The Rewatchables - ‘They Live’ LIVE From L.A. With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey obey, conform, and consume John Carpenter’s 1988 science fiction action-horror film ‘They Live’ starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster.  Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Matt Bellany, founding partner of Puck News, and I'm covering the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. With my new show, The Town, I'm going to take you inside Hollywood with exclusive insight on what people in show business are actually talking about. Multiple times a week, I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know, journalists, insiders, all of whom can break down the hottest topics in entertainment to tell you what's really going on. Listen now. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly. The all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation. Build for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast.

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Did you know that you can find a bunch of them on YouTube now? Yeah. Because we've recorded a bunch of them and filmed them and we put them on my YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com slash Bill Simmons. So if you want to actually see us doing the rewatchables, which is now over six years old as a podcast, man, the rewatchables is like going to first grade.

Hard to believe. Anyway, if you want to see some of those, you can go to YouTube.com slash Bill Simmons. So in all the podcasts that we've done, we've never done a live screening of a movie and then a podcast immediately after. But that's what we did last week. We went to the new Beverly Cinema,

which is owned by a friend of the podcast, Quentin Tarantino. It's basically like if the rewatchables had a baby and the baby came out like a movie theater, that would be the new Beverly Cinema. It's located right in L.A., right off Beverly Boulevard and LaBreya, basically. It's in a really cool neighborhood. You know, you could feel the history when you go in there.

We were in the second floor kind of waiting for the movie to end, and there was just reels everywhere. I thought fantasy was going to lose his mind. You know, there's reels of like trailers, all kinds of things. Fantasy is probably going to get buried there when he dies. Anyway, we screen the movie for everybody. They all stuck around, and we did a live podcast. And it is a movie that is 35 years old.

It is they live. It's a classic. We're going to explain why. Coming up next. Here we go. From John Carpenter. They control what you see. We have been loath into a threat.

They decide what you hear. Wake up. They're all about you. All around you. You think they're people. Just like you. What are these things warned? Why are they here?

You're wrong. Dead wrong. John Carpenter's. They live. Rated R. So we're doing They Live. This is what in The Ringer we wrote about the 25th anniversary, Steve Hayden, our guy, this is what he wrote. Head down any number of online wormholes and you'll discover that skeptics of all political persuasions have embraced the allegorical significance of They Live.

All that's required is feeling is though you're oppressed by a shadowy cabal of they. Media elites, corporations, globalists, Russian hackers, blah, blah, blah, or some other. Boston Sports Mafia. or some other evil character that your conspiracy glasses have detected. Chris Ryan. Yeah. Did this movie create conspiracy culture? No, I mean, I think that the JFK assassination and fair.

You know, there are some other stuff that happened. Caesar's murder. But this movie, Caesar's murder, original. Yeah, Julius Caesar. Reddit, our conspiracy. Yeah. Our Rome. Yeah.

How often do you think about that? No. I think that this movie. could have been made like eight more times since it's been released, right? And then now we live in a time where they live is just real, right? Like, where it's just like, this is, this is actually manifesting itself in, in real life. Do you remember when this came out or were you to you? I was six. So this would have been a brain burner, I think, for a six-year-old. I saw it in the 90s. And it was pretty resonant then, too. I saw it. I was in college. Loved wrestling. Roddy Piper was in the

movie. It just seemed amazing at the time. John Carper, Norma. giant Halloween escape from New York person. So we were there first night and it was really super weird, but we kind of liked it. But then the reviews weren't that good and it kind of came and went. And then it had what we call a slow burn. And I would say by mid-90s, after enough cable rewatches, the fight became legendary, which you saw tonight. And now it's like taking this whole other place.

What's the place now, cinematically, Sean? It's kind of the ultimate Studio B movie. You know, like it's a universal put that movie out, that movie that we just watched, which is really unusual. I mean, it's an anti-capitalist satire about aliens and propaganda.

And Reaganomics. Yeah. And yeah, it was not really well received critically, like so many John Carpenter movies, strangely, so many of the movies that he made were not well received

when they were initially came out by critics. And then almost every single movie, all three of the movies that were trailer films ahead of this, you know, almost every single movie he made between like 1978 and 1995, people were like, eh, and then five years later, they're like, you know what the smartest movie ever made? It is also a sci-fi movie, John Carpenter movie.

Do you know what movie I've seen 104 times in six years? There's big trouble in Little China. Right. Yeah, because Halloween almost immediately became Halloween. Yeah. It became, you know, created a whole genre for Hollywood. Then, Escape from New York. You could make a camera.

It was kind of created the modern action movie in a lot of ways. Like it was during that run of First Blood and Blade Runner and all these different types of things that I think set the template for the next 40 years. This movie, I don't, I never felt leaving the theater like something magical had happened. But now we're watching. It's like, holy shit, man. They really went for this. This is like the Reddit conspiracy board. Well, it's like can a movie?

Can a movie be too prescient? You know what I mean? Like it's almost like when you watch it today, there's that feeling of it. being like almost two on the nose. You know, it's like where you're just like, oh my God. Like there are so many people who straight up believe this. So it's based on a 1963 short story called 8 o'clock in the morning by Ray Nelson. And Carpenter wrote it, but he used a pseudonym.

Frank. Frank. Armourage. But he said it stemmed from his dissatisfaction with the economic policies of Ronald Reagan, as well as an increasing commercialization in both pop culture and politics. This basically is like when I was in college, Gen X was kind of forming and it was a lot of like selling out all of a sudden became the worst thing in the world.

And just people being distrusting what all the 80s values were of like greed. This was pretty early for this stuff, right? I don't know what the right year for this movie was, but I don't know if it was 1988. Well, I mean, it's also amazing to watch this in comparison to stuff like stranger things or things that have really like, look at the 80s through like rose tinted glasses.

and it's like even Reagan Bush signs in the lawn are looked at like kind of like, oh yeah, it's like a Ghostbusters car. And then that sign, it's like these little totems. But this is such a different look at the 80s and the state of the country than compared to like AT or something like that.

Yeah, but a lot of the things that define the Reagan era, not just voodoo economics, but like the hostage crisis or AIDS and the president not acknowledging AIDS or all these, a lot of things that happened in his two terms. if you were just reading the newspaper, you'd be aware of them.

But there was this feeling like America had been restored, I think, through the media. And Carpenter obviously really didn't like that. The movie that he made the year before this, Prince of Darkness, which they were in the trailer for, you know, it was a movie about the homeless in big cities and, like, what happened to those people and how they've been ignored and essentially been, like, subsumed by evil forces. And this movie's kind of the same thing. It's like people living on the margins, living on skids. That movie is also about Jesus being an alien.

I think. Yes. It's also about Satan living inside of a swirling green orb. Yeah. It's a fucking cool movie. But he, I mean, he's a big, he's a major, really cynical person. Yeah. A lot of his films are about how people are kind of inherently bad and evil. Well, Piper says when he meets, he meets the Keith David character and they're talking about,

Keith David says the golden rule, he who has the most gold makes the rules. And Piper says, I believe in America. I follow the rules. Everyone has their hard times these days. And then you just watch him completely do a 1-80 as the movie goes along. But he's, it definitely,

Carpenter's trying to say something. We should also mention, we all love John Carpenter, right? He's, I think, I don't know, genius. I hate throwing the word genius around, but he definitely stood out and was a one-of-one in a lot of ways.

He got pretty kooky as the years went along. And I say this very fondly as somebody who loves John Carpenter, but this is kind of the first sign that there was going to be some weird choices starting the late 80s, 90s. And, you know, he had this run where he did, what did he do? He had, dark star was the first one. Assault and Precinct 13, Halloween, the Fog, Escape from New York, and the Thing.

And then Christine and Starman, which was like his biggest commercial movie, big trouble in Little China, Chris Ryan favorite, Prince of Darkness, and they live. Like, that's a pretty action-pack 15-year run. Yeah. And then it just kind of started. starts getting weird right after that. Is that when vampires happens? Memoirs of an invisible movie.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He tried to stay relevant in increasingly, like, competitive and commercial time. And, like, a lot of filmmakers who were kind of ripping him off are inspired by him. He was, like, getting mercilessly ripped off. And you think about, like, everything we watch now,

like, how many times have you seen the John Carpenter font or the John Carpenter's Sense or, you know, they just made three new Halloween movies? I mean, like, his whole thing has been sort of chewed over so many times since then. Yeah, I feel like he's one of the most ripped off directors who doesn't get enough credit for being one of the most ripped off directors. You know what I mean? Like Halloween basically creates the modern slasher film.

