Last Action Hero: Production Notes - Advertising & Test Screening Blunders - See You at the Poddy, Richter! - An Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Tape deck Media.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
See the.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hello, and welcome to see what the Potty Rictor. My
name is Chris Chapman, joined as always by my co
hosts Aaron Frescus, What Up? And Joseph beccastro.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hello, que de Pyes, And.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Joining us once again is our special guest Erica Shasky. Hello,
thanks for coming back. Erica to continue talking about Arnold's
nineteen ninety two three three three doesn't matter to me.
I was a toddler anyway, nineteen ninety three action comedy. Yeah, no,

(00:52):
I'm out of these action comedy vehicle, last Action Hero.
Today we are going to be talking about some of
the promotional material, So Aaron gonna tell us about stuff
that was a bad intro. It doesn't matter. He'll tell
us some stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Okay, how's it going, guys? I'm all right. That's good.
Check out my cup. I can't.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, that's what's so cool about it. It's a movie.
Oh oh, ship, it's a movie.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
You gotta talk so I.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Can see it. Because I just see Joe's giant face.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Don't shoot me, I got him. That's that's a whiskers.
He's over there somewhere. I don't know there he is
fucking blasting fools.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Ship that's like a comic book.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, well, I'm just turning it.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
But yeah, it's I meant. I meant the arts comic books.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
A strawby, because I don't I don't know what this
guy did with the cup before I got it.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's fair.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Anyway, it's a Last Action Hero cup that I that
was like ten bucks eBay. Some from some pervert on
eBay snagged it. Anyway. Uh So we left off late
January ninety three, Universal moving up. Jurassic Parks released day
two weeks so, now come out a week before Last

(02:11):
Section Hero and then Colombia's delusional chairman Mark Canton responding
by doing nothing that's right. And I'm just gonna start
with le John mcchernon quote quote the John mcchernon. That's
that's what John mcchann doesn't quotes against quotes.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Mcquote, yeah him.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
The mcquote McTiernan mcgave you guys. We're just talking about
Columbia over hyping.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
The movie, the mcmovie.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, the mcmovie. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
You know how you have Spike Lee joints all his
or mcmovies.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
No affiliation to McDonald wipes however, and uh, what I
was saying was mcgiernan pulled Empire Magazine in twenty twelve quote,
I didn't have time to get intimately involved in all
the press disasters, but the advertising campaign was terrible. It
did seem that if they hadn't overhyped the movie, it
would have been a lot easier to sell it, because

(03:05):
it's actually sweet and kind of small in its heart.
It isn't Cleopatra. It's the anti Cleopatra. And then he
finishes by saying, and if they had come on, I
know that fucked me up last time too. And if
they had come on a little more quietly, I mean,
it does help. It probably would have worked out better

(03:27):
for them anyway. Unquote and yeah, he ain't wrong.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
So supposedly a few people urged Columbia to push back
to the release date, with Zach Penn talking in the
same Empire magazine article about how he once again called
up Mark Kanton saying quote, it was insane. I rang
him up and said, I want to see Jurassic Park
more than the last section, hero and last section. Here
was my idea as a way to try to get

(03:51):
him to like postpone the date.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
That's why you're not on the movie anymore.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Exactly all the stuff, like every single time he says,
I don't know what's most of stuff, but I'm like, dude, yeah,
you're kind of you're being a pain in the ass.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Truly, they weren't going to listen to you before. They're
certainly not going to listen to you now, what the
fuck you?

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Yeah, it kind of sounds like Mark Kinn's secretary kind
of just hated him because he's setting calls through because
it's the second time that zach Kin's been able to
get through no problem, just voices complaints. Anyway, Apparently competing
with Jurassic Park wasn't the only reason Canton was being
bugged about the release, Like the date Supposedly builth John
McTiernan and uh Sorr I was gonna say, Arnold Mick

(04:30):
Schwarzenegger ar both asked Columbia to push back the release
date in order to allow for more post production time,
but Kenton refused, supposedly dude, not wanting to give off
the impression to the media that the movie was in trouble,
which totally would have made them look like fucking idiots.
After all, the bragging they were doing about it being
the greatest movie ever, and apparently like not looking dumb

(04:51):
took presidents over the well being of the movie. Yeah,
because they're like, no, no, no, as long as we all
look dumb, it's fine. Whatever, we'll just look dumb later. Exactly.
That's the way I think about stuff too, which now
I'm trying to understand Mark can a little better. By
the way, John McTiernan was also kind of right as
far as what he said about the Last Section Hero

(05:13):
advertising campaign being not good because Columbia made a few
odd I guess odd would call him odd choices, which
Arnold talks about a little bit in his book because
apparently he was heavily involved with the ad campaign due
to being an executive producer on the film, and while
he does discuss some of the promotional sens we're going
to talk about, he wasn't exactly forthcoming about a few

(05:33):
pretty darn crucial details, for instance, the like mishaps and
like misfortunes that they'd end up dealing with throughout the
run of the ad campaign or whatever. Anyway, let's hear
what Arnold had to say about Last Action Heroes campaign
and I'll feel in any missing details along the way.
So he begins by talking about his involvement in the
film's merchandising decisions, specifically the design process of the Mattel

(05:55):
toy line, which, by the way, was just one of
the many aspects of the film that he had final
set over, because I think it was all the marketing
and promotional stuff. But yeah, anyway, he says in the book, quote,
when the toy people showed up with their prototypes of
a Jack Slater doll, I vetoed the combat weapons they proposed.
I said, this is the nineties, not the eighties. Instead
of wielding a flamethrower, the toy Jack Slater threw a

(06:17):
punch and said big mistake, which was Slater's tagline against
the bad guys on the toy package. It said, play
it smart, never play with real guns. Unquote. And yeah,
I'm sure you guys will be surprised that this was
not a very popular decision. They even like kind of
touched on it in the Nancy Griffin book Hit and Run,
which is one of the books I read, claiming that
the decision for a weaponless action figure was quote the

(06:39):
last thing anyone wanted to hear as one prominent producer
pointed out an Action figure with that weapons is a doll. Yeah.
So basically what I took from that is, if you
ever see a little kid playing with a Superman toys,
totally fine to be like nice doll pussy. I don't know,
because I started thinking, I'm like, yeah, I guess I know.
No sure, stretch arms, trum just like rolling over in

(07:02):
his grave. By the way, I wanted to mention the
Jurassic Park toys as well, but then I found a
few old TV ads for both of them, for Last
Action Hero and the Draftic Park toys, so we'll save
that for when we check out the promo videos.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
Why wasn't the toy line called Last Action Figures. Yes,
I don't think I've ever seen a Last Time. Like
I've seen a lot of old toys, but I don't
think i've ever seen a Last Action Year.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, there's you might have, but they're they're they're kind
of boring, so we'll see them later.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
It's just a dude in a red T shirt, yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Pretty much, or a black T shirt, so you know
they got to change it up some more toys. Anyway, Well,
let's get back to Arnold talking about the awesome Mad campaign,
continuing singing in his book quote, we went all out
on merchandising and promotion. Besides the action toys, we licensed
seven kinds of video games, a twenty million dollar promotion
with Burger King, a thirty six million dollar ride film

(07:51):
to go into amusement parks. And this is my favorite.
NASA picked us to be the first ever paid advertisement
in outer space.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, what is that?

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Just like forcing astronauts to watch commercials. I don't understand
what that means.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Oh no, they have the astronauts doing the sign spinning
up there. It's very easy up there. No I do
remember this, so really, yeah, the space do not remember
this at all?

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Oh my god, I haven't add I'm not. I don't
have a link for it. But like I saw what sorry,
I saw an ad for the like the number you
can call anyway. But he talks a little bit more
about we're gonna go through real fast. So first he
mentioned about how they licensed seven kind of video games,
which like made it sound like they made seven different
video games, but what he meant was that it was

(08:39):
released on seven different platforms.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, okay, meaning like Super Nintendo why is both counted
as a kind of video game to Arnold? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, and that was including the original Nintendo. Yeah, which
is I was surprised by it because, like the Super
Nintendo had already been out for like three years. Yeah,
so I was like, what Andy was still making? Apparently
any the Lost any S game was released in nineteen
ninety five.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
I think Nintendo like supports their consoles for a really
long time.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Is that good or bad?

Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's good. It means you don't have to buy the
new console to play the new games. Okay, yeah, well
I mean I mean good for consumers. I guess I don't.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
I'm curious. I see, like, I'm curious what was the
next one after the Super Ants? Was it sixty four? Yeah? Yeah,
I think so, I'm now curious what year that came out,
Like if they waited until.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, yeah, something like that before they like.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Stopped making games for the Nintendo.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Virtual Boy was in there somewhere.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
But sure, wait, wasn't that bad? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:37):
Was that the Red one?

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah? Yeah, so when they gave people horrible headaches?

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Okay, see that and the power Glove looks so cool,
but you can't afford like my parents ain't gonna pay
for that shit, no, especially because they don't think it
worked very well.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, no, I think it was.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
But that Wizard movie Man was great advertising.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh yeah, on the Power Gloves so bad exactly.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
That and a super Mario Brothers three was just like, man,
this is awesome.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well that lived up to the fucking hype. That game
is still amazing.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
That and your parents getting divorced was like I was like, yeah,
all about it, because like I was kind of upset
about it until I watched that movie. I was like,
all right, Fred Savage has a point. It's gonna be
okay to anyway. Exactly. Uh. But yeah, as far as
the video game, apparently it also did not include guns
or any weapons at all, which I'm sure made it

(10:27):
super fun. Yeah, it's supposed to be like kind of
like a beat him up game.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
The game also wasn't released until January of ninety four,
so six months after the movie hit theaters. Jesus and
I guess this was to coincide with the home video release.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
I'm no marketing genius, but that seems like a bad choice.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Okay, Yes, And I want to take a look at
the Admiral Fast because it's like thirty seconds song and
it contained some useful interesting info. I would guess you could.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Say cool and play if you want. At you then
we got it.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
Lashed Action Hero Now the year's most Chimpact movie is
Today's Hottest video game for your Super Nintendo in Sega
Genesis systems, and it's available only at your video store.
So when you're returning this cassette, pick up the game
and live the action.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Okay, anyone noticed how they mentioned that it's only available
at the video store.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah? Did everybody notice how you don't see the game?

