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This week, on Pacey Items
We never thought we’d say this, but… Prepare to ditch whatever you’re doing so we can talk about PLANE, which is a movie about a plane.
Before we go on…. You should probably ask all the lawyers to leave the room.
Greg and Joe discuss Gerard Butler’s commitment, their love of situation rooms, and what they’d do if their cell phone died (don’t worry, it makes sense). Long story short, we’re pretty sure the avionics are down, but this episode is a stick of dynamite and it’s about to blow.
Play along with new drinking games, answer important questions with us, and in general lament Trailblazer Air making money decisions.
Joe’s Back of the Box
Trying to get to his family for New Year’s, pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) must use all of his skill to keep the passengers alive when a lightning strike takes out all navigation. Flying blind he is able to land the plane on an island. Now forced to team up with a fugitive, can they learn to trust each other as the dangerous truth about the island is revealed. This nail-biting thriller will keep you in your seat, with seat backs and tray tables in their upright position+, of course.
The REAL Back of the Box
Some amazing films with one word names: Casablanca, Shrek, Jaws, Alien, Up, Vertigo, Titanic. And to think that Plane wants to join that pantheon when Jet, Airspeed, and Cabin-Pressure (connected with a hyphen so it counts) were all there for the taking. Gerard Butler is in his element though. He is deeply committed to this role as we blend disaster movie tropes with Die Hard on an island. It all works as a tight hour and a half popcorn movie which is better and more fun than expected.
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Greg: Joe in the movie we watch this week. Gerard Butler lands a plane on a desolate island and is looking to find a way to contact home to let them know where he is. This entire movie could be an analogy for what it feels like when your cell phone battery dies. My question for you is has your cell phone battery ever died?
Greg: Or have you ever been without your cell phone in the last, say, 20 years? And what was that like for you?
Joe: It is almost never that I without my cell phone. Yeah, I have had it die a couple times when traveling or going somewhere, and it’s just your house longer than you should, and it feels like an appendage has been cut off my body.
Joe: Yeah, that’s how it feels now. Yeah. So it has become such a part of my everyday life. I can’t even imagine what it would be like not have it, or to have my battery die at an inopportune time. I am obsessed with getting it charged. When you get the notification, about 20% and 10% on the iPhone. Yeah, so I full on have a panic attack if it gets too low and I know I’m not going to be home.
Greg: Oh, what about you, Greg? I the only time this happens is when I get a new when I like, upgrade my phone. There’s always just like a 45 minute breakage in my connection to everything. Especially like you turn off your phone, and there’s a long time at the store where, like, you’re getting a new phone kind of dialed in to your to your phone number.
Greg: But then also there’s the whole, like, I have an iPhone. So the all the iCloud information and whatever takes a while. And I usually don’t do that at the store. I’ll wait till I get home and do it at home. So there’s like an hour ish where I’m untethered basically from my cell phone, and I’m not going to lie, it’s the best hour of my year at something.
Greg: You almost made it sound like you want to have an emergency without your phone, which also might be fun just to see what it’s like if you were stuck right now. Like if I went to the store and had an emergency, but there are only like 1000 people around me with phones that I could use. Yeah, rather. Let’s get to the show.
Greg: Let’s do it.
Joe: Got to dance. How can I help? Fugitive extradition. Or is he dangerous? What did he do? Homicide. 15 years ago. I don’t want to scare the rest of the passengers. I’m afraid you stuck with this, captain.
Joe: This is your captain speaking. The seatbelt signs have been turned on. We just lost an engine losing altitude. This island is run by separatists and militias. We’re getting off this island plane.
Greg: In 2023. Sean Francois, Russia French director, teamed up with Gerard Butler to make a movie called plane. It was January 2023. We’re almost to the two year anniversary of this movie, Joe. That’s wild. We are talking about Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn, Yazan un Evan Dane Taylor as Datu John, Ma. We have famous that guy Paul Ben Victor, also the dad of Hot Rabbi and nobody wants this and Daniella Pineda as body.
Greg: And we have a lot to say about Bonnie in this movie. I do anyway about this movie. Joe Skye Tucker, this is really exciting to me right now. We have so much to say about this movie. Yeah. Why is playing a great bad movie? I mean, you had me at Gerard Butler in a movie named plane. Yep, yep.
Greg: I’ll get to it. And my real back of the box. But of all the names that they could have one word names. And there are lots of great one word names. Sure, plane does not hold up for what this movie is. This movie is. Oh, it’s two movies and one you get a twofer with it. You get a disaster movie, you get all the setup of a disaster movie.
Greg: Okay, okay. And then you get Die Hard on an island. Yeah. I mean, and then a little bit of, like, a buddy fish out of water, kind of, sure. Partnership that happens. Sure. It’s. It’s everything you could possibly want from a movie. So all I can say is there’s a slow clap moment in this movie. Okay, okay.
Greg: There’s some really pretty tight action scenes, especially like the first 20 minutes when, like, the plane is going down. Like, that scene is awesome. Pretty stressful. Pretty good. Yep. Then get hit by lightning and they’re flying blind. And there’s all kinds of stuff. I don’t think their avionics were working. I don’t think so. I think that they went that right.
Greg: And then you have the most stilted dialog possibly written ever. Yep. Where they are communicating so much about each character in that first five minutes so that, you know, these characters, it is so brilliant. So I now ask you, Greg, sweetheart, why is plane a great movie? Oh, man. Well, first of all, the name, you had it right there, by the way, when they filmed this movie and when, Charles Cumming wrote this movie, it was called The Plane all right.
Greg: So I kind of feel like this. Was that the Facebook moment where Justin Timberlake walked in and said, you know what? Drop the the just Facebook. It’s cool. But this movie is great because it should be horrible. That’s why this movie is Green Row. Yeah. The whole time you’re watching this movie, my thought was really this movie. Yeah.
Greg: This was not supposed to be this good. It’s not supposed to work. And it does know every at every step. And so every movie I’ve ever seen in my life benefited from lowering the bar before I walked in. And this movie with was no exception, although it seemed like people were kind of on board with it, so to speak, when it came out.
Greg: So, I mean, like, critic reviews were pretty kind to this movie. And we’ll get to that a little bit later. But this is a great bad movie because it’s so simple, yet it milks pretty much every moment possible. Like they add stakes to every moment. Yeah, that right engine doesn’t dump the gas. So now they’re a stick of dynamite that they’re about to land.
Greg: Yeah. You know, there’s so many things like that. And thankfully they didn’t dump the gas because they have to take off again at some point in the movie. Right. That’s a good point. Oh my gosh, that didn’t even occur to me. Yeah. That’s the kind of screenwriting we’re dealing with here. But it makes for a good tense moment, you know?
Greg: But this movie is a great bad movie for I think we can point to one person and it’s Gerard Butler. Agreed. He makes the most mundane moments somehow empathetic and sympathetic and stressful. And he just planes the s-word out of this movie. It’s unbelievable how good this movie is. You actually texted me while you were watching it recently.
Greg: Yeah. And so I, I want to address this with you. You said great great movie alerts. Yeah I was ten minutes in and I was hooked.
Greg: It doesn’t hold up. Okay. Spoiler alert. It’s not a great, great movie. It is definitely one of our movies. Okay, okay. This movie falls apart without Gerard Butler being. Yeah. So committed right to this. Yeah. Every man, honorable man kind of character. Sure, sure. You know that you just have to instantly like, that’s kind of the right. And they do everything.
Greg: So he’s a widower, right? He’s going to meet his daughter in Hawaii for New Year’s. So there’s like the clock is ticking. Clock is ticking, mate. I mean, drinking game they meant in.
Joe: Hawaii is 18 hours behind. It’s just over six hours to Tokyo, another six to Honolulu. So I’ll be there with plenty of time to spare. New year’s Eve one away. Hey, hey. Won’t be any delays.
Greg: Like he talks about the clock immediately when he’s on a FaceTime with his daughter, which I think so I’m not FaceTiming a lot in my life as I’m walking through an airport. Are you? Is this just a movie device or is this the thing people are doing? I think it’s a thing people are doing. I have seen it recently on airport, so it’s not.
Greg: But not a lot of people do it. Okay. Yeah. Just the Gerard Butler types. Yes. The Gerard Butler diet. Well, maybe I should get on board with this. Yeah, probably. Yeah. And then you get on the plane with him. Right. And then you learn so much about him and his copilot. Yeah. And the flight attendant. Bonnie. Yeah.
Greg: Mainly. Bonnie. Yep. And then some of the passengers come on. And they’re tropes all over. So that was one. I was like, oh, disaster movie. Like, you have to know these people because, you know, we have to feel something if someone gets hurt or gets killed or that sort of thing. Right? Sure. Yeah. So it was awesome now.
Greg: And it was they cut right to the chase. There’s no the plane is flying and everything is good. It’s almost instantaneous. They’re up and then a storm is on them. Right. They go to 35,000ft from 30 or 25 whatever. No, they’re all the way up to 40. Oh 40. Yeah. And I thought we were going to be safe at 37.
Greg: Yeah. Me too. Yeah. But instead of the. So did trailblazer, the airline that he works for. Right. And they were trying to push through the flight to save on, fuel through the storm. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So we’ve got the evil corporation saying, hey, you don’t have very many people on this plane. We can’t spend the gas money to go around this storm.
Greg: And, Philippines. Is that where we were? Yeah. And so you got to just, you know, scrub to earth. That’s 40,000ft. 30. I think you said 37. I could be wrong. And, you just go right over that thing. No big deal. And of course, they just get hit by lightning and go down. But we’ve got the corporate greed.
Greg: Yeah, we’ve got the sympathetic protagonist. Yeah, I’m just trying to get to his daughter. Yeah. And then throw in a little twist. Sure. There is someone who has been captured, a fugitive who has been captured. Right? Who is on the plane, and I can’t remember where they’re flying from. I think it was Singapore. Singapore? Yeah. They capture this person and he’s in handcuffs.
Greg: Right? Murdered someone 15 years ago. They finally caught him. And that’s Louis Gaspar, right? That’s Mike Colter. Yeah. So you’ve seen in, like, Luke Cage and, other stuff is in the show evil right now. That’s where I recognize him from. Is that a good show? It’s a little too scary for me, but, Okay. My wife Jillian likes it.
Greg: Okay, okay. Yeah, it was in a lot of those. Where they. Netflix. Yeah. Netflix. Marvel shows, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones. He was in Zero Dark 30. He was in Men in Black three. He was in salts. You probably remember him as CIA tactical leader. And that movie, he was an ER for an episode early on. He is captivating whenever he’s on camera.
Greg: He’s got this move where he like, tilts his head like it’s down. But then he looks up with his eyes so his face is kind of down, or he’s looking up at you. Yeah, that seems to be his move. Pretty intimidating. Yeah. And he gets to be the guy in this movie where you’re not sure what to think of him for a little while.
Greg: Unfortunately, once he starts talking, he’s the most endearing, sympathetic person that I want to hang out with for the rest of my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like just let him go. 15 years ago. So. Which I think is how we’re supposed to feel about him. Yeah, but like, he is one of those people with, like, more charisma than we know how to do with you know, like, he’s probably out of one on his charisma level.
Greg: And it’s like, it’s just still a little bit too loud. It’s like, I’m in. I’m in a freaking plane here. What’s happening? They cast him and then like a month later, they were shooting wild. Yeah. I feel like if I got cast in a movie, I would be like, can we start in 18 months? I need to go to the gym.
Greg: Yeah. My culture was ready. Yeah, he was all set. So, yeah, we meet Bonnie, we meet some of the people on the plane. Yeah, there’s like 14 of them or something. Something like that. It’s basically speed. I’m surprised Alan Ruck wasn’t on this plane. And they are really kind of just showing all the different characters like, oh, wow.