Escape from New York, whatever that movie did, I hadn't seen it before in any way, shape, or form, what he does with the Snake Pliskin character. Starman's a really cool movie. I'm a huge fan of that movie, and I think it's one of the best Jeff Bridges movies. So he does a lot of good work, but he says, in 1988 he says you're trying to explain this movie all the aliens are members of the upper class the rich and they're slowly exploited in the middle class and everybody's becoming poor and then in 2015 he says you have to understand something it's a documentary

it's not science fiction so i i think he really got into this movie some little along I guess the main themes I wrote down as well on, the sleeping middle class lulled into a trance. The human power of elite. Our human spirit is corrupted. And why do we worship greed? Which one's your favorite? I don't know.

What do you want to go with for a CR? The human power of elite, it's hard not to think about if, I mean, I don't know if you guys ever been to the Reddit conspiracy board, but it can get pretty deep in there. and it's like this whole cabal is running everything and, you know, eyes wide shut was trying to tell us. You can get... It can get pretty dark.

Yeah. That's why they silenced him. But they literally call it the human power elite or whatever they say. And they call that group near the end. And Carpenter's like, it feels like he's trying to tell us, Sean. You didn't listen. I mean, I did.

And that's why I plugged in. I was like, sign me up. Aliens like, I'm ready to play. along like let's do this uh no i i i mean he was right was you not because like there's i think i think both things can be true i think people and a lot of people have written smartly about this that that we live in a world where you know shooters will go into public places and they'll they'll kill people with visions that reflect some of the ideas that you could find in a movie like this but also powerful people control society like there's just no question about that and they do things and

they contribute to political parties or they contribute to the media in some ways that influence how we see the world. And in some cases, that keeps certain parts of the world down. So, both things are right. Like, this is a conspiracy theory movie that is also a documentary. One of the things I really like about it is that he cuts away so much from, like, he's somewhat of a minimalist director. Like, he really does strip away. Like, it's the best dialogue. It's the best framing. It's the best camera movement. It's not ornate. It's not like showy. And the stuff that he has to say about society. It's like, it's all in the first 10 or 15 minutes where like Piper's outside of that window, the woman's on the TV being like, I just dream of being

famous. I dream of being important and going into important places. And it's like, you can just have that. That could just be playing today out of somebody's window. It's like the same sentiment would just be coming out of a phone. Yeah. We should mention just in the context of when this movie came out. This was right around, it's pre-reality TV, but it's that era when you could have an affair with a political candidate and become famous, like Donna Rice, people like that, where all of a sudden

somebody could, you know, be involved in a scandal. Like current affair kind of era. Yeah. Morton Downey Jr. started taking off and a lot of... A rising tabloid culture. Yeah. And

I think that's, I think he was fascinated by that, that there was no barrier for fame anymore, basically. Did you talk about this movie in your Bohemian Grove meeting, CR or no? What happens?

We screen it. We're like just like these dreams right here, you know? This is another carpenter quote. Carpenter has some insane quotes of the research. I began, this is he was talking about when he wrote the screenplay. I began watching TV again. I quickly realized that everything we see is designed to sell us something.

The only thing they want to do is take our money. It's as if the aliens have colonized us. That means, of course, that Ted Turner is really a monster from outer space. Yeah. It's an actual quote. He said, a reporter. And then I guess so channel 57, what is it? Channel 54. Cable 54 is supposed to be like TBS, right? Sort of. And Studio 54 and another thing. Another thing he said was a universal executive asked me,

where's the threat in that? We all sell out every day. I ended up using that line in the film. So John Carpenter, incredible stuff. I think that's one of the reasons why he doesn't get maybe as much credit as you said for the ways that he's ripped off is because those kinds of interviews are really common for him. And he was like, he would talk shit about his contemporaries. You know, he would be like, this guy's overrated or this guy kind of sucks

or Ted Turner is an alien. And I think that, you know, he had a little bit of a target on his back because of that too. He made the thing it didn't do well. And he was supposed to do Firestarter, which became the Drew Barrymore movie in 1984, but they actually pulled the job from him.

And then when he did big trouble and little China, he was supposed to do Golden Child with the Candidate Murphy one and he decided to do Little China instead. And then he turned down Top Gun and he turned down Fatal Attraction in like a year-long span.

John Carpenter's Top Gun Kid him out. Might be like the fucking movie I see when I like right before I die. When some people's lives Palace flash before their eyes, I just have Maverick with John Carpenter since. it would have been amazing and then i just fucking that's it

lights out like what is he how is it different no i mean it would be top gun but just with john carpenter since just like his weird john carpenter music just like a cool vibe fatal traction i think would have been one of the weirdest movies of the 80s if he directed it could we have gotten him and curtis you think oh yeah no question he also turned out an exorcist three movie that... So did I. Yeah. What?

Three's great. Sorry. I thought it was two. No, three is the scariest scene. Three is amazing. One of the worst. It's great. Yeah, yeah.

I think when I think a carpenter, I think a mood with him. Yeah. He was always great at... And I think that's one of the reasons I love Halloween and escape from New York so much. It's just... And the premise, too.

Like, he's really good at simple premises. Halloween is basically like, guy escapes mental institution, comes back. home to kill some people. Yeah. Escape from New York. New York City is a maximum security prison.

The president's plane crashes inside the island. It's just like done. I'm in. Let's go. It's just the Vince McMahon meme. It's like, oh. And they live as, hey, man, the aliens are actually controlling us. We didn't realize it.

The thing. Put these sunglasses on. There's an alien inside these guys. Man is the warmest host. Yeah. What kind of pot do you think? were smoking in the late 70s, early 80s. Was he getting like a cancer patient?

No, it was like NorCal pure, like the kind of the Jesus's sun's strain. It must have been the greatest. Meanwhile, Roddy Piper. What a run for that. This is why you guys came tonight. Yeah. Yeah.

For my opinion, pound for pound still the greatest W.W. He'll of all time. I've been watching wrestling since the late 70s. No question. He comes to W.W. in 84. He debuts Piper Pit, which was his talk,

Piper's Pate, which is his talk show. And we're kind of recreating it here. Like I'm kind of waiting to get him by a chair. Like any minute. Yeah, Craig is going to come in and just smash me over the head. Well, he attacked Jimmy Snooka with coconuts. And it was the most unbelievable thing that had ever been on television.

And it cemented him as like, this guy is the craziest heel we've ever had. Leads to WrestleMania. He feuds with Cindy Lopper. They build WrestleMania one around him. He boxed Mr. T in WrestleMania, too. And he became the biggest heel in the company there.

for two, three years and eventually decided to leave to do they live. And Vince McMahon was pissed. It was like, if you do this movie, you're out, and he ended up leaving

WWW for two years trying to become an actor. Sean, did he create the wrestlers becoming actors era? Or would you say Hulk Hogan and Thunderlips? Because that was like a cameo.

That was 10 minutes. He's not acting in Rocky 3. He's being Hulk Hogan. Roddy Piper's trying to act. This is a performance. Yeah. I mean, he's phenomenal. You guys think he's good in this movie?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a, it's, it's kind of like a classic, like John Steinbeck character. It's like a lonely man comes to town and he doesn't have shit on. Hell yeah. And he's got, he's got a fight to get what he deserves, his freedom. I mean, it's like a really.

Which Don Steinbeck novel is this? This is the sequel to the red pony. Yeah. The red alien. Just Tom Joad hitting dudes with coconuts. He had to leave Denver because, uh, You know, things got tough and 14 banks closed. I hate that.

It seems like, what happened? Some banks closed? Now you're in L.A. Just don't want that to happen. But, uh, what was, what's going on the nuggets in 88? Is that Doug Mo?

Is that like, super fabulous? The Dan Isle, Alex English area. It was getting rough. L. W.A. was there. L.