Speaker 6 (11:25):
Yeah? I did not, Like, we're just about to take
this kid's word for it that he's like staring at
a TV and like having so much fun, like that.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
They finished the game when they made that commercial.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
I mean, I wasn't like really wanted to play the
game until I saw much fun that kid was having
or he was having a seizure while playing the game. Anyway. Okay,
so I'm gonna throw out to Wikipedia for the reason
behind the whole video store decision, because I don't know
it's easier to do that, which says that each copy
of the Genesis and set Super a nes versions had

(11:59):
an unusually high wholesale price of sixty to seventy dollars,
with resulting one dollars retail price Jesus, which is crazy
for night Yeah, which was too high for most consumers obviously,
because the retail price now for PlayStation five games is
what seventy sixty nine?

Speaker 3 (12:15):
I think, Yeah, they're just like they're just now making
games more expensive for the first.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
They're just now making the price of video games sexy
sixty nine dollars, So that's insane for nineteen ninety three.
But it continues by saying that as a result, the
two game versions were originally only available as rentals for
a minimum seven month period, which I think they helped
did that for seven months, and then after a seven
month rental period was up, the two game versions would

(12:42):
be repriced for consumer retail. So were they trying to
I guess they were trying to recoup some of the
don't I don't know. That's weird. I just don't understand, Like, like,
the more stuff I find out about their ad campaign,
the more I'm just like, what are you guys purposely
trying to like self sabotaging, Like, what are you do mean,
this is so weird anyway, Okay. So, Arnold also mentioned
the twenty million dollar promotion with burn King, which we

(13:04):
watched the ad and ad fordur in the pre watch
the one with the cool collectible cups. Oh yeah, yeah,
which I didn't know, Joe, did you have one of those?
Because I didn't know it was a sleeve that was
on it.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
I didn't have one.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
Do you know what do you remember him though? Like
if you turn it, it like like, oh yeah, it kind
of makes it look like a movie.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
No, I don't remember that.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
It was well, it's it was a sleeve.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
It was a sleeve that you would turn, so basically
you put over that holes in it so there'd be
a picture on there and as you turn it, it make
it look like a movie. So yeah, So there were
comments on the There were comments on like Reddit. They
were like, yeah, I lost the sleeve after the first day.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
But anyway.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
He then mentions that the thirty six million dollar quote
unquote ride film to go in amusement parks, which I
could not find a damn thing about except a mention
of it in a nineteen ninety three Bloomberg article, which
says that a simulator ride using film footage was in
the works, along with the virtual virtual reality version of
the movie that was supposed to show in theaters, which

(14:04):
I don't get how that would work.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
But no, but that sounds insanely. Yeah, that sounds insane.

Speaker 6 (14:10):
I mean I think it could work nowadays with like
the four D capability.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, yeah, that's what it sounds like. Then.

Speaker 6 (14:16):
I mean, maybe like a production of like they had
like I think it was that Disneyland, or maybe they didn't.
They had like a I Shrunk the audience like production
where you I never went to that.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
Okay, Yeah, that was well that was the same thing
as like forty though, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Or was it essentially essentially which was it was like
three D plus a little bit of like like in
room like actual effects like fog machines and shit like the.

Speaker 6 (14:42):
Dog actually sneezes on you and stuff.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
Yeah, have you guys done the forty movies because that
seems like it would be like just.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Sounds like a nightmare.

Speaker 6 (14:52):
That sounds like a take it off for three out.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, it just sounds like the seed is going to
be punching you the whole time.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Like, I don't that sounds pleasurable. But I'm the guy
that likes time massages, you know, the the chicks like
staying on you and like fucking do the people's elbow
in your back and shit.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
So okay, so the yeah, that Bloomberg article. Okay. Anyway,
I'm assuming the plans for both of those, the virtual
reality thing and the simulator, were dropped after the film
and performed at the box office because I could not
find a like, like I said a thing about him, damn.
And at first I thought that maybe it had like
a short run at like Universal Studios, but that because

(15:33):
that sounds like something that they'd have there. But there's
the Universal made Jurassic Parks. There's no Yeah, yeah that's true.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
Once I was like, you know, was it it?

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Okay, I started I started looking for it, and I
was like, maybe Univeral Studios. I was like, oh wait,
they know that.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
I'm trying to like, who would even have it if
not Universal Studios?

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Exactly?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Definitely not Disney, right, yeah, so like.

Speaker 6 (15:51):
Yeah, it feels like it would be like the tram
ride at Universal. Well, isn't like a version of it?

Speaker 4 (15:58):
Well, isn't a Yeah true, that actually would be kind
of like Jurassic.

Speaker 6 (16:01):
Has its own ride there.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, like that's like a tour through the park or something, right,
the tram ride, No, the the Jurassic Park one.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's like a it's like a water ride.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah yeah, but are you just like what's like right?

Speaker 3 (16:16):
I mean I feel like the concept is it's been
a long time, says it's been on it, but yeah,
I think the concept is that you're just kind of
going through the park, but like Jssic Park.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Universal Universal Studio.

Speaker 6 (16:34):
I thought that was the tram ride. I'm so confused. Sorry.
I even watched Okay, this is how bored I was
the other day. I literally I just turned on TikTok
and somebody was recording the Jurassic Park like ride live.
While they were on it, I was like, I'll watch this.
That's fine, Like I'll just sit here and pretend I'm
on the ride with you when you were there. Yeah,

(16:54):
I've been on it twice. Can I tell you we
went through the park?

Speaker 4 (16:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (16:59):
I remember the end of the ride and the end
of the ride. I remember thinking, oh, that was very
similar to Indiana Jones.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
Was there no drop in that ride?

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Drop?

Speaker 6 (17:09):
There's one drop where it's like the dinosaur comes at
you and then the ride ducks under the dinosaur, and
it just reminded me of like Indiana Jones. Were you like, duck.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Fuck that t rex.

Speaker 6 (17:21):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
So it's not like a not like a splash mountain drop.
It's like a little small drop.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
No, it's like a splash mountain drop.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
It's probably a little less than splash mountain. But it's
it's not like a steep. It's not like it's not
like a beginning of Pirates of the character.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Yeah, yeah, that was the other one. No, no, no, okay.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
No, just fuck that t rex because apparently we went
to Universe. I went to Universe Studios once with our
family and we went on that ride they took. Yeah,
and we you know, the fucking pictures on the ride
like that they take it. We never buy those fucking pictures, right, Well,
apparently my face was so fucking scared that they they

(17:59):
thought it was hilarious and they decided to buy the
fucking picture. Oh my god, the picture's up in the
house somewhere.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
That's awesome. Jose Or I don't know if I'm sure.
Erica went on too, but the Simpson's ones just riding
through the springfield.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Right, yeah, you're like in an elevator or something. So
I think, like you guys ever been on the Back
of the Future, right, you're just kind of in a
cart with like a screen in front. Yeah, like the
cart Star.

Speaker 6 (18:24):
Tours, right yeah, but but not like well Star Tours
is like you're in a cart with a bunch of people.
This is just a cart with your people.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Oh so it's per party.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yes, Oh, I don't remember. There was seven years ago.

Speaker 6 (18:42):
I only remember because I downed of Mitchellata inline and
the whole time I was sitting in the back of
the car thinking, don't throw up on the back of
your brother's head.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Do that.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
So it's a it's not even like it's a it's
one of like Star toars is what do you call those?

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, so it's not moving like it is, but it's
not like resturract forward.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how the Back to the
Future one was, and I think probably that's how it's not.
That's what it sounds like. They wanted to set up
for last section Hero.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yeah, for thirty six million dollars, which I don't remember.
How much that tto thing costs. But like I feel
like it was a lot.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yeah, it was a lot. I just like, if it's
not at Universal Studios and it's not at Disneyland, does
that mean it just ended up at like Family Fun
Center or something like Bush.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
The Gardens that's an the place or not Berry Farm.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, was Magic Mountain a thing back then? I guess
six Flights.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yes, Mountain has been there since like at least the sixties.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, so I guess I meant six Flags.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
But yeah, well I mean six Flags bought Magic Button.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
Yeah, okay, so yeah that never happened. And I tried
to find something because there's a bunch of articles that
I like talk about old rides that don't exist anymore.
It's but like in ones that are based on movies.
But it's not any of those. So I don't think
it like once the movie bombed. I don't. I think
it just they're like just quietly like, okay, we're not
going to do that.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Not worth it.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
Moving on, Arnold describes his favorite of their marketing stunts, saying, quote,
NASA picked us up to be the well, like I
was saying, NASA picked us up to be the first
ever paid advertisement atter space. We painted Last Action Hero
and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the sides of a rocket and
then held a national sweepstakes whose winners would get to
push the launch button. Unquote that sounds joke like that

(20:25):
sounds kind of cool, yeah, yeah, but unfortunately it once
again emits a few pretty important details. So quick background
information about the whole thing. On March third, nineteen ninety three,
Columbia Pictures announced that it made a deal with NASA
to promote Last Section Hero but having Arnold's name painted
on US six outer booster rockets and then the title

(20:46):
logo painted across the fuselage, the payload and a science satellite.
The plan was for the unmanned Conestoga rocket to launch
sometime in May nineteen ninety three and then conduct micro
gravity experiments as it orbits there for two years. It
was supposed to be, like you said, the first time
that a US rocket would be used to advertising space,
with Columbia's President of Marketing Sid Ganis aka the dude

(21:09):
that didn't know how to describe the film, yeah, him
telling the United Press International that they were excited about
breaking new ground in the advertising world, and apparently they
because apparently they had like a bunch of different companies
that wanted to participate anyway. The president of Space Marketing, Inc.
Which was the marketing firm that partnered with NASA, ended
up telling the La Times that they decided on only

(21:31):
one ad because, quote, we didn't want the rocket to
look like a pace car at the Indy five hundred yeah, unquote.
But yeah, the ad would end up costing Columbia Pictures
five hundred thousand dollars, which seems like a lot of
money for an ad that nobody's ever They're never gonna
say you.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
See precisely once like during the launch, which yeah, nobody watches,
but I know it's like.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
It's that's not the point. It's like about doing it
more like for like the hype or whatever, like getting
people just thinking about the move, like exactly public. Yeah,
offering the jet, offering the what.

Speaker 6 (22:06):
Offering the jet for PEPSI?

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, offering the jet. Do we watch something
about someone that like scammed his way into getting enough
for that.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
I didn't scam his way.

Speaker 6 (22:15):
He did scamm it.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
He was sorry, sorry, he found a loophole.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, PEPSI, where's my jet? It's on Netflix? It's good.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
Yeah, we did watch it, okay, yes, but yeah. So
in order to build that hype, they also partnered with
AT and T to set up a nine hundred number
where callers would leave a message that would be sent
up into space with the rocket, which I'm assuming they
would have done by just like duct taping an old
answering machine to the side of the like you put
them all on an answering machine and then like duct taping

(22:42):
on the side of the rocket. You know.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
Again, my question is like, for who, like are the
astronauts forced to listen to these messages? Is it for aliens?

