‘Apollo 13’ With Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Rob Mahoney

22:33I would have put that third. No, Color of Money first. I would have put that third. Okay, sure. I would have started with Far and Away as like an appetizer. Yeah. Collateral second. Days of Thunder last. I'm blanking on what the fourth movie was. Wow, putting Far and Away third is just aggressive. Were you doing yoga in between the movies? How are you staying loose? It's just my natural state. Just walking in.

22:52Bill Simmons:Honestly, this sounds like a great day. Now I really need to know what movie four was. I got to peg it down. I got to figure out what it was. Probably the Firm or Few Good Men is crammed in there. I feel like there were no obvious ones. It was cocktail. Oh my God, how are you not there? Because they gave us customized cocktail shakers as a little party favor for this movie. Wow. It was incredible. So Far and Away in the paper is before Apollo. Yeah. Are you a paper guy? Sierra and I have discussed it a lot. It's not good. I want to like it. I really want to like it. I like everything about it except the movie itself.

23:23You know?

23:24Bill Simmons:Do you get flipping around amnesia where you're like, the paper. Maybe I need one more chance. And then it's like, oh yeah, no, this is. It just doesn't. It just never gets there. And it's really dated. Can we just say the theme of a lot of this, which is I wanted it to work as kind of the Ron Howard story 80 % of the time. Until Apollo 13. he kept like taking these big swings at lots of people and finally hit with this and it's weird because I think my single favorite Ron Howard movie is Rush Rush is pretty good it was pretty good I really thought I thought that was such a well done awesome well acted everything but that and this and Night Shift are probably my favorite what are your three?

24:05I don't know that there are three to be honest with you he's not one of my guys which makes this feel aberrational but he was born to direct exactly this movie What do you think? Parenthood, Apollo 13, and Rush, probably. I mean, I did also like Rush and the Chris Hemsworth performance, but this is on its own pedestal. This is singular. Beautiful Mind? That was a movie I weirdly watched a ton when I was like 12. It's really good. You only want to watch it once. It might be in the three by default, but I don't love it. It's a very sincere, old, early aughts kind of movie. Yeah.

24:37Bill Simmons:I actually really like Frost Nixon. I thought that was good. Oh, yeah. That would be probably my number five. Oh, okay. I like Frost Nixon. That's okay. Kevin Bacon? Yes. Always yes. Is Kevin Bacon a Hall of Famer? Of course he is. Tremors alone. How dare you? Is he a Hall of Famer? He's not a Hall of Famer. So like how Michael Cooper's a Hall of Famer? Why do men say this? Why do men not respect Kevin Bacon? I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. Okay, this is also an issue. I like Kevin Bacon. I'm just provoking conversations. It sounds like you don't. River Wild. I have a bunch of - Apollo 13.

25:10Bill Simmons:Animal House Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, JFK, Few Good Men, River Wild, Apollo 13, Sleepers, Mystic River, Frost, Nixon, Crazy Stupid Love. Sure sounds like that. And I didn't mention 70 other movies. Yeah. I think he's in, but I don't think he gets in on the first ballot. And I think people are upset, and they're like, he didn't get in. Oh, my God, he didn't get 75 % of the vote. And then the next ballot, he gets like 77 and gets in. I think that actually sounds right. I think he's deserving. But maybe it's not obvious to everybody. So what's the single best Kevin Bacon performance? because I don't think it's this.

25:42Bill Simmons:Is it The River Wild? It's pretty good in The River Wild. He's really good. I re-watched it a while ago. Meryl crushes in that. Doing so much raping. Is it not actually Footloose? I think it's actually Footloose. Very good in that. Like the physical performance is a part of performance. I really honestly think it's A Few Good Men. Captain Jack Ross? I think Smiling Jack Ross is… He just is… Every moment he's great in it. I also… It's a terrible movie but one of the rom-coms… What was the one he made with Aniston? Picture Perfect? No. He's like the cad. I like when he's a cad. He's a good cad. He's like the bad guy that you don't want our rom-com heroine to fall in love with and then she ends up picking somebody else.

26:19Bill Simmons:I think it was picture perfect but I always like when he's a dick. I don't feel like he's been a dick enough. I mean he's been a dick. He's been a pedophile. He's been lots of things in many movies. The range is what I'm saying. Yeah. In this one, he's a 60s bachelor which is one of my favorites. It's usually like scenes like that where there's some it's the opening scene some goofy 60s house and him flirting with somebody who has some crazy hairdo and being like here's a beer and it's like oh this guy okay and then he's pictured in the shower with another woman you know and they don't they don't really comment on it that much you just you don't know it could be the same woman we don't see her actually we do see her it is definitely a different woman it's a different woman both very beautiful good for him new woman in every port high approval rating in general for Kevin Bacon and then Bill Paxton who I think has like close to 100%.

27:09Bill Simmons:Yeah. And this is the Apollo, Twister, Titanic threesome for Bill Paxton. Vaulting him to perfect. Tremendous. Folder level. Culminating with him having to listen to the old lady. Tell me more about the necklace. Everyone's favorite part of Titanic. Some of the worst scenes ever filmed for a classic movie. And then what happened? So you dated this guy for nine months and you still talk about him 60 years later, but you had a whole family with this other guy? Nine months? It was like three days. Oh, yeah. No, it was, yeah, two days. Yeah. Yeah, two days. Nine hours. How long was the Titanic voyage?

27:51Nine hours. Well, yeah. Very short.

27:55Bill Simmons:Would Zach and your children take that personally if like on your deathbed, you're like, yeah, this guy in my early 20s in New York and that was it. You just talked about him the whole day? Because I would be furious if that was my wife. Y 'all have clearly never been painted like a French girl before. It's a life-changing experience. I honestly hope they'd be mad that I got rid of the necklace. You know? I would hope that they… See, you're too smart. You'd keep the necklace. Yeah, of course. You'd take care of future generations. Bill Paxton, everybody loves him. The closest here to weird science, Bill Paxton, because he's got the crew cut and kind of the goofy whatever.

28:30Doing math.

28:31Bill Simmons:But then more importantly, we have the overqualified sidekicks, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise. Yeah. Gare Steen's coming off Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan, gets to be reunited with Hanks. And then Ed Harris, who's just like, I'm stealing every moment I'm in this movie. You're going to remember me. He's unreal. Is there a better guy at being in a control room? No. Than Ed Harris. Between this and Truman Show, like that's as good as it gets. It's, I mean, it's an all-time performance. It did make you think like, if Ed Harris was an NFL head coach, just on the sideline with the headset, but knew nothing that was going on, but they just would cut to him and he looked like Ed Harris.

29:08Bill Simmons:I'd feel like we were going 12 and 5. Can we replace Ed Harris just for Mike McCarthy? Mike McCarthy can still call the plays but I just want to see Ed Harris doing it. Ed Harris is just like smoking cigarettes and just looking out in the field. You feel like you're at least in the second round. Sinise has the better part though. It's a great part. It's a great character. Ed Harris is just making nothing out of basically just them cutting to him and him being intense. But Sinise is like doing some stuff here. and it's like the most likable Sinise I think because deep down I always feel like Sinise is the ransom guy just like the dark side or like Lieutenant Dan after he loses his legs where he's like on a bender well to your point about how the movie doesn't actually have anyone say the themes and what it's about a lot of the acting is just people reacting and sitting there silently like they've gotten really bad news which many of these characters do throughout the course of this movie.

30:06But that scene when it's, when Hanks, when Jim Lovell tells him that he's not getting. It was my call. Yeah, it was my call. Most of that scene is them just sitting in chairs like this staring at each other. And you feel everything. It is great acting, but it is just people looking at each other being like, okay. It must have been a hard decision. Okay.

30:25Bill Simmons:It's great acting. Kate does the, like the split second pause. Yeah. Must have been a hard decision. And just kind of stares him down and you're like, it's so restrained. But like, for that part, you don't need to do a lot. Like the perfectionist who got benched and is trying to be a good sport and feels guilty because he wasn't on the flight, but then gets to try to save his friends and also feels guilty for feeling relieved that he's not on it. It's in there a couple other times too. There's so much there. He's like, I wish you could see it. And he's like, I bet you do. And it's like, he's still a little pissed.

30:57Bill Simmons:And then your favorite of this movie, Kathleen Quinlan. If they have a problem with that, They can take it up with my husband. He'll be home on Friday. Listen, she gilds the lily from time to time. That's the one. That's the one. Everything else I'm going to say okay with. But also I have it memorized. Yes. She, that talk about a nothing part. Yeah. Which she turns into, I often, every time I'm washing my hands. I think she's great. She got nominated for an Oscar. She's really good in this. Every time I'm washing my hands, I think about the ring going down the drain. And like the panic of losing a ring.

31:32And I think she's really good with the grandmother. And, you know, who I believe is Mrs. Howard. Ron Howard's mom.

31:43Bill Simmons:Yeah. No, she doesn't let it go too big too often. This is a classic terrible actress part that she makes a good part. Yes. And has really good reactions, especially when the end, when they don't know if they've survived the three minutes. Oh, my God. And she's just like. watching TV it's like you really think like her husband's potentially mom you're squeezing me and she's like I'm sorry yeah yeah and then when he makes it like she's really really good I've always liked her I always thought she should have had a better career the scene with her and Hanks the night before the launch when she's not going to come to the launch she comes you know they have great chemistry across the road it's good their chemistry is adorable yeah she has to spend a lot of this movie to your point like listening to radios and watching TVs everything she and Hanks are in together is awesome.

32:32It's so, like, I just wish we got a version of a movie where they were on screen more together sometimes.

32:36Bill Simmons:Not nearly enough smoking from her, though. I just feel like in real life that lady was pounding doors. Yeah, but they are, you know, all the astronauts are former military. Right. So, I guess in 1970, I don't know what that means. But everyone's a little conservative. It's a little straight-laced. Sure. They send the kid to military school. They do. Do you think they gave her the Oscar nomination partly because she had to have that hairdo the entire movie? It's real tough. I mean, What? Can you explain what happened in that two-year span? I don't know. No, I wasn't there. And you were not, you know, sentient.

33:07So I don't know what anyone was thinking.

33:10Bill Simmons:It's the all-time, I don't know what you guys were thinking haircut. It's like a beehive. And I just don't get it. Do you think men at the time were like, that looks great? No, I think we admired the engineering. No, I don't think so. because it reminds me of a scene in the crown. It reminds me of like Queen Elizabeth's haircut, you know, and it's something that you would get done to your hair. And then I guess it is efficient because it doesn't get touched for several weeks, you know? Is that what it is? Yeah, you know, in the shower, she's wearing the shower cap and she has all the pins and everything.