They got, they figured it out. Yokich is there where they're good now. Yeah. It's all good. The weird thing about writing paper in this movie, because I think we've all agreed that he was good. It never happened again.

he's in like 30 movies and they're all bad and they're all like this is literally Apex Mountain. It's the all time him as an actor Apex Mountain. He gave all a ski jump off of Apex Mountain. He gave all the credit to Carpenter. He was like Carpenter is by far the best director

I ever worked with. He's the only director at a true vision. I'm not a good actor. He made me a good actor. Kurt Russell not to step on casting what ifs but I'm going to step on casting what ifs. He wrote this part for Kurt Russell.

He'd done four movies of them. It's basically the same. snake Pliskin character again. And he decided, I can't do a fifth movie with Kurt Russell. I got to get somebody else. Would you have rather had Kurt Russell, Chris? I think it's a different part. I think it would probably be a little bit more verbose than like wisecracking. But

there's something about Roddy, like the fact that he has like 11 lines in this movie that really works. Yeah. How about you, Sean? Well, if it was Kurt Russell, you wouldn't get, I came here to do two things. You know, I mean, like some of the best parts of this movie, like Roddy digging

dirt shirtless in the first five minutes of the movie. Yeah. If that's Kurt Russell, you'd be like, all right, he's like in good shape. But Roddy,

I'm like, I don't remember him. That was like the height of the steroids era in the late 80s. Yeah. But I was, I was trying to tell, I was telling Chris and Craig this earlier,

Roddy when he was wrestling was not like a super buff bodybuilder, but in this movie, he looks like he's huge. That's the, that's the kind of physique you get when you build skyscrapers here, man. That's true. That's true. It's all lats.

Skyscribers are all lats. No, you get Lats. from putting up skyscrapers. Yeah. I mean, his hair is magnificent. It's unbelievable. Yeah.

And it also does not, like, for a guy who arguably does not sleep or bathe for multiple days throughout this movie, his hair looks great the entire time. Great conditioner. Great feather. It's a feathering. Yeah. It has body. It doesn't get flattened or greasy.

It's amazing. So Kurt Russell didn't get this movie and then saw Piper's hair and he's like, I got a one up. And then he does tango and cash. and he has the same haircut, but it's even like poofier and more beautiful. Let's have the Keith David conversation. Let's, please. Great.

You remarked that how cool it was that the audience literally clapped for Keith David during the opening credits. I'm so glad you guys clapped for Keith David. This is his 1982 to 2000. I'm just picking out the highlights. He's in The Thing, Platoon, Roadhouse, Mark for Death with Seagall,

reality bites, clockers, dead presidents, Armageddon. There's something about Mary. He's Warren's stepfather. Requiem for a dream in the replacements. What a fucking run. Is that unbelievable? And he was in like 150 other things besides that. Yeah.

I mean, what happened, Sean? Where's the Keith David? He had one of the best careers of an actor. There's no Keith David conversations. We're having it right now, man. Big picture. Top five Keith David pictures. I don't think that would be the biggest episode we ever did.

but I'll do it if you want me to do it. I mean, he's, he's, um, one of the most reliable set of character actor hands in the last four decades in Hollywood. He's so good in this movie. And also is asked to go toe to toe with a professional wrestler. Believably. And you buy it or you at least have fun trying to buy it.

So we're going to do the fight scene obviously and we do most rewatchable scene. You think? I did the great. Greatest normal fight scenes ever. Oh, okay. Because I think when people go to greatest fight scenes, first of all, like Bruce Lee, the raid, stuff like that. I feel like that's a different category.

That is like a, it's not like a normal fight that could happen to us like walking out on Beverly Boulevard in two hours, right? That's the line. Yeah. Bill would love for you to try it. Could this happen on Beverly Borlaiard? Come trining. He'll suplex you, right? But I think like if we're doing greatest fights ever, comic book movies are out.

I think martial arts and all the adjacent martial arts movies are out. All the John Wick Matrix are out. Okay. And it's got to be something that feels like it could happen to a normal person. So my six. Mission Impossible Fallout, even though that's even though. Wait, Mission Impossible. The bathroom.

Can happen? The bathroom fight. Yeah. Phil. Come on. They get this fucking head smash into like the sink like a hundred times. It's my list. Then don't make the dumb rule.

Just feel like it's... I love how to squeeze it in. It's Cruz. That fight opens with Henry Cavill, who's the largest man in the world, smashing a guy in the head with a computer, and in like 30 seconds, that guy gets up. Like, that guy would be dead. It's my list.

Also, like, Tom Cruise kicks his ass. Tom Cruise is like 5'4. Yep. I had to get him in. They live. I have the ending a silent rage. Any silent rage fans out there? It's Chuck Norris fighting the guy who wants.

won't die outside. No referee, no rules for like 10 minutes. So far this list is fallout and silent rage. Chuck Norris and a guy getting his face smashed. I got the Warriors versus the punks and the subway. Good one. Good one. You see that all the time.

That's the roller roller. Eastern promises. I was waiting for that fight. Yeah. Definitely the greatest fight featuring testicles like in in cinema history. Until tonight. And then and then I got

Roadhouse. What? Which starts with the guy telling Swayze, I used to fuck guys like you in prison. That's our opener. Then they fight. I fucking love you. You just wanted to name

six fights. This had no rules. Those are my six favorites. It's my list. Somehow the raid is disqualified. The raid's over there. It's on another list. The raid, too. That's amazing. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't say that the fight that the fight in this movie

is based on is the fight in the quiet man. The John Ford movie between John Wayne and Victor McLaugh. What job is that? What job is that? Like where you're like I wouldn't be doing my job. Quiet Dancic film asshole on podcast. That's my job. That's my job. That's like Scott Van Pelt.

But that fight is the same thing. It's a long fight and it's a good fight. It's a good movie fight, especially for a movie at that time. Well, what's funny is if you love wrestling, which I'm sure at least a few of you do out there. They stay. They do. Yeah. It feels like one of those wrestling matches where it's like the two counts, two count, two count. And they can never get the

It's like, oh, we almost had him. Oh, he didn't get him. It just keeps going and going. I wish it had gone longer. Some people think it went too long. I could have gone three more minutes. I agree. A couple more suplexes.

Did it feel long in the theater? No. I got to say, watching it on Peacock, I thought it did seem a bit long. You're like, I checked the timer a couple of times. You're a pacifist. Yeah. So what's your favorite normal fights you are?

I think it's Eastern Promises. Okay. What do you got, Sean? I love just the guys getting naked and working it out, you know? Guys getting naked and working it out? Theme month? Cool. What do you have?

Gosh. Old boy. I guess I'm just going to go silent rage just to keep it sexy. Thanks. $3 million budget for They Live made $13 million. Roger Ebert. No review. Did not review the film.

Well, because. I think Carpenter takes a swipe at them at the very end. They have, when they're showing the people at the montage, it's basically these Siskel and Ebert like critics who are aliens. And the Cisco alien says all the sex and violence on the screen has gone too far for me. I'm fed up with it. Filmmakers like George Romero and John Carpenter have to show some restraint. And you can see the Eber guy has his back and he's like a little chubberier with like the sweater that hebert wear.

and I don't think he liked it and he's like fuck you I'm not reviewing this movie I think do we think he would have liked this if that didn't happen he wasn't a big carpenter fan he gave Halloween four stars and then for 15 straight years just whiffed on every carpenter movie it's kind of amazing if you go back and look at his reviews where he's just

not into his thing at all and then escape from LA comes out three and a half stars what yeah that's awesome which is so weird because escape from LA which I kind of like honestly, but it's not. It's like the 15th best John Carpenter movie. Yeah.

Where do you stand on Escape from L.A.C.R.? Compared to like now, it's like pretty great. Like compared to like most movies now, like you'd be like, yeah, escape from Lally is pretty serviceable. I remember being bitterly disappointed in the theater, but now I'm a little more warm with it. Isn't there a whole like surfing thing in Escape? Yeah.

I also didn't know L.A. like I do now, so I probably would enjoy L.A. more now. What was it? Wasn't it, um, Ray Ann from my so-called life? It was like the president's daughter in it. I was in love with her at that time, so I was kind of into it. Hold up. Today's most rewatchable scene is brought to you by the Home Depot. Every great movie goes big, whether it's a heart swelling love story and mind-bending mystery or a nail-biting adventure.