Speaker 4 (22:51):
I think it's just like a like again, an advertising,
like a promo gimmick, like your stuff will be up
in space. I don't know. And this wasn't free, by
the way, Oh yeah, that's true. It's a nine Yes,
calling up that nine hundred number and leaving a message
would put you back three dollars and fifty cents per message.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
Man, my dad made me pay the phone bill one
time because I called my friend too many times. They
had my friend had got a cell phone, and I
don't know that it was a nine hundred number. What
but they got a cell phone unless.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
Your friend was like a special friend.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
It was not a special friend, Okay, but I called
my friend so much on the landline to talk to
them over here. My dad made me pay the phone bill.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Eric learned money management really early. I didn't. But yeah,
it also entered the three dollars and fifty cents whatever,
or just the call in general just entered you into
a contest. The contest that Arnold mentioned, but the two
winners joining Arnold for the launch and even helping him
push the button that launches the rocket. Yeah, which I'm
assuming he probably needed do to. Like I guess the

(23:56):
button was probably small, and you got the sausage fingers.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, it was like, what do you need to problem?

Speaker 4 (24:01):
Ye're like, yeah, that's from the Simpsons where it's like
where or Homer gets fat and he's trying to like
dial phone. The things you were dealing with are to.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Obtain the special telling at uh.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
Fortunately for them, Arnold's extra beefy digits wouldn't be a problem,
because about two months later Variety Variety reported that NASA
had confirmed that the rocket would not launch until at
least July or August, which would be one to two
months after the film was released. Columbia still try to
play it cool by saying that the delayed launch still
worked as far as marketing for like the international release. Sure,

(24:39):
but the media just spun it as pretty much like
another sign that the if the movie's in trouble. The
launch eventually ended up being canceled completely, which uh I
didn't write down, but it was like due to like
the president of that's the uh the company that NASA
partnered with.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
The marketing company.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yeah, yeah, he wanted to get that going like as
a thing, and there was such pushback against it that
apparently they outlawed it in the US. They still do.
They This wasn't the first time that they. Russia was
already doing this like advertising in space, oh oh okay, yeah,
but they outlauded in the US, like.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Like the concept of contests.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
No advertising in space, setting any any sort of advertise,
like any sort of advertisement in space, gotcha. Yeah. So
I think it was Clinton that ended up signing something
that just completely outlawed it. But yeah, the launch being
canceled didn't really get any coverage because at this point
the movie had already been released, and like I'm saying,
leading up to that release, the media would just latch
onto any sort of negative news about the movie. It's

(25:43):
only because they were so supposedly, and that's what pretty
much any sort of article that was saying about it
even after its release, they were like fuck this movie,
like they came out of the.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Gate so like whatever, but like overconfident, yes exactly, Yeah,
which sucks because that really hit, Like none of this
stuff really has anything to do with the movie. Yeah,
and there was it suffers for it.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
Like I read an article that was it was old too,
but it was talking about how how much influence the
media has over how well movies do. But by doing
that kind of stuff, like it called Sleepless in Seattle
a sleeper hit before the movie came out, and like
it was it was commenting on that, sorry that how

(26:24):
it kept getting called a sleeper hit, and it was like,
you can't be a sleeper hit if your movie hasn't
come out yet. Yeah, like that's something that what happens.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
The data has to bear out afterwards, like yeah, yeah, no, I.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Mean it's literally called sleepless in Seattle.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
Oh see. They were just well that it can't be
a sleeper Joe. It has to be a Sleepless hit.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
No, the characters are sleepless in Seattle. But if you
watch it in anywhere not Seattle, then then you'll be
you'll be the sleep sleep.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah, Bay, you're a sleeper. You know what.

Speaker 6 (26:56):
I can't tell you that I've watched or purchased anything
from Russia because I've seen their advertisements in space.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
Yeah. I didn't even look I didn't look into that
space for me, I didn't look into that. But it
was like, oh, interesting Russia. Like, if we are going
to beat them in one thing, it will be shooting
ads into space. I want Dolgatlovich at in space anyway. Okay, Yeah,

(27:25):
But as far as like the just the media latching
on of stuff like Entertainment Weeklies cover article the week
before the movie came out was all about the negative
rumors surrounding the film, although I will admit it includes
my favorite bit of info about the rocket launch, with
them writing that the idea of advertising in space was
getting pushed back from the National Coalition of on Television Violence. Apparently,

(27:46):
they were picketing outside the Sony lot and according to
the article, they were quote calling for the studio to
paint children's drawings about Peace on the Rocket instead, which
unquote but sounds like something like out of like a
Simpsons episode that makes fun of hippies. Like for sure,
you gotta because like you're working.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
For your car men.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
But like it's just like when I read that, it was like, what,
that's what you want? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Well, I mean, as I mentioned before, there's a whole
uproar about this movie and violence in the media and everything,
and yet out anybody trying to find it. Fucking with Donahue.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
Yeah, yeah, So it was not looking good as far
as marketing at this point, but at least it can't
get any worse.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
Right for sure?

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Certainly, Yeah, let's find out by finishing off that quote
from Marls book with him saying, quote, we put up
a four story tall, inflatable statue of Jack Slater on
a raft just off the beach at can during the
film Festival in May, and I set a personal record
there by giving forty TV interviews and fifty four print
interviews in a single twenty four hour period.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Wow, Jess, Yeah, Jesus.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
And so the only thing I wanted to mention about
the interview thing, and I can't remember where I read
this but anyway, it was like how he'd gotten his
answers down pretty much down to like three minutes or
sorry he didn't. He got each interview down at three minutes. Yeah,
and he's got he's got his answers like to where
they were like mechanical, like uh, basically, the journalist was
like that it kind of sucks with the interviewer, which
I get, but also like, yeah, I'm sure doing press

(29:11):
junkets fucking suck yeaheah, So he's trying.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
To shove that nearly one hundred and yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Like, let's just get it through postgame interview. You know,
we're like we just went in there and played the
game and executed, Like all right, what you can you
tell me about that? But like, man, we executed like
we're out of Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
You know, that's why the crazy ones get so much attention,
because it's like something that's, oh.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, everybody's trying to fucking bait him into like giving
him a good sound clip or whatever. But like the
smart ones, you know, we'll just be like or even
like Marshawn Lynch because you know, Marshaw Lynch is like
a very like friendly and open guy and he was
like that at the beginning of his career, but the
press kept taking a ship and doing it, so like
at Super Bowl and He's like, I'm just here so

(29:53):
I don't get fined.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Like that was literally he said that.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
At least twenty times. That was his answer to every thing, like, oh, Marshaun,
tell me about this. He's like, I'm just here so
I don't get fined. That's all he did.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Nice, Okay.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
So as far as the four story inflatable jacks Slater
that Arnold mentioned, it was the same one that they
used in the movie during the the Jack Slater premiere
at the end, which they actually shot in New York
City in Times Square. And I'm going to add a
picture to the chat, but for anyone listening, it basically
looks like a balloon you'd see at the Macy's Thanksgiving

(30:28):
d parade. It's just like a big inflatable Jack Slater
that's holding a gun in one hand and a police
badge in the other hand. So they first used the
balloon during filming in New York City and then brought
it to the promote the film at the Can Festival.
So sorry, Can Film Festival, not it wasn't the goat
festival that we were was? It sounds like a festival
for goats, like can Yeah, I couldn't think of a

(30:54):
better joke. It was like just anyway. Now, I'm going
to send a picture of the original version of the balloon,
and I know it's not the best quality picture, but
do you guys notice a difference between the two. I
doubt it because the picture quality is so shitty.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
I mean, the gun looks double guns.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Yeah, the gun looks like it's deflated a little bit.
Like It's like I was.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Almost wondering if it was supposed to be nunchucks instead of.

Speaker 6 (31:20):
Kind of looks like st Alone instead of Arnold.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
It kind of does.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Well, yeah, it kind of looks like Jack Palance instead
of Shortznegger.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
But this version isn't holding a badge in it's left hand.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Oh it's not.

Speaker 4 (31:39):
No, is that a grenade?

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Is the infinity gunlet?

Speaker 4 (31:43):
That's actually good, Like it kind of looks like that.
I was thinking like a meatball sub or something like that,
but it's actually a bundle of dynamite. Oh yeah, well.

Speaker 6 (31:56):
That's right in front of his ding gung.

Speaker 7 (31:59):
Yes, that's great.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
That's lighting your subject matter right.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
There For anybody listening, this picture looks like it was
took in like ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Yeah, like World War One.

Speaker 6 (32:15):
It definitely looks like it is one hundred percent Abraham Lincoln.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
It's all fucking black and white and grainy as shit.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Now I want to put a top hat on him.

Speaker 6 (32:25):
He's all like ready to take over the cell, saying.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
It's based on one of like the promo pictures for
the film. It's with him holding a gun in one
hand and the sick But uh.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
I've seen that. But why did they change up for
the festival?

Speaker 4 (32:41):
So they originally planned to use this version of the
balloom for the film. It wasn't just a festival boat
for the film because like in the film Edge, Yeah,
this version was all set up in like on March first,
nineteen ninety three in Times Square. Unfortunately, three days earlier,
six people died and over a thousand were injured when
error set off a bomb in the parking garage below

(33:01):
the World Trade Center and an attempt to collapse the
North Tower into the South Tower.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Jesus Christ.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
So people were understandably upset about a seventy five foot
inflatable man showing off his meatball sub looking dynamite, like
like basically they took it down, deflated it, and then
changed the dynamite a place pitch.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
What makes sense.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Yeah, I'm just a giant German man holding some dynamite.
It's like that sounds more like Diehard than Schwartzeneger movie man.

Speaker 6 (33:31):
He cannot catch a break.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
With the seriously, seriously, like this movie is. It's just
one thing after another. No, I mean, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
which we'll get to in a second.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
But real trade center stuff for him is just.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
Well you think like at least one person involved with it.
This happened three days after, Like they put that up
three days after the bombing, so you think that like
at least one person would be like maybe a bomb's
a bad choice. Yeah, that's nothing.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Well, I mean and like I don't know how long
it takes to switch out what inflated fucking tensory inflatable
dude is holding, So yeah, I don't know. Yeah, But
also what was blown off was a bunch of Bnewer
in a van. Was that they didn't throw a bunch
of T and T in there.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Well I don't know that TNT kind of looked like
a handful of anwer.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
I'm surprised that I'm surprised we don't have a a
like a quote from the head of marketing saying that
also it was maneure Okay, yeah, there wasn't T and
T come on anyway. And yeah, like Eric was saying,
arnold his hat. He has a complicated relationship with those towers,
because just a few years later, another one of his
films would encounter a similar issue when the Clatteral Damage
crew was forced to take down their four story balloon

(34:35):
of Schwarzenegger because he was holding a kind of jet
fuel in one hand and then he was like like
one of those like Red Sox pennants in their hand,
which was just like a weird marketing tactic to put
in New York, Like, I don't know, Plus, what did
they have to do with the movie? What do they
have to do with the movie anyway? Okay, sorry uh

(34:56):
And then before we get back to filming, the last
thing I wanted to mention about the marketing has to
do with the film's poster design and is probably my
favorite of the behind the scenes stories.

