‘Minority Report’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Rewatchables – ‘Minority Report’ with Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

Introduction

In the April 22, 2025 episode of The Rewatchables hosted by Bill Simmons, alongside Chris Ryan and Van Lathan, the trio delves deep into the 2002 sci-fi classic Minority Report. This episode explores the film's enduring appeal, dissecting its cinematic craftsmanship, thematic richness, and technological foresight that have made it a staple for repeated viewings.

Overview of Minority Report

Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, is set in a dystopian future (2054) where a specialized police department called PreCrime apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three precognitive individuals, known as Precogs. The film's protagonist, Chief Detective John Anderton (Cruise), finds himself framed for a future murder he has yet to commit, prompting a frantic quest to uncover the truth.

Spielberg vs. Tom Cruise: Whose Movie Is It?

A central theme of the discussion revolves around the creative influence behind the film. At [03:06], Andy Gruenwald posits, “I think it's a Spielberg movie, but I don't think it works if it's not Tom Cruise.” Chris Ryan concurs at [03:52], emphasizing Spielberg's technical brilliance and Tom Cruise's indispensable role: “He’s really showing off how technically brilliant he is just to build tension using the camera and his mastery as a director.” This synergy between director and star is highlighted as a key factor in the film's success.

Technological Predictions: Accuracy and Relevance

The hosts examine Spielberg's vision of 2054 and its alignment with contemporary technological advancements. At [04:22], Chris Ryan reflects on the personalized advertising depicted in the film: “It's probably supposed to look like there's a version of this movie if it's directed by like David Fincher or someone like that, with a little bit of a darker palette.” They discuss elements such as self-driving cars and augmented reality, noting with humor at [10:22], “We at least have Waymo, but, yeah, we can't build half.”

Notable Scenes and Cinematic Techniques

Several key scenes are analyzed for their rewatchable qualities and technical execution:

• The Merry-Go-Round Revelation ([08:30] Bill Simmons): The moment Anderton realizes the "red ball" murders is dissected for its swift exposition of the film's premise, seamlessly immersing the audience in this complex narrative.

• Jetpack Chase and Action Sequences ([42:11] Andy Gruenwald): The jetpack fight orchestrated by Spielberg is lauded for its practical effects and high-energy choreography, embodying the film’s blend of action and futuristic settings.

• Eye Replacement Scene ([58:16] Bill Simmons): The practical effects used to depict Anderton’s eye replacement are praised for their realism and integration into the plot, adding depth to his character's transformation.

Influence of Philip K. Dick and Hitchcock

At [09:04], Andy Gruenwald connects the film’s themes to Philip K. Dick’s works, acknowledging the influence on the depiction of surveillance and predetermination. Additionally, the film's homage to Hitchcock's style is evident in its suspenseful chase sequences and the wrongful accusation trope, reinforcing Minority Report as a modern neo-noir masterpiece.

Production Insights: Budget, Box Office, and Critical Reception

The discussion touches on the film's production prowess, noting its $102 million budget and impressive $354 million gross. Bill Simmons shares Roger Ebert's glowing review at [36:30]: “Minority Report reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place,” emphasizing Spielberg's storytelling and technical excellence. The absence of an Oscar nomination for Spielberg, despite the film's acclaim, is critiqued as a missed opportunity.

Rewatchable Elements: Why Fans Keep Coming Back

Minority Report is celebrated for its intricate world-building and layered narrative. Chris Ryan highlights at [06:53], “One of the things I was wondering is there's that whole new generation of directors... this feels like the most Fincher-like movie that he could have made.” The film's ability to balance high-concept ideas with human elements ensures its status as a rewatchable favorite.

Casting and Performances: Tom Cruise’s Multifaceted Role

Tom Cruise’s portrayal of John Anderton is dissected for its emotional range and physicality. At [39:23], Bill Simmons asserts, “Tom Cruise is actually underrated as an actor,” praising his ability to convey complex emotions through subtle facial expressions and intense physical performances. The performances of supporting actors, including Samantha Morton as Agatha and Max von Sydow, are also commended for adding depth to the narrative.

Awards and Criticism: Roger Ebert’s Acclaim

Roger Ebert's review is a focal point, with Bill Simmons reading a highly favorable excerpt [36:32]: “Minority Report reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place,” positioning the film as a technological marvel and storytelling triumph that stands out amidst a competitive cinematic landscape.

Conclusion: Enduring Legacy of Minority Report

The episode concludes with the hosts affirming Minority Report's status as a quintessential rewatchable film. They acknowledge its blend of action, suspense, and philosophical inquiry into free will versus determinism, ensuring its place in cinematic history. As Bill Simmons aptly summarizes, the film exemplifies Spielberg's genius and Tom Cruise's unparalleled commitment: “This movie just really stands out. Even if you're flicking channels on cable and you stumble across, it just looks different.”

Notable Quotes

• Bill Simmons [03:08]: “If you had to pick, is this a Tom Cruise movie or a Spielberg movie?”
• Chris Ryan [06:53]: “This feels like the most Fincher-like movie that he could have made.”
• Andy Gruenwald [36:30]: “Minority Report reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.”

Final Thoughts

The Rewatchables episode on Minority Report offers an in-depth exploration of why this film remains a beloved classic. Through detailed analysis, the hosts highlight the film’s technical brilliance, compelling performances, and timeless themes, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of its enduring appeal.

Transcript

[Bill Simmons]

Welcome to the brand new Zach Lowe Show. That's right, I'm back to have the same in depth NBA conversations you're used to. We're going to talk about the games, the X's and O's, the drama. The playoffs are coming up and now you get to see every episode in full on video on Spotify and on my own YouTube channel. Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday with a collection of guests you're going to love. So make sure you follow and subscribe to the brand new Zach Lowe show on Spotify or wherever you watch or listen. Listen to your podcast. Let's go. This episode is brought to you by bank of America, the presenting partner of the Boston Marathon. It's no secret here that we love all things Boston, including the world famous Boston Marathon. Every runner has a reason. Some are doing it to fundraise for a good cause. And that is where you can help find a runner and give if you can, @b of a.com helpacause. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. References to charitable organizations are not an endorsement by bank of America Corporation. Copyright 2025.

[Chris Ryan]

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[Bill Simmons]

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[Chris Ryan]

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[Bill Simmons]

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[Chris Ryan]

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[Bill Simmons]

The rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast network where you can find the watch with CR himself, Chris Ryan.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's right. With Andy Gruenwald as well.

[Bill Simmons]

Where you can find higher learning.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes, with Rachel Lindsay as well.

[Bill Simmons]

And the Midnight Boys. Pew, pew, pew, pew.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, there you go.

[Bill Simmons]

Pew fucking pew.

[Chris Ryan]

Pew fucking pew. Bill. That's right.

[Bill Simmons]

My name is Bill Simmons. We are going to do our 17th Tom Cruise movie on the rewatchables. He's just. He's like Barry Bonds in 2002. He's just laughing. The field a classic Minority Report is next.

[Chris Ryan]

Chief Detective John Anderton set up the perfect crime force. People trust you, John.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But now I have a warrant in.

[Bill Simmons]

My pocket that says murder. Seems you've been left out of the loop, John.

[Chris Ryan]

He has to run from it. He set me up on June 21st. You can't hide.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's kind of the entire area. We anything with eyes and a heartbeat.

[Chris Ryan]

So get ready to run. Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Minority Report.

[Bill Simmons]

Rough landing. Have to work on that.

[Chris Ryan]

This film not yet rated. June 21st. Only in theaters.

[Bill Simmons]

All right, Minority Report CR has been floating this and suggesting this for a long, long time. He's wearing a master's hat today to try to really capture the magic. Is this the master of his domain?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay, gotcha.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's right.

[Bill Simmons]

If you had to pick, is this a Tom Cruise movie or a Spielberg movie?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think it's a Spielberg movie, but I don't think it works if it's not Tom Cruise. Oh, yeah. But the ingenuity of it, the vision of it, the, the creative flair. I think in some ways it's one of Steven Spielberg's most swagged out movies. He is doing stuff in this just to, just to amuse himself. Just because he can just. It's like watching him play, play left handed, just like, ah, I'm going to try this, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do all my coverage with camera movement. I'm going to go up a building, I'm going to jump off the building. We're going to do all this stuff about the future, but we're not even going to like explain how it works. We're just going to run right through it. It's so fast, it's so energetic. It just feels Spielberg to me.

[Bill Simmons]

What do you think, Van?

[Chris Ryan]

It's definitely a Spielberg movie. And it's, you know, around the same time that Spielberg was messing around with the darker side of Spielberg stuff. You know, he's doing this, he's doing AI and then even World of Worlds with Tom Cruise again is a little bit of a darker Spielberg take. He's getting a little bit more intense with it. And in those movies, to Chris's point, is when he's really showing off how technically brilliant he is just to build tension using the camera and his mastery as a director.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, it's almost like he's like Jordan just being like, you think I can't do this. What's your nitpick now? And then he would just come up with something to, yeah, he shove him down.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I mean, at the end of Saving Private Ryan and he's got, he's done Schindler's List, he's done Amistad. He's, he's done these heavy movies, heavier movies.

[Bill Simmons]

Sure he does AI. Amistad's not that heavy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, maybe not for you, Bill.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You have the comedy cut.

[Bill Simmons]

I would say Amistown cut.

[Chris Ryan]

I like to think of Bill on a Saturday. Like, I want to feel good movie. Let's just throw on.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I don't know.

[Bill Simmons]

Amistad's. All right. Deleted scenes are good. Now, Amistad and Munich, I think are two of the heavier movies, but that's where we get into Schindler's List and save your private ride.

[Andy Gruenwald]

We've actually done a couple of these now where. I mean, we haven't done AI but like he does AI, which is sort of this also extension of Kubrick.

[Bill Simmons]

Right.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Because Kubrick was originally going to do artificial intelligence, but he does Minority Report and Catch me if you can.

[Chris Ryan]

We have.

[Andy Gruenwald]

We've also done Rewatchables, the Terminal, but War of the Worlds, like, he's. He's just working. It just seems like he's like, what I want to do is get into the gym and try this and try that and try this.

[Bill Simmons]

I do feel like this is the tail end of whatever crazy all time apex he had. Right. Probably. Probably tailing off around the mid 2000s a little bit. He's getting older. I think this is the most creative movie he made during this whole stretch, though. Even the way, like the color correction, like the stuff my guy Janusz Kaminsky did.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And he told Janusz, I want this to be the ugliest movie I've ever made.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, it's like bleached out. It's just. It just really, like.

[Chris Ryan]

There's a little tension in there, though. There's a little tension in there when you watch the film between traditional Spielberg visuals and how this movie is probably supposed to look and supposed to feel like there's a version of this movie if it's directed by like David Fincher or someone like that, with a little bit of a darker palette and a more clear aesthetic and like narrative. Kind of thought about the milk. That's a lot darker and that's a lot more intense. But you can look and see the Spielbergian notes throughout the movie. There's like little wacky parts that pull their. In some of the chases where they're really intense. Then there's the part where he's the women are the contortionists. There's little parts where he pulls you out of being a little bit too dour about what's going on and reminds you that you're watching the Steven Spielberg movie.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. One of the things I was wondering is there's that whole new generation of directors that come in the mid-90s, right. That next class that's a little reminiscent of what he had in the 70s and PTA and Fincher, all these dudes kind of Coming up. And this feels like the most Finchery type of movie that he could have made. And I really wonder if, like, Fincher either inspired him or made him competitive to be like, oh, everyone thinks Fincher's a genius. Like, I'm gonna fucking out Fincher. Him.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I wonder also whether or not audiences had shown an openness to a certain level of grime. Like a little bit more dirt, a little bit more of a smudge on the lens. Like it. Like the room is. Isn't tidy. Like, people are a little bit more fucked up. Like, it was definitely in the air in that 90s into the early turn. I think cinematically Internet, we're starting to.

[Bill Simmons]

Be like, oh, yeah, this is going to be part of our lives. Yeah, the rest of our lives. Now. Where is this going well?

[Andy Gruenwald]

And then the crucial. I'm sorry, go ahead.

[Chris Ryan]

No, no, go ahead. No, I mean, I'm saying, like, a little bit more of the dystopian stuff is starting to take over sci fi.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, this is post 9 11. Post 9 11. Post the Matrix. So it's. It. You're.

[Bill Simmons]

You're. I can't wait to talk to. Hey.

[Chris Ryan]

But that's. That's very. That's a big part of this film. When I watch it, I'm like, hey, they got that right.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

This movie has some really interesting futures.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, I can't wait to talk about that.

[Chris Ryan]

To where they get a couple things right. But I'm saying maybe Spielberg and other people are looking at it. It's like the high concept sci fi that you're looking at now is a little darker. Not that that didn't exist before, but people were actually going to it and craving it a little bit. Didn't know where they were.

[Bill Simmons]

I have seven genres happening all at the same time in this movie. Spielberg movie. It's a cruise movie. And I think CR is right. Cruz is essential to this, which we'll get into. It's a sci fi futuristic thriller. It's a cop movie. It's a fugitive movie. It's like a psychic. How much do we know about the future? Do you believe in this movie? And it's a free will versus determination movie, which is probably like the biggest theme in the movie is how much. How much can you control of what happens?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Can I add two more things to that?

[Bill Simmons]

Let's do it. I already have seven.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think it's his. It's his Hitchcock homage. So. So much Vertigo, north by Northwest stuff happening in this, especially north by Northwest. All the chases, all the man, you know, man wrongly accused, on the run stuff is right out of Hitchcock. Some of Hitchcock's best movies. And then it's essentially a Philip K. Dick thing, which I don't think I really knew at the time because I hadn't really read a ton of his stuff in 02. But a lot of the side characters, a lot of the conception of the future, of us being constantly surveilled, of us all being hooked up on our devices, and all being mildly addicted to drugs, is all out of Philip K. Dick. And he obviously wrote this.

