Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
45:00 – 47:47… get nominated. Absolutely. Right into Rudy coming back. Here comes Rudy. Come on. Do it. Slow clap. Yeah. Bill, I got it. So is it, I'm jumping on it. Is it Apex Mountain for slow clap? Do you have a slow clap that you like more? Because I know you're like a sommelier of slow claps. Is there one you like better than the Rudy claps? I mean, I'm so glad you asked. I have to find this in my notes. Oh, I jumped on it. Save it if you want. All right, we'll save it. It's somewhere in my notes. I do have a slow clap list. Okay, good. I knew you would. Well, I think the next scene is my number one scene. What is it? …
The whole segment, as transcribed
This is his Oscar moment. He did not get nominated. Absolutely. Right into Rudy coming back. Here comes Rudy. Come on. Do it. Slow clap. Yeah. Bill, I got it. So is it, I'm jumping on it. Is it Apex Mountain for slow clap? Do you have a slow clap that you like more? Because I know you're like a sommelier of slow claps. Is there one you like better than the Rudy claps? I mean, I'm so glad you asked. I have to find this in my notes. Oh, I jumped on it. Save it if you want. All right, we'll save it. It's somewhere in my notes. I do have a slow clap list. Okay, good. I knew you would. Well, I think the next scene is my number one scene. What is it? The jerseys dropping on Coach Dan Devine's desk. Let's get into it. Come on. Steel comes in. He's like, give my spot to Rudy. He does the, you're an All-American. Act like it. Counter. I am. I believe I am. It's a great line. It's a thing. Then our left tackle comes in who, you know, who came to an understanding earlier in the day of the Rudy. Me too, coach. And we just get the jerseys dropping. And Chelsea Ross, great job doing the, I'm trying not to get choked up. A really hard thing to pull off in acting. The, I'm trying not to get choked up subtly, but I'm not also trying to act like I'm trying not to get choked up. But he just kind of does. He's like, wow. It's emotional. That scene is like genuinely emotional. And anyone who's against this movie, fuck you. Because if you, if you don't get touched by that scene, you don't have a heart. It's the number one lightning rod moment in the whole movie. Everyone understands he really had a sack, but it is a fact that that did not happen. They did not do that. They did not lay their jerseys down. It's completely manufactured. It's a cool moment. It's totally unrealistic. And there's this great quote that, uh, that Dan, so we shouldn't get into this. Dan Devine, the real coach was fucking furious about this shit. Like that, he was not only supportive of Rudy playing, like a lot of accounts says his, it was his idea. He's completely vilified. He dies. Like, I think maybe 10 years later, that's how people remember him being like, I'm not fucking playing Rudy. The idea that he, and he even said, listen, if any player put their Jersey down on my desk, they would never get it back. They're off the team. Like, he's like, I will not stand for that bullshit. And meanwhile, he just takes the glasses off and cried because it's Hollywood. I know a lot of people get pissed about this scene. Even Joe Montana's like, uh, listen, I was on the team. Like I wouldn't have put my Jersey down. Believe me, I'm not doing that shit. Nobody would, but it is a sweet moment in the movie. So you're anti the scene. I can relate to the players that if someone came to you and says like, Hey, you know, Rudy, right? Yeah. I know who he is. Like, listen, they're not going to play him. Like, will you sacrifice your Jersey? And I'm like, no, I, I, I, I hope he plays.