Speaker 6 (35:05):
This dinosaur with the nun in the background. I don't
remember seeing dinosaur with the nun yeah on this.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Oh yeah, I forgot to put the poster up there.

Speaker 6 (35:14):
Looks like it that looks like a habit.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
Oh wait none, none, none, Oh yes, a nun ends
up at the funeral shooting at them because everyone starts
pulling out. Oh yeah, but the leo the fart he
passed gas one last time. You know, I love the joke.
Shane Shane Black is a genius anyway. Uh okay, so

(35:37):
uh sorry. So, as a way to be more accessible
as an executive producer, Arnold set himself up in a
forty foot long trailer on the Sony lot. Yeah. During
filming and apparently due to having a final say over
all aspects of the film's marketing and promotional material, he
had a phone installed with the direct line to the
marketing executives' offices, whose executives he would summon throughout the day,

(36:00):
and would often be seen running back and forth from
the Sony offices to arnold trailer, Which is just awesome
that he's like got that kind of power and making
them just like rue back and forth as he's like
tinkering this stuff.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah, he's got his own personal bat phone just to
tone something exactly.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
So one day, he summons the VP of marketing to
the trailer to discuss the film's poster, and supposedly Arnold
was not happy with the poster. He wasn't a fan,
supposedly telling the executive that, quote, my hair isn't flying
no matter how much hairspread you have with the win
in the head, it should be flying all over the place. Yeah.
He insists the poster be redrawn in order to bring
them from quote a totally static look to something that

(36:40):
represents what the film is saying, which is bang uncorrect.
He then allegedly pulled out an alternate poster that he'd
had commissioned without informing the studio, which supposedly pissed off
the marketing department. This supposedly led to Mark Kenton, the
head of the studio, stopping like running over to Arnold's trailer,

(37:01):
not to yell at them or like even give them
a hard time, but yeah, but to assure them that
they'll we're gonna keep working on the poster until you're happy, basically,
which I'm like whatever, Like I don't know, Like at
this point, you're just like, Okay, it's guess in charge
to be fair if you look behind me, Arnold's hair

(37:21):
does look like it's flying in that poster a sure, like,
so they nailed that part at least. Yeah, Like apparently
it was like just like, you know, like slick but
not flying like perfectly kaifed.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, exactly as all things should be.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
Okay. So getting back to the actual filming of the movie.
So before getting sidetracked, we're about halfway through principal photography,
with production moving to New York City at the beginning
of March, where they spend a little over a week
pulling a double whammy by shooting on location in Times
Square while also indvertently offending the public with their giant
ORNLD balloon. And the balloon wasn't the only only thing
being deflated, because it was during this time that Arnold

(38:01):
first begins worrying about the film, which I don't think
actually works as far as like the whole deflated metaphor
going for but you guys go, I mean it's an
enthusiasm is deflated. There you go, there you go e
ego a little bit. Yeah, So to set up the
quote from Arnold, and also because I don't think I
mentioned it before, which is done because it's supposedly part
of the reason that the film bombed. But Last Action
Hero was always supposed to be rated PG thirteen. There

(38:24):
was never any like it was huh yes with a
Hit and Run the book Hit and Run, claiming that
a survey at the time had shown that a PG
rated film was three times more likely to make a
one hundred million dollars at the box office than an
R rated film, which I think it's always.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
You said, that's PG.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Yeah, so the lower the writing, I'm assuming just like
because pretty much, yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Oh so PG first ours is three times more likely.
But what about PG thirteen?

Speaker 4 (38:51):
PG thirteen they didn't have the thing for, but I'm
assuming it can't be far off.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Also, when was PG thirteen invented.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Eighty right after Template Doom? So like eighty five or
eighty four? Eighty five? Gotcha? Which I was reading about it,
and I was like, what are you doing? Why are
you wasting your like this? You're not going to talk
about this at all, are you? Nope? Okay, then stop
reading about it, because I was like, oh, what was
the first PG thirteen movie? But now I could have
told you, guys, but I don't remember because I stopped
reading about it anyway, okay, and then, in order to
cash in on that by appealing to the whitest possible audience,

(39:20):
Last Action Hero was first rewritten and then eventually shot
as a PG thirteen film.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
Got it, yes, because white people love PG thirteen films,
do they?

Speaker 4 (39:29):
I don't know?

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Sorry, you said whitest, and I kept.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Hearing white the whitest, yes wideest.

Speaker 6 (39:34):
Yes, well whitest too, Yes.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
To the whitest whitest yep, w whitest possible.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
AUDI know the white wide like you know? Like I
don't know? W I d e wh whitest anyway?

Speaker 3 (39:47):
So yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
According to Ardlne's book, apparently a late night conversation with
John McTiernan during these eight days that they were filming
in New York was when he realized there might be
an issue, saying, quote, John always had great clarity of
and on Last Action Hero. That gave me my first
hint of trouble. We were having a drink after shooting
until three in the morning one night in New York

(40:07):
and John said, what we're really making here is et.
When I heard that, I had a sinking feeling that
maybe the whole PG thirteen thing was a mistake. Even
though we had a kid costar in the movie, people
might not buy me doing a family friendly action film.
That was okay for Harrison Forden Raiders of Lost Arc,
but not for me. I made these comedies, of course,
but those were different because no one expects you to

(40:29):
blow people up in a comedy. When you're selling a
movie with the word action in the title, you better
deliver some Conan two had fizzled because we'd made it PG.
Now we were betting we could pack enough amazing stunts
and energy to make Last Action Hero live up to
its name. End quote. And I'm sorry if I'm sitting
in the office, but I'm pretty sure John mcturns et
comment was meant less as like an insightful take on
Like It wasn't like insightful, like you know what we

(40:50):
are making here? It kind of seems like we're making et.
It wasn't mean like there was more like a dude
that's just exhausted from working eighteen hours a day on
a movie that bears like very little resemblance to the
one he actually signed off for. Yeah, he's fucking tired
at this point. Basically. Also, that quote had me super
looking forward to watching Conan Destroyer.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Now, I'm all right, yeah, that's gonna be great.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
The whole time I was watching the first one, I
was thinking, Man, this movie is so much better if
you didn't have all that icky like violence and nudity
in it.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
You know what this movie needed, less titties, less blood. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
The more we learn about this, the more I see
why it was a flop. But I've always watched this
movie and been like, this movie's fucking good. Yeah, yeah,
so I agree, Like it just sounds like it's a
victim of its own like, and we'll get to this
when we actually fucking watch the movie and like get
done even like a.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Little bit of hubrious the studios part, for sure, that the.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Hubris is the money making part, but the rest of it, Yeah,
the actual film is a little victim of its own circumstance,
Like a lot of people just trying to like we
want to make like the best movie, but we feel
like we're going this way or that way, so we
might want to not do that. And then the studio
just being like, let's fucking make money. I think if

(42:02):
it weren't like an Arnold movie in nineteen ninety three, Yeah,
it would have been fine, but they just kind of
they they fumbled.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
I disagree with what John mctriner said, Like if they
just would have toned down the fucking marketing and just
like because like you said, it's it's not a gigantic film,
like it's yeah, it's like a smaller kind of story.

Speaker 7 (42:25):
So it's basically your fucking rich, dick white guy who
fucking like goes to like Duke or whatever and like
fucking gets like a couple of too many d.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Wise, and it has become CEO, you know, and they're like.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
Like a million West events from the Men Ducks.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Yeah, he's basically that, like, yeah, he's still fucking extremely successful,
but yeah he's not like the fucking eighth richest man
in the world.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
He's like the two.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Hundred and forty seventh. Like ooh, would have fucking disaster.
It's like, no, fuck that. Like you had fucking lightning
in a bottle, but they're not lightning in a bottle
and actually the opposite of that, but this is the
asset or bottle inside lightning.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
I don't know the head of Columbia tude, it's just
a fucking eat like which we'll find out as it
goes further along, even though we kind of already showed
it anyway. Okay, so as far as last section here,
I think it goes without saying that the closer they
got to the film's immovable release date, the more stressful
things were becoming, especially for John McTiernan, who would tell
Empire magazine in twenty twelve that the last stretch of

(43:25):
production was quote the worst time I've ever had in
this business. And keep in mind that directing Rollerball basically
resulting in that fucker going to prison. So because first
day there was probably like eight hour workdays. Nice. Yeah,
there's actually a story in that same Empire article that's
like a great example of how tight of a schedule

(43:46):
they were under while filming. It comes from Austin O'Brien,
and he's talking about working with an obviously stressed out
John McTiernan. He says, quote, I do remember that the
deeple we got in, John looked more tired, more haggard.
He was great with me when we got something right,
he turned into a little kid and started jumping around.
But there was one day when I got a sense
of how under the gun he was. We'd built a

(44:06):
new York Skyline inside the studio, and I was hanging
from a gargoyle wearing a harness. So it was like
one of the last scenes in the movie. But anyway,
so he says, it was so tight that I literally
couldn't breathe, but I was too nervous to say anything,
and I passed out for a few seconds. People were
cutting off my clothes and I got kind of scary.
But I do remember m Churning coming up afterwards and saying,
in situations like these, I don't care what's happening, You

(44:26):
tell me and we'll fix it. Don't be afraid. You
haven't done anything wrong, but we cannot afford to stop shooting.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Oh cool, But yeah, wait, those are two completely different messages. Yeah,
so wait, I don't understand like he said, hey, hey,
your safety, no matter what happens, you got to tell
me when sit like that is happening so we can
fix it.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
I think I think he meant like he like just
the fact that sorry, this is just me sticking for
Johnny Kernon, I guess, but I think he meant that, like,
if it's too tight, you gotta tell us before where
it becomes an issue where you pass out and we're wait,
like we have to.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
We have to wait for you. The real problem with
the situation is we just wasted I don't know, forty
five seconds waiting for you to wake up. That was
fucking that's that's like half a million dollars right there.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
When we could have like we had to wait for
you to like wake up and then they had to
double check you, and like there's an hour gone now
when we could have just loosened the straps, you know,
So just like just tell us next to me. Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Get where the bus man's coming from. You know. It's
just like, look, if you die, we're fucked. So don't die.
So if you tell us this thing to recast, we'll
spend three minutes having you not die, but we want
to spend twenty five minutes of you dying, because fuck, you're.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
Like a Bruce Lee into the Dragon thing with him die.
It's where they're like like what are they just like
they're using like doubles and stuff like that or so
I don't know, I don't know. Brindley with the crow, well, yeah,
Bradley with the Crow, Yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
The end of the movie Rest in Peace.