33:46And that's because you don't wash or restyle. You get your hair set. That's what they call it. That's what my grandmother called it. And then you don't go to the salon or touch it for another week or two. but I yeah I don't think that people women were doing it for the to appeal to the opposite really brutal

34:03Bill Simmons:because the 70s everybody figured it out yeah everyone looks great in the 70s yeah I really wanted to do 60s week at the ringer okay where we just all had to dress like characters in the 60s for podcasts but Jeff Chow told me it was too expensive okay also probably illegal I wouldn't recommend it I'm immediately like who am I gonna be why was it too expensive you would have to dress like Kathleen Quinlan in Apollo 13 for an entire week. First of all, that's the 70s. It's 1970. Oh, true. Yeah, so I get a pass on that. I don't want the bad hair. I think Rob would come off great in this. You think so?

34:35Bill Simmons:I do. I mean, the hair is already here. Let's be real. Tall, strapping guy. Screenplay. William Broyles Jr. and Al Reiner. There was a book they got to work on called Lost Moon from Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger. And they wrote it with Costner in mind with that lead part. Assuming Costner would be in it. They lucked out. Yes. And the rest is history. I read that book when I was 12 years old. No documentary footage. to space camp, I'm saying. So, no documentary footage. They filmed everything. Yeah. Howard, like, painstakingly recreated every, even, like, how they walked up, you know, walked upstairs and shit.

35:15Bill Simmons:He studied everything. Really no special effects. Nine Oscar nominations, one for film editing and sound. So, here's, Best Picture. Braveheart wins. Apollo 13, Babe, The Postman, El Pistino, and Sense and Sensibility were our five. Yes. I don't know. Who wins in the 31 Years Later re-Oscars? My heart is torn in two. And this one, this is my own personal Cruise and Hanks, but it's Hanks and Emma Thompson. Oh, there you say Hanks and Mel Gibson. I was like, wow, this is crazy. No, no. The Mary Gibson person. Hank Sinema Thompson. Yeah, I think that sense and sensibility is wonderful, but this should have won.

36:01This is the most 90s, like, historic.

36:03Bill Simmons:There's a lot of Braveheart lovers out there. It's one of the most requested rewatchables. We still haven't done it. I mean, the speech isn't, you know, memorable. You'll never take. The crazier thing is Mel Gibson won for Best Director, and Ron Howard was not nominated. Yeah, that is messed up. And then Best Actor, Nicolas Cage wins for Las Vegas. Yeah. Dick Dreyfuss, Mr. Holland's Opus. Hell yeah. Sure. Did that a while ago. Anthony Hopkins for Nixon. Terrible. Sean Penn, Dead Man Walking Shore. And then Massimo Triosi. Yeah. Il Postino strikes again. So here's the thing. Rob and I, our NBA world, we watch this happen, NBA award season sometimes.

36:47Bill Simmons:When people get tired of voting for somebody. This is just, Hank said won two best actors in a row. and everybody, the Oscar Academy was doing the old, all right, here's some settled down juice, Tom Hanks. We're not nominating you again. This isn't happening. So he does not get nominated should he have been nominated. Can I do my hottest take now? Do it now, yeah. I would trade both Hanks Oscars for one Hanks Apologetic Oscar. I think this performance is incredible. I think it is the best Hanks performance and the essential Hanks performance. The number of - The essential Hanks performance. It communicates everything that has turned Tom Hanks into America's dad, one of our great movie stars, and also this generation's Jimmy Stewart.

37:35There are so many shots that are just of the camera zooming in on his face as he watches Neil Armstrong walk down the stairs onto the moon. Great scene. Or as he listens to, you know, Houston and figures out they don't know how we're going to get home. They don't know what we're going to do. We're not going to the moon. I can't go to the moon. You know, the gentleman, what are your intentions scene? I would like to go home. But that's really the only—

38:05Bill Simmons:We just lost the moon is a tough one. But the rest of it is in his face and in his eyes. And he is communicating ambition and loss and fear and dignity and everything that we like about Tom Hanks. So Armstrong, when he's watching Armstrong land and it hones in on him for a while. It's like 12 seconds. And it's very close. Yeah. You don't actually watch that footage because it's not great quality. You watch him. His face. Even that when Kathleen Quinlan is watching one of his interviews and that story of like a past interview. When he's a fighter pilot. it and he said and he tells the story of like the lights going out and I followed the trail of home I mean the performance that is him trying to you know give some hope and tell you something essential about this character and how he wouldn't he's not going to give up and you got to keep rooting for him and some you know humanity to the Kathleen Quinlan character it's incredible like I This is the best performance.

39:06And Forrest Gump is great. Nobody thinks Forrest Gump. I feel like Forrest Gump gets all the flack. This movie is so much better than Philadelphia. And the performance is better than Philadelphia. It's subtler. But when you think about how much of it rests on his face selling the stakes of what's happening and every incremental change in their situation, I just think he's asked to carry a lot. And Ron Howard trusts it to a degree that's unprecedented then for what we see now in movies, like, I think there's only one moment where they veer into, like, let's show you something we don't need to. And so we get, like, the vision of him stepping on the moon in his, like, dream state.

39:44Other than that, it's all, like, present. Let me just show you the Tom Hanks reaction shot and it works. It's funny.

39:49Bill Simmons:I think Castaway is his best performance. That's okay. Because I think it was, I think it was a harder movie to, he just has to carry it for an hour and 15 by himself. And it's, like, shorthand now for a type of movie star performance, which is just one guy. Everybody is, like we've seen now, we just saw it with The Odyssey. Yeah. Different movies just trying to redo that where it's like, here's our guy. He's going to be on his own now for a while. Well, there are two Hank's Best Actor Oscars so we could trade them both for Apollo 13 and then Cast Away. Easiest trade we've ever made. But I would do a two for one trade.

40:22Bill Simmons:I honestly think he should have at least three. I agree. I think he's one short of where he should be. But, you know, if Philadelphia never happens, he at least gets nominated for this. Yes. I think that was a big piece of this. The lack of the nomination is just disrespectful. This is what happens though. And then some people think Saving Private Ryan's is best performance. Listen. Which is interesting too because it's a little bit older and beaten down Hanks but same stuff. What's your favorite Hanks, Craig? My favorite Hanks? Yeah. Probably none of these movies. It's probably Sleepless in Seattle.

40:54He's also the king of rom-coms

40:56Bill Simmons:you could argue. That's beautiful. Yeah, he's really, really good. I have big number two for me for Hanks. different phase of Hanks, but yeah. Because I thought that was like an impossible performance. I still don't know how he pulled that off because the other person who wanted that movie was De Niro and that movie is one of the worst movies of all time with Robert De Niro. Yeah. Like I just don't know a lot of people who do that. So Best Actor, Spacey wins for Usual Suspects. Ed Harris is nominated. Doesn't win. And then Best Supporting Actress, Quinlan does not win. Mir Cervino Mighty Aphrodite Mighty Aphrodite I get it that's we're fine gets she and I think she presented best picture for this Oscars even though she'd already won I don't know why because that was the YouTube clip I watched $52 million budget made$355 million third highest movie of 1995 can you guess the two top movies Rob Mahoney 95 95 I have no clue.

41:59We've done both. Oh, Toy Story. Was Toy Story not one? Second. Yeah.

42:02Bill Simmons:What was number one in 95? DH with a V. Sure. Die Hard with a Vengeance. Number one all time. Yeah. Yeah. Our guy Roger Ebert. Four stars. That's right. This is a powerful story. One of the year's best films. Told with great clarity and remarkable technical detail. It's about men trying to do a job. doing a better one than anyone could have imagined. Then he says, the buried, I can never say buried. Buried. The buried? Buried. Buried. Is that a Boston thing? It's a Danny Heifetz. We just talked about this today. Danny Heifetz, speech dyslexia. The buried message is this. When we dialed down the space program, we lost something crucial to our vision.

42:45Bill Simmons:When I was a kid, they used to predict that by the year 2000, you'd be able to go to the moon. Nobody ever thought to predict that you'd be able to, but nobody would bother. Raj tough getting a little somber I mean there is a somber quality to this which is why I think I don't go into the reaction that you have of being like this is a little too treacly like it is very sentimental and earnest but they don't get to the moon you know no I don't the way I felt when I saw this movie in 95 I feel completely differently when I watch it now from getting older I'm the same person who watched Hardball this week and got choked up when G-Baby died again, even though I already knew it was going to happen I still can't believe they did that We're going to take a break and we're going to try to figure out the most rewatchable scene This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT Imagine you're running a professional sports team Nice, that would be a dream of mine Imagine the player contract report is due today Not so nice You've got performance notes from the coaching staff You got a salary spreadsheet from your analyst, three rounds of back and forth emails with the agent, and all of it is scattered absolutely everywhere.

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44:45Bill Simmons:This episode is brought to you by Angry Orchard Hard Cider. Halloween's just better with a scary movie and something good to drink. Angry Orchard's limited edition glow-in-the-dark thriller variety pack is the perfect companion. It even includes a mystery flavor can featuring the iconic ghost face from Scream. Don't get angry. Get Orchard this Halloween. Find Angry Orchard in a store near you or visit angryorchard.com. Angry Orchard's Cider Company LLC, angryorchard.com. please drink responsibly. Angry Orchard is a hard cider with other natural flavors. Most rewatchable scene. Everybody watches Neil Armstrong laying on the moon and we get the Hank's face.

45:28Bill Simmons:You mentioned that. Small one, but Jim talking to his son about what happened in the fire. About the door getting stuck. Yeah, the door. It's like a sneaky good scene. It pays off. It's so, so good. So well. Then the kid says later. I know. Was it the door? Just good stuff. This is such a well-constructed movie. And also, you know, it is explaining to you the history of the Apollo 1 mission and also how the spaceship works so that you understand the launch sequences and all this. I mean, it is like basic expository writing, but like done definitely and with emotion. It's a good kid. Sinise gets scrapped from the mission.

46:02Bill Simmons:We talked about that one. Bacon can't pull off. I guess Jack, I call him Kevin Bacon. He can't pull off the test mission. Came in too steep or dead. Flubs it so hard. Let's do it again. the launch where we get Ed Harris. I'm giving Ed Harris the Todd Parker Award for Best Character Entrance. Just comes right in. He's got a dart. He's ready to go. He's pointing around. He's already… Waiting 30 minutes to show us Ed Harris is one of the master strokes. It comes in like Jaws. Everyone watches the takeoff and then we get an abort switch and all kinds of fun stuff. Jack Docking the Apollo 13. Into the little cone area.

46:47Bill Simmons:Get it, Rookie. It's exciting stuff. Get it, Rookie. Houston. We have a problem. All of a sudden, we got oxygen spitting out of the ship. Oh, my God. It's very stressful. And then the moment when they actually Houston, we seem to be leaking something. And then the score, all the noise cuts out, as you said. And it's, you know, it's real bad. And then we get Ron Howard's brother, who is in every Ron Howard movie. and it's usually either awkward or it's like, oh, they really shoehorned him in there and he's got a key part here. Gene, the Odyssey is dying. And he explains that whole thing to him.