[Bill Simmons]

Are you a Phil Dick guy?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I am a Phil Dick guy, yeah. I actually went on a little Phil Dick running recently.

[Bill Simmons]

You feel dicked it up?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I got a. I got a category later for. For the. For the dick lovers out there.

[Bill Simmons]

Well, so the things from that book are he has a pre crime police department that apprehends criminals. He has the pre cogs, and it's in D.C. in 2054, which, by the way, Van is now less than 30 years away.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. You know what I was thinking? Are we closer to the actual imagining of.

[Bill Simmons]

It's a great question of.

[Chris Ryan]

Of the world in 2054, or are we nowhere near?

[Bill Simmons]

Do you feel disappointed? I feel like we're so far away from the cars and the traffic. How they manage that in here?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, God. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

We're like seven.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I can't even build a train.

[Bill Simmons]

We at least have Waymo, but, yeah, we can't. We can't build half.

[Chris Ryan]

Like, I had to stop myself from, like, legitimately following Waymos in the neighborhood. I would see a Waymo. Freaky Kalika goes, there's nobody inside of the Waymo.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And I'm like, what the fuck?

[Bill Simmons]

I see it all the time when I'm walking around, and every time I notice, I'm just like, that's. There's nobody driving that you want to.

[Chris Ryan]

Follow a Waymo for just, like, one block and see if the Waymo is up to the task. I know I never see anybody riding in the back of the way.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Sometimes you want to throw the Waymo a curveball, just, like, run out in front of.

[Chris Ryan]

Does the Waymo know?

[Bill Simmons]

I always think about that.

[Chris Ryan]

But, you know, you also don't want to be the one guy that dies.

[Bill Simmons]

Like, getting hit by Waymo.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

What happened to this guy? Oh, he was testing the Waymo, and the Waymo said, you.

[Bill Simmons]

I mean, the problem with the Waymos, from what I've seen walking around, is they're better drivers than all the actual drivers.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, but you need basically to hit a moment where there are more Waymos than regular drivers, because otherwise they're just, like, toddling along, you know? And it's like, I think. I think right now there's. They're more in the way than they are.

[Bill Simmons]

I agree. You're behind a Waymo.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You're like, when a Waymo doesn't take that last. You can go on the left here.

[Bill Simmons]

Go, go, Waymo.

[Chris Ryan]

But consider the Waymo, though. My great grandfather passed away, 1987. If I could have a conversation with him and I could say, big papa.

[Bill Simmons]

This would be the first thing you told them.

[Chris Ryan]

I would be like, yo, I'm in a place right now where there are cars that drive on the street with no drivers, and they drive people around.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

He couldn't even imagine that he was born in 1900. Is nuts to think that the Waymo is here. And it's not that big of a deal.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I have that every once in a while with my mom, where she'll be like, what are you doing? When I'm looking at my phone and I'm like, well, I was looking at a cat, and now I'm looking at British Parliament. She's like, what do you mean? I was just like, honestly, you just go like that, and then something else comes.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

She just. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Craig, where does your generation stand on Waymo?

[Craig Horlbeck]

I think, honestly, we're all in. A lot of my friends take Waymo. It's cheaper. They're like. They're doing that Uber thing where they're flooding the market with cheap, cheap prices so that everybody uses.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Have you had, like, oh, my God, I'm gonna die in a Waymo moment?

[Craig Horlbeck]

I admittedly have not taken one.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, you have never been.

[Bill Simmons]

My son, Ben Simmons, actually signed up early for Waymo and was using it before we knew it was going on. And we found out, and we were freaked out. I was like, there's nobody in the car. It's just you.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Well, they can't go on the freeway yet. They don't do freeway.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, Right.

[Chris Ryan]

So just driving around in the neighborhoods.

[Bill Simmons]

He'S like, sometimes I get in the passenger seat, Sometimes I sit in the back seat. There's nobody else in it but apparent, apparently. He said people. Some people are, like, getting busy in the way, obviously. And you immediately lose your Waymo pass.

[Chris Ryan]

If you're in the Waymo, the first thing you're gonna think is, yo, this is the train. Get on. And so. But. But they're watching you in the Waymo. The Waymo sex tapes are gonna be so crazy.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, whoever hacks into the Waymo sex tapes, it's gonna be.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Have you seen some of like the Waymo, Waymo attacks where like people have destroyed Waymos or tagged them or like.

[Bill Simmons]

Rear end them and try to surf.

[Andy Gruenwald]

On top of them and stuff? Oh yeah, it' like Repo man of LA comes out.

[Bill Simmons]

I think it's gonna be a big summer for people torturing Waymos. Anyway, back to back to bad order.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Is that a prediction?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, prediction. Coming up next, I'll tell you why Waymo is getting tagged up. Spielberg was really, really passionate about figuring out 2054. So I'll do some of the, some of the research stuff now. Consulted scientists, invited 15 experts to Santa Monica for a three day think tank where they talked about whatever the future is going to be with architects. Douglas Copeland from Gen X was there, the guy who wrote that. Computer scientists, all kinds of people. They made a 2054 Bible which was an 80 page guide.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I was looking for it online that.

[Bill Simmons]

Had all the aspects of their future world. It is exactly should be a PDF or an Apple book. And then he said to Roger Ebert, I wanted all the toys to come true someday. I want there to be a transportation system that doesn't emit toxins into the atmosphere and a newspaper that updates itself. The Internet is watching us now. If they want to, they can see what sites you visit. In the future, television will be watching us and customizing itself to what it knows about us. The thrilling thing is that will make us feel like we're part of the medium. The scary thing is we'll lose our right to privacy. An ad will appear in the air around us talking directly to us. All that shit is fucking happening.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Like he said this in 2002 and he was dead on.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Here's the best part about what he did though. Does all this research. He imagines the world, he figures all this stuff out with scientists. He has a bible. But within the realm of the movie. It all happens as part of the action. They never stop and say, you know, we invented self driving cars in 2034 and they became perfected in 2041. And this, you know, they don't even even have toxins. I didn't even think that they didn't have toxins. It didn't even occur to me until you said that. But I was thinking about when, when Anderton in this movie first, you know, is first on the run and he's walking through the mall and all the ads are starting to Pop at him. That's the first time you see the curated, you know, personalized advertising stuff. And it's five seconds, but you're like, holy, what is going on in the future? You know, what is going on in this world now? It's very different to watch this movie in 2025 and be like, what you're saying, within touching distance of all of this stuff basically being true. But honestly, none of the good stuff that seems to come out of Minority Report. Do you know what I mean?

[Chris Ryan]

I do. I do. I also think that the movie is, like, one of the best parts of the movie, is the world building that it does. Right. It does it all very softly, but very definitely. Like, he's walking through there and you realize, oh, there's nowhere he can go and not be recognized. How is he gonna get around that? And then that sets up to me the most disgusting but also the most fascinating scene in the movie where obviously when he gets his eyes replaced, which is just like. That's Spielberg just going like, you know me for making kids fly on bicycles. How much can I disgust you and disturb you in one sequence? But it all happens seamlessly. It doesn't. There's never a point where the movie seems like there's a specific point that it's trying to make to you.

[Bill Simmons]

I like that they use D.C. and he talks about this where sometimes in the futuristic movies that just has no link to what things look like now. So they use DC and they still have a lot of the same landmarks in dc, but it's just kind of a twisted, futuristic version of it, which I thought was smart. The stuff that I thought worked. And tell me if I left anything out for futuristic stuff that just was cool. The police helicopters.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Little.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. Like, I feel like we might have those 29 years from now. The eye recognition, that's already happening. You could walk into.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's clear.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, that's clear. That's going into a clipper game that's just staring in. And they know who you are.

[Chris Ryan]

They make you scan your retinas to watch the clippers.

[Bill Simmons]

They. Well, they stay. When you walk in. They scan your face and whatever. And you don't have a ticket.

[Chris Ryan]

To watch the clip.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, listen, I don't have to wait in a line. They could have all my stuff, extra.

[Chris Ryan]

Minutes of my life. I got. I feel like you got to have a championship to scan my face. I'm not letting it. I'm not letting the clippers scan my face.

[Bill Simmons]

What about making the Western finals?

[Chris Ryan]

Well. Well, maybe. Maybe they will there if. But they can't. Come on, man. Well, you gotta have more.

[Bill Simmons]

They have my face and they can scan all they want out of it. What's the drug in this clarion?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Neuronin.

[Bill Simmons]

Neuronin, yeah. As 2054. Fentanyl, basically.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Like this new drug out of nowhere. Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But a little bit also, I think. Supposed to be numbing and hallucinogenic. Yeah, yeah. Which is a very Philip K. Dick thing. He has lots of. I just read a book of his where it's like everybody is taking a drug and looking at a little model of reality and then they go into the reality.

[Bill Simmons]

Wow, you have some Phil Dick energy today. Like Phil dicking it up.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I'm gonna. The. The drug part of it. Because in his actual life, obviously, but the drug part of it is always a staple part of the future for him.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I think he got. He got down a little bit.

[Chris Ryan]

He did.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Phil.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, he liked to get wet. FaceTime is in this movie, basically. Giant. Giant, awesome clear TVs. They saw that coming. I liked how they did the highways, even though I don't know how realistic that is. But the car that leaves your place and bounces in and suddenly you're driving. And then I. We talked about earlier, but the. The targeted virtual sponsors in a mall. I do feel like that's probably where we're heading. I mean, we're already seeing that where your, your phone can hear you talk about something and all of a sudden you're served the Instagram ad.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. And also the idea of everything that you do coming with a 15 second ad as like payment for it. So you think about, like when you're signing up for WI FI on a flight, you gotta watch the ad for 15 seconds. The way that the mall looks in Minority Report is essentially what the international terminal of LAX looks like. Like when you're sitting there, there's like 15 giant billboards just like you. You really do feel like your brain is getting melted by advertising in there.

[Chris Ryan]

And also in the movie, there's so much that's automated and stuff. There's so much. The future is. It's. It's so regulated for you that in a weird way, the human interaction, the stakes in the film, they're like, they're raised. And I feel like that kind of now is like when you are walking through the world and so much of what you're doing is like in this digital world that like when you actually talk to a person, it almost feels like the stakes are higher or like what you're saying is a little bit more important because when he's. Cause there are parts in the movie where he. It feels like it's technology against him. But then when he gets with Agatha, it feels like, okay, there's a person on the other side of it now. It's about how her essential human gift, which is like all mystical and ethereal, can help him out of his situation against the, like, technology that he's up against. Man made stuff.

[Bill Simmons]

I can't wait to talk to you about Agatha. Cruz and Spielberg together, zero movies up until this point. Started developing this in 97. Mission Impossible 2 ran over. AI ran over. They were basically like the two guys who kept saying they would have dinner together and it never happened. Yeah, no, no, we're gonna have dinner. And then. And then all of a sudden it happened. But Spielberg was supposed to do Rain man, ended up doing Indy 3 instead. And then it finally happened.

[Chris Ryan]

My favorite indie.

[Bill Simmons]

This movie has the following production companies in it. Dreamworks, Amblin Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Wagner Productions, and Blue Tulip, which is Jan Dubont's company.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, right, because you're a big yonder guy who isn't.

[Bill Simmons]

But, but Cruise and Spielberg, they took 15% of the gross to keep the.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This is the Spielberg, the old Spielberg.

[Bill Simmons]

He's a big bet on yourself guy. They wanted to keep the budget under 100 million.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, it's interesting. I actually learned about that entire method of getting paid through the career of Tom Cruise.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Because someone will go, yeah, Tom Cruise made 100 million doll. War of the Worlds. I'd be like, how is that possible? And then that's when you understand the breakdown of his production company and how you can make it in splits and back end and all of that stuff. I had no clue about any of that stuff until he kind of mainlined.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And this is kind of. I mean, for what it's worth, I mean, part of the reason why film budgets now seem so out of whack is people get a lot of their money up front now, right? Yeah, because there's. There's a little bit less dependability because.

[Bill Simmons]

The studios figured out ways to cheat people out of some of these points.

[Andy Gruenwald]

So this movie costs 100 million, makes 400 million or whatever.

[Bill Simmons]

They're like, it only made 5 million.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Right.

[Bill Simmons]

Because we had to spend this much on this. Cruz's director list. This was Pete Cruz. So I'm going to do tears. This is just everybody he works with from Tony Scott on. And, well, we'll go like past cocktail Scorsese, Spielberg, Kubrick, De Palma, Sydney Pollock, Barry Levinson, Ron Howard, Oliver Stone, Tony Scott, Rob Reiner, pta, Neil Jordan, Cameron Crowe and John Wu. And then his next four after this movie were Michael Mann, Edswick, Spielberg and Abrams. Tom Cruise laying down the blueprint and now Leo followed it and then Chalamet is like, that's what I'm gonna do too. And that's, that's the move. I feel like CR would whore himself out a couple times.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This is how you run your acting career. If you're lucky enough to be like, if you just say, I trust the best directors working right now, like you will probably.

[Bill Simmons]

They want to work well.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I mean, if you get to the position that he got to, you could, you can.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, yeah. Like I'm saying, like he could. And he kind of been spends the most recent act of his career working mostly with Macquarie and mostly on big blockbusters, right?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He's going to do it in a retro movie next after Mission Impossible. That will be like his return to like film film or whatever. But his run here is inspirational, I think for anybody who ever achieves like any notable amount of success and has the opportunity to do coming off Eyes.