Greg: There’s like the young girls who are on vacation. There’s the germaphobe dude who’s like wiping down his seat and being kind of a jerk. Yeah. And then we’re just immediately in a storm, and then the plane crashes. Yeah. The agent that is bringing in. And one of the flight attendants gets killed in the turbulence. Right. Yeah.
Greg: Gerard Butler bangs his head right. One of many times. He is injured throughout this movie. Just shows that he just is so passionate about saving everybody’s life. And he will do the takes. Well here’s some behind the scenes stuff. The way that they were doing that turbulence by the way the turbulence is so bad. The people like float up and hit their head on the air and die from terror.
Greg: Basically how a lot of people feel during turbulence like, oh my gosh, I’m gonna die. That’s what happens in this movie. Playing on our worst fears. But they’re on a gimbal. They, like a gimbal is like they build a set on top of a thing. They can kind of move around. So that turbulence was really happening. And when the plane kind of goes to the side and Gerard Butler hits his face against the luggage bay and starts bleeding, that was a real mistake that actually happened.
Greg: So he’s not only dedicated as a character, he’s also dedicated as an actor. Yeah, awesome. And the director was like he was bleeding after that take. And of course I’m gonna use that. Hey. Yeah. Better. Yeah. Fantastic sound effect. When he falls down after that like a ringing of the ears moment. Glorious. I mean just good job Foley.
Greg: That’s really what we need. Yeah I think listen I tend to speak in hyperbole but there’s a chance you might not be a great, great bad movie unless there’s that moment when there’s the ringing of the person. That’s right. Why, it’s one of our drinking game, guys. It’s just so good. And I never get tired of it.
Greg: It’s a little bit like needlessly wet streets in L.A.. Yeah, the ringing of the ears is just to perfection in this movie. But then they lose their avionics. Their electronics are down. Yeah, they have ten minutes to fly before they leave a lot of sky. Yeah. So, he hands his watch to his copilot because I’m deli throughout the thing.
Greg: So his character’s name is Samuel Deli, but he just calls them deli the whole time. You know, we’ve got ten minutes or something. Here’s my watch. Give me the time. Like we’re doing this one minute at a time. Yeah. So which, you know, I tend to live my life a quarter mile at a time, but I’m pretty tempted to go a minute at a time now.
Greg: Yeah. Is that the best at a time? It’s probably I mean, better than a quarter mile at a time. Yeah. You’re on a quarter mile pretty quickly, so. Well, but what if you’re walking. Yeah that’s true then it’s like six minutes I think one minute at a time. As many favorite at a time. Yeah. Drinking game that I didn’t write in mind.
Greg: Every time that they mention a time as a ticks down, I will meant to time it when I was watching it to see if it’s actually ten minutes. I didn’t so I’m going to say it probably wasn’t. Yeah. That’s it feels like we did not have that kind of time. No. In this movie it is a brief like hour 40 I want to say yeah it’s tight.
Greg: It’s a, it’s a tight film I appreciate it that perfect. So let’s talk about the plane crash. They really it’s really just the plane land. Yeah. And I suppose they did need to keep the plane in one piece so they could take off again potentially later in the movie. But they land pretty fast. Pretty fast, pretty like oh or stopped and everything is fine, right.
Greg: So that was a little abrupt, a little abrupt. And I kind of thought like, you know, I rarely think cliffhanger did things better. But I was like, wow, cliffhangers. Plane landing. Crash was much better. Yeah. Agreed. Yeah. But I wasn’t distracted for very long by that. No, because suddenly we’re on an island. We don’t know where we are.
Greg: Their radio went down a long time ago. There’s a like 1000 square mile radius that the search party is going to have to look for. They conveniently say right after they land we could be anywhere in these thousand square miles. But if it’s this one island. Yeah.
Greg: That one’s taken over by separatists. Let’s not hope it’s that one. Right. And what are the odds. Yeah. You know it’s 100% if we’re if we’re talking about this movie, that’s 100%. That’s the island they’re on. Yeah, they’re on the island of Yolo in the Yolo chain. Do I have that right? I is sure, and YOLO is spelled with a J.
Greg: Okay. So occasionally they say YOLO could be. That sounds about right. No cell coverage. No cell coverage. That’s right, that’s right. That’s a big one. Yeah, yeah, that’s what the movie would have been over a lot faster. They could have gotten cell phone. Oh.
Greg: Someone’s just live you know, tweeting it the whole time. Yeah yeah yeah. Then Gerard Butler and yeah Louis Gaspar go off to find a radio. Right. They are about to go down in the water and then he says that is land right there. And then as they’re going over the land, he sees a road and he says, that’s a road.
Greg: Yeah. So he lands on the road. And so we kind of know, you know, somebody’s there, but we don’t know who. Yeah. Oh, they have to get off the plane because the plane’s hot. Yeah. And sparks are flying and there’s still gas in that one engine. Yeah. Could blow at any time. Got to get everybody off the plane.
Greg: They’re finding every reason to be stressed every moment. So you know they’re getting everybody off the plane. They’re getting them in some shade. They’re sharing their food. Gerard Butler changes out of his like captain’s uniform into this green shirt that looks like it has already been through a prequel to planes. Yeah. Yeah. Like already sweaty for some reason.
Greg: Yeah. It’s like a pre adventured. Yeah. From a previous movie. So that’s amazing. And then he to keep his passengers safe he says Mike Colter needs to come with him to go find help. Yeah. Let’s have the conversation that needs to be had about the passengers of this of speed the plane. I feel like they needed to do a little bit more raising the stakes with the characters that we knew.
Greg: Oh, sure. Because what it felt like this is where why it’s a bad movie as well. It doesn’t pick a plane. So some of the classic tropes, like you have to kill off somebody early that you’ve learned about and get and like, okay, people that die in this movie, that are passengers, you don’t really know them. Like Bonnie would have been a better choice to kill off because we like Bonnie.
Greg: Listen, you can’t talk about Bonnie that way in my house. Yeah, well, I should say that we’re in the same room, so. Yeah, this is the unofficial sequel to The Fall Guy. It’s. You came and you came to the theater. You came to my office? Yeah. So we are in person today. Oh, you get extra juice with this.
Greg: That’s why you feel the magic listener. Anyways, so you were disparaging Bonnie in my house? Yeah, and I didn’t appreciate it. Yeah, I love Bonnie. Okay, but you need to have. Or the copilot, which. Yeah, they both daily show pictures of their family, which to me is like. And we’ve talked about this from the shooter episode, the second you’re showing the picture of somebody, I was like, oh, they’re dead with cameras in your family too?
Greg: Yeah. Did she make that dress? Yeah, exactly. Wait, does Bonnie show her family? Bonnie never shows her family the copilot does, and then Gerard Butler does. That’s right. Okay, so even though we have cell phones and a million pictures on your phone, they each have actual photos folded up in their wallet. But as soon as I was like, oh, the co-pilot’s going to die, there’s just no way that he survives this movie.
Greg: Yeah, he does survive this movie. So that’s where I’d like if I’m writing this, right, we got to kill him at some point. Okay? What if his brother is Donnie from shooter? Wow. That’s rough family right there. This is a Saving Private Ryan. First of all, they overshare. All of them. Yeah. Seems to be a whole family thing.
Greg: Yeah, in the middle of, like, the most inopportune times. Donnie would have done that as they were, as they were landing. Yeah. Like, you dumped the one. Yes, I dumped the fuel. Yes. But also, did you see.
Greg: So the people who are on the plane, they seem to be treating this situation as if they’re at a gate at an airport and they’re being told their flight has been delayed. Yeah. They are not speaking to the flight attendants or the captains like they have just miraculously saved their life. Yeah, they’re speaking like inconvenience travelers this time.
Greg: What, 30 minutes delayed? It’s literally like they’re in the wrong movie. Yeah, yeah. It’s awesome. Yeah. You don’t really get to know the passengers other than the that guy who is in everything. Are you talking about the guy who works for trailblazer? No. Or one of the passengers? One of the passengers, Joey Slotnick? Yeah, okay. He’s, like, plays a jerk in every movie.
Greg: Okay, so he is known for twister from 1996. Hollow man. I have episodes of alias. He’s so much of that guy that I didn’t even clock him. So then Gerard Butler and Mike Colter walk away from petulant passengers. Yeah. And then they start having a conversation and it’s like okay well my Coulter’s my new best friend.
Greg: I want this guy around at all times. Yeah. He explains he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was 18. Which means he’s 33 in this movie. Does he look like a 33 year old to you know shots fired at Mike Colter. You don’t look 33 in this movie. No, he was I think 48 when they filmed this movie.
Greg: Maybe. I mean, he could probably play 47, but yeah, no. So so we’ve got 48 for 33 happening here. Yeah. This is a very key moment. What’s happening to us right now? Don’t think about it. Yeah. Don’t do the math in your head. Yeah. If you want to enjoy playing and we and we promise you, you will enjoy playing.
Greg: Yes. Although let’s lower the bar planes. The worst movie in history. Now you’re going to love basketball. Yeah. So there’s walking to the trail, I guess, you know, trying to see what’s going on on this island. Oh, one of my favorite things that happens in movies where someone just magically disappears. Yeah, they’re talking to each other kind of walking single file down this trail.
Greg: And then Gerard Butler looks behind him and Mike Colter is no longer there. Oh, now, if you’re walking down a trail, every footstep is making noise. So this is almost like a silent Mike Colter out of nowhere. Yeah. We don’t have a helicopter in this movie, so we need it. It’s true. Yeah. So, my favorite moment where Gerard Butler looks behind him after he has said a couple sentences and realizes, all right, well, my Coulter’s gone, I guess, what happens then?
Greg: Then, Jared Butler finds the tower. A building? Yeah, a building kind of crawls through some fencing and is able to make a phone call. After connecting some wires. We’ve all been there and then as able. So this is another thing where, you know, you’re watching a great bad movie. Yeah. The number that he calls is just the general number for trailblazer.
Greg: Er he doesn’t remember a specific one. He just calls the one 800 number and then gets put through a phone tree. And then because everyone knows about it, it’s kind of given the runaround on where he is. And then he calls his daughter right on her cell phone and gives her the information to pass along to trailblazer about where they think they are.
Greg: Right? It’s all about trying to find out where they are and then we have an awesome fight scene. That’s true. So yeah, I knew it was a problem. He has a gun. He sets it down. They never set your gun down. No no no. Ever. Yeah. And then in the missile, his daughters listening to him have a fight with this guy.
Greg: And it’s pretty brutal. The fights in this are pretty awesome, actually. It is a near perfect fight scene. It is two minutes long and it is one shot I missed that. So it’s like 18 stunt moves in one shot. It’s very John Wick. Yeah. When those people break into his house. Yeah. And spoiler spoilers for John Wick.
Greg: They kill his dog. But there’s like so many moves in that hallway in John Wick, and the tension is that they never cut away from it. Yeah. And the same thing happens here. It’s following them. They’re having this fight all around this like, you know, kind of old office, I guess is what it is. Yeah. And it’s incredible.
Greg: Like oh. Oh I didn’t realize we were this good of a movie. Yeah I feel like that is the moment where it’s kind of like oh okay. We’re in great hands here. And then I think he kills them or at least knocks them out afterwards. And then I think he kills them. I think there’s like a neck break.
Greg: Yeah. And then I think he’s also shot by Mike Colter coming back in because that on Michael two comes back right at the end of that scene. Oh and then they kind of drive off together and yeah Michael to comes back. Yeah he’s got a ton of guns. You shoot somebody else like in the hallway or something.
