicked Part 1, which I enjoyed, I was like, I can see now what they've done, which is that in Wicked, the stage show, they gloss that the wizard of Oz is Oz is happening in the background of Act 2. They will not be able to do that in the movie. People would be like, what the. Like. And so they, they, they clearly were just like, there's way too much plot in Act 2, as much as there's less songs.

[David Sims]

But Act 2, kind of yada yadas.

[Griffin Newman]

We can't just cram it into this movie. People will be baffled. Like, it like, it's a Wizard of Oz prequel. Like, or sort of side.

[David Sims]

It does make it risky that it does seem like part two is going to have the fucking like Tin man and the cowardly line and Scarecrow and Dorothy.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, but it's in the. It's in the show, but sort of like. But again, they're kind of like. And he's actually the Tin man, if you think about it. And people are like, whatever, it's 11 o' clock, I want to go have dinner. You know, like.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

So I get it. I'm excited. I liked Wicked one. It was good.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, well, let's just say Mission Impossible Final Reckoning feeling very my worst case scenario for little Happy birthday sign.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Yes, it's very Happy birthday sign. And also it is nowhere near the catastrophe of Rise of Skywalker. But there are certain similarities of this same kind of self imposed pressure of how are we paying off what had been set up in the last two movies. And also now we want to put the sense of importance on the entire series.

[Griffin Newman]

That is what hamstrings did a little bit. Right. Is McQuarrie deciding, like, I need to explain the Rabbit's Foot, I need to bring in Mission. You know, I want to Bring in Mission Impossible 1 where I'm like, cute ideas, but you've already got so much stuff to do. Now, the thing I want to say about Rise of Skywalker, because keep invoking it. A terrible film is a not a good film. In my opinion.

[David Sims]

Unsuccessful is almost entirely joyless.

[Griffin Newman]

Agree. I hate that movie. I don't think anyone really likes that movie.

[David Sims]

Bummer to watch, right?

[Griffin Newman]

It's a bummer to watch. It's a bummer, too, now that I'm. I'm having a bit of a Star wars moment, guys.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Is your child getting into it?

[Griffin Newman]

No, no. Because of Andor. I'm watching Andor, and it's just like, I'm like, love Star Wars. It's so good. I'm enjoying Andor so much. I started. Ahsoka.

[David Sims]

Wow.

[Griffin Newman]

I was like, I never watched that when I started. And I was like, p. You. But anyway, moving on. Rise of Skywalker is not doing what this movie does. What this movie's doing is like, well, we still got the entity. Do you guys like him? Whereas Rise of Skywalker is like, forget everything that happened before. It was the emperor all along. And there's, like, someone running in with, like, an emperor's standee, and they're like, put in there like, yeah, see? It was him. It was him. And you're like, no, it wasn't. It's like, yes, it was. Yes, it was. Don't, you know, pay attention.

[David Sims]

Well, the problem with that movie is it is so panicked, and it's not delivering the things you want out of what is.

[Griffin Newman]

Does that movie deliver one thing that made one person happy? That's the only one.

[David Sims]

He is my. He is always my answer. He is the only thing in that movie that makes me happy.

[Griffin Newman]

Hey, hey. It's like. But the thing with Rise of Skywalker is they're like, well, actually, maybe Finn should have been a Jedi. So he is one. And you're like, can you, like, set that up or make that meaningful? And they're like, no. Like, no, but we did it. So are you happy now? So much of Rise of Skywalker is just kind of like, are you happy now?

[David Sims]

Can I just quickly say, talk about Star wars moments. Our friend David Ehrlich, friend of the show, past and future guest, recently showed his children all the Star wars movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And they have gone berserk for them.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, they love them. Asa loves them.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Ray is Darth Raider.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

She does her little.

[David Sims]

She knows all the Williams themes. That's the crazy thing.

[Griffin Newman]

They're hummable.

[David Sims]

But like, two years old kind of.

[Griffin Newman]

Went off with those themes that's.

[David Sims]

It's like, kind of popped off. I wasn't questioning his power, but to watch Erlich start humming a Williams theme and have it be, like, the tenth theme in Star wars importance and see his two year old finish it, I'm like, this hits. But Asa is just fully Star wars pelt, right? He has this picture book of all the nine Star wars movies and. Or, like, out of town for Cannes. I was doing a little pickup, a sort of babysitting kind of business, and I was, like, trying to stop a meltdown. And I was like, ace, I have a question for you. I need you to help me here. Which character is this? And I just started going through the book and pointing at all the characters. He knew every character's first and last name. It was like, so everybody I'm trying to think of, like, Rogue One wasn't in there. It was only episodes.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's Carrie Russell called in that one.

[David Sims]

She's not in the book. Zori. Bliss.

[Griffin Newman]

Sorry, Bliss. There you go.

[David Sims]

I was just kind of impressed by how deeply he knew it, but I just need to let the record show on. Mike, it was the greatest compliment I've ever received. I point, I go, who's this? He goes, poe Dameron. And then he looks at me and he goes, you kind of look like Poe Dameron.

[Griffin Newman]

What, does Asa need glasses? I'm going to text Alisa, get Asa a vision check.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

That is so cute.

[Griffin Newman]

Very nice. Well, you got a little. You got kind of curly, darker hair.

[David Sims]

Sure, I got the facial scruff.

[Griffin Newman]

You're a little shorter. Poe Dameron's a little on the shorter, like a hero.

[David Sims]

Thank you.

[Griffin Newman]

And you really seem like someone would be confident. Behind the wheels of a moving vehicle, no less.

[David Sims]

Much like Poe Dameron. Is this guy quietly fucking everything up.

[Griffin Newman]

Poe Dameron does knock over a lot of Jenga towers in the third movie.

[David Sims]

He's also, like, always 15 minutes late. David?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Fresh air, sunshine, and good food. That's what the spring is all about.

[Griffin Newman]

That's true.

[David Sims]

Now I'm going to push back on two out of three. My allergies have been out of control.

[Griffin Newman]

Dang that air.

[David Sims]

I obviously have a bad body that can't process the air, so I've been staying indoors a lot. Also added to that, the increase of the sun while I burn. Really?

[Griffin Newman]

You don't tan well.

[David Sims]

Right. But, hey, good food. I'm into hello. For me, in a way, the spring is only about good food, because I'm Avoiding everything else.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. You need more food.

[David Sims]

And hellofresh makes it easier to fit quick home cooked meals into your schedule every week by curating delicious recipes like pasta primavera, chicken Dijon and pean crusted trout, as well as over 100 seasonal snack sides and treats. And I need someone to help me fit things into my busy schedule cuz I have to record like three podcast episodes a week.

[Griffin Newman]

You poor guy. And I only have to cook for three kids a week.

[David Sims]

Exactly. We have the same issue in 2025. HelloFresh is evolving to fit every lifestyle by bringing customers even more convenience.

[Griffin Newman]

Cuz they got the ready made meals now. You know, hellofresh always had meal kits, but now you can also get ready made meals that you can make in 15 minutes or less. You know, like you prep them, bake them really, really easily.

[David Sims]

Cuz. David, their new ready made meals offer chef crafted flavorful dishes that are ready in just three minutes.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow. Three.

[David Sims]

Three. So I'm sorry, dig in, get outside.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I see what you're saying.

[David Sims]

Just get some meat.

[Griffin Newman]

Three minutes.

[David Sims]

Three minutes. I just think, don't over.

[Griffin Newman]

That feels almost. That feels almost too fast. It's like witchcraft.

[David Sims]

Too furious.

[Griffin Newman]

Exactly. No, it's very impressive. And every hellofresh meal uses high quality ingredients, including seasonal fresh produce and proteins that travel from the farm to your doorstep. I love proteins and it's flexible deliveries you can pause or skip when you need. I tend to find hellofresh has the like, you know, very simple interface, very easy to pick what you want, very easy to turn it on and off.

[David Sims]

You got a house full of handfuls. You got a lot of mouths to feed.

[Griffin Newman]

A house full of handfuls.

[David Sims]

You got a house full of handfuls, you got a handful of housefuls.

[Griffin Newman]

Also true.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I recently had the Indian inspired turmeric chicken with rice and it was delicious. And they always say that's good for your immune system. Right?

[Ben Hosley]

Turmeric.

[David Sims]

Delicious food. Oh, turmeric, yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Is it immune system or okay.

[David Sims]

Digestive system down in turmeric.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh yeah, you're. You're popping that stuff.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, get some hellofresh.

[David Sims]

I will.

[Griffin Newman]

Is there anything else we want?

[David Sims]

I would just say to our listener if they want to feel great with meals that fit their spring schedule and make the season even more delicious, you should probably go to hellofresh.com. check 10fm.

[Griffin Newman]

There you go.

[David Sims]

To get 10 free meals with a free item for life. One per box with active subscription free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan.

[Griffin Newman]

New subscribers only. New subscribers only. Reference to an episode that hasn't dropped yet. One night only.

[David Sims]

Oh, sure.

[Griffin Newman]

You can cut that if you want.

[David Sims]

No, no. We are a family. Like a giant tre. You talk about the cuteness of the callbacky. Right? I just.

[Griffin Newman]

The right. The rabbit stuff.

[David Sims]

Thinking about this, watching it last night where I'm like, there are things in this movie that I like where I'm like, I'm fine with this, but you've done four of the same thing in the one movie. And I would take one of these.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, let's vote. Which I, I, I liked Dunlow.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. To me, it's 100% done, though. That worked so well. And that did kind of just like kind of slide into the movie nicely. And then him being a big wife, guy kind of rocks.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

She is. She is a queen de pilsa, whatever her name is.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, it is really funny.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Love her.

[Griffin Newman]

Ethan's like, hey, I'm sorry. You were kind of collateral damage. He's like, no, no, Ethan, you too, saved my life by having me meet my wife on my.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's all a matter of perspective. Perspective.

[David Sims]

One of the people I with last night turned at that point and said, ethan, don't question a single thing you've ever done. Every decision you've ever made helped everyone. You are literally, God, chill out.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

The fact that he still has the knife, too.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I mean, a little cute. That was a little cute.

[David Sims]

Here is truly maybe the single biggest issue with this movie. I, I do kind of want to, at some point in time, stopwatch this film. I think there are truly.

[Griffin Newman]

You better get a big stopwatch, at.

[David Sims]

Least 25 minutes of flashbacks in this movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, the flashbacks are. Well, okay.

[Griffin Newman]

And like, do you think the studio is at times, like, we need more flashbacks. The audience too dumb. They won't get this.

[David Sims]

They won't get that.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

There's a article in GQ that I guess got published today. As I was, was on my way here. I was starting to read it, but they were talking about they did a test screening in Paramus, New Jersey. It has to be where they were. They were like, the audience doesn't know what's going on.

[David Sims]

They can't follow this. They need, they need 100 the most panic in the world. But, like, down to the Dunlow thing, right? We see the flashback to Dunlo at Langley, I think, five separate times in this movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And he's got such a distinctive face.

[David Sims]

And they keep underlining it, being like, remember, this is the same guy. And then after he hands Ethan the knife that he's been holding on to. It cuts to back again and we're like, yeah, we know. It becomes this Inception level thing where when the movie is doing a flashback to something to one of. From one of the previous movies, in most cases it is then the second or third time we've seen that exact clip in this movie. So it's almost a flashback to a flashback. Remember when we showed you this flashback two hours ago, but it has three separate streams of. It is doing flashbacks to previous movies. Right. It is doing flashbacks to things that happened earlier in this movie. And it also has scenes that you didn't see the first time that happened earlier in the narrative that it's giving you later as flashbacks. Like Luther has two dialogue scenes after he died that are.

[Griffin Newman]

The first place is the most egregious, like, what happened here thing in this movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I have so many questions.

[David Sims]

These movies, for people who do not know, are constructed strangely, do not really go into production with a proper script.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not a good way to make a movie. And like, I've gotten increasingly exhausted by Macquarie's kind of like, ah, but I pull it off thing where I'm just like, well, you stopped pulling it off.

[David Sims]

Yes. This is like the, the luck, you know, ran out on this movie. They built like a trap for themselves that was too big, they couldn't solve. I also think, I know I'm much more into those six hour breakdown podcasts than you are, but he.

[Griffin Newman]

That's, I think, a hot take for me. But I really. They really annoy me. But you're saying because he's not revealing anything in them, it's like 12 hours of him puffing himself up.

[David Sims]

There's a lot of.

[Griffin Newman]

And I think he's a smart guy and a great guy.

[David Sims]

I think he's incredibly smart. Right. But I also think you are misreading slightly that all of those things have this energy of this has, like, destroyed me. He's not like, look at me and how smart and clever I am.

[Griffin Newman]

I've listened and I know he says a lot of that. And then he's like, yeah, I'll never make another one.

[David Sims]

Right, Right. And then they keep catching him back in it. There has been this fascinating thing of like, the production of these movies mirroring the content of these movies and the character of Ethan Hunt mirroring the reality of Tom Cruise and the obsession with like, I cannot let go of this position. I'm the one guy who can do this. I need to keep doing this. And it all just becoming, like, the Venn diagram becoming one perfect circle. And then this is the movie where it all just collapses. And they kept sort of making it higher and higher risk for themselves and stacking the deck more and more guests against themselves for this working. And, like, signing on to try to do two movies back to back or shot concurrently would have already probably been a disaster had the outside circumstances of the world not impeded it. But this just feels like these movies are not built from the ground up. They basically, like, start with a block of marble and start chipping away, and then over time, go like. I guess it's this. You on the other side start chipping this instead. That's a. That's not an elbow. That's a knee. Right? And, like, refitting everything. So much of what they shoot is like, this is meant to be act one. And then they're like, never mind. It's act three. We have to shoot the dialogue scenes, reshoot them, or ADR them to change the context of why this is happening. Because now this is happening before. After that, part of the magic of these movies was that they always just kind of worked. Right. And this one, you feel all of that 100%. It absolutely feels like a movie that was made that way. And there's so much shit like that where you're just like. Every scene, you're thinking, what was this supposed to be originally?

[Griffin Newman]

I assume he's. Is he gonna do another of these, you know, with the Empire guys for this movie? I'm assuming will he cop to things a little bit more now that, like, I don't know, it's all done If.

[David Sims]

I'm him, I'm like, I don't think I can talk about this one for three years.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. But maybe he will. Maybe he'll be like, look, let me tell you why it is sort of the way it is. And what did change? Maybe I'd love it if you truly lay it out.

[David Sims]

It's gonna be so much cageier than. And as you said, there's always a bit of, like, magician in him where he's like, I'm telling you everything. But a lot of it is, look at this. I'm distracting you away from this, and I'm covering this.

[Griffin Newman]

And you. You told me that on the dead reckoning ones, he's like, and this is gonna get answered, and this is gonna get.

[David Sims]

Oh, that.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like, none of that got answered.

[David Sims]

And also, he was really cagey about Elsa's death, a thing that upset people a lot in the last movie and was clearly, he's always trying to protect all of his collaborators. Right. But then she came out interviews and was like, why am I not in the last one? Because in the time since I wrapped Dead Reckoning Part one, I have done three movies in two seasons of a TV show, and they're still shooting Part two.

[Griffin Newman]

I've entered the silence.

[David Sims]

That's why I'm not in it anymore. Because I was tired of this. And he wouldn't say that.

[Griffin Newman]

It just. Well, because of course, we're hoping till the end maybe she's alive.

[David Sims]

But he also doesn't want to throw under the bus. And I think he's like, I'll let them speak for themselves. Right. And there's a similar thing with, like, Vingram's health is not great. These movies are increasingly boxed in by things like this, where they're just problem solving.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So this is what I was going to ask. I normally, when one of these comes out, I try and watch all of them in preparation. I didn't do that this time.

[Griffin Newman]

I thought about doing it as well. And I still might do a marathon order. But there's a lot of movies at this point.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's a lot of movies and I've seen them all multiple times. And we just went to the Museum of the Moving Image that has a really great exhibit.

[Ben Hosley]

Very fun.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

On the Mission Impossible.

[David Sims]

Can we shout out Sweep. They gave us a tour. It's an incredible exhibit. It's running through the end of the year.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes. So we want to give a shout out to Kawamoto, who is our PR contact, and Barbara Miller, who was the curator of the exhibit. They showed us around the exhibit. It was so cool. Costumes. They had mannequins that were 3D printed to look like Tom Cruise, but not too much like Tom Cruise.

[David Sims]

It's fascinating.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And he's. The poses of the mannequins are all in the poses of the stunts, but.

[Ben Hosley]

They'Re suspended in the air. And so it's. It's like it looks to size where you're like, huh, okay, maybe it actually is pretty close to how tall he is.

[David Sims]

Actual, actual humble brag. They very nicely let us in before the exhibit opened. So we had like two hours to walk around before it was open to the public. So we really got to do circles. And my number one priority was I want to get a sense of how tall I am in relation to a screen worn Tom Cruise costume. And it feels very deliberate that they don't let you get too close to any of the mannequins they're all propelled from the ceilings or like on a slant or something like that. I did size myself up against Palm Clementev. We seem to be roughly the same height. If you remove the heels, I just want to put that out there.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We did the math.

[David Sims]

We did the math.

[Ben Hosley]

One of the fits. It was jeans that were quite dirty. Yeah. Authentic.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

This was so funny.

[Griffin Newman]

Buried, but not clean.

[David Sims]

No, but we were walking around this for like two hours. And Marie, as. As I think you're setting up like we were. It felt like sacred. Like we were looking at these masks and the props and the cruciform key.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

When I saw the cruciform key, I literally like yelled, helped.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Your swarm key is cool.

[David Sims]

It rules.

[Griffin Newman]

Great problem.

[David Sims]

It's one of. It's maybe the best key.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's. I. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

What about one of those really old ones? That's big. Yeah. Ben likes that goes in like a big wooden door, but is it called a crew?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, you would like that because, like, those are skeleton keys, right?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, skeleton keys are also pretty cool to you. You're saying, clapping back.

[David Sims]

What about a big giant key that goes in a wooden door? I'm like, you know, it'd be cooler if it was two giant keys that to fit together.

[Griffin Newman]

What about the big key Superman has to open the Fortress of Solitude.

[David Sims]

And my response to that would be, what if he had two keys?

[Griffin Newman]

You can't just say, what if he had two? It's not going to work.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

No cruciform. I mean, it's good though. I love the prop. It's a great prop.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Now famous keys.

[David Sims]

But yes. They have these mannequins that are the screen worn costumes in the most iconic stunt of each movie in the position with this sort of stylization.

[Griffin Newman]

You know what's a great key? The little button key in Coraline. That's a great.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

That's a cute key.

[Griffin Newman]

It's great.

[David Sims]

Let's not call it. It's great. It's great.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna keep looking. I'm googling great keys in movies. Keep going.

[David Sims]

Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning.

[Griffin Newman]

It's the film we're talking about today. I saw it only the one time I. Let me try to do. You guys saw it more recently. You have the plot in your head. So let me try and do this.

[David Sims]

See if you can do it.

[Griffin Newman]

A couple months have passed since the last movie. Right. Right.

[David Sims]

When the movie starts, it feels like it's years have passed and then they reveal late that it's only been Two months.

[Griffin Newman]

Which sort of makes sense in that AI is just moving so fast.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Did people laugh in your theater when that line.

[David Sims]

Yep, Yep.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Both screenings. The. Oh, it was only two months ago that the events of the last movie took place. People giggled, people laughed.