And Home Depot wants to help you go big this holiday season with festive outdoor decor. Snatch out bigger, boulder, inflatables, and your favorite characters at great values, along with some classic decor done in new ways. shop now, give yourself the gift of a stress-free holiday season with the Home Depot. There's nothing bigger than that. Visit Home Depot.com to learn more. Let's get back to the live show for the rewatchable scenes. Let's do the category as most rewatchable scene.

I mean, there's really only like three monster scenes, but so I'll just skip to those. Roddy, by the way, doesn't have a name in this movie. He's never introduced, and he's called Nata. in the script. I'm going to call him Roddy. Roddy puts the glasses on. It would be pretty funny if in the movie, he was like, I'm Roddy. Are you guys hiring?

Or Rod. Some of the things that pop up when he puts the glasses on, obey, marry and reproduce, consume, conform, no independent thought, stay asleep, no thought, watch TV. Check. Check. Check. Check. You see the guy right here in that they live, we sleep t-shirt? Oh, nice. I like it. He holds the money and it says, this is your God on the money. The alien newsstand guy, for some reason, has a great alien face.

His human face feels very aliening. Yeah. I like the casting. Thumbs up to that guy. When he turns into an alien, it's completely believable. I like when they do the watch and like, I got one that can see. and he fights aliens, cops, and then he gets to go into the bank and do the...

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum. Couple mass shootings on his part. Yeah. But we'll get to that. You're on a side because you can see their aliens, but maybe normal people in the bank might have been a little frightened.

Yeah. Some PTSD could have come out of that. Yeah. It's a pretty bold choice. Really bold choice by him. The movie's a slow burn until he puts the glasses on. And it's really like rewatching. It's really cool how it's like, oh, man, is anything going to happen this movie?

And then the glasses go on. It's like, whoa, okay. Yeah, when we were watching it on the big screen, it's like it really does almost feel like a Sergio. A movie, the way it opens, like he comes to town. He's like walking through town. That's soundtrack? Yeah. It's very cool.

Just a short one, Meg Foster sending Roddy out the window. Assistant Program Director. Cable 54. A TV station? Yes. They're sending some kind of signals on TV sets. Yeah. That's a rewatchable scene for you.

I'm going to give it a quickie. And I'm giving at the Big Cahuna Burger Award for Best Use of Food and Drink with the Spark and Water bottle. It's a great stunt. Yeah. They crashes out of there and it really feels like Roddy lands. That would have been strike three for Meg Foster for me. I would not have been like, I got to find Holly. after that.

Yeah, he sees her later. He's like, hey baby, how you doing? He's like, oh, you come to this rebel base often? Can you remember

the first time you saw it? Did you see that coming? That she was going to turn on him? No, I actually, I hadn't seen this movie in a while, like probably a few years and I had forgotten

how abrupt it was. Because it's, there's three minutes there where all of a sudden it's like an early 80s, CBS, you know, 10 o'clock show

where they're just like making weird small talk and she's nervous. And she's like, I'm going to go get some water and all of a sudden he's crashed out hard to hurt with roddy pipe yeah it's great uh the big fight five and a half minutes took three weeks to rehearse has lines that include you dirty motherfucker and brother life's a bitch and she's back in heat brother life's a bitch she's back in heat i couldn't resist

i grew up on the hbo punch stats i broke it down uh Power punches. Keith David 11 and Piper 11. So they tied. Keith missed five punches. Roddy missed three. Four jabs for Keith. Only one for Roddy.

But did have a two one lead in head butts. Four knees to the groin for Keith. None for Roddy. Yeah. But Roddy did have two head slams on the concrete, which I just feel like would knock you out. Yeah. Like in real life.

one just regular kick for that's where you draw the line of believability with this film I just think that's where it would end yeah they had one suplex for Keith two for Roddy and Keith had six knockdown punches or

whatever and Roddy had four the stats were pretty even but Roddy gets the last one and I think it's like I'm gonna I'm gonna have to give him the 10-9 round yeah what is Larry Merchant's first question to Roddy

is okay Roddy Yeah, but I think Roddy, but I think it's close. I think you could talk yourself in the Keith because he has more knockdowns. Roddy said, well, Carpenter indicated and Roddy was nice about it, that Keith David, not the best fighter in the world. So, wait, I just want to stand up for Keith here for a second. Keith David went to Juilliard. Right. I believe Roddy's quote was, Keith is a dancer.

Yeah. Keith David is like, I thought like we were, I was moving towards Hamlet and my life. and the three weeks are spent choreographing suplexes with Roddy Piper in an alley in downtown L.A. It's like, no, we can't rehearse, but we can make sure you're getting DDT'd perfectly. Like, you know. I like the scene when they're hanging out in the hotel room and they're getting philosophical about maybe they love it, seeing us kill each other. That's fun.

The Human Power League dinner party where we meet Texas guy, bearded Texas guy. Oh, yeah. Could it be more excited to welcome these two. really smelly guys who've been wearing the same clothes for five days into his life and their little human power elite world he explains to us there aren't any countries anymore cool we all sell out every day might as well be on the winning team he's just whipping out cliches yeah you still don't get it do you boys there ain't no countries anymore no more good guys they're running the whole show they own everything the whole goddamn planet they can do whatever they want

what's wrong with having a good for a change and they're going to let us have a good if we just help them they're going to leave us alone let us make some money you can have a little taste that good life too now I know you want it hell everybody does you do it to your own kind what's the threat we all sell out every day might as well be on the winning team

but I kind of enjoyed the party I like the setup with the balcony seating so that guy obviously is in the encampment earlier in the movie. And then I just love that, like, he goes alien. And the first thing he does is put a tux on. It's just like, I'm dressing for the job I want, you know? Super sellout of humorous.

So when he goes alien, this is, well, maybe I'll save this for picking it's. Okay. And then the big shootout featuring the Helen Thompson heel turn. Who's Helen Thompson? That's, is that, MacLoy. Holly. Holly, Topson. I thought Helen was like a wrestler.

Really, she's Meg Foster. Are you staying at Mick Foster, Sean? I feel, I feel penetrated by her. Her blue ass. Yeah. I feel like she has, she is the only, she's not an alien, but she is an alien. You know, like, she is disturbing. Her eyes were so blue that they, they were movies where they made her wear contacts to, like, unblue.

Yeah. In Leviathan, she has to be on another screen. Like, they can't, like, have her in the actual fight. Yeah. Yeah. Most rewatchable scenes here are, the fight? Yeah, I think so. I mean, like, I don't know actually in the parochial sense of rewatchable scene if I'm like,

I want to watch a six minute fight scene of these guys. But like, I think it's definitely like the signature scene in the movie. Yeah, I agree with that. I like, I got to say I like when he puts on the glasses, I think a little bit more. Yeah. The encounter with the old woman who's an alien. Yeah. Real fucking ugly.

Yeah. That is, that's the most fun. And then he just turns into a. Top killer in like one minute. Do you guys have the fight or something else? Fight? All right. Glasses.

All right. We're split. Okay. Once again, today's most rewatchable scene is brought to you by the Home Depot. Finish the movie marathon that is your holiday season prep with the help of the Home Depot. They've got everything you need to add some joy to your home with outdoor decor, like bold inflatables and your favorite characters at great values. Give yourself the gift of a gift of a little.

stress-free holiday season with the Home Depot, a grand finale, if there ever was one. Visit Home Depot.com to learn more. What's age the best? This is the next category. The musical score I really like. Simple. It was the last time he collaborated with Alan Haworth, I think his name. Yes.

We mentioned Piper's 80s heavy metal wrestling hair, which I just think. Can't explain that era now in 2023, but it was a haircut that made sense in the It is for a lot of heavy metal bands, for wrestlers, porn stars, there's a lot of occupations where you just had that hair to. My dad had that haircut. CR, what's the best? Drifters with a past. Yeah, as opposed to drifters with no past.