47:27For my chair, this is the only option. Or this is our last option.

47:30Bill Simmons:Turns out it wasn't a good option. No. And then we get the we just lost the moon. Poor Hanks. Jim staring at the moon thinking about being on it. I just wrote down for the next one, everyone gets mad at each other? Yeah. Yeah. Which did not happen. Yes. Yeah. It's not happening, but I liked it. It's really good. A little bit of Hollywood drama. It's like, let's have one little moment of friction. But it is more unbelievable that they would not get mad at each other. And way less movie and way less relatable. Howard said he took some shit from the astronaut community about a couple things. And he was just like, look, man, I'm making a movie.

48:09Bill Simmons:Yeah. I got it like a couple times, got a Hollywood up a little bit. the CO2 fix scene. This is the one. I mean, it's me too. Come on. It's so great. I've been waiting my whole life for somebody to be like, you need to fit this into this with nothing but that. Right. I got none of that. The closest I would get is say, like, Bill, when you have me on the pod, you're like, we're doing an NBA mailbag, but you don't get the questions in advance. That's me building the CO2 filter. Yeah. But that's as close as it gets. And yet you love it. I do. I love the rush. I do feel like I think about this scene anytime I'm in a situation where I have a problem I need to solve and I don't have all of the resources that I personally would like to have.

48:50And I'm like, well, I just got to solve it this into this using all of that. And I'm like, if they could do it and they even rip a plastic bag, but they have one left and they make it work so I can do it too.

49:02Bill Simmons:I also, you know, do the zero G and all that stuff where, where, but it's frantic and they're trying to figure it out. And then these guys are just diving through and it's really compelling to watch. This is another, I should have mentioned this earlier, this is a movie that was really, another one really helped out by the TVs. The TVs going wide on the rewatches, this is a big one. This was much harder with the square and less fun to watch. They're going to burn the engine and steer it manually is my next scene. Oh, yeah. Let's fucking go. What are we doing? We're just staring out the window.

49:37It's in the window. that's me sorry you better get your gimbal straight you know like you better come correct with this thing

49:43Bill Simmons:our guy Ken saves the day and then the last one which I think is probably the answer is the atmosphere of re-entry I mean yeah the re-entry it's like one of the best five or six minutes but you need to re-watch everything for it to really hit that I don't know once you have Ed Harris saying with respect I believe it'll be our finest hour and then straight into them you know saying goodbye to each other and then the wait and you know you hit three minutes the 200 pounds of rocks and the countdown from like three minutes to four minutes and the flashing to all the people and it's quiet I mean unbelievable stuff and it's almost real time I cry every time I have never watched this and not cried it's great stuff with all due respect sorry I think this is going to be our finest hour cuts to Joe Spano cuts back to Ed still holding the glare for like an extra second and a half and then goes back to work.

50:41Bill Simmons:I love that. He really just buys into it. Meanwhile, Nixon's like, what are the fan duel odds on these dudes dying? Just tell them three to one. I gotta say, Harris and Sinise are just fucking cooking in this scene. Dialed in. Sinise is great. I like the, I mean, is anything on the planet better than a control room celebration? No, that shot. All-time goose bumper. And even the editing on that is so good because it gives like a quarter of a second, and so you get to watch them erupt into applause. It's really beautiful. It doesn't work as well with the NFL draft. No. When they make the pick and they try to do the control room celebration, but they all know what the pick was going to be.

51:21Bill Simmons:So they've never... NBA drafts are even worse. No, it's just a bunch of guys in quarter zips, like high-fiving. They haven't staged it. The cinematography is not on par with Apollo 13. There's no good music. Yeah. Gentlemen, it's been a privilege flying with you. I can't. It's so good. So what do you got? What's your most rewatchable? CO2? It's the carbon dioxide filter for me. The fix. I was going to say CO2, but now that we've re-entered the atmosphere, I think that I'm going to be corny and say that that's the best. It has to be re-entering the atmosphere. But if we can have like a favorite versus a most rewatchable, then re-entering the atmosphere is the most rewatchable.

52:00And like the favorite, is CO2 filters.

52:03Bill Simmons:Also, when they reenter the atmosphere, you get to have that whole mental conversation with yourself like, how the fuck did they do this? Genuinely. The 4 ,000 degrees of heat. Like, how did this survive? What was your most rewatchable? Reentry. It's got to be reentry. Being outvoted. When Hanks lets Bacon take the pilot seat, when Hanks is, he's like, oh, sorry, it's a habit. You sit here. You're like, oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. And then the sign that he's taped on it saying no on the button for the limb. I also like as Bill Paxton slowly dies during this movie and then at the end when they land Hanks like unbuckles him you're like oh this guy's like really close to death even when Hanks is hugging him to warm him up yeah what's the most 1995 thing about this movie I could offer you pretty pretty bad opening graphics for the movie like I was kind of startled by usually by the mid 90s we had better like movie graphics.

53:01Bill Simmons:I just wasn't impressed. Mid-90s Tom Hanks, skinny face with the receding hairline. But I'm going with the most white cast possible. I just don't think, I think even 10 years later they're like, hey, I noticed you have 299 actors in this and 298 are white. What is portraying 1970? Well, yeah, they could have. They could have moved the couple. They didn't even think of it as my point. There's a hidden figures aside if we do this now. Yeah, there is one black man working at the retirement home. As an orderly. Mrs. Lovell yells at a lot, which is just, it's not a great look. So I think that's the answer because in 1995, nobody was like, hey, just a note.

53:47Bill Simmons:I noticed this. Right. The Floyd Gundali Butter in My Ass and Lollipops in My Mouth Award. Have we had this since you? No, I don't think so. But I, you know. For something you just enjoy, what do you have? Sure. The white vest. I couldn't get it on Amazon here in time and you know it also has a special Apollo 13 patch so just a random white the Ed Harris vest yeah of course that his wife made for him yeah she makes one for every mission but you know he does a lot of acting with the vest and like in moments of like emphasis he pulls it down I think it's a great prop and it tickles me that's another Ed Harris trick with the oh yeah doing like really tightening the tie you know and there's gum chewing, like really significant gum chewing in certain scenes.

54:32Bill Simmons:They do like little stuff like that. How have you never gotten to how a white vest? How is that not a thing? You want one to have? Think about it. Liz gives me a new vest every year for my fantasy draft. Oh, good. There we go. What do you have for Floyd? I think it's the muse. Oh, wait. Yeah, for this is something you just enjoy. Yeah. I think it's the scene where Hanks refuses to look out at Mount Marilyn on the moon. And some of it's like, I'm never 100 % sure what his hesitation is. Is it like this is a down moment and he doesn't think they're going to get home? Is it like I need to stay absolutely focused?

55:03Like what is it because of just the disappointment that he won't be able to walk on it? But there's something inscrutable about him there that I just find like intoxicating in this movie. I've seen it. I have the guy who got left behind,

55:19Bill Simmons:which works in sports movies, astronaut movies, war movies. But in Miracle, the movie that they made about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team the guy, the last cut Ralph Cox didn't get to be in the team but he's like an alternate just in case and he's just kind of behind watching everything. I think that always works. This is also like Rudy is more or less the guy who got left behind. For a while. But then he gets in but that's the point. He gets in. I wish there was a ringer person we just never hired who just, they just cut to him every once in a while. He was so close. So close for years and years.

55:58Bill Simmons:Just couldn't make it. What's age the best? Houston, we have a problem. I would say it has to be the winner, right? Unreal. And I know it came from the mission, but then it got a reboot with the… They cleaned it up. It's like, okay, Houston, we have a problem. It was like a little clunkier on actual… We've had a problem. Yeah. But this became… In 95, this was like before memes, we were like saying this to each other. Like in the, I know Craig, remember that? And you don't. Maybe even you don't, Rob. I remember pre-mean-wise. Yeah, this is that ancient a text. It was like, Happy Meal toys in Houston.

56:37We've had a problem. That was my playground childhood.

56:39Bill Simmons:Well, Rob and I go further with it because, oh my God, by the way, the air conditioning switched to 73 and I just put it back to 68. So it was about to get hot in there. We're on a re-entry. Yeah. All right. So yeah, the CO2 before we start breathing. Next to the water's going to be going out. It's crazy. Rob and I, with Houston, we have a problem, became just a sports thing. Oh, yeah. Sure, yeah. Anytime, like, the Rockets have lost three in a row. Houston, we have a problem. Like, it's the most beaten to death thing in sports, probably. How many basketball blogs have been written with that text or subtext?

57:09Like, it's there every single time.

57:10Bill Simmons:Like, the Rockets last year when it started going wrong with Durant. So, anyway, it's just, it will never end. A couple more. Apollo 13, the 13 being bad luck. Yeah. They do a nice job in the first 30 minutes of being like, this is number 13. Had to be lucky 13. You believe in that or no? I don't. You thought about it though. I thought about it. And this honestly makes a very compelling case. I wanted to revisit this in unanswerable questions. Because if they take off at 13, 13 PM. Yeah. And they enter the Earth's orbit on April 13th. I had this in what stage is the worst. They kind of court the 13 in a weird way.

57:55Bill Simmons:They're like, bring it on 13. We're going to land on 13, 13 on 13. Fuck you. They're making jokes about it. 13 was like, oh yeah? Okay. Watch this. You've got to live your life without superstition. But to your point, bringing it in and really, really courting the 13 is almost leaning into the superstition. so I'm a 13 guy you are what does that mean I remember one of the places I worked during my bartending waitering days I was server number 13 okay and I felt I felt like it was good luck and then my wife's birthday is on the 13th okay every once in a while it's a Friday the 13th guess what she's fine she's still alive you reclaimed it yeah and I like the Friday the 13th series jerk there's been some good 13s in sports I'm not afraid of 13 13 guy.

58:45You know who else is very pro 13?

58:48Bill Simmons:Who? Taylor Swift. That's another good one. That's one of her numbers. That's why when I was talking to her at the wedding, same thing. Like she was telling me. I think I went 27 seconds on the Instagram. You got me. And I was like, I know. What was Axe time? Four and a half minutes? I know. You know what? Honestly, I would have kept it going for five minutes, but it was just the wrong person to do it to. He was so confused. But now he spent his whole summer with people torturing him about it. It was good. It was good content. I've got to tell you about Taylor Swift's writing. He's like, yeah, yeah.

59:18Bill Simmons:Yeah. Okay. What's age the best? I could eat the ass out of a dead rhinoceros. Really good. Apparently given to Paxton from Gary Busey, who was visiting the set that day and who used it in Point Break three years or four years ago. Oh my God. Before that. Okay. What's age the best? The score. We didn't mention James Horner nominated for an Oscar. It's unbelievable. Really good. And also Annie Lennox doing the voices, which, you know, what's the most 1995 thing about this movie? No, it's beautiful. It's referenced a lot in other movie scores now. It used to play on the arc light in the dome. Yeah.