Greg: Yeah. And his backstory is he was in the French Foreign Legion and they’re Army. Yeah. He’s got military experience. What do you need in this. Just to know that he can take on all the bad guys essentially, which is if you’re going to land on yellow. Yeah. You need your French Foreign Legion guy. Yeah. A side note on the French Foreign Legion, my friend Philip and I always had this fantasy of running away and joining the French Foreign Legion.
Greg: Because you could if you join, you can change your identity completely. Oh, that was like our. Okay, now, we were 25 and like our punk rock fantasy of, like, disappearing, becoming mercenaries for the French Foreign Legion. Sure. Yeah. That was our big, like, escape plan F, like, so in light of the election, that might be a viable option for a lot of people here.
Greg: Well, hold on, can we sidebar into French foreign Legion Joe for a second? First of all, what’s your name? So Philip’s name, which is always way better than any name I was going to be Lee Jane Eyre. I love it, okay. And I can’t remember. I went back and forth for like, Biff Henderson was like, sure. I was kind of always like my classic go to, like, I couldn’t top Philip and his Legionnaire.
Greg: I resent him for not going the full Legion arrow for the diehard reference. Yeah, yeah, but Legionnaire, I mean, honestly, it’s right there. You need a okay. And so where where’s, Biff Henderson from? Anywhere he wants to be at this point. So you can just, like, go in there and they’ll change. I don’t know, you got papers all about the joint.
Greg: And then we were going to desert and then become mercenaries. Our soldiers of fortune was our big dream. Okay, okay. Was that a Chuck Norris movie? Soldiers of fortune. I think so, okay. And was the A-Team also like, basically was a fortune. Okay. Does that mean you’re super rich? You’re like a man. Yeah. The A-Team man. Yeah.
Greg: We better have a man. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not in. There’s no man. I’m out. Yeah I mean you got money back to this life. You got to be able to do some jumps. Yeah. The very least. What else do we need to know about you in the French Foreign Legion? I think that was it. That was.
Greg: That was this. Are, Where are we going to go? It doesn’t matter. We’re just getting what we want. Yeah. You know, there’s a word called freedom, and I’m about to experience it. The French Foreign Legion. Yeah. Okay. Amazing. All right, so they’re basically like, we’re dudes with guns and we’re going to find where we are. And okay, first of all, my culture being 33 years old in this movie was a was was a moment.
Greg: But then when Gerard Butler was able to twist some wires together and get some legit phone calls in before that guy attacks him, I think we need to ask. Well, you and I are here. Obviously don’t ask the hard questions, right? Yeah. And this is the conversation that need to be had. Why didn’t he try to make a third phone call in that office?
Greg: They’ve gotten rid of the bad guys. My culture has, like, swept the area, I assume. Why can’t he twist together some more wires and, like, try a Trailblazer Academy or. And also, do you remember what it was like to make international phone calls or even long distance phone calls? Free like cell phone. How is he calling I understand an 800 number.
Greg: How was he calling his daughter. Is that something you can just do. You know the international code I guess. But I mean we’re asking the hard questions which is clearly on cross-examination I’m going to follow. Can’t guess. Yeah. Unless there’s some throwaway line about a gunshot that went off that shoots where the phone was. Yeah. That’s what we’re missing right there.
Greg: Yeah, that’s what they wouldn’t. That’s what Christopher McQuarrie wouldn’t have missed in a mission impossible movie. Yeah. Or like they’re wrestling around and they slam into it and it breaks off the wall or you know, something like that. Maybe there is that, but they tear something off the wall to hit somebody with it. It’s possible. Okay. I think that might have happened.
Greg: I don’t know if it was the phone box though, but it could have been. Yeah. Because after this fight where I was like, oh, awesome. Okay. We’re in good hands here. Yeah, that was amazing. Then they walk out I was like hold up guys. Did you want to make a phone call. He’s saying like I’ve made some phone calls but I’m not sure that’ll work.
Greg: I was like well we could try again. Nope. We’re just walking out to get in more danger. Yeah. So that was my first real like hold up, hold up. Can I raise my hands? You know, we’re in a movie theater. Never. Right? Yeah. In this times when we do need to mention some of the problematic pieces of this film because we’re getting into why the separatists on this island.
Greg: Sure. Which are just kind of classic bad guys. We don’t. You know, there’s a leader. Yep. We kind of see that they that to Gen Meyer. Yeah. They kidnap people. They make ransom videos. Right? Their blood trail. So it looks pretty brutal. What they’re they’re trying to get money basically. And Western hostages are much better. So in the time that Gerard Butler leaves, then the bad guys basically come to where the plane is.
Greg: Yeah. And scoop up all the passengers. Yep, yep. And then there’s, that moment that our copilot should have died, right? Yeah. He’s like, I’m in charge here. Should have been shot instantly. Yep, yep. With, you know, a slow motion shot of blood seeping through and on to the picture of his family. Sure, sure. Fine. Making this movie we do get to two passengers are killed, but I have no idea who they are.
Greg: They have. I know three lines in the movie. Yeah, and they’re shot because they’re running away. And then everyone freaks out right there. Just extras basically. So yeah. Missed opportunity. Yeah. We should have mentioned that before. Gerard Butler and Mike Colter go into the town. There is a little bit of investigating the electrical system of the plane between Gerard Butler and Delly, and it seems like Gerard Butler is saying, if we could reroute the isolation bus to the essential bus, we could probably draw down more amps from the battery as I was going down.
Greg: Did you agree with that? I mean, my old days in the French Foreign Legion isn’t over, You know, electrician Iron Man, rang true to me, so. Okay, I was in. I wouldn’t have gone for the isolation bus, but you know, I mean, like, I’m a Monday morning quarterback on this one. Okay? When Gerard Butler grabbed the gun from the the dead police officer on the plane, did you expect him to say, now I have a gun?
Greg: Oh ho ho.
Greg: So wish I had thought of that. Yes. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. It’s an expectation. It’s an unfilled expectation. At this point we cut to downtown somewhere. Suddenly we’re not on the island. Yeah. We go to Trailblazer Situation Room or whatever. I mean, that’s exactly what it is. It’s the Situation Room. And Paul Van Victor, the dead from I guess because I just watch the show.
Greg: He’s he’s been in a million things. Yeah. His IMDb page is a mile long. I know him from the last thing I watch on Netflix. He is like, kind of being a bad guy, you know, like evil corporate dude. Yeah. And then Tony Goldwyn, the bad guy from ghost. Spoilers for Ghost Walks in the room. You know, they ask him, how are you going to fix this?
Greg: And he says, if there are any lawyers in the room, you probably want them to leave or something like that. Yeah. Good entrance. Yeah. Pretty solid. What’s your take on the Situation Room and Trailblazer headquarters? I love the Situation Room. Yeah, that was one of my favorite parts of this movie. Yeah. I also love the fact that they’re really as only trailblazer people.
Greg: They’re even though when planes go down, it’s like a big international thing and then they’re yeah, they’re talking to the press about it and getting the word out and. Right. So there’s a lot of exposition that happens in there of who’s in the room. And then, right, Tony Goldwyn is kind of the the fixer. Yeah. The fixer. And then, you know, he’s coming in to make everything right.
Greg: Right, boss? Everybody around. Totally. I don’t know if they ever mentioned what his role is or why he’s there. I don’t think they have to. He does like walks in the room and everyone is like, oh, glad you’re here. But if nobody knows that guy and he just takes over, it’s even better. So and then happens to be a paramilitary force somewhere nearby that they have on standby for some contractors.
Greg: Yeah, we have we have a group of people for this kind of thing, basically extraction. Yeah. Which would have been amazing. The greatest crossover ever missed opportunity. Yeah. So the Situation Room was awesome. I loved every second that they’re in there. Yeah, yeah. It’s like a huge room with like desks all around and like a U-shape. And then he just stands in the middle telling everybody what to do, including the CEO.
Greg: Right. It’s like a dark room and there screens everywhere. Yeah. The only reason I didn’t like the Situation Room is because it did release the tension of what was happening in the, in the movie on the island, which in the moment I was ready for, I kind of was like, oh, good, we’re cutting someplace else. The two tense, which means the movie’s working.
Greg: And maybe it would have worked more if we didn’t cut away to a situation room. But you know, these are the choices they make. Yeah. This is where I do wish I had just picked a lane a little bit more like, the disaster film and just lean a little bit more into that. Or is a die hard on an island.
Greg: I heard an island, you know, and I agree, I think that they break the tension a little too much. It’s a little too easy when they get through different challenges. I felt like they miraculously turned the plane around. And it takes off. And things that I’ve seen other movies do where they just kind of raise the stakes and raise the stakes a little bit more and more.
Greg: You know, they’re able to go in and get the hostages out pretty easily. There’s a, you know, it’s a fight scene through it. But it’s sure, I’ve seen other movies where they split up the hostages and maybe they get some of them, but they have to go further in and. Right, you know, sure. Those are the opportunities where I feel like if they were, if it was just die hard on an island, it would have been you lean a little bit more on that.
Greg: And I rarely say this. I feel like this could have been ten minutes longer. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Yeah. Some of the rescues could have taken a little longer, I agree. Although if it is die hard on an island, which in its best form it is and die hard, we cut to al out on the street and got some comedy relief.
Greg: You know, that’s kind of the way that they cut the tension a bit there as well and kind of opened up the world. So maybe I take back what I said, you know, everybody needs a now or a die Hard does. So I was like, the bad guys are charming. And, you know, they’re they’re pretty ruthless, but they’re also funny.
Greg: Yeah. You know. Yeah. And so you have, like, these are just bad guys. Sure. Filipino bad guys, separatist separatists, sepia toned. Right? Bad. There’s nothing about them that, you know, it could have been anywhere. You could have picked any island anywhere. Sure. You know, and they’re just generic. And so that’s a can be a little problematic. And I know the Philippines I’ve had some challenges there.
Greg: So I feel like there’s some I had a couple moments, I went, oh, okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah, that’s what it is. These are the movies we watch. Sure. But I don’t want to go down too long of, a rabbit hole on this, but it’s not, wonderful. But I also, I know what kind of movie they’re making here.
Greg: So I was like, okay, I get it. Are there not islands in the Philippines that have separatists that are run by separatists like this, where you can’t even get help for 48 hours or whatever it is? No idea. Yeah. To me, yeah, I was more just like, okay, we just picked this third world nation and we’re going to have bad guys that are separatists share.
Greg: Sure. And then they’re terrible people kidnaping Westerners or anybody and holding them for ransom. Take right of them. And yeah, they’re basically terrorist is what they are. And they’re held up to be. So yeah, mysterious foreigners that kind of what you’re alluding to. Yeah. But they are killing like they find a camera in like a, a room where they film people and then it looks like they’ve killed the people have been killed in that room.
Greg: They’re like missionaries from. Yeah. Good Samaritan fellowship. Yeah. Where is, where the, missionaries were from. Yeah. So the separatists find the passengers. Well, Gerard Butler and my culture are away, and so now it’s up to Delhi, and it’s up to Bonnie. Really? They kill a couple random passengers. Bonnie really doesn’t want to give them the passenger list.
Greg: Yeah, I want to know Bonnie’s backstory. Why don’t you just want to hand people the. And she seem to be hiding it like in her shirt? Yeah, it didn’t really make sense unless she was trying to, like, not let them know that Gerard Butler was out there. That could be my culture out there. So he’s trying to protect them so that they don’t get they can get a little bit more time.
Greg: Right. See this is a single line six. This should have been added in there. Yeah yeah yeah. Just throw it in there or just turn over the list. Because if I’m on bond issues you want to listen. Here’s the list though. This list. Yeah. Who cares. Yeah. Yeah. She could have lied about that. Oh a couple people died as a couple people do die.
Greg: And so could have been. You could have just lied about, you know, who was still alive. And that would have covered it up, too. So this is a little bit like Holly Gennaro doesn’t want Hans Gruber to see Bruce Willis in the family picture. Yeah, a little bit like that. It’s funny because they do find all kinds of ways to ratchet up the tension in this movie.
