Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
15:08 – 17:54… get to that later. That's insane. But, I think all the Henry Thomas, Andrew Barrymore, you could argue are one too for great child actors. I think it's like Apex Mountain for child ensembles. It might be. It's up there with Stand By Me. And I don't, you know. Thomas just has a huge, huge burden because he is the person, someone wrote about this and I'm stealing this thought and I don't remember who wrote it, but he is the person through which we have to believe that E.T. is real. Everything that he does, every move that he makes is showing us that this is actually happening. Well, what about when he starts …
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child acting performance in the history of movies. I was going to say, because we talked about Justin Henry, Kramer vs. Kramer, Henry Thomas not nominated, we'll get to that later. That's insane. But, I think all the Henry Thomas, Andrew Barrymore, you could argue are one too for great child actors. I think it's like Apex Mountain for child ensembles. It might be. It's up there with Stand By Me. And I don't, you know. Thomas just has a huge, huge burden because he is the person, someone wrote about this and I'm stealing this thought and I don't remember who wrote it, but he is the person through which we have to believe that E.T. is real. Everything that he does, every move that he makes is showing us that this is actually happening. Well, what about when he starts using we? Yeah. Yes. Incredible. He becomes psychically bonded with this. Yeah, and it's pretty early in the movie which I always forget where, you know, it's almost like he sounds like they're on a team and it's like, wait, we? The alien? Like he's talking about the Celtics. Yeah. He's like, yeah, we're feeling, we're feeling pretty good. We need Rob Williams back. We did. We did really well in game six. He's like, beat David Robinson out there. You guys just beat an alien. Yeah, we did. We literally beat the freak. Yeah, but the child actors if one of those misses. Yeah. Now, Robert Naughton, was he the guy who plays the older brother? McNaughton, yeah. McNaughton. Not like he went on to like a million things, but I think he's good in this movie. Then Henry Thomas, it's tough because as he became an adult, you just couldn't unsee Elliot. This movie was too big and too famous. It was almost unfair for his career. Drew Barrymore was little enough that I don't think she was able to grow out of that and then had this whole second thing, but Henry Thomas who's had, what's the show he's on now? He does all the Mike Flanagan shows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he's on like Haunting of Hill House. Yeah, and he's turned into I think a really accomplished actor. He's not like an Oscar winner, but I think he's a really good actor, but you would have bought all the stock for him in 1982. But one of the amazing things about this movie, this was true very early on when it was released on home video, is that they included the making ofs for this film and Spielberg was being followed very closely throughout the making of this movie and there's a lot of footage of him coaching the actors, of him talking to Henry Thomas, of him talking to Drew Barrymore and the way that he motivated them and inspired them and showed them what he wanted them to do. And it's the master class of how to work with children. It's incredible because he is so childlike and it's he so clearly understands the story. It's so personal to him. He conceived of the whole thing, but he gets inside of that character when he's trying to tell Henry Thomas, like when he's going through the cornfield at the beginning and he's like, you're going to want to go forward like this and he teaches him how to hold the flashlight. He's like, you don't want to hold the flashlight at your side. He's like, you want to hold that in front of you like it's a lance, like you're protecting yourself. Like he has these very specific details that he's sharing because he feels it very deeply and he relates to the characters and he wants these kids to understand
80:32 – 90:06… either male nor female that was that's his take on it so there you go he's a plant-based creation he's beyond burger alien we have that coming up later Apex Mountain Spielberg yes has to be this right did we do this on Jaws but this has to be E.T. whether I don't know what our answer was before but it has to be this weren't we like Apex Mountain is when he did Schindler's and Jurassic in the same year but Raiders and E.T. are back-to-back years and he's producing Poltergeist it has to be this I'm not gonna argue with it he didn't win best director and we just agreed that that was one of the greatest …
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and then Spielberg stated in an interview E.T. was a plant-like creature either male nor female that was that's his take on it so there you go he's a plant-based creation he's beyond burger alien we have that coming up later Apex Mountain Spielberg yes has to be this right did we do this on Jaws but this has to be E.T. whether I don't know what our answer was before but it has to be this weren't we like Apex Mountain is when he did Schindler's and Jurassic in the same year but Raiders and E.T. are back-to-back years and he's producing Poltergeist it has to be this I'm not gonna argue with it he didn't win best director and we just agreed that that was one of the greatest travesties in the history of civilization we didn't even spend time on it it was so stupid you know what's an interesting fact about this is he talked about test screening the movie in Texas for the first time in one of the interviews and it was the first time that the studio saw the movie the studio Universal literally didn't see the movie until they tested it with an audience for the first time which is a real testament to his power even then so I guess with that in mind you could say maybe it's E.T. he also wasn't the whole thing how hard he was we're gonna keep this under 11 million the budget and they were like we're shooting fast so it's like he maintained a lot of control probably because of that how much money do you think he made on Jurassic Park versus how much money he made on E.T. points wise what do you think he had he must have had such a bigger bite of Jurassic Park you know what he probably had two Apex mountains yeah yeah he had a whole range 82 and 93 exactly because he basically had two different careers and he had Jaws yeah I mean come on every kid actor except Drew Barrymore this was Apex Mountain it just was what's Drew Barrymore's Apex Mountain great question Chris Mad Love Boys on the Side Mad Love's pretty great no you're probably going 2000s when she's cranking out good rom-coms Fever Pitch probably Fever Pitch range what's the the first Adam Sandler one 50 First Dates yeah that one was pretty big I like her oh no that was the second one yeah her and Sandler are good together they were good together you could say wedding singer possibly Dee Wallace yes nice run for her though