[Bill Simmons]

Wide shut, Mission 2 and Vanilla Sky. The next three after this, last Samurai, Corraderal, Corral, Oprah's couch.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

War of the World.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Who directed the Oprah's Couch?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, who's.

[Bill Simmons]

Well, I'm just saying this is the time frame we're moving into. He's broken up with Nicole Kidman Cruz is just about to get his weird on. We don't know this yet in Minority Report. Is this the official end of Tom Cruise's prime right here, 2002?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

He's bringing still no baggage really whatsoever.

[Chris Ryan]

Into now we know baggage. I think we've talked about it before. There's an interview with him and Sway. I know I've brought this up on this podcast before where Sway actually looks at Tom Cruise and goes, you know what? For all of your stardom, you're just one of the celebrities that just seems like they get it. You just get it. Like you were this Herculean everyday.

[Bill Simmons]

What year is this?

[Chris Ryan]

This is maybe like this might be missing Impossible 2 promo run right here because it's MTV and he's talking to him and Tom Cruise is just not just the biggest movie star in the world, but he's like America's nice guy and there's no edge. There's no. Of course there are rumors about his personal life. But all of that stuff doesn't really matter that much. We don't really have an understanding of Scientology as an actual thing. We don't, like, know what it is. And then boom, like four or five years later, there's like this Anakin Skywalker turn where he's berating Matt Lauer in the morning on the morning show. He's jumping on.

[Andy Gruenwald]

What year was that?

[Bill Simmons]

It was right mid 2000s.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Cause I was gonna say that for me, probably the. The real drop off. Even though Mission Impossible 3 I actually love, but is probably.

[Bill Simmons]

That's. That's Hoffman, right?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, that's Hoffman.

[Chris Ryan]

That's a great.

[Bill Simmons]

I like that one too.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And he makes Tropic Thunder cameo.

[Bill Simmons]

But that's 08.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's 08. But I'm sitting.

[Chris Ryan]

That's trying to be a cool guy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The hardest drop off for me is Night and Day. Because Night and Day is a movie he tried to sell really hard, like, as if it was going to be this giant blockbuster. And I think it was a disappointment. Or. And then after that, it's like Ghost Protocol, Rock of Ages, Jack Reacher, Oblivion. It starts to happen.

[Bill Simmons]

And he's basically only. Mission Impossible is how we want to consume Tom Cruise, with the exception of.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Maybe Edge of Tomorrow.

[Chris Ryan]

But see, even Edge of Tomorrow is very telling about his career. Because Edge of Tomorrow is, to me, it's the worst. A rapper gets to a certain point to where, like, you come along, you're building your career as a rapper, and then for whatever reason, hip hop just goes, we're finished with you. We don't like you anymore. And it doesn't matter how dope the music that you put out is. Like, we just. We've moved on to new rappers. And so they're guys. And you'll be trying to tell people, hey, man, I don't know if, you know, so and so just dropped a crazy album. They just don't care anymore.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Right.

[Chris Ryan]

And so when Edge of Tomorrow came out, that wasn't like Oblivion or some of those other movies that were up or down. Like, I enjoy Jack Reacher, but, you know, you could take it or leave it. Edge of Tomorrow is legitimately awesome. Awesome. Like fantastic sci fi.

[Bill Simmons]

I also like Jack Reacher.

[Chris Ryan]

I like Jack Reacher, but it kind of lands with. With a little bit of a thud. And that's when you go, tom's in trouble. Like, that's when you go, like, he actually made a good album and nobody cares.

[Bill Simmons]

It almost had a word of mouth run because people are like, no, no.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The Edge of Toronto that whole thing was like, what. What's the movie called? Like, is it called Live, Die, Repeat? Yeah. Or is it called Edge or Tomorrow? And, like, I think it was a little bit ahead of its time in popularizing some.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you.

[Bill Simmons]

Have you guys watched the Oprah's Couch clip?

[Chris Ryan]

I have.

[Bill Simmons]

Many times recently.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I haven't, but I watched the. The thing we base. Remember we did Claytheism.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

@.

[Andy Gruenwald]

@ the Ringer in, like, early days, and that was, like, based on him in the turtleneck talking about Scientology, the upper's couch thing.

[Bill Simmons]

Right. It became kind of like a go to joke, and we all knew what it meant. But I don't know how many times people have actually gone back and watched how fucking insane it is. It's the. And it's just this audience of crazy Oprah lady fans just losing their shit. Every time. He gets excited that he's finally in love. And Oprah's like, I've never seen you like this.

[Chris Ryan]

And he.

[Bill Simmons]

And Cruz is like, I know, I know. And then he just starts jumping up and down, and it's like, what is happening? It is way crazier than I think it gets credit for. I think it's one of the craziest celebrity moments ever.

[Chris Ryan]

But there's a crazy trifecta. There's that. There's him being just. He is furious at Matt Lauer. Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

He's really angry.

[Chris Ryan]

And then there's the other thing where he's. Whatever. The video from Scientology leaks. And he's talking. He's like, yeah. Have you ever met an essay before? I'm like, oh, Tom Cruise.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

His goddamn Emperor Palpatine. What the fuck is going on?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And then I love the guy, but he's fucking batshit.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, no, no, no, no.

[Bill Simmons]

17 rewatchable movies. He's a maniac.

[Chris Ryan]

He's really like, okay, so this is a dark time in time. I don't know. Want to get into the. But he really has taken all of that goodwill back, in my opinion.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Now, I agree.

[Bill Simmons]

Top Gun Maverick.

[Chris Ryan]

He's taken all of that goodwill.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, listen, we love Tom Cruise, but, yeah, there's been some moments where you're like, oh, yeah, okay. It's like if you're at, like, a holiday dinner and you have that one uncle who's. It seems like it's going great. And then they just say something absolutely insane after two glasses of wine. You're like, oh, I think about this.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The other day, about how he kind of inverted the way actors typically would progress throughout their career. He does all this great stuff with great directors when he's younger.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Then he hits a certain point and he's like, I'm just gonna make action movies and I'm just gonna throw myself off of stuff. Even though he's getting increasingly older and probably that's more and more dangerous every time he tries that stuff. This is probably the perfect mix of acting Tom Cruise in an interesting speculative piece of sci fi drama, conspiracy thriller and running Tom Cruise because he basically runs for this entire movie because everybody runs. But I love that. Like it's this weird thing where you'd expect, oh, as you get older, you're going to settle into being like, I'm Paul Newman now. I'm going to play a guy who's having a midlife crisis.

[Bill Simmons]

Well, we always talk about this. Cruz never had his. The verdict.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

He just never did it.

[Chris Ryan]

Also, we got to a point with Tom to where we just appreciated what he was willing to do to entertain us. He's willing to live this mysterious, almost monastic lifestyle. He's willing to get on the plane. If you look, look, you got on the couch, that's one thing. But if you're willing to get on the side of the plane, if you're willing to jump off of, you just. I'm gonna be like, yeah, I'm fucking with this guy. You know what I'm saying? If you're willing to get. I'm watching it. I'm like, yo, is this motherfucker on the side of the plane? Is he actually on the plane? And I think it was those things that kind of like were in an era where it seems like people sometimes force feeder shit. It just seems like he still gives a shit about making good movies.

[Bill Simmons]

Let's take a break and then we'll hit the rest of this and get to the categories.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This Mother's day show the moms in your life just how much they mean to you with a stunning bouquet from 1-800-flowers.com for almost 50 years, 1-800-flowers has.

[Chris Ryan]

Set the standard for high quality bouquets. Right now, order early from 1-800-FLOWERS and.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Save up to 40% on gorgeous bouquets. And one of a kind arrangements guaranteed to make her day.

[Chris Ryan]

Save up to 40 today at 1-800flowers.com Spotify. That's 1-800-flowers.com Spotify, the official florist of Mother's day.

[Bill Simmons]

Supporting cast in this movie, including a very young our guy, Colin Farrell. Yeah, Sierra and I did a, did a pod with him. What was that, 2018?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

In person.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This is right when he was being like paraded around like, this is the guy. You know, it was after in O to Tiger Land.

[Bill Simmons]

This could be a next Guy guy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

It's His Russell Crowe Mid 90s kind of moment where it's like you might be hearing from this guy in a real way now.

[Chris Ryan]

I put it as his Jude Law Gattaca role.

[Bill Simmons]

Jude Law. Yeah. Exactly.

[Chris Ryan]

To where it's like a. Ethan Hawke's deleted is. But there's this new guy, Jude Law, and we're going to give him time to cook a little bit because he's going to be on the top of.

[Bill Simmons]

Like, Billy Jacoby and just one of the guys. Same thing. It's like this is a Joyce Heiser movie, but.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But this is really behind to watch.

[Bill Simmons]

Just one of the guys, guy.

[Chris Ryan]

Just one of the guys.

[Bill Simmons]

The little brother, the comedic genius.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Billy Jacoby. As I'm distracted by just one of the guys.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Because I just finally, I just. I think about the. The final scene.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You can think about the reveal.

[Bill Simmons]

We're gonna distract you when we talk about the Precogs later.

[Chris Ryan]

The review.

[Bill Simmons]

Samantha Morton as a Precog.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Max Von Seido.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Your guy. Max Von Sydo.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

The evil Nazi from Victory. We lost man. Catherine Walker.

[Chris Ryan]

Because he was expecting it. Because.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Are you talking about just one of the guys?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

You. You weren't expecting it because when she does it, you're like, oh, and it's a PG movie. And it's like, not only is she a girl, but she is a fucking woman. Like, wow.

[Bill Simmons]

And you're making CR Uncomfortable.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I'm all good.

[Bill Simmons]

You're back. All right. Katherine Walker, big mom fur. Neil McGunagh from Dorchester, Mass.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's right.

[Bill Simmons]

Better than that guy.

[Chris Ryan]

Great guy. Working man. A working man.

[Bill Simmons]

Throw a cowboy hat on him and put him in anything you want and he's ready to go.

[Chris Ryan]

Walking tall. Incredible career.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Bad guy in Yellowstone.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Like just a working man.

[Bill Simmons]

Love that guy. Music by John Williams. Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski. Written by Scott Frank.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yep.

[Bill Simmons]

Spielberg only nominated for an Oscar for sound editing. And I really want to litigate this.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, okay.

[Bill Simmons]

Best picture that year. Chicago wins. Gangs of New York, the Hours. Lord of the Rings, Two Towers, the Pianist. Director Polanski wins. Rob Marshall controversy. Rob Marshall for Chicago Scorsese. Stephen Daldry for the Hours. Pedro Amodovar, whatever. Talk to her. Spielberg just shut out. Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I mean, in a really weird way, when.

[Bill Simmons]

And this almost feels like a little like people are like, all right, Steve, enough. He had his.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The. The Schindler's Private Ryan run, maybe, like, where everybody's just like, you're good now.

[Bill Simmons]

I don't know how this was.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I don't know. I mean, like, when you watch this movie and watch Chicago, which I have.

[Bill Simmons]

Not watched this movie versus Lord of the Rings, like, really?

[Chris Ryan]

Wow.

[Andy Gruenwald]

All right. You're gonna get Jesus Christ guys in your mentions, right? Hobbits coming at you.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. What are you doing? Lord of the Rings is a. You talking about the two towers?

[Andy Gruenwald]

He is.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm not even a huge Lord of Rings.

[Bill Simmons]

Minority Report.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you. First of all, have you seen Lord of the Rings? The two towers? So get off.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's the one with the two towers.

[Bill Simmons]

Sean Aston in it.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He is.

[Bill Simmons]

You haven't even seen the Hours.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That was good.

[Chris Ryan]

That was a good movie.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. I think what hurts it, though, is we don't have the nine movie categories at this point. It's a nine movie category. It makes it director we could argue about.

[Chris Ryan]

Also, Spielberg has LeBron James syndrome. You could basically give him a best directing nod for almost every film that he directs.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's probably. He's probably competing against himself.

[Bill Simmons]

Didn't realize Rich Paul was here. Oh, God. Jesus.

[Chris Ryan]

Don't you know?

[Bill Simmons]

Now you're gonna tell us that Chris Bosh wasn't part of the big career.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Sean Astin had no role in getting the ring to Mordor.

[Bill Simmons]

It wasn't big Three. Chris Bosh. Chris Bosh was the benchmark then.

[Chris Ryan]

The Michael Jordan syndrome. He's directing against himself. And if he is directing against himself, Minority Report is not going to be a movie that you're going to be like, oh, my God, he has to get nominated.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I can never tell if Rich really likes being on McAfee.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know, man. I'm.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Do you want to skip this topic?

[Bill Simmons]

Let's move on. $102 million budget. It made $354 million.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Roger Ebert, what do you think, Ben? How many stars?

[Chris Ryan]

So he's gonna give you three stars?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think three and a half.

[Chris Ryan]

Four and a half stars.

[Bill Simmons]

Four stars.

[Chris Ryan]

Four stars.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I could see him loving this.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm just gonna read this because it's really good. American movies are in the midst of a transition period. He's right. Spielberg, who is a master of technology, trusts only story and character and then uses everything else as a workman, uses his tools. He makes Minority Report the new technology. Other directors seem to be trying to make their movies from it. The film is such a virtuoso. Highwire act. Daring so much. Achieving it with such grace and skill. Minority Report reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.

[Chris Ryan]

Wow.

[Bill Simmons]

Raj is like. That's like a four and a half stars.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

It's like a Dave Meltzer five star match. All right, we're going to the categories. Most rewatchable scene. Howard Marks is about to kill his wife.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. I just. Let's just say up front there are great scenes in this movie, but this is a great sequence movie.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Where it'll be like one scene bleeds into the next. You know what I mean? Chase into a chase.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

It's difficult to say like whether or not it's.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Are there three scenes in the Howard Marks thing or surgery scene and then.