59:54And I would start crying. It's very powerful. It's a really good one. It's also simple and straightforward in a way that it's referenced, but it's like everyone has to have a take or an iteration. Like we can't make a serious movie now unless Ludwig Goranson is making a flute out of a human bone. And this is just like big swelling orchestral score. Well, sometimes there's a lonely trumpet. For sure. Oh, absolutely. The last gasp of American masculinity. It's very like West Wing-y to me in its instrumentation for sure. Or I guess vice versa. What's age the best?

1:00:21Bill Simmons:Loving, supportive wives. Yeah. I just did that as a joke for Amanda. Okay, sure. Well, we'll come back to it. Any movie where Ed Harris has to wear a toupee. Because we know his hair situation. But this one was like, it's blonde. I got to say that the back of it's a little darker. Like there's a couple points where you're like, eh. But I like when he has hair. It's funny. The geometry of men's haircuts in the late 60s, early 70s, and specifically in this film, is very square. Yeah. And so I guess they needed to add something in order to make his round head as square as everybody else. Because no one, very few eggheads.

1:01:08It's all like military cut. Yeah. High and tight all the way around.

1:01:12Bill Simmons:I have the Hanks and Sinise reunion, which you mentioned, and the best use ever of Quinn Howard. Those are my What's Age the Best. Do you have any more, Rob? How about the Walter Cronkite archival footage? It's great. When he takes his glasses off, and they cut to him taking his glasses off right before Neil Armstrong steps on the moon, you're like, oh, wow. Images and history is powerful. It's so good. Can I give you... Oh, please. I was going to say, can I give you a What's Age the Best? Yeah. literally the astronauts have aged so well astronauts live so long Fred Hayes is still alive Jim Lovell just died last year he was 97 Buzz Aldrin is still alive yeah they're all in their fucking mid 90s the astronauts live forever so what do you think outer space like gave them extra strength or did that take care of their bodies better what is it speak on it what do you think space is doing for them do I have to bring conspiracy billing for this did they give them extra stuff you think that's what it is You think there's something on the far side of the moon?

1:02:09Bill Simmons:I would have thought the CO2, even that whole episode for three hours, would have shortened their lives by 10 years. It was bad for your brain. Was Fred Hayes sick in real life? I don't know. No, Fred Hayes on the mission, he had a urinary tract infection from how they had to pee in the thing. Yeah. Right, okay. That's what it was. And those can get really serious. But even that, he's doing okay. The real answer, unfortunately, is less interesting. I thought it was they got some special magic space dust that made them live forever. Apparently, one, astronauts have to be very physically fit in general.

1:02:45Like, you're already in the 0.01%. Right. They also, they monitor you for your whole life, and you get health checkups yearly by NASA forever. Oh, because you're kind of a guinea pig? I think they want to, like, see what's going on. So, like, anything that's wrong with you is detected immediately. Oh, interesting. So you can kind of live extra long.

1:03:01Bill Simmons:Should we start doing that? Yeah, I'd love that. Yeah. Honestly, I feel like Spotify's health plan. I'm not giving them my biometric data. Absolutely not. Ripping it off. What do you have for what stage is the best? Slingshotting around the moon. Yeah. Which I think they do in The Martian. Do it in everything. And they do in everything. But I get that technology. You know, it makes sense, but I understand gravity. So good job. Sir Isaac Newton, take the wheel. Thank you to the moon. Hank's polo shirts or Jim Lovell's polo shirts. I think that needs to come back. You know, he looks great. They're the right fit.

1:03:35Bill Simmons:Not Mrs. Lovell's hair. Not Mrs. Lovell's hair. The short-sleeved polo shirts. Really the only short-sleeved shirt that I would endorse. Not enough short-sleeved polos. Too many short-sleeved dress shirts going on in Mission Control. That's true. That we don't. We want a long-sleeved there and a short-sleeved polo. But he looks good. And then having to turn things on in the right order to make them work. Just like my internet. Just like anything else, you know? And even the no. when he has the no button that would have just ejected his person? You gotta save that one for last. We have a no button.

1:04:07Bill Simmons:There's a very specific order or else this technology is not gonna work. They still have not figured that out. Anymore? I'm gonna move on. How about getting together to watch a world event that is not a sport? I wish we would do this more. I wish there were more things we could do it more. Like a party of just... Like if we did good things? Now it's like the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight we all get together. Before we were landing on the moon. I don't know we're going backwards Rob great shot Gordor Award what do you have I think that wide shot of the control room I had the same thing it's really great it's perfect and to Craig's point like it can look very bad as evidenced by all the draft night reaction shots which even I and Amanda Dobbins have seen it's amazing I like he has the camera it's not straight on it's to the side so it's a wide angle and you can see and they they built that control room it's not the apparently NASA offered it to them and they didn't Ron Howard wanted to build his own one we're practical that way Big Kahuna Burger were best use of food and drink I was going to say the Jell-O in space when they're making the home movie yeah and they're doing like the Jell-O and he's trying to get it I think I would do that what else are you going to do you're in space no TV anything yeah they don't they don't really eat a lot or talk about the food that they're eating they talk about their water rations in a way because they don't want to make number twos yes exactly yeah they're trying to Well, if we can invert the question, is it actually the vomit in space?

1:05:34Like the zero-G vomit. I think it's like a great showcase for the visual effects. It's disgusting, but it works and is like kind of shocking to see.

1:05:43Bill Simmons:In one of the, it was like oral history, one of the features they talked about when they were doing the zero-G, the three guys did not get sick. They took like a whole bunch of shit, but none of them got sick. But a couple of the crew members did. And one crew member puked. and the puke went zero G and hit Paxton on the top of the head. And they had to stop and he was like, oh, just clean it up. Let's go. Yeah. But yeah, so the puke in slow motion. What would be worse? They very, probably a couple things, but it's up there. Yeah. Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness or Best Needle Drop. They played that Spirit in the Sky song.

1:06:17Bill Simmons:I think that's the one. That's gotta be the winner. Was there a better title for this movie? I don't think so. I like how dialed back it is. Yeah. I don't think so either. Because you don't want a step on Houston, We Have a Problem. Also, Houston, We Have a Problem is like a very internet-y. It's true. You know, in 2026, that's what they would, you know, name it for SEO or social purposes. Do you think they knew? Like, do you think they knew the heat they had with Houston, We Have a Problem? Well, they edited it from real life, so yes. Yeah, but it's like, I mean, the idea that this is so good, we're going to make it potentially the title of the movie that it'll be the thing that endures.

1:06:50And now there's TikTok edits like Houston was a problem.

1:06:56Bill Simmons:Mandy, you have a flex category. I do. This is a specific one, but it's true to my heart. So I'm doing the Billy Batts Jack Waltz Award for biting scalable insult. This is flight surgeon horseshit, Deke. Which is, I think, is a very usable phrase for any time you are dealing with administrative nonsense. For example, I had some flight surgeon horseshit just the other day with my kids' school forms. you have some flight surgeon horseshit when the TSA name doesn't match the airplane there are just many times when it just people are standing in your way or not even people but dumb rules anytime you're in Europe it's flight surgeon horseshit I think it's great it's pretty good especially for a mild mannered Jim Lovell at this point that's like the one time he yells before they get in the shuttle for flight surgeon horseshit yeah butch's girlfriend award week link of the film what do you got Rob?

1:07:53I think it's the teenagers. My exact answer. So the young kids, the young kids are good. Like the little boy we talked about at the door. So older sisters. Older sister. I think this son, I remember at age 11 thinking he was so handsome. I thought he was so cute when I was 11. But like, he doesn't have Hanks' power of emoting and close up. And they cut to him a lot during re-entry. And he's still very cute. I hope he's well. This is where I think if they did make it today, they would be incredibly attentive to every detail on the space shuttle, but they would consolidate four kids to like two or three kids.

1:08:27Like, we got to simplify the family situation here. There's just, we don't need to flash to military school. Is there Jim's mom?

1:08:34Bill Simmons:She's out. I think they have, they go from four kids to two. Wait, you're taking out Jim's mom? I think everybody's out. We're in the space ship. If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it? If no one's directing this, all of the women are dying. That's true. And I like the Odyssey very much. You have fewer shots of Marilyn. Can she be opposite her radio more often? You know, there's ways to Nolanify this, but that's messed up. You're taking out his mom. I think it's funny when they have Neil Armstrong come over and they put him on mom duty. That's the pair for the mom. He's like, so, did Jim make Eagle Scout?

1:09:13That's really funny to me.

1:09:14Bill Simmons:Jimmy could land a washing machine. That's so good. That's a great line. It's so good. We don't need it. She flinty? The movie's two hours, 20 minutes. We could have cut some family. I have, for Butch's girlfriend, it's funny, I don't like that there's no reunion ending. Oh. So they land, everything's great. Yeah. Then we see them on the plane and they're dressed in the, but obviously they're not home yet. On the aircraft carrier. So they get greeted by people I don't know. Like, I would have much rather they landed in Houston and we had Sinise and Hanks and Sinise and like, basically like the Top Gun ending.

1:09:53Bill Simmons:Yeah. But I'm corny and I like stupid shit. I just would have rather had that than, hey, here's some strangers greeting you. Well, they traded it for a different kind of corniness, which I think like the admiral of that ship that you have a lingering shot of Hanks with is real life Jim Lovell. So like you're getting that kind of moment instead of the character closure a little bit. I think it's good that they don't prolong it because then you run the risk of having to say more of the feelings and the takeaways And even in that very brief voiceover, he says that we were called the successful failure in that we blah, blah, blah.

1:10:25Bill Simmons:So you wouldn't want the older daughter one more time? Right. And I'm just like, the more that you actually have to show the emotional moments, then I just kind of wanted Sinise. I wish Sinise had been in the last scene. But he's so great. His reaction in reentry. Ed Harris could have just had a dart. It's good to see. Did you have a weak link or no? I also, the kids. Okay. What's age the worst? I mentioned this earlier, but Apollo 13 just leaning in the 13 for no reason. Just kind of tempting the 13 gods. There's a couple of fade to black jump cuts. Yes. That just would not happen now. Like, it's kind of...

1:11:05I thought my internet cut out. A little lazy. Yeah.

1:11:09Bill Simmons:Kathy Quinlan's haircut we mentioned. I wrote, get the grandmother out of here with three exclamation points, but Rob disagrees. I'm coming back on that. I'm kind of with Rob on this just for the Eagles. Played by Ron Howard's this is a classic Judd Apatow I'm just gonna start putting my family in here so oh I had the oldest daughter's ugly cry face my big one was for what's age the worst poor Jack in real life gets kind of kind of crushed by this movie makes it seem like he's unprepared and he's like a cad oh the real Jack Spocker yeah and I get it but this is the problem based on a true story even though it was accurate.