[Griffin Newman]

And so the entity, the evil AI that was once in a Russian sub, but thought leader, right, the king of the marketplace of ideas in the film is taking over podcast.

[David Sims]

Are just asking questions.

[Griffin Newman]

All of the world's nuclear armaments, one by one, like a big ticking clock. That's the ticking clock of the movie, is like, he's taking all of the country's nukes, starting with the little ones and getting all the way to the big ones.

[David Sims]

He thinks that the way to improve existence is to annihilate it, to wipe it clean.

[Griffin Newman]

The entity is decided, essentially, right, to just nuke the earth clean. And then the entity will just live for a while, do enough and. And then, I guess, reboot humanity.

[Ben Hosley]

Tried to book the entity for this episode. Didn't work out well.

[David Sims]

He's been doing.

[Ben Hosley]

Been so busy with, like, press stuff.

[David Sims]

I was going to say he's doing the whole, like, manosphere circuit. Like, he was on Theon last week.

[Griffin Newman]

Hot ones got in the coffin. He came out dumber somehow. He was like, all right, man, you.

[David Sims]

Guys know how old Theovon is?

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, he.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't think about it that much.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He was on Road Rules when I was, like, in middle school. School.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna guess he's.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But he was young. On Road rolls.

[Griffin Newman]

42.

[David Sims]

He's 45. All right. I just saw someone I follow that tracks.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Do you think he was older or younger?

[David Sims]

Someone I follow was spiraling and being like. This whole time, I thought this guy was 32 years old, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Because he's kind of like, hey, bro, what's up?

[David Sims]

And they were like, mulaney going on Theovana. I was like, this is kind of nice that he's supporting the younger generation of comics. This guy's three years older than Mulan.

[Griffin Newman]

He's had a long. He's had a long career up and down, right? That's his thing. So. So that's like the ticking clock of the movie. It's really the only thing they have to deal with, right, Is like, we must stop the entity before he nukes the earth.

[David Sims]

Yes, it nukes the earth. The entity has control of five nuclear.

[Griffin Newman]

Stockpiles out of 13. And it's all ticking.

[David Sims]

Whatever.

[Griffin Newman]

It doesn't matter. It's like, you know, that's the ticking clock.

[David Sims]

You start the Movie @Defcon3.

[Ben Hosley]

Measure that.

[Griffin Newman]

Who knows, knows. And the Gabriel, once the entity's ally, has kind of been kicked out by the entity because he doesn't need it anymore. Right. He sort of fails. He lost in any way.

[David Sims]

So now he's out for vengeance and kind of wants.

[Griffin Newman]

He's trying to kind of get the entity under his control.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. He wants to control the end.

[David Sims]

He wants to win it back.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But the one thing that, you know, Ethan understands that no one else does. To think you can control the entity. Fool's errand.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. America was sort of trying to do that in the first movie. They're still trying to do it somewhat, but it's. They're kind of. Cariel was just dead, so, like, that's a little less of a high priority.

[David Sims]

And it feels like they lose the thread of Kit Rich wanting it until the very end. And then it comes back again.

[Griffin Newman]

One of. One of my bigger notes of the movie, certainly. It's like they don't. Right. They don't really have a handle on this movie.

[David Sims]

Seems to forget that the last movie is like, Kittridge is crooked. He's a problem.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Right. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

So Gabriel is trying to get the entity back to. There are so many do. Hickey. Tom has the cru. Sorry. Ethan has the cruciform key. Ving rs. Luther has made a thing that will kill the entity.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The poison pill.

[Griffin Newman]

And Gabriel has. Or is trying to get the thingy. The poison pill will go in the pod cover.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The pod cover.

[David Sims]

He wants it. They have the pod cover.

[Griffin Newman]

Who has it?

[David Sims]

It.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The pod cover is in the.

[Griffin Newman]

It's in the sub.

[David Sims]

Right. That's what he has to.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And the only person who got to.

[Griffin Newman]

Get the pod cover from the sub.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Is Ethan.

[Griffin Newman]

You've got to put. You got to get the pod cover from the sub using the cruciform key. Put the poison pill in it while near the entity. And then, you know, it's later revealed. We'll trap him in a.

[David Sims]

In a US they need the world's best USB drive. The biggest one. They said it couldn't be done.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

A 5D optical drive.

[Griffin Newman]

It couldn't be done. And they need the world's best pickpocket to do the best USB plug.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's not a USB. It's a 5D optical drive.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm not saying that every time. It's a USB.

[Ben Hosley]

Cube sb.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's a Cube sb No, I mean, you are. And that's kind of it. Right. Like, that's the main drive of the movie.

[David Sims]

Right. Like, now, here's a problem with this film. There are literally four scenes in a row that take up most of the first hour that are extended dialogue scenes where Ethan locks in with someone and says, please, I need you to trust me. The entity thinks we will never work together. I need you to trust me.

[Griffin Newman]

He says that to Angela Bassett, who's President of the United States.

[David Sims]

He says it first to Shea Wiggum.

[Griffin Newman]

He says to Shea Wiggum. Then he says it revealed to be the son of Jim Phelps.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Just. They mention that, and then you're like, okay. And then it's just. Has no bearing on anything.

[David Sims]

Right. Which, like, getting back to earlier threads, why this is how this movie is structured, where it keeps circling back and going like, we forgot to set this up. Right. The. The callbacky is. Dunlow is brought back and actually has a significant role and I think is used well.

[Griffin Newman]

He's fun. Yeah, he's a fun callback.

[David Sims]

The guy from Mr. Shay, Wiggum's character, whose name was Briggs, which is the name of the original team leader in the original TV show, who was later replaced by the Phelps character, turns out to actually be Jim Phelps Jr. Son of John Vo. Out for vengeance. Although he claims. I'm not out for vengeance.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I'm over it.

[David Sims]

I just love rules and doing my job.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't like you. But not because of that.

[David Sims]

That. Right. Then you have the. The sort of retcon notion that the Rabbit's Foot was actually the co.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The source code, right.

[David Sims]

That the entity was built off.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, Right.

[David Sims]

Right. And he handed it.

[Griffin Newman]

So, like, Ethan is somewhat responsible here in that he got the Rabbit's Foot and handed it over to save his wife or Carrie Russell or whoever he was trying to say.

[David Sims]

Now, the Hannah Waddingham character, who is.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it was Maggie Q. Really? He was like, oh, gotta get.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Get.

[Griffin Newman]

Get her a CW show.

[David Sims]

The Hannah Wam character, who the president writes a note to that has a date on it that's like, do you know what happened on this date? Something really bad happened and we lost people and we never recovered.

[Griffin Newman]

We didn't take a risk or something like that.

[David Sims]

The date that's on the note is the release date of the original DEA movie.

[Griffin Newman]

So both times I've watched, it's just masturbatory. Right.

[David Sims]

I've been like, is it supposed to be that she's connected to something that.

[Griffin Newman]

Happened in the actual movie? Them doing a sort of like, pat on the back, like, wow.

[David Sims]

But that feels so dumb. And the exact kind of thing McQuarrie has always stood to, and I think is one of the best at explaining why that is bad.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

He does press tours.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He literally just gave an interview saying that he thought fan service was a cancer.

[David Sims]

I was like, I can't believe he has the gall to say this when this movie is coming out. And then I realized that was an interview from the last movie that's being recirculated now.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay.

[David Sims]

But it's such a stark contrast of being like, he's usually so good at identifying. And I think we'll say other things that I like a lot about, like. Like, Tom and I both agree that there's this problem in, like, blockbuster filmmaking where you do these kind of jokes that, like, defuse the main characters, where everyone's kind of like, cutting everyone down to size and belittling them, not in, like, a back and forth repartee way, but in a way where the movie's like, we want to make the joke about ourselves before the audience can make it so we don't seem corny. And he's like, when you do that, it makes the audience think less of your main character and dislike the person that's making the joke. Which I'm like, that's him nailing a core problem with, like, Marvel movies. Right. And he talks about the fan service thing. The thing that he brought up in this interview is that, like, when you do that, kind of 50 of the audience is patting themselves on the back for recognizing the reference, which then takes them out of the story of the movie. And they're thinking about a different movie rather than the one they're watching. And then they have to reenter. Or the other half of the audience. Audience doesn't know what it's a reference to. They're confused. And they're now in their head about, what is that? What do I not know? Am I not getting something? And they're also not paying attention to the movie. And this movie not only does that exact thing to the audience so many times, but it keeps showing flashbacks over and over again, being like, we want to make sure you're not confused, which then takes you out of the movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You see 22nd 1996 written. They flash back to that piece of paper.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Five times.

[David Sims]

No information gained now.

[Griffin Newman]

But I think it's just supposed to be like, you know, they've been taking the ultimate risk on these movies. I don't know, something like that.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Also, just like, the whole time I was like, she mentioned Serbia. So I'm. It takes Me out of the movie because I'm like, exactly. They didn't go to Serbia in the first Mission Impossible.

[Griffin Newman]

You don't know.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And I don't remember.

[David Sims]

What's her last name? Did any other character have this last name?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Was she, like, Emilio Estevez's, like, ex girlfriend?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, that's what she is. Like, she and Emilio had a hot day. I don't know.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I don't know.

[David Sims]

That's on the movie, not on us. Us. Because by this point in time, they've already set up the other three things, and we're in a mode where we're like, what does this connect to? You keep connecting.

[Griffin Newman]

Emilio Estevez is how many years older than Hannah Waddingham? Guess.

[David Sims]

15.

[Griffin Newman]

You were pretty close. 13.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Because she's older than I think she is.

[David Sims]

She's younger.

[Griffin Newman]

She might be younger than you think.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Wait, really?

[Griffin Newman]

How old do you think she is? 1,048.

[David Sims]

I think she's 50. Okay.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, so I'm wrong.

[David Sims]

She's only five years older than Theo Von.

[Griffin Newman]

She's 16 years younger than Angela Bassett. So I'm not quite sure what the connection is there, but whatever.

[David Sims]

The motion picture Sinners, a runaway success, an artistic triumph. Someone making something personal and awesome and exciting within the studio system. I have heard a lot of people complain about what they feel like is an overabundance of flashbacks in Sinners, which they're like, it feels like the movie doesn't trust the audience to remember Coogler believing in testing.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, Coogler tests his movies rigorously. And, like, he does. He takes notes. But there's lots of reporting that Coogler was like, I'm playing ball. I want this to work. Like, because there was all those things of, like, how dare this man want ownership of a film? Like, he's gonna destroy cinema.

[David Sims]

That's also what the movie's fucking about. Because I know, right? But my point is, I saw it a second time, right? And the flashback thing didn't bug me the first time I watched it. And even if it's just him doing the best execution of that note of. The audience is confused. Can you remind them Them? The way he actually executes those flashbacks and edits them in in terms of, like, the rhythms and how he, like, uses the score in connection with them, it genuinely feels like he is finding a creative fix for a story problem that ends up playing more like a. Like Maliky. These are echoes of thematic, like, memories. And it does feel like when the things happen, it's less like, you need to Remember this plot detail and more like, I'm trying to remind you of the connection between these two moments in terms of the emotion of the story.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He's. He's using the flashbacks as a vibe check versus in this, in Mission Impossible.

[David Sims]

Even if it's like, stems from a test screening note, it ends up working that way.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a more successful film.

[David Sims]

I agree.

[Griffin Newman]

I'll just say it.

[David Sims]

Whereas this, I'm like, this is just truly being like, remember, remember, remember, in a way that is so confusing and disorienting. And especially when you're getting scenes that are like. Like, wait, Luther died? What is this scene? Did this happen earlier? Did they just not show us this?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, let's.

[David Sims]

Disaster.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the thing in the movie that kind of irked me the most. I largely enjoyed watching this.

[David Sims]

And I. The way I feel about the Luther.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm not mad they killed him off. Like, I'm like, sure.

[David Sims]

But I feel about the execution of that similar to the way I think a lot of people got pissed off by the Elsa death, which I kind of defend the execution of more.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

The Elsa death is more tense. The Luther thing where he's like, he's rigged this and I have to stay behind where you're just like, there's no tension to this. Like, whatever.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay. First up, this is. Luther has a little hospital room set up in tunnels underneath the London Underground.

[David Sims]

It has been two months. At the end of Dead Reckoning, Luther goes, ethan, I need to go off and do something by myself. Good luck. Right. And like, it is just your Uncle.

[Griffin Newman]

Luther's getting a little tired.

[David Sims]

They have talked about the fact that, like, even in these globetrotting movies and with pandemics and all these restrictions, like, every single thing ving rham shot for the two movies was in London. His health is not great. His mobility is not great. They had to lock him into one city. They had to build around him. They had to batch shoot his stuff. Right. So they do that thing at the end of the last movie where he's like, I gotta go off on a solo mission. And I'm like, Like, I get it. Macquarie needs to come up with some structure for him to be off on a solo thing so that they don't have to work everyone else schedule.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. The idea is what he's doing is he's making the poison pill, possibly within the context of the movie.

[David Sims]

But then this movie starts. It's one of the things that makes you feel like, oh, five years must have passed. He looks like he's in some private, like, black site hospice care. He's in, like, some government controlled, like, hidden tunnel hospice. This. He's gotten deathly ill. Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But my saw with my husband who's like, wait, so when did this happen? And I'm like, I don't think it did. I think that, like, this is the real, like, Ving Rhames being sick in real life or something trickling into the movie, but in a way that, like, is really, like, like, confusing and weird, blurring the lines.

[David Sims]

Like, the first chunk of the movie is so rushed that I'm just like, okay, this is inelegant, but I guess I just gotta keep up with this. Ben David turned to me 10 minutes and said, I feel like I'm having a stroke. With, like, the intensity and the speed at which they're throwing information at you very sloppily and frantically in the.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

In the beginning of the movie where it's. They're cutting between two conversations.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But Tom is in both of them.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And it is so confusing.

[David Sims]

And then you're also cutting to, like, flashback images of other things.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So it's like tomorrow explaining something to someone about the poison pill. And then you're cutting to Luther and Benji explaining what the poison pill is to Tom.

[David Sims]

And you're like, this happened a week ago. But the movie didn't show me.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes. And it is just. It is so inelegant.

[David Sims]

Which. Look, these movies, they talk about, they figure out the plot, like, last. Right. They retrofit it onto everything else that they figure out, which is why they often have these sort of sloppy intro scenes of which they get the message. And that's the thing that's, like, figured out finally with adr to then explain what they're doing for the rest of the movie. Right. This movie starts out with, like, the clunkiest one yet, which is just opens on Tom in tight close up, silently reacting. We'll fill in the dialogue later. Angela Bassett monologuing for like, eight minutes.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Pause. I am so glad that we're talking about this.

[Ben Hosley]

This.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Because I love that the little. The mission briefing device is Ben's porch tv.

[David Sims]

It is. Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Isn't that fun?

[David Sims]

It's a TV VCR combo. It is. It is.

[Griffin Newman]

Although he's, I guess, kind of for the first time, ignoring his mission.

[David Sims]

A little pleading. Able to reach you. You're not responding to anything. I thought you might respond to the President. Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I thought you might respond. So does she send him the porch tv? Does she just send him.

[David Sims]

We don't know where she went on Best Buy. This feels like this.

[Ben Hosley]

That's actually a great question. Yeah. Does someone have to ebay a combo.

[Griffin Newman]

And get it set or is it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

That, like, this is how Ethan is consuming media now because he's so afraid of the end. Like you've established that in order to like skirt the entity, you have to go analog.

[David Sims]

This feels like.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So it's like it's all he's doing.

[David Sims]

Just watching VHS tape two years ago I heard. And these things changed so much. But two years ago I heard on good authority that that was the big conceptual hook to the entire Part two was the entity has reached so far taken over cyberspace. This is the first Mission Impossible movie where they can use no tech.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

And I was like, that's kind of an interesting.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I think I remember you saying this when the last movie came out.

[David Sims]

Yes. And.

[Griffin Newman]

And there's elements of that.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Like their big base where they're pushing.

[David Sims]

Around down to the biplane and that being Right. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

That's kind of it though.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Which like the biplanes were something I think they largely shot in 2020. Money. They shot that really early.

[Ben Hosley]

But that whole sequence really slides into the movie really well.

[Griffin Newman]

I brought two planes.

[Ben Hosley]

It feels like it really fits into the plot. Just like. So like. Like snug.

[David Sims]

Maybe it was a little later in 2020. I know.

[Griffin Newman]

Because they did not shoot this concurrently. Right. Like that got abandoned.

[David Sims]

Yeah. It essentially became a back to back shoot. But the train from the end of the last one was supposed to be in this one. They did a swap of sequences.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna need to see some reporting on this.

[David Sims]

Some stuff got sloppy. Here's what I want to say. Angela Bassett speaking. HIM on tv, VCR combo. This looks like it was shot in Tom Cruise's trailer one month ago. It is two close ups. We've seen so many versions of this scene where like Ethan's in some weird safe house and then a guy delivers a thing and whatever. There's like no even attempt to place him in any environment.

[Griffin Newman]

The GQ article gets into it. A little bit of like Macquarie just has like this like repository of Cruise reaction shot.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

That's where he's like, give me that one.

[David Sims]

Right, Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Just collect it.

[David Sims]

He doesn't say anything and they keep cutting back to him. And he makes like interesting face. And then I'm like, I don't know about this face. And it's clear he's reacting to nothing. Angela Bassett monologues for so long. I'm like, this is sloppier than usual. But if this is what they need to do to get the movie off and running, then so be it.

[Griffin Newman]

Totally forgivable.

[David Sims]

And then the movie spends an hour basically repeating this scene.

[Griffin Newman]

So he gets it. Do remind me when.

[David Sims]

Okay, so here are some examples of.

[Griffin Newman]

Ways, because I. I agree with you that I felt a lot of throat clearing in the first hour, but I don't really remember what actually happened.

[David Sims]

This scene also, by the way, is crazy, because when you're watching this and, like, no one's been able to reach you, you're like, oh, it's been five years. When you find it's been two months, you're like. Like, why is the President freaking out.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Because the entity is about so fast?

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Fair.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. It's getting pretty hairy out there.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Half of the world's nuclear silos are already in the entity's control.

[David Sims]

This.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We're DEFCON 3.

[David Sims]

Sure, sure.

[Griffin Newman]

Which is insane. We would be a DEFCON one.

[David Sims]

She spends.

[Griffin Newman]

Whatever.

[David Sims]

She spends almost 10 minutes setting stuff up, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Then when he goes into the entity's coffin, I would argue the entity does another version of this. For about 7.

[Griffin Newman]

The entity does another one with a little bit of. Are previewing things in the future, cutting to Tom.

[David Sims]

Reaction shots of his eyes in the coffin going, it can't be true. The entity, of course, is telling him that goes on about the nuclear armament thing. But it's so long.

[Griffin Newman]

It goes on way too long.

[David Sims]

So long. Especially when we've already had one of these info dumps and there hasn't been an action sequence yet. And then I would argue when he gets into the war room with Basset and all the other stuff, shirts. There is a third version of this, and it's like, you can do.

[Griffin Newman]

It's again, him being like, I know, I know, I know. But you have to trust me.

