← Episodes

Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables

Breaking Away 1979

With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey · 11 June 2024 · 24,095 feet

The claim

41:35 – 44:22

… state, Michigan state game. I mean, imagine the fever in Indiana when this movie came out. I had this for, uh, hottest take. I'll just do it now. Oh, wow. So, apex mountain for Indiana right here. Bobby Knight, most famous basketball coach in the world. Mm-hmm. He recruits Isaiah Thomas in 1979. Okay. Larry Bird's at Indiana state going undefeated. Uh-huh. About to go with magic. Wayne Gretzky's on the WHA team. Oh. Is he? In 78, 79. Oh. And Mark Messier. No. And the team folds as they're filming this movie. Was it an Edmonton Farm League team? No. It was just they fold and they sold the kids. Yeah. Breaking …

The whole segment, as transcribed

This is, this is bird, right? This is like the beginning of the Larry, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it? 78, 79 is like the Indiana state, Michigan state game. I mean, imagine the fever in Indiana when this movie came out. I had this for, uh, hottest take. I'll just do it now. Oh, wow. So, apex mountain for Indiana right here. Bobby Knight, most famous basketball coach in the world. Mm-hmm. He recruits Isaiah Thomas in 1979. Okay. Larry Bird's at Indiana state going undefeated. Uh-huh. About to go with magic. Wayne Gretzky's on the WHA team. Oh. Is he? In 78, 79. Oh. And Mark Messier. No. And the team folds as they're filming this movie. Was it an Edmonton Farm League team? No. It was just they fold and they sold the kids. Yeah. Breaking what they're making. Michael Jackson releases off the wall in 1979. Famous Indiana person. Yeah. The Yankees in 1979 draft Don Mattingly. Indiana zone. Yeah. Indiana zone. Holy shit. There's an awesome. Indiana's really cranking them out there. Yeah. There's an awesome Indy 500 that year. Rick Mears beats Al Unser Jr. Research that. Cool. Jane Pauley, the first lady of Indiana, is hosting the Today Show with Tom Brokaw. They're killing everybody. Jesus. He ends up getting promoted. Okay. And then Letterman is guest hosting for Carson, about to get his NBC show. Indiana's fucking killing it in 1979. Wow. Now they got Caitlin Clark. Yeah, maybe it's a comeback. Maybe somebody's filming Breaking Away. What was Mike Pence up to back then? Yeah, right. Mike Pence. Mike Pence was having ideas. That's a good one, though, for what's age the best. Cycling movies. I just like cycling movies. Yeah. Because they're better than running movies. Cycling movies, it feels like there's more. There's crash potential. Sure. Uh-huh. And somebody might get sideswiped. Somebody might get pushed off. Running. People are just running. What's going to happen? It's cinematic. Might step on someone's foot. Cycling. Just works better. Are you in or out on Chariots of Fire? It's kind of like the eating broccoli of great Oscars movies in the early 80s. There's a couple of those. I agree. Out of Africa also. Yeah. Gandhi's like that, too. The great movie, I wouldn't be like, hey, let's watch Gandhi tonight. We should redo the Oscars, but just in the 80s. I just feel like they fucked it up every time. It just got too pretentious. Yeah. Yeah. It was like the perception of what an Oscar movie was versus just what should have won. Yeah. We should do that on the YouTube channel. Let's do it. Die Hard 2 should have won. CR, how about this for What's Age the Best? The pink polo wearing, blue Mercedes convertible driving, college swimmer, handsome villain guy. Named Rod. Named Rod. Yeah. Just a great villain. Who later goes on to get killed at Nakatomi Plaza. Yeah. Hello, he's Ellis to me. That's another What's Age the Best though. He's the same guy. But with a sick beard. Yeah. Die Hard.