Speaker 4 (46:02):
Uh yeah, unquote, but mccernyon basically admitted in that same
article that the reason the tone of the movie is
kind of all over the place is because the head
of the studio, which was Mark Canton, kept going back
and forth about whether their last Action hero should be
more of a kid's movie or more of an action movie,
which mciernan says led to a watered down version of
the script, and that as they entered the last few
weeks of production, they were quote just trying to get

(46:24):
the damn thing finished. It also seems like the stress
was making mcinernan paranoid, with Shane Black talking about a
time that he and David are not visited the set
and one of the studio executives told him that they
should stop by Arnold's trailer, which they did. Apparently this
pissed off John mctoernan, who later accused them of conspiring

(46:45):
against him. And this just makes me definitely start seeing
how this is the same dude who went to prison
for line to the FBI about hiring someone who illegally
wired tap like the roller because he ended up like
he ended up hiring someone who illegally wire tap the
Rollerball producer's phone, Like once he started having problems on Rollerball,
he's probably like getting flashbacks from last section. Year was
like never again, never again, and then just hire someone

(47:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
Yeah, the only difference is whatever illegal shit he pulled
on last section, Hero, he didn't get caught for you.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Yeah, it's not a crime if you don't get charged.
It's true, just saying, but.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
Not everyone was having a bad time. It seems like
most of the actors enjoyed the experience. Austin O'Brien speaks
pretty fondly of it, as does Charles Dance, who spoke
very highly of Arnold, saying, quote, he creates an extraordinary
atmosphere on set because everybody in the film business is
rampant with insecurity and paranoia, which, yeah, apparent. Yeah, everybody's

(47:39):
nauseatingly nice to each other for fear of their next job.
But the more I worked, the more I realized that
the good atmosphere actually came from Arnold unquote. I kind
of a feeling that like he just kind of seems
like he brings that intergy to any movie set that
he's working on. Yeah. Sure, but I wouldn't be surprised
if he dialed it up a little bit for this
movie due to him being like executive producer and the
director being under an incredible manst like basically having to

(48:02):
like bring the situation back after you got John mc cunnan.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Like, oh my god, yeah that's true.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
Yeah, you guys are conspiring against me. He's joking. He's joking,
like stirming off.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
The only other thing I know Charles Dance from is
from Game of Thrones, and he's fucking amazing that And
I know you haven't watched it, Aaron, because it's fantasy
and okay, really like the prime time of that show
was when fucking Charles Dance was on it. Because that
guy just he's just the fucking he's just the beast.
I don't know a better way to put it, but
like him as a fucking character and him as an

(48:39):
actor in him as whatever fucking dad Lanister whatever his
name is. In that scene when he's talking to Taiwan, yeah,
and a scene when he's talking to the other kid
and he's fucking like, uh taking the skin off a
deer or whatever. I'm like, this guy's fucking amazing.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Like just good acting or the characters a badass or
just both it's.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
Oh, well written character, but he's probably like perfectly cast in.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
It, perfectly cast. So I imagine either he is going to
be like the fucking best dude, like a fucking professional,
you know, he's just out there like carving and cut.
You're like, oh man, hey, fucking good, take good take, Govda.
I don't know how you know he's out Yeah, if

(49:23):
you were just like super intimidating too, Hello, that's a
fucking good okay, gov Da. Uh, I'm hungry. I am
a worst kind of sell us. I don't know. I
can't do. But just anyways, he's either like that or
just a giant fucking asshole. But what you're saying about
him and like Arnold bringing the levity and everything, I'm

(49:43):
just hoping he was out there fucking giving a good time.
So but yeah, no, that guy seems school as fuck.
And I'm glad he was in Game of Thrones and
in Last Night shar I'm glad he's saying good things
about Last Night Actioncenaro because it makes you feel better
about Game of Thrones because later on on that show
things probably didn't go so well.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
But as soon as there, yeah, he definitely had a
good time with this, but uh yeah, so anyway, the
only other thing I wanted to mention that happened during
these last few weeks of production was that Arnold received
the International Star of the Decade award at the nineteen
ninety three Show West Convention in Las Vegas, which was
hosted by the National Association of Theater Owners or NATO,

(50:20):
which was an odd choice because that acronym was definitely
already being used by the time, but like by a
much more well known organization, like when they came up
with that. But whatever, I guess.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
North American Tang observers, right, yeah, exactly, people who make
sure Tang's good.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
They did actually change their name in March of this
year to the to Cinema United, So yeah, which hopefully
inspires the Independent Theater Owners Coalition the IOC to do
the same.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Okay, so the SOFIA MANN and that Cinema United men,
so you're.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
Come see, like, that's exactly why I was wanted the
Independent Theater Orders Coalition the same, which is i t
o C. Maybe they'll't block me on Instagram for suggesting
that they change the name the Coalition of Unaffiliated National
Theaters because their theaters are usually filled with a bunch
of pretentious to unts, you know, I.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Mean, this is basically the fucking Team America thing, or
it's like Screen Actors Guild, Film Actress Guild. You can
figure out.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
The exactly Joseph is better because it was off the
top of his head and mind took me an hour
to right. But whatever, probably I.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Always get come comeing off my head.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Was just on Joe's tongue, come on the tip of
all right, cut all this out.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Okay, it's comedy Gold.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
I can't it's comedy Gold. Okay, anyway, okay, okay, Now
we got to leave it in because of that show West,
which is actually a convention that's still held today, although
it's called CinemaCon. Now have you ever heard of that?

Speaker 3 (52:06):
Yeah, I've heard of CinemaCon.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
Okay, which and I believe it's Cinema con. So that's
a convention. Yeah, I believe it's. It's five days long,
and according to their website, it's the largest and most
important gathering of movie theater owners from around the world.
It was also and still seems to be a pretty
important event for movie studios as well, who use the
event to persuade the attending theater owners to book their

(52:30):
movies because they're going to be huge box office hits
that you should probably like goett to put them in
multiple theaters because these movies are gonna be huge. So
it's basically like from what I understand, they just by
hosting a presentation event that seems like it's similar to
the San Diego Comic Con panels.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Yeah, the Cinema Con is now a huge source of trailers. Yes,
anay exactly.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
So they show extended trailers or reels from upcoming big releases,
which I believe sometimes include intros or panels featuring the
actors that start in the films, like the pictures that
are looking at back then had like a bunch of
like a Sylvester Stallone and Sharon I was gonna say Stone,
but yeah, I was gonna say Stallone, but yeah, Sharon
Stone is like a bunch of actors. But the Sharon

(53:11):
s it's still yes she it was her ghost actually,
But this the one they had this year was what
I say, it's in. It was in March, I think,
but Tom Cruise was there. He had pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio,
like still like a bunch of there was Ryan Gossling
on stage. I think the Thunderbolts did a panel, okay,
and Disney is like the only There was an article

(53:32):
complaining about the fact that Disney is the only one
that live streams it because it's extremely uh exclusive, yes
to the press and the theater owners. So there's treaders
that they do sink to drop now like that Nick
Naked Gun trailer came out. Yeah, Jack, Yes, after a
debut from that, it's obviously changed a little bit because
they'll actually drop stairs. But before, like back in ninety three,

(53:55):
they would see stuff before anybody else.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Yeah, quick question. You said Tom Cruise was there and
he had pictures of leonnauto attach.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
No, sorry, there were pictures of the pictures on their
website of Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio. Okay, there, Yeah,
I think pictures of video.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
I don't know either you did or didn't, but that's
what I heard.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
He was passing out pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
He's just signing it. I don't know what he was saying.
Would Tom Cruise sign a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio as
Tom Cruise or you sign it as Leonardo DiCaprio.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
I mean, all I can think of his Lenning signing
his own picture and giving it.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
But I okay, this is completely off topic, but if
you ever got a office shop eron, this has been
in my brain for twenty years. I am going to
do that, like I've been waiting because picture me and
it says have a good summer, Joe, And you're gonna
put that on your fucking desk.

Speaker 4 (54:58):
So you gotta do it. You gotta do it as
a as like an actual like a headshot though yeah yeah, no, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
It's gonna be like bad shot. So I'm just saying,
like I've kept this a secret forever.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
I mean, you can do it now and we can
hang it up. I've never had it, no, I know.
I'm just trying to think, like I mean, I I
could do yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yeah, But I think what he's really aiming for is
the awkward conversations you have.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
To have with you.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
It wouldn't be awkward for me, Like why is this
for other people? Who's this?

Speaker 3 (55:29):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Why is this forty year old guicing have a good summer?

Speaker 4 (55:33):
That's uh, that's that's Joe. Yeah, I just don't explain
past that.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
But yeah, so it basically it's like comic con, but
like not.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
Yeah, I think the reason a lot of like especially before,
a lot of trailers didn't come out is because they're
selling the theater owners. It's not like they.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Wanted exclusive and yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Yeah, it's it's also not always like trailer trailers. It's
always just like clips from the movies. Yeah, probably ship
that's unfinished.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
Yeah, you know, so I'm assuming it's a lot more
finished now though, because if they're gonna yeah yeah, yeah,
but yeah, it's a very big event now, but I'm
pretty sure it was a smaller scale back in the
day because like even comic Con wasn't always like the
big announcement event that it is now, right, which I
guess no would make sense because superhero movies weren't like
a yeah age thing until like movies were not a
thing that you got a comic con until like the

(56:21):
mid two thousands, Like I guess, well, I guess there
was some stuff earlier than that, but it wasn't that
was not the point.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Comic Con really was like just a bunch of comic
nerds and that's it. It's very around.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Okay, I was saying, I've went to one comic con
that was two thousand. I probably mentioned this before on
the show, but no, Brett and I met san Lee. Hey,
so how's it going?

Speaker 4 (56:51):
Could did you Okay?

Speaker 1 (56:53):
That's a different that's a different story. Yeah, we just
like cut liners like stand here, like what's this signed for?
Like Alford Malina. I'm like, hell cool. It was just
like handling. I had no idea who that was. I
went out there fucking talked to him like, hey man,

(57:14):
big fan. He's like thanks, and he signed a Spider
Man two hat and he like gave it to me.
I'm like cool. I'm like, I have no idea what
this guy is.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Oh, oh, you mean like a baseball cap that says
Spider Man two. I thought you meant you got doc
Ox Fedora signed.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
No, he was just like sign and ship or whatever.
I didn't know who he was.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
Like your story was like, yeah, we just walked in
front of somebody and like, what are they gonna do? Nerds?