[David Sims]

And you're like, this is the kind of thing McQuarrie is usually good at, is looking at the footage and being like, you know what we need to do? We need to reshoot and combine the information in these three scenes into one scene. And instead, this movie has this thing where it's like making a dish with two preparations of the same protein, right? It's like you're eating a taco with, like, fucking, like, roasted and fried chicken in it. And I'm like, pick one. In the same way, when we revealed that Luther is in this fucking hospice site, I immediately go, huh? Okay, this is sloppy. And this is moving too fast. I'm very confused, but I can kind of see what they're getting at here. This is interesting. If Luther is dying and Ethan, whose whole thing is, I won't let anyone die, especially my whole team. Team. Right. You cannot sacrifice. One is facing a thing that he can't solve. Luther has a terminal illness, and Ethan is going to have to accept that he can't save this guy's life. Right. I was like, this is an interesting new test for this character. And then they have him die in a saw trap. And I'm like, then why is he sick?

[Griffin Newman]

It's a good question. Why he's sick is to soften the blow of his death. Right. Is to have it be like. He's like, look, look, it's time for me to sacrifice myself because I'm near the end.

[David Sims]

But it makes it unemotional to me where I'm like, I'm eating it. I'm going, why is there chorizo and bacon at the same time?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You know, it would have been. It would have been so good if Luther died.

[David Sims]

If doesn't.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. If Luther, like, dies of cancer, we get a. Which is something that Ethan Hunt can't fix. We get a bit of a bedside repeat of the magnolia scene. Tom, emotional.

[Griffin Newman]

You want us to shift into magnolia mode? You want the boat to the car to turn into. To a boat?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

One of. One of the things that bothered me in this movie is all the time, like, Tom gets emotional in the movie. Like, Ethan's not a real person.

[Griffin Newman]

It doesn't make sense. Getting emotional.

[David Sims]

Movies, adventure, big screen. Let's go.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Ethan gets emotional twice in this movie, and the two times it happens, it's with Shea Wiggum.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, hey. Revved up.

[David Sims]

And it's like, I am so sorry. I ruined. He keeps doing this kind of like, very clenched, like, bro.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Luther, the only guy who's been with, you see, since 96.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. But look.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Dies. And it's just like, okay, I wrote.

[Griffin Newman]

This in the Atlantic. It's always been hard for these, as they progress and have built more serialization into them, to be like, Ethan Hunt, the guy. I'm like, he's not a person.

[David Sims]

Like, he's Tom Cruise.

[Griffin Newman]

He's Tom Cruise. He's this kind of mythic force. Like, everyone in the movies talks about him.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, he's like, bald.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The living manifestation of destiny.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, exactly. And it's sort of like. Like, you know. Right. I'm not. I'm never gonna like that. I love the idea that he's like, I'm gonna marry Michelle Monahan. And it's like trying to put magnets together where it's just like, no, you're not allowed to do that. You are Ethan Hunt. Like, your job is just to be Ethan Hunt. So, yeah, I don't know.

[David Sims]

I did rewatch Dead Reckoning Part 1 After seeing this the first time. A movie I like quite a bit. It is imperfect. Coming off of a couple, nearly perfect.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a really fun. I fucking, by and large love it.

[David Sims]

Yes. And, like, there's one sequence in it.

[Griffin Newman]

I wish was better. The nightclub. The nightclub is the one sequence where I'm like, this could be better.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You mean the entity is party.

[Griffin Newman]

And look, I'm not dissing the guy's.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Party planning because that's rude.

[Griffin Newman]

I. I don't like someone.

[David Sims]

He's mad. He didn't get an invite. Someone didn't get the portable Macedonia.

[Griffin Newman]

Where. Where are they in that movie?

[David Sims]

I. I don't dislike that sequence, but that is the sequence where I'm like.

[Griffin Newman]

It doesn't look that good.

[David Sims]

The most covet. Affected to me, it feels.

[Griffin Newman]

And it also feels kind of like. Also sort of filled with a bit of ADR and explanation and all that, you know.

[David Sims]

But here's what I like about Elsa's death in that movie. Knowing that it probably came out of necessity of Rebecca Ferguson saying, like, I want an early out because this.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, in this movie, in the. In the last movie, she's got stuff going on in the last one.

[David Sims]

In the last one.

[Griffin Newman]

In. In Final Reckoning, I'm like, this is just Elsa. This should be Elsa.

[David Sims]

Everything she does does saves for the two times she picks someone's pocket. Feels like it's supposed to be an Elsa scene when she rescues him from the ice. I'm like, this scene makes sense. If it's Ethan and Elsa, they don't have the history for this conversation chemistry.

[Griffin Newman]

For these big moments.

[David Sims]

And once again, she has only been an agent for two months.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, she accepted the choice.

[David Sims]

I get it. But, like, what I like about her arc in the last movie is this is the first time we're seeing someone start the pipeline through that.

[Griffin Newman]

This.

[David Sims]

They've lost any sense of her still learning on the job. In this one, she's as qualified as Benji.

[Griffin Newman]

She's just right. She's just in the team.

[David Sims]

Part of the team. There's like, nothing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Two months.

[David Sims]

Two months, Two months. Like, truly, some of the issues in this movie are immediately solved. If that ADR line is five years ago, it doesn't solve all the problems. But it makes certain things less galling. The Elsa death. What I like about it is Gabriel kills her, right? He can't save her. He's there crying on the bridge. And then it cuts to all of them in a safe house, sort of standing in silence, mourning. And then they start planning the next mission, right? And I've heard a lot of people be like, this is the most important character. This is the heart of the franchise. Rebecca Ferguson across these three movies was like the secret sauce. How is the rest of the movie not existing in the wake of her death? Like, everyone should be so emotionally affected by it. And what I think was a good choice in terms of characterization is they're in silence. And then Hayley Atwell, I believe, is the one who breaks it and says something like, I don't think I got her name. Who was she? And Luther kind of explains to her, like, this is our life. We like lose people like this all the time. This is the choice we make. Death is part of the job. Like, I'm worried about Ethan, but also you have to understand, like this thing you've gotten yourself into is someone dies and then we go to a safe house and we sit in silence for like five minutes and we plan the next mission. We don't get to mourn them. There's no funeral. We don't have human connections. And that makes for me, her final choice to accept the mission right at the end of the film feel more impactful. That's why I think they make her death meaningful in that way, is they're acknowledging these people don't have time to grieve and they have to compartmentalize the notion that they even care about each other and try to move on. Whereas I think they're trying to make the Luther thing more of an emotional thing, but it doesn't work. I want him going Magnolia mode. Not because it feels like the depth of that relationship has been written, but because he's literally the only guy who's in every other movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Absolutely.

[David Sims]

And it's the one opportunity to acknowledge, like to let Ethan break and be like, I do care about this guy more than I ever want to let on, right? And that's why it doesn't need to be some crazy mission death. It's better if he's just fucking dying in a hospital bed and Ethan goes to visit him and he gets the poison pill. And that's the final thing. I like him having the pre recorded message at the end. It feels nice that the movie ends.

[Griffin Newman]

With fucking Luffy thing is fine.

[David Sims]

Right, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, sure.

[David Sims]

But they mishandle the death so much. You're so confused by what's going on with him, then he's fucking trapped in the catacombs. Then he's flashed back to two more times. You just, like, do not not know what is happening.

[Griffin Newman]

All right, that's true. Well, I. I, of course, always know what's happening. I'm so locked into everything. But I feel like you kind of do the. The Luther thing. You do kind of not know what's happening or it doesn't fit into the plot very well. And the fact that he made a poison pill out of nowhere, which has not come up before the last movie, is like, he needs to get in the sub to get the thing. And I'm like, I got that. He also needs to pull Luther's thing into the thing. I'm like, okay.

[David Sims]

It's another thing.

[Griffin Newman]

Who cares?

[David Sims]

That McQuarrie is usually really good at of just like, it's one object, and this is what they need to do with it. And you're like, it's like three to four objects, right? Like, it. It's so simple. What the overarching missing is. And this. Now, as you said, it's like four different devices.

[Griffin Newman]

Four devices, because it's the key, the thing, the pill. And the. The. Help me out here.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, the 5D optical drive.

[David Sims]

And that's. It's full.

[Griffin Newman]

And what, pray tell, is the fifth dimension of this drive?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I have no idea.

[David Sims]

Cool. Friendship.

[Griffin Newman]

You're right. You're right.

[David Sims]

It's the friends we made along the way. The impossible Mission Friendship.

[Griffin Newman]

So when does this movie kick off for you then? If you're talking about the first hour.

[David Sims]

Being very slow for me, I feel like what should basically be the cold open of this movie. And the only thing you need to solve is, like, how do you get the Luther thing in here? And I have a thought on that. Is him being brought in in handcuffs in front of Angela Bassett and them being like, here are the stakes. And him being like, I need you to trust me. And then after that, he says, I need you to get me to this fucking aircraft carrier.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

George H.W. bush, right?

[David Sims]

And you're like, oh, cool. Tom's gonna go fucking Top Gun mode In Mission Impossible Possible. He lands there. He has one intense conversation with Hannah Waddingham. That's the third conversation like this in a row we've heard. It adds nothing to the movie. I think she is good in it, but it adds it, doesn't it? Nothing. And, like, except all of that is.

[Griffin Newman]

Just like, wait a second. You're saying you need to be here when this is happening. And this is, you know, they're again trying to pump us up with Starts.

[Ben Hosley]

Being like, not gonna do it now.

[Griffin Newman]

Chopping broccoli. Which is weird.

[David Sims]

And then also, John Lovitz shows up behind her, goes, I can't believe I'm losing to this lady.

[Griffin Newman]

You know, who has a master of disguise. You know, who wasn't.

[David Sims]

What if Tom Cruise announced I am stepping down for the Mission Impossible franchise and handing it over to Dana Carvey?

[Griffin Newman]

The true. I recognize there's only one master of disguise I need to do. We should shout out. I should say in the first hour, the only action sequence that there really is is the rescue of Paris. Paris. Where they do do masks for a.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Second, like an afterthought.

[David Sims]

There are a bit of an app. There are two deeply abridged. Oh, right.

[Griffin Newman]

The other one. Right. And the other one is the torture. The. The Looney Tunes. Like, Tom Cruise massacres people off.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

But it also. Right. It cuts away like. Like wet, hot American summer. Trulio going like, oh, my God. Yeah, he's doing it.

[Griffin Newman]

No. What? Master. It's kind of funny.

[David Sims]

It's kind of funny. And then that becomes the light the fuse moment. Right. Where the credits hit. And Ben David, who loves these movies.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel like the fuse moments as much as I'm sure he does.

[David Sims]

Logo tattooed on his arm.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

David.

[David Sims]

Oh, he's doing the thing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

People have been asking for a photo of this.

[David Sims]

The double jointed, Double jointed stuff.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, thank you.

[David Sims]

People need to see it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

People need to see it. I'll post it shortly.

[David Sims]

Ben David has the IMF logo on his arm. Right. You hear the kicking in as Ethan goes like, good job surviving it. And they walk off. And he looks at me like this, this. Like, that's the light the fuse moment. And I'm like, I agree. As much as these movies do not have some, like, sacred, like, well, I think rule book.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure.

[David Sims]

I'd say the greatest consistency across all of the movies is the music kicks in after Ethan has done something so awesome. And you're like, I cannot believe he pulled this off. And in this case, what he's done is faked a cyanide pill and then punched a bunch of people off camera.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Stabbed them in the chest. He killed them.

[David Sims]

He's. He cleaved. He.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He murdered.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay. So I love the light the fuse moment in Ghost Protocol so much because he literally says, light the fuse. And it's then the. The the visual presentation of that's so cool. Obviously, in five, it's just him pulling the shoot on the plane thing, which rules, which rocks, and you're just like, hell. Yeah. What is it involved in Fallout?

[David Sims]

It's the Wolf Blitzer moment where they tricked him into giving up the code. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

In Dead Reckoning, I remember it being cool. I remember being pretty pumped up.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Why am I not remembering what it is in Dead Reckoning? I watched it recently. I mean, two, obviously, it's the. The free climbing.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Which is fine.

[David Sims]

Which is like the pinnacle.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's him throwing.

[David Sims]

But I'm saying it's off of that. It's so cool. Yeah. Dead Reckoning opens with the submarine and then it goes to him getting the message. It happens deep in. The first thing after that is the airport sequence, which I love. Oh. It's him breaking into Kit Rich with the mask.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh.

[David Sims]

And putting the mask.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Great.

[David Sims]

Putting the mask back. How do you expect to sneak out? Then he puts the kitchen mask on.

[Griffin Newman]

It's. You weren't quite. I think Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation is maybe the peak of, like, the Fuse moments, I think.

[David Sims]

I. I. Sure. Yes. But you want that feeling of like, that son of a. He pulled it off.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

And this movie is like faking it, where it's. It's like we don't quite have it, but if we don't put it here, it's not going to happen for.

[Griffin Newman]

We need to do the credits, truly. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Right. So then he. He has the very brief fistfight there that largely. And the knife fight, mass murder that happens largely off camera. He has the very brief sort of like, sneak in to get Paris out of jail. Palm Clementef. I would learn to make pasta from scratch.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's not that hard. You just need, like, eggs and flour and stuff.

[David Sims]

Well, but let's tell her it's really hard. It took a lot of work. Those are the only two things of any kind of action adjacency. But beyond that, we're also not getting a thing that I think is wholly lacking from this movie, which is one of my favorite things of Mission Possible. Not the stunt sequences, but the sort of, like, puzzle game. How do we solve this?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

A million pasty things.

[David Sims]

We don't have. Have anything like Ethan and Benji breaking into the Kremlin with the weird screen. We don't have anything like the airport and who's got the key? Like this.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And those are. Those are always my favorite ground level.

[David Sims]

Sort of using their smart.

[Griffin Newman]

I think is the problem that the stakes are Too high. Yeah, that, like, now that it's nuclear Armageddon, it's sort of like, well, we can't be having as much sort of silly fun.

[David Sims]

The end. They have, like, assembled a makeshift version of this where there are, like, five concurrent actions and you have, like, Dunlow with the bomb. Haley's got to do the quick grab, but that's different. Paris doing the surgery on sequence stuff. But it at least gave me the juice of every member of the team. Has to.

[Griffin Newman]

Why am I not cutting to Jar Jar? Like, you know, got a big orb. What if they did that?

[David Sims]

That's one of my favorite things in the Mission Impossible franchise is that every movie has Jar Jar juggling an orb, dropping it, feeling like a clutch, but actually rolls into the process, knock out a bunch of battle droids. And that's what Mission Impossible is about, if you ask me.

[Griffin Newman]

It's about Jar Jar Binks.

[David Sims]

Yes. And another thing that's totally missing from this movie is people forget that Jar Jar actually, in his power as a senator, is one of the people who granted Palpatine the power.

[Griffin Newman]

He. Not one. I think he's the one.

[David Sims]

That is a plot that is totally dropped in this film.

[Griffin Newman]

I just am in such a Star wars mood these days that I'm like, maybe we got to do the prequels again, guys.

[David Sims]

David, you, Walker. I have pitched that so many times, and every time you make your stinky poo poo face, you go, I don't want to do Star wars again. I pitched it for 400, for episode 500. I wanted it to be our 10th anniversary episode. We revisit Phantom Menace with context. And we didn't do it for our 10th anniversary because you went stinky poo poo. And now you want to do it. Okay, maybe we slotted it.

[Griffin Newman]

What did we do for our 10th anniversary?

[David Sims]

Nothing. We released the Last Crusade episode.

[Griffin Newman]

That was a good episode.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I just.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I just have some.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Rules.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Some notes that I took at my screening last night that I just want to make sure we address. Ethan was born in Madison, Wisconsin.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

JJ was fired for being too excited about this.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I said.

[David Sims]

But that's literally. You just see it in his file, right?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, but it's interesting character.

[Griffin Newman]

No one's like, what was it like, Cold Madison Winters or whatever.

[David Sims]

We should also mention that, like, multiple. In terms of, like, talking about this. This movie having, like, repetition of the same beat over and over again. Five different characters across the three hours of this movie. Fire. Jj.

[Griffin Newman]

That is true.

[David Sims]

Ethan looks into. He shoots the Lens kit.

[Griffin Newman]

Ridge is like.

[David Sims]

And fire that guy jj, you are fired. He's got tears in his eyes.

[Griffin Newman]

You have to trust me on this. You're fired.

[David Sims]

Angela Basset breaks the biscuit. And the note inside on the presidential stationary.

[Griffin Newman]

Fire jj.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Fire JJ And USS Fire JJ is.

[Griffin Newman]

The name of the submarine when he.

[David Sims]

Gets an entity's cough. And the entity is like. And above all else, JJ must be fired.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I'm so excited. We haven't really talked about this. We're all going to meet JJ for the first time.

[David Sims]

None of us have ever met JJ in person.

[Griffin Newman]

I've known him longer than you guys, and I all. I, too, have never met him.

[David Sims]

Our upcoming live show. Live show still available June 6th. That's right.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Bl. Check. Finally, request an audience with King Ralph. With King Ralph.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. It's gonna be like a live episode. We're not gonna watch the movie?

[David Sims]

No, we're gonna talk about it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Talk about it with a lot of, you know, fun, little.

[David Sims]

A lot of bits. A lot of people.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

A lot. But anyway, yeah, we're gonna meet for the first time.

[David Sims]

We're gonna do a lot of fun, little interactive bits. We're gonna explain Gabriel's backstory. We're gonna tell you who that woman was. Oh, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, yeah. Well, that's coming. What if Macquarie's like, no, I'll. We'll do a nice movie. I'll explain it then. Right?

[David Sims]

We'll answer all of that in Jack Reacher 3.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, wait.

[Griffin Newman]

Going back to Jack Reacher's coming back.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Some more notes. I like that they have a defibrillator in the torture chamber. Is that standard? You know, how they bring him back to life after his fake right, you.

[David Sims]

Know, and then he. He flips it on them.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, I just thought that was interesting.

[David Sims]

Better safe than sorry.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Luther's Nerfs. What's she thinking about all this.

[David Sims]

Great question, but this is where I'm like, what is weird commute.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Hang a left at the dungeons.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Take.

[Griffin Newman]

Go to Charing Cross station, and then into the dungeon.

[David Sims]

Ben's eyes just lit up. He's Googling. Nursing school.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. Okay. And then there. This whole. The entity is counting on you hating me, so we have to do the one thing it doesn't expect, which I got a lot of problems with this.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, and they say stuff like this all over the movie of, like, well, this is the one thing the entity won't predict. Like, and I'm like, doesn't it predict everything?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The entity's, like, learning. So did the entity not watch Mission Impossible. Dead Reckoning?

[Griffin Newman]

No, they didn't have time. You know that movie underperformed because the entity didn't buy any tickets.

[David Sims]

No, Marie, this is a great point. And this gets into the repetition of story beats, right? He keeps saying to people, I need. Need you to trust me and for us to work together, because the entity isn't expecting that. And that's the only way we can do that.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They work together in every movie.

[David Sims]

He says later, like, the entity isn't intelligent. It's only working off of what we've done in the past. It doesn't have ideas of its own. Right. Which I'm like. I like. As a conceit. Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

I like. Because let's make fun of AI thing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Totally.

[David Sims]

And I'm like, that's the potential of having the villain be AI rather than a human. Is this idea of it thinks it's smarter than him because it has the data. Total. Totally. But he keeps saying, the entity thinks it knows what I'm going to do and I have to get ahead of it. The entity is never fucking, like, doing that. The entity tells him at the beginning, here's exactly what I'm going to do. And he's just like, I'll meet you there in five days. And Ethan keeps saying to people, you need to do this. So the entity doesn't. There's no feeling of like, fuck. The entity anticipated this, and it cut me off at the past.