Greg: This was a missed opportunity for them. Yeah, which is a bummer. I’m sure the editor was screaming at them, hey, can we just get that actor in for one more 80 yard line? We find out that the assets are going airborne. That’s the contractor. Yeah, they’re headed out to the island. They’ve got, like, half $1 million in a bag.
Greg: Is that what it was? Yeah, for ransom purposes. Sounds like. And they’re like, well, this is not even enough of for one person. One person. Yeah. Like, oh. All right. Okay. Yeah. Because Jared Barlow’s daughter is able to get in touch with trailblazer. Who did she call that he wasn’t able to call. Really good question. And then they bring in the person who made the decision to fly through the storm instead of around the storm and yell at him, right.
Greg: That was a very nice thing to have. Yeah. And then they play the recording of him talking to the receptionist. They’re on it. They’re on it? Yeah. Magically on it. Yeah. And then the, the group of mercenaries or contractors in the area just floating around and sure, weapons are dropping in. I really think that I’m not going to say this is the secret to a great bad movie, but I’m hard pressed to think of a great, bad movie that wouldn’t be greater and better without assets being in the air.
Greg: We need some assets in the air at all times in our movies. Yeah, so really good scene. By the way, we didn’t mention that Gerard Butler and Mike Colter are like, what do we say? Like they’re in like, the weeds. Yeah. Right next to where this scene is happening. Where in the the terrorists or the separatists are killing passengers or whatever.
Greg: And Gerard Butler’s trying to get up and help them, and Mike Colter is holding them down and telling him to be quiet. Yeah, I love a scene like that. We need a name for that kind of scene, I know. Yeah. What can you do for them now or right or something? Or you’ll be no used to them dead or something.
Greg: Exactly. Yeah. You know, and this is where we get Gerard Butler. And the new trope that I’m, I’ve added to the list. New trope, a new trope alert. It’s the honorable man trope. Oh interesting. There’s no real reason for him Mikey. But he’s so protective. He’s got to protect and save the passengers. Right? Right. Just bears this responsibility.
Greg: So it’s like he’s fighting. He’s going in to like try to rescue them and. All this stuff is just for him to be the honorable good man. But he is. But they show I wonder if this is what pilots of commercial airliners feel like. You know I wonder if they say like taking off with 14 souls on board.
Greg: I wonder if they say stuff like that and like they have, like, people and families represented on their plane, that it’s their responsibility. I bet they do. I’m sure they do. Yeah. I feel like once you, like, landed them safely on an island and there’s a terrorist group that’s kidnaping you, you’re at the end of responsibility. I did what I needed to do.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome. That’s your souls on my plane. I see them on this island. Yeah. Maybe that can help you out. That you, Jen? My. By the way, the guy who plays that to Jen Mart, the main bad guy on the island, the main separatist who’s running the show. Evan Dane Taylor is a stunt coordinator and second unit director.
Greg: Oh, okay. Or at least a stunt coordinator. He ran the stunts on two of those Marvel shows. He ran them on Daredevil, okay. And he ran them on one of the other Netflix shows, not Luke Cage. So how awesome is that? The bad guy in this movie who has glorious box of hair. This guy is amazing. He also is a stunt man.
Greg: Not only are we letting the stunt men direct movies, we’re letting the stunt men be the bad guys. Yeah, and I really liked him as the bad guy in this movie. I thought he was great. Yeah, there’s some fun shots of him, like walking with his other henchmen, and then, you know, the nice low shot. And then maybe they slowed down.
Greg: The frame rate just a little bit to kind of give it a little bit. Yeah. You know, as he’s coming back, there are a few shots like that. I always appreciate it when they’re like those not super slo mo, but like just like we need to emphasize this moment. Yeah. Yeah, totally. He is pretty good in this movie.
Greg: I feel like a little I agree with you in a little bit of like a generic. Yeah, separatist bad guy. But yeah, I did like him. We don’t need to go beat by beat. But yeah, I want to mention that they eventually get one of the bad guys walkie talkies. Gerard Butler and my culture Gerard Butler is kind of looking to Mike Colter who has been in situations like this, I assume in the past.
Greg: He holds up a walkie talkie and says is this any good to me or do I need this? And Mike Colter says, I don’t know. Do you speak their language? And he just throws it to the side and it’s like a total disregard of Die hard in 2023 is what happens there. You know. Yeah. Every movie where they get the thing, the piece that always gets me about when they get a walkie talkie.
Greg: Yeah is like in Die Hard. It’s used perfectly sure of these are talking to the bad guy and and they know it’s the. But it’s when they get the walkie talkie and then they’re like, hey, Frank, are you there? And then it’s the good guy. As Frank as, like, does nobody know what Frank’s voice sound like? Sounds just like Marky Mark’s voice, sir.
Greg: So that always drives me crazy. Is this movie kicking in? Yeah, yeah, they get rid of that. So they made a great choice on that one. Totally. Totally. So I don’t know, we’re maybe like an hour into this movie at this point. Near perfect. Near perfect. Yeah. I mean, just incredible. I am entirely on board with this film, despite things where I’m like, hold up.
Greg: Yeah. Still, you know what? Great bad movie. So Mike Culture and Gerard Butler, they’re walking into town. Mike Colter says a priest in the Legion used to say redemption can only be found in the most unusual places. That’s an interesting line for this movie. Do you agree with that? Yeah, probably not. But for in a movie like this, it’s perfect that.
Greg: So you think that redemption is found in the most usual places? Yeah, I would, you know, I mean, isn’t that the entire point of, everywhere all at once or everything everywhere all at once? Now, I totally agree with you. I think you’re right. Redemption is all around us all the time in normal life. Okay, okay. But it’s a cool line to say it was so out of nowhere and philosophical, I was like, hold up.
Greg: I’m gonna write this down. Yeah. So they kind of go through town and Gerard Butler has this ability to hold the frame like he is interesting no matter what’s going on. When the camera’s on him, which I don’t have, I don’t know who has then. But sometimes while he’s holding the frame, he is maybe a little bit more exasperated than I feel like he should be.
Greg: Like, we’ve we’ve talked about like, bread acting that Marky Mark does. Or what did, Sylvester Stallone do in cliffhanger? It was like, we’s acting. Yeah. Is he’s a little bit exasperated, and he seems to be, like, nearly throwing up at times in this movie where he’s just so overwhelmed, like he’s not used to. I guess he has never been around this kind of scenario.
Greg: You know, he’s not like a cop. He’s just a pilot. So, yeah, I do have to say, on the on the breathe acting, Jillian mentioned that because she thought that was really funny. Yeah. And now she mentioned that to me and other movies and shows. I watched a lot of breathe. Actor. Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty awesome.
Greg: That’s just the legacy of Marky Mark. Yeah, yeah. So this is the kind of movie where when somebody gets stabbed, they immediately die. And can I yell for help? Yeah. This is also a movie where when you walk by a wheelbarrow, there’s probably a sledgehammer in it that you can grab because that’s where everybody keeps their sledgehammer in a wheelbarrow.
Greg: Yeah. I feel like they had guns. Lots of that. And then this is just like a stunt coordinator decision. They were like they’ve got to be quiet. Sure. It’s also got a couple I mentioned this before but like it’s got the kind of dialog where it’s like three lines or four lines back and forth like, yeah, there’s where the hostages aren’t sure, what do you want to do?
Greg: What’s your plan? Yeah, what’s your plan? And I was like, I will kill them. And then we’ll go around like, that’s your, you know, your plan of like, you got a better idea? Yeah. No discussion. They just go with the plan. Sure. Oh I plan, yeah. There’s a lot of plan talk in this movie, and I appreciated it.
Greg: I actually really liked. And then. Yeah, then they go off in the. Yeah that’s that’s the stabbing that is instantaneous death. Right. Then turn by there’s like covering the guy’s mouth and against that guy get stabbed and then there’s the sledgehammer scene. And then I was like, oh, this is the kind of movie we’re in right now. All I saw sudden, I think they said something like, if we shoot our gun, we’re going to have a million people on us because there’s bad guys everywhere.
Greg: Yeah, so we got to be as quiet as possible. So that’s nice. Yeah, sure. Let’s, let’s. Hammer’s being universally known as quiet. Yes, yes, 100%. So we should say that all of the passengers of speed slash plane have been taken into town, you know, like an airport or shuttle. Yeah. And now they’re going in there to save them.
Greg: And once they are trying to save them, the contractors land and are there to help. Yeah. And all of the plot points of like how the contractors find them and they’re communicating with the trailblazer Home Office. It’s pretty good. There’s some pretty good kind of like trying to get through the plot points without it being laborious and also make sense.
Greg: They do a pretty good job with that. Yeah. Agreed. And so now these contractors are there. They’re just like every group of military dudes that you want around, you know, are all awesome. I don’t know who these actors are, but I love them all. You know, they’re just incredible. It seems like they’re kind of in like, aliens. They’re like in a James Cameron movie where they’re like funny military guys who also just, you know, kind of know what they’re doing.
Greg: Yeah, they were very effective for me. I really liked the contractors. It seemed like they really now had and this is all just, you know, direction and action and acting. You know, these these guys, there’s a lot going on that I. That could have been bad. That was not bad because everybody working on this thing was pretty good.
Greg: Yeah I agree pretty good. And you kind of the I felt a sense of relief of there’s no way that Gerard Butler is going to fight his way out of all totally, totally, you know, so they needed more help, right? They got them. You’re able to rescue them. But then the contractors come to feel like that needs to be a trope of when someone like the good guy is about to be shot and then that person is shot, you know?
Greg: Yeah, like there’s a moment like that is a really good trope because that happens in this. And then, you know, there’s just great bad shots everywhere from the bad guys. Right? Or they just like duck down and, and the airport shuttle and they don’t get shot or hit by anything. Fine. Yeah. There was also another thing that happened in the scene where Gerard Butler willingly walks towards the bad guys to distract them.
Greg: So maybe the airport or with the passengers can escape. And so, like, he’s talking to the main guy, Datu, and he’s having some sort of, like, confrontational conversation with the main bad guy, and there’s a guy who works for the bad guy who seems to know when it’s time to punch Gerard Butler more. There are no signals between the main bad guy and like his henchmen, that it’s time to punch, but it happens perfectly.
Greg: Like, oh yeah, that makes sense that the henchman is now punching Gerard Butler. But it’s not he’s not told to do that. And there’s nothing externally that’s like telling him now is the time other than it’s perfect movie time. From a henchman to punch Gerard Butler I don’t know what to call this, but I flagged it while I was watching this.
Greg: It happened a few times. It was like this. I think that that’s just the kind of communication you have with someone even worked with a really long time when you just, you know, he doesn’t know that number two knew that. So there’s that. He just can’t buy that kind of total. What is that? ESP yeah. You just know when it’s time to kick and punch Brody while he’s on the ground.
Greg: Exactly. Or a friend of mine, whenever there’s, like, an awkward silence in a conversation, she wants to start tap dancing to fill the silence. Yeah, a tap dancing moment. I feel like that’s this henchman tap dancing moment. Like, well, you guys are talking, so I’m just gonna start punching you again. Yeah, like rapport or whatever it is it says, you know, it has no what the other person is thinking, and it’s perfect 100%, 100%.
Greg: So once they have been saved, we inexplicably cut to Brody Torrance to, Gerard Butler’s daughter in Hawaii. And she sets up her phone to send, like, a video to her dad over text. Yeah, she’s just sending him a video to say I don’t know what’s happening. Yeah, I miss you. I hope you, I love you. Yeah. And it’s kind of voice over.