[Chris Ryan]

The scene after that.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The spiders.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Howard Marks is red ball. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

So we learned that the. The red ball killings still occur. It's like they. They don't spend 10 minutes explaining it. They're just like, oh, this is a red ball. It's like, what's a red ball? And just kind of get sucked in.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Right. And the idea is basically the premeditated murder is almost extinct because people know they will be caught. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

One of the cool things about this movie is this is a pretty far fetched crazy premise. And you get it within 10 minutes.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

It's like we're trying to stop. This is the pre crime division. We're trying to prevent all crime with these three fucking bald women in the. In the water who can see stuff ahead of time. And if they tell us they'll send a red ball and we gotta stop it before it happens.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Boom. I get it.

[Chris Ryan]

And like the passion of the crime and the humanity of it matter. Right. Because they can't. There are a couple crimes that they can't stop.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But murder is it. It triggers the Precogs.

[Bill Simmons]

And then I like the merry go round thing where Cruz is like with his hands moving.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And then figures out that it's a merry go round. Good scene all around. Next one, Cruz figures out the Leo Crow murder and sees himself goodbye. Wait, wait.

[Chris Ryan]

You say something, Chief? No.

[Bill Simmons]

A very cool scene.

[Chris Ryan]

That is just a brilliant scene. He's got the people up there, he's got his guy behind him. He has to steal the ball. And he's figuring out for himself. The shock of this is why I always say that. And people are gonna say Tom Cruise is actually underrated as an actor.

[Bill Simmons]

To me, I totally agree.

[Chris Ryan]

He's. Because when you see everything that's going on. He's doing so many different things emotionally, and the audience is basically reading it from his face, and it's fantastic.

[Bill Simmons]

You're talking to a guy who thinks he should have been nominated for Cocktails. So.

[Chris Ryan]

For Cocktail.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. He's amazing.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This is. Remember when we were doing Wick and we talked about the. The moment Wick goes up to the nightclub bouncer.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That. Until he falls off the balcony in the nightclub. And it's like 11 minutes or something like that. I'm like, that's like the best 11 minutes of action movies. The moment from when Wally says, I like you, chief. That's why I'll give you two minutes before I hit the alarm. That's the 40th minute. To where Anderson pulls out in the new car is 55 minutes. It's a 15 minute run.

[Bill Simmons]

Wow.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And it is fucking pure.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. I have almost two scenes in there.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I feel like. I feel like Jack Sanders would give me two minutes to get out of here.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, yeah, I think so.

[Bill Simmons]

Jack, I feel like you give me the two minutes.

[Chris Ryan]

Wait a minute. Did you just make Jack the weird Precog kissing the unconscious woman? Jack, Bruh, stand the up. No, Right now.

[Bill Simmons]

It was a compliment. I just think Jack would do that. I like your chief.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm gonna give you two minutes. I wouldn't be telling me right away. It's like, here he is.

[Chris Ryan]

Get him. Actually, y'all don't even know me, because I'd be like, I'd help you escape.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, that is true.

[Chris Ryan]

I'd help you get out of here.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Jack can't talk. He's in a pool of milk.

[Chris Ryan]

Jack, he made you. He just. That's. That's how Bill things are.

[Bill Simmons]

I was complimenting him.

[Chris Ryan]

Weird kissing.

[Bill Simmons]

That's bullshit. You stop. The elevator ride with Colin Farrell is good in that scene.

[Chris Ryan]

Great scene.

[Bill Simmons]

We get a 2054 car chase. We get Max Von Sydow. Now that you've seen this movie a bunch of times.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Just for all my Max guys out there, you know, I just didn't want you to.

[Chris Ryan]

I never knew that.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Max Von Sydow.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought it was. Yeah. I defer to you, but I never.

[Bill Simmons]

Knew that as Dr. Charles Nichols, which. You realize this as you're watching this?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I mean, if you. If you know who.

[Bill Simmons]

Richard, where are you? I love that guy in those movies. This has two. This has the I like you, chief guy. I love when that guy's in any movie where it's guys like, I could probably but just go. And then I'll do it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And then the Charles Nichols. And then Cruz jumping on the Jetsons cars is phenomenal. And then. Which leads to the next scene I just wrote down. Cruz gets away from eight guys. Cruise runs. Pete Cruise running fire escape. Jetpack fight.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yep.

[Bill Simmons]

Cruz jumps 50 stories. Possible nitpick, because he's climbing a fire escape for like, what, nine stories? But then falls 50 stories.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, just.

[Bill Simmons]

It's.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Go ahead.

[Bill Simmons]

It's noted. I love when the jump, like the skydiver move where you. You don't have a pack, but you jump on the other skydiver. They have that. I really like when somebody crashes through an apartment, but they show the people in the apartment not doing anything. Like, I'm just on my computer. And then Tom Cruise falls through. More Cruise running crane fight with Colin Farrell.

[Chris Ryan]

I Love that. Colin.

[Bill Simmons]

WW Hell in the Cell, 1997 Crane fight.

[Chris Ryan]

Kisses his chain. And you know that's his little.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. Gets a little Irish on him. And then it ends with Cruise being embedded in a Tesla.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

What a sequence. 15 minutes.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And also so cool that Spielberg is like, I'm gonna do the jetpack fight. The jetpack chase. And then you're like. You're catching your breath. And he's like, not over yet, motherfucker. We're going into a car factory and we're gonna throw cranes at this guy.

[Chris Ryan]

And every part of it has the little futurist elements. The little stun gun where you whip that motherfucker around and then you shoot it again. Then they're fighting. Then another futurist element. A totally automated car factory that no human workers in it. People are fighting. Nobody is stopping to go, hey, stop fighting. Go get the super.

[Bill Simmons]

Right.

[Chris Ryan]

Get the conforman. Like, the car gets built around him and then he drives around it. A completely consistent movie the entire way.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And it's such a great image because he's being, like, hemmed in by all this technology anyway, so he's being, like, imprisoned in the automation of all this stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

And you get your product placement in there.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Lexus.

[Chris Ryan]

Lexus.

[Bill Simmons]

Short scene. But the Cruise flashback to when he loses his kid is good with the breath holding and the foreshadowing. Next one I have is blind. Cruise moves through the decrepit apartment building as the ID spiders come after him.

[Chris Ryan]

Be quiet and close the door.

[Andy Gruenwald]

We got an idiot. Me.

[Chris Ryan]

It's not him standing down.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Let's see. Absolutely. Spielberg in his bag. The overhead shot of all the little rooms. The people having sex. People fighting. But Stopping for just one second so that the spiders can scan their retinas. Unbelievable.

[Chris Ryan]

You can see when other people have jacked Steven Spielberg. Right?

[Craig Horlbeck]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Because. Because he. That's the first time I had seen that. I'm sure someone had did it before, but then I think immediately, well, that's John Wick 4. And the, you know, when he's got the dragon's breath shotgun and he's doing the whole deal, it's fantastic. And that's also one of the, to me scenes in the movie that's the most heavily influenced by the Matrix. Just those little spider guys coming through.

[Bill Simmons]

That's another influence.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I have two things off this scene. Spielberg was going to create the air bubbles rising with cgi. And Tom Cruise said, steve, I got you. Give me some time to figure out how to do this myself. Which leads us to a brand new award of the rewatchables, the Tom Cruise learned how to do it Himself award, which goes to Tom Cruise. Steve, just give me two weeks to figure out this air bubble thing.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This is the reverse of the no.

[Bill Simmons]

Bigger maniac who's not in prison than Tom Cruise. Like, just think of him in bodies of water with like spotters, like, and then popping up and going, how many with the air bubble?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, that's the. Isn't that the Matt Damon joke or. Who told that story where it's like. I think it's Matt Damon where he's like, Tom Cruise is like planning the stunt for like eight years and the safety guy is like, you can't do it. We can't insure this. So I got a new safety guy.

[Bill Simmons]

Right, right.

[Chris Ryan]

Remember like the video, the. The audio that came out when Tom Cruise was explaining to the people on set how important what it is that he was doing is. Remember that?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Was that like on the set of like the Mummy or something?

[Chris Ryan]

No, it wasn't from the Mummy. It was. I think it was either from. It was recent. It was like.

[Craig Horlbeck]

It was during COVID He was yelling at everybody.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I think it was Mission.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, it was one of the missions. And he was like, we're trying to save movies here. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And people thought that that was going to be a clip that made people like, not like Tom.

[Andy Gruenwald]

People were like, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

People like, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

The best was when he broke his ankle jumping and then just kept running because he didn't want them to lose the scene. His fucking ankle was snapped. Like he was. It was that guy, Kevin Ware, the Louisville guy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And he's just like, let me, Let me Fucking drag my leg because I don't want to lose this shot. Like, Cruz is nuts.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Bill Simmons]

He's. There's nobody like him. So that's one and then the other one. Top four blind guy scene of all time.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's everything. I. I have a real, like, phobia. Ick about I stuff just because, like. And I.

[Bill Simmons]

So I have two nominees and I don't know what the third one is. The bloodsport fight with Von Dam. When he did. When. When that one.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Huh?

[Bill Simmons]

Son of a woman dancing.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, instead of a woman dancing.

[Bill Simmons]

That one. And there's probably one more. So this is three. I don't know what the fourth member of Mount Rushmore is for blind.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Let us know on the. In the comments. What Blind Mount Rushmore.

[Bill Simmons]

Craig, do you have any blind guy thoughts?

[Craig Horlbeck]

No, I wasn't prepared for Blind guy.

[Bill Simmons]

Blind Man Rushmore. We're still one short. If anyone has any nominees, comment below.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Have comments on Spotify now.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, good. Comments. Great. Next one I have is Cruz takes the Precog to Dweezel Zappos Club.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I think I saw Van in one of the rooms. I. I rewounded.

[Chris Ryan]

That's so funny.

[Bill Simmons]

I thought I saw you in there.

[Andy Gruenwald]

What would you be doing if you could do anything in one of those clubs?

[Chris Ryan]

You know, virtual.

[Andy Gruenwald]

What?

[Chris Ryan]

I would be like, virtual. I know everyone wants to zero. Van's gonna be having a virtual orgy or something like that, but that's not what it would be. I would be. I would be. Everybody thinks that I will be virtual LSU quarterback.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Is that. That's what I would be. That's virtual LSU quarterback. All right, guys, we're gonna go Y. Dig X. Go Z.

[Andy Gruenwald]

No, this is.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, two.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You're just handing it off, man. This is spread offense yet.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, that is true. Way more physical game. Back then.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would do a virtual hunt for an October rewatchables because I can't do that in real life.

[Bill Simmons]

It's on the list. I really like Diesel Zappa's club, but I like futuristic. Total Recall has this too, where they. It's like the one place that can get super fun in a sci fi thing where it's like, well, there's gonna be a nightclub or like an orgy place and they'll just. It's nuts. All right, two more. Cruz has to kill Leo Crow. You still have a choice. Mike Bender.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Mike Binder.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Binder.

[Bill Simmons]

Mick Binder.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Or Bender. Yeah. I'm not sure.

[Chris Ryan]

I think it's. I think It's Bender.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I'm certain it's Max Von Zo, but I do not know about Mike Bender.

[Chris Ryan]

He's the mind of a married man guy. Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Not a good show. Just not good. Not a good. Not one of HBO's best efforts.

[Chris Ryan]

But he's also. He's a writer. Director.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Did he direct Indian Summer?

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, no. I love that movie.

[Bill Simmons]

The one he did that was interesting. Was that one with Costner and Joan Allen. I thought that was pretty good. Is that whatever that movie was when Joan Allen's divorce lady with kids and falls for Kevin Costner. It's sod.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know what the you're talking about. What movie is that?

[Bill Simmons]

Listen, I'm sorry, I'm a Costner fan.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, there you go.

[Bill Simmons]

Sorry. I'm a fan of one of the great actors of the last 40 years.

[Chris Ryan]

I with him too.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm gonna give a borderline. Maybe could have tone back Agatha a tiny bit in this scene in Leo Crow. Yeah. In the movie theater. I remember seeing this in the theater and my big nitpick was like, Agatha is just a bad hang.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, she's a psychic who's been l a pool of milk, so I get it.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think she's got some big emotions, you know?

[Chris Ryan]

Right. She can't walk because I get it.

[Bill Simmons]

Her. I found her disturbing.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, right.

[Chris Ryan]

I think that was kind of the point, but I get it. But that.

[Bill Simmons]

That is kind of not a fun hang. It is kind of one of the bad hang. That is kind of tough Tinder sway.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You know that you would immediately take Agatha to the sports book and just.

[Chris Ryan]

Be like, while I have you here, she's yours.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Do you think Nomar gets more than two hits tonight?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. What do you know about hockey Kings? Oilers, anyone? Last one. Lamar Burgess gets caught. This is basically the Fugitive. I don't know why we ran back the Fugitive, but we're doing all the same beats. We have the there's a banquet. He's being celebrated. He gets found out by our hero who is the Fugitive. And I wrote down, is there a better time to spring the I know you did it move than when somebody's being honored at a banquet and there's just people in tuxedos. That's probably the number one spot, right?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Where else would you do it?

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, they can't do anything.

[Bill Simmons]

So you're most rewatchable is that 15 minute stretch.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yes, but can I throw two more in there? Just because I. I have some Dion waiters nominees later and I Would be remiss if I didn't highlight their scenes. I love the greenhouse. It's such a crazy gear shift and.