[Griffin Newman]

What? People complained about this in the last movie, and I kind of gave the last movie a break. But it's tough to have your villain be a screensaver with no personality, that has no motivations, that has no particular personality.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

There was one point where Ethan says that, and it's when he's talking to Shay Wiggum Jr. And they're leaning into each other, and it's like, there's the one thing. The end. Who doesn't expect us to do? And I was like, kiss me. And I really thought that might happen. But of course it did.

[David Sims]

So when he gets dragged in front of Bassett and Company, oh, Lord, can we move on? No, no, no. In handcuffs, right? I'm like, that can be the info dump for the entire.

[Griffin Newman]

And then it's like, we got to get you on this sub.

[David Sims]

When they're saying, you got to go to Hannah Waddingham, I'm like, oh, is she gonna. He needs her approval to do some cool action sequence. Doesn't happen.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But we do see some naval plane. Naval land and take off.

[David Sims]

You see that, right?

[Griffin Newman]

But Danger zone Please.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You got some danger zone.

[David Sims]

No fucking set piece. The movie doesn't really kick into gear until he gets on the submarine. Part of this is that which the.

[Griffin Newman]

Movie should be starting basically, like you're saying with the submarine, because that's how the last movie ends, is we got to get to that submarine.

[David Sims]

It should start with Bassett being like, here's the briefing. And then the plane drops him in the middle of the ocean. He gets on the submarine. Like everything else before. That doesn't matter. I also think this movie makes the mistake of being left like, well, Ethan's been off the grid for two months. The President sends him a message. He has to get the team back together, right? He reconvenes with Benji and Grace. He recruits Degas and Paris, and then he goes in the coffin. Luther dies. He goes in the coffin, and almost immediately he's like, guys, I gotta go solo. Benji, you lead the team. And I'm like, why doesn't this movie just start with Ethan's been off the grid and Benji's leading the team without him? I think Simon Pegg is very good in this movie. I think he's doing yeoman's work. Watching it the second time, it stood out for me even more. He doesn't really have an arc to play, but what I think he is doing very well is this quiet man. We have been watching Benji for 20 years. He's evolved, and in this movie, he actually has to lead the team. He's not trying to be Ethan Hunt. He's not trying to be an action hero. But when he's doing the briefings in the plane and shit, I'm like, I buy that this guy who was a fucking tech nerd behind the desk, comic relief character, character has the authority to tell people what to do, right? And, like, there's a history there, and it's good. And I like him with the junior members. I think all of that's fun. Let Ethan just go to the President, go to the submarine. The second he gets in the submarine, the movie starts to have a little juice. It's gay as hell.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, love the gay submarine.

[David Sims]

Everyone in this submarine is good. And Tramell Tolman is, like, magical.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, he really, in this movie, he's a really great performer, just full stop. But I think he really gets how to bounce off of Tom Cruise in an interesting way. And not to do. God bless Hannah Waddingham, who is a good actor. I like her, but she's more just kind of doing, like, I'm a stern authority figure, and instead for him to have this kind of weird personality, which kind of tracks for someone who lives in a sub where they can't ever go outside. And like, where you're like, yeah, these guys are all a little like, sort of off kilter.

[David Sims]

I truly yesterday. And I'm Max. Three of his line deliveries got applause. Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Cuz he rocks both screenings.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, that's what he's like in Se2. Like, it's just where you're just like, I. What an interesting way to read that line. You know, like, yeah.

[David Sims]

And he's so good. And you're just like, I don't need three other authority figures being like, I guess I'll trust you. It's so much more fun to just have him give the hard sell to this one guy. And the one guy be like, dude, I was on board the second you broke into the submarine. All right, let's basically like, I'm a madman. You're a madman. You don't have to sell me.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They match each other's freaks. Like, yeah.

[David Sims]

Ben David turns to me at one point and goes, I assume this is a bad time to go to the bathroom. And I go, now's actually a great time to go to the bathroom. He thought it was a bad time because it's when Katie o' Brien and the rest of the team is showing him the equipment of the.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, this is his. It's kind of the classic thing where they're like, you can't let this, this, this, or this fail. And I'm like, so all those things are going to fail.

[David Sims]

He was like, so this is important. I was like, go to the back bathroom. Now he comes back one scene later, they're about to launch him out of the submarine. And they basically repeat all of that information again. And I turn to Ben David and I go, everything you missed is being said now. I went to the bathroom during the Haina Waddingham scene. I'm like, nothing lost here. There's so much like this. And then when you get to the submarine, the submarine rules. If this movie was truly Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise showing up on video and being like, hey, we want to apologize. This one got away from us. We didn't figure out the story. Here are two great set pieces. And you literally just showed me the entire submarine sequence and the entire biplane sequence, I would be like, I strongly endorse spending 25 to go see that. 9 max. Like the movie. Those two things are so good and top level that this movie cannot be a complete failure because they Are executed so well.

[Griffin Newman]

I found the submarine sequence very interesting. It is very good.

[David Sims]

Very upsetting.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's quite. I was so. I kept thinking about the Titanic submarine people who got.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, they got. I mean, unalive. They.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They got.

[Griffin Newman]

They did get on a live. But I mean, they got liquefied. Right. Like, it's like. At least there's no like weird frozen questions.

[David Sims]

They got kind of more scanners.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, wait. So before we get really into the submarine sequences, I am gonna watch the.

[Griffin Newman]

Hell out of that Netflix documentary that's just together. I already know. But just people being like. And then that crazy guy thought he could get in a soup can and like, just drop it down with a PlayStation. Yeah, he did. And did he pay the price like those documents?

[David Sims]

Sometimes Netflix will put something on their main carousel like that.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Where it's like, hey, here's a cup of poison. Do you want it? And I'm like, yeah, I want to drink the poison. Of course I tasty poison. This is going to be horribly made.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like it was made in two minutes. Minutes. Right.

[David Sims]

And also it's like super, like morose and creepy that I want to watch this.

[Griffin Newman]

Why would. It's like. But like, it's like me like, being like, I need to read a Wikipedia entry about some disaster.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. Which I. I love. That's like my sweet spot. Anyway, before we get too into the underwater pieces, I want to talk about what's happening at the Sosis listening station.

[David Sims]

Oh.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

With Dunlow.

[David Sims]

Which is, by the way, another thing where I'm like, like, if the movie is president, then rest of team arrives at Dunlow's cabin, then Ethan gets dropped off at submarine and like the first 15 minutes of this movie are hidden.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. I am obs. What's her name? Like Tilsa or something.

[David Sims]

I mean, look it up. Dunlow's wife. This, of course, is the man who Ethan gave diarrhea.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. They didn't talk about the diarrhea.

[Ben Hosley]

To Pisa.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

To Pisa. Death.

[David Sims]

It. It has always made him one of my favorite characters in the Mission Impossible franchise.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He has tummy troubles like you do.

[David Sims]

He has tummy troubles and it up his entire life.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Ethan put diarrhea juice in his coffee through a pen. Remember they squished the diarrhea.

[Griffin Newman]

I remember. And it does look a little. You're like, yeah, I don't want that in my coffee.

[David Sims]

All right, first of all, my cup of coffee is ruined. It's not going to taste good. Second of all, I'm going to my brains I'm going to make my own coffee, if you know what I'm saying. My own hot brew. Anyway, to get the knock list, the. The infamous.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Mission possible drop here is the guy who that movie sets up is going to be reassigned because of.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. He got reassigned to the Bering Sea. And now he listens for, you know, maybe the Titan exploding or whatever. And he did happen to hear when the Sevastopol exploded. So he'll know where it is. Maybe.

[David Sims]

But his department is also getting, like, doged.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's getting doged.

[David Sims]

They keep cutting it down. They keep taking equipment away. They never update the systems. He's working on a very analog level. When he's introduced, I was like, okay, is this a little too cute? I was so pleasantly surprised that he's in the rest of the movie. Oh, yeah. I'm like, it is. What transcends it being dumb fan service is that you're like, no, we're actually gonna make this a real character and a real guy. And also, now that Luther's dead, he kind of fills the Luther role, right? Like, he's really good at.

[Griffin Newman]

He's the. I can expl how something works technically. I can strip some wires.

[David Sims]

Ral Saxon, he's got an incredible voice. He's done a lot of voiceover work in the last 15 years, I think, especially in video games. And he just clearly has that authority where he can be like, ethan, there is two wires. We must cut them. He's great in this.

[Griffin Newman]

Cool.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, I. I agree. Totally agree. Seems to. Yeah. He does some theater. He does some.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know. He's. He's definitely worked less in recent years, so it's nice for him that he. He's back.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But they got a lot of bookcases in their home.

[Griffin Newman]

I like their house a lot.

[Ben Hosley]

It looks cozy.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It looks really sad that it burns down.

[Griffin Newman]

I was feeling for their house.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Their house is really cute. Unfortunately, it's been occupied by Russians.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's the. A Russian guy.

[David Sims]

I like him too.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's that guy? He's in a lot of stuff.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I don't know, but I know his first name is Captain.

[David Sims]

It's another example, though, of, like, these sort of fun little side supporting guys.

[Griffin Newman]

Pacha, Link Lynch.

[David Sims]

We like him. We like Tramel. We like. All these people are taking an hour to enter, and no one is fun for the first hour of the movie. Like, no new performers are popping for the first hour period.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he's in Miami Vice. He's in Crystal Skull. I remember him in Crystal Skull. He's got such a face.

[David Sims]

He's not the ants guy, I think.

[Griffin Newman]

He'S not the ants guy, but he's in that.

[David Sims]

Okay guy.

[Griffin Newman]

Right in that group. Is he the ants guy?

[David Sims]

Let me see. I know the ants guy's name. I'll recognize it. It is not. He's Russian soldier Roosevelt. That guy's name is like. It's something with a K, I want to say, but like Romulan commander in Star Trek.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he was in. He's in the. The Abrams. Star Trek. Do I know him from a TV show? Maybe he's in a lot.

[David Sims]

I mean, look, he's playing a lot.

[Griffin Newman]

Of like Yuris and Ivans.

[David Sims]

Deadwood. He was on 16 episodes of Deadwood as Blasphemy.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, that's right. That's a minor character. But he is like around.

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Okay.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

So great actor. Love to see it.

[David Sims]

Lovely.

[Griffin Newman]

But there's. Yeah, there's an action sequence here.

[David Sims]

It's a. It's a little.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, they have like another set of keys.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, yeah, that's revealed kind of like.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It turns out two really, really annoying deflating reveals. It's the fact that the Russian have a dupe of the cruciform key. So the whole cruciform key thing becomes irrelevant. And the other thing is that Dunlow, like halfway through him and Benji trying to put together a drive, he's like, yeah, so by the way, I can just give you the coordinates.

[David Sims]

I have it memorized.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I have it memorized.

[David Sims]

But yet Rolf Saxon nails the delivery of, you know, the coordinates. And what does he say? He says, like down to the centimeter.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No. Yeah, down to the last square meter.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Yes, yes. His, like, that's another thing I love in Mission Impossible movies is just a really good character actor saying something with such importance down to the square meter.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

There was. There was another line in the sequence that made me laugh the second time I saw the movie where Haley Atwell is trying to like, talk to the Russians. Like, yeah, she's trying to be like, right.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, can we, you know, you know, let's forget.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Let's forget the, the sides that we. But she goes goes, forget about us being Americans and you being Russians. We're just humans. And I'm like, girl, you and Simon Pegg are British.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Like, Paris is French.

[David Sims]

British as hell.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

So why are we saying.

[David Sims]

Right, right. You should be like, hey, by the way, America. None of us like America here.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

For America.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

To America.

[David Sims]

But he's got his good Joke where she's, like, trying to appeal to, like, your family. Like, the world.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Not even done.

[David Sims]

Not even dog. I. Look, I'm obviously horny as hell for Palm, but I do like what they do with her character in this movie, which is like, none of these movies in their team have had a wild card. And I like that they're sort of like, she's part of the team, and everyone kind of doesn't trust her. She's drinking all the time. They know she's a man.

[Griffin Newman]

It just kind of feels like if you accidentally said, like, you should kill that guy, she, like, you'd be like, I was kidding. But she's already, like, buried a knife in his skull or whatever, right?

[David Sims]

She's like, Wolverine or whatever. And she keeps making, like, French quips. I like that they commit to her only speaking in French and that the other characters now have to be bilingual.

[Griffin Newman]

But. Right. What's happening, right? If I'm. I'm. It's like those guys are at the cabin trying to get the coordinates because Ethan is under the water with the sub, and he needs, like, they need to know where to find signals, need.

[David Sims]

To match up, and they're basically like, we're about to enter a dark zone where we won't be able to send a signal. If we don't send you out now, we never will. And, like, your team needs to be able to find you in order to save you from the other side of the ice.

[Griffin Newman]

But what's so cool about Ethan in the sub is that there's no dialogue. It's scary. It feels like a swerve for the series.

[David Sims]

Yes. It feels 15 minutes long.

[Griffin Newman]

So long to not have, like, peg, you know, Benji being like, cross cutting. You gotta go to level three.

[David Sims]

And you're watching it, and it is, like, every single shot, you're like, how did people not die doing this?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I would. I was, like, holding my breath. The.

[David Sims]

Not just cruise on camera, but, like, how did. No true people died anytime.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The thing that really got me was when the nukes would, like, just bump into each other or that would fall into a specific pattern that would make it impossible for him to go around them. Or, you know, I was just like, oh, my God. Like, this is. This is. And it's nightmare.

[David Sims]

The kind of, like, very subtle sort of escalation that they're so good at building in these movies of, like, watching silently. Him having to do the math of, like. Like, my only way to get through this tunnel is to lose the oxygen pack, right?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, my God.

[David Sims]

I'M gonna be caught on this blade unless I get rid of the suit. Like making these sort of sacrifices that, like, raise the stakes over and over and over again. It's so good. I kept thinking of the Soderbergh quote that I'm gonna paraphrase about watching Mad Max Fury Road, where he's like, my whole life is trying to figure out thinking about how to stage sequences. And if you asked me to do one sequence in that movie, I would put a gun in my mouth where I'm like, I actually don't understand how you make this.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Then the fact that the.

[David Sims]

I'm not equating myself to Soderbergh, but I, like, watch it. And I'm like, I don't understand how they successfully got.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

This sub is on a. Like a shelf and it keeps turning.

[Ben Hosley]

Have you ever seen the Jamiroquai video?

[David Sims]

Oh, of course.

[Ben Hosley]

Kind of like that.

[David Sims]

It is.

[Ben Hosley]

It is kind of like that, but.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

It's like it's got this Inception thing where because the sub keeps tilting on its axis where the water is in the sub that is like half sort of flowing.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Keeps changing directions.

[Griffin Newman]

I think they just do a good job communicating all of the changes happening without anyone being like, ethan, the sub has moved and now it's filling with water over here or whatever. Right.

[David Sims]

Like, we enjoy when the movies do that kind of thing. But it's all the more impressive that they pull off the sequence without that. Which gives it a different tone than anything we've seen in.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But it also is. It puts the first part of the movie in such stark relief because it's them over explaining everything with dialogue versus in this sequence when they're just relying purely on visual information and staging.

[Griffin Newman]

Did you know that Jamiroquai's third album, Traveling Without Moving, is the highest selling funk album in the history of the world?

[Ben Hosley]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

Isn't that hilarious?

[Ben Hosley]

That is actually shocking talking. I. I mean, they are, though. They're a pretty huge band.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, that's the virtual insanity moment. I think that's their peak there. It's just him, jk, him in that hat. Big hats. Maybe you should. Maybe you should do some big hats. Just walk in one day with a big furry top hat.

[Ben Hosley]

I kind of feel like.

[Griffin Newman]

Just don't comment on it. So.

[Ben Hosley]

So I feel like a big hat accentuates that I have a big head.

[David Sims]

Ben.

[Ben Hosley]

What's up, Griff?

[David Sims]

America loves Tracker the show. CBS is tracker.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Justin Hartley is tracker.

[Ben Hosley]

It's impressive.

[David Sims]

Holter Shaw, lone wolf survivalist with extensive Tracking skills who travels the country as a rewardist.

[Ben Hosley]

My man just picks up a little bit of dirt and he could like figure out where somebody going.

[David Sims]

He tracks things. And why are we all staying glued to the tube watching tracker week after week?

[Ben Hosley]

Because we want to see what kind of awesome adventures he gets into.

[David Sims]

Wish fulfillment. We're living out our dream lives. We all God wish we could track the way that he does. Because I know I have a hard time tracking where my money goes.

[Ben Hosley]

Geez, you're telling me I'm a mess.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

I can keep track of this. This thing and I own it until I give it away in exchange for goods or services.

[Ben Hosley]

I truly don't know what's coming in, what's coming out.

[David Sims]

I'm dining out. I'm eating food, I'm putting food in my system. I'm handing money out of my wallet over to a restaurant.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And I go, where did that thing stuff go?

[Griffin Newman]

No idea.

[David Sims]

Not to mention food delivery, online shopping, retail therapy. Ever heard of it, Ben? You get some packages delivered to the office.

[Ben Hosley]

I do get a lot of packages, you know, and I gotta tell you truly, if I was charged twice, I wouldn't even know it.

[David Sims]

And here's the thing I do sometimes. Okay, yeah, I order clothes, they come to my home, I wear them, then I call up a ride share service which takes me to a restaurant where I pay money, food, and then go out and see an expensive concert. Cha ching, cha ching, cha ching.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, I hear it.

[David Sims]

And I'm not getting rich doing that.

[Griffin Newman]

No.

[David Sims]

Everyone else is getting rich around me and I've lost track.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, here's the thing, Griff. Finances can be messy and confusing. Monarch Money acts like your personal cfo, giving you full visibility and control so you can stop earning and start growing.

[David Sims]

It's more than your average budgeting app. Monarch Money is a complete financial command center for your accounts, investments and goals. Don't just manage your money, start building wealth with 50% off your first year. For our listeners, Ben. Our listeners. Listeners of the Blank Check podcast. Because you might learn something surprising about your finances when you when you use Monarch. For example, I don't know, overspending on shopping, Finding an unexpected spending pattern, Identifying why you aren't saving as much as you meant to. Realizing you're wasting money. Learning you could max out your 401k. Realizing I was stressful. Juggling more than one finance app is. Or even discovering something as wild as the fact that Robin Weigert was a regular on season one of CBS's tracker and has since left the show. Gone down to a sort of light recurring basis. Teddy Bruin, one of Colter's handlers, finding cases for him to take and doing background research for him.

[Ben Hosley]

While on cases, start managing your finances to build the last life you actually want. Without a clear financial picture, financial dreams can feel out of reach. Monarch makes managing money simple, even for busy lives. Track your spending, savings and investments effortlessly so you can focus on what matters most, making your biggest life goals a reality.

[David Sims]

Monarch is the financial tool people actually love. Join over 1 million households. Sounds like something Dr. Evil would say. They were named Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. That's this year. And the top recommended personal finance app by users and experts with over 30,000 five star reviews. And one of those reviews might BE From Abby McEnany, who plays Velma Bruin on CBS's Tracker, the wife of Robin Weigert's Teddy character who has remained a regular on the show show even though Teddy has kind of slipped away from the main cast. So listen, get control of your overall finances with Monarch Money. Use code [e-mail] in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50 off your first year at Monarch Money with code check.