yeah I like her adorable like really pretty but very mom-like too which I think is a hard tightrope was she like to walk like 29 though when they made this like this is one of those you know moms were a lot younger at this time I feel like you know she had a short haircut so they're like you must be 40 I wouldn't be surprised you're right she's like probably 32 she is 34 34 okay that's reasonable you have to age shame her Sean no I just mean that's what Hollywood did all the time yeah if she's 34 I'm 35 can you imagine if I had a 14 year old a 10 year old I don't think you'd be sitting here with us right now Apex Mountain for aliens no no no but I think if we go with the subgenre of friendly alien then yes friendly aliens okay right no for aliens and alien movies Apex Mountain Apex Mountain for aliens is busting out of John Hurt's stomach yeah an alien okay people were like this is how about kids movies people or you I was like kids movies uh wow oh yeah this is easily my favorite kids movie that's a great question Apex Mountain for kids movies I actually think the answer is no even though I think it's the best kids movie I think it just probably has to be Toy Story because of the Pixar era Toy Story sets up a whole generation of kids movies this movie didn't really set up like a bunch of successors followers in that genre so I think I think it has to be Toy Story I mean I don't know if this is defined as a kids movie but Star Wars I feel like it's really the movie that captures that's in the action too though uh cute little girl actresses it's Drew Barrymore it's tough to think of like Shirley Temple yeah you're going way back how about semi-degenerate California kids oof Repo Man you know something up there yeah euphoria how about stealth divorce movies ooh stealth well we don't do we know that they're divorced they're separated well he's in Mexico with Sally look at you splitting hairs just saying I guess the autobiographical nature kids to hang out with would you pick the ET kids the Goonies or the Stand By Me kids oh the the kids in this movie seem like the best hang oh Stand By Me kids man oh yeah but you smoke and listen to doo-wop two of those four kids suck Corey Feldman kid sucks and then uh and then Fat Jerry O'Connell he sucks in that movie too he's annoying sincerely what was his name Vern Vern he always had the comb though he actually went by Fat Jerry O'Connell back then too he was fat yeah they had that change he didn't change his sad card yeah uh how about insults with penis breath you think this movie invented that Mal that was definitely a popular insult when I was in elementary school you definitely turned and looked right amazing you're an expert on penis breath it was an amazing penis breath run after this movie I'm just telling you speak and spell definitely yeah speak and spell wasn't even the best one out of all those what was the best one there was one where it was just um you typed in where you heard the words but it was like almost like you held it like a calculator it wasn't like as unwieldy there was a better version of the same idea that I used to use that's all I got for Apex Mountain unless you guys have anything else what about merch now I don't I think it has to be Star Wars but here's what I was gonna ask can we because I think like you mentioned okay what about Grogu when we're talking about friendly aliens and I would say I don't think of Grogu as an alien because we're not looking at Grogu through a purely human perspective like we are AT right right this is not this is not the ring of verse so I don't I can't really hang with you on this but so there are so many connections between Star Wars and ET so if we allow that to just span time that swath of time from 77 A New Hope through Empire and then into ET is that the Apex Mountain merch that's the joke too about the movie is when we see the Yoda on Halloween night I love that part that Yoda and ET acknowledge each other which is according to Spielberg an acknowledgement that they know each other and exist in similar galaxies and it's all connected I think it's Star Wars for the merch answer it has to be it has to be Star Wars plus Lucas got points so you have to assume Spielberg had them too right well Spielberg had points on Star Wars and Lucas had points on ET didn't they didn't they swap it wasn't ET that he swapped with him for it was something else wasn't it was it 1941 because that's hilarious might have been Close Encounters okay what about product placement with the Reese's Pieces this is Apex Mountain for product placement well it almost seems pure in this one exactly like a very organic thing before everyone was paying attention to it I feel like it took off in the 80s there's a lot of products in this movie too though the fake coke thing the cores V8 yeah that's a good one that's a good one I caught V8 as a V8 lover of course love a spicy V8 pick a nits why wasn't the dog more upset about ET being in the house you'd just think ET navigated that right away he was at first with his alien shit he was at first Harvey was upset and ET was upset let me tell you something my dog Murph would not have been okay with ET at all he would have been immediately jumping on him but ET can build a bridge of understanding with other beings okay keys guy yeah pushed it a little too hard with the hair I used to do that keys guy another shot of the keys when I was working at Grantland for a while I had my keys on a keychain do we need five close ups of the keys or no well I think for like it's Mal's point it's like for a kid that's what you would remember is the jangling it's a cool identifier when ET is dying maybe keep Gertie away from the room I don't know she's a four year old girl maybe bring her upstairs surprising to see her in that room hmm also why are they operating on Elliot at the same time as ET in the same room that's some real doctor house shit I think there's a lot we gotta do fucking two spinal taps let's go it's lupus well leading to the biggest nitpick in this movie keys guy going guys clear out yeah this 10 year old wants to say goodbye to the alien that we've been chasing for years and years so can you guys go and maybe have a cigarette outside it'll be fine in here but all of those doctors and scientists were just real doctors and scientists from USC right so they were like sure yeah cool gotta go back to class I have a this is a possibly unanswerable question but it's also a nitpick it's a little unclear when they basically put that house under space quarantine I have like NASA quarantine yep what do the neighbors think is happening I had that well they have that one shot of everybody kind of outside the house yeah they're just like something bad's happening in the peanut gallery here and watch us discover life from another planet it felt like it would have been like a news crew is there within two days right somebody's very fair nitpick somebody's around well here's my number one nitpick other than one I had is how does Gertie show up at the end when E.T.'s leaving
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