[Bill Simmons]

The old lady freaks me out, but I. I'll allow it.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Her improvising on set kissing him. And that's Tom Cruise's real reaction because she didn't say I'm gonna kiss you on the lips here.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Great. And also just explains everything that's going on in the movie. And then just the Peter Stormar eye surgeon.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You know, disgraced plastic surgeon who's like, remember me? You know, you put me away. And Ms. Van Eck, you know, the Russian or the Swedish nurse that he has. Just really creepy and pure Philip K. Dick.

[Chris Ryan]

I have. The only one that it's not mentioned is the first meetup between Colin Farrell and Tom Cruise.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh yeah, the feel out.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, the feel out where he rolls the ball and goes, hey, you caught that. They're two differing perspectives on pre crime or clashing. Like that's one of the best scenes in the movie.

[Bill Simmons]

That's a good pew pew moment for you there.

[Chris Ryan]

Good pew pew moment right there.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, pew pew in there.

[Chris Ryan]

What the hell? What do you mean by that?

[Bill Simmons]

No, just like the way you went. Big picture for us. You pew pewed us. I have the 15 minute stretch as well.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But that's about as good as it gets, man.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. I gotta say, the movie, the ID spiders are incredible. Like, and the way they shoot where you can see all these different kind of CD apartments and rooms and.

[Chris Ryan]

And then how he tries to beat the spiders. He. Yeah, he's afraid to go blind.

[Bill Simmons]

You think he's gonna beat him and then he doesn't beat him.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Says everything about like the way the society is structured in that world. All these people living in this tenement are like, this is just a fact of life that I have to allow this fucking robotic spider to scam my retina while I'm in the middle of fighting with my wife for having to.

[Bill Simmons]

Do with the clipper games.

[Chris Ryan]

See no banners but you get to. They get to.

[Bill Simmons]

You sit in your seat and then crawl out.

[Chris Ryan]

But. But to that point though, they've traded that in order to have a society with. With no murders. So it's like even litigating like what.

[Bill Simmons]

Craig, what'd you have? For most rewatchable scene, I agree with cr.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I think that that action sequence in that like Factory is the most entertaining part of the movie to me.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay, what's the most 2002 thing about this movie? Still normal. Tom Cruise. No Social media in the 50 year future of things. Yeah. Social media is not in this movie. They didn't realize what was about to happen.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I mean, it's. Yeah. Also like the idea that it's like. Like that the person is reading USA Today rather than like, you know, I.

[Bill Simmons]

Have cut a cutting edge virtual USA Today in 2002. Made sense.

[Chris Ryan]

I got one too.

[Bill Simmons]

Young mustache. Colin Farrell was the other one ahead. What do you have?

[Chris Ryan]

Physical media. His memories of his son aren't streaming.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Nope.

[Chris Ryan]

He has to get little discs out and put them in there. It's one of the things they got wrong.

[Bill Simmons]

One last one, which I think is the winner. The TV show Cops being integrated in a 2054 movie scene. Cops is long gone.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

It made sense in O2, though.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would just say probably the introduction, slash warnings of government surveillance and overreach coming out of 9 11, which is like, he's. You know, I don't remember when the patriarch act is exactly passed, but like, this is right around when it's like, are we sure we want to have, like, unconditional surveillance powers?

[Chris Ryan]

Like, well, the spidey bag speaks of that.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, right.

[Bill Simmons]

The okay. Award for the exact moment when this movie goes up a notch. Cruz gets grabbed by the Precog. Or would you go, oh, I go.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Him and Neil McDonough and him be like, everybody runs. And then Steven Spielberg stages an actual jetpack fight.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. Okay.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Have you ever seen the behind the scenes for that scene?

[Bill Simmons]

No.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's mind blowing, that first of all, like, the. It's on wires, but it's all happening practically on a set. And Spielberg is basically like. It's like he's Coltrane. He's like, we're gonna do this. And then I'm gonna come here. Tom, I need you for two seconds to say this. Cut. Okay, moving on. And he's just like breaking down. It's one of the coolest, like, behind the scenes, five minute videos you can see. Because it's just like Spielberg with like, basically no storyboard being like. Like this. Okay, cut. Now I want you to do this, Tom, one more time. Thank you. Awesome. And it's like he just pieces this thing together in his head. It's amazing.

[Bill Simmons]

You think Spielberg's a genius?

[Chris Ryan]

What? Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Like a real genius.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

No, no, I think to. To be able to see story and execute it to that level.

[Bill Simmons]

I think he's an actual genius.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I agree.

[Bill Simmons]

Cause I think the word genius gets thrown around a lot.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Bill Simmons]

This would be a good podcast where we just Decide if somebody's a genius or not. Each episode, I think, to me, it's no brainer. Maybe it'd be a two minute podcast.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, no, I mean, I think that. Well, I guess the question would be, aren't they a genius? I mean, actually, the question would be not who is a genius, but it would be who isn't one? Because of all those high level directors, some of them are probably just great workmen and understand film, but then some of them are able to do things and translate story and emotion in a way that is just innate in a way. They just understand what people need to see and need to feel.

[Bill Simmons]

It's almost like the fantasy brain in your head. You can see it and translate it. As a director. And only I think a few people can actually do that, where they can just be like, I see this room, and I storyboarded this before and that curtains. And they just. Like they're in some fucking alternate universe as they're in the real universe. I have three Tom Cruise awards in a row for you. Oh, the Tom Cruise award for most awkward moment when someone kisses Tom Cruise. That goes to Dr. Iris kissing Tom Cruise.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

The Tom Cruise running award for best running in a movie. I think it's Tom Cruise, but I thought Ferrell had a nice little moment there with the skid.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

So I don't know. Do you want to.

[Chris Ryan]

That was a runoff.

[Bill Simmons]

It was pretty good.

[Chris Ryan]

Tom gets it going and he comes around the corner. In a movie, when Tom. In a movie, when Tom starts running, you go, man, Tom is the best running guy in a movie that we've seen. But then Pharrell comes right around and you go, farrell, you run as well. He's a good athlete.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And then he did Miami Vice, and he probably hasn't run since then.

[Bill Simmons]

The only Tom Cruise would do this award could be telling Spielberg he's got the little drops of oxygen shaving his head at the end for. I don't really feel like a like.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, he shaved his head because they put him in the prison thing and they have to put the halo on his head.

[Bill Simmons]

But they could have bald capped him. He's like, no, actually shave it. And then Cruz's eyes actually being held back by those metal sticks.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Which seemed real. I think that's the winner.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Just thank God. He was like, I want to replace my own eyeballs.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

He probably asked.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

He's like, what if we actually replace my eyes? They're like, tom, Tom.

[Chris Ryan]

Steve, I've got a crazy idea.

[Bill Simmons]

Crazy idea. There's these other eyeballs. What stage the best. What do you got to do all.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The noir Philip K. Dick elements. PKD loves a blind drug dealer. Pkd A disgraced plastic surgeon. He loves a wheelchair bound prison supervisor. Like all of these kind of broken, damaged people are very big factors in his books and it was cool to see them show up in the movie in some way because Spielberg is usually a little bit more shiny, happy.

[Chris Ryan]

The moving things thingy.

[Bill Simmons]

Like him moving stuff around, way better than disclosure.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, so that disclosure, man. Yeah, that aged really well. First of all, like, it does it in Ironman. But then like my apple vision pro, which I'm back on.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, oh, you bought the dip.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm back on the apple vision pro because they updated the NBA app on it. Fucking fantastic. Okay, fantastic. Back on it. But you know, I'm doing that. I'm moving stuff around and I'm the whole deal. That aged really well.

[Bill Simmons]

I had Cruz using his hands to read pre crime stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

But added, you know, he studied like tai chi or some. Some sort of something to learn. Like he definitely had some sort of.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Instructor chasing the dragon for how to make the moves.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm just going to read you what I wrote about Agatha. Samantha Morton as Agatha is so creepy and weird. It's a great performance. And I also kind of hate her in this movie, but I think it's a great performance.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But she's a rough hang.

[Bill Simmons]

But a rough hang in this movie intentionally, it has to be that way.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, yeah. I mean, she kind of jerks you out of the kinetic energy of the movie a little bit. And I mean, she's the victim of the movie.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And so she has to like stop the momentum of everything that's happening and like humanize the movie a little bit. And I think you probably, like, didn't want that. You just wanted your popcorn.

[Bill Simmons]

It's just, it's. It's tough.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's tough casting. When we get to casting, what ifs I. It's an interesting conversation.

[Bill Simmons]

So Danny says, how much time do we have after Cruz kidnaps Agatha and a pre crime officer says 51 minutes, 30 seconds. Steve Spielberg, our guy. That's exactly the amount of time until the end of the movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, he goes real time.

[Bill Simmons]

He says that I said people doing normal stuff in their room or kitchen when somebody suddenly crashes through it. And then Tom Cruise says the title in the movie, which, you know, I love.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I also love adult Spielberg. So this is a movie with sex, adultery, drug use, murder, you know, like.

[Bill Simmons]

It'S still the Spielberg version of it, but it's.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He's got it. He's got it.

[Bill Simmons]

The guy's Howard Marks. His wife in the beginning isn't riding.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Anybody or anything, but the woman in the tenement is. The woman in the apartment building's riding.

[Bill Simmons]

Yes, it's. It's. I think he has a complicated relationship with this stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

With what, sex?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You don't think he likes it?

[Bill Simmons]

I think it makes him nervous.

[Chris Ryan]

Sex makes him nervous?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You talk to him about it.

[Bill Simmons]

I'll bring it up if I. If I run into it. What do you got for great shot, Gordo?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I got two. I love the scene when they are in the Leo Crow apartment building lobby and both of their heads are in the frame and they both, you know, they've both like, kind of like. They almost looks like Agatha is an extension of his consciousness. But the best shot is definitely the overhead of all the apartments being invaded by the spiders.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, that is the best shot of the movie. There's a shot at the end where the movie reminds you that you're in Washington dc. Von Sydow.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Von Sydow.

[Chris Ryan]

Von Sydow, I think, is talking to Tom and the Washington monuments in the back and like, you know where you are. But then I pointed out one like, this is the kind of stuff that Spielberg does. I'm going to show this to Chris. See this? That's the little bit of extra stuff. So that's the scene that's in where they're talking and Neal McDonagh's character, the camera pans back behind his head and he like, splits them. And visually, Spielberg just says, these are two guys on opposite sides, opposite sides. And he uses a character in the movie to break them apart as they're facing each other. Little stuff like that that throws you into the film.

[Andy Gruenwald]

There's tons of video essays you can watch on YouTube that are talk about this broadly. And then specifically with Minority Report is basically the way Spielberg will do what other people usually do, like multiple camera setups and editing to shoot a conversation. Right. So, like, if we were three of us talking, there would be a camera, camera, camera, and then a master shot, and he would cut between those angles. But what Spielberg can do in this movie is go into Bill. Now I'm going to pan back towards the La Croix can. But then I'm gonna whip pan over and Chris is looking at Van, and I move slowly to Van, and it's like there's four shots in one shot.

[Bill Simmons]

We have to get like a. What are Those called. Those things you put over the cans.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Beer cozy kind of thing.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. We need like a ringer or somebody should make us a rewatchables beer cozy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what I love?

[Bill Simmons]

I feel like lacroix just gets like free advertising every episode.

[Chris Ryan]

Let me tell you what I loved.

[Bill Simmons]

I do like lacroix, though.

[Chris Ryan]

This is. This is. I have to name this.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

What CR was just saying was this really brilliantly technical.

[Bill Simmons]

I had nothing to add. It was a great point. It was great. I had nothing to add. The bill comes back.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I was just moving on to the next thing.

[Andy Gruenwald]

We call that the Simmons cell. It's like he acknowledges that you're there, but it's not like, oh, let's get into it. It's fine. I think it's great.

[Chris Ryan]

Bill ghost.

[Bill Simmons]

It's hard to host.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what we should do? We should stop giving the cr.

[Bill Simmons]

Well, because I. Because I was listening to Talk and I. And I felt like I was filming a lacroix commercial. And then I got self conscious about it.

[Chris Ryan]

Enthralled.

[Bill Simmons]

I was enthralled too.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, God.

[Bill Simmons]

Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness Award. Best needle drop is Moon River.

[Andy Gruenwald]

In this. Moon River.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't hear one.

[Bill Simmons]

I had the theme song from Cops.

[Craig Horlbeck]

It is Chris. Or at least I heard that as well.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

When he's walking through the mall, it's playing, right?

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's right. That's right.

[Bill Simmons]

Big Kahuna burger.

[Chris Ryan]

Word.

[Bill Simmons]

Best use of food and drink. Flying Cruise. Eating a bad sandwich and eating gross smoke. Why is that stuff in there with, like a nice healthy sandwich?

[Chris Ryan]

Because they're with him, Right. I always thought that they were with him.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think they were with him. Yeah. It's also like the idea that, like, he's not the first guy to be in this apartment blind, waiting for his timer to go off. So it's like somebody else is in there.

[Bill Simmons]

The Chess Rockwell and Brock Landers award for best character name. Lamar Burgess.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Pretty good. I have Agatha, Dash and Arthur.

[Bill Simmons]

He's 13th down. Todd McShay's draft. Lamar Burgess. Yeah. Good Senior year as a receiver.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. What I was asking what position he plays. Lamar Burgess.

[Bill Simmons]

How many white Lamar Burgesses would you think would be in the NFL draft?

[Chris Ryan]

That's true.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Nose tackle.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Big D tackle from, like, Selma.

[Bill Simmons]

Like, he used to weigh 360, but now he's 325.