Greg: And there is no reason for it to be there. No. Except to establish some hearts. Come onboard with obviously and to you know fill up our tank of like we got to get this guy out of here. He’s got to get to his daughter. Don’t forget about the daughter. It’s basically what that scene’s. Yeah. But it as shoehorned in as it is.
Greg: And that’s a generous description about what would you call it? It’s just like, no reason whatsoever. Here we are. It reminds me of, there’s a horror movie trope of, like, someone like the scream queen who is being hunted, and it’s like leaving their message of their kind of like they think they’re going to be killed or they’re going to die.
Greg: So it’s like their last will and testament type of thing. Are they? You know, that’s what it reminded me of. And there is no reason for it other than what you said. It’s just like, oh yeah, he’s got a daughter and we don’t want her to be an orphan now, do we? Right? Yeah. Because at this point his mom has passed away.
Greg: It’s super sad. Yeah. So and at this point, he’s been beaten up. May have been shot by this point or stabbed. He was attacked by the luggage rack in the plane. Yeah, but he’s definitely shot at least twice by the end of the movie. And I think stabbed another time. Like he takes on a fair amount of damage.
Greg: Yeah. Oh. Tough day. Yeah. The yellow cluster. I know now that I think of it. Yeah. Just another Tuesday, I guess. Yeah, yeah. There’s no reason for the for us to cut to the data for any reason other than to like, oh yeah, we want to just raise the stakes a little bit. Right. But if you thought that Gerard Butler at that point was going to die, then you don’t know what kind of movie you’re watching.
Greg: Sure, sure. Yeah. You know, so she finishes her her monologue, our tank of like, oh my gosh, we got to get this guy, get this guy out of here. Back to his daughter is filled up and I appreciated that. And then so now we’re back at the plane. And the separatists are probably on their way to the plane as well.
Greg: And they get everybody all the passengers under the plane. We got the assets, we got the contractors, we’ve got Mike Culture and Brody, Gerard Butler and the passengers. And then Gerard Butler is telling them the plan like we’re going to get on the plane so that we can fly away. And the passengers start complaining like, am I going to be late for my reactive flight?
Greg: We’re back. It’s like at their gate time again. Yeah, at the airport. And it really made me laugh that we were not just yelling at everybody to run on the plane really quick. Yeah, we were having like a full dialog scene. Yeah. You just saved your life right. Rescued you from a jail cell. And his plan is to take off in the plane.
Greg: Yeah. And they’re complaining why. You’re what. We’re getting on the plane. That’s ridiculous. Yeah. He’s like I was so annoyed by the passengers which I’m sure was their intention. But also like yeah like I have a layover and then I got a connecting flight. No no come on. It’s ridiculous. Unbelievable. I couldn’t believe they were disagreeing with him like that.
Greg: But then Bonnie so on it getting everyone on the plane. Bonnie is last. Like Bonnie, but he’s the greatest flight attendant in history. Can we say that? I think we can easily say that. Although. Yeah. Caveat for passenger 57. I’ll just say that. Wow. Yeah. Okay. We’re going to earmark. Yeah. Flight attendants have a little. Yes.
Greg: I was raised by a flight attendant. My mom was a flight attendant. And. All right, so it’s a, you know, like the ends. And they were like, oh, shit, they’re phoning it in. Oh, they really? Oh my gosh, you know. Yeah, totally. Everyone listening to this should just know that people who travel are horrible. Yeah. You got to be nice.
Greg: These people, my mom has some amazing stories of just how people’s true colors come out on a plane, and sometimes they’re like the most famous people on the planet, and she realizes they’re horrible. Yeah, there’s a lot of, don’t meet your heroes stories that, flight attendants have. But my mom, when she was a flight attendant for United, they were called stewardesses.
Greg: And I don’t know how old I was. I was like, maybe, like 19. I got on a plane. I hadn’t flown for a while. My whole childhood is my mom telling stewardess stories. And like, Stu, school stewardess is just a regular word we hear, right? My child at home and I accidentally wanted to get the flight attendants attention.
Greg: And flight attendants, you know, obviously don’t like to be called services anymore. And so I said, oh, excuse me, stewardess. And the flight attendant turned around and looked at me like you were about to get a sledgehammer to the face. There was, we don’t go by that word anymore, right? There must be some connotation that I don’t know.
Greg: And so, I said, oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. My mom was a stewardess for United in like, the 60s. So my whole childhood was hearing about her stewardess days in my Stu school. And when I said this, this flight attendant was now basically my aunt Awesome and hooked me up the rest of the flight. Oh, I didn’t realize you were family.
Greg: Yeah, it’s totally fine that you said that word. I was like a and I was also horrified. Yeah, like I realized what I did, but anyways. Yeah. So if you’re ever on a plane and be super nice. The flight attendant. Come on. Yes, please. You know what? And, Bonnie deserves it in this movie as well. One last thing before you know.
Greg: Now we’ve walked through the entire movie. Basically, I’ll give the back in the box. So if there’s a chance that people haven’t seen this movie. But I do want to say one of my favorite moments is, are they they get back to the plane. They’re all getting ready. And then they, like, do a preflight check. If there was ever a moment that, just like we’re crossing our fingers, everything is good, we’re gonna just try to take off.
Greg: That would be the moment. But no, they got to go around. And he was like, looking at the wheel, but really like. And then running around. That’s where he gets shot in the leg I think at one point. So yeah. Fixes a break. Yeah I want to say by the way this is literally the next thing in my notes.
Greg: How did you feel about the preflight inspection? I got like, you could forego this. I know.
Greg: Yeah. Like, there are people coming to shoot you, right? Right this second. Right? Right. Yeah. Totally. Okay. Well, Joe, in the case that somebody has not seen this movie. Yeah, let’s pretend that in 2023 they are going to Blockbuster Video and walking down the aisles and looking at DVD boxes of different movies, they get to new releases, they see plane, they pick up the box.
Greg: What’s the back of the box say, it’s time for the back of the box.
Clip: It’s the back of the box.
Greg: Trying to get to his family for New Year’s pilot, Brody Torrance, Gerard Butler must use all of his skill to keep the passengers alive. When a lightning strike takes out all navigation. Flying blind, he is able to land the plane on an island. Now forced to team up with a fugitive. Can they learn to trust each other? As the dangerous truth about the island is revealed, this nail biting thriller will keep you in your seat, with seat backs and tray tables in their upright position.
Greg: Of course.
Greg: Amazing, amazing. I think I rent it. Yeah, I think I rent it. I think I probably did rent passenger 57 and oh, I for sure executive decision when I read the back of those boxes. But that’s just marketing materials. What is the actual real back of the box from Joe Scott. Okay. Some amazing films with one word names Casablanca, Shrek, jaws, alien up, Vertigo, Titanic.
Greg: And to think that plane wants to join that pantheon when jet airspeed and cabin pressure connected with the hyphen. So accounts are all there for the taking. Gerard Butler is in his element, though is deeply committed to this role as we blend disaster movie tropes with Die Hard on an island, it all works as a tight hour and a half popcorn movie, which is better and more fun than expected.
Greg: Amazing. Pretty good. Yeah, yeah. You like this one? I like this one. I think airspeed, though. Airspeed. Wow. That’s incredible right there. That’s right.
Greg: Yeah, but I mean, they have to ditch at some point. That is one of my favorite moments of the movie. Yeah. Where Barney comes in while they’re after the lightning has struck the plane and he says, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but prepare to ditch. Yeah, that’s kind of what would have been a better or no. Yeah, a plane, a dry one.
Greg: To me, it takes the movie down by title. I mean, is it because it’s pretty close to snakes on a plane? It’s. No, it’s like the worst descriptor of, like, just plain like it could have been anything. You could have used any sort of other thing. And that’s what they came up with. And the plane is worse. So I glad they got rid of the article.
Greg: Sure. And just went with plane. But it’s not that much better. I mean, I don’t know how many people like me there are out there. I think there’s a fair amount. We’re finding them with us with this show. But there is a legitimate percentage of me that went to this movie because it was called plane. Oh yeah.
Greg: And but to me this the part of me that went to this movie because it was named plane, I was disappointed that it was actually much better than the title made it out to be, made me believe because the movie I expected was more like, has Fallen movie like Olympus Has Fallen, kind of the Gerard Butler kind of movie.
Greg: Yeah. Which is just like so over-the-top and cheesy in this movie. Is not that like it is, right? Trying to be a pretty tight. Yeah, close to the ground thriller. Yeah. So yes, playing Gerard Butler in plane, you have me like I’m in. I’ll watch that movie every single time. You say right now Lane two, I’m in lane three for, you just throw in a joke.
Greg: They should stop. They should have stopped letting me fly planes, you know, a couple of years ago. But here I am. I agree, and so then when it’s a little bit more heartfelt than you expected, it’s kind of like no plane is better than I expected. Yeah, yeah. And then I wish it was like airspeed or, you know.
Greg: Yeah. Jet. Even jet would have been better because I was like, yeah. And anyway, next time you’re whoever the PR people are writing the, the title for the next movie. Yeah, you can be a little bit more flamboyant, I think. Okay. Okay. So they are prepared. They get everybody on the plane preparing to leave. Yeah. The contractors are kind of around the plane protecting it, covering it so that as the separatists arrive and start attacking the contractors can kind of hold them at bay.
Greg: And Mike Colter is also with them now. He’s kind of like helping them out. Yeah. So the separatists kind of park a ways away, kind of down the, road. Yeah. Which is runway. Runway. It’s basically a runway. Yeah. And then out of nowhere, there’s like, I don’t know what to call this. I’m just going to call it the Superman gun.
Greg: Out of nowhere there is the largest, most effective powerful gun in history being used against these separatists. You know, one of the contractors is shooting through cars to get the dude. Yeah. And then the dude is, like, disintegrates and blows up and everything. Yeah. Like these separatists are sitting in between two cars. And then when they’re shot through a car, they kind of bash up against the car behind them.
Greg: And this keeps happening. What was your take on the Superman gun I love that it was like 100%. And by this point I’m like I got to get off this island right. It made me want more of the action like that I threw out okay. Film. Sure. Or like like great bad shots. Yeah. And give me like, this crew rescuing people or something like that.
Greg: Oh, yeah. And like, build it out because I feel like it’s like a, like if they if they ever get a sequel, they’ll expand it. You always got to make it kind of bigger and better with some of the action. And so I feel like you could take this crew and that kind of action because there’s, there’s moments in the action is really tight.
Greg: And yeah I really appreciated that. And I wanted more of it. So I wanted more of that kind of gun and that kind of action. And the bad guys are just bad shots, just like at every turn except for when they shoot Jared Butler. Well did you notice who is who was the one allowed to shoot Gerard Butler
Greg: Yeah I mean bad guy is the only one I thought of you right. Yeah. It happened you know main bad guy is the only one allowed to shoot the main good guy. Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a lot of that where if you kind of think about the, the action sequences from like extraction, they use kind of some similar like a Superman gun moment.
Greg: Right. And just like, okay, we’re going to do a instead of like a five minute action scene, we’re going to do a 20 minute action scene or 15. Yeah. And we’re just going to lean heavily into all of this and have it be as crazy as possible. Like, yeah, yeah, I understand why they kind of tried to tone it down a little bit, but I would have wanted to push them to go there.
Greg: Okay. In different ways. Okay. I like that scene. That scene was fun at the end. Yeah. You know, because you wanting them. The stakes are you got to get on the plane. They’re leaving. There’s not enough room for the take off. Shades of fast six where they had the world’s longest runway and the plane is landing and taking off, and I’m not sure.
Greg: And, you know, a final shot where you’re on Butler runs over the bad guy with the front wheel of the plane. Perfect, perfect. And they’re going to kill the bad guy. Yeah you should probably do it with the plane. Yeah we should say that. Mike Colter needs to reload his machine gun. And they said yeah, go over to the pallet that I guess I’m assuming the contractors dropped out of a plane and.