79:54 – 87:36… head coach. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? That was actually a really good game. That was the tail end of Notre Dame's run from like 88 to 94. Yeah. Yeah. Apex Mountain. Mm-hmm. Sean Astin. I think it is. He got roles because of this. I think Encino Man happened because of this. Lord of the Rings was massive, but it didn't have the offshoot maybe for Astin that everybody would have liked. I think it's his signature role. I think if he were to pass away, God forbid, I think Rudy is the first thing mentioned. For me, it's Toy Soldiers, but I think for Sean Astin, just in general, I think it's Rudy. Yeah. But …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Amazing. Yeah. It's those. That Boston College team would have had like Tom Coughlin was the head coach. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? That was actually a really good game. That was the tail end of Notre Dame's run from like 88 to 94. Yeah. Yeah. Apex Mountain. Mm-hmm. Sean Astin. I think it is. He got roles because of this. I think Encino Man happened because of this. Lord of the Rings was massive, but it didn't have the offshoot maybe for Astin that everybody would have liked. I think it's his signature role. I think if he were to pass away, God forbid, I think Rudy is the first thing mentioned. For me, it's Toy Soldiers, but I think for Sean Astin, just in general, I think it's Rudy. Yeah. But for me, it's Toy Soldiers. He says he walks around still to this day and people will scream at him, Rudy was offsides! It was just 30 some years ago. I love Toy Soldiers. You know, I love it. I think it's Rudy for him. Yeah. I was Googling because I thought I had written something about Rudy and I never did. But in 2006, when he was on 24, I did a mailbag thing about Sean Astin on 24 as Rudy with Kiefer Sutherland going up to him and be like, look, you're five feet tall and 100-nothing. And I did a whole fake dialogue thing. So Rudy clearly was still carried with him. Apex Mount for Notre Dame, I'm going to say no. Charles S. Dutton, I'm going to say yes. Yes. And I have to double back. I think in them for the modern era, I think this is Apex Mountain for Notre Dame football. And let me just make the case. You're right. I have that in there because from 88 to 94, Lou Holtz, no question. This is the 93 football season. They were number one in the country. They beat Charlie Ward's Florida State team a few weeks after this movie came out. It was a huge, huge, huge deal. And it's like they haven't really gotten back since. They haven't had a Heisman winner. They've had seven coaches, if you count the one who lied on his resume. I love Notre Dame football, but this was in a lot of ways the pinnacle. I hope they get back. But this 93 was a massive time for them. What was Rockets Heisman year? It was the year he lost to Ty Detmer, which fucking pissed me off as a kid. It would have been probably 90, maybe. Yeah. Early 90s, Notre Dame felt like the Apex Mount. Plus, this movie comes out there in the middle of it. And then Charles S. Dutton was on Rock, so definitely for him. Chelsea Ross, I'm going to say major league. Yeah. Coming off Hoosiers, probably leads to Rudy. Vincent Vaughn, I think yes for being Vincent Vaughn in a movie because that was his credit. But Vince Vaughn, I'm not. I mean, what's age the best? Him going to Vince. Like, it's a way cooler name, Vince Vaughn. Vincent Vaughn doesn't sound like an actor anymore. I don't know who Vincent Vaughn sounds like. An attorney, maybe. Yeah, or a serial killer. It's just a completely different name. Vince Vaughn is now, I want to see Vince Vaughn in a movie. Ron Dean. I mean, he's got this and Fugitive in the same year. It might be it. This might have been Apex Mount for him. Yeah. And it definitely is. This is the Deen-a-sance happening, or the Ron-a-sance, whatever you want to call it. Him going toe-to-toe with a bereaved Harrison Ford. Yeah. And the same year he's going, he's putting Rudy through his paces. You're right. Ron-a-sance. The concept of all-time centers and touch football. Oh, I love it. I never heard that before, but I think this was Apex Mountain. If you're an all-time center, you basically have to be, like, in crutches, or, like, I just don't know what scenario. Who's going to be like, yeah, I'll be the all-time. So I just snap, and that's it. I do nothing else in this game. Sounds great. Well, he's halfway there. I mean, he has a helmet on. If you want to hate-watch this movie, the first three minutes are really good for you because this little shit is wearing his helmet. Literally the first movie of the film, the whole movie, is, Rudy, take that stupid helmet off. And, like, that kind of sets the tone if you want to hate-watch it. All-time quarterback happens. You don't see a lot of all-time center. I've never heard of all-time center. Von Favreau movies. I'm still going with Swingers for Apex. Yeah. Newt Rockne's speeches. I would go Bad News Bears Breaking Training, the second one. I gotta be honest. My dad's going to hate this. I had the Newt Rockne speech for What's Aged the Worst. Come on, boys! We gotta go on the run! We gotta go! We gotta go! Go! Go! I mean, like, it seems- Oh, why didn't you do that? I always thought it was completely overrated. Yeah, I always thought it was overrated. And when we get him on the run, we're going to keep him on the run. Come on. It was great at the time. Sean asked in crying scenes, I still have toy soldiers. Have to. Goat. Now, listen. I know there's people screaming about Return of the King and, like, at the end of the scenes, carrying Frodo and, like, it's beautiful. Bill and I are into toy soldiers. That's what we fuck with. Let's understand that. Frodo's, like, a movie? Yeah, it's a whole deal. It's based on a novel. It's a great- We should do it sometime. Rewatch- Is that that Rings movie? Yeah, it is. It doesn't have the dragons in it. That's a different deal. King of the Rings? And they have the Force and the lightsabers. It's good. You'll like it. I always thought one of my kids would be diving into Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and that's when I would watch all of them, and neither of them cared. So I might just go through my whole life now unless I drop somebody. You're out. Last Apex Mountain, wet blanket sports movie family members. I still think Pauly in the Rocky series is the apex for this. Like, who is the worst family member than Pauly? And then ends up losing all of Rocky's money in Rocky V, which didn't happen as a movie, but still. I always kind of put that also on Rocky, who idiotically decided to take the Drago fight for no money. Right. Rocky, that's a big payday, buddy, in Russia. I think you want to take that. Terrible job, man. Okay, Cruz or Hanks? Mm-hmm. You mentioned all the right moves. We're kind of seeing Cruz do it a little bit. I would like Hanks as D-Bob, but I think Cruz has to be Rudy. We never... The only Hanks football we've seen is Forrest Gump. So I don't know. Maybe there's a case. The category gets weird here because technically we're saying this has to be a Cruz movie or a Hanks movie. So if it's a Cruz or a Hanks movie, you would have to play the lead character and then Cruz would be the natural choice for Rudy, although he probably wouldn't take the role because Cruz is short. Mm-hmm. So it'd be like, oh, it's bad for my look. If we were saying what part does either of those guys fit into in this movie, Hanks as one of the Notre Dame coaches probably would have been good as a Hanks cameo. But I think to stay faithful to what the category is supposed to be, it's got to be Cruz. I think Rudy has a fresh face innocence to him. And I think that risky business Cruz as Joel, I think he could pull that off. I think it's Cruz. There's a world where he could have played Frank and just been like a few good men style, just a huge asshole. Like in Taps. Cocky asshole. Yeah. Or like he could have been Taps Cruz. Right. Racehorse rock band wrestler or fantasy team name. I'm partial to stalking Irish unless you have something better. Wrestler. Roland Steele. That's the name they made up? Like I play football and on the weekends I do porn and my son Lexington is going to be in the family business. Because you know, the weird thing, I don't know if people understand this. All of the other players around Rudy in the movie are made up players. They couldn't use the real players names. That's why he's Joe Montana. So Roland Steele was not an all-American corner. It's a made up guy. And the writers chose the name Roland Steele, which is right out of Boogie Nights. It really is. I'm trying to think like Floyd Gondali, Jack Horner, Roland Steele. Brock Landers, Chess Rockwell, Dirk Diggler, Johnny Wad, Roland Steele.
102:56 – 105:44… Notre Dame fan. I think Notre Dame wins the movie. So that's the case why I didn't have Notre Dame winning the movie. Because this is the... As we talked in Apex Mountain, it's the peak of Notre Dame. Yep. Movie comes out. Within a couple of years, the program kind of starts sliding the other way and it really hasn't been the same since. So I don't know what they won. Now it's like, oh, the glory days when we were awesome. It's in a weird way. Whereas Jerry Goldsmith, if you're like, hey, you like that tryout song from Rudy. I just feel like this is number one on the Jerry Goldsmith Wikipedia. I played it …
The whole segment, as transcribed
It is a two hours of Notre Dame pornography and they almost fetishize it, how incredible and special it is. And it really hasn't quite been the same since. And I say that as a childhood Notre Dame fan. I think Notre Dame wins the movie. So that's the case why I didn't have Notre Dame winning the movie. Because this is the... As we talked in Apex Mountain, it's the peak of Notre Dame. Yep. Movie comes out. Within a couple of years, the program kind of starts sliding the other way and it really hasn't been the same since. So I don't know what they won. Now it's like, oh, the glory days when we were awesome. It's in a weird way. Whereas Jerry Goldsmith, if you're like, hey, you like that tryout song from Rudy. I just feel like this is number one on the Jerry Goldsmith Wikipedia. I played it before the pod. What movies did he do? He won 18 nominations and one. But what really mattered? It's Rudy. He composed Take Us Out. You're right. Goldsmith for the win. Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Just died a couple months ago, actually. All right. Kyle Brandt. Fantastic. He's always great. See, we might do one of these in person next month because you might be in LA a couple times. We're starting to map out a strategy. I'm going to be in LA. We got some movies that Bill and I are talking about. I think there's going to be some, as they say, Bill, bangers only coming up soon. Thanks to Jesse Lopez for producing. Thanks to Jack Sanders and Craig Horlbeck as well. You can watch this on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel if you're so inclined. Thanks for coming out. We'll see you next week. This episode is brought to you by the movie Mutiny. Only in theaters August 21st, Jason Statham stars in Mutiny, the new action thriller from the director of Plane. When an international conspiracy turns deadly, Statham goes off the grid on a one-man mission to take down those responsible. If you're a fan of The Beekeeper, The Meg, or The Expendables, this is exactly the kind of movie you want to see Statham in. One of the defining action stars of the last 25 years, doing what he does best. Think Die Hard on a boat. Mutiny. Only in theaters August 21st. Rated R for strong, bloody violence and language. With summer coming to an end, you're going to be spending a lot more time indoors. Get your home ready and save up to 45% off custom window treatments during the Labor Day VIP access sale at blinds.com. From room darkening to light filtering shades, finding the perfect fit is easy. Get free samples, expert design help, and professional measure and install services, or DIY with confidence and support every step of the way. Shop up to 45% off site-wide right now during the Labor Day access sale at blinds.com.
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