[Ben Hosley]

I gotta watch Tracker.

[David Sims]

Wait, you're not already watching Tracker? No, it's the biggest track showing the world. David.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

This episode of Blank Check is brought to you by booking.combooking. yeah, I got confused for a second.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh no.

[David Sims]

I thought my glasses were fogged up. Okay, because I'm looking across the room at your handsome mug. For a second I thought, is Matt LeBlanc here?

[Griffin Newman]

Why did you think that?

[David Sims]

Because I'm looking at a man with a plan. I'm looking at a man who likes making plans. You don't like leaving things up to chance?

[Griffin Newman]

No, I hate. I like to plan things very, very carefully.

[David Sims]

Actually, you like to organize a trip. And you know what's helpful for that? Booking.com.

[Griffin Newman]

That'S right.

[David Sims]

From vacation rentals to hotels across the U.S. booking.com has the ideal summer stay for absolutely anyone. Even those who might seem impossible to please. Like Phoebe Buffet, who's got very specific tastes.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, whether you're booking for yourself, your partner, your sleep light early rise mom, or your high maintenance group chat. I'm always booking for that group chat.

[David Sims]

Yeah, well, your family is a bit of a group chat.

[Griffin Newman]

True. You can find exactly what you're booking for on booking dot com.

[David Sims]

Tell me about your hotel preferences, David.

[Griffin Newman]

I love a sauna okay, okay. Anything. Spa. I love. You know what I love? A robe. Give me a robe.

[Ben Hosley]

Customized.

[Griffin Newman]

Give me a fluffy robe.

[David Sims]

Now, are we talking hot tub in room? Like. Like kind of comically shaped hot tub Heart. A big. A big martini glass. Is that what you want in room?

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. Some strawberries.

[David Sims]

You want strawberries?

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know. They're always fun.

[David Sims]

You want strawberries in your stay, David, you know what I like when I'm on vacation?

[Griffin Newman]

What do you like?

[David Sims]

A giant bed? I like to get a comically large California king. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. I feel like a Hollywood king.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure.

[David Sims]

I get the kind of bed you couldn't fit into a New York City apartment and a bed that is comically oversized for a tiny little man like me.

[Ben Hosley]

And what's great about booking.com is it gives you all of these different filters and options. Options when you're searching for a place to stay.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

Where you can, you know, say, I would like to have the largest bed.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Possible.

[David Sims]

Possible. You might be surprised to hear I'm pretty specific in my bathroom preferences as well. Another thing that Booking.com helps me filter out to make sure I got exactly what I need. Here's the thing. If David can find his perfect stay on booking.com, anyone can true.

[Griffin Newman]

Find exactly what you're booking for. Booking.com booking. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Book today on the site or in the app. Owen Gleberman's review of this for Variety. He spends, like, half the review just talking about the biplane sequence, but everything he says about it feels like it also could apply to the submarine. And the review feels very indicative to the response to this movie, which is like, you walk out of the theater because, like, holy shit, that biplane sequence. Two thumbs up. Like, you end on such a high. But what he was saying, which I think this is, like, triply true for the submarine because it has zero dialogue, is the. The ultimate miracle of what Tom Cruise is pulling off isn't just that he's, like, putting himself these crazy situations and not dying. It is that he is acting, that he is actually successfully emoting in a nuanced way. And in a sequence like this where he's conveying all of this without words on his face while wearing a stupid helmet, you know, and you're seeing him do the math.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Because I love how it exaggerates the features of his face, which feels very, like, unveigned. Even though we talk about this movie as being kind of a vanity.

[David Sims]

Totally. I mean, they talk about this with the Halo jump in Fallout that they, like, needed to design a special helmet to make his face readable. So, A, it needs to have the lights inside of it, otherwise his face would get lost on camera. Camera. And B, it feels like if they don't magnify it, you won't see his expressions. But speaking of lack of vanity, you feel the fact that this movie has footage shot across five different years in, like, his face changes a lot. Like, when they greenlit this movie, he was 58, and now he's 63. Or 60. I mean, whatever my math is. Yeah, you're. You're just, like. You're really acutely feeling in this one, like. Like he is pushing against the absolute limits of, like, staying young and looking like, you know, he. He doesn't want to be as much as he keeps saying that Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones is an inspiration to him. And what he wants to keep doing and keep making these movies into his 80s. You're like, Harrison Ford's like it. I'm gray. I'm old. These movies are about me being old. He was so ready to make that transition. Harrison Ford to be a grumpy old man. And this movie is Ethan still, just, like, holding on to the final embers of the idea that he is, like, youthful.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

One thing I want to address also, just looking at my notes, we haven't really talked about the doomsday cult.

[Griffin Newman]

That's because the movie doesn't.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The movie doesn't really get into it.

[David Sims]

But they're just like.

[Griffin Newman]

That exists people, and they're setting it up right at the start where, like, people are so under the sway of the entity that anyone could be a threat. And that basically just comes up once on this.

[David Sims]

It manifests twice. Secret Service agent in the war room.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, but we have to. We have to bring up the time on the submarine because Tom beats the shit out of Guy by saying, you spend too much time on the Internet.

[Griffin Newman]

That line makes me laugh. I think it's funny. It feels a little.

[David Sims]

I agree.

[Griffin Newman]

Cute.

[David Sims]

Yeah. It makes me laugh and then immediately go like, it made me laugh.

[Griffin Newman]

So I don't want to be too much of a grumpy.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I also want to note that I love Tom's little podkova bag.

[David Sims]

Oh, sure. He's got a little podkova sack.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He got a little podkova sack. I like how he has to, like, take the little pod cover out, put it in the little plastic bag and zip it up and carry it with him and make sure he doesn't drop it. I'm like, oh, that's cute.

[Ben Hosley]

I really think the sub sequence is great. I just. I wanted a giant octopus.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. So true.

[David Sims]

Playing drums.

[Ben Hosley]

That's just one of those things where it's like, it's been buried at the bottom of the ocean.

[Griffin Newman]

Right, Right, right, right, right.

[Ben Hosley]

And there should be a big creature inside.

[Griffin Newman]

We're going to Atlantis.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

There needs to be, like, we know those angler fishes, the ones that got, like, the big scary teeth. That has light.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, my God. That's a great calm.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But we might not be deep enough in the ocean. This was another thing that was confusing me because I'm like, he can't physically be down that deep.

[David Sims]

No, it's on a cliff.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's on a shelf. So it's pretty close, too. But also, if it's that close, how come no one could find it?

[David Sims]

It totally.

[Griffin Newman]

No one was looking.

[David Sims]

That's another thing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, everyone was looking.

[David Sims]

The last movie ends with Ethan having both parts of the key and being like, I'm going to the submarine. I know where the submarine is. And the final shot is the submarine. And you're like, he's going straight there. It takes him 90 minutes to get there in this movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Actually, wait, sorry, guys, I can't. I don't have the coordinate. What am I talking after the thing?

[Griffin Newman]

And. And right. And like, after the submarine, he exits. They. They heal him in the puffy tent.

[David Sims]

Hall has this very odd sexually charged scene with him where she. Well, not to. But this is a movie that features, like, three of the most beautiful women on the planet, in my humble opinion. There is the shot of her rescuing him that is framed as her bosom coming into frame first.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Can we.

[David Sims]

That did get me a little hot and bottle.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, I was just rewatching my favorite scene from Mission Impossible 2, which is when. I guess it's when Tom and Tandy meet for the first time, where they're in the bathtub together when she's doing the heist.

[Griffin Newman]

I know the scene you're talking about.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And there's a shot where it's. From her perspective, she's on top of him and he's in the bathtub like this, with his arms behind his bed head. But you see her tits in the foreground, so they populate. Her cleavage populates the bottom half of the frame, which I am like, oh, that's a really funny shot.

[Griffin Newman]

Crazy shot.

[David Sims]

I mean, this is Tom in, like, fetal position. And you're like, oh, he's got the bends. He's dying. No one's gonna rescue him. And then in slow motion. Boobs. Lower down. Young at.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, she's a good looking lady.

[David Sims]

She's a good.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I was talking about this with my husband yesterday.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow. Humble brag.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

You guys have conversations.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We talk. We're married. We submit. Impossible.

[David Sims]

Good lines of communication.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Must be nice. The decision to make Ethan asexual. That happens when.

[David Sims]

After Michelle Monahan, basically.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, two, he's too horny. And I think no one really.

[David Sims]

It's an over.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh, I did. I love how horny he is in that movie.

[David Sims]

But that is. That is the divorce doesn't work for me. Right. That is the post divorce movie. And it's also like the. I. My take on Mission Impossible 2 has always been that guy's having a mental breakdown over the death of his team. And he's like, I'm so good. Look at how cool I am. I grew my hair out. I have sunglasses.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I'm listening to Ladies Biscuit.

[David Sims]

I actually like being alone.

[Griffin Newman]

And then in three, it's like, he's gonna settle down. He's met a nice lady. They're gonna get married.

[David Sims]

He's working.

[Griffin Newman]

Four is like, he's not allowed to love.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

She must. He can only look at her from afar, you know?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But don't they also introduce, like, a bit of a Paula. Like, is it.

[David Sims]

No. Paula Patton is affording her dead love in the same way that he is until you realize. I think Paula Patton is a misdirect of.

[Griffin Newman]

But like. But then they're both Greek. Free song with Elsa. Free song.

[David Sims]

But that's the whole Elsa thing that I love is that you're like, part of this is almost them recognizing. I get you. And both of us know we could never actually be with another person. That it's sort of just like the creative juice of being like, fudge. We're the same.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And then. But then, like, we talked about this when Haley Atwell was introduced. Introduced in the last movie where we were like, there's gotta be something more.

[David Sims]

I thought she was gonna be his daughter. Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Especially his daughter. I thought Haley Atwell was gonna be Ethan's daughter because of how much they were hiding her name in the previous daughter. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

With who?

[David Sims]

With Marie. With the dead lady Barney.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes, with me, my child.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I know the math doesn't totally work out. That Maria Scaly owl's mother. Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But you know what? It doesn't completely like this. This franchise is all about impossible.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, but that would. That would have stunk.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, no, it would have been. It would have been really Stupid. But it's like, okay, so they. She's not his love interest. He's treating her as more of a, like, mentor, mentee sort of thing. But then also you have these scenes in this movie where they are like, cuddling in bed. But also, he just doesn't.

[David Sims]

This is McQuarrie backfire stuff, right? He talks so much about. Like, we shot a lot of scenes with Marie. She had her own character poster. And then we decided to save that stuff for the second movie. You'll get a lot of answers on her. And the idea of Gabriel being a guy from Ethan's past is e relevant in this movie. Gabriel could be anyone. He'd be a new character.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm willing to believe that they did film stuff and they did have stuff planned and that everyone kind of came to their sense and was like, I don't think anyone cares enough.

[David Sims]

And the way these movies are made.

[Griffin Newman]

This movie's over stuff.

[David Sims]

The way these movies are made, it's not even like, oh, they filmed a bunch of stuff and cut it out. It's that they probably shot three different versions of them and then used none of them. Like, people asking why this movie cost $400 million and saying like, but it doesn't even have CGI characters. Like, how could it cost this much? The answer is the. The amount of stuff that is not on screen is mind boggling. Not just the alternate versions and possibly entire action sequences that were cut out wholesale. There's like paparazzi footage of stunts shot in major cities over the last five years that there are not elements of in either of these last few years.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I don't remember. It might have been. It was either the biplane sequence in this movie or it was like the helicopter chase with Henry Cavill. It's what opens the GQ article that just came out where they talk about how they shot.

[Griffin Newman]

It's the cavalry have a helicopter.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They shot 80 hours of footage of that stunt and it is 12 minutes in the movie.

[David Sims]

Right? I mean, I. I heard there was a 40 minute version assembly of the opening Sylvester Pole disaster from Dead Reckoning Part 1. There was 40 minutes of dialogue. Like, the amount of they throw out on these movies is crazy. And also, like, these movies shot in insane circumstances, world events. And like, they continue to pay everyone during shutdowns of production. It's part of why these movies are so expensive and why actors desperately want out of them and keep begging to have their characters killed off is because when someone signs up for one of these movies, they're like, here's the deal. You have no script and we own you for two and a half years. @ any moment we might call you up and say you need to get on a plane to Bulgaria right now. Because we've written a bunch of. And then you get to Bulgaria and they go, nevermind mind. The sequence is cut and you have to reshoot things 10 times to fix the plot. So people get so aggravated working on these movies and he keeps losing. Especially like his above the line crew. There's a reason these movies don't hold on to DPs, you know, is because even when they come away from it and they're like fuck, it did work for what a nightmare it was. It was a triumph. Those people still walk away and go, the life's too short. I don't need this again. I want to see my kids. Right? Right. Lauren B. Who has scored the last three movies.

[Griffin Newman]

And rules for six and seven.

[David Sims]

Six and seven.

[Griffin Newman]

No, he didn't do. He didn't do five.

[David Sims]

He did Rogue Nation.

[Griffin Newman]

No he didn't.

[David Sims]

Who did Rog Nation?

[Griffin Newman]

Joe Kramer.

[David Sims]

Really?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I listen to it all the time. It rocks.

[David Sims]

Wild. That is.

[Griffin Newman]

Joe Kramer was the guy who did Way the Gun, Jack Reacher. He was Makari's original Guy Nation score rocks.

[David Sims]

He was announced as doing the score for this one. His name was taken off the movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Like although he has like a score consultant credit or something.

[David Sims]

His name was taken off the movie eight, eight weeks ago. There is a weird crit in this film that's something akin to like score produced by. And it is two of like Lauren Balf's associates who usually help him on his work. But it doesn't even have a traditional like composer or score by credit. It is very clear that they were changing stuff so much and needed so much new material and redoing that a certain point, he walked away.

[Griffin Newman]

That's wild considering he's such a workhorse.

[David Sims]

Totally. And that's like a post production job. Like, like. And there's stuff like the submarine sequence that plays out silently that doesn't have any underscoring, which on top of the lack of dialogue I think lends it this weird power. It does work. The rest of the movie is like largely overscored and you feel that they did not have time to develop new themes and they're just like, we need another version of the Shiffrin score. Right. To your point of There should be an octopus. As much as I like the Silence of the Submarine and let's speak back.

[Griffin Newman]

To that point.

[David Sims]

I do kind of wish that when he's in the submarine.

[Griffin Newman]

Perhaps Neptune, God of the sea.

[David Sims]

Here's my pitch.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, man, those things are big.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I was thinking of the guy from Black Manta.

[Griffin Newman]

That's cool too, right?

[Ben Hosley]

Manta Ray. Just a huge one.

[Griffin Newman]

Just a big one.

[Ben Hosley]

You can't fail with this.

[Griffin Newman]

It just flies at Tom Cruz. He's like, that's it.

[David Sims]

First half of the Sesta Pool, dead silence, right? No dialogue, no music.

[Griffin Newman]

Second half, as things are getting racist.

[David Sims]

Worse and things are tilting right, it's like, oh, man, how could this situation become even deadlier? You hear a little, oh, no, there's a hot crustacean band.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, Sebastian's there, but they're all wearing puffer coats.

[David Sims]

They're under the sea, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Wailing, right? And they're telling him to stay down there. And it maybe tempts him.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Him.

[Griffin Newman]

He's like, maybe it is better down.

[David Sims]

Where it's wet, right? And they have Mermaid Marie, the ghost of his dead girlfriend.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Me.

[David Sims]

Yes. Oh, I'm sorry.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Literally, me. Yes.

[David Sims]

These are the kind of story decisions I don't understand why they abandoned in this film. The Mermaid Station band. Mermaid Marie. It's actually Maria.

[Griffin Newman]

He's out. This is what I was trying to do. We are. It's like, okay, everyone's united, all the devices, they're on the. We're going to South Africa.

[David Sims]

There is one clear plan for the rest of the.

[Griffin Newman]

There's a magic, like, digital tomb that the entity wants to go inside. We have to put it there.

[David Sims]

I think the movie is basically good from this moment on. There are very little gripes, bits and pieces of gripes I have, but it basically works from this moment on in like just giving me the basics of what I, my lizard brain wants from Mission Impossible movie.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Can I tell you my favorite part of the last sequence of the movie? It's actually. It's not part of the IMF crew stuff. It's from the Mount Weather, Virginia Crisis Command Center.

[David Sims]

The Fail Safe or. No, it's.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They have to come up with an American city to sacrifice.

[David Sims]

Have you ever seen Fail Safe Safe, the Lumet movie? No.

[Griffin Newman]

This feels in Fail Safe, they nuke. New York essentially is an apology for accidentally. Well, I'm spoiling Fail Safe. It's apology for accidentally nuking mosque.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Wait, so they so something as big as New York because I Fail Safe.

[David Sims]

Fail Safety is literally New York.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They don't tell you what it is. They just were like.

[Griffin Newman]

Let's just be honest, it was Houston.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, my guess was Phoenix.

[Griffin Newman]

I Was going to say Columbus, I think Phoenix. Everyone would be like, okay, it is.

[David Sims]

Funny that the line of dialogue is, president, do we have your approval to do the thing to the city that you chose?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

They go out of their way. They're like, she chose something off screen in between cuts and they're repeating it back to her while not saying the name of the city, that city that you selected.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Such a funny choice.

[David Sims]

They'll say, that is literally New York. And it's the same kind of thing of like, we will be seen as hostile and blamed for this if we don't make ourselves look like we were also part of the attack. And the President has to make that kind of decision. It's a fucking awesome movie. I also feel like the way those scenes are staged from the moment they propose this idea, shot and edited, feels very like much referencing. Sure. The Lumet sort of like classic close up.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Are they really sweaty in Failsafe? Because I like how sweaty they are.

[David Sims]

Failsafe has the fucking 12 angry men thing where you're like, these are the most exciting close ups I've ever seen in my life of people discussing.

[Griffin Newman]

And it's got that. But there is something kind of silly about the sort of like, cut to OFFERMAN, Cut to McElhenny where I'm like, yeah, these aren't characters. Like, no.

[David Sims]

And also, so I don't really.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, I'm complaining and I feel like I'm being. Yeah, right. Only one cube headed man. Like, I'm complaining and I feel like I'm being a grumpy guts because I was very involved for basically all this movie, but especially the latter half.

[David Sims]

I'm sitting next to you. You're. You're biting your nails, you're shifting forward. You're eating a hot dog too. Submarine and bip.

[Griffin Newman]

And then I rolled right from there to Planet Hollywood.

[David Sims]

She had a biplane of hot dogs. Planet Hollywood coming soon to different feet. Those are the two sequences I saw you lean in. And when they got to the fail safe stuff, we looked at each other and we were like, this is kind of fun.

[Griffin Newman]

Fail safe.

[David Sims]

This is kind of fun, the fail safe thing. But it was taking a while.

[Griffin Newman]

It takes a bit of a time. But no, I basically like all this, the biplane stuff. What can you say? It's crazy. If you read the Zach Baron story story, it's the classic, like, Tom met with like wing walkers where he's like, I want to like hang between the wings and like be in zero G. And like. And they were like, that's not possible. And he was like, buy me more wing walkers to talk to someone who tells me it is possible. Right. Like. And you're like, ah, Tom, you're so crazy.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

One of one of my favorite parts.

[Griffin Newman]

How low to the ground it is.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Is so that's what scared me.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The most. But when we were at the Museum of the Moving Image Exhibit. Exhibit there is a like digital biography of Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise that you can swipe through.