[Chris Ryan]

He's in the shape of his. He's firing. Let me tell you who I really love that nobody's talking about. Troy's Lamar Burgess. This kid's a fucking animal. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Let's take a break and then we're gonna come back with CR's flex categories. I have some healing to do after CR said I had no soul. This great point before I sage steal the. All right, Sierra, what do you got? Flex category.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I got Teddy KGB award for actor doing his own thing for Peter Stormar, the plastic surgeon.

[Bill Simmons]

Our guy. You know who that is?

[Chris Ryan]

Peace number from Fargo. From where else? Oh, eight millimeter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Dino Velvet.

[Chris Ryan]

Velvet, yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The. The Russian cosmonaut and Armageddon. Just really the Satan we may have done. We may have low key done like six Peter Stormwater movies.

[Bill Simmons]

Should we do the that guy? Like what I did with the basketball hall of Fame pyramid? Should we just do the that guy hall of fame pyramid with five levels?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Stormwire to me is at least level five.

[Chris Ryan]

The fuck up there.

[Bill Simmons]

He might even be level five.

[Chris Ryan]

He makes every single movie that he is. He's in better.

[Bill Simmons]

You always notice him, but it's never like a huge role.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, it's just so fascinating because he gives Tom Cruise anesthetic. Like as soon as he walks in, he basically knocks him out. And then he just like dances around Tom Cruise and choose scenery for five minutes. Like, does anybody ever done this to Tom Cruise before? Where Tom Cruise has got to be.

[Bill Simmons]

Like, oh, like he's in a scene with Joaquin Phoenix and Nick Cage just blowing them off the set. I love that guy. Butch's girlfriend. Weak link of the film. I don't. I don't really have one.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Do you like Lara?

[Chris Ryan]

I thought Lara. I thought it was going to be the Larry Lara or Agatha.

[Bill Simmons]

The Tom Cruise way.

[Andy Gruenwald]

This category shouldn't always be like the WOL woman.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's just the Lara character is not that dynamic. And then I guess for me, probably.

[Bill Simmons]

The weakest piece of the movie is. Is Max just up and saying the girl drowned.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And then yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like he's. This guy is so smart. He's replacing pre crime memories and he's just seven steps ahead everybody recreating murders. And then all of a sudden he's just like, yeah, the drowned girl. She's like, what do you mean? I never said she drowned sound. It just feels like a.

[Chris Ryan]

Doesn't make any sense.

[Bill Simmons]

That's probably my butcher's girlfriend. What stage the worst. No cell phones. Cruise jumping cars on the fake highway is the only part of this movie that doesn't look CGI'd.

[Chris Ryan]

That.

[Bill Simmons]

I think if they do it in 25, they just have better technology. Right. Futuristic. Misses those thin glass data slides you mentioned earlier. The physical media, I don't know, feels like easy to shatter, easy to break.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's a very.

[Bill Simmons]

Should they have covers like I.

[Chris Ryan]

That would be on the cloud, man.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. It's the best part of the movie and it's why people are like, I don't really want to make movies about cloud and iPhones because it's just like I want to have the thing that we have to run now.

[Bill Simmons]

We would just have the cloud.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Bill Simmons]

There's a stretch here with the long stretch with Dr. Iris right into the Crazy Eye Doctor where. Where nothing's happening for about 25 minutes. And there's such an adrenaline rush before they bring you back down. It's a little long.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's Alpha Land.

[Bill Simmons]

He's going to go get popcorn.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He's going down the hole there.

[Chris Ryan]

Talking about when he gets into her and the fucking plants come alive and all of that stuff. The plants coming alive. Just. It seems like a different movie to me.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think on purpose though. I think it's supposed to be like he's now passed into the realm of like fantasy and mysticism. Yeah, exactly.

[Bill Simmons]

Fox did a remake series in 2015 that I forgot about. Didn't last. Dr. Iris says the Precog's abilities are the result of brain damage caused by parents being addicted to neuroine during pregnancy. Don't do neuron when you're pregnant. So what's aged the worst for me? They care about your kids. Even though new rhin's not an actual drug. What do you got? For what stage the worst.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I didn't. I just. I just can't handle eye stuff from. From Clockwork Orange on. When they started with my number one. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Eating. Gross. I just can't. When he eat. Every time he eats the. And he drinks it can't. Physical media thing and literally the. The. The CGI when they're jumping around, that's like Star wars prequel level. This is fake.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Type of shit.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. And that's. Unfortunately O2 is right around. We had some stuff figured out, but.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Others, I mean they're able to do the Matrix. So, like it's pretty good.

[Chris Ryan]

It looked as. It looked better than it had ever looked up to that point. But the jump between now and then, like 2008 when Iron man comes out.

[Bill Simmons]

Sinners with like Michael B. Jordan just playing two parts next to each other for two and a half hours.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

The Ruffalo handed rubyneck Partridge. Overacting word.

[Chris Ryan]

I know. That's an easy one.

[Bill Simmons]

What do you got, Sacatha?

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, not over. I mean, just. It's a. Turning it up to fucking 14. I don't. I don't mind as much as you do, but, like, screaming, yelling.

[Bill Simmons]

It's a borderline. You could throw in the category.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, yeah, I got the overactive word. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

When he's about to kill Mike Binder and they do a couple ISO shots of her just screaming her fucking head off. It's like, okay, let's take. Let's cut one. Back, back. Go back.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Bro.

[Bill Simmons]

Anderson. Wait a sec. Ben, what do you have for a flex category?

[Chris Ryan]

Best dick ever. Okay, so it's a. All mine is always a list. And I want cr, our resident dickhead here, to what are the best Philip K. Dick movie adaptations? Oh, so I got Minority Report.

[Bill Simmons]

I thought that was gonna be the AVN Award for a second. Jesus.

[Chris Ryan]

Minority Report, Total Recall, Scanner Darkly, Blade Runner, and then I put the Adjustment Bureau on there because I love that movie. Am I leaving anything off?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I don't think so. There have been some, like, animated series and series where it's, like, riffing on themes from his. His works, but I think those are the big ones. I would put Blade Runner number one.

[Chris Ryan]

Blade Runner number two. So give me a ranking.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would go Blade Runner, Total Recall. Mine, probably. Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, and. And then even though Skyner Darkly, in some ways is the most Philip K. Dick thing.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you an Adjustment Bureau guy?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I'm not.

[Chris Ryan]

You're not. Are you an Adjustment Bureau guy?

[Bill Simmons]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

Interesting.

[Bill Simmons]

No, sir. I think I agree with CR's list, but I think Total Recall is also the one. If I could. If I was trapped on a desert island, that's when I had one. Yeah, I'd probably take that one.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, to me, that's the best one.

[Bill Simmons]

Because you get the three boob ladies.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I mean.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it's the best. Or. Oh, no, actually, you know what? It's not the best one. Yeah, it's just the best.

[Bill Simmons]

It's the most entertaining, rewatchable of all.

[Chris Ryan]

But Blade Runner is the best one.

[Bill Simmons]

One Blade Runner is the best one. Yeah, it's like how Raging Bull is awesome, but you wouldn't want to watch Raging.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, you'd rather watch, like, Rocky or something. But yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Do you know that in, like, 2006, somebody made a Jake LaMotta movie because it was on cable?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Are you serious?

[Chris Ryan]

I've never heard of this.

[Bill Simmons]

And it was like Jake LaMotta. And it was like some. I forget who the actor was. Was it like. Can you imagine being like the ball. You know what? We might be.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Might be time to re. Explore Jake Lamata.

[Chris Ryan]

Balls on that. The balls on that. That guy.

[Bill Simmons]

Hey, the CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford. Hottest take award. Ben, do you have one?

[Chris Ryan]

I do not.

[Bill Simmons]

I have one. I'll do one for you.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Precogs, the greatest professional sports gambling weapon ever created in movie, hands down.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

There's a whole subplot movie with Precogs, like just basically making all these money for gamblers and then being on. On the run.

[Andy Gruenwald]

If you're John Anderton, just make the run to Vegas with Agatha while he can't. Or close to Atlantic City.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The guy has access to the Precogs. And look, the villain here is a villain. He kills someone, but he also kind of. I mean, he's. He's kind of got some points, right. He tries to stop murder. I wouldn't have tried to stop murder if I had.

[Bill Simmons]

The Precogs use them financially.

[Chris Ryan]

We running it up. We playing the market. We doing all kinds. We doing all kinds of stuff. We running it up. He did something for the public good in a bad way.

[Bill Simmons]

Precock has Oilers game two. Goal and a half. Put Agatha plus 150.

[Chris Ryan]

Put a nice visor on.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I love taking the idea of like, this person is telepathic. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

All right. Do you have a hot. Hottest taker?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. So this one is from the perspective of Howard Marks. Let's say you're Howard, right?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Aren't you? Like, why don't we just stop my wife from cheating? Why don't we, like, why don't like, if we. If you can see the whole crime. Wouldn't it be better if Anderton came by and was just like, don't cheat on Howard. He's going to flip out if you do that.

[Bill Simmons]

Just go through further back.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. Or just like, why is the Precog only paying attention to the end result, like murder and not the pre triggering event?

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Because if you're Howard, you're like, I never would have considered killing my wife unless she cheated on me. So if you could just go back in time, couldn't somebody be like, hey, we got to yank this guy who's like going to. Going to cheat on.

[Chris Ryan]

She's really kind of over Howard a little bit.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, I mean, I understand that the ultimate crime is murder, right? Like, the people are going to cheat on each other. People are going to have feelings for one another. But it is kind of like for that kind of path. Crime of passion. It seems like if she hasn't cheated, he's like, oh, I thought maybe we could go to lunch together today.

[Bill Simmons]

So you don't stop Rich Paul from saying that Chris Bosh wasn't really a big three. You go back further.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yes.

[Bill Simmons]

And stop LeBron James from hiring. That's your move then. We don't have the Chris Bosch thing anyway. But yeah, exactly. Okay, I gotcha. Casting what ifs. This was optioned in 1992 as a sequel to Total Recall with Schwarzenegger. Yep. And Carol Co productions, which we've talked. Carol Pictures, which we've talked about on a couple Kyle Brandt rewatchables filed for bankruptcy and there's a documentary about this whole thing. So it got worked into a different thing. Yand Du Bont came in 97 and then. And that didn't work out. And then the biggest casting what if for this was Spielberg comes on, offers the role. The Colin Farrell roll to Matt Damon, offers Dr. Iris to Meryl Streep, offers Lamar Burgess 320 pound nose tackle to Ian McKellen, offers Agatha to Cate Blanchett and offers Lara to Jenna Elfman. And Streep declines. Damon's doing Ocean's Eleven. Everybody else.

[Andy Gruenwald]

McKellen's in the two Towers. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Javier Bardem then offered the Witwer roll, the Colin Farrell roll. He can't do it either.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Do you see why he turned it down?

[Bill Simmons]

No.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He said he didn't feel like chasing Tom Cruise around for an entire movie.

[Chris Ryan]

That's funny.

[Bill Simmons]

Wow.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And now he's gonna be chasing Brad Pitt around in F1. Saw that trailer yesterday.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm in.

[Chris Ryan]

You're way up on it.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm in. It's Days of thunder with F1 cars. I'm in.

[Chris Ryan]

I can't tell what it's really about.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm still gonna go.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's about an older racer and a younger racer.

[Chris Ryan]

It just. It looks cool.

[Bill Simmons]

They've never tried that.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it looks cool. But I still have the thing that makes me go, oh, Jesus Christ.

[Bill Simmons]

I got a CF1 best that guy award. Obviously it's going to be dino velvet from 8 millimeter. Unless you think Peter Stormore is his own guy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Not only is he his own guy, he's in the Dion category. I. I had Patrick kill Patrick. Who is the guy standing next to Sean McDonough or Steve Harris, but I don't know if Steve Harris.

[Chris Ryan]

Maybe in movies.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Movies.

[Bill Simmons]

He might be I had Steve Harris.

[Chris Ryan]

You know who I have?

[Bill Simmons]

Arie Gross is. But I think he's ar.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He's very gross to me.

[Bill Simmons]

He's Perfect Strangers.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Perfect Strangers. Star of one of my favorite movies, the Experts.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, John Travolta and Kelly Preston.

[Chris Ryan]

Fake John Travolta. Kelly Preston. Like, I'm telling you guys, go watch the Experts, the fake town in Russia that doesn't. I don't mind the Experts in Russia.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

I vote for Steve Harris. Who's the black guy who works for Cruz for People?

[Chris Ryan]

Wood Harris's brother.

[Bill Simmons]

Really?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Why wasn't he in the Wire?

[Chris Ryan]

That's wireless.

[Bill Simmons]

He couldn't have been, like.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know that there's a.

[Bill Simmons]

He couldn't have been, like, cast. It could have been, like, Don Barksdale, like, his brother that comes in from whatever dawn.

[Chris Ryan]

Barstow. That's Woodhouse's brother. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Dion Waiters. We have. We have our guy Peter Storm with Dweezel Zappa.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Tim Blake Nelson.

[Bill Simmons]

Dr. Iris.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would say Lois. Dr. Iris. And. And also Tim Blake Nelson as Gideon the Century.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I would go Dweezel. Oh, I'm doing a lot in four minutes.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I'm going Stormwear.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it's easy one right there. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, yeah. Stormer. Yeah, right. You're right. Recasting couch. Director city. What do you got? I think.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think D.C. is a cool place to put this. I think it's like Boston. It's consistent. Yeah. Southie. Minority Report in Southeast.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm so close. I wanted this. I'm not. I'm gonna let you slide.

[Bill Simmons]

Don't do it.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm not gonna bring it up.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I like it in D.C. it feels like all the presidents, man.

[Bill Simmons]

In New Orleans.