The movies that start out? Amnichiac drifters versus drifters with full past. When you have the movie that starts out with the guy who clearly looks like he could handle himself in a fight, wearing a knapsack strolling into town. Yeah. It's usually a win. Yeah, it's hard to imagine

it not being a good movie. I'm trying to figure out why you didn't wear your flannel and ranklers tonight. You could have came in character. They mentioned the roaring 90s at one point. Looking forward for the decade,

that's what's age the best because we did feel like the 90s were going to be roaring. Well, what's age the best is we are now a year away from the predicted full takeover of the aliens of the Earth. They say it's 2025.

From Andromedon? Yeah. Andromeda. Yeah. Andromedon? Yeah. Dramina. Not to be a stickler for mythology,

but I think it is Andromeda. What happened to the roaring 2020s? Wasn't that supposed to be a thing? Post- But post-COVID, everybody was like, it's going to be crazy. It'd be fucking in the streets. But then everybody was like,

I'm on my phone. I'm busy. It was like, I'm re-watching Yellowstone. So this film entered the pop culture, Lexcon, especially with street art. And there was one artist, Shepherd Ferry, and he was just putting Obey everywhere. And it was a they live homage, and it became a thing. Another, probably John Carpenter did not get a check for that.

No, I imagine. What else do you have for what stage is best here? I think I've come here to chew bubble cum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum, has really just lived on. You know, like, and it can be applied to so many different scenarios. I also just love those two guys going, it's a win, man. They got to meet the A team. Those two fucking guys are the best. What do you have, Sean? Anything?

I wrote down economic inequality, homelessness, the sense that the media and government are manipulating people to get them to shut up and stay distracted. Complete social distortion in our culture. Okay. No? The Kid Cutty Pursuit a Happiness Wear for Best Nino Trap. It's just a theme song over and over again.

There's no other songs. Yeah. Right. Well, Rock of Ages is what's playing in the church. Oh, yeah. That is the one thing. Okay. Dennett thieves, Benny Hana, where it's scene stealing location, 1980s, downtown LA was pretty cool as a movie location and was in a lot of bad movies. Death Wish 3 just rooted in downtown LA and it is an awful, awful movie that will not be playing at the Beverly Cinema. Some terrible things happen in that movie. Yeah, that's a bad one. Does Charles Bronson eat it bestia in that movie?

I don't think so. But one for the real heads. Yeah. That would be pretty funny. It's just like walking. The bar three chorus of Los Feliz. I love a new groaning. Yeah.

I do like seeing this version of LA in movies 35 years ago. Does swingers operate in the Death Wish universe? No, it's later. It's the post-death-Wish universe. Okay. What do you got for Great Shot Gordo for the most cinematic shots he are? I love like Carpenter's. widescreen animorphin photography in general,

but I guess like the shot of the skyline where he sees the full transformation of the society with all the billboards, even though it's not like cinematography, but it's pretty cool. Yeah, I like the, I like really like the opening credits sequence and just the man comes to town,

the train kind of moving across the credits and then he emerges. Do you know that they fucked the train up and it cost them like 80 grand to run it again? I didn't know. Yeah. Well, a little tidbit. I also could have just lost the train probably would have worked fine.

So the Butch's girlfriend were for Weeklink of the film. Meg Foster's character, Holly Thompson? Yep. Why does she turn evil at the end? What happens there? She was always evil. Yeah, she was a double agent. So he just randomly, he needs to escape from this 10-person homicide that he just committed,

along with maybe a bank robbery. Of all the gin joints. He just runs in her. In a parking lot, just happens to... Not only that, but she's basically a producer at the cable station,

which is also a portal to the alien world. Yeah. Like, what are the ass? So you think she's evil the whole time? I think so, yeah. She's a collaborator. She's sold out,

you know, and she's got... She can throw a guy out the window. You know, and then she just turns up it is like, is a little spot. Yeah. And when she shows up there,

she shows up as a spy. Great apartment, though. Why is he happy to see her at the... I don't think that guy's had a lot of close female relationships. I mean, she's pretty good looking, yeah. The banks in Denver started failing, and I don't think there were a lot of long nights. That bank tower, that closed down in Denver.

But Nata is wearing a wedding ring in the movie. Well, but that's because Roddy. Yeah, Roddy wouldn't take his wedding ring off. What are we supposed to assume? what's age the worst well in 2017 there was some neo-Nazi interpretations of this movie that carpenter had to refute with a long angry passionate essay i would say that qualifies for this category it's always tough when you write a long passionate essay to do that um on his show info wars Alex Jones called they live one of my favorite all-time movies and said he saw it a hundred times and it breaks down to everything. I'm throwing that in.

Alex Jones is like in this movie. The guy on the TV is just doing Alex Jones. And we've invited Alex to join us today. Let's come on down. He's going to do Wayne Jenkins for us. Where do we stand on the ending sex scene? Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

Like a little gratuitous? I mean, I was happy for it in 1990. when I saw this movie or whatever. I was like, hell yeah. What did you do after that? What did you do after that? I put outside and played stickball.

No, I think it feels very of the time. I mean, like, there's a lot of nudity in road house. It's like an active comment, though, right? It was like a joke about the joke that like you're getting this gratuity in your culture to be distracted, right? I think that's what he was going for. That's what you thought it was? I mean, when I was nine, this is incredible. Now I see he's an artist.

you know, with something to say. Any other words age the worst? No, I had the, I had info wars basically in there as well. Okay. Do you have something? What age is the worst? Um, I mean, it's a pretty low budget movie, you know? It feels very handmade in a fun way, in a way that we can all appreciate, but it's interesting.

That's kind of what he loves. It is, it is. But even by his standards, like Prince of Darkness looks amazing to this date. Yeah. Like, it looks, it doesn't look modern necessarily. but like the effects, the setting, the production design, this movie has kind of a B movie feeling. Like, it almost feels like a purpose of cheap.

And I think the fact that like the aliens look good because they're always in black and white, I think they look pretty believable, I guess, for lack of a better term, but you're right. I didn't know whether to put this in what's aged the worst or nitpicks, but I do feel like there was some satire that could have pulled off once we got inside Cable 54. Like when there's a show going on, right?

Yeah. it would have been cool to just get two minutes of that show and it just would have been a parody of all the terrible shows If you made they live today, would they walk into a studio while they were doing first take? Right. Right. It would be more they'd be undisputed, I think, would be probably the one.

There's an entire movie that is like that. Do you ever see Stay Tuned? You ever see Stay Tuned? Yeah. But that's the whole movie basically is like a very similar idea where TV is run by the devil and Satan. hell and the whole movie is just parodies of active TV shows. UHF was

like that too. That's right. It was. Yeah. Ron Burgundy flew to our best time for a P-break. Probably the first four minutes. You can show up late. Is there a crazy take that the fight is a P-break? Oh my God. Like if you've seen the movie like ten times? I think if you want

to take a quick leak during when Roddy rolls underneath the stilt houses and then shivers for a while in the drainage tunnel. Yeah, okay. That was weird that they were like, we gotta keep this. Yeah.

This is great. I'll lose lots of stuff, but not this. Was there a better title for this movie? I actually probably think there was. I don't even really fully understand what they live means. What about all out of bubble gum? Would you call it like sunglasses or?

I wrote down consume. Consume. You really, you got your fucking. You guys. It seems like they live as a title. Yeah. Yeah.

Pro they live. All right. Best quotes the bubble gum quote. All right. So we do the Stephen A. Spent Potters take a word. You got one, C.R?

It seems pretty cool to sell out and become an alien sympathizer. You get to drive a BMW and have a house in the Hollywood Hills and work at a TV station instead of building skyscrapers for no money. Is that a newsstand with a suit on?

Yeah. You can work at Spotify. Yeah. Drive a luxury vehicle. Right. Yeah, you can have it all. Any how it takes for you? I...

Is this his most memorable 80s movie? Like, I feel like now, because of all this conversation that we're having... It's escape from New York. It's the thing. You say the thing. Yeah. I always thought the thing. The thing was always my favorite.

But this is the movie when you... Every time somebody sees it for the first time, they're like, wow. He was really on to something. Yeah. You can't deny that he's had... an incredible issue. The thing is an awesome movie and a great experience about, and you know, great ideas about paranoia and everything. But

this movie works to this moment. I think that there are others that are more entertaining and fun to watch. I do love this movie, though. I ride with Snake Puskin. Here's my hottest take. I'm actually going to do like a real hot one.

