Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
8:40 – 11:29… till the end when he was in a movie. That's a really hard needle to thread. But I, to me, this is like late, late career Sean Connery, Apex. We'll get to Apex Mountain later, but, um, I don't, who is Sean Connery now, Mina? Is that, does that person exist? Who cares? Who cares? The kind of gravitas. The mid sixties guy. Whew. How old is Liam Neeson at this point? He's in his maybe late. Maybe late. So, but he's carved out a different role, which is not the like charismatic badass. I, by the way, one of the notes of this movie, I think from the Criterion Collection director's head is, is that they had to …
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And then has this one last run of the rock playing by heart entrapment and finding Forrester where you think like, think how badly it's gone with like the De Niro Pacino types with some of the, you know, they would just have these stinkers that are straight to cable. He always seemed like he was elevated a little bit higher. It always felt meaningful till the end when he was in a movie. That's a really hard needle to thread. But I, to me, this is like late, late career Sean Connery, Apex. We'll get to Apex Mountain later, but, um, I don't, who is Sean Connery now, Mina? Is that, does that person exist? Who cares? Who cares? The kind of gravitas. The mid sixties guy. Whew. How old is Liam Neeson at this point? He's in his maybe late. Maybe late. So, but he's carved out a different role, which is not the like charismatic badass. I, by the way, one of the notes of this movie, I think from the Criterion Collection director's head is, is that they had to tell Connery to be less charismatic. How charismatic was he that he had to dial it down to what we see in this movie because he's a 10 in this movie. It blows my mind. Um, but so Liam Neeson is not super charismatic. He's this kind of gruff revenge seeking every dad's fantasy is to be Liam Neeson character. I can't. He's kind of doing like, he's punching the clock and making like three movies a year still, you know, like, yeah. I mean, I enjoy them, but I, no one is at this level. I feel like what, what other things could late, late career Sean Connery have been awesome at? I feel like he would have been an incredible NFL owner. Not that he had the cash, but it just would have been funny to have him do press conferences and things like that. He would have been an amazing like tech guy. He should have had Nick Faldo's job on the British open. And Roy McElroy is coming around. Clearly, clearly he wasn't up to the task with his testicular fortitude. That was actually, you're kind of getting better. I knew I would warm up as it went along. I feel like I would dishonor his memory if I attempted it. So I don't want to. So Meena, you're, you're younger than I am. Did the Bond stuff carry weight with you? Because when I was growing up, Roger Moore was my James Bond, right? And that was the only one I knew. And then everybody was like, wow, that's not the real James Bond. The real James Bond's Connery. And then you watch the Connery ones. It's like, oh yeah, that guy's better. And then it would go through. And eventually we're, it was just accepted. Connery was the best James Bond. It's too bad he left. But did that carry weight with your generation? It did. So when did Pierce Brosnan's GoldenEye came out in the late nineties or? Yeah, it was like mid nineties, like 94, 95. It was around this time. Not, yeah. And so that was a big movie for my generation, you know, and GoldenEye the game. And it was a big deal, but my family, so I think I speak less for like preteens because I was a preteen when The Rock came out and more for my family. We just watched all the James Bond movies, the Connery ones. And the reason I love action movies so much is that I had an older brother and family have
46:21 – 49:11… for like really no reason. You're just kind of like, you guys have sort of stripped this of all of me now. Yeah. I had the Christ pose, the Christ pose in Apex Mountain, and this movie is not going to win for it, but we can still litigate it. It's always good to have the, there was like a 10 year run of Christ poses. Bay loves a Christ pose. He loves guys falling to their knees and throwing the arms out. I still feel like this was Bay's favorite part of the movie. Like, I think he was the most excited to shoot the flares. I think he probably spent the most time planning the coverage for it. The F-16s …