[Chris Ryan]

If the movie's called Minority Report and it's in Boston, it would be a different movie.

[Bill Simmons]

New Orleans.

[Chris Ryan]

New Orleans would be good.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Philly. You could do it in Philly. Run by the Liberty Bell, you know?

[Chris Ryan]

Is this. Is this a Miami movie?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, I think you need a dense.

[Bill Simmons]

It's. Miami's too happy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I like the idea of, like, an old city that has been redone in the futuristic way.

[Bill Simmons]

I think I. The other place I was thinking was London.

[Chris Ryan]

Chicago.

[Bill Simmons]

But London's the obvious place to do it. But that's not in America. Yeah, recasting for me. Can we test drive Jada Pinkett as Agatha? Can you give that a whirl?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Cate Blanchett is, like, an incredible shout.

[Bill Simmons]

But Cate Blanchett's like. I don't know. She's like one of the best actresses the last 25 years.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But in 02, she was like, still making it up. Coming up.

[Chris Ryan]

So after what happened with Beth Morton.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Was also really good in a lot of stuff.

[Bill Simmons]

I get it. Jada Pinkett, because she, she, I like when she has a shaved head.

[Chris Ryan]

Anyway, so about to say, you're gonna get Chris over 30 years before different Oscars. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

We're rewriting history.

[Chris Ryan]

He makes the joke.

[Bill Simmons]

It's like, yeah, Portman's probably too young at that point.

[Chris Ryan]

She's in her 20s. I mean, she's, she's, she's in Star wars at that point where she's like, she's, she's, she's like 20s.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. Can I uneasily test drive a casting suggestion for this to, to change the flavor of the movie a tiny bit? What about Halle Berry?

[Chris Ryan]

Huh.

[Bill Simmons]

In the Precog?

[Chris Ryan]

I think she's too, she's probably too on at this point.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would, I would go for Halle Berry as Lara as the, as the ex wife. That'd be cool.

[Bill Simmons]

Future half ass research. Cameron Diaz, Cameron Crow and Paul Thomas Anderson are on the subway uncredited. In the Philip Dick novel, John Anderton is a balding out of shape old man.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. He also, at the end of, I think, I believe at the end of the novel, him and Larry get like basically kicked off of Earth.

[Chris Ryan]

Kicked off of Earth? Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's not a happy ending.

[Chris Ryan]

Hold on, where did it go?

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's like you're basically being transported to like another planet, like as a punishment. And wit, were is like takes over essentially.

[Bill Simmons]

In the book, the. The Precogs are intellectually disabled and deformed individuals. They decided that doesn't sound fun. Spielberg said he wanted to give the movie a noir feel and threw himself a film festival that included Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo, Maltese Falcon, and they decided to deliberately over light the film and then bypass the negative with our guy Janusz.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The car factory scene is based on a never shot sequence in north by Northwest that Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut about. So like he took like inspiration for that. I mean, he's just in, he's just, he is hearing Jimmy in this movie. He's just.

[Bill Simmons]

Do you know my Janus connection?

[Chris Ryan]

I do not.

[Bill Simmons]

So my daughter's in like, Chris knows this elementary school.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

And he's one of the other dads in my daughter's class. In one year it was like second or third grade. He took all the pictures at like the end of the year thing and it was Janice Kaminsky, multiple Oscar winner, cinematography. So you know you normally have these things and it's just like a bunch of like people taking iPhones and it's a photo album and this is like the greatest. Just pictures of like seven year old little girls like blowing bubbles in there. Yeah, it's like, it's amazing. Anyway. Similars to the fugitive Richard Kimball. John Anderton, framed for crimes they didn't commit. Both recognized on the subway by another passenger. Both consulted a colleague to unravel a clue. Both pursued by a police officer and navigate through a crowded public place to try to lose them. Kimball dyes his hair. Anderton has his eyes replaced. Discovered they were set up by a colleague that they had been talking about the whole time and trusted. And then blow them up during a ceremony celebrating that colleague.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You got Neuronin. You got Pro Basic. What are they taking in? The fugitive. What's the drug that they're basic. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

You'll have to excuse my friend, Dr. Richard Kimball. He's been sick.

[Chris Ryan]

Is there a scene in this one that's parallel or something? Like the jumping off of the. The jumping into the damn scene.

[Bill Simmons]

Probably the, the jetpack fight. Him jumping where he just goes. Yeah, that's another similarity.

[Chris Ryan]

Whatever you do, you're not gonna catch me. I'm willing to jump off of the thing or do whatever. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

This is a borderline Sean fantasy. Criteria Orgasm. Criterion Orgasm Award, whatever we called that one.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But Criteria Orgasm.

[Bill Simmons]

Criteria Orgasm. Cruz confronts Max at the end and he's wearing a dark hood. And it's mirrors the opening of a 1957 movie called the Seventh Seal.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

So there you go. Apex Mountain.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I got one for you.

[Bill Simmons]

What do you got?

[Andy Gruenwald]

You ever heard of the made up genre called Nokia Wave or Nokia Wave depending on how you pronounce the Swedish phone company? You know about this?

[Bill Simmons]

I don't.

[Andy Gruenwald]

So it's basically an idea slash subgenre that was coined by a critic named David Rudnick. And it, it loosely spans from Goldeneye through the Bourne movies. So like 95 to like early 2000s. And it's all about like, like it's like Enemy of the State. It's like Matrix. It's stuff where it's like the technology is futuristic, but it's still tactile. So you were talking about like little floppy disks, but it was basically clear discs. People are still wearing earbuds. You know, like the phones are like almost there, but they're not super in the future. And everything is about paranoia and an. And a state surveilling you and basically this is like. It's this Ronin spy game, Mission Impossible, bunch of these. But Minority Report is Apex Mountain for Nokia Wave.

[Bill Simmons]

Do you think that would make me watch Koozies? No, that was great. That's great.

[Chris Ryan]

He did it on purpose that time, you know.

[Bill Simmons]

That was great. No, you're right. This was a four year.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Four year run of inferior technology being presented as awesome technology.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yes. Where it's like we can't find Jason Bourne because like the Internet is busy. Like the modem is not working.

[Chris Ryan]

Almost like. Like contemporary steampunk, like to where it's. You know what I mean?

[Bill Simmons]

That's a really good ap.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Cruise.

[Bill Simmons]

No, Spielberg. No.

[Chris Ryan]

Cruise. Spielberg Collapse.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. Because this is it. Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

War of the World.

[Bill Simmons]

No, this is better than.

[Chris Ryan]

I love War of the Worlds, though. I think it's a real. I think war. Cruz throwing up.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Throwing. You're just mad because he's a Yankees fan in that movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Throwing a baseball at his son's face.

[Bill Simmons]

He just has to come and come out and say, I had a torn rotator cuff. But I got it through it because I threw the baseball for seven straight months before filming because I wanted to get it right. Spielbergian shattered my rotator cuff.

[Chris Ryan]

Spielbergian techno noir. Like between this and AI.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, that's good. I like this movie so much more than AI. I really didn't feel like AI worked. Worked. Not a lot of AI conversations lately. Although I guess the title is important movie though. Yeah, I get it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

How about Evil Max characters? Because this wasn't the most evil. CR knows what the most evil is.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Strange brew.

[Bill Simmons]

No, he was. He was the. The good Nazi in victory.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, right. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

The Nazis were all evil in victory. But Pele's bicycle kick was so good, he stood up and applauded it. Yeah, but you know what?

[Chris Ryan]

You're still fucking Nazi Nazi.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, sorry. Sorry, buddy. Samantha Morton. Apex Mountain.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's her time. Morvern Cowler.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. I actually think Dorchester's Neil McDonough. No way.

[Chris Ryan]

No. Hell no. No.

[Bill Simmons]

His. His Apex mountain is a 25 year. Apex Mountain.

[Chris Ryan]

He got deep back. 25 years, but he got deep back. He got deep bag of recognizable characters.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

When they first year Yellowstone, I'm like, Neil's gonna be in this.

[Andy Gruenwald]

And in second year he is.

[Chris Ryan]

He's in there. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Pre Cogs. Definitely Washington D.C. movies. No, Pre. Kind. Pre crime departments. I don't remember seeing this in another movie.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Predictive crime. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I don't think so, Phil.

[Bill Simmons]

Dick movies. We just said.

[Chris Ryan]

We just said now yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

All right. Cruiser. Hank Scorsese or Spielberg? This is the first time this has ever happened. It's a double wow.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

What role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played?

[Chris Ryan]

No, I have him in the Colin Farrell role.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's an interesting idea of him playing Witwer because it's a little bit more of a twerp. A little less hot, a little less.

[Bill Simmons]

Like the fight scene suffers.

[Chris Ryan]

Probably the fight scene suffers. Maybe the running and all of that kind of. He wasn't known for, but like he also was kind of sneaky, athletic and people don't talk about it like he was a good ball player and all of that stuff. He never really got into that bag on screen, I guess, that much. But I.

[Bill Simmons]

He could have been the eye doctor.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, for sure.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. He could have been eye.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He could have been Gideon. He could have been.

[Bill Simmons]

But I think he's the Diesel Zappa. If we're doing this again, he just comes in hot for five minutes.

[Chris Ryan]

But in 2002.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, he's just like doing a favor for Cruz. They're buddies. Craig's choice Flex category. What do you got, Craig?

[Craig Horlbeck]

Well, I. I kind of want to do a hottest take, which is just that Lamar was super.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Right.

[Craig Horlbeck]

And that we should get the Precogs back in the milk and that even if it's like a 98% hit rate. What are we doing here?

[Chris Ryan]

See, this is the problem. His generation. See, I'm telling you, this is like.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I want to take wh a world without murder. Even if innocent people are going to jail.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Spoiler alert. Innocent people go to jail all the time. 98% hit rate.

[Chris Ryan]

This is. He means it. This is the problem. This is a intellectual.

[Craig Horlbeck]

What's our hit rate now? Like 60%. 98.

[Bill Simmons]

Just averages, guys are clear. Like 20%. Yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I'm just running the numbers here. This still looks like a pretty good move to me. See, ok.

[Bill Simmons]

This would be an unbelievable first take segment.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Think about what you give up, Craig.

[Bill Simmons]

We have to get the Precogs back.

[Chris Ryan]

In the water, in the milk. An ethically utilitarian generation.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm telling you, Craig, I really enjoyed the take. Picking nits, swapping eyeballs. Let's like really talk about this. I know the technology is going to be better in 2054 than it is now. I don't know what century we're just going to be able to swap eyeballs where the guys out there in an action scene three weeks later. Come on. Yeah, like, come on.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, yeah, like kidneys.

[Bill Simmons]

I would. I get it. But that One is. That one's a little crazy. Cruz just stumbles into the exact drowning of Ann lively in about 20 seconds. From the precog thing, I think it's.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The idea that Precogs are echoing that, like they're trying to send a signal to him. Because that's her mother.

[Chris Ryan]

She keeps saying.

[Bill Simmons]

I know.

[Chris Ryan]

She says, you can. She says to him, you can see. She wants him to see it.

[Bill Simmons]

And then Lamar accidentally saying, the girl drowned.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I'll add on to the Lamar pylon. I don't really feel like Lamar shooting himself in the heart is, like, commensurate to the rest of the film's, like, imagination. So when, like, it's just the two of them together, and then he's like, come on, you guys had a jetpack fight an hour ago.

[Chris Ryan]

F2.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Who's in charge of updating the retinal files?

[Andy Gruenwald]

What do you mean?

[Chris Ryan]

So Tom Cruise, his character, John Henderton, is now a fugitive and on the run and an outlaw, but his retinal still gets you into the police station.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, who's like, why didn't they turn off his security badge?

[Chris Ryan]

Like, you leave a place, like, you fire. You get fired from a place, they discontinue your badge, like, right away.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But all the way to the end.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Of the movie, he can still get into the.

[Chris Ryan]

His wife is able to get in using his retinal file. Like, he's. Who's. Who's in charge.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's the fucking. One of the best picking nits I've heard in a long time.

[Chris Ryan]

Who's in charge of updating the retinal files? It should not still be giving you access. Yeah, cut your card off right away. You can't get back in.

[Bill Simmons]

This is2020,25. We would know this 2002. They didn't think of it.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm just saying, like, they get you out of it, and then the other one is retina files. The other one is this. So in the crime with the precog, the Ann Wiley, the crime, right. They come and get her murderer, and then they just leave her there for her to be killed. So they don't need her to come to the station and give a statement. They.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Okay, right. I think the idea is it's all staged. Right, But I know what you mean. Where the cops are, like, you're good. See you later. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The cops come get the guy, and then that allows Burgess to then kill her. While the cops are gone, there's not a cop that goes, hey, I know this was traumatic for you. They literally just leave her standing by the lake for him to come kill her.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, in Craig's America, that's just how the cops are.

[Bill Simmons]

Keep the precocks and milk. I'm Craig Horbeck, and that's my 2054 stance.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Wait, I have a picking that.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

You'll have to talk me through this, because maybe I'm not thinking about this, right? But the. The whole John Anderton murder, the whole plot, seems like a catch 22 to me, because Anderton would not have known about the Leo Crow thing unless Agatha told him or, you know, saw it. But Agatha would have never seen it unless he was already destined to do it, which he couldn't have been, because she's the reason why he was destined to do it.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Craig, welcome to the world, Dick, man. This is what it's all about.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Chicken or the egg.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But that's the paradox. It's the whole idea. Welcome to the world of dick. You know, it's like all of this. It's like basically the whole idea, yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I just got dicked.

[Andy Gruenwald]

When he's like. Colin Farrell's character is just like, if we. He. It's like, here's the paradox. It's like if you know the ball is going to drop, you catch it, whatever, that whole idea.