1:11:49Bill Simmons:But everyone says Jack was super familiar with all this stuff. He was basically like the backup QB on the crew. It wasn't like, it was like, oh shit, we got to throw him in. And I don't know, if I was in his family, this movie would piss me off. Like, why'd they do that to dad? Maybe he would have gotten more simulator time if Sinise wasn't such a perfectionist and it's like, we got to run it again. We got to run it again. It's like, I mean, what do you expect? You haven't let him get in the machine. Yeah, don't, this makes it seem, like when you watch this, did you feel like Jack was... Kind of like the wild card.

1:12:18One of my notes was that I wanted to ask if that was real or not, that this guy was actually kind of underprepared because I'm like, what is NASA doing? Why would they ever allow that? This guy just to come in. Why wouldn't they just push the launch?

1:12:30Bill Simmons:Always a tough beat in these autobiographical movies when they have to Hollywood up one of the characters. Like Tim and the AFC Championship. You know, if you can push that, you're doing it. What do you have for what's age the worst? Well, I already said the heat shield. Yeah. And then, because apparently we haven't locked that down. though everyone's okay. And I will say the VFX, some of the paint chips falling off the Saturn V launch. You know, you can tell now the further we get from it, the more you can see the very small effects. But it's really small and they do so much of it in camera that I shouldn't complain.

1:13:08Yeah. For me, it's the teenage daughter again, specifically blaming Paul for breaking up the Beatles. No. Yeah. Real ones know it's Alan Klein. Tough character.

1:13:17Bill Simmons:Come on. That is true. Has there ever been a movie like this where they have the 13, where is she like 13, 14, 12? Yeah. Has that character ever been likable in any movie ever? It's a tough part. Because I don't feel like, I kind of liked my daughter when she was 13. How old is the Moneyball daughter? Oh, that's a really good character. But she might only be 10. She's a little younger than that. Yeah, she's like 10. There are people who, like that's the most maligned part of the movie for some people. It works on me. The song hits me hard in the end. Those people aren't girl dads. I mean, it's true.

1:13:48Come on. I'm just a little bit

1:13:49Bill Simmons:caught in the middle, you know? I've been re-watching Homeland. Great. Speaking of teenage daughters. It gets really tough for her. Actually, that's one. The Americans. The teenagers on the Americans, I feel like, are actually quite good. It can be done. It's just, it's tough. You gotta give them a lot to do to make it worth it. Gilmore Girls, no. Everyone is very mean about Rory. I just don't think we've figured this out. Ruffalo, Hannah, Rubenick, Partridge overacting. I wrote down, and this is flight surgeon horseshit. It's not overacting. That's perfect. I forgot to look up Henry, the press officer's name.

1:14:24Yeah. But that actor is leaning a little too hard into I'm the evil press officer. You know, he is quite two-faced. And I don't feel that NASA was managing the family as well as they could have. But, you know, Henry really took every opportunity. They were looking for anybody

1:14:43Bill Simmons:Somebody who just wasn't a nice guy rooting for the mission. Taking one more break and then Rob's got to flex. This episode is brought to you by Quince. Good clothing is like a good movie. You want it on repeat. That's how you'll feel about Quince's pieces. Their clothes are versatile and timeless without the insane markup other brands have. Perfect for a fall wardrobe refresh. I'd recommend the lightweight down packable puffer vest. It's great for those days when the temperature can't make up its mind. Keeps you warm without getting too hot. And it's easy to fold and take with you on a walk or wherever you're going.

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1:16:02Bill Simmons:Get 20 % off your first purchase at viore.com slash rewatchables and discover the versatility of Viore clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Rob, you have a flex. I am going to put some respect on Gene Spiegel's name because I did the Estelle Reiner, I'll Have What She's Having Award for the best contribution by a performer with two or fewer lines. Not only because it fits the criteria of the award, but the spirit, right? Like casting your own mom, a la Estelle Reiner, to do basically two lines in this movie. And specifically, if you could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could do it.

1:16:41I'm legit tearing up at that moment. I can't explain to you why, but the inversion of the little girl crying into grandma who just had a stroke giving you all the confidence you need to run through a wall, I love it. I love the nepotism is what I'm saying.

1:16:56Bill Simmons:It took out her false teeth. Howard was worried she didn't look old enough. His mom literally took out her dentures. She went messing. Yeah, you can kind of see it. Runs in the family. She's kind of like a person in the thing. But there are really so many Howards in this movie. Like Clint is in it. We talked about it. Ron Howard's dad's in it. Bryce is in here somewhere. Like there's, I think Ron Howard's wife is in here somewhere. He perfected the art. This is a family movie. It is. Yeah. Listen, as somebody, my daughter's been on my podcast like 25 times. I can't really say anything. Yeah. I'm just going to move on to the next category.

1:17:30My son wants to do a podcast with Little Caesar about pizza.

1:17:34Bill Simmons:He's for Little Caesar himself. Pizza, pizza, yes. That's what it's called. Would listen. Ooh, Amanda has, we never get to do this category. Yeah. Amanda here. It's really exciting. The Amanda Dobbins Award for Best Piece of Real Estate. Tough movie for this category. Can I just say, every time you do it, even if I'm not here, I feel understood and loved. So thank you for this category. Also, there's a great answer. Mount Maryland. It's the moon, right? Yeah. Mount Maryland. No, it is Mount Maryland. Just specifically Mount Maryland? Yeah, name a piece of space after me. Okay? And not one of the stars you buy in the star directory.

1:18:06There are, you know, infinity of those. Give me a landmark on the moon. Mount Amanda. The Sea of Amanda. Let's go. Pretty good. Yeah.

1:18:16Bill Simmons:We did... See, I can always find the real estate opportunity. We did speed and I think we handed out the Dobbins real estate for Hopper's house that he blows up in that movie. It's got a really nice corner lot. One story. Nice views. Just blows it up. Yeah, it's tough. The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford had us take a word. What do you got? I think when the Soviet Union fell that America fell too. Like, we are clearly capable of doing cool things. But we need a rival. Like, we need to feel the heat from the other side of the planet. Super power all the way over there to work against.

1:18:56We just don't do that anymore. We're unfocused. We're unharnessed. We're like completely uninterested. We have lost the stakes of everything. I just think we need to do cool things and Kennedy was like, by the end of the decade, we're making it to the moon and we did it. Not because it's easy or because it was hard, but because it was a race, we decided we need to fucking win. It's a challenge. I just think we need rivals, you know? Okay. We spent 30 years

1:19:18Bill Simmons:running up the score against nobody. It's really good. It's really good. Mine is tangentially related. This movie should just make people respect Elon Musk more. You know, he cares about getting into space. Jesus Christ. Put some respect in that guy's name. Hottest take. He cares about electric cars. Yeah. Getting us to the moon. Yeah. Communicating. Is he trying to get to the moon? I have to be honest. I have not followed. SpaceX? Exactly what he wants to do with SpaceX. SpaceX is putting satellites. He's really focused on Mars. He's focused on Mars. Mars. And Bezos. By the way, I'm interested in Mars.

1:19:54We do need to get to Mars. Yeah, let's see what's up there. Why? Ambition. Matt Damon is there waiting for us. Yeah, Matt Damon's there already. China needs to say we're going to Mars and then we're right. This is what I'm saying. Yeah. Like, we crossed an ocean. We fought for independence. We pioneered the West. We shot ourselves into the sky. We need boots on Mars for any reason that we decide.

1:20:12Bill Simmons:What do you have for a hot stick? I already did mine. Two for one Oscar trade. Casting with ifs. Mentioned Costner. Hanks turned down Jumanji. Good decision, sir. Smart move. This is, honestly, it could almost be its own category. One of my favorite casting with ifs we've had in a while. because of his interest in aviation, John Travolta asked Howard for the role of Jim Lovell. He was politely turned down. But so would this be before Pulp Fiction? After. Or after? Right after, right? Okay. Well, better than before, you know? Did you see John Travolta's 60-minute film about aviation that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival?

1:20:58It's available on Apple TV. Oh, where you wear the beret? Yeah. Yeah. The series of berets. Isn't it called like I Am a Pilot? What's it called? Something like that. It's an adaptation of the children and or young adults book that he himself wrote about a child's first airplane trip. It's really not a movie, but I did watch all of it. And I think they filmed at the TWA hotel in part.

1:21:18Bill Simmons:We just don't spend enough time talking about how crazy some of our favorite actors are. What I'm learning is a lot of men of a certain age love aviation. Like, is this ahead of all of us? I don't really know. It's like the last way they can feel alive. Maybe just flipping a plane around. Premier Magazine right there, which I read the article about Apollo 13, they said Travolta also lost out to Ed Harris for Gene. That's the right decision. Yeah. But I'm sure that hurt. Would have been some good Travolta faces, though. I wonder if he would have smoked. I love when Travolta smokes. He's clearly never held cigarettes.

1:21:53Bill Simmons:John Cusack, Patrick Swayze, Joe Pesci, and Rick Moranis, according to Half-Fast Cernan Research, where I'll offer the role of Fred and I'll turn it down and it went to Bill Paxton. Okay. I don't know if I can fully believe that Joe Pesci as Fred. That one didn't pass the sniff test for me. Joe Pesci is going to be one of the three astronauts on Apollo 13? As a cut-up, maybe. Like the comedic energy, I could kind of understand. It could seem in the control room, but not in the spaceship. Can't see him with the haircut. No. I honestly can't see Rick Moranis either. No. I think Rick Cameron as Clint Howard in the control room would be great.

1:22:31Bill Simmons:This one I did believe. Brad Pitt offered the role of Jack but turned it down because of Seven. I was wondering about this. It worked out for everybody. I think that's the right decision. He would have been too distracting. You know who it didn't work out for? Who? What's in the box? What's in the box? Apparently Val Kilmer also turned down Jack. He was filming the Ghost in the Darkness. One's also a little too Iceman, but... I don't know. Decent Dal Kilmer vehicle. Sure. I would have been not intrigued by it. Tom X was cast. Ron Howard said, Gary Sneeze, pick your part. And he picked Ken. Yeah.

1:23:10Bill Simmons:He liked that one. He said, when I looked at it, I said, I want to play that guy. Without him, they won't get back. And then, I don't know if I believe this, but Kelsey Grammer and Christopher Lloyd turned down Gene.

1:23:24Bill Simmons:Christopher Lloyd Mid-90s Christopher Lloyd Is Gene We can't do none of those I don't believe that one Joey Pants Award For Best That Guy Our guy Todd Luizzo Is in this The Manny from Jerry Maguire Is in the control room Yeah Clint Howard Lauren Dean Is he that guy Or is he Lauren Dean I think he is Is he that well known To me he's just The detective from Gattaca And he was what Bugsy One of those For me, for my generation, it's Joe Spano, the guy that Ed Harris side had because he was an actual cast member of Hill Street Blues, which was the best TV drama from like 1981, 80. If there's a TV drama championship belt, it has it for like five years.