Greg: And so he goes to the pallet and finds the bag of money and steals it or no registers it like there’s a bag of money here and then grabs more ammo and keeps fighting. But then at some point, well the contractor is getting on the plane. Mike Colter grabs the bag of money and doesn’t get on the plane.
Greg: Yeah. And leaves and then comes back to save them at some point. Doesn’t think he does. Yeah, yeah, he saves them, but then he disappears into the wilderness. Yeah, yeah. So I call it the Superman gun because like, no one can really beat Superman. I guess unless they have Kryptonite or something. But it’s a problem with Superman.
Greg: Yeah, problem with Captain Marvel. The problem with, like, the indestructible time traveling. Yeah. Superhero. Right. Once that gun is there and they stop using it, it’s like, well, why don’t you just keep using the Superman? Yeah, and there’s no explanation of that now. So that’s a little bit bizarre. Kind of fun that we had. We had our minute.
Greg: Yeah I feel like the missed opportunity with my culture’s character. Yeah. Would have been I’m fine with him sneaking off into the jungle. Although he’s stuck on this island with separatists. Sure. What was he going to do. What was I going to get off. Yeah, we’ll figure it out. I feel like there could have been a moment on the plane.
Greg: If he gets on the plane, that the contractors are like, you really know how to carry yourself or are you looking for a job? And he’s like, well, I got, you know, and they’re like, we can take care of it apparently. So now he’s found his way. Sure. That was, I was secretly hoping for. Yeah. Kind of a missed opportunity.
Greg: Yeah. Totally. As they’re trying to take off they’ve got the contractors on the plane. They have this one engine with gas and it. Oh they’ve had radio contact with trailblazers. What’s happening. Yeah. And they say you got to get about 50 miles south to CAC and there’s an island about 50 miles south. Can you get there. And he’s like we’ll find out.
Greg: Yeah. As they are taking off. He says if they hit our fuel tanks were toast with these guns. So it’s gets very stressful very fast. Yeah. It’s another one of those were a stick of dynamite. We got to get off this plane. Yeah, I appreciate that. I love that as they’re getting to the plane, someone yells get to the plane.
Greg: We need that. We need. We just need that in our lives. It’s a plane. They take off, they get to CAC. Yeah. And then the Situation Room claps. We have that moment. My favorite clap is when Gerard Butler walks out of the cockpit. And the passengers. Yeah him. And then there’s like oh you’re the greatest pilot. Or you know the right one of the contractors says you’re hello captain or something like that.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. And you know, and he’s been shot. Right. And there are people who are being taken off in stretchers, but not him. He’s just sitting there. And then Bonnie just, like, comes in like, are you okay? And he’s like, I just need a minute, right? Could have a real downer ending. He dies right there. They’re getting on his plane.
Greg: Missed opportunity. And he wanted this like, yeah, you know how the missed opportunity is. Bonnie kills him right there. Yeah, I dare you. You’re the worst captain in history. Yeah. Bonnie starts crying. I think a little bit like. Thank you so much. Yeah. Tears up a little bit. Man. This movie could have been called body. Yeah. Again.
Greg: Better title. That better than blame. Bonnie is amazing in this movie. Yeah. So then comes my favorite moment. Okay. Though she says, promise me you’re gonna go to the hospital. I don’t know, of course she’s going to go to the hospital. Yeah, like he’s been shot twice and stabbed and. Yeah, yeah, there’s like emergency crews from CAC kind of showing up and everybody’s getting help.
Greg: He says, just give me a minute. And this is what makes this a different movie than all of the other Die Hard movies. As far as I can tell, everybody gets off the plane and once they get off the plane, he starts crying and, like, acknowledges what he’s just been through. Run believable. No way. I would have predicted this movie is going to end with the good guy.
Greg: Just like losing it for a second and really acknowledging emotionally what he just went through. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if that’s in the scripts. I bet that’s Gerard Butler saying hey we’re leaving something on the field. We got a you know a moment here, let’s give you a moment. But I was just like oh my gosh this is such a good movie.
Greg: That’s so I think the only thing I wanted in that moment sure was the slow motion shot of his daughter running across the tarmac to the plane of course. Yeah, yeah. So that’s like what this movie needed at the end as he’s being wheeled out or. Right, and, you know, limping out. Right. Kind of collapses in her arms and then, you know, but you have to have like a couple lines in there like, yeah, yeah.
Greg: Know in the situation room, like get his daughter to wherever. Right. But he does walk out of the plane down the stairs at some point and sits at the bottom of the stairs and starts a phone call with his daughter. And that’s the end of the movie. There are so many shots where the camera kind of rises above the plane and ends with the shot like that as well.
Greg: It’s glorious. Oh is that an a crane shot or, you know, a helicopter. Yeah, that’s a great point. Yeah. But every time the camera goes up in this movie, kind of above the plane to show the island they’re on or whatever, really effective, I loved it. Yeah. It’s like, man, it’s a reason. There’s a reason those shots were a totally.
Greg: But like, oh yeah, where are we? You know, the final kind of camera going up and showing the plane, filling the whole frame. Glorious. Yeah. Unbelievable. I just need to mention one thing. All right. The contractors got there via plane. They probably jumped out of a plane and landed, like, did an airdrop scenario. Yeah. Where did that plane go.
Greg: That’s a really interesting question that you bring up. That plane was probably much smaller than. The trailblazer airliner. Yeah. So why didn’t that thing just land and let everybody get on it. Yeah. Or why didn’t they have a helicopter that could have done that. Yeah. Good questions right. We need answers to I mean apparently the Philippines are so far away the trailblazer can’t they can’t get just anybody to go there to land.
Greg: So it’s really just the contractors. Contractors had to have gotten there via a plane. Yeah. Why wasn’t that person circling and landing to pick everybody up once they had found everybody? Yeah. There’s some real plot holes in this movie. Yeah, but God bless you. Yeah, I by so that’s awesome.
Greg: I do want to say that this movie, it’s very well made by Jean-Francois Ricci. It was supposed to be made by the guy who directed Den of Thieves. Have you watched Den of thieves haven’t. Oh my gosh, den of thieves is an incredible movie with Gerard Butler and that director, James Christian Gouda, aghast. He was supposed to make this movie, and then they figured out that they were going to make Den of Thieves two immediately after planned.
Greg: And so he was like, well, now I can’t direct plane because I need to get Den of Thieves two ready. So they brought in this French director Jean-Francois Ricci, and we got all kinds of goodness from this director. I will say that I’ve got some problems with this movie. First of all, it was supposed to be a $50 million movie.
Greg: They made it for 25. They made plane for 25, $25 million, which gives me so much hope in the world. And then great bad movies can be made for the rest of time. Yes, but it does look pretty cheap at times, especially like, you know, the digital shots when the plane is flying through the storm or whatever. It’s pretty rough.
Greg: Yeah. So that’s trouble. Another trouble is there’s some times where it looks so, so digital in a way that at times is on purpose, like in a movie like Michael Mann’s Collateral film on a digital camera. It’s fine in this movie, it’s sometimes it’s like, oh, was on an iPhone. What’s happening here? And so that was trouble.
Greg: The luckily the performance is really lifted. But also whoever did the color correction on this movie, it’s very dull. I would agree with that. And so the movie looks cheap at times. When it didn’t need to be a little disappointing at times with the way it looks, I’m just lowering the bar even further. Yeah. When you watch it, you’re going to like it.
Greg: But it does look a little cheap at times. Anyways, those are my pushbacks. Hey, before we move on, should we talk a little bit about the reception of this movie? Yeah, okay. Cost $25 million globally. This movie made I think it was $75 million. That’s the money I don’t have. The exact number in front of me is around 75 million.
Greg: So a profitable movie. Immediately a sequel was greenlit. So we’ve got that going for us. Wait, yeah. What do you think the critic’s tomato rating is for this movie? Joe, knowing when it came out, expectations are low for a movie. Was Gerard Butler named plane? I feel like it’s going to be high. We already kind of mentioned it, but it’s probably 70% feels like a 70, feels like it’s 70, 79%.
Greg: It’s one of those movies you’re watching. I’m like, oh, they’re really going for it. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Like there’s some movies were like, oh, they’re just it’s a paycheck. They’re phoning it in. Right. This is especially Dry Butler. They’re committed. Oh they’re in saves it. Yeah. This movie should have been horrible. All the performances really good.
Greg: Yeah I think it’s a 79. It feels like a 70. I am totally fine. This movie is totally fine with 79. Yeah. The audience score only has a thousand ratings. So this can be a high hyperbolic number 94%. Oh that’s too high. Too high. It’s too high for them. Can miss. But I love this movie. But yeah, this is not an a movie.
Greg: This isn’t Goodfellas. This is. I’m totally fine with a 70 on this movie. Yeah, yeah, I guess people in critics are different, but we don’t have movies like this in January. Tipping. No, I mean, this definitely is, if you’re what you’re expecting and what you get are totally different. Yeah, sure, sure. I butler movie playing. Yeah. You’re expectations are so low and it comes in way above that.
Greg: Like to me it’s definitely it’s a better movie than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. And even from watching the the trailer of this when it came out, I remember we, I think we even watched it together like this movie. Yeah. Perfect in every way. Yeah, yeah. You know, but I was expecting a little bit more of like a nod to the camera and like, kind of like, oh, we know we’re making a B movie, right?
Greg: And nobody on this from the director to the writers, anybody is like thinking that they’re making a B movie or like, you know, A C and D or whatever on that just feels like they’re like, we’re making a great movie. Mike Colter gave an interview while they were making this movie, and he said, it’s it’s an action movie that cares more about the interiority of the characters than it does the action.
Greg: And that was a great focus to have while they’re making this movie. The action is still pretty good, you know. But the character’s getting good. Yeah. Pretty. Yeah Gerard Butler is doing pretty well. Yeah I mean not a perfect score but man he’s holding it. Yeah. It’s he’s saving it the whole time. All right. So let’s talk about what some critics said about this movie.
Greg: Soren Andersen and The Seattle Times said there’s nothing special about any of this, but as a generic thriller machine, planes certainly delivers the goods. I would agree with that. Yeah, yeah, I honestly put my hands in the air after I watched this movie and said, we can have great bad movies, you know? Yeah, the state of the great Bad Movie Union is thriving.
Greg: Yeah. Amy Nicholson, one of my favorite reviewers said, reminded me of a picture of a beautifully drawn horse that turned into a stick figure by the end. She did not like this movie. I mean, Adam Neyman from The Ringer said the gloriously named plain. I mean, you have to recognize it. Yeah, yeah. The gloriously named plane is yet another action movie that showcases the actor’s talents and proof that they don’t just make them like this anymore.
Greg: My very favorite review of this movie came from the paper of record. The New York Times Glenn Kenney said, this is a pacey item, which could be a name for this show. Pacey items.
Greg: Formulaic. Bish boss aka aka Pacey items. This is a pacey item that can be recommended on the grounds that it’s a January release that’s not even close to awful.
Greg: Nailed it. Perfect review. Thank you. Glen Kenny. All right, Joe, should we get to drinking games? Yes. Oh, I’m dying to hear some of your drinking games on this. Okay, so we’ll go through our stock drinking games again. Could be alcohol. Could be water. It could be coffee. Yeah. Soda. What, are we watching this at work? Yeah, I want a drink.
Greg: Play work. Exactly. It could be a smoothie. So do we have a silent helicopter or low flying helicopter in this? We don’t waste opportunity. But it is plane. Not helicopter. Sure. Well, we’ll forgive it there. Future sequels? Yes, many do. We have a push in and enhance. We don’t. Oh, see, I gave it because they have zooming in on the island.