Speaker 1 (57:42):
They did that and that was the other thing. We
did that in another line too, and they're like, oh,
it's for the Hobbits or whatever, like cool, and it
was like Elijah Wood and fucking Sam No, no, no,
Sean Aston and everything, and like everybody kept like pushing
towards the front and those fuckers like like Elijah Wood

(58:04):
and kicking Sean Aston. They got they got fucking Sarah.
They like left and they were like running and motherfuckers
were chasing him. Jesus Christ. They were like, we got
to get away from these nerds.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Yeah, the Simpsons buy mo on Sci Fiicon.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
It's like the Simpsons.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Yeah with Luke Skywalker exactly.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
Yeah, right here, never mind, Hey, wait, I thought you
was hurt.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
I think about that is.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
But yeah, you got you got patus. But I think
that was like right on the cusp of being like
comic like comics. Yeah, con and then wait, what are
they doing everything?

Speaker 4 (58:44):
So were they doing the panels and stuff?

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Obviously they were so like. But the thing is about
hall H. Hall H is like the big, big hall
and that's where they do all the huge, huge movie
releases now but back in the day, there weren't that
many huge movie releases, so you might get one or
two of those like nowadays. If you go to hall H,
Warner Brothers will do a presentation. They'll they'll do like

(59:06):
two comic book movies and then they'll just give you
a bunch of other ship like a bunch of their
other big summer blockbusters. Yeah, like like I saw the
mad Max Fury road trailer there. I saw trailers for
a bunch of horror movies when I was in there. Yeah,
just you know, it's just studios unloading. Yeah, exactly. But
back in the day, it's like there was one or

(59:28):
two really big panels and then it was just a
bunch of you know, bullshit. It was just a bunch
of it.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
I don't remember the one time we went.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
I don't remember any panels that obviously, right, so that
would have been like Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Also you have to like plan to go to the panels.
They're not just happening on the on the con floor,
so you have to like you have to like get
in lines. Yeah, yeah, for hall h you have to,
like at least when I was going lines. Yeah, clearly apparently.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Clearly the way it was a total diigmad It was
a total big move by me, But it was just.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
So somebody didn't get to see Elijah Wood and Seawan
asked and run away because of you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
I just like walked up there. I was like I'm
standing there and I was like cool.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
It's one last person who got to meet Alfred Molina
of Frieda.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
You know, I had that fucking spider Man two hat
signman for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Somehow it got center yeah at the Big House.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Somehow it got very moldy, and eventually at some point,
like the mold took over the bill which she signed out,
and I'm like, this is kind of useless now and
I think I just chucked it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
It's so weird.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
So that's my Alfred show. Hey Alfred, if you're listening,
christ well, thank you. Second of all, you know, get
on the show. Maybe you give me another hat. I
know who you are now, I'm a big fan. Now
I was lying in two thousand day, but in twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
I know that's no reason to give me a moldy
hat exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Anyways, back on there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
Okay, So yeah, so show Wes nineteen ninety three was
held at Bally's Las Vegas, which I thought, you'm a
total fitness Yeah, well there's got to be a gym
in there somewhere, Like it's the same company, right.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
I think you're right. I'm not.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
I don't know, or it was the same company. No,
I don't know. I think this seems like I swear.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Anyway, Well there's also the pinball company Bally's.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Just I don't know anything about that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:27):
Yeah, anyway, So Columbia hosted a luncheon because that's what
they did back then. They did luncheons, So that's what's
what I'm saying, Like, I don't think it was nearly
as big. So Columbia hosted a luncheon that included Arnold
intowing a four minute Last Action YEARLD trailer, and then
the Columbia execs hyping it up, saying it's more than
just a movie, it's the epitome of a film for
the entire global marketplace, which damn, yeah whatever, But yeah,

(01:01:52):
the luncheon part is also why I think it was
like a smaller film, which whatever. At least they're consistent
with their praise, I guess. Anyway, there were two reasons
that brought this up to convention. One has to do
with the impact on theaters when it was released, which
we'll end up talking about later, which actually forgot to include.

(01:02:13):
We'll get back to it anyway. But the other is
how Universal handled their presentation of Jurassic Park, which was
basically the complete opposite approach that comb from the way
Columbia presented last section Hero. So from what I found,
it seems like Jurassic Park wasn't announced as part of
Show West, even though Universal did end up holding an
event for it. So according to the Chicago Tribune, sorry, so,

(01:02:37):
according to a Chicago Tribune article, instead of holding a luncheon,
which I believe was like, like the was anyone can
attend those? Like that was okay? Yeah, instead of it
holding a luncheon, apparently, Universal rented out one of Bally's
suites where they hosted a jungle themed invite only screening
shindig of the Jurassic Park trailer for about one hundred exhibitors,

(01:02:57):
which I'm assuming we're the owners of, like the big
theater chain. Yeah, and Universe Will reportedly accomplished two things
by doing this. One was generating positive buzz for the
trailer while also alienating pretty much anyone not invited to
the screening, which I'm sure Universe was like, so and yeah,
what are they gonna do with not show Jurassic Park? Okay, hey, yeah,

(01:03:18):
I want you to understand, but it's like it's just weird,
Like if I'm interesting, how Universal can You continues to
show how confident they are that the Jurassic Park is
going to be successful without resorting to any of like
the boastful bullshit that Co of Columbia was pulling with
Last Second Hero, Like confident enough to whard they're actually
excluding potential theater owners from trailer screenings because they know
they're going to book the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Yeah, of course they're not going to have any choice.
You're just they want to make movie. Sorry, if they
want to make money during the summer, they're gonna have
to play our movie exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
So again, it just ruins me that that mad Men
meme taking that wrong way. But still like, I don't
think about you it all, dude, Like yeah, So moving on,
filming wraps on Last Section Hero either April first, April third,
depending on the source, which as I believe that I
mentioned before, or which left ten weeks for post production
instead of the average And I think it was like

(01:04:08):
according to Google search, was like six months like anywhere
with tween weeks. Yeah, so ten weeks what uh and
a half? Two and a half months. Yeah. In order
to do this, the post production team ended up working
six eighteen hour days per week, for ten goddamn weeks Jesus,
which I was gonna say was insane, but then it
made me curious, like, do you guys think that this

(01:04:30):
consisted of different shifts that didn't stop for eighteen hours,
or is it like did each individual person have working
eighteen hour shifts six days a week, because, like, each
person working eighteen hour shifts six days a week is
fucking crazy, especially when you consider the time it takes
to wind down after a shift. And I'm curious if, like,
although I'm curious if like these like after working a
week of these shifts, you're so tired that it's like
there's no wind down, Like it's just you just fall

(01:04:51):
fucking asleep.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
Yeah, Like I.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
Don't know, Like there's no way that they wouldn't mention
if it was like, yeah, they were working like it
was an eighteen hour overall shift. No, it was different people.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
And I think people in film.

Speaker 4 (01:05:04):
It's like working in The Men in Black, Yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
No, I think people in film are used to working
like that because film is kind of feast or famine. Right,
you're either working on a movie or you're not. Yeah,
if you're not working on a movie, you're doing nothing
and making up the time exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:05:19):
Working on the movie but uh so yeah. In order
in order to relieve stress, Columbia reportedly hired an in
house messus, which just reminded me of like the half
assed gestures that they pull out restaurants when they're trying
to They're like, you know, you're working on Christmas, even
though you requested it off. But it's okay because we
bought you guys costco pizza, because.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
We allowed you guys to have a pot luck in
the break.

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
Crew exactly, it only costs us nine dollars, Like yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
We like, you can't use any of ourse civil rhythm
yeahs money to actually wash whoa.

Speaker 4 (01:05:53):
You know you're not supposed to drinking soda, okay, Jesus,
isn't that like I don't we're allowed to open the
apple juice is at the restaurant Erica. I don't know,
something like that, but the apple just were like actually
like tree top apple juices that you would have to like,
you know, like.

Speaker 3 (01:06:11):
Martin Elly.

Speaker 6 (01:06:12):
They got upset about the waters with somebody one time too,
and I was like, it's the sawny nobody wants to drink.
You'd rather drink the tap.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Yeah, drinking because I'm desperate, right, Like I quickly looked
it up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Bally's, Bally Total Fitness, Bally's Slash Midway, the Pinball Company,
and Bally's Betting are all kind of related. They've all
been kind of uh, exchange hands over and over and over,
but they're not like separate like like other.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
It's not the same company though.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
It's not, but they're all It's like, uh, it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
Might be a situation where one company was split into
three parts, like three.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Divisions, not necessarily that. It's kind of like, you know
a couple of people who'se L his name is Smith.

Speaker 3 (01:07:03):
Okay, you know, like they're related.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
It doesn't mean his father and son.

Speaker 5 (01:07:07):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
It's like I see, okay, gotcha.

Speaker 4 (01:07:10):
Anyways, So, for some for some reason, about halfway through
post production, Columbia Pictures, specifically Mark Canton, watched the movie
and decided that even though they hadn't finished the film's score,
or finished the special effects for the action scenes or
finished dubbing it yet, which made a lot of the
dialogue impossible to understand, despite all that, Mark cann was like, Hey,

(01:07:30):
let's have a test screening. Like it was so unfinished
that even Arnold later admitted that the movie was quote
shown in the roughest form I've ever seen a movie
screen Jesus. So they were really setting themselves up for
success on that one. Yeah, yeah, so on May.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
First, the worst version of this movie you could possibly see?
What are your notes?

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
So on me? On May first, nineteen ninety three, they
held a screening just north of Long Beach in Lakewood, California,
and in addition to John McK tiernan and Arnold, Columbia's
top executives were also in attendance. A research firm filled
the one thousand seat theater, which is that is that
a gigantic theater.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
That's a big theater.

Speaker 4 (01:08:09):
I think that's like a that's like that iMX theater.
That's got to be close to Yeah, I think so Okay, Yeah,
they filled it with an audience that was unaware of
what film they'd be watching, which I'm pretty sure is
how it always works with test audiences, right, Like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to know an advantage.

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Yeah, Like I sent up for a thing where you
can be a part of a test audience and the
only info they give you before him is what type
of movie it's going to be, and I think maybe
the potential rating, like I know, if it ended up
going to Wicked, but I think she first she's like,
I don't know if it's gonna be Wicked or movefasa.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
So it was just like family movie, yeah or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Yeah, I did that at SS State in like two
thousand and six, and it was like a kind of
it was like an American idol type thing. I don't know,
I don't remember. It was like a I mean, this
is nineteen years ago. I don't remember. It was like
a satire on it or like a trying to capitalize.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
Wait, like, oh, you mean the movie was about like
an American idol context. So I remember what was that called.

Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
There was, yeah, but that that see that might have
been a different or it just came out many years later.
I don't know. I'll have to look it up. But
there was like there was one with fucking Andy Samberg
that came out like a couple.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
Oh that was with it was a top star not
pop star?

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Was it was not that the comedy the hot Rod movie, yes,
Hot Rods, the Hot Red movie yes, No, is that
what it's called? Hot Rod? Hot Rod?

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
Yes, I have seen that. I heard it's good too.

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
No, it was.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
It wasn't one of those. It was something else.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
That other stuff is an Andy Samberg movie.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
No, I'm saying it is not the Andy Samberg So.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
It was kind of like pop Star, but it wasn't Pop.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
America exactly American Dream that I was thinking, I'm sorry
that come out.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
That was two thousand and six, April two thousand and six.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Okay, then it was probably that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Yeah, good movie.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Huh. I've never seen it, obviously, I can remember that
I've seen it, and I watched test screen and it
was so you gave it up? Eh? I mean, did
you scorecards?

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
I don't remember. This was nineteen years ago. They're barking
up the wrong fucking bush like a bunch of fucking
like early twenties, jaded, fucking San Francisco State kids are
not going to go fuck about that movie.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Anyway, According to the Nancy Griffith Bookitt and Run, the
test audience started hooting and hollering with excitement once it
was announced that they'd be watching armed Schwarzenegger movie. Unfortunately,
the excitement didn't last long once, they wouldn't say exactly
how incomplete the movie was, with the book saying that
the audience started becoming bored about halfway through it, and
by the third act, when Danny and Slater cross over
into the real real world, the audience was basically sitting

(01:10:56):
there in a catatonic state Jesus, with one person later saying, quote,
the movie lay there like a big fried egg unquote,
And I know that's supposed to be like it sounds
like it's not supposed to be a good thing. But
I love like Fridays, Like you get a couple of
slices of toast, some hash brands pole with a hot sauce.
Baby got a breakfast going like sounds good to me.

(01:11:17):
But I get that's not supposed to be good, like
a big fried egg.

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
I don't know because.

Speaker 6 (01:11:22):
I'm like a Friday egg. What did you add it to?

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
Because when you said you had Friday, like I had
a Friday this morning, I was like, oh that sounds yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:30):
You just you just you just took me back to
breakfast right now, and I was like, oh, that was
a good breakfast.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
I mean shit, I can't wait till Laura fucking heres
this episode, because good lord, that woman has been obsessed
with that's my wife obsessed with eggs recently. Like it's
a whole thing where I'm like, I'm going to the store,
don't fucking don't say it, don't fucking say it, get eggs,
and I buy eggs and then like three days later,
I'm like an egg they're all fucking higher bolt or eating.

(01:11:58):
That woman's just obsessed with eggs now.

Speaker 4 (01:12:00):
It's all where she's just like hard boiling them then
like eating them.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Well okay, ship, Well she's very so she doesn't heart
boil them. It's medium boiled at best, but she's just like.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
Wait medium, how does that does it leave? Like the
egg run? Right?

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Yeah, the oak's a little running, so it's good in
like ramin and stuff. But okay, that woman's just been
fucking obsessed with eggs like the last like three months.
Of course that's when the prices go up. So I marry.

Speaker 6 (01:12:32):
There's a song from Lamb before Time too that I
gotta send you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Is like, yeah, forbidden Fruit.

Speaker 6 (01:12:40):
It's just about eggs.

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
So it's okay, do you guys do like eggs salad?
Because I like eggs salad.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
No, Chris, No, I like eggs pretty much.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
Every way, but your head down to your legs. That
was the something from the nineties.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Good it's stupids it your head down to your legs.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
I like eggs from my head down.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
To my legs, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
No, anyway, speaking of eggs, I had a conversation yesterday.
My friend was drinking some water and then started choking.
I'm like, yeah, who's fucking dumb? This is why God
doesn't exist, because like, uh, you know, whose fucking idea
was to have like the the drinking hole in the
breathing hole in the same place in your throat? And

(01:13:24):
he was like, yeah, I saw some like TikTok of like,
uh you know whose idea was to have the balls
on the outside. And I'm like, yeah, that's dumb. It's
like elephants don't have that. I'm like, yeah, but elephants could,
like they have a trunk, they could just like go
and like suck their own balls with their trunk. So
why so maybe that is a proof of God. Maybe

(01:13:47):
God doesn't want you to fucking suck your own balls
because elephants gonulna be doing all day. But their balls
are on the inside, so it kind of it kind
of shook my world.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
That's that line from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's a dogs, No,
it's Jack McBrayer is having trouble having sex with his
wife on their honeymoon, and he's like, I just don't
understand why God would put a playground next to a sanitation.

Speaker 4 (01:14:11):
Dump or something. Well that the whole thing with that
makes like anytime anyone mentions evolution for some reason, my
mind goes to, like, yeah, that makes sense because like
your butthole is like exactly the way it should be
because like imagine like it has to be exactly that

(01:14:31):
tight but exactly able to do what it does, because
otherwise you'd have to buy a plug.

Speaker 8 (01:14:36):
For it, because they'd be like we're gonna start thinking,
like they'd be this whole industry of like plugs that
you have to buy, like, oh, I just bought a
plug like for it, like check out this new plug
that I got, the new plug or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
Just like because it's not tight enough. So like like
it's the weirdest thing because every time I think it,
then I started thinking about, like, man, what you don't
tell people this? It is fucking weird. Don't tell people this, well,
I will tell you this.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
You've never been in the dead sea, because.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
I don't know what that means.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
You're in there, you you're pure clenched that whole time
because that salt water will get into your buttle super fast.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
Wait, so really you can you does it just hurt?

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
It just it's just it like you know, the ocean,
the ocean salty, like the ocean salty, but fucking dead
sea is like fucking the ocean's a little bitch like
float yeah, super EASi, so much like I don't think
anybody's ever drowned in the dead sea before because like
I don't think that's possible because it's fucking super salty.

(01:15:43):
But you have to like clench your.

Speaker 3 (01:15:47):
You're just saying, the salt gets everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
Yeah, it's coarse, it's but yeah, I'm just saying like
I'm just saying, like you're living your life. You're like,
you don't have to worry about everything getting in there.
You don't need to worry about the best loose butthole
line exactly. But then you go on the dead sea,
You're like, fuck, maybe I do need a butt plug.
I mean not for the usual reasons people need butt plugs. Yeah,

(01:16:12):
I should do cake, yeah, shit, saying it's it's rough
out there, man.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
So another audience member reportedly said quote, I don't want
to see arm being dragged down to where he's helpless
like that. He's standing there talking about the boys father's
death and the rain. It's very upsetting. And I suppose
I guess we have heard it. Thank for that scene
being cut that we watched, although I yes, like I
think I said it before, but that scenees just what
has slowed the pace of the film way down. Yeah,

(01:16:41):
and I'd love to give you guys more a few
more reviews, but unfortunately, in an attempt to prevent low
test scores from leaking to the press, Mark Kinton had
the audience report cards collected before the research company could
get them, and then later had them.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Shredded and then barry in the desert next to ET's
all those et video games.

Speaker 4 (01:17:03):
So, in addition to not wanting the scores leaked, Ken
also did this in order to prevent Schwarzenegger or McTiernan
from finding out about them due to their already tight schedule,
later explaining saying like quote, I didn't want the director
who had literally literally been working eighteen hour days or
and our star to come up with fourty more ideas
that would take three weeks. We didn't have three weeks.

(01:17:24):
So when did the Shredder?

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
They went, yeah, Mark, Mark Kenton's the reason this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Like what you were saying, like what was earlier? Like
a guy that like I don't know anyway, So after
the screening, Arnold mc ternan and the Columbia executives ended
up having an emergency meeting at Shatzi on his restaurant.
Of course, they all agreed that the reshoots needed to
be done for the third act, but according to the book,
it was understandably tough to judge what did and didn't

(01:17:52):
work because the movie had been shown in such a
rough form, which is what I don't understand about doing
the whole thing. But okay, anyway, when we finished the meeting,
thing real fast before I start pitching about stuff. But
so yeah, before the meeting ended, Schwarzenegger McTiernan once again
brought up the possibility of pushing back the release date
in order to allow for like proper time for reshoots

(01:18:13):
and any any sort of like fine tuning that the
movie might need. Of course, Can once again shot them down,
saying that postponing the release date would make it seem
like the film was in trouble, with John mcinernan later
saying of the studio's decision to stick with the June
eighteenth release date, quote, the studio folks assured us that
the movie was more likely to make money this way,

(01:18:34):
that the amount of money that the studio would see
would decrease by ten million per week for each week
of the summer that you cut off. I'm not about
to argue with things like that, unquote. And yeah, so
like you can definitely start to understand like why he's like, yeah,
like this is never happening again. Yeah, fucking bug him,
bug him like with roller Wall, because like he just
I don't know it. And something that sucks is that

(01:18:57):
just a lot of it gets put on him and
I don't know. But anyway, So the thing I don't
understand about all this is like, what was the point
of having the test screening then, because there obviously wasn't
enough time to really do any of the stuff that
you might usually do as a result of a poor
test screening, Like the only thing I could think of
is that Mark Canton was just like that delusional about
how like about showing like a super rough cut of

(01:19:18):
the film would go Yeah, Like maybe he was just
like a like completely confident that it would go well
and was then counting on that to generate positive like
word of mouth basically about the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
I don't know, maybe where they.

Speaker 6 (01:19:33):
Were running out of that, like they're running out of
time to get it done and.

Speaker 4 (01:19:37):
Just but there's no point of doing like to doing
to do a.

Speaker 6 (01:19:40):
Help test s green it helps them decide on cutting.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
No, it doesn't because you can't do anything about it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:44):
Though he wanted his biases confirmed, like that's what he wanted,
that it was good. Yeah, exactly, but he wanted to
hear from a bunch of people. He needs his ego stroked.

Speaker 4 (01:19:54):
And it's been too long since I get that, Like,
like I would get the cutting thing, but like you
can cut little tiny stuff, but like the stuff that
they were seeing was a whole third act thing. I
don't know, Like you already know the media is gunning
for your movie. Why would you show a version of
it that's so unfinished that people can't understand the dialogue?
Like it's just a movie full of bane from the
Dark Knight Rises just like.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Yeah, oh yeah, I'm sorry, you just got me upset.