1:24:06Bill Simmons:And he was on that show and you just see him. It's like, oh, that guy from Hill Street Blues. But I think the answer is Todd Luizzo. He's a good one. And Clint Howard is too well known to... I think he's Clint Howard. Okay. What about... There's a couple others. I don't even know the guy's names. Well, I mean, to me, all of the control room is that guy going forward. Where I'm like, oh, it's that guy from the control room in Apollo 13. Because there's one guy that kind of looks like Dennis Leary. He's that guy. I don't know what his name is. I think that's Ray McKinnon from Deadwood. At some point.

1:24:37Bill Simmons:Yeah. That guy's good. All the control room. And then kind of the handsome guy who is working with Gene Harris. Sure, with the ants. Yeah. And it's like there's something a little sinister about him, but he's holding it in. Yeah. I don't know what that guy's name is. Deion Waiter's award I narrowed it down to Clint Howard Jim's mom and Walter Cronkite okay Walter Cronkite eligible Walter Cronkite then steals the show I think it's Cronkite yeah and he's also so I guess they is the footage of this science expert that they keep cutting to new or is that real I thought he's like I thought all the TV stuff was old I thought so but you're a resident scientist you're the one who's bringing the heat shields there is a man Yeah.

1:25:19Well, when he's sitting there with the blowtorch, I was kind of like, I can't believe that they are allowing this fake science experiment on live TV in 1970.

1:25:28Bill Simmons:I will say, as a child of the 70s, whenever these people were on TV, you just completely assumed that they knew what they were talking about, and you believed them 100 % and never doubted their information. And you still feel that way today. I do not. I do not. This somehow probably turned near by the end of the 80s. Okay. But in the 70s, if one of those people came on and I'd be like, yeah, that's Bob. This is what he does. Recasting couch director of City. I have a really good one for this, but did you guys have anything? Is there anybody you would change? Maybe I'm just Gene-pilled, but like, what about Gene Hackman for Gene?

1:26:03What if you swap Gene Hackman for Ed Harris? Is he too... As a Gene? Is the energy off? Is he like a little too shadowy, mysterious, nefarious for that part? Is this... What year is Crimson Tide? Before this. This is before this. Where, so, he's more… I mean, listen, I'm not going to say no, Gene Hackman's a bad choice because I love Gene Hackman. Same here, Crimson Tide.

1:26:27Bill Simmons:Oh, interesting. Oh, okay. I don't know how I feel about that. I really do love Ed Harris in this, though. I mean, it's an impeccably cast movie, I think, for the most part. So, it's hard to find holes in the book. I wonder if the Bacon one, could we have gone one level up from stardom with that one? I think Brad Pitt is the one level up from stardom. Although, at this point, it's like 12 Monkeys, Brad Pitt. But then, that's imbalanced. Like, you need Hanks in the center. Can you get in the car with me and test drive Tom Cruise's Jack? Just for a split second. Oh, I think we absolutely need him.

1:26:55Playing a 60s CAD?

1:26:56Bill Simmons:Yes. Wow. I mean, I say yes to that. Being Tom Cruise? Tell me he can do, when you feel the beer bottle slide in, just write monologue. I think the question with him is, would you believe the, like, crisis of confidence part that Kevin Bacon has? With Tom Cruise, right. He's, like, scared to flip switches at a certain point. I don't know if I would buy that with Cruise, but I would like to see it. Right, but you could see him getting mad about we're coming in too shallow and I'll just hold my breath and all that stuff. I have one more for you. Kathy for Jack Ross. We already said that we appreciate Kathy and Quinlan in this role.

1:27:30Maybe Julianne Moore is a little too young for it but I just imagine Julianne Moore doing you can take it up with my husband. He'll be home on Friday. I would enjoy it.

1:27:41Bill Simmons:That's really good. That's all. I think she's around the right age every time you do it somehow. I have, for recasting, Denzel's character from Flight in the Jack, in the Kevin Bacon part. Yeah. Where he's like, he shows up for the mission, but he's fucking been doing cocaine and having sex all night and he hasn't slept. And he's that age, too. And Jim's like, the banana boats are coming. It's training company now, big dog. A couple little shooters floating around in zero gravity. Oh, my God. Craig, you have a flex. What do you got? I'm going to do Todd Parker Award Best Character Entrance, but like understated edition.

1:28:25I really like when they're just like Buzz and Neil are here. Yeah. And you're like, oh, shit. I don't even need to say the full name. And just like it ups the stakes so much in the movie. Like you really feel the weight when like they come in the living room, sit down and just cross their arms and watch the screen. You're like, all right. Okay. This is game seven.

1:28:42Bill Simmons:Those guys are so fucking cool. There's that video of Buzz Aldrin punching the guy when he's old. Yeah. When Buzz is old and that guy's harassing him and Buzz just like cold cocks him. It's the best. He's like, what? Because it was a moon landing denial, right? Half-East Center Research. We mentioned Spielberg. They filmed for four hours basically doing zero-G maneuvers, which sounds... I mean, the Odyssey is a 10 out of 10 for what sounds like the worst shoot. Yeah. Being on the boat and stuff. This sounds like a nine and a half. So this was the, so they would take off in the quote unquote vomit comet.

1:29:18Fly around. Right. And they had like 20, 25 seconds of zero G. They did that nonstop for four hours.

1:29:26Bill Simmons:That sounds a lot. Sounds a lot easier just to do tango and cash. The Universal Studio, they had two life-size replicas of the command module and the lunar module. They lowered the spaceship stuff to 38 degrees. so it was really that cold in there. Okay. The splashdown sequence at the end when they rescue Hanks, where do you think that took place? I know the answer, so. Where do you think that took place? Santa Barbara? Where is it? San Diego. A large artificial lake on the Universal lot. No way! I know, but now I really want to go find the lake on the lot. Where is the artificial lake on the Universal lot?

1:30:05Is it like behind Bates Motel, which is still there?

1:30:10Bill Simmons:I want to check it out. Okay. Is that on the tour? I don't know. Yeah, Jaws comes out of the artificial lake. You see Jim being rescued.

1:30:22Bill Simmons:Oh, the Iwo Jima, USS Iwo Jima. It did not exist anymore when they did Apollo 13, so they had to use its sister ship, the New Orleans. Okay. And then Bacon was, in the oral history, was raving about when they all went to US space camp, how smart Hanks was. And he said, Bill Pax too, but really Hanks, like learning all this stuff. And he was like, that guy could have flown a fucking rocket. Like Hanks was like just absorbing everything like an absolute maniac. I mean, he really clearly wants to be an astronaut. Yeah. Yeah. And they were taught all these things. They really wanted them to be like the buttons secondhand so it felt real and Hanks took it seriously.

1:31:07Bill Simmons:not like Tom Cruise learning how to flip beer bottles and cocktail but close close I had one that blew my mind which is I didn't it didn't really crystallize for me until watching it this time that this movie invented the phrase failure is not an option like yeah to a degree that Gene Kranz the actual guy who ran mission control became so associated with him he never said it it was something that came up as they were talking to other mission control people researching for this movie and someone just kind of mentioned it offhand that like basically the vibe was failure is not an option. But it was not a phrase in the lexicon.

1:31:38It became so associated with Gene Kranz he titled his own book something he did not say. Failure is not an option. I mean, pretty insane. That's good branding.

1:31:47Bill Simmons:I think you go like, yeah, I think I did say that. I think I did offhand somewhere in there. Kind of vaguely remember that. But they have the transcripts. Right. So then you get added as a liar and that's worse. I was in the men's room. I remember saying to somebody. I wrote it down. I think it's cooler just to say, hey, that's a good line. I'll use it. I accept. Well, that was one of the things in the half-ass was Gene is the only person in charge of everything in the control room for like however many days. And there was another guy named Glyn Lunny who was the second team and he's just basically not in it.

1:32:21Bill Simmons:Glyn got the shaft. Marilyn Lovell really did lose her ring down the drain, but she found it. Okay, good. How? Do we know? What do you do in that situation? Pull the drain up. But a lot of those hotel ones, they don't even have You can't even pull it off? That would be disgusting. I don't want to. You might just want to leave it down there at that point. This is my favorite one though. Kevin Bacon has now played a character named Jack in Frost Nixon, My Dog Skip, Paul 13, Few Good Men, Quicksilver, and Friday the 13th, and then put Jackie on City of the Hill. Oh my God. Okay. Is it Seven Jacks or Jackies?

1:32:58Bill Simmons:Which I'm guessing is the record. And Jack was a name that didn't, like I didn't go to college or high school with any Jacks. It's back now. Jack. Is it back? Jack has been back for 15 years. And it's back even in LA where you don't meet a Chris or a Ben or something. So you're saying there's a young actor out there. Jacob Elordi could some, they played 12 Jacks and could take the title from Bacon. Kevin Bacon, seven Jack. That's the record. Seven Jacks. Apex Mountain. Hanks might, this might be it. Is this it? It just depends on where you want to put it in that sweet spot. Right? We're there.

1:33:35Because he also has Toy Story this year.

1:33:39Bill Simmons:We're here. Tom Hanks' Apex Mountain is bigger than the other mountains. Okay. He's just way up there for a while. But it's somewhere between… Has like several summits? Somewhere between winning the Oscar for Forrest Gump, but then filming this movie and voicing Toy Story. I think it's probably right there. Okay. I think filming this movie was Apex Mountain. Counterpoint. is Apex Mountain for Hanks really having the juice to be like, I shall do lady killers. You know, like the like, no one can say no to me point in his career where he's done Saving Private Ryan by that point. He's done like, not only this, but so much more.

1:34:14That thing you do. Yeah. Which is a wonderful film. I'm doing this and I'm directing it. Should we sing it for you now?

1:34:21Bill Simmons:But he's like, I'm doing this and I'm going to direct it. And they're like, okay, Tom Hanks. You know who has one of her first roles in that thing you do? Your girl Charlize. How do you like that, Matt Wells? I wouldn't say she comes off great in it. No, but she's used well. Just an icon. Ron Howard, Apex Mountain? Probably Beautiful Mind. I guess so. Probably for the acclaim alone. Sinise, we're in the mix right here with him. Yeah. Force comp. This. It's all going to lead someday to him doing nine years of CSI. And living a great life. It's like, what's that blood pattern? Kevin Bacon? I don't know what his Yeah It's probably in the 80s It's probably like Footloose That sets up like the next 40 years I think that makes sense Houston?