[David Sims]

That'S you can like sort of like touch screen open the fat file on Tom Cruise and Marie page me and she's like, how are they going to describe Tom Cruise? As if this is like you reading this fact file is your first exposure to the guy.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It is like there, there's like one page about his like movie career and then the remainder of it is all about the different certifications he had has and crazy. The, the specific planes that he's licensed to fly, his free diving training, the fact that he's one of only 36 civilians made a, you know, an honorary naval aviator. And there is absolutely nothing about his personal life.

[David Sims]

They have like a 10 plus minute straight to camera interview with Tom Cruise in some undisclosed screening room that plays in a corner of the Museum of the Moving Image exhibit that they said was basically shot just for this.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes.

[David Sims]

And he keeps saying stuff like when I'm not making movies, I'm like learning things that I can apply to movies later. Right. You're like this guy. And I know when we talk about him this way, people are like, why do the Blank chick team love to sanctify Tom Cruise and make him a deity? I think what we find interesting is like the balance between how admirable it is and how sad and broken.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's so bad it belies him being.

[David Sims]

That there's nothing else. And like he has I at some other interview I saw with him recently and obviously like post couch jump. Every interview he does is so controlled. He has like the number of anecdotes that he wants to say and he only wants to talk about the process. I felt him being a little more vulnerable in this. Obviously within guard rails there was some interview where they were talking about like, did you just like live for this stuff? You love it. Like you're there every day, day. And like this idea we have of like Tom Cruise gets a rush from the things that everyone else would be terrified by and they're talking about the biplane sequence and he was like, I remember one day we woke up and we were supposed to film like our 10th consecutive day on the biplanes and I saw that it was raining and the interviewer is like, oh, and you're Tom Cruise. You must have been so angry. You must have been like, let's go out in the rain anyway. And he was like, no. I was like, oh, thank God. God, I need a day off from this now. Then of course, he immediately filters it into a Tom Cruise way of like, I'm not going to be able to do 10 more days unless I give my body one day to recharge. He wasn't like, I'm going to lounge on the couch and like, watch young Sheldon.

[Griffin Newman]

Maybe he does.

[David Sims]

Maybe. But he was admitting, like, no, of course I'm a human being and I'm getting to a point where I'm not invincible. But yet what else is going on in this guy's life? And like, I feel like Rebecca Ferguson. There's an interview that's circulating around recently that we post in our group chat that where she's just sort of like, when we had days off, he would just like go to set.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

And like, he likes being in movies. And when like the movies got shut down because of like Covid and the strikes, it didn't feel like it was just this feeling of like, I have to save the industry. It was, I don't know what I'm doing if productions aren't happening in a.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Way which is really tracks with Ethan Hunt as a character.

[David Sims]

Absolutely. Which is what has made these movies increasingly interesting.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's also out of hand. And I think there is no way to top things anymore. Not that he couldn't make more. Mission Impossible is where he does some crazy stunt. But I'm not kind of like, what do I need Ethan Hunt to do at this point? And that's what Marie's also saying of like nuclear Armageddon is.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Like, the only other thing that could is like we have to introduce like Kaiju or aliens.

[David Sims]

That.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

But then you're in other franchises, you know what I'm saying?

[Griffin Newman]

Like, that's back.

[David Sims]

I. I agree with you that like the only way you can hide from this is like pulpy sci fi concepts which then feel like they're betraying what.

[Griffin Newman]

It would be something to do with space and it would be a disaster.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

It would suck.

[David Sims]

It's why I think this movie should have a slightly greater sense of finality is you almost feel like the only way for him to come back and do this again is if they actually put it to bed for a bit and he makes one in, like, 10 years and he's older and it's a different movie. What I actually think they should do is never do one of these again.

[Griffin Newman]

I think they won't.

[David Sims]

I think they just, like, back themselves into a corner where they can't fucking top themselves. And you feel that panic in this movie. And, like, what I want from the end of this movie, like, from the literal ending of this movie, I don't want him to die. I don't give a shit. Right. When the parachute catches on fire, it does feel like. Like there is certainly a version of this that they shot where he dies and he fought them on it. Right. There's the notion of, like, is he gonna become the IMF director? Which feels like the cleanest, neatest way to do a thing where you're like. And then the doors open where he could still be mentor if they did spin off movies. But also, he can always come back. You know, I was like, he's gonna give us some ending where there's a sense of a closing of a chapter. But also he can come back whenever he wants and be like. Like, hey, you guys miss me? Right?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

In my heart of hearts, I was hoping that even though, like, I know Ilsa's dead, that it would be like, okay, well, he's off. They're both.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a Dark Rises.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, they're both dead. But no, they're.

[David Sims]

Even if it would have been too cute, it is the only happy ending you can imagine for this character. What I actually felt I wanted is when he lands in the middle of the field and you see the cowherds. And I'm going to pitch this badly because I haven't quite cracked the right version of this. But you have this moment where you're like, oh, everyone thinks he's dead. The rest of the team, who are all celebrating.

[Griffin Newman]

So maybe he actually gets to walk off Jack Bauer style and be like, I'm presumed dead. I can go do whatever I want.

[David Sims]

That's what I kind of want. I want an ending where he's just like, I'm not retired, I'm not dead, but they think I'm dead. I can walk away. And there's this sort of mystery of, like, what is this guy going to do? I kind of hate meet Kittredge and Phelps meeting him in the field. The handshake is so absurd. This sort of like, hey, I love you, man moment saved the world.

[Griffin Newman]

Yep.

[David Sims]

But Phelps points a gun at him, then turns the gun around, turns into a handshake, and it's Then it becomes a predator.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's the Predator brochure.

[David Sims]

Then it's like a pat on the back. Hey, you're all right by me.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

It is another example of, like, it's three beats in one. You could get away with one of these. The audience starts laughing at how overstated it is. Yeah. He hands the pod cover to Kit Rich, who seemingly thinks that that is what the entity is stored in, but it's busted and it's burnt. And he sort of has this disappointment of like, oh, fuck, you destroyed it. I can't control it. Well, it is what it is. They don't know that the entity is stored in something else.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

5D optical drive.

[David Sims]

And then it's like, we cut to London and all of them meet there, give each other a nod, and Haley Atwell opens a case and the drives in there, and she hands it to him. The thing that he says he doesn't want. Like, I like that in that scene where she saves him, he's just like, I'm not God. No one should have this. It should be destroyed. And at the end, the movie feels like it's being like, no, he is our God and he should control.

[Griffin Newman]

Right?

[David Sims]

And it stresses me out. I'm.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. Why does he still have it? You should destroy it.

[David Sims]

Throw it under a car.

[Griffin Newman]

Just go to, like, an Apple Store and just be like.

[David Sims]

Just plug it in and just be like, what's up? I miss you. In a way, you're maybe the best friend I've ever.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. Right. Can I go back in the coffee often?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Some stuff I want to address because we're. We just talked about the end of the movie, but there's something I just wanted to mention.

[David Sims]

I don't like the actual final notes.

[Griffin Newman]

I like how Gabriel gets his head bisected.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, that was really great. I loved that.

[Griffin Newman]

He's annoying.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He's so annoying. And he was doing, like, mustache twirling. Which I'm like, no, we don't need that.

[David Sims]

I also like that they set up on the plane the sort of like, here's the crazy plan we need to get Gabriel to work with, with us. And it's a classic Mission Impossible that's so risky. And he's like, but it's the only way. And then you get there and immediately everything goes wrong. Gabriel's guys shoot Carriage, kitchen, all this. And you're like, now the. The difficult plan they had outlined for.

[Griffin Newman]

Us, even crazier and harder.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We've got another bomb that needs to be diffused. And I like that. Dunlow and his wife volunteered to do it. We already talked about this. But Tarzan's like. Like, I guess I'll hang out with a chaperone.

[Griffin Newman]

I like that anytime the wife is like, I'll see you again, you believe her. And she's always right.

[David Sims]

And Dunlow's basically like, Luther, like, this is a suicide mission in order to, like, diffuse the bomb I'm going to have to die with.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But also, he's like, I don't know how to dismantle a bomb.

[David Sims]

Right. I always like someone being a little, like, over their skin.

[Griffin Newman]

The lady who plays the wife. The wife is called Tapisa. Is called Lucy Tulk.

[David Sims]

I believe her and Saxon get a split with Card.

[Griffin Newman]

They do. Which I. And she was in that film. Do you remember that film? Film. Atana. Jarut, The Fast Runner.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Which. She's the lead of that movie, which was like, a Canadian Inuit movie that, like, maybe didn't get an Oscar nomination but was at least, like, kind of in the. Right. In the Running and was this cool Inuit movie where you don't. You know, you never see anything anyway. She's.

[David Sims]

She's.

[Griffin Newman]

She's cool.

[David Sims]

He has a line where he's like, wait a second, there's maybe a way out of this. And they're like, what? And he goes. The wires are repeated in triplicate.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Or he says, triple redundant.

[David Sims]

The wires are.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

This is kind of like how the exposition.

[Griffin Newman]

Exactly.

[David Sims]

I was like, this is a metaphor for the movie that he's like, actually, they built this wrong. There are actually three wires serving the same function. I can cut one of them. We have 10 seconds to.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. We're not even talking about, of course, how, like, Benji has been shot in one of the crossfires here.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It turns into. It turns into the pit, right?

[Griffin Newman]

He's having surgery done on him. Such an impossible escalation.

[Ben Hosley]

He hides the bullet from Ethan because he doesn't want him to get upset. He treats him like a little child.

[Griffin Newman]

But I think it's also like, well, Ethan will probably try to do something right.

[David Sims]

He's not a human being. We have to.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, is Ethan just, like, won't let.

[Ben Hosley]

People die running somewhere?

[Griffin Newman]

He just runs in a circle.

[David Sims]

Egg plays this really well. Pom plays this really well.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

When she's, like, really upset and stressed and also, like, tears come to her eyes. I'm like, oh, my God, girl. Like, you did it.

[David Sims]

But that dialogue exchange of. Does anyone hear? No surgery. And she says, I kill people. And he says, good enough. Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Love it.

[David Sims]

Love it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And then.

[David Sims]

And all of the, like, back and forth of, like, using her flask, both to, like, chill themselves out and to disinfect all the objects is really good. Yeah. And right. Gabriel says to him, you're gonna give me the control and I'm gonna get out of here on a biplane. It's analog. It's a perfect plan. It's such a perfect plan. And I have a backup. And you're like, oh, wow. Wonder what that backup's gonna do.

[Griffin Newman]

Wonder who's gonna drive that.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Little guy.

[David Sims]

Right? That's the poster. And it's the thing they've been selling in the trailers. And when you get to it, it is thrilling. And it is thrilling. Much like the submarine sequence. How long it lasts.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Like in. In babysitting the aforementioned Asa or, like, and trying to calm him down. He was, like, having a mini meltdown. The back of a lift. Lift. And I started going like, hey, Asa, do you know about Tom Cruise? Tom Cruise is this guy who does crazy things. And I started showing him Mission Impossible stunts and just being like, he's a good guy and he's trying to stop the bad guys. It's all fake and it's really safe. But isn't he silly? And I was showing him stuff like the plane from the beginning of Rogue Nation, which to me is still one of the craziest shots. And yet that lasts for, like, 60 seconds. And in this, you're like, there are 800 setups. It feels like. Like, from so many angles of him relative to this plane, where you're like, how did this shoot for four months?

[Griffin Newman]

I think they. I mean, like, the way it's described in the Baron interview. Not that sequence, but the helicopter sequence just of, like, them having to radio Tom Cruise being like, a little left, a little right. That's your shot. Okay. Stay in that. You know, they have to be telling him over the radio, like, the camera's here. All that they have to do.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And he has to. To act while he's flying the plane. Which is crazy.

[David Sims]

But they have to do so many months of prep and rehearsals and practice and, like, coaching before they can ever put this in front of camera. And then how hard it must be to get multiple takes. Right. Like, if the take doesn't work, it probably is, like, four hours before they can get another one up. And then you have time for one more take before the sun sets. It is. It's just. It's wild. And as we said, he's like a moing direction this, and he's like, maintaining a continuity of, like, the character's emotions, of, like, the arc of what he's trying to solve. And there is such good. Kind of like, you know, Gabriel's monologuing a little bit, but, like, largely silent telegraphing of, like, the things on his neck. He's got to get the thing. The cockpit's here. Where's the other pilot? That's one of the shots that almost astounds me the most, is when Ethan finally ejects the other pilot and you just watch him slowly fall out of frame to the ground. And I'm like, I know that guy just pulled the parachute the second he was out of frame and that guy's a stunt diver or whatever, but it still feels unreal.

[Griffin Newman]

My favorite is always going to be the Burj Khalifa. It's my favorite.

[David Sims]

Here's the gripe saw at nightmax. Our friends the Doughboys have been doing a Mission Impossible series and they were talking about how Burj Khalifa and IMAX was the gracious in the world. And there is a sanctity to it of they don't even try to replicate it, the aspect ratio thing on home video or streaming releases, because that thing only works if you have this crazy tall screen and suddenly the world of the movie goes like. And it expands in a way you can't imagine. You see shots of the Burj Khalifa in this. I'm seeing the movie in imax. I'm like, why aren't you showing me this IMAX footage? If you're going to do 8,000 flashbacks, at least give me the flashback flashbacks in IMAX, because I'm seeing sequences that I know.

[Griffin Newman]

I wonder if. I wonder if there's an interesting technical reason.

[David Sims]

Possibly.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Or like, this movie was finished five minutes before they had to deliver.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Probably, yeah.

[David Sims]

But I was like, man, this would have been my chance to see two seconds of the Burrs collection.

[Griffin Newman]

You know, these movies went very digital with the last one. And Macquarie explains why at length at Empire magazine, you pay 50 bucks, you can hear him say it or whatever it is. Right. You have to pay money now. And it's probably partly because it's so insane how they make them or whatever, but I do miss the look of the earlier movies.

[David Sims]

Do you? Well, yeah. These two basically had to be digital, largely because of the pandemic and just workflows becoming so much more complicated and longer. Do you folks know what they did with Final Destination Bloodlines in imax?

[Griffin Newman]

No. I saw it at the Outline Alamo.

[David Sims]

It is the only time I can think of where the filmmakers have used the aspect ratio change as a deliberate storytelling tool with rules that they do not break.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I saw it in imax. Hunger Games don't even.

[Griffin Newman]

But go on.

[David Sims]

What does Hunger Games do in Hunger.

[Griffin Newman]

Games Catching Fire when she enters the arena, it switches and it is when.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

She'S in the elevator.

[Griffin Newman]

Ever seen?

[David Sims]

I didn't see any.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

What is the thing in Bloodline Lines? I don't. I saw it in imax. I don't remember.

[David Sims]

Every time death is present the screen, that nasty guy.

[Griffin Newman]

Death slowly grows Isn't the best part in Bloodlines when the grandma's like yelling at death, like, I see you.

[David Sims]

Yeah, but it's so good. They don't do the like hard cut.

[Griffin Newman]

No, that rocks.

[David Sims]

That rocks.

[Griffin Newman]

They do the very expansion slowly grows.

[David Sims]

And it's usually coupled with a camera move and the score going a little off look. And so you're those guys who made.

[Griffin Newman]

The Kim Possible Disney Channel movie or whatever.

[David Sims]

They my off favorite contestants on on the Lot. I referred to them as the Jennifer Hudson of On the Lot where when they got eliminated it was like, what the is this show? And I'm the only person who is still watching that show at that point. And it is so satisfying to see them make good. You have not seen this movie yet, Ben. No. Fall Destination Bloodlines is.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You're going to love it that you.

[Ben Hosley]

Guys are like so hyped on.

[David Sims]

It is so good. And it also pulls off some of the shit that like Fucking and Final Reckoning is trying to do of tying back to previous movies in a way that is really smart and doesn't feel fan servicey. Feels like deepening. Like I. On paper, I have no problem with the idea of making the Rabbit's Foot the like origin of the entity because the Rabbit Swift thing is still so annoying and is brought up all the time as JJ being way too cute and in your face about the McGuffin thing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It doesn't actually matter, right?

[David Sims]

In a way where I'm like, I get that it doesn't matter. But the second that you're making jokes about the fact that it doesn't matter, you're telling me to not take your movie seriously. You're like saying like, and by the way, this is all fucking bullshit where I'm like, I'm into you retconning the Rabbit split to have been something so that that feels less galling and glib. But it too much going on in this movie. Like you. You can't have that be one of 8,000 elements that sort of just like, thrown at you and then never talked about it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Can I ask a question about the ending of this movie that I'm like, I'm truly confused about. And this is like, I don't think of myself as a particularly stupid movie watcher.

[David Sims]

I think you're a dummy. A very intelligent person and a very film literate person.

[Griffin Newman]

I like how we had opposite answers.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But thank you, Griffin, and fuck you, David.

[David Sims]

You know, Marie and I are very close.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Our deaths are close together and our birthdays are.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Our birthdays are really close.

[David Sims]

So we're really similar going.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We're both the same age as the. Look who's talking, baby.

[David Sims]

Hey, do you know that Marie and.

[Griffin Newman]

I, you guys both just looked at me like I was supposed to go like, whoa.

[David Sims]

Do you know that Marie and I are really close to. Mikey, baby Mikey.

[Griffin Newman]

What a. What a dream.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And his desk is in between the two of ours and his birthday.

[Griffin Newman]

Are you guys having, like, a mental episode?

[David Sims]

It's called friendship, David. Try it sometime.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, but. Okay, the. The whole. The plan to defeat the entity. Does cyberspace go offline?

[Griffin Newman]

Marie, you are not stupid. This is a move. This is a thing the movie does. Multiple critics asked me this as, like, after the movie screened, where they're like, wait, so does cyberspace go away or not? Because everything seems fine.

[David Sims]

The final sequence, basically.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But no one has iPhones.

[David Sims]

No.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay.

[David Sims]

The final sequence is centered around, like.

[Griffin Newman]

If cyberspace, like, if, like, the Internet went away like that, I think that would be fairly bad because, like, a lot of stuff is sort of, like, tied to that. Right, Right. Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Including freaking podcasts.

[Griffin Newman]

We'd be fucked. We'd be fucked. Entity. We have to plug it back in. There's just one podcast. It's just the entity going, like.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Like, the entity would have a.

[David Sims]

Today's Episode is brought to you by Manscape promo code Entity.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I feel like the entity already kind of seems like a podcast.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Whoa. And he has very, very, very aromatic balls, thanks to his manscaped wipes or whatever, that you're always just like, oh, shaving cream, deodorant. And you're like, 50 ball wipes, crop duster, crop protector. I think that early in the film, obviously they're like, you can't do that. You would destroy cyberspace, which is so bad. And at the end of the movie, me, it's either just like, no, that didn't happen because of what they did. They did it right.

[David Sims]

Because it's basically this underground archive in Africa. That controls all of the information of the Internet, which is why it's protected.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, but it's only the things that someone.

[David Sims]

It's like a library of, like, a backup.

[Griffin Newman]

Like a big backup. It's like a big zip drive.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Remember those?

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

But.

[David Sims]

But that if the entity gets in there, he'll have access to everything. So the. I mean, this is the whole final setup of it that I do find effective, where it's like, they need Haley outwall, because the difference between a good pickpocket and a great pickpocket's a blink of an eye. And basically, if she pulls it, she pulls it a millisecond too early, it won't work. They don't capture the enemy.