Greg: Oh, are the set of islands and it could be satellite footage. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I kind of have that push in, but not in hands. Yeah okay. Okay. Yep. Okay. So satellite footage. Take a drink. Yes. Thank you. Great. We don’t have an explosion with silent suffering in the air, but we do have the ringing in the ears moment from the baggage.
Greg: Yeah, from the baggage claim that jars him a little bit. The baggage claim? Yeah. Are the baggage. What is that call bin? I don’t know, overhead baggage. Yeah. As the opening credits scene lock into place with the sound, I don’t remember. Do you? It does. It doesn’t really lock into place. The plane comes up. Yeah. I didn’t think it was, but then a plane engine revving up comes in so perfect.
Greg: Okay, so take a drink when playing the title. Exactly. The whole party. Let’s just be honest. You’re starting strong. The whole party takes a drink at that moment, okay? It does not. Flash back to dialog two minutes ago. We do have a lot of CGI close calls, as we like to call that. Sure. What are they? I kind of just have it when it’s bad.
Greg: CGI is kind of my like when I notice the CGI. Sure. So like the plane in the storm. Okay, okay. Yeah, it’s a little rough in spots. Yeah. I don’t show the outside of the plane. Keep it inside this room. They really went all in on some of the blood splatter. You know, where it’s like, oh, it’s a little jarring.
Greg: A little bit much. Yeah, yeah. And then great bad shots everywhere. Everywhere. Oh my gosh. No. Inextricably wide streets. No. But it was filmed in Puerto Rico. So you know storms came through while they were filming it. Yeah. So that’s explicable. Yeah. That’s explicable clearly when the same thing would happened in the Philippines I’m sure we do not have give us the room.
Greg: I feel like missed opportunity could have happened in the Situation room. I think we should replace that one with your lawyers. Should give us the room. Right? Yeah. I think you should leave if you’re a lawyer. Yes and no reference to Interpol. Right. All right. I will toss you Greg’s fine heart. What is one of your drinking games?
Greg: Any time they talk about the weather as I think I have that one, too. So, you know, there’s. They talk about the storm. There’s lightning. Any time they talk about the weather. Yeah. Take a drink. Yeah, I have that one too. Yeah, I have every time they show pictures of loved ones. Oh, nice. I could take that one.
Greg: Yeah. Any time they say transponder. Oh, that’s a good one. We were very concerned about the transponder and whether it was working in this movie. And so any time they mention that, take a drink. Yeah, I do like a black box as everyone talks about, for some reason, they could not find it, even though that is supposed to never.
Greg: You always can find that because it’s got its like its own power supply. Oh, and they’re just on an island where you could see where the black box is. Wait, who’s looking for the black box? There was a conversation that they had when they first landed about the black box. Interesting. Because, like, he and the copilot are talking about it.
Greg: Yeah, yeah, but there should never be a worry about that, because it’s okay. You can always hear the beacon of a black box. Yeah. No, it just occurred to me, speaking of black box and things that are always on planes. Are we done with air marshals? Was there no air marshal on this plane? I don’t think so. Yeah, maybe from Singapore or, from.
Greg: Yeah. We were flying from Singapore, right? Yeah, maybe from Singapore. There’s no air marshal. Yeah. Black box would also been a better name for this movie. Oh, my gosh, you kidding me? That’s amazing. Any time the camera rises above the plane, take a drink. That’s a pretty good one. It’s like 3 or 4 times. Yeah that’s pretty good one.
Greg: I have every time they use a handheld camera take a drink. Oh because there’s a, some of the action scenes are definitely on a handheld. Oh sure. Really I love a handheld. Like a dislike. Yeah. Puts you right in the middle feels jarring and. Yeah. Yeah. So any time they say Jolo I have it. Anytime they say the word plane.
Greg: Oh my gosh, I have any time they say YOLO. I also have every time I say trailblazer. Oh, perfect. That’s a good one. Anytime. Mike Colter laughs I say laugh in this movie. I feel like I like he laughs a few times. Okay, what’s.
Joe: In a bit of a mess here?
Greg: I have every time there’s exposition crammed into a scene. Take a drink. Yeah. So basically you’re drinking through the first 5 to 10 minutes of this movie and then a few other moments. Yeah. Starting strong. Yeah. Starting strong. One of the contractors was named Shellback. And they say Shellback quite a bit in this movie. It’s a little bit like Casey Ryback and Under Siege.
Greg: So anytime they say show back, take a drink, guys. Any time there’s a reference to Scottish things, take a drink. What is this reference to the Scottish things? Gerard Butler talks about being Scottish in the unnecessary exposition as he talks about haggis, talks about being Scottish. And there’s like one other thing he mentions in there about actually, okay, my last one is any time they say avionics and my last one is every time Gerard Butler gets hurt in this movie.
Greg: So that’s one that’s a really good one because it’s throughout the movie you’re drinking. Yeah. All right Joe, let’s move on to Joe’s trope lightning round aka signs. You are watching a great Batman. Yeah. So I’ve added two new ones. Actually three new ones now because this just kind of grows and grows. I don’t know if this movie has it, but I’m adding this new one.
Greg: Anytime that someone is looking for keys and they just randomly find them in a very simple spot like they’re in the like, sun visor, and the car is not a thing that happened. I don’t think it happened in this one, but that’s it popped into my head. There’s like, where did the keys come from in the van at the airport?
Greg: Or that they drove back, right. But that’s just like such a trope of, you know, keys just kind of being randomly in the car where the sun visor. Yeah. Yeah. That’s funny. I thought of that too. I have the person who is about to shoot the good guy gets shot. Yeah. Then we have some color filters. I kind of gave this one.
Greg: This is like, yeah, we talked about some of the this is not the prettiest film, but they don’t pretty desaturated desaturated. It’s a choice. Yeah. We have the honorable man trope, which is a new trope. Kind of have the Odd Couple or an unlikely partnership within it. Sure, we do have a friend colleague, usually a person of color who dies early in the film.
Greg: So both the flight attendant and the marshal who’s taking right hand back. Yeah, I yeah, of people of color. And there’s both people who are shot by the bad guys are people of color. We have a duffle bag full of guns. We have a duffle bag full of money. We have amazing recovery time on our good guys, especially Gerard Butler.
Greg: Yeah, this one I half way there. We do show picture of home. Yeah. They don’t actually die all shooter where they’re showing the picture of home to death. But we do have them showing a lot of pictures of home. So those are trope lightning round. Or you might be watching a great bad movie if a lot of signs a lot of you might be watching a great movie in this case.
Greg: All right Joe, are you ready to answer some very important questions. So ready. All right, let’s do this. Question number one. Did it hold up in January 2023. Did it hold up then I think it held up then. Yes it did. Yeah. Does it hold up now. Yeah it does. Yeah. Yeah I mean this thing has lasted upwards of two almost two years.
Greg: Yeah it’s amazing. Nice work playing. How hard do they sell the good guy in this movie through exposition or dialog. Pretty hard. They do. Yeah. How do they sell the good guy? I feel like because he’s like, nice. The crew reacts to him nicely. Then there’s also a scene in the Situation Room where they’re like, give me all the information on this.
Greg: Yeah, person. And then it’s Gerard Butler, like putting a sleeper hold on an unruly rich passenger. And then Tony Goldwyn goes, oh, I like this guy. This guy. Yeah.
Joe: Like I like this guy.
Greg: Yeah. All the by itself. A good guy.
Greg: How hard do they sell the bad guy? That’s who. Jen Meyer? Very hard. No, I think they do. Really? All right. Yeah. I think people describe how he runs the place, and. And he’s going to kill me. Like, when, Mike Colter and Gerard Butler are talking to the two guys that are left behind. Oh, look through the pain stuff.
Greg: Yeah. One of the guys is like, if I tell you anything about them, that’s who’s going to kill me. Yeah, That’s true. So a little bit a little bit, Joe. Next question. Why is there romance in this movie? Glorious. There’s no romance in this movie. You think there might be a little bit, but Bonnie and him. No, no, they don’t go there.
Greg: No, I appreciated that. It’s a brand new day. Yeah. Great. Bad movies. We don’t need a romantic. Yeah, we don’t need romance. Joe’s guy. Tucker’s life. Yeah. Was that the match? Yeah. That’s right. Okay. Are we bad people for loving this movie? I mean, perhaps, but I think it’s more than price. Yeah, yeah.
Greg: Next question. Does plane deserve a sequel? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Do you want to hear about the sequel? Yes, desperately. Okay. What do you think the sequel is? Let’s talk about that for a second. I mean, if I’m doing it the second time around, he’s taking his family on vacation. Gerard Butler Gerard Butler. Okay, I’m on vacation. Okay.
Greg: And is flying the plane in, and it gets hijacked. That’s my guess. Okay, okay. Well, the good news is it’s 2024 and this isn’t a die hard two scenario. How can the same thing happen the same guy twice? Yeah. We continue the story with Mike Colter. Oh, I like that even more. Who did not leave the island.
Greg: So Mike Colter has the bag of cash and he like sneaks on a ship to leave the island. And then I don’t know if I have to tell you this but shenanigans happen on the, on the ship. Guess what this movie’s called. The boat. Ship.
Greg: And it’s probably done filming. Okay. They got to work on this one I think last year. All right. So ship has been filmed and there was some information about it on Black Film and TV.com. In Ship Gas discovers that the ocean vessel that he’s on is being used to transport human traffickers. He teams up with the ship’s second mate and the passenger with military experience to take down the captain, save the passengers, and free the captives.
Greg: So it’s, Mike Colter sequel, right? It’s not a it’s all right. It’s not a Gerard Butler sequel. I’m interested expectations and low because his name ship come on. But it’s going to be awesome. Well I like the your expectations are low I take us back. Yeah. The expectations are about the same as when you probably started watching plane.
Greg: Yeah I me a notch higher but maybe a not tired. Yeah but Mike Colter oh my man yeah totally. Okay. Next very important question okay. Doesn’t deserve a prequel. I would allow a mike Colter prequel. Yeah. Of his time in the French Foreign Legion. Oh, okay. Well, or the contractors. And that’s like a separate movie, but I would that I would take a mike Colter.
Greg: Yeah. I don’t feel like there’s any way you could do a Gerard Butler prequel of this. Have it be an action movie. The way they set it up. Sure, sure, you can write anything and go from there, but under very specific circumstances, yeah, I will allow a prequel, which is basically a standalone movie. That’s really amazing. I didn’t think you were gonna say that.
Greg: You’re very anti prequel. Yes. So this is a big moment. It’s a big moment. I very rarely start the movie. Start the timeline where you want to start the timeline. Don’t take me back and forth. It’s I already know how it ends. And I’m gonna. Then I’m out. Sure. My answer to this is 100%. It should have a prequel.
Greg: In fact, it needs two prequels, one in the form of a TV show. Okay. And one in the form of the movie. The TV show starts with 18 year old Mike Coulter’s character being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s the pilot episode. Okay, I don’t know how many seasons this go. Let’s say 407. Okay.
Greg: Wow. The end of the final episode of the final season, he has been discovered and he is boarding the plane. All right, he’s boarding the plane for this movie. And that’s the end of the show. Okay, so we get 407 seasons, and then the movie prequel is the story behind Gerard Butler’s green shirt. I gotta know what adventure this shirt went through.
Greg: Was this someone else? This was like a friend of his shirts. Yeah. He doesn’t seem to be experienced in action. Like his just shirt that he wears to bed every night. It’s like it needs to feel close and like, calm or like, you know, this is much like Jerry Seinfeld’s, you know, when you’re rooting for teams, the players are coming from all over the place, in fact, from other teams.