1:35:12I thought about this too

1:35:13Bill Simmons:City of Houston? The only other Interesting Thing I came up with for Houston Is 1981 Which is when Houston Gave us Beyonce Is that the only Competitive point in time? 1981 Houston made the finals In the NBA But this is also When they won the finals They still have the Oilers Right So Apollo 13 Houston, we have a problem coinciding with the Rockets winning back-to-back, basically. Oh, that's the answer. Is that it? Rockets win. They've lost the Oilers, though. Do you think the Rockets should incorporate more space themes into their jerseys and stuff? Totally agree. They're starting to. They're bringing it back?

1:35:45They're bringing it back. They have like a little astronaut alt now. They got some stuff going on. Lean into it.

1:35:50Bill Simmons:You know, Rollerball, which is up there somewhere, that team was in Houston, too. Oh. The team from Rollerball? The team from Rollerball in the future is set in Houston. Something about Houston and the future and space. Yeah. And then you go there and it's just highways and everything is an hour from everything else. Ed Harris? He is Oscar nominated. He's having an incredible 90s run here because The Firm, he's in The Rock. He's in China Moon with Madeline Stowe. Is he nominated for Truman Show? If he wasn't, it was a travesty. Can't remember. Even though we did that six months ago. Speaking of great berets, it's just impeccable work by him.

1:36:35Bill Simmons:It's somewhere between here and Truman Show. I don't know where. Kathleen Quinlan. She gets the Oscar, Dom. Brian Grazer? Producer? This has a Brian Grazer production at the beginning instead of Imagine. So, maybe. Space movies? I don't think it can be. Yeah, I don't think so. I mean. Star Wars 2001. Yeah, you had Steven Spielberg here talking about, which chair did Steven sit in? In mine? Oh, my God. Excuse you, Mr. Spielberg. I'm not on a first name basis. And that Rob sat in the seat when Sean had the criteria orgasm. Right. That Steven. Did you get this laundered or do I need to get up? And Sean just like all of his vertebrae just collapsed in his back.

1:37:21Okay. I had a joint criteria orgasm together. It was. at the same time. It's beautiful. It's very rare. It's unbelievable.

1:37:27Bill Simmons:I've never seen a human react like Sean did. It was amazing. American Idealism? Apex Mountain? I think I made the pitch. American Ingenuity? Yeah. Wait, is it 95 or in 1970? 1970. In this movie. In this movie. 95, we're grasping at it. We're like trying to hold on and it's already gone. 95, we're moving more toward Monica Lewinsky and Howard Stern Private Parts and Jerry Springer. Cruz or Hanks I think it's Hanks well I mean you already made the case for just why not both why not put Cruz in for bacon Hanks and Jack would have been fun Fortune 3 clap award for best gifable moment I think it's Harris collapsing after they make it oh really for the like Miami trades for Giannis and you do the Ed Harris collapse back when I read this on the doc not having rewatched the movie.

1:38:24That is what I thought. But I forgot that it cuts away from him for a second and then it goes back to an incredible gif of him doing a double thumbs up straight to the camera. Double thumbs up. Which if that's not a meme, I mean, that seems like a real, like Leo and Gatsby champagne glass. You know, just double thumbs up. Very good. Double thumbs up is within our power to make happen. Yeah. But also, is this not, Houston, we have a problem with the subtitle? Is that not just the gif of the moment? Or just the face, because it's straight. You don't even need the subtitle. That's true. You know, we know what that means.

1:38:54Bill Simmons:There's a Sinise, a quiet fist bump that he does too. Okay. That could be in there. Sean Penn, I brought my own pack award. Excellence in on-screen smoking. I just want to honor Ed Harris. Okay, yeah. I felt like those were real cigarettes. Do you want to use the clove cinnamon ones? He's like, fuck no. I'm using the real ones. I thought about the Who Was Made Hotter by Smoking award for this movie for all of the dudes in the control room who like… Sure. …kind of have a little aura going on just by like… I mean, yeah. They're doing math for 90 % of the movie, and then they just get to like rip pipes for no reason.

1:39:25And they pull it out. Big cigars at the end.

1:39:26Bill Simmons:The cigars at the end are great. Picking it. Speaking of cigarette smoking, not enough. This is 1970. Everybody in that control room smoking. When they're cut into the house, I think everybody except the kids are fucking smoking. It's just like a smoke fest. Right. In 95, what were the rules in terms of ratings? I think Ron Howard was just trying to be like, yeah. There's a lot of people just putting a cigarette out or people lighting a cigarette but not actually smoking the cigarette. You mentioned the failure is not an option. In the Houston, we've had a problem. And then people were upset that they had astronauts arguing in the spaceship.

1:40:14Bill Simmons:The real astronauts were like, what the fuck? We would never argue like that. That was it. Not a lot of nitpicks. Can I add one parenting hit, Vic? Please do. Letting the smallest child watch the live broadcast where you don't know whether your husband is coming back from space. That's a tough one. I don't know. He's very young. How old was that kid? I mean, he's like maybe four. I'm not the one to ask because we took Ben to the Michael Myers where he murdered everybody in the last 45 minutes of Halloween and put a mask on him and he was like three. That's different. That's not your own dad. And listen, I know it's like in Parenting Vogue to not hide children from their feelings and they're supposed to feel all this stuff.

1:40:56And like everyone else in the house is there. You're going to have to tell them at some point. But it's essentially like letting your four-year-old watch his own father's snuff film. If it doesn't pan out, it's like not a memory he wants to have. Just my take. Also, Mary Hayes, they have babies, like two and three-year-olds, and they're all just sitting there all in front of the TV.

1:41:18Bill Simmons:She got the shaft in this movie. Yeah. It's tough. Like one scene of her just in the bedroom. She just gets to be pregnant and have a still photo. Yeah. I had one other knit, which is… When everyone's getting together for that emergency landing that all the kids are inexplicably at, these two women are walking through the kitchen and they drop a bowl of salad. And like 10 % of the salad falls out onto the floor. And they put it back in the bowl. And they just start putting it back. Yep, yep. This is how the Parasite started. 1970. sequel prequel prestige TV all black cast are untouchable this has to be untouchable untouchable is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins Fergie the Flores Zane Lowe Robert Evans Dr.

1:41:56Bill Simmons:Charles Nichols anyone else are we allowed to do this without Chris well yeah I mean I was just gonna say I'm happy to skip no no no I mean I feel I'm also happy to do Barney from The Vanishing or any other invitation I have Chris Ryan does love this movie and he's not with us it would be funny to hear him doing Wayne Jenkins as an astronaut Like I do think that that could work When like Jack lands the plane Yeah God damn Jack Exactly Just one Oscar who gets it The movie? For best picture? Hanks So you go Hanks over the movie? I mean I have to lean into my hot take But I'd be happy if it were the movie Just one is not enough I would say the movie Movie is good Hanks is good I also think adapted screenplay I'm not here to take anything away from Emma Thompson, but we talked all about like the immortal lines that have come out of this movie.

1:42:47There's so many smart adaptive choices. There's so many smart ways that this is like turning a bunch of guys politely arguing in a space shuttle into actual high drama. I think the screenplay is kind of awesome. But if you have to pick one, I will take Best Picture as well. If Braveheart is the competition, sign me up. Yes, okay. You've sold me.

1:43:06Bill Simmons:So Braveheart's tough because it's hard to separate the Mo Gibson. why Mel why I'm doing that for Van but the Mel Gibson of that movie and if Mel Gibson just has a very normal last 20 years would be like Braveheart fucking or did that hurt Braveheart at all I have no idea Braveheart is just not as much my flavor you know like how much medieval like heads chopped off do we need to get or fantastical medieval the interesting thing with Braveheart is I feel like Thrones and some of this other stuff yeah that did some of these battle sequences at a whole higher level. Yes. So I watch Braveheart now.

1:43:43Bill Simmons:It feels very 1995 to me. I still like it. I didn't really have any probably unanswerable questions other than did this movie have the most white actors with speaking parts of the last 35 years? It's like 100 white guys with at least one line. I have a more existential one. Yeah. It's really more about your view of the butterfly theory than about this movie. So if Ken Mattingly... did not get grounded. Yeah. If he's the one flipping the switch, do you believe, does it go down the same way? Or do you think that the universe flips it, you know, one small change to an ocean of whatever? And that led to the oxygen tank breaking.

1:44:28Bill Simmons:We do this in basketball constantly with shots that went in or didn't go in. Right, right, right, right. If it goes in and then what else? I think that they said at the end that the thing had a two-year issue with this, that it would have happened. Well, the question is, would he have to, like what Paxton's point is raising in this movie, did he look at the gauge before he flipped the switch? And very cunningly, we don't see what he looks at. Like they kind of cut away, they come back to, we just see him flip the switch. Would Ken have caught it if there was like some weirdness going on before he stirred the text?

1:44:57Bill Simmons:Was Ken the best of the four astronauts is another. Seems very good at his job. Yeah. I don't know. We think Jim Lovell is, Jim Lovell was backup for Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. True. But he wasn't Neil Armstrong. He's still a backup. My only other answer, bro, is if Cameron had wanted to do this movie instead of Ron Howard, is it better? It's definitely different. And I think he's way more interested in the inside the ship and everything that's going on in there. Yeah. He is usually not content to let actions speak for themselves. He does, in fact, need to tell you also what they mean. So I think his script would be pretty different.

1:45:45And probably even who he casts.

1:45:46Bill Simmons:He wouldn't have obeyed the transcript, I don't think. I think Ron Howard was the right director. I think he was. Because he's like, I want to do this perfectly. I want to obey the history. We got to get the transcripts right. The stuff in the spacecraft is heightened to a degree that might be more dramatic, but the stuff at mission control would not be as good or just wouldn't be in the movie as much. And that's, I mean, you need it. You need the counterbalance. Because, you know, the first man, where they really went by the book with it. And it's kind of like a, I don't know, like kind of a joyless movie.

1:46:17Bill Simmons:It was good to watch once, but I wouldn't be like, I'm going to crank the first man tonight. Well, I was going to, not to skip to double feature, but I was going to suggest first man as the double feature, mostly in response to all your criticisms of the Kathleen Quinlan character. Not Kathleen Quinlan, but the wife character. And in First Man, you've got Claire Foy, my girl, playing Neil Armstrong's wife. And she yells the immortal, you're just a bunch of boys! But, you know, she's pissed off. She's like, I hope you don't... She's like, you shouldn't go. Like, this is stupid. You're dealing...

1:46:52You know, she's not supportive at all. And then they... There's that last scene where the astronauts get quarantined after they go, which is, I think, another reason that they couldn't extend this movie to the reunion. But they're just staring at each other through the quarantine glass. And you know that they're miserable and that going to the moon didn't solve all of his problems or any of his problems.

1:47:16Bill Simmons:Does this make you want to watch First Man again? I know. I've never actually seen First Man. Oh, it's wonderful. It's really wonderful. So yeah, Ryan Gosling, Damien Chazelle. Yeah. Somehow makes space travel even more improbable than this does. Like there's a shot of Gosling in the spacecraft as like the screws rattle on the window. That scene was great. Yeah. I just can't fathom how any of this actually worked, but somehow it did. I love the double feature. Yeah, and it's a good compliment to like, what does it mean to get to do your thing or not do your, you know, to get to go to the moon or not go to the moon and what does that do?