Okay. If Sam Jackson just doesn't exist, I think Keith David has 80% of his career. I think he could have been Jules. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. I think he could have been in Die Hard 3.

Uh-huh. I think he could have... I just think he could have cooked. And I think he resents Sam Jackson to this day. That's a hot take. Nice job, Bill. Thank you. So in this universe, Sam Jackson is alive, but he wanted to be, like, a postman?

Like, what happened here? Yeah, he's like, I don't know. He's just coaching Little League somewhere. He's just doing like regional theater. Yeah. Okay. And I think Avery Brooks looks like Keith David and he's like, God damn that guy.

Remember him from Spencer for hire? No, nobody's good thing. All right. Casting what ifs. We got to ask Quentin about this. Carpenter wrote the role of Frank specifically for Keith David. Yeah. I wonder if Quentin, did he put Keith David in a movie?

I mean, I wonder how many times Keith David and Sam Jackson went up for the same part over a 25-year period. You've got to imagine they went up for the same part. dozens of times. And we mentioned that Kurt Russell was originally written for him.

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Be a 2%er. Learn more at Wells Fargo.com forward slash active cash terms of play. Overacting award. Would you go with the preacher? Would you go with Roddy Piper who just dials it up like two or three times? Big time.

I think when Roddy's character all of a sudden just gets red-pilled by his sunglasses and start screaming, also all the Keith David and Roddy Piper dialogue during the fight. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Put on the glasses.

Put on the glasses. All right. This is the word I'm most excited about. The best that guy award goes to my guy, Peter Jason, who played the 48, 48 hours bartender who's running the shelter in this movie. He's the one in the famous. He's the Torchies bartender. Eddie Murphy orders a drink. And he's like, maybe you better have a black Russian.

And then Eddie plays off him and ends up blowing up torches. And it's that movie and this movie. And I don't remember any other movie. And like 250 other movies. He has 250 IMDB credits and I only know him from those two movies. My guy is Cy Richardson, who's one of the dudes in the Rebel compound, but was like a big Alex Cox person. He's in like repo man and stuff like that. I also had Peter Jason, who is, yeah, a legendary that guy.

Legendary. Yeah. Dionne Waiter's a word. Would you go with drunk human power elite Texas guy or first alien? newsstand guy. George Buckflower as the drifter slash collaborator in a tuxedo. That is the definition.

All right. Recasting couch. So can we upgrade Meg Foster here? You want to go Kirstie Alley? What? Why not? Wow. I'm thinking bigger.

What? I'm thinking bigger. Okay. Who's really coming into her own in the late 80s? Sharon Stone. Oh, yeah. Yes.

That was like a, I feel like you and I had telepathic. When was total recall, 1989? Yeah, but she was like in. She easily could have played Holly Thompson. Yeah. Should we think bigger? Bigger than Sharon Stone? Like Merrill Street?

Like. Martina Navratilova. You know, like how big can we get? Kurt Russell and Sharon. Margaret Thatcher. Kurt Russell and Sharon Stone. Is this a bigger movie? Yeah, but how different would it have been, though?

Part of the appeal is that it's a professional wrestler Keith David. It's not like Sharon Stone and Kurt Russell and it would have just felt like the budget would have been bigger. Sharon Stone was in 1988. She'd been in like two famous movies. She was in a police academy movie, right? Yeah. She was in irreconcilable differences. That was good.

All the police academy heads would have been like, that's my gal. Half-I center research. So they used a little. A lot of homeless folks in the production and gave them food and paychecks and all that stuff. They really, like, got into that whole culture. Roddy Piper, for years after this film was released, would tell stories about it, how it was based on an actual incident in 1950s. When a company manufactured a TV that planted subliminal messages and women's brains instructed to make extravagant purchases. and he saw this in a documentary

but did not realize it was, in fact, a comedy short and was not real. And does the director's commentary and straight face tells this whole story. Roddy being like the last guy in the world to like get done by War of the World. It's happening. I heard it on the radio.

Can I tell another Roddy story from the director's commentary? Directors commentary of this movie is wonderful. It's just Roddy and John Carpenter. They clearly are friends and they're having a great time rewatching the movie like 15 years later. But at one point, about 45 minutes into the movie,

a scene is happening and they're talking about how they made it. And Roddy goes, yeah, you know, uh, my family and I, we had a stalker. Yeah, stalked us for two years. Just took care of them.

Just got rid of them. Yep. Turns out he was an arms dealer. And John Carpenter is like, what? It feels apropos of almost nothing that they're talking about. And then John Carpenter is like, do I ask my friend about how he,

had a stalker or do I continue on the director's commentary of the movie we made together and he finds away and he's like anyway the thing about this shot is and he tries to pivot away. It's also funny that they left it in. It's crazy. It's why I thought it was something he followed him back and he was like oh there's the address

and right is like don't give the address. That might have been what it was. That might have been the setup for it. I once had a stalker. It is so disorienting and it stops you in your tracks when you're listening to it. There's also my favorite half-s internet research from this was from pro wrestling stories.com,

which is a site I go to probably every day. And Carpenter explained in this interview, he goes, when I wrote the fight scene, the screenplay had a blank page that said, the fight. And then the next page said,

the fight continues. And then the next page said, the fight continues. It just keeps going. Roddy said they had to pay the gangs off in downtown LA to keep shooting. He said that they're in the director's commentary. There was like a carpenter silence, and then they just kind of moved on.

The carpenter was like, Jesus, Roddy. So I did some Meg Foster research to figure out, like, was it ever close to really happening for her? She was quite close to happening? I don't know, like becoming a star. She never, like, told her, you know, she floated around and was in some stuff and never totally made it. And she was initially in Cagney and Lacey, and they fired her after season one. And it's pretty interesting, actually. They were a place there with Sharon Glass because they felt, you know, at the time,

they felt like... Wait, so the first season of Cagney and Lacey is Meg Foster as a cop? Yes. With Tyne Daly. And this is what an unnamed TV executive said to TV guide in 1982 about the show, why they fired her. Too tough, too hard, not feminine. They were too harshly women's lib.

The American public doesn't respond to the braw burners, the fighters, the woman who insist on calling manhole covers. People hole covers. These women on Cagney and Lacey seem more intent on fighting the system than doing police work. We perceive them as, and he says a gay slur. And this is in TV Guide in 1982. This would be the biggest story in the world if this happened. Now, anyway, so she got fired and replaced by Sharon Glass.

But yeah, that came up in my research. Did you find anything else? Did you have that back issue of TV guys? I did. I didn't. Anything else? No, just the pro wrestling stories. and also they rehearsed the fight in John Carpenter's backyard,

which I thought would be hilarious to be John Carpenter's neighbor. She's like, what's going on over there? It's just Roddy Piper's suplex and Keith David for the third week. Apex Mountain, I think yes for Roddy. Yeah. He was huge from WWE, and this was a real movie that came out. and, you know, came out in October,

came out, I think a week before, a week after Halloween four, and it won the weekend. It was the number one movie that weekend. Well, he was released four days before the 1980 election, which is fascinating.

And John Carpenter legitimately had hoped that this movie and its message would convince people to not reelect to the Republican ticket. I guess so. I mean, he talked about that. But about Roddy,

I mentioned this to you earlier today, like, maybe this should have been my hottest take, but I really feel like without Roddy Piper, there is no Dwayne the Rock Johnson in so many ways. Like, as a professional wrestler, his whole persona in so many ways is clearly inspired by Roddy Piper, the like heel who is just so quick-witted

and so fiery and yet so likable, even if he's not, you know, not the person you're supposed to be rooting for. And then as an action star, the persona is kind of similar, you know? Do you think Roddy would have been better in Black Adam? I mean, God bless the dead. If he were alive, I would have preferred it because Black Adam sucked.

I wouldn't be surprised. John Carpenter, no in the moment, but Sean was making the case. I still feel like Halloween's got to be Apex Mountain Farm. It paves away for 10 years of doing whatever you want. Yeah, we can argue about what Apex. I mean, because Starman in some ways is like his biggest movie, right? Yeah. No, I think Halloween.