75:35 – 83:39

… they had to get... Like, they had to compress it. Get frisky with the camera angles. It looks like it is a lot of people, though. Does seem like a lot. Yeah. Apex Mountain. Dennis Christopher, unquestionably. So you want to... Did you have a Dennis Christopher? Just that he didn't turn out to have the career you would expect after being the star of an Oscar-nominated movie and basically his first big role and then went on to just be a character actor and has done good work over the years. A lot of TV. Go to the IMDb. It's a lot of... Pops up in Django. Yeah. Yeah. I think part of it was he was probably being, …

The whole segment, as transcribed

And then the slap when she hits him, apparently six takes and just pounding poor Dennis Christopher. And then they wanted 20,000 extras for the final race for the students and only 3,000 showed up. So they had to get... Like, they had to compress it. Get frisky with the camera angles. It looks like it is a lot of people, though. Does seem like a lot. Yeah. Apex Mountain. Dennis Christopher, unquestionably. So you want to... Did you have a Dennis Christopher? Just that he didn't turn out to have the career you would expect after being the star of an Oscar-nominated movie and basically his first big role and then went on to just be a character actor and has done good work over the years. A lot of TV. Go to the IMDb. It's a lot of... Pops up in Django. Yeah. Yeah. I think part of it was he was probably being, like, almost 30 by the time this movie came out. You don't get, like, those last couple years of the young guy roles. Once the birth certificate got seen, you know? So last night I popped in Fade to Black just to, like, remember it a little bit. And I watched an interview with him that was on the Blu-ray. When you say pop, you have the Blu-ray of Fade to Black. I do. I do. Beautiful Vinegar Syndrome edition. It's an awesome... He's kind of a psycho. He's making fun of the cyclist. He's got a Fade to Black Blu-ray. Good movie. But he was talking in that interview where he was just like, yeah, and then I, like, this part of the character didn't make sense, so, like, I rewrote this. And, like, he had a real, like... Oh, he was doing that thing. You know, like, I'm running the show kind of vibe. I had to get my teeth into the script. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, maybe he got a little too big for his britches or something. Dennis Quaid, no. Robin Douglas? Probably. Lonely guy, she's really good. When he comes home and she's in bed with the other guy and he's, like, talking to her and she's cheating on him while he's talking to her, you know, that's a great scene in that movie. Jackie Earl Haley, no way. Kelly Leak. Kelly Leak batting every inning in the Astronome is probably his apex mountain. I think Little Children is number two. Yeah. Oh, man. He's so creepy in that. Yeah. And then Watchmen. Cycling movies? Yes. Yeah. I think it's better than American Flyer, even though I really like American Flyer. What's the, uh, isn't, what's the, I guess it's not cycling, it's just, what's the Kevin Bacon movie? Quicksilver. Quicksilver. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We tried to plan out a cycling month and we just couldn't get there. Well, there's Premium Rush, Quicksilver, and American Flyer breaking away. But I wonder whether that would be rock bottom month for us. What about the Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong movie? Oh, God. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. They even released that? Oh, yeah. I saw it. Used Cars? No. Daniel Stern? No. City Slickers? Home Alone. Home Alone? Yeah. It was like the same year, right? Yeah. We did this. He was killing it. And was, was... The VO for Wonder Years? Was Wonder Years still on TV when Home Alone hit too? Daniel Stern, once upon a time, like, one of the 20 most known faces in America. Yeah. Yeah. Probably, I mean, for our whole generation, he probably is. Uh, pissy Italians, definitely. I'll fuck you, you! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. His bike was a 1978 Massey Grand Criterium, so I'm going to say Apex Mountain for that. Okay. Peter Yates, no. Is it Bullet? Right? It's got to be Bullet, right? Oscar nominated here. And then I think Oscar nominated again for the dresser. But Bullet is a bigger hit, right? Bullet sets up like... I don't know. Yeah. He did get nominated. Did have a best picture. Maybe it is. A movie full of unknowns. Yeah. Hart Bochner? No, it's Die Hard. Die Hard. Die Hard. Or PCU, which he directed. Wow. Wow. Wow. Love PCU. Indiana movies? No. Eh. What's the other one? Maybe? Hoosiers, right? Hoosiers versus this. I don't know. I'm... I'd probably say Hoosiers. Is there any really good serial killers from Indiana? Henry Lee Lucas? Who's the Norman Mailer guy? The guy that Norman... Executioner's song? Is that Indiana or is that Oklahoma? Best... Nebraska. Yeah. Nebraska, yeah. That sounds right. Best Indiana serial killer. Oh my gosh. Because, you know, BT... You know, they got BTK in Kansas. I went to Indiana one time. Did you? I went to Super Bowl XLVI, where... The Giants defeated the New England Patriots. It was an excellent Super Bowl. You went to that? I did. Were you at that game? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think Indianapolis is a good host city? I went to the Hoosiers gym that day. That's right. I wrote about it that... Yeah. Because I thought after going to the Hoosiers gym, I thought the Pats were going to win, and then somehow... Why did you think that? Did you just... Because I thought it was, like, going to be the greatest day of my life. I also got out of a speeding ticket that day. It was the only time I've ever been let go. Huh. Did you... So I was like, naturally, they're going to win now. So... I had a phone interview with you for Grantland this week when you were in Indianapolis. Do you remember this? Yeah. No. Yeah. But it was before the game. It was before the game. Because if it was after the game, you wouldn't be here right now. Yeah. I don't think I told you that I was going to the game because I was going to the game for work. I went for GQ. But, uh... Yeah. That was the only time I went. And it was cold and not that nice. BTK killer? Where is he? Kansas. Yeah. That was my favorite thing anyone's ever done on any podcast I've ever done is Bill Hader imitating Lorne Michaels talking about being friends with the BTK killer in the Lorne Michaels voice. I went to the BTK. He did the whole thing. It was so fucking good. It's funny you bring up Hader because I was thinking what Dennis Christopher's character is doing Italian. He just sounds like Vinny Videci. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He had a whole bit about, I was at a restaurant with Steve Martin and BTK. Oh, and last Apex Mountain. Impossible to get Blu-rays. Yeah. Sean said this Blu-ray is like, $400 on eBay. RIP Twilight Time, one of the great distributors, they made a version of this movie that is like $300 on eBay right now. So what happens with that? It's like, this isn't, where are the rights to this? I don't know. It's just out of print. I mean, it's, the studio is 20th Century Fox. Yeah. So I think it's a little hard to get Disney excited about re-releasing this movie on physical. What's the hardest Blu-ray to get right now? What's like the granddaddy of them all? Is it the machines eight millimeter tape? Someone that exists, but on eBay, it's like $2,500. $300. I honestly don't know the answer to that. I'm sure there is a good answer. But there are a few movies that people really want physical versions of that we can't get. Like the, like the Heartbreak Kid, the Elaine May movie. That's like a re, like a movie that doesn't exist on physical because the company that owns it is like a medical supply company. You've made a letterbox list about this, haven't you? I don't, but it's a good idea. You should dress like a cyclist and make a letterbox list. You know what we wanted for the longer cost of its dreams? We wanted The Abyss and then The Abyss was released just this year. Really? Yeah. That's a movie I would never want to watch again. Okay. Is that a bad take? I think there are movies I'd want to watch less than The Abyss. It's flawed. It's definitely flawed. I like it. I saw it once and I think I'm good movie. I think it's one of those things where because you couldn't watch it, it made you want to watch it more. Didn't they take it away from him so that's not his cut that came out in the theaters? Yes. Or there was stuff that they did to it? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Cruz or Hanks? This is a good one. I, I, I'm, I, I'll give you Hanks on this one. Yeah. Especially like Bosom Buddies era Hanks. But like, again, Cruz as Mike? Well, Cruz is Jackie Earl Haley. Height-wise is closer to Lutcher. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. Shots fired. He wouldn't have played that one. Not Shots. I mean, it's just like he's, the whole, the whole relationship is like, you know, every time somebody calls him Shorty, flips out. Also, I feel like Hanks could have been a good Cyril. Yeah. And Hanks today could do, Hanks could have played the lead though and done the Italian. He could today do the dad. Totally. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's good. But Cruz could not do the dad. Big win for Hanks. I can't imagine that. No. I think Cruz could have done the Dennis Quaid part, but it would have probably been, felt a little off. Racehorse rock band, wrestler fantasy team name, the Cutters is pretty strong. Hmm. The Cutters is probably a rock band. The Cutters. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Saw the Cutters. The Cutters.