Greg: You’re not rooting for players, you’re rooting for clothing. I want to know the history of this clothing. It doesn’t necessarily need to be tried. But yeah okay. This is a pretty big one Joe. How can this movie be fixed. And also who should be in the remake if we’re going to remake it? We have trouble answering these two questions apart, so let’s group them together.
Greg: How can this movie be fixed and who should be in the remake? Okay, here’s my parameters. Yeah, give me in their prime Bruce Willis. And Sylvester Stallone I’m up for Die Hard three a cliffhanger. That is how you make this better. So it’s a completely different movie. The completely different movie. What is the plot of Die Hard three?
Greg: The cliffhanger. It’s the same like plane crash okay. Die hard in a thing, but it’s like, hey, die Hard on a mountain. Okay? The cliffhanger, as they have Sylvester Stallone as Gabe, world’s fastest climber. Sure. And who’s the pilot of the plane? I’ll throw Gerard Butler in there. Okay, great. So two of the passengers are Bruce Willis and Game.
Greg: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And the three of them. Whatever. Whatever shenanigans need to happen from there. Okay. Okay. So I love it. What about you and there okay. So I think if you’re going to remake this movie we’re going to need some better effects. I think if you remake this movie we’re gonna need some better coloring. It’s a very I’m a you know this is coming from a graphic designer I think this movie looks cheap at times.
Greg: The lighting in the lenses and the cameras. Yeah I think we need a different cinematographer. I hate being a hater like this. But I think we need the bar is raised so high with the performances and so much about this movie. I think if you fix those three things, perfect movie. Yeah, in every way. But if we’re going to remake it, I think we replace all of the passengers that are on the plane.
Greg: They were the weakest link for me. Yeah, I agree, and so I think we should replace all of them with the cast of The Family Guy as cartoon characters. Okay. So the passengers are all now the cast of family Guy on a vacation. Okay. They’ve had a good run for 25 years. Yeah. It’s time for them to get on Gerard Butler’s plane.
Greg: Yeah. Who knows what the cast of family Guy was doing in Singapore, but, we need to swap out the command center of trailblazer with a full fledged government situation room. This is no longer a corporate headquarters. This is a government. Okay? We need generals in there. We need off brand departments. From the government with names like tea sat and fluoride.
Greg: And while we never see the president, somebody definitely needs to pick up a phone at some point and says I need you to wake up the president. And as we’re remaking this I think just more Mike Colter. I love that we’re getting a sequel with him. And maybe that’s what they were trying to set up the whole time.
Greg: That said this movie has 15% too little Mike Colter. Agreed. All right Joe very important next question here. What album is the movie playing. So this is an album that I had low expectations of based on genre and, who it was and where it was and then, but also kind of blew me away and was way better than I anticipated.
Greg: So this is Olivia Rodrigo’s, first album, sour, which has driver’s license on it, which is a great song. Yeah. And that song was everywhere. And then I got the album because I’m not a big single fan. Like, I liked it to see if and the album is really good friends, surprisingly deep and has self-referential and also doesn’t take us up too seriously in moments.
Greg: And our second album actually carries through on a lot of that. So that’s my album, I love it. That’s a great choice. All right, Greg, sweetheart, what album is this for you? Okay, so playing the movie is what it is, and I think it’s glorious. But you’re either on board with it or you aren’t. Yeah. Okay.
Greg: I was thinking about this from the angle of it’s a played out premise. Maybe it’s timeless. Yeah. I mean it’s at this point, at this point it’s pretty timeless for me. It’s a play that premise. But it’s somehow it works incredibly well. And it does that by leaning into where they are, you know like Die Hard.
Greg: They’re in the building. Yeah. This movie you know, they’re on the island. And I’m surprised we haven’t mentioned the show lost on this or survivor because this, that basically doesn’t give you a minute to think about those things. So anyway, the tension comes from leaning into where it is. They’re on the plane, they’re on the island. So this is going to be a super random poll.
Greg: But in 1998, Willie Nelson set up to record a record inside a theater in Oxnard, California, and they recorded the album exclusively. Inside this theater, he set up with his band and the producer, Daniel Lanois. And you know, if you’re going to be dancing royalty, by the way. Right? And he’s someone who knows how to really get the most atmosphere out of a place as possible.
Greg: So, oh my gosh, we’re going to a theater with Daniel and what that is the best case scenario. You know, U2 recorded with Daniel and Juan Bryan, you know, in Slane Castle, you know, so I mean, like, he goes to places and records things. Okay. So they go to this theater. It’s called the Teatro Theater. This album is called Teatro Nice, and it’s incredible.
Greg: There’s a lot of good things in this album, but the thing that I love the most about it is that when you can tell where they are, it really, really sings. And so the way Daniel Lanois captures it is just incredible. And something I didn’t know about this album is while they were recording it. This is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Greg: While they were recording it, them vendors director vim vendors was there to make a documentary about them recording it, much like he did with the Buena Vista Social Club. Wow. I had no idea. It’s 2024. I had no idea this was the case. So I’m so excited to look into this. And also, our beloved Seattle label, light in the attic rereleased this album in 2017 with seven extra songs and that documentary film.
Greg: So I’m going to go down to the light in the attic store, which is in the Nxpi building in Seattle, and pick this up like, right now. I have to go. I’m gonna go pick up this album right now. So I think that plane is what it is because of the location, and that made me think that the album for this movie is theatrical by Willie Nelson.
Greg: Awesome. Probably a better album than this movie is, but we won’t get into that. Debatable, right. Wow.
Greg: All right. The final most important question. Just Guy Tucker. We need to rate this movie now. We rate movies as a great bad movie a good bad movie an okay bad movie, bad bad movie. Worst case scenario, which we’ve never had to break the glass and write a movie. An awful bad movie, thankfully. How do you rate 2023 is plain?
Greg: So as always, as we have talked about it, my enjoyment of this has gone up. I was on the cusp of okay, bad movie, the good bad movie. I have now been talked into a good bad movie on the cusp of great bad movie. I still think it’s a good, bad movie. I’m hoping they fix some of the things and ship to push it.
Greg: The great bad movie. But this is a good, bad movie. A really good, bad movie. Like, I could be convinced that it’s a great bad movie, sure, but for me, it’s a good, bad movie. What about you? Can I ask you to justify your rating a little bit? What needs to be fixed? I feel like a little bit of the stilted ness and some of the dialog, picking a lane.
Greg: Is it, is it a die hard on an island? Is it a disaster movie? It kind of tries to thread the needle and sometimes unsuccessfully. And that’s where I kind of give it, the good rating. And it’s right on the cusp. It’s like, right there, but I just can’t push it now. I push student as a great bad movie so you can say what you want about my my rating systems, right?
Greg: I would say if I’m I enjoyed shooter more for its ridiculousness where this movie is, is a better movie probably than shooter. But as far as like outrageous premise, it just kind of keeps spiraling even more and more. And that’s where I am too. Me. I’m at my most enjoyment with these movies is when they’re just so ridiculous.
Greg: You just you can’t even with it. Like there’s no logic to it. Could this movie be fixed with Marky Mark 100%?
Greg: He’s either The Fugitive or the pilot. I’m good either way. Maybe he’s both. Yeah, I, I think he should have been. And they’re twins. Okay, now it’s a great bad movie. Well. Oh, my breath acting alone. Breath. Yeah. It totally. You know, it’s weird. As usually as we talk about these things. I like a movie more, but hearing you talk about it like I went into this, like, this is obviously a great bad movie in in my notes, great bad movie.
Greg: I also feel like we need to celebrate this scale a little bit more. Yeah, and I’m pretty easily convinced that this could be a good bad movie. So yeah, for the things that I feel like should have been sex in this movie, I can’t believe I’m oh my gosh this is like I, I’m as nervous as when we said Tony Scott was a better director than Ridley Scott.
Greg: Wow. We’re going to get shot.
Greg: I’m going to agree with you. This is a good, bad movie. Wow, I that is a weird direction for me to take. That is the opposite of what I thought you would be all in as well. Throughout this conversation. I but yeah, for sure, like the movie, I thought it was a moment of a few moments of like, I could totally go great bad movie.
Greg: And if I probably watched it again, or if we watched it right now, I’d be like, great, this is a great buy me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, well, I want to live in a world where I can still love a good, bad movie. You know, an okay bad movie has some has more caveats than than I would.
Greg: Yeah. And, I mean, our scale goes way down. Yeah. So I’m going to say. Yeah, good bad movie if it’s on the cusp. Yeah. You’re watching it. I got to watch this movie every time. I love this movie. Yeah, I can love a good, bad movie. Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with that. Okay. So is something I’m pretty adamant about is if we’re going to talk about a movie on this podcast, it has to be great.
Greg: So many people assume that we’re talking about bad movies. No, no, we’re talking about great movies. This is a great movie. On our scale I’m giving it a good, bad movie because I can think of some great bad movies that are better than this one. That said, this is one of the best movies of 2023, is one of my best experiences, not only in the theater, but the two times I’ve watched it in this room.
Greg: You know, that we’re sitting in in the last week, so. Wow. I’m surprised. Yeah. Controversial ending to this episode of plain good, bad movie. That said, I love it. Yeah, I love it. I love that it happened. It was 83 more plays. Yes. Thank you. And yeah, I keep making the titles as dumb as possible as well.
Greg: Maybe we should talk about ship the week it comes out. Oh, that’ll be awesome. That’s the order for us. Yeah. All right, Joe, we made it. We nailed it. We had the conversation that needed to be had about planes. Listen, you’ve had an almost two years planet Earth to talk about this movie, but I think we put a lid on it.
Greg: Yeah, we had the conversation. Yeah. That needed to be had about this movie. No one else should even really talk about this movie. There’s just point to this podcast and say they nailed it. Absolutely. And I mean, we should say, as always, spoilers for plane. Yeah. Well it’s for plane. If you don’t want to know what happens in this movie you should probably press pause.
Greg: Right here. Yeah. Watch the movie and then come back and listen to the rest of the episode. Yeah. Yeah okay. Oh my gosh I just noticed the time. Listen, this has been great, but, I need to go. I never thought that I would have to say this, but I need to prepare to ditch. That’s. That’s okay. I’ve got gotta go.
Greg: I’m going to rename the movie speed. I’m thinking bus.
Greg: Yeah, I mean, we’ve seen the plane. Have we seen the bus? Yeah. There’s got to be some sort of transit for that. To get the plane. Okay, well, that works for me because, you know, I, I didn’t want to say anything, but I don’t think the gas actually drained from the right engine. So we are sitting in a stick of dynamite, right now.
Greg: That’s dangerous. We got to get out of here. Yeah. Anyway, I’m running late. Anyway, I’m going to go give some strangers much more information about me than they need in a really short amount of time. I’ll see how that goes, sir. I’m sure it’s gonna go well. Yeah, and you know what? To be honest, I’ve been taking this episode minute by minute, and we ran out of minutes a long time ago.
Greg: So many, so long ago. So I should go. Yeah. Anyway, I’ve got to go get my family. Do you want to look at a real picture of them? Even though I have a million pictures on my phone. You know, it’s been folded up in my wallet, but that’s not. That’s okay. Sure, sure. That sounds great. And actually, I didn’t want to mention this, but we lost avionics a long time ago, so I’m not even sure we should still be recording this thing.
Greg: Probably not. We should call somebody thinking of making a call. I’m going to call a multinational corporation. Just their main one one 800 number. Sure. I hope it gets through, though. I hope they put my call through this. Well, you’re just another one of those crank calls. Yeah, probably they get super defensive about. Yeah. All right, well, listen, I mean, let’s just call it what it is.
Greg: This has been great. Yeah. But that being said, there’s an island about 50 miles south of here called CAC. And I kind of want to hop in the plane and go see if it’s even better. Yeah. So makes sense. So I should go I. Right. That’s good. See you soon. All right. I’ll see you soon.