[Ben Hosley]

And I was worried that she wasn't going to do it.

[Griffin Newman]

Me, too.

[David Sims]

I find it satisfying. The shot of her doing the Yank.

[Griffin Newman]

It's cool.

[David Sims]

Got me both.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's great. But again, I'm like. I kind of would have liked it if he killed cyberspace, because then that would have felt like, okay, well, this. We're done.

[Ben Hosley]

I wanted to see him fight.

[David Sims]

Welcome to society.

[Ben Hosley]

Like, fist fight.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I think we needed a lawnmower man style. Like, he's like materializes Superman 2.

[David Sims]

It has a version of that where the evil computer turns it into a lady three.

[Griffin Newman]

Superman three.

[David Sims]

Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. But you want. You want that?

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, Yeah, I do.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. I mean, I don't. I. I. As I was watching the final scene, I'm like, okay, so we did, like, a hard reset on Twitter tech. No one in Trafalgar Square is looking at their iPhones. They're just people living in the moment.

[Griffin Newman]

You know what? And that's all we want.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

And I was like. I was like, you know what? That's so nice.

[Griffin Newman]

I vastly prefer the greatest ending of recent memory, which is Ready Player One, where they're like, you can have your phones, but can you take, like, one to two days off a week? And everyone's like, okay, the greatest moment.

[David Sims]

In recent ending, in recent memory is bloodline Bloodlines. The final moment of bloodlines is unbelievable.

[Griffin Newman]

It is. I mean, I loved it, and I was very satisfied by the final moment of Bloodlines. That is what every Final Destination movie does.

[David Sims]

Look, I rewatched in the run up to this, and it's. That always hits that every Final Destination moment movie ends with someone being like, we're in the clear. And then the worst thing happens.

[Griffin Newman]

Bloodlines does acknowledge that. Mary Elizabeth Winstead or no, is it two. No, the girl from two.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Whatever. Yeah.

[David Sims]

She survives. But there's a similar ironic end.

[Griffin Newman]

There is, but, like, she's the only one. Tony Todd does shout it up. Who actually pulled it off.

[David Sims]

I like the. The way Bloodlines handles the. The cannon.

[Griffin Newman]

Me too.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I really could. Really impressed.

[David Sims]

Had a great.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Only movie I've ever been to where a child dies in the entire audience, like, celebrating.

[Griffin Newman]

The only thing I'll say and everyone's saying is, like, I don't like the CGI gore. Not in a way where I'm like, I. Like, I won't look at this, but I'm just like, I understand why this is what we do now. I understand it's way easier.

[David Sims]

It also is basically a trademark of that franchise.

[Griffin Newman]

It is.

[David Sims]

They've been doing CGI kills since the whole time.

[Griffin Newman]

Basically since one, Right? Certainly since two.

[David Sims]

Yeah, two, Absolutely.

[Griffin Newman]

And like. But it never quite. It's why Final Destination will always be a sort of B tier for me.

[David Sims]

Because, let's say it, those movies are not scary. They are mostly, I don't think, scary. No.

[Griffin Newman]

Like that, you know. All right, I'll. I'll take it back. Because things like the plane crash sometimes will be visceral enough for a minute or two.

[David Sims]

You find the plane crash up soon.

[Griffin Newman]

Or the logs.

[David Sims]

Well, yes, but like, for a minute.

[Griffin Newman]

Or two, you're like, this is intense.

[David Sims]

This is scary. I think it's intense more than it's scary. I think the movie will sometimes get thriller type jolts.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yes.

[David Sims]

But there's never, like, slasher movie. Like. Oh, not really.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. In this one, I had to look away anytime the piercings came into play.

[David Sims]

Totally.

[Griffin Newman]

I like that too.

[David Sims]

They get the thriller tension.

[Griffin Newman]

You know, there was that tweet of, like, Don Draper in the movie theater. Right. Where it was like watching Final Destination and, like, a screw starts to come loose anytime.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But, like, specifically, body piercings are, like, a big ick for me. Like, not. I'm not like, trying to get. You're not judging you just personally just if, like, that is a fear of mine to get yanked.

[David Sims]

Linked, like MRI goes into research mode. And by the way, and let this be a lesson to all of our listeners, never put it in research.

[Griffin Newman]

No, no, no.

[David Sims]

Then you're gonna.

[Griffin Newman]

I do love that Final Destination posits that, like, every MRI machine could, like, implode the hospital if left, right turned on.

[David Sims]

That's why you never get a Prince Edward piercing.

[Griffin Newman]

It's Prince Albert.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Talk about this when we cover.

[David Sims]

Excuse me. Maybe piercing is a Different thing.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, but I'm assuming we're going to just do, like a lot of Royal Family digressions. I'm reading a really great Diana book right now called Diana World.

[David Sims]

David, am I allowed to say, especially if this helps move tickets. We are in advanced negotiations to unretire the bit for one night only live.

[Griffin Newman]

And on night only, One night only.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We will retire the bit.

[David Sims]

We are also in advanced negotiations to license the entire Dream Girl songbook, which we plan to perform from.

[Griffin Newman]

We're going to do that one where about how we're a tree. Yeah.

[David Sims]

We are a family. Like a giant tree.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Where you're like, isn't this supposed to be a Motown musical? Tom Cruise is in this film. This is his only film this year that I know of.

[David Sims]

Wait, let me just check IMDb to make sure you're right about that.

[Griffin Newman]

Next year, he's in a. What's been described as a comedy being directed by Alejandro Gonzalez.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Described as a comedy?

[David Sims]

Really? Huh.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's also now, now it's being described as a kind of comedy by that crazy Mexican, Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

What was it that Sean Penn called him on the Oscar stage?

[David Sims]

Well, he said, like, someone check this man's green card. Call ice.

[Griffin Newman]

Let me find the exact interview. Because he spoke very highly of Tom Cruise in an interview. I guess he was at Cannes because they're doing a 20th anniversary for Amoris Perros screening or something. And he said, okay, well, let me. Let's move past all the Tom Cruise, all the Morris Paris talk.

[Ben Hosley]

This is the last Beetlejuice ring Pop.

[David Sims]

The final reckoning.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm so glad. We need to get some proper snacks now.

[Ben Hosley]

I know.

[David Sims]

Costco.

[Ben Hosley]

It's okay if I have.

[David Sims]

Of course.

[Ben Hosley]

You just want to make sure he says.

[Griffin Newman]

This is what he says.

[David Sims]

Hey, Ben, how are you gonna fit that ring pop on your hand when you got fucking wedding ring on there? Producer Ben is married. He is a family. Like a giant tree.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's what Mr. Inoricu says. This is a wild comedy of catastrophic proportions. It's insane. Tom makes me laugh every day. The range I discovered working with him is unprecedented for me as a director. I was so fucking Jesus, Alejandro. Impressed and happy. So that's fun.

[David Sims]

The second you said a giant comedy, I turned into a fucking Looney Tunes puff of dust so I could refund my tickets immediately.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I. I think Tom is really brutal comedy.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a wild comedy of human nature.

[David Sims]

I like him at comedy. You know who I don't trust? Make him comedy.

[Griffin Newman]

Alejandro Gonzalez, One of the great comedies of all time.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Okay, like what? I think I'm.

[Griffin Newman]

Birdman had a joke or two in it, I guess.

[David Sims]

Oh, that movie's absolutely considerate.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I really like that. I find everything he does in Tropic Thunder to be really cringy.

[David Sims]

I agree. I don't like.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't love that. That performance. Perform whatever, you know. I don't like Tropic Thunder that much.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I like Tropic Thunder.

[David Sims]

I've rewatched it recently, and I liked it a little more than I used to, but I do feel like it's all overstated.

[Griffin Newman]

It's just.

[David Sims]

And I don't care about subtlety, but it. It is like, so. Everything's so over cranked in it.

[Griffin Newman]

It's just like there is a good movie in it, and it kind of annoys me. Like, some of the Cruise stuff, like, out of comic context, is kind of funny.

[David Sims]

I think that.

[Griffin Newman]

And him dancing at the end is funny.

[David Sims]

McConaughey is, like, on fire in that.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, that's because McConaughey was just on fire.

[David Sims]

But that's life. Quiet start of the. No one gives him credit for. And I'm like, Makani, to me, is doing a more incisive like, damning portrayal of Hollywood bullshitters than cruises. But Cruz just has the makeup and the hair.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I know, but it just. It feels.

[Griffin Newman]

And I'm realizing I never saw Bardo. I have not seen any.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Has anyone?

[Griffin Newman]

Well, I assume someone did, since.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You'Re looking at me right now.

[Griffin Newman]

False. Chronicle of truths right over here.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Isn't that what it was called?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I love. Okay, back to Mission Impossible. Love. When Tom refers to the entity as the lord of lies.

[Griffin Newman]

That part's good. When he's like, we can get one over.

[David Sims]

I want that kind of self Serious.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's a tightrope. And, like, these movies have walked it fairly well. And I do feel like this one is just not quite as good. Walking the tightrope. But I still liked it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

As I said, everyone got so mad at me for putting it seventh on my Mission Impossible list.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The floor for me is, like, four stars. By the way, Mission Impossible movies, like, I don't like, they can be stupid, and I will just love them.

[David Sims]

I think you and I ranked it the same way. And people on our separate.

[Griffin Newman]

People are mad that we put it.

[David Sims]

Below three, but they were also getting mad about it before they had seen it. And I was seeing this. I'm also on The Mission Impossible subreddit and as early reviews were coming in, everyone was like, well, we don't have to trust them. Maybe they're insane. The Lord, Right? Well, there was this feeling of, like.

[Griffin Newman]

We literally saw a lot of pain.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We talked. We. Before you guys saw it. And at Ben's wedding celebration, Erlich was there, and he had seen it.

[David Sims]

We were panicked, and we.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

He was like, it's bad. And we're like, you.

[David Sims]

You.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You don't have good opinions.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, I just say that to him, right? Just anytime he speaks, really.

[Ben Hosley]

But it's still kind of crazy to me that you threw a wallet at his head.

[Griffin Newman]

He deserved it. I show you that all the time. Time.

[Ben Hosley]

You do it all the time.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I should. I should do it more every day. He's been at can. He's been at camp for. I. He's back now? Yeah, he's back 12 or 13 days. His wife, who is single, parenting as the Griffin, just would just text me, like, another day. You know what I mean? Like, every morning. We're just like, I. He. He should. He should hang his head in shame.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, well, he likes to. He saw 32 movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Movies, exactly. It's just got disgusting. On the beach, no less.

[David Sims]

Yeah. These are things you hate doing. Going to screenings, going to the beach, writing reviews.

[Griffin Newman]

Honestly, people.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I hate when people complain about can.

[Griffin Newman]

What you mean complain about going to can?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, I'm like you.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. It just seems kind of nice.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It seems like if you're gonna go.

[Griffin Newman]

To a busy film festival, seems like a pretty fun one.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Best one to go to.

[David Sims]

You get to spot Jeff Wells everywhere.

[Griffin Newman]

Jeff Wells, it seems also, by the way, he did the opposite of Earth. He saw, like, five movies in 20 days or whatever. He'd be like, logging on Hollywood elsewhere. Like, feel a. A little tired today.

[David Sims]

It felt like Ehrlich sent me a picture of Jeff Wells within 45 minutes of him landing at the airport. Like, he was just, like, immediately, here he is.

[Griffin Newman]

Who is funding. Like, Jeff Wells is like Patreon that gets into can. Like, who's.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Great question.

[David Sims]

I. I don't know what shadowy entity.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The entity.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the entity.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

You're not entity.

[David Sims]

You're not subscribed to HD plus.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm not. Was I supposed to be?

[David Sims]

Yeah, it was a government decree. I have to support small businesses. No, I find this movie very frustrating. I still.

[Griffin Newman]

You're. I think you're more frustrated than I. But I'm not disagreeing with you.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Sims]

It is just.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I get. I get it.

[David Sims]

So sloppy. And I would forgive a lot of its messiness if it were also trimmer. Like, it's not like, oh, there are scenes that are badly executed or, like, threads that are, like, poorly tied together. It's also just like, guys, do less, do less. Take most of this out.

[Griffin Newman]

I think macquarie's a better filmmaker than Abrams. Speaking to this rank me ranking this below three, but three for its flaws and occasional kind of, you know, lens flarey. I can't even see what's going on stuff as Philip Seymour Hoffman.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Seymour Hoffman.

[Griffin Newman]

It's got very fun kind of team stuff in it, generally.

[David Sims]

Fairly complete idea, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Exactly. It's got a story, it's telling in two hours. Pretty compelling cruises, very locked in.

[David Sims]

And it, Hoffman alone is like, giving it a full star.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a totally entertaining movie. Like, I have it below. To me, it's sort of like Fallout Ghost Protocol. That's where it's just like, the madness just came together so perfectly. Rogue Nation's right up there.

[David Sims]

Yeah. And then those three, for me, are the top.

[Griffin Newman]

And then the DEA movie is so special and silly and fun. I think people slightly overrate it. I think so, too, because DE. Such a madman. And like, it's so fun to watch any de.

[David Sims]

But that's right. I put that and Dead Reckoning.

[Griffin Newman]

Correct.

[David Sims]

And then. And. And three is at the bottom of that tier. And like this and two are the only ones that actively frustrate me while I'm watching.

[Griffin Newman]

I like this way more than two. I don't like to. There's been a lot of tour visionism out there, including from Marie Bardo with her false Chronicle of Truth.

[David Sims]

I mean, two is another. Like, the good stuff in it is great, but there's less good stuff in it than in this.

[Griffin Newman]

The villain in it is disaster, disastrous. He's so bad. Sorry, Duke Gray. I don't know what you're up to.

[David Sims]

Right now, but at least he was. He made a great Wolverine. We all saw him play that character to wild success for 25 years and everything worked out for him.

[Griffin Newman]

What does he do? He's married to Claire. For Lonnie, I did know that he can get it.

[David Sims]

Seriously, I got no complaints about that.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

They both are like Scottish actors who, like, had a moment at the end of the 90s, beginning of the 2000s, and then were never seen from again.

[David Sims]

Do you think they just sit at home and talk about that? Go like, man, it really almost happened, huh?

[Griffin Newman]

Crazy how we're Scottish.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

She.

[David Sims]

She was the spokesperson for some doers.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah, I think she still is. I think that's pretty much like funding their entire life.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I like those commercials.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Doers.

[David Sims]

Jacks, he played Arthur Miller in My Week with Marilyn, which was a real kind of jump scare casting of like, oh, yeah, you're still around.

[Griffin Newman]

And then he went like, yeah, he.

[David Sims]

Pulled the mask off.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It was really fun to see the. Some of the masks. Masks at the mommy exhibit. They got the Wolf Blitzer mask.

[David Sims]

They got the Blitz. They got the. This was another thing we saw that we commented on. They have a couple of the life casts, right? And like the Hoffman mask. And we were talking about, especially in an era where you still literally had to do plaster head cast, now they can do the head scans so you don't have like, you're not suffocated. Your skin isn't being pulled.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's all jowly and depressed. It looks like a death mask.

[David Sims]

Right? So they all look like death masks.

[Griffin Newman]

Because people like the Wolf Blitzer one, especially Haunted hunting, right?

[David Sims]

They're just like, so blank and like gravity's fighting against them and whatever. And then you look at the Tom Cruise headcast and you're like, that has presence.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. Like he's staring straight ahead.

[Griffin Newman]

The man's famous.

[David Sims]

The man just. He. He's got whatever. Weird. Yeah. He sacrificed everything at the altar of being able to turn it on and get it done.

[Griffin Newman]

We're wrapping up here, in my opinion. But my point that I was trying to make a million years ago when I brought up Pinari too, is like, Cruz making that movie, whether or not it's good, whether or not it's a laugh out loud comedy. I'm hearing it's actually secretly wedding crashers too. It's like it really feels like him very consciously announcing to the world, like.

[David Sims]

Okay, and him signing a deal with DeLuca.

[Griffin Newman]

Correct. Like, the stigma. I'm done with the last 10 plus years of stunts and action and all that. I'm making a movie where the second lead is Sandra Hooler. Like, you know, I'm making something that's auteurist and interesting.

[David Sims]

I mean, and, you know, it's a fascinating thing of like, Top Gun was supposed to come out in 2020. I think they did some serious re editing with the delays and figured out a way to improve the movie. But it wasn't like they did reshoots or anything. They made some structural changes that I. McQuarrie talks about being like. With a little extra time, we cracked a couple things. Right? But that movie was basically in the can in 2019 obviously doesn't come out until 2022 and saves the theater. But he has spent the last five years of his life just working on these two movies, which is insane. They have taken him from his late 50s into his early 60s. And I agree with you that it did feel like him throwing down a gauntlet of being like, I'm making a deal with DeLuca. I'm going over to Warner Brothers. We're retighting titling Dead Reckoning Part two into the final reckoning. Maybe this is a transition point in my career.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm in my mid-60s.

[David Sims]

I'm in my mid-60s, 60s. And there are all these other movies that he and Macquarie keep saying that they want to make that are original films. Films that keep getting pushed back because he'll wrote Macquarie. So go make them yet another. Yep.

[Griffin Newman]

I do not want another one.

[David Sims]

I want it to be done.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. I want it to be done fast. Xi let leterrier cook. It is a Let momoa cook.

[David Sims]

No, but here it is an analog for me where I'm like F9. I was like, oh my God, they got this thing back on tracks. I'm happy with this movie, you know? Yeah. And then, you know, Lynn is back. I think he drilled back into what I meant. Missed. And then 10 like X is such a deflating experience for me where I'm like, guys, I'd actually be happier if you never finish this. But it would be so weird if.

[Griffin Newman]

That was the end of the franchise.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

But it like is just like a damn exploding.

[David Sims]

It truly feels like it's been three years and they are no closer to making the next movie.

[Griffin Newman]

It certainly seems like it's still at the Vin Diesel Instagram post stage.

[David Sims]

Absolute long term jam.

[Ben Hosley]

Ben, what's up, man?

[David Sims]

You're getting into fashion all the time.

[Ben Hosley]

Yep, yep.

[David Sims]

You know me.

[Ben Hosley]

I've been for years.

[David Sims]

For years you've been getting in.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Media res. I'm not big on trends, as you know. I'm big on clothes that feel good and last.

[Ben Hosley]

Right. You're about comfort.

[David Sims]

I'm about comfort. And I'm about ease. And that's why I keep going back to Quint. They're lightweight layers and high quality stuff. Staples have become my everyday essentials. They make me feel like a grown up Ben. Dressing like a grown up. I'm dressing like a grown up man. You know what I'm saying?

[Ben Hosley]

Yep.

[David Sims]

Ding dong.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay, hold on. Creek.

[David Sims]

Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle.

[Ben Hosley]

You seem to be shaking something in your hand.

[David Sims]

Hey, what's going on here?

[Ben Hosley]

What is this place?

[David Sims]

Who?

[Ben Hosley]

I'm sorry? Who. Who. Who are you?

[David Sims]

I'm Baby Mikey.

[Ben Hosley]

Baby Mikey.

[David Sims]

Look who's talking. Oh, sure.

[Ben Hosley]

Hey, what's up, baby?

[David Sims]

Mike, you're.

[Ben Hosley]

It's a little weird cuz your mouth isn't moving.

[David Sims]

That's not what I do.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[David Sims]

That's not really the style.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I just like say the things the babies are thinking, you know.