I meant the 80s. I think of Halloween as a 70s movie. Reagan critiques. Probably not. Probably somebody did a better Reagan critique. but it's in the conversation. I wasn't prepared for that one. What are the greatest Reagan critiques all the time?

I don't have them in my back pocket, unfortunately. 1980s downtown LA movies? He's dumping me here, but I'm going to say yes. Well, Prince of Darkness, the one that comes right before this is a downtown LA movie. Meg Foster. I don't know. I don't know what it was. Masters of the universe, maybe.

Leviathan. How about Keith David? What about our guy? Platoon. Platoon. Okay. I mean, he was great. and there's something about Mary.

You got the beans mixed with the Frank. How about street fight scenes? We can give Apex Mount for that, right? What was the better street fight scene? I mean, probably would you consider the Warriors a street fight scene? Oh, and they fight the Yankees? Is there anything that's happened

in a Mission Impossible movie that happens on the street? The baseball theories, they're not the Yankees. Well, they're dressed like the freaking Yankees. They're dressed like crazed clowns with bats. They look like the Yankees. And they lost. Where are you from? What do you have for best racehorse's name?

I think DayLiv is actually a really good racehorse name. I had Cable 54. Oh, that's good. Yeah. I bet on cable 54. What'd you have? Obey. Oh, Obey is good, yeah.

All right, pick a knits. Man, Piper, he shoots like six people in the bank and then just goes out the back door and it's just cool. And there's just like right out the back. Yeah. And I think it's just by one cop. Yeah. It's really easy. There's 90

cops show up and he just backdoor and he's out. So this is one I noticed. I've watched this movie a couple times of the last couple days. Piper doesn't know how to shoot a machine gun. I think because they spent all of the rehearsal time on the fight. I don't think anyone...

No small arm's trading. I don't think he had ever held a before and he's shooting it. It looks like somebody who's holding a fire hose that got turned on too high. And he's just like doing this and making this crazy face. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. And I'm glad I didn't tell all of you before we watched the movie. Did you notice in the big trouble in Little China trailer too? I'd never really thought about this.

But it's the same thing with Kurt Russell when he's shooting the gun in that movie. It's like it just doesn't look like these. This is why Keanu is the fucking man with John Wick. Like when he's shooting firearms, it looks like he's practice. for years. That's what I want from my action to detail.

Yeah. I mean, this is an obvious picking it. Their faces would have been so much more fucked up after the fight. I mean,

you're like, think of those UFC fighters. Their fucking brains would have been coming out their ears. You kidding? Those UFC fighters with like their cheeks

are coming out and like, just no way they're looking fine. Just you guys crushing Budweiser in their hotel room telling stories about their childhood. Yeah.

What else do you have for picking hits? Uh, one of the things that I just forgot until the last time I watched this was like, do the rebels have a fucking optometrist working for them? They're just like, guess what? New tech, we got these contact lenses.

They're fucking perfect. Don't worry about the headaches. It's like, you guys can do all this, but you can't plan a revolution? Like, this is I had the exact same thing. The whole rebel alliance is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. They're in a broken down church. They have no money. They're being managed

globally by an alien. civilization, but they have this incredible eye tech. Where did those glasses come from? Where were they manufactured? Yeah, it also just doesn't seem like too much of an ask to be like, try these glasses on. Like Keith David would be like, I have to kick your ass

for six minutes. I won't put the glasses on. It's like, what do you have to lose? They don't make you go blind. Just check it out. And you can see the fucking aliens and we'll be on the same page. Great point. How did they make the glasses? That's what I'm saying. No, but I mean like, now you got my head spinning.

This is the weirdest thing about the movie. He's like, I found these glasses. Holy shit. And he's like, I have to go kill cops. My cousin works for Rayban. He made us some glasses. Also, why? What's the side effect?

You know, when it's like, oh, it makes you feel really terrible if you keep them on too long. Why? Like, what was in the glasses? Yeah. Explain it to us. It's a really good dip. But then that woman's just like, oh, you got the version 1.0. Check out these lenses.

Yeah. That is what it feels like, though, when you get, when you switch to contact lenses. You should, you should switch to contact. I don't like touching my eyes because of this movie. I don't touch my eyes. That's not how you put contact lenses. Well, I know, but like, then sometimes you'll be like, oh, my, my contacts are dry. I'm going to die.

Like, you, you will freak out when your contacts get too dry. I had to get hypnotized to put my, drops. You had to get hypnotized to put my contacts in. Yeah, I don't need, I don't need to add anything to my menu. I just couldn't do it. I was like, ah, ah, ah. And I got literally hypnotized. You made they live too.

You let them hypnotize you? Yeah. Oh, man. Guess what? It worked. Been wearing contacts for 40 years. No regrets. You know what I was as a child?

Yeah, I was like going into the ninth grade. And your parents were like, we're taking you to the hypnotist. Wait. Did they try any other methods first? I couldn't put my fingers in my eyes. I don't know. I was afraid to do it. So they were like hypnotize our child?

Yeah, it worked. I guess. Now I can be on an airplane or just like ramming them in. This show is the best thing I've ever been in public professionally by far. Where does this go? Listen, hypnosis is powerful. Where do you think the rebels? What do you think

that they would have gotten into with LASIC? Game changer. Sequel, prequel, prestige, TV, all blackcast, or untouchable. What do you got, Sean? All black cast, but Roddy Pytton. as Keith David. That's fun.

I think prestige TV in 2023 would be amazing. What did? What would you want to know more about? Where would you want, how would you want it to be set? Well, because now we'd have the internet. Yeah.

I think it would be cool if they made, like, it was like the newsroom, but it was set in cable 54. Sorkid. Yeah, it's just like aliens covering the Reagan administration. Keith David's doing five. I've been at monologues. I do actually want to know the prequel of how, like, when did the aliens come?

How did they insert themselves into society? Did you think that the implication is that the aliens came when Roddy Piper's dad becomes an asshole or that they are always there? Because in that speech, he's like, my dad was cool and then all of a sudden you got real mean. Reaganomics. No. You think that's like a commentary on how the promise. of the 1950s suburban American dream was taken away from people.

You're really doing like, you're David Halber stramming out on me. And like, I think it's just like, I just was wondering whether, is it supposed to be like they come, yeah, like mid-century America.

Don't fight guys. No, no, well, that was the point I was making. And he was like, don't be David Halberstram. I'll make your point for you.

I would, if they did a prestige TV, would probably depend on the streamer. But if it was like HBO, and they were like, we're redoing They Live, and we have this awesome showrunner for it. Four episodes of just working at the construction site. We get to

find, plant the seeds. What happened with the banking in Denver? We got a whole backstory. The Denver bottle episode is amazing. Yeah. I think I mean, Peacock has the rights, you said, right? So it sounds like it'd be maybe not as good. Probably not. Probably not going to experiment with the They Live remake

on Peacock. Did they do the John Wick thing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't watch that. Yeah, same. watched it? I watched the first episode. Had it go. You got four John Wick movies. It's okay. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list. Not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com and to your license plate or Vin and get a real

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With the chief executive officer of sunglasses hut? That's some good fucking conspiracy theorizing, man. alien invasion, some subliminal messaging. You're going to be teaching semiotics a long fucking time, big boy. Thanks. Oh, man. It is wild to imagine this movie told from Wayne Jenkins's perspective when he finds out 12 cops just got shot.

He's just like, what the fuck? Yeah, this wrestler is just rolling through downtown L.A. and blowing down cops. I think I do think JTWall should be good. I just think a Treo would be, it would have been amazing. Trey would be amazing. Trey would be really good.

Just one Oscar who gets it. Keith David? I think John Carpenter. Yeah, I think Carpenter. For what? Director? Sure. Screenplay?

Both? Just one Oscar. Can you really get his best Oscar screenplay? I'm going to win the best supporting actor. Who won a supporting actor this year? Love Keith David. I couldn't come up with one for that. Is this like when Anthony?

Hopkins wins for Howard's end. You're like, no, you've got to give it to keep David for they live. Change it. Probably in answerable questions. I did, though, if this movie was 2023, it's replaced with the internet. What does they live? It's kind of interesting. I think it would be a lot more computer time.