87:44 – 90:30

… I think she could have found other people at Indiana University. It was either him or Rod. Get into her. Yeah. Rod. Villain's name Rod. Should we put that for Apex Mountain? Yeah. Villain, just a villain name that's really up there. Honestly, up there with Hans. Like if Sean had a boy instead of a girl and we're like, what's the name going to be? He's like, Rod Fantasy. He's like, what? Does he already have a hedge fund? Is it Rodric? Is that what that is? Is that what that's short for? How many kids out there are just named Rod? I just don't know. It'd be like naming your son Shaft. We were watching the Brady …

The whole segment, as transcribed

please take him down. You never know if it's going to float somebody's boat. Maybe she's like, this guy was really into me. Yeah. So much so that he created a different persona. Might have been a turn on. I think she could have found other people at Indiana University. It was either him or Rod. Get into her. Yeah. Rod. Villain's name Rod. Should we put that for Apex Mountain? Yeah. Villain, just a villain name that's really up there. Honestly, up there with Hans. Like if Sean had a boy instead of a girl and we're like, what's the name going to be? He's like, Rod Fantasy. He's like, what? Does he already have a hedge fund? Is it Rodric? Is that what that is? Is that what that's short for? How many kids out there are just named Rod? I just don't know. It'd be like naming your son Shaft. We were watching the Brady Bunch last week when they go to King's Island and Greg is hitting on this girl behind the counter named Marge. Where do you find the time? Are you just on Tubi? It's on Amazon. Okay. Who are you watching Brady Bunch with? I have kids. Yeah. Imagine if I was like, Alice, we're going to watch the Brady Bunch. How would that go over? Let me tell you something. The Brady Bunch is amazing. You can't even believe how good the Brady Bunch is. I watched it all the time as a kid. I haven't seen it in 25 years. It's like the structure of it and how it goes. And I like the last season when he's got that. He's really flat. Robert Reed has the afro. Yeah. You've got Oliver on the brain recently. I know you heard me bring him up on a pod recently. Yeah. It's on Amazon. What can I tell you? Sequel, prequel, prestige TV, all podcasts are untouchable. I think it's an untouchable. I'm willing to have the all-black cast discussion for this. And I don't know if cycling would be the sport. It's in Gary, Indiana. Oh, yeah. Team from Gary comes to Bloomington to race. I think I would be good. It's an interesting one. Who would you cast? Like for now? You know, it's like it's Richard Pryor. Oh, back then? Yeah, in 1979. What's the 1979? I think Richard Pryor might not have been in the best shape for cycling. That's a good point. That's a good point. Who's a, I mean, it's right at the beginning of the Denzel rise. I mean, he's doing theater. 79, Eddie Murphy? Carbon copy. Eddie's too young. Too young? When's a college kid? Eddie's like 17 at that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Morgan Freeman? I don't know. They're just, I mean, they didn't, Spike Lee always talks about this. They didn't make movies for like six years that had black people in it, basically. This is a whole Tarantino thing when he was talking about how important she's got to have it was. I just saw this on the internet. I thought it was really interesting. The aftermath of the blaxploitation era. There's like a dearth of black films between 1980 and 1985. It's like one of the craziest stretches in the history of pop culture. Robert Townsend, The Wayans, like it's a very short list. That comes late 80s though. Yeah, yeah. There was like this

Open the full episode on Spotify — it cannot start at the timestamp, so the segment above is the mp3.

What the board says

Their apex is elsewhere
Dennis Quaid23,120 ftThe Big Easy, 1986, by 4,628 feet.
Daniel Stern21,560 ftHome Alone, 1990, by 3,400 feet.
John Ashton18,540 ftMidnight Run, 1988, by 913 feet.

A grade for each call is not built yet. The board's answer is shown; whether the pod landed on it is a separate judgement, and it is not made here.