1:47:50They're, you know, they're about great men.

1:47:52Bill Simmons:We had Damien on my podcast when he was promoting that movie. Not videotaped because I didn't videotape anything for three years in my office like a fucking idiot. Yeah. Devil Wears Prada rewatchables. Just not on video. So much not on video because I was like, no, people are more comfortable if there's not cameras. What a fucking genius I was. The memorabilia you'd most want from this movie? White vest. See, I don't think I could pull off the white vest. I wonder if I could pull off the gold flight jacket. It might just be borderline enough where I could actually rock that thing. So I would love the gold flight jacket.

1:48:28Bill Simmons:I like the outfits they were wearing at the end after they got rescued. I would definitely take one of those suits. Okay. The flight suit. I think the answer is probably gym levels. If you're just going for what's the most valuable thing from this movie that you could own from, like, one of those auction sites, it's got to be the Tom Hanks, like, movie-worn astronaut suit. Right? Yeah. That would be a jaw-dropper. I was trying to think of, like, if there's anything, like, a little smaller stakes, though. like Gary Sinise's sleeveless white t-shirt when he's just banging beers, just feeling bad for himself, watching Dick Cavett.

1:49:05Bill Simmons:He's having a tough night. The beer bottle, you know, the whole system, maybe. This is the tough Dick Cavett cameo where it's like, Ken's hit the lowest point of his life. He's drinking beer by himself watching Dick Cavett. Well, the bit is like about being a peeping Tom in New York City in the summer, basically. Right. And then also, he tries to make jokes about Jack Swaggart, but cannot remember his name or where they're going. It's what you're right. Yeah, it's what this, this. Coach Finstock, Mr. Maggi, we're best, worst life lesson. Let's work the problem. I was opening my phone to read that quote to you.

1:49:40How about your greatest disaster is moments away from being your finest, or is seconds away from being your finest moment, right? The whole like, if we just get this one thing right at the end, it can invert everything. Everything can flip just like that.

1:49:51Bill Simmons:That's what Bill Chisholm said to Brad Stevens as he was approving the Jalen Brown trade. They should have led him Put that in the press conference. I can't. We can't bring this up right now. I'm not ready for Sixers. No, you're not ready? I'm so angry. We might do a little sports thing after we finish filming. So hold your thoughts. Okay. My double feature choice was Gravity with Sandra Bullock. I like that. Sure. What do you have? I did The Martian. Another like problem-solving. Another good one. Speaking of work the problem. How do we work the problem? How do you get food? How do you get oxygen?

1:50:22How do you get rid of CO2? It's like it's all the same stuff all over again. Who won the movie? Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Craig? Double feature, Rocky IV. Just kind of lean in. Fuck Russia. Oh, America? Cold War? Yeah, just keep going. Craig gets it. Double win. I hadn't seen this in probably 10, 15 years, and it aged so well. It's just like a warm hug. I don't know if it's just like where we are now. It was like the 70s or 1970 was like, like you guys were saying, depicting American idealism. And then even like mid-90s in Hollywood, the fact that they like, I didn't know that thing about the Universal Lake, but they filmed this whole movie in LA.

1:50:57They like built all the sets in LA. You have like Tom Hanks, Ron Howard making a space movie in LA, like with your bare hands. The whole movie is just wonderful and feels incredibly warm. For the last hour, I stood up like I was watching the Knicks comeback. I was standing up, just pacing back and forth. I knew how the movie ended. It fully hits and has aged so well. It's aged even better now. I don't know if it's that I'm getting older, but like even the tropey stuff with the wife and the kids, I'm like, kind of hit for me this time. I remember not really liking it. Was it the door? The door.

1:51:27I know. The door is magic. The three minutes when they're reentering and it's cutting back and forth to the family.

1:51:33Bill Simmons:And it gets past three minutes. Yeah, it's like 3.30, 3.40. No one wants to say it. Four minutes. Yeah. I have a reappreciation for Tom Hanks watching this movie too. Yeah. I don't really have a Tom Hanks now. It's just wonderful. Yeah, this movie's aged really well. I like it the most I've ever liked it like in the last couple years. Welcome. For a bunch of different reasons. I was never like, oh, Apollo. I love it but I always respected it but now I don't know Space Camp when? Ringer Space Camp 15 year anniversary yeah who is Tom Hanks now? we don't have like we definitely don't have one kind of sort of Gosling but not really even most of these characters and these parts we don't really have anymore like the Quinlan part I was trying to think like if they made this now who is that?

1:52:20is that Carrie Coon? is that like who plays a part like that? I don't even know yeah they do look alike But yeah, I mean, I don't know who the... I can't.

1:52:29Bill Simmons:It's Gwyneth Paltrow. I don't know who the Jimmy Stewart is because we aren't really making movies with this type of warmth and optimism, even in the face of things going wrong. Or we are, but there's still Tom Hanks somehow. Yeah, things are just going wrong all the time and everybody is trying to scam their way through it. Project Hail Mary is probably the right comp right now because it was Gosling, but Gosling still I don't think is Tom Hanks. Yeah. I'll save my thoughts on Project Hail Mary. Okay. It was fine. Okay. Yeah. You didn't save your thoughts. That's one where it needed to end 30 minutes before and it needed to end as soon as he opened, as soon as he and Rocky saw each other in the ship.

1:53:13That's the ending. And then if you have any of the reunion stuff and now I'm black on the planet teaching all the little Rockies and Sandra Huller is like old and saying thank you, you know, or amaze, amaze, or whatever. It's just a disaster. It was a little hokey for me, the whole movie. I agree. I had a great time. But yeah, we don't need to see the classroom of rock children. We definitely did not.

1:53:36Bill Simmons:I didn't see it in the theater, so I want to have that caveat. I saw it at home. It ended, and my wife looked at me and said, that was some corny bullshit. It was. But good corny bullshit. Listen, the last 20 minutes are crazy corny, which is why I respect Apollo 13 for ending when it does. Yeah. You don't need the extra icing on top. It's one of the most millennial movies ever made. That is true. But in 30 years, we're going to be doing a rewatchables for it. So I look forward to it. The puppet stuff is good. It's good. The problem now is instead of making movies like this, we make movies, these two movies I like that I'm about to say, but we make movies like The Drama and The Invite.

1:54:14Bill Simmons:Love them both. The creativity is moving. I know it's just, people are less interested in making a movie like Apollo 13. That is true. Yeah. Ron Howard now would be like, I want to make the invite. I don't want to do the Apollo 13. I don't think he or anyone else could get the budget to make Apollo 13, nor would they be allowed to do Vomit Comet or anything. It would just be all CGI. Say what you want about the movies, because I agree with you about Project Hail Mary. Is it making Project Hail Mary the current version of making Apollo 13? Yeah, but it's, I mean, it's the most millennial annoying movie ever.

1:54:46I agree, and I'm a millennial. Well, I'm sure there was a... I liked it. I think I even teared up with the Rocky. You know, listen, I'm a mark for Ryan Gosling being charming. And I guess the Ryan Gosling comp is right in that he's both, he's playing the role. And much of that movie's charm is him reacting quietly to a puppet.

1:55:12Bill Simmons:It's hanging with Ryan Gosling. Yeah. He's surrounded by goofy, dumb shit. But now he's doing Star Wars and he's doing another. thing and like to me the martian was so much better than project hill mary i can't even believe it's would be compared to you love it's true though i know but i just thought the martian was a better movie like it's it's more ambitious i don't know when i went back and re-watched it though i had forgotten how corny some of the jokes are in the martian like let's science the shit out of this which listen matt damon can can do no wrong in my book i'm a huge fan it's but i was like oh this is of its generation.

1:55:49It's the same author, right? Isn't that the same author? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he spends, it's Matt Damon planting potatoes and being a vlogger for two hours. It's a really good movie, but it is corny and it is endearing. That are kind of hokey. Completely. Luckily, I'm the best botanist alive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or on this planet. It's a lot of that stuff.

1:56:07Bill Simmons:You know how easy this is for me? It's a fucking joke. And I'm sorry you can't do this. I really am. Damon's the best. Retail. Come to the Damon side of Damon versus Leo. This is flight surgeon horse shit. Oh, I'm totally on the Damon side. Come right here. Damon versus Leo? No, that's nuts. It's so obvious that Leo. This is ridiculous. That's the boy stuff. Yeah. You also like when you value Joel Embiid's 40 games a year over the guys who play 72 to 80. It's not like Leo is load managing. The guy has made a ton of moves. He's load managing. He's one a year. Damon's like taking chances. Damon's like, yeah, we bought a zoo with Cameron Crowe.

1:56:47Bill Simmons:I'll try it. And you don't even like the Oceans movies that much. And he's got those on the roster. It's okay. That's fine. You don't like the Oceans movies? No. No, I like one. I like the Eleven. I really like Eleven. But he didn't do the rewatchables. I didn't like Twelve. Yeah, and then... No, I liked Eleven. I just passed it off. That was early in the rewatchables, though. That's true. And then you made us do Twelve for flawed rewatchables, which I was offended by, because I think Twelve is the second best sequel ever made after Godfather Part II. Twelve's pretty flawed. They're all good. No, I wasn't in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

1:57:20That's Matt Damon line. When they have Julia Roberts pretend to be Julia Roberts. And it's good stuff. It's, revisit it. Yeah, but Project Hail Mary's the corny one. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. It's cool. I can't believe that.

1:57:34Bill Simmons:I would have thought you would have not liked Project Hail Mary that much. I like it. I can't help it. I'm clutching for some optimism as much as anybody. I want to be intrigued by the stars and the power of friendship with a rock. I think the Elon autobiography movie is going to be awesome I can't wait to see who plays him Elon's race to get us to Mars we needed a hero we finally found one and his 17 kids are watching as he tries to get us to another planet on that note Craig Oralbeck thank you Rob Mahoney great to see you Amanda great to see you glad you're back in the rotation me too thanks for suggesting this thanks for pushing thank you for a true pleasure thank you for not giving it away I'm really happy to be here.

1:58:16Bill Simmons:And thanks to Tom Hanks. Good to see you guys.

1:58:29This episode is brought to you by the movie Mutiny. Only in theaters August 21st, Jason Statham stars in Mutiny, the new action thriller from the director of Plane. when an international conspiracy turns deadly Statham goes off the grid on a one man mission to take down those

1:58:46Bill Simmons:responsible if you're a fan of the Beekeeper the Meg or the Expendables this is exactly the kind of movie you want to see Statham in one of the defining action stars of the last 25 years doing what he does best think Die Hard on a boat Mutiny only in theaters August 21st rated R for strong bloody violence and language glad which is good.