Yeah, but I think like TikTok would replace whatever, you know, whatever TV show you were watching and, you know, the magazines and things like that. All right. for me, the big one. What's going on with Andromeda Airlines? Oh, yeah. Jumped into the other dimensions. David bearded drunk Texan guy tries to explain.

He's like some sort of gravitational lens deal. Yeah. What? I guess another unanswerable question there would be like, does the drunk Texan guy not have an NDA? Because he's just like, hey, let me tell you all the secrets of alien civilization, brother, because you're standing next to me. He assumes that they have joined the.

group. But you don't have to do like a mason's handshake crazy? Well, that's the thing is he's in the tuxedo and Roddy is still rocking the flannel. And he's like, but you're on the team now, my friend. Raddy's covered in dreadblood and has probably the worst B.O. imaginable. It's like, welcome to the team. I have more Andromeda Airlines

questions. Why are you bringing a suitcase to go to these foreign, this outer space? You're spending time on other planet. Two changes of jockey shorts. Yeah. Yeah. Needs the extra pants. Don't know what's going to happen in Andromeda. It's an amazing take.

Sweeters, jackets. Is it colder in Andromeda? I can't argue with that. Like these guys had big bulky suitcases. Like, go in Andromeda. Be back in two weeks. Thinking to go into the cliffs there. Got a cabin.

Do you think that they have like a four seasons? Yeah. Because they're like a luxury hotel that you can stay at. Just feel like are there clothes? Andromeda? Like if, but why are these aliens having such a hard time with these rebels if they have this incredible technology? They can make themselves disappear.

How is this even a battle? Why is this a fight? How did they lose Cable 54 in the end? Jesus. Because Roddy shoots it with a 22 and it all explodes. And you know what the lesson there is? All it takes is one man. That's true.

I wanted to know whether or not like what kind of contracts do the human sellouts get. Like, is it a lifetime deal or are you up for renewal after a few years? Yeah. It's kind of like the hardened contract. You know, that one year, $35 million, and then you're on the trading block. Well, it's also just like, no one talks about this. Like, we've kept this a secret successfully while, like, half of the world is apparently on, like, the books for the aliens. What do you think the alien salary cap is like?

Are they, like, way over leverage super tax? Aliens are trying to get traded in different teams. Any more Andromeda questions? I don't think I really- Closher you think. I think you know what, honestly Like two minutes or three hours? Season two of They Live, the prestige show would be like

what was the impact of all this in Andromeda? Like were they just like reeling from this? Where they like, these fucking rebels? They got these eyedrops now. Best double-feature choice with this movie, Sean. Would you go double carpenter? I think you could do any of the thing, Prince of Darkness, anything like that.

But I thought, I'll give you two. One, I think Invasion of the Body Snatcher is kind of a no-brainer. Either the original or the 70s remake. But there's a really good movie from the 30s called I'm a fugitive from a chain gang, which is kind of a similar idea. Like a man comes to town and he gets wrongly accused of something and he goes on the run. And then it seems like he's figured things out in his life. And then they realize who he actually is and he's basically on the run again.

It's a very similar like society is attacking you. Is this your audition tape to work at the Beverly Theater? No. No, I would love it if they screen that film. I love that film. But no. We were upstairs as you guys were finished in the movie and there's all these reels up there.

I thought Sean was going to pass out. You were like Collinsworth with Zach Wilson last night. Like, my God. Oh, Mike. Look at Zach. You got love how he's slinging it around. Look at these throws. How's he doing this?

This guy's taking a lot of guff, but look at him out there, just like a kid. I was like, Ah, surreal, the almost famous trailer. My God. That's Quinn Tarantino's Jason goes to hell print. You can't get any better than that. Bargo Kidder, my God.

It's amazing stuff. Oh, Mike. It's all true. It's all leading up to this. I had, I had escaped from New York. for a double feature, but I love your invasion of the Body Snatchers call. I bet the Sutherland one, which is an elite movie.

I like that one. Some good Warriors footage. I have with a parallax view or three days of the condor, like, the idea of, like, coming across a huge conspiracy. The Andean Reds-Want-N-Air word for what happened the next day. I narrowed my choices down to World War III.

Or the aliens are like basically because, come prisoners and they just, anyone who looks like an alien, you get thrown into a camp, where they put them on Catalina? Like, what do they do? What do you think how, I mean, we got to distribute these sunglasses. That's, that's the number one thing is we get to. You don't need the sunglasses because they kill the signal. Oh, yeah. So you can see the aliens. Right. Then they got to either kill the aliens or round them up and put them somewhere.

But can they make themselves disappear at this point? I had more questions. Well, they all got those watches, right? Did the tech short out with that? Again, these aliens are capable of teleportation and interstellar travel like we've never seen. I have to assume that just because we killed the signal on cable 54. We got one satellite shot down. Like, they're going to figure it out. Yeah, what did this mean for Andromeda Airlines? I mean, we don't even really know anything about their weapons tech.

Who knows? They were just trying to suck our resources up. Use us as a third world nation. Imagine if they were like, fuck these guys. We're dropping bombs. It would have been a problem, I think. Would Reagan being an Andromeda alien be the biggest political scandal we've had? bigger than

John Edwards, you mean? Yeah. Gosh. I mean, that makes Hunter Biden look like nothing. That's right. Sierra, what piece of memorabilia

would you want from this movie? The sunglasses. The first pair? Or Meg's car, but like as a personal thing. The first pair. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. How about you? Sean. I would say the sunglasses. Did you say what they were named and what they were named after? No, what's the answer? They were called Hoffman lenses

and they were named after Albert Hoffman who was the creator of LSD. John Carpenter, man. Just sliding those little nuggets in there. Pretty good. The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. I don't even know if I want to touch this. What was the best life lesson from this movie?

We're being sedated. Probably. Don't trust power. Don't trust power. Don't consume. but please listen to the Rwatchables. Who won the movie? The movie opened at number one at the box office.

Yeah. But it only made $4 million, and then as John Carpenter said, it was basically disappeared almost immediately after that. Roger Ebert refused to review it. Yeah. And I think this is his last truly great movie. I had Carpenter as well.

For me, it's Carpenter. I'll go Roddy just to be different, but also just because it's such a distinct movie. performance and it's like unlike anything really in Carpenter's like whole thing. I thought about Peter Jason but I couldn't get there. I think also, yeah, he's just living

in the shadow of Torchies. Yeah. Maybe Sam Jackson Carpenter. Sam Jackson. I'm with you. I think this is the end of the Carpenter, this peak prime run and it keeps going but this is the, it's really from Halloween

to this movie. This is an 11 year run of just some incredible pop culture. Yeah. And I think in 35 years since, he's been ripped off over and over again. His life now is so cool, though. He just watches NBA games, plays video games,

and rips bongs. Like, he has an incredible life. And then just like, that was in the research that he, when he made movies in the 80s, he would have a satellite dish so he could watch NBA.

He was getting, and drama, a singer NBA podcast. He did, yeah. He loves hoops. Why haven't we, why haven't we given him a podcast? I wouldn't imagine John Carpenter's

NBA podcast. Like him weighing in on the Drew Holiday Trade. What if that was like the third season of winning time was just John Carpenter

watching NBA while editing they live? John Carpenter here. I want to talk about the Drew Holiday trade. It just felt like emergency pot.

John Carpenter's film room. He's just breaking down tape all day. I'm here with Kevin O'Connor. That's it for the rewatchables. Thanks for spending

how many... How many hours was this? Three and a half, four hours. This is really fun. Thanks to the New Beverly as well. Thanks for everybody for coming out. Appreciate it. And we'll see you next time on the rewatch.

Thanks, guys. Thanks, everybody. All right, that's it for this week's episode of the rewatchables. Thanks to get to New Beverly Cinema for having us. Thanks to Sean Fentnessy and Chris Ryan. Thanks to Craig Horlebeck for producing.

And we will see you next week on the rewatchables. By the way, I'm thinking about a theme month for November. A lot of weird options. It's really a question of how weird do we want to get for a theme month? I don't know if we could ever get weirder than Family Dysfunction Month or divorce month or whatever that one was. We were just doing divorce movies. We did courtroom month. Got to come up with a weird gimmick. But I think it's going to be November that we're just going to get super weird. It's time. Anyway, I will see you next week on the rewatch.