[Ben Hosley]

Sure, sure, sure.

[David Sims]

But I don't really say them out loud. I convey them, I guess via aura.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm hearing you. So. Yeah, come on in.

[David Sims]

Look who's listening.

[Ben Hosley]

Hey.

[David Sims]

Hey.

[Ben Hosley]

Ben?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

What are you here for?

[David Sims]

Well, when I grow up, I want to dress like a man.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, right.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, there's this great service, Quince. We're actually in the middle of doing a ad read for them. They have all the things that you would want to wear this summer and I guess something for you little baby to aspire to.

[David Sims]

Aspire to? In summer's future. Now you say all the things. Let me do a little test here to see if they have exactly what I want. Okay, you tell me. They sell Italian sweet swim trunks in various colors. Yes. Men's recycled polyester stretch tech blazers.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Okay, but I'm gonna stump you on this one. There is zero chance that Quint sells 100 European linen relaxed long sleeve shirts.

[Ben Hosley]

You are gonna be in for a great surprise.

[David Sims]

They do. They don't sell them in chambray stripe and two xl, do they?

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Well, that's the thing to aspire to. Hey, would you mind passing the milk? Sure.

[Ben Hosley]

Here you go.

[David Sims]

Wah. Wah.

[Ben Hosley]

Baby sounds the best part about Quince is everything that they make is half the cost of similar brands.

[David Sims]

Oh, that's great. And let me, let me guess. They work directly with top artisans and cut out the middlemen. So Quince gives you luxury prices without the markups.

[Ben Hosley]

How did you guess that?

[David Sims]

I got a sort of six sense for these things.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, you seem like you got maybe a sense for business.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I am the child of an accountant. Listen, Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices. And premium fabrics and finishes. Even I know that. And I'm a baby. Hey, Ben.

[Ben Hosley]

What's up?

[David Sims]

Mikey Gagoo. I happen to notice you're looking pretty fly today.

[Ben Hosley]

Thank you, man. Yeah, I gotta say, I've been wearing quints a lot lately. I really love their stuff. It was really nice to just like get a bunch of new fresh stuff for the warmer season.

[David Sims]

Well, tell me about those new fits.

[Ben Hosley]

You'Re throwing Ben right now, I'm rocking the men's ultimate commuter seven inch short. So, yeah, I'm showing a lot of gams, as you can see. But I just, I feel comfortable and I just think that they're really flattering. And, you know, I like to show leg. What can I say?

[David Sims]

Hey, man, I'd show him if I had him. My legs are like 3 inches total.

[Ben Hosley]

You'll get there someday.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm a baby.

[Ben Hosley]

You'll get there someday.

[David Sims]

I'm a baby. I might have the streetwise savoir faire of an adult man. But let's remember, I am a baby.

[Ben Hosley]

And I gotta tell you, too, like, with this polo that I'm wearing from them, yeah, it just, it feels like luxury quality, but it's just not breaking the bank.

[David Sims]

These are clothes you're not going to want to feed to Mr. Toilet Man. Let's put it that way.

[Ben Hosley]

That is exactly, exactly the way I would describe how I feel about quints.

[David Sims]

Can't think of a better way to put it. Hey, Mikey, this is Griffin again. Do you mind if I just close out the ad with a quick call to action? Basically, we're telling our listeners to stick to the staples that last with elevated essentials from quint. Go to quint.com check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's full year. That's quince.com check. Q-U-I-N-C.com check to get free shipping. 365 day returns. Quince.com check. Hey, one more thing over here.

[Ben Hosley]

What's up, Mikey?

[David Sims]

I got something I need you to order for me. Yep, a fresh diaper.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, no, I'm sorry.

[David Sims]

I'm still a baby. Foreign.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, the fact that the rock is in the Post credits of Fast 10.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And now is just kind of like I'm making a 24 movies. Like, it's like he's not even around for this.

[David Sims]

Brock being in the post credits of Fast X, everyone was like, oh, so he's back for fast X2 or whatever. And then he, within a week, posts on Instagram. By the way, what this is setting up is a solo Hobbs movie. I'm not coming back to mainline Fast and Furious. Furious, the next Fast and Furious film is going to be solo Hobbs. Something that also seems nowhere closer to happening. No director, no writer attached. Nothing's happening on that franchise box office game Let things Die.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, we can do it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We can.

[David Sims]

We can.

[Griffin Newman]

What's going to Be number one.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

We have the Thursday numbers.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I think Lilo's gonna be number one.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. There's no. Think about it. That thing's making a ton of money.

[David Sims]

It looks like it's gonna make at least $150 million.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. So I'll tell you what else it looks. Looks like poo. Poo.

[David Sims]

David is pretending to smoke a pink pen.

[Griffin Newman]

Poop.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Are you smoking the poop?

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. Number two.

[David Sims]

I just want to remind people one of the first moments of being like, is Tom Cruise losing a little bit of his heat? It's not the same circumstance, but is.

[Griffin Newman]

Lilo and Stitch beating Minard?

[David Sims]

Opening weekend and domestic final.

[Griffin Newman]

You can't keep Stitch down. That's what we're learning.

[David Sims]

I'm just like 23 years later, Cruz went up against Stitch again. This time it feels like he has the confidence of being like, I know I'm not going to beat him. I just need to do well.

[Griffin Newman]

Maybe Final Reckoning should have ended with him saying, ohana means family. Probably as he meets Benji again or what.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Probably that would have, I think, like.

[Griffin Newman]

Or like Ilsa comes out of her grave and it's like, ohana means family.

[David Sims]

Yeah. And then you bring Ving Rhames back as Cobra Bubbles. I'm Luther's brother. Cobra Bubble.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

This would. This is all making sense.

[David Sims]

This is good screenwriting. Number two. The crustacean band is there. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Number two at the box office is going to be Mission Impossible. The Final Reckoning, it's tracking for like around 100. Oh, 100, I think, for the four day.

[David Sims]

Well, we'll see because it got a Memorial Day right. It's going to make some more between 80 and 100, hopefully. Although dead Reckoning greatly underperformed the expectations even of a day or two before release.

[Griffin Newman]

It did. Yeah, it did. So we'll see.

[David Sims]

I guess number three in America will be Final Destination Bloodlines.

[Griffin Newman]

Without a doubt. A huge hit.

[David Sims]

Kicking ass and taking names pretty much.

[Griffin Newman]

Much, like, guaranteed to be the biggest in the franchise. Right.

[David Sims]

Almost out grossed domestically every entry. In the opening weekend alone, all the Final Destination movies have basically topped out under 60.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it was just V that made 66.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

So, yes, this movie's already outgrossed all of them by making. It's already made 70 and it's going to make more. It's a great movie. Lots of fun. I don't know.

[David Sims]

Tardigra. Really, really, really good. Like, one of the most satisfying popcorn movies I've seen in a long time.

[Griffin Newman]

Great time.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Had a Great time.

[Griffin Newman]

I was at Alamo. Ate like chicken wings.

[David Sims]

So many applause breaks. And I felt last night at Mission Impossible, imax, people trying to start it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And it wouldn't really take. And Final Destination bloodlines had like 10 spontaneous. Everyone just being like, holy shit, that was so cool.

[Griffin Newman]

It's also right. That's a movie just made out of the applause breaks. Right. Like everything.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

We got applause when Tony for the beginning of Tony. Todd's scene in the end.

[David Sims]

And the title card.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The title card.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, he should get an Oscar. Number four at the box office will be Sinners, which I'm told has bankrupted Hollywood. One of the most ruinous financial follies ever released.

[David Sims]

All time. I mean, we've got.

[Griffin Newman]

What were they thinking making that.

[David Sims]

We've gotten ourself into a state right now where, like, as much as once again, four months ago, everyone was like, is Hollywood finally dead? A story that's gotten repeated the last four years in a row. Right. Anytime there's a bad season of box office because. Because no movies are getting released, there is now, like, an absolute war for IMAX screens where you're like, sinners was too popular on IMAX screens that now they need to bring it back.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, when Thunderbolts went on imax, people were like, boom, get it off.

[David Sims]

Final Destination only had one week because it has to hand over to Mission Impossible, which is then shortening its run to bring Sinners back to imax. If you make movies that people want to see, they will go see them.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, no, I, I, I don't, I don't dis. I don't agree with you at all. And I think it's disgusting that Sinners was made and they should have made Black Panther 5 instead. I don't.

[David Sims]

David, I never noticed that Property of Ted Sarando tattoo on your neck saying, people don't actually.

[Griffin Newman]

People can't walk to theaters. They can't get to them. They don't exist anymore.

[David Sims]

It is elitist to think that people like sitting in rooms together.

[Griffin Newman]

Sinners living room. I'm so thrilled for its success. I do think it's just like, it was a shameful moment when that movie opened well. And everyone was like, well, it doesn't matter.

[David Sims]

All those people should be like, eaten crow. They should turn their cameras on and for 12 hours, live stream, eating crow pie.

[Griffin Newman]

Humble pies for all. Number five at the box office is a little success story called a Minecraft movie where the only question now is, will it hit $1 billion? Despite being stupid garbage, it is Another.

[David Sims]

Funny thing that, like, three months ago, it was like, Mike DeLuca and Pamela Abdi are going to be fired within two days.

[Griffin Newman]

Days.

[David Sims]

And now they are on such a hot streak. I mean, Minecraft, Sinners and Final Destination in a row.

[Griffin Newman]

Some other hits at the box office right now. Accountant 2. Haven't seen it yet.

[David Sims]

A film that Warner Brothers gave up and let Amazon make a really good.

[Griffin Newman]

Movie I've heard about called Hurry Up Tomorrow with the weekend. I'm hearing that's real fun.

[David Sims]

Oh, Lord, I want to see.

[Griffin Newman]

I watched the Idol and I was.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

No, you don't.

[Griffin Newman]

Acting from this fellow.

[David Sims]

I'll tell you what I want to see. I just wish the Weeknd would make something about how he's really horny with a young starlet. I wish. I don't care if it's a TV show, a movie, or both. I just think there's this part of this personality that hasn't been explored. And he's such a good actor.

[Griffin Newman]

Number seven.

[David Sims]

My joke is that he's doing the new version of the Pete Davidson. I can't stop making movies about myself and my mom. Does it work as a TV show instead?

[Griffin Newman]

A movie that's performing really well in an exciting way is Frank Friendship. People are going to see.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I want to apologize to people in the most recent. Well, by the time this episode comes out, it'll be like a couple weeks away in the checkbook.

[David Sims]

I was like, wonderful substack that you run.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I'm gonna talk about two films that are, you know, accessible for everyone to go see this weekend. And I didn't realize that Friendship wasn't in wide release.

[Griffin Newman]

But it is now.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Now it is.

[David Sims]

It is getting wider.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But I, you know, I'm sorry for being a Coastal League. I truly didn't know that Friendship wasn't wide yet because it was in, like, week two when I saw it was.

[David Sims]

It was going semi wide. I. It is. It feels like we're in that flux state where I'm, like, trying not to get too excited, but it feels like that movie is working. And my fear is that it's going to, like, hit 2,000 screens. No one shows up and they're like, oh, we've hit the ceiling of this, which keeps happening. Anytime they're trying to, like, platform a comedy in the last five years and have something catch on as a word of mouth hit. It feels like it's gonna work for this one. I'm praying it does. If this movie makes, like, $20 million, it will be such a victory.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. That's all. I mean, there's movies like the Amateur and Until dawn still sort of.

[David Sims]

I saw the Amateur.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. The Amateur is pretty boring, huh?

[David Sims]

Yeah. I like when he does the amateur thing.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm just an amateur.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Until dawn. Just a weird. Doesn't exist movie. Like an absolute very popular video game with a big director.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, it got very popular.

[Griffin Newman]

Is strong. I would say it had somewhat popular.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It had its moment like, I don't know, like eight, nine years ago.

[Griffin Newman]

Exactly. Kind of old news.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

The movie like got delayed for so long.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

But didn't like Larry Fessenden write that video game. And that's kind of graham res.

[David Sims]

Yep. Absolutely. And I'm like, maybe you should have let them make the movie. No disrespect to David Sandberg, who I. I like quite a bit. And I think stuck in a Ruth.

[Griffin Newman]

He's in this rut. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah. But maybe like let. Let Larry and GR make that. Here's. Here's a little bit of house business. I want to just quickly talk about the episodes.

[Griffin Newman]

Do the house business.

[David Sims]

I want to talk a little bit about our Patreon just because as people know, we tend to record this episode very far in advance. And a thing like this that's coming out in a quicker turnaround with a new release and probably will have.

[Griffin Newman]

What do you want to say about our Patreon?

[David Sims]

Good opportunity to talk about these things. So over on our Patreon right now, we are doing a series on. On the Superman films. Going from Reeve straight through to Corn Sweat. We will be doing a new release episode on James Gunn Superman. It will be on Patreon as the end of that series.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Not a commentary.

[David Sims]

It will be. We will go see it.

[Griffin Newman]

We will offer our commentary. We will, but it will be an event.

[David Sims]

The same format as this.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. It's a regular episode.

[David Sims]

Superman the movie to man of Steel. We're doing as commentary one watch alongs after that. It is what won our March Madness series, which is 90s indie comic heroes. We have for a number of reasons decided to add. We've beefed it out two more titles.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. By popular demand.

[David Sims]

By popular demand. And it has our scheduling. David's going on chronological order.

[Griffin Newman]

Relax, Ben Y Judge Dread. Relax, David Barb Wire.

[David Sims]

Relax, Griffin added until my V6 seen.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not.

[David Sims]

The next one is the Relax, Griffin.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, yeah. No, no. Spawn. Relax everybody.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Mystery Men. Relax, Griffin. And then just because we have to, in my opinion, it's not really Pete Travis's dread. Great movie. And then we're going to do something else for the end of the year.

[David Sims]

But that's what we're doing the last two slots to end out the holiday season. Just want people to know that we've added Crow. No, no.

[Griffin Newman]

And also not the like many straight to video Crow sequels.

[David Sims]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

That there's a lot.

[David Sims]

There's only one Crow movie worth with at all. Right. And it's the one we're gonna talk about. But we're very excited for that series. Fun. Feels like a good moment to talk about Pamela Anderson too.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Oh yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll make myself available for that episode.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, Marie, you have to watch Barbwire.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I'm looking forward to it.

[Griffin Newman]

Like wait, you never. You want to see Casablanca with Pam Anderson? Cyberpunk, you know, I'm looking.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Sounds with Udo Kier is like Dooley Wilson amazing.

[David Sims]

It's one of those movies that like not even Vinegar Syndrome is touched. But like Australian distributors have made like 8 disc 4k ultimate cut.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not a good.

[David Sims]

And I'm like, am I gonna fucking. But it's got. Am I gonna pay tariffs for a four case hardback slipcover, barbed wire? Possibly. But here's the other thing I want to say. We. We kind of very quietly launched what we're calling the no ad bits tier. It is an ad free tier due to also popular demand of people for a very long time time asking for that. It was a thing that we did kind of suddenly after going back and forth on it for a lot of years, we never really got to message about it. I just want to very clearly say what it is because there has been some confusion. Our basic $5 tier is still what it always is. The three episodes per month for blank check special features. For the $10 tier, you get the entire history of blank check of them, the entire back catalog and all new episodes, all without ads. If you get the $10 tier, every single episode is going to be in that one feed ad free.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

If you want to listen to old episodes and want to listen to them for free, you still can. Wherever you get your podcast, they will.

[Griffin Newman]

Have ads that tell you about very normal things.

[David Sims]

A lot of podcasts these days, especially ones that have been running as long as we have put older episodes behind a paywall. All we're not doing that. We're totally independent. We're constantly growing and hiring new people and trying to pay them well. But all of this to say, you know, we, we rely on the ad money. We get that they can be annoying to listen to. And we just went back and forth on the numbers, and this is sort of where it landed for it to be sustainable for us. So if that is the thing you care about, for $10, you're getting all the special features, content, content. Every new episode and every past episode in one feed, minus ads. That's what the deal is.

[Griffin Newman]

I need you to trust me one last time.

[David Sims]

Next week, we are talking about. Look who's talking. The Final Reckoning. No, no, it's next week.

[Griffin Newman]

We're talking about a little film called Clueless.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Our guest on that episode is Heidi Gardner. Of Saturday Night Live.

[David Sims]

Of Saturday Night Live.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a very fun episode.

[David Sims]

Fun episode.

[Griffin Newman]

We do briefly talk about Candy Kansas City, to everyone's total surprise.

[David Sims]

Yeah, she has a really good Clueless origin story.

[Griffin Newman]

She does. It's an awesome episode. She's got a great story.

[David Sims]

You know how we love asking guests, like, what's your history with this movie? Heidi came locked and loaded with one of the best ones. It's a very blank, checky story. I think anyone who listens to this podcast will love the. Will relate to having that specific a memory of the circumstances relating to seeing it for the first time. So, yeah. Yes. Look who's talking. The Final Reckoning will be happening on the aforementioned Patreon, which of course is.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Look who's talking now, but look who's talking too. Will have just.

[David Sims]

Will have just come out last week. Maxwingella. So that's what's going on here.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

I just watched that movie and you.

[Griffin Newman]

Are so happy, right?

[Marie Barty Salinas]

It's.

[Griffin Newman]

It's dog.

[David Sims]

Would you be surprised to hear. I mean, it's. It feels like an easy pun to call it dog, and yet it feels like the only accurate way to describe that film. Would you be surprised to hear that this is one of those instances where Ben showed up to a recording and was like, wait, you guys don't like this?

[Ben Hosley]

I thought the dog stuff was fun.

[David Sims]

He liked everything about it.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, that's.

[Ben Hosley]

His name is Rock.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Well, I haven't watched the dog one yet. I'm talking about the one with two.

[David Sims]

Two.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Two is fast. Two is, like, bad. But it's also.

[Griffin Newman]

It's got some weird stuff.

[David Sims]

It's like Laron's Antichrist.

[Marie Barty Salinas]

Yeah. So dark.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, a little dark.

[David Sims]

Yeah. I kind of love it.

[Griffin Newman]

All right, look, we've beaten the film's running time. Let's be done. Good night.

[David Sims]

Thank you all for listening. Good night, Good luck.

[Griffin Newman]

Goodbye to Ethan Hunt, possibly forever. Let's keep a hold on that 5D drive, please.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And like, look, go make a real movie. Chris McQuarrie. Not. These aren't real movies. Non. You know, make something up.

[David Sims]

Let's. Let's put this out there. Okay. I hope we will be covering Tom Cruise much more in the future with upcoming projects he makes with otor directors, possibly people we previously covered, possibly people will cover in the future. But I'm just like, I want him to get back to making the kind of thing that we talk about outside of this one franchise.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Thank you all for listening. And as always, you have to get the cruciform key to the Sylvester pole to unlock the podkova and then use the poison pillow in the pod cover to force the entity into the five dimensional drive.

[Ben Hosley]

The key maker. That's. That's.

[Griffin Newman]

He's the king of keys.

[David Sims]

So then that's the end.

[Griffin Newman]

But there's not one particular key.

[Ben Hosley]

It doesn't matter.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's so many keys.

[David Sims]

So quantity over, then that's that.

[Ben Hosley]

Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Simon. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hosley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our Associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithee. Research by JJ Burch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel with additional music by Alex Mitchell, artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Matt. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon Blank Check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at blankcheckpod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.