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The music video style upshot of him with the, it's so funny. This is also like the eighth time in the movie that Nicolas Cage does the Christ pose for like really no reason. You're just kind of like, you guys have sort of stripped this of all of me now. Yeah. I had the Christ pose, the Christ pose in Apex Mountain, and this movie is not going to win for it, but we can still litigate it. It's always good to have the, there was like a 10 year run of Christ poses. Bay loves a Christ pose. He loves guys falling to their knees and throwing the arms out. I still feel like this was Bay's favorite part of the movie. Like, I think he was the most excited to shoot the flares. I think he probably spent the most time planning the coverage for it. The F-16s dropping below the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah. Tried the slow-mo left and right. All right. What's your favorite scene, Chris? Oh, I have a couple that you didn't mention. Okay. I wanted to just do the decontamination chamber with the first, when we first meet Stanley Goodspeed in action. Oh, the shots. Yeah. And that guy who's just like, you want me to stick this needle in my fucking heart? Are you crazy? Die! Inject your heart and then defuse the ball! No, just do it, Stan! What if I miss my heart? I can't see shit! Do it now! Look, how big is it? You want me to stick this into my heart? Are you fucking nuts? Wait, it's coming! It's coming! That's really awesome. And that scene actually really sets the, this is a little bit of a grittier, closer, it's an R action movie. It's not a soft action movie at all. And then the other one that I had, the other rewatchable scene that I thought I would mention would just be, no movie has ever suffered from being in a situation room. And like the whole situation room call where Ed Harris calls and the other general's like, Frank, it's Al! Like, you know, and like John Spencer's in there and the White House chief of staff is there and Philip Baker Hall is in there. Like, just put a situation room in your movie and I will love it. I wanted more Philip Baker Hall type people in that room. Thought they were too short. Like two people short of just like, oh, that guy! Two Philip Baker Hall short? Yeah, right. Oh, him! Like, where was Robert Ridgely? Why couldn't he have been somewhere in there dressed like a colonel? Like, I just felt like they could have done more. I do love when Ed Harris, Hummel from Malcatraz, oh. Yeah, that's right. We knew. We didn't think it was, you were calling from Magic Kingdom. Thanks. He has some great directed camera moments, by the way, when he gets, after the murder, the shower room scene, when he gets the guy's camera and looks straight at it and they didn't have to die like this. He's talking straight. Yeah. Mina, what's your most rewatchable scene? You guys left out, well, my favorite scene is the cistern scene. Welcome to the rock. Welcome to the rock. There, I tried.
77:17 – 80:03… been James Bond, they would have gotten the military service piece correctly. And then that could have been a super wink-wink. So they actually blew that one. Apex Mountain. Nicolas Cage. I mean, you could argue yes. He's coming off the Oscar. He's got a $330 million, fourth biggest movie in 1996 that he's the lead. I don't know if he has more juice in his career than he does right here. It's definitely this. Yeah. Okay. Connery, no. Late career Sean Connery, still no. Because it's a crusade? I think it's a crusade. Nuclear rockets in a movie? They're not nuclear. They're nerve gas. Or nerve gas rockets? Nerve …
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But then at one point they ask if he was, I think, Navy. And he said... Army. He said Army. And the theory is if it had been James Bond, they would have gotten the military service piece correctly. And then that could have been a super wink-wink. So they actually blew that one. Apex Mountain. Nicolas Cage. I mean, you could argue yes. He's coming off the Oscar. He's got a $330 million, fourth biggest movie in 1996 that he's the lead. I don't know if he has more juice in his career than he does right here. It's definitely this. Yeah. Okay. Connery, no. Late career Sean Connery, still no. Because it's a crusade? I think it's a crusade. Nuclear rockets in a movie? They're not nuclear. They're nerve gas. Or nerve gas rockets? Nerve gas rockets. Yes. Big moment for nerve gas. Nerve gas in general. I'm sure you guys have read that this movie was then like became a source of misinformation or was ripped off by a source for the British intelligence ahead of the invasion of Iraq. Yeah. Right? I, which blows my mind. But I was very, in the same way that I was afraid of room service, this movie definitely may be afraid of nerve gas. I'm still afraid of nerve gas. I'm still afraid. I'm afraid too. Ed Harris, no. It's bad. Ed Harris, no. Alcatraz movies. That was the big one. I couldn't, I mean, do you think it's better than Escape from Alcatraz? Yes. I think it's better. Escape from Alcatraz is slow, but was a weirdly important movie because they filmed the whole movie during when they were having tourists and all that stuff. And ironically, was in San Francisco with my dad and they were filming Escape from Alcatraz when we did the Alcatraz tour in 1980. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. How about that story? Naked guitar playing, absolutely apex. Mountain. How about Mutiny, movie Mutinies? Well, I mean, I think Crimson Tide. That'd be Crimson Tide, right? Yeah. This and Mutiny on the Bounty. Yeah. Yeah. This might be the Mount Rushmore. Vanessa Marcelle parlayed this in a 90210, but at kind of a different stage than 90210. Started dating Brian Austin Green. I still feel like The Rock's probably the peak for her. She was the lead female in an action movie. I'm giving it to her. How about Christ poses? Platoon? I'm going Last Temptation of Christ. Yeah. Probably. And then Platoon. Yeah. Needles in the Heart? Pulp Fiction.
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