[Craig Horlbeck]

But, like, the opening example in the film makes sense. It's like this guy's going, you know, theoretically going to kill his wife, but he still has a choice. But the Anderton thing doesn't make sense because he literally would have never known about it had Agatha not told him.

[Andy Gruenwald]

But that's the whole thing is she's trying to knock down the dominoes that will eventually lead to, like, her mother's murder being solved.

[Bill Simmons]

It's like, Craig, it's like if. If Sacramento just takes Luka Doncic number.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Two, then we don't even lose a great year.

[Bill Simmons]

Nico Harrison is just the boys with everybody. And the Lakers are dying.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would say, Craig, this was a. A source story written under a tremendous influence of drugs.

[Bill Simmons]

Sure.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Sequel, prequel, Prestige tv. All black cast are untouchable. Prestige TV probably should have worked with this. It feels like a show Apple would have made. Like, I think it would just be.

[Andy Gruenwald]

More heady and less, like, fun and. And chase oriented.

[Bill Simmons]

Probably less toys because they wouldn't have the budget. Although if they gave Prestige, the. The Prestige, like, Morning show treatment money to this apple. 20 million an episode.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah. It would just be an advertisement for everything Apple's gonna do in 10 years.

[Bill Simmons]

He's walking through the mall and it's just like iPad. Yeah, I guess the phone.

[Chris Ryan]

The question is like, like when you do the Prestige on this, do you do a one season limited that kind of stretches out Anderton's story? Or do you leave Pre Crime around and do something based on that for like multiple seasons?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Or would you do a prequel and it's like the first guy who gets caught by Precogs? Because that guy probably was pretty salty.

[Chris Ryan]

Or you do. Or you do all the Minority Reports.

[Bill Simmons]

What about Law and Order Pre Crime? Oh, just like the cheap version of this. Yeah, just every episode.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Not a lot of detective work. It's like, oh, yeah, see, we gotta go get this guy.

[Chris Ryan]

It's basically just moving your hands around.

[Bill Simmons]

Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trejo, Doris Burke, Sam Jackson, Nell Byron Mayo, Barney Cousins, Tony Roma, Harley Maze, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview, Long Legs, or Wilford Brimley in the Firm?

[Andy Gruenwald]

In honor of the NBA playoffs, if DB Was checking out a little Minority Report, we see you, Miss Agatha. You've been swimming in the photon milk for all this time. Not just grinding tape, but making the tape for the precon police to act on. But now you're out here in your Gap finest, straight off the rack, living your best life. Don't let anyone tell you that you need the twins to see the future. DB has really kind of taken on her own character now. It's not even really like a Doris Burke imitation anymore.

[Bill Simmons]

I don't know. We'll see her in the playoffs. I don't know if that's far off. Off. I had. I had Ryan Ruko. And also in honor of the NBA playoffs, is Lamar Burgess going to take his life? Just one Oscar. Who gets it? I honestly go Kaminsky. I think this movie looks so cool. Yeah. I think the way it's. It just the. The vibe of it is so unique. It really stands out. Even if you're flicking channels on cable and you stumble across, it just looks different.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I like the idea though, that this is like hardly in the conversation of. Of Spielberg movie that missed out on an Oscar or should have. Should have won an Oscar, but people still study it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Do you know what I mean? It's a real testament.

[Bill Simmons]

No question. Probably unanswerable questions. Did Howard Marks his wife deserve to die? I mean, the guy wasn't even in his car yet and the next guy's coming over. I don't know.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That guy's.

[Bill Simmons]

Did Howard have some good ideas?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Walk in the house too, from across the street like you can't even. You can't even wait for five minutes. Creep.

[Bill Simmons]

Creep, affair guy. I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

You need to go listen to the TK Kirkland interview on Higher Learning. Let me tell you something.

[Bill Simmons]

I said it was unanswerable.

[Chris Ryan]

I will tell you this. No. But the answer is no. But I will say that that scene is really. That scene is diabolical because he's trying to convince her to have sex in the bed. And she's not wanting to do it.

[Bill Simmons]

She's saving it.

[Chris Ryan]

But. Yeah, but she's like, I don't want to do it in our bed. In the bed that we share. Even though the guy's already coming in. In the house. He's like, nah, nah, fuck your husband. Fuck your husband. And then he's right there with the fucking scissors. But, no, she didn't deserve to die. No.

[Bill Simmons]

Has any actor ever worn more masks in a movie than Tom Cruise?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, my God, I forgot about the. The paralytic that he shoots into his face.

[Chris Ryan]

We need to talk about that.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, he loves a mask.

[Bill Simmons]

Loves it. I mean, how many? Every Mission Impossible movie, Vanilla Sky. Vanilla Sky. This movie. It's got to be like two more.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Is he wearing a mask in Tropic Thunder is just a lot of makeup, you know?

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, that's a good question. I think for Lev, maybe. Maybe a prosthetics, maybe not a full mask.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Yeah, I love that he injects himself with that. And then like 20 seconds later, the pre cut guy's like, hey, John.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's also such, like a huge.

[Craig Horlbeck]

Why did I do that?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Where they're like, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna shoot yourself this. And it's like, this is not, like, actually that important.

[Bill Simmons]

No, I have two really good ones. So unless anyone has any other ones, I don't. All right, first one. What's the fanduel line on the crane fight with Pharaoh and Cruz? Right when. Right when Pharaoh does his Irish thing and it's like, it's go time. If that's real life on the crane, who wins?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Well, I think it's like, I'm going.

[Bill Simmons]

With the Irish guy, but it is.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Kind of like him up. I'm in Thompson's first playoff series. We don't really. We won't really see. We haven't seen Witwer in that.

[Bill Simmons]

I think he's like, -310 over Cruz. He's got size on him. He's younger.

[Chris Ryan]

And when he kisses the necklace, that's like.

[Bill Simmons]

That tells you he's been there before.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Like he's had some scraps.

[Chris Ryan]

And by the way, he starts off him up.

[Bill Simmons]

So three to one.

[Chris Ryan]

Three to one. Ah, three to one is a lot.

[Bill Simmons]

So you think there'd be some cruise action? Minus 240 plus 240.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Next one. Has Van ever typed in precog and a porn search? This might actually be answerable.

[Chris Ryan]

Cog. No, I have it.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay, good. What piece of memorability would you want or not want from this movie?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I would want the pre crime screen, but only so that I could watch second spectrum and grind tape. Look at this split action. Drayvon's gonna get set here.

[Bill Simmons]

I have the rarely seen not want for this.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Okay.

[Bill Simmons]

The eyeballs. Imagine having those. Like what are those? I have the eyeballs.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Get into Spotify.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The halo. I want the halo. Oh yeah, the Halos are cool.

[Bill Simmons]

Coach. Finstock award, best life lesson. I'm gonna go with careful, chief. You dig up the past, all you get is dirty. I don't know, some sort of life lesson.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Okay, yeah, I like, I like. Everybody runs.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, everybody runs.

[Bill Simmons]

That's good. Best double feature choice.

[Chris Ryan]

I had Edge of Tomorrow.

[Andy Gruenwald]

That's good. I. I had north by Northwest.

[Bill Simmons]

Oh, I was gonna say War on the world. War of the world just to get the combo.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Who won the movie? Steve.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I'm gonna go Steve.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm gonna go Steve too.

[Andy Gruenwald]

You go Tom. Unanimous. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Craig's Precog. Milk take.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Craig, what do you got?

[Craig Horlbeck]

So I feel like I've effectively masked my thoughts throughout this recording. You're probably not going to be thrilled. I have seen this movie before. I saw it 10 years ago. This is only the second time I've seen it. And I don't deny that this is exactly what Spielberg wanted. It just. It just doesn't click for me. It doesn't work.

[Bill Simmons]

Not a sci fi guy or not.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I like sci fi.

[Bill Simmons]

Not a pre crime guy.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Can I ask you something? Because we didn't talk about this. This is it a half hour too long?

[Craig Horlbeck]

Yeah, for sure.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Because I know that you're. You're really sensitive about run times anyway and this, this one definitely has like five extras.

[Bill Simmons]

It drags.

[Craig Horlbeck]

It's a little ahead of its time and how long it is to be honest.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I feel like these movies two and.

[Andy Gruenwald]

A half hour blockbuster was uncommon back.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah. I just knew Sinners. I love Sinners. But I knew like I had to pee halfway at the hour mark cuz I was like, I know this is going to go An. An hour and a half longer.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I think this is just like my own personal, personal, subjective opinion. I just don't like the look of the early aughts, late 90s movies that like Cold Blue Bleached Out. I just, like, find that to be visually unpleasant. And I think it's in a weird middle ground. Like, I think it's in a gray area where 80s and 90s movies, to me, actually aged better than early aughts movies. Because the early aughts movies are, like, in that awkward period between bad CGI and good cgi. And they're, like, really trying.

[Chris Ryan]

I could not agree more.

[Craig Horlbeck]

They have.

[Andy Gruenwald]

They, like.

[Craig Horlbeck]

They, like, are just discovering it. So they're trying really hard. And I actually think it just looks worse. Worse than, like, Total Recall? In some ways.

[Chris Ryan]

Bad. Bad. Like bad cgi. Like, bad cgi. Effects put you in a position where you understand exactly what they're imagining. Middling CGI and effects makes it look like they couldn't do what they wanted to do.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I think this movie is either 10 years too early or 10 years too late.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

You know what's funny, though? I. So I. I totally agree with Craig, but I also judge this. Cause I know what they had and didn't have back then. Almost the same way you would watch NBA quips from the 70s and be like, oh, yeah, they didn't know to shoot threes back then.

[Chris Ryan]

But see, that's what he's saying, in my opinion. I'm not to speak for him because he just said it, but, like, if you watch. If you watch Total Recall and, you know, the things happening and he's in the stomach and all of that stuff.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, it can't be right.

[Chris Ryan]

You get that. But then when you watch a movie from like 2002 or 2003, there are parts of the movie that look amazing and then parts that look bad. And that, to me, takes you more out of it than something that looks bad.

[Bill Simmons]

Pretty much throughout the entire way I was watching. I don't know if you guys know this movie, the Thing last night, John Carpenter, last night, you might have heard of it.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Did you get it on 4K?

[Bill Simmons]

Huh?

[Andy Gruenwald]

Did you get it on.

[Bill Simmons]

No, it was just on cable. I do have it on 4K.

[Craig Horlbeck]

See, to me, that's a good example of a movie that visually works, despite how dated.

[Bill Simmons]

But that's the thing. It's 1982. All of it feels completely genuine. Even the alien, whatever the fuck coming out of the guy's stomach. And in 2002, they probably tried to Throw some technology at that that would make it seem less fake than it did in 1982.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Yes.

[Craig Horlbeck]

It's just tough timing. I almost wish this was a Total Recall sequel in like 1991 because it would have looked way different.

[Chris Ryan]

But there are parts of the movie that look fantastic. Like all of the stuff moving around, the precocks, the stuff. All of that stuff totally works. And then you'll get to something and you'll go. They hadn't quite mastered. Because they're probably producing this 2000, 2001. Yeah, something like that. They hadn't quite.

[Andy Gruenwald]

He shot it pretty fast, but yeah, like, it's. It's.

[Chris Ryan]

It's.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I think it's after. They certainly were doing it after 9 11, but I. I think it was a quick shoot. Yeah.

[Craig Horlbeck]

I just don't love the early Internet era. Like the. The early digital era on film, I feel like, is kind of tough. Doesn't age well.

[Bill Simmons]

Craig, have you seen the Thing?

[Craig Horlbeck]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Jack, have you seen it?

[Andy Gruenwald]

I have. Huge inspiration for Sinners.

[Bill Simmons]

It's really good.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The finger you're showing a little leg. Are we gonna do it?

[Bill Simmons]

The Thing is just really good.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it is.

[Bill Simmons]

It's just.

[Andy Gruenwald]

It's one of the best movies.

[Bill Simmons]

The testing, the blood is just one of the most riveting scenes. But Sinners has a lot of thing energy in it.

[Chris Ryan]

Garlic.

[Bill Simmons]

Do you think I was an inspiration for Sinners?

[Chris Ryan]

Probably. I mean, he would know like this. It's. It's a whole thing. Jack, you can get to. I haven't heard anybody say it, but maybe. I guess Jack has no.

[Bill Simmons]

Ryan Coogler has spoken about.

[Andy Gruenwald]

The Thing was one of the biggest inspirations for the film. I saw a video recently of Kurt Russell and Keith David, like, meeting up again for the first time in like 20 something years. And I was like, this is like, I'm about to start crying. Like, this is really important.

[Chris Ryan]

It was at Carpenter's and you're like.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Oh, my God, brother, what's up? It's like, holy.

[Chris Ryan]

You're not my favorite carpenter soldier, though.

[Bill Simmons]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

He made Halloween for God's sakes.

[Chris Ryan]

Nah.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Big Trouble in Lo China. That is a very good movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Love that movie.

[Craig Horlbeck]

You going, they Live.

[Chris Ryan]

They Live. They Live is. They Live is still the. It's a haunting, riveting, hyper masculine masterpiece. Love that movie.

[Bill Simmons]

Love it.

[Chris Ryan]

I also like Vampires, which is a movie that nobody likes.

[Andy Gruenwald]

I like Vampires.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Thanks to Craig. Thanks to Jack. Thanks to La Corousi. Thanks to CR Advance. Great to see you guys, as always. Don't forget, you can watch this on The Ringer Moves YouTube channel or as a video podcast on Spotify.

[Andy Gruenwald]

Or beamed right into your retina.