Speaker 4 (01:20:21):
Like Chris, I'm seriously starting to think like Mark Canton
had only seen he's only seen six movies before last year,
that might actually be true. It's just this the Bonfard
of the Vanities and like the first four places Academy movies,
and that's it, that's always seen. Yeah, I don't know,
Like almost every choice of the studio made for this
movie is just fucking baffling to me.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
Yeah that yes, I.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
Mean it is like I I was alive and I
was a Schwarzenegger fan back then, but I was a child.
I didn't understand like studios and white things are bombs
and everything, and like as I've discussed spending many times
in this talking about this movie, and other times I'm
just like I just don't get it. I don't know
why this wasn't the ship because it's the ship. Yeah,

(01:21:07):
But now like I'm I'm realizing this fucking Mark Head
and guy in the studio interference is just like totally
kind of fucking everything up and a joke out of it,
and it's like it's already a joke. The whole fucking
movie is a joke.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
You don't need to make.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
A joke out of a joke.

Speaker 4 (01:21:25):
You know, it's not even I just figured.

Speaker 6 (01:21:27):
I just figured the audience like I was like, man,
everybody was just stupid in nineteen ninety three, like they
just didn't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:33):
Well yeah, well no, true. I mean technically, Samruanci Sisti.

Speaker 4 (01:21:41):
Professor, like Erica didn't mean to like cut you off
with what you were saying. As far as like that, no, no,
as far as like the test screen, like you do
usually do that, but when you put it out in
that rough of a form, it's, like the book was saying,
it's fucking hard. You can't tell what doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (01:21:55):
So like if you're like also, you know, you're still
gonna make a bunch of changes to it, like again
to the point, I.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
Don't know, because that's what you usually do, you uh.
What ic was saying, you fix the stuff that they're
not laughing at. But if they can't understand the dialogue,
they're not laughing. But the book even said like they
were still kind of optimistic about it. So once we
fix the dialog a little bit and whatever, like the
jokes will start landing, which I'm sure was true. Yeah,
but still, like, what was the fucking point of the
of the I don't know, no clue.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
Yeah, that's like when you show you don't show it
to a test outings, you show it to other like, uh,
people in your industry.

Speaker 4 (01:22:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
It's like your fucking fifteen minute county sketch. You know,
you're fucking like your song or whatever. You're like, oh,
you know it would be tight if you added like
a banjo here or whatever like that. That's the shit
that you need. You know, you don't want to like
like it, Go find your favorite band and go like
on fucking YouTube or YouTube music or Spotify and listen

(01:22:53):
to like rough Cut, like even the that was like yeah,
the rough Cut shit, and you're like, or the fucking
demo like this sounds like dog.

Speaker 4 (01:23:02):
Listen to some like the the biggest one I can
think of off dub my head is, uh want the
Spice girls want to be listen to the demo of that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:10):
It sounds like shit. I mean I don't know that, but.

Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
Well no, it's it's it doesn't have I was reading
about it and that's all I know. Like the last
person that tweeked it put the like the hook into it.
So if you listen to an old demo of it,
it's just like the song is like it's not it
wouldn't have yeah anyway, Okay, So of course the media
finds out about the screening, with Variety reporting a few
days later that Columbia marketing guru said Gainess said that

(01:23:34):
the audience reaction was absolutely sensational, adding quote, we now
know that last section Hero is not only on target
for opening day, but also that it's headed towards bullseye unquote.
So yeah, they've decided to lie about it, and that
makes sense whatever, Like, if you don't want anyone thinking
that the movie's in trouble, well, if they're gonna lie
about how the screening went, they might as well keep

(01:23:55):
it up when asked about the audience test numbers. You're right, Like,
as long as the lies that they make are somewhat believable,
no one should catch on, right exactly. Yeah, well that
might have worked, but unfortunately they talked to Mark Canton.
He did them no favors, but obviously lying when asked
about the audience numbers of the test screen. Does anyone
want to take a guest as to like, what kind

(01:24:17):
of lie he told? How he lied about it?

Speaker 3 (01:24:19):
It was so good. Everyone in the theater died. They
just all died. They all had heart attacks.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
Okay, so we didn't get scores from everybody, but the
scores we got were very high because he's a partial
lush because what sty scores? It was a count thing.

Speaker 4 (01:24:40):
That's that's actually kind of close, Joe, Joe are very close.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
Good on you, Joe, thinking like a white color criminal.

Speaker 4 (01:24:48):
Okay, so the official word from Columbia slash Canton where
there there were no numbers, man, no numbers. They didn't
actually click any because apparently they hailed a test screen
just for funzies. Yep, they't colick numbers. There were no
numbers at all. We don't believe in scores. Didn't collect numbers.

Speaker 1 (01:25:07):
Score cards working for the movie name.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
That's what I'm saying. Like Joe got closest because I
was like, it's actually kind of close. Didn't collect any numbers.
When asked by Entertainment wikly.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
About it, they tried to hand it to us, but
they fell right in the trash.

Speaker 4 (01:25:22):
It was our fault.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
We had guys with Cyril PARSI harzy, they couldn't fucking
rip it. You know, we're out here, reach out of
the community, and shit not our fault.

Speaker 4 (01:25:36):
When when asked by Entertainment Weekly about it, Canton told them, quote,
the truth is, I purposely had no screen numbers done.
I had my assistants take the cards, file the cards,
and never add them up. It's the same thing we
did with Batman at Warrener Brothers. Because I knew that
even if we scored a ninety, someone would say it
was a ten. And sure enough I heard Action Hero
was seventy eight, or it was forty eight, or it

(01:25:57):
was thirty eight. So I kind of laugh when I
hear the numbers. It is the ultimate irony of how
low people will go. We'll go unquote and holy fucking
fucking he like, how does this motherfucker? Like how did
he get as high as he did? The holy fuck Like,
how the hell do you think anyone's gonna believe that?
So Mark Canton, Yes, Mark Canton, which he just didn't

(01:26:19):
even end his career at Columbia. He was there for
another few years and then getting fired and he moved
to somewhere else in like of course, oh.

Speaker 3 (01:26:25):
Yeah, they always get a job again.

Speaker 4 (01:26:28):
So reshoots begin in early May nineteen ninety three, with
the media, of course, claiming that the movie was in
trouble because of the fact they're doing reshoots, although Columbia
assured them that they do reshoots with the like on
most of their movies, which I know is true now.
I'm not sure if it's true back then, but if
it is true, there's no way that the media didn't
already know that. And so at this point it just
seems like they're just like, fuck this movie, Like, yeah,

(01:26:49):
this guy's fucking lying to us, Like obviously, no, fuck
this movie, Like yeah, yeah for sure, no, no numbers, Okay, yeah,
what are you guys doing reshoots? They're doing reshoots anyway,
Like I'm not sure if it was the thing like
as like, because I know it's like especially for action movies.

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
I think, like, yeah, yeah, it's just built in now. Yeah,
they know they're going to do reshoots.

Speaker 6 (01:27:07):
Pause, Yes, they're doing reshoots in May. When does this
come out?

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
June eighteenth. They're doing reshoots in early May, and they're
editing it. Post production is happening at the same time. Anyway.
Entertainment Weekly ended up covering the reshoots and got a
couple of good quotes from both Arnold and McTiernan with
McInerny and telling them, quote, they did reshoots for Terminator
just two weeks before it came out. It's become a
part of making making an Arnold movie. He's like a

(01:27:34):
physical trainer, always pushing.

Speaker 3 (01:27:35):
Do you want more rep?

Speaker 4 (01:27:36):
Do want more rep? You can do it? Unquote?

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
And then Arnold's quote concerning the rumors surrounding the film
is just great with him telling Entertainment Weekly quote, every
movie I've done, there's always a buzz about how it
is over budget, how it wouldn't come out on time,
and how was a disaster. That's because everyone in this
town is jealous of the next guy. They're all a
bunch of jail's bitches sitting around saying, I hope he
takes a dive. What do you think I've been hearing

(01:28:02):
about Spielberg's picture the most hideous things unquote. But I
love the sassiness of that quote. Yeah, that wasn't you. No, No,
they're all a bunch of around saying I hope he
takes a dive.

Speaker 6 (01:28:17):
That sounds like you though, Erdavid.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
Weekly also talk to them about the test s grunning,
with the magazine claiming that they were told by attending
audience members that last action was quote off the mark
juvenile and my personal favorite will I Wonka with guns,
which it just sounds awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:28:37):
That doesn't Yeah that, guys, I've got a movie idea.

Speaker 6 (01:28:45):
That would make that movie ten times better. Yeah, let
me tell you, especially if it was like a chocolate gun.

Speaker 3 (01:28:54):
Yeah. Yeah, there's so many possibilities.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Or a gun made out of bullet, say spray chocolate, a.

Speaker 6 (01:29:04):
Gun like gushers, like gushers.

Speaker 3 (01:29:08):
Oh, I asked some gushers, and oh yeah, the gushers
are like trenations are.

Speaker 4 (01:29:11):
Good and gross at the same time.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
They're they're they're not good, They're just gross.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
They're kind of gross.

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
Well, at least Arnold wasn't like at least he was
smart enough not to give some stupid at fuck lie
that like Mark Kanton did, and he also managed to
make his life someone entertaining. When asked about the yeah, yeah, yeah,
I've asked about the h the test screening, he said, quote,
we had a test running. The audience reaction was fantastic
through the roof, but there were some people, maybe a
few seventeen year old girls, who said.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
Who said that I should say that, yes says, but.

Speaker 4 (01:29:47):
There was some speaches. There were some people, maybe a
few seventeen year old girls, who said they wish there
were one or two more action scenes. When you had
the word action in the title, and when you see
me on screen, people have certain expectations. It's just one
of those things. So we figured, why not shoot the scene.
So yeah, they did the reshoots, all right, and we're
gonna stop right there, but join us next week to
find out how last section Hero did during its opening weekend,

(01:30:09):
as well as all the dumb ways that the studio
tried to course correct it's marketing campaign. Oh and by
the way, I know we always say join us next
week and then we don't end up releasing a new
episode for like a few weeks after that. But we
just finished recording and editing the next few episodes, so
the next one actually will one be released next week.
And yeah, apologies that we've had such a super delayed

(01:30:31):
release schedule, like with these episodes. Everything's been a bit
crazy lately and I've just been slacking big time. Anyway,
As always, thanks so much for listening, and please don't
forget to leave us a rating and review on either
Apple podcast or Spotify. It's a perfect place to give
us a five star writing while also complaining about our
really release schedule. Anyway, Thanks again and we'll see you
next week.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
If you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a
positive review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
App of choice.

Speaker 3 (01:30:58):
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the
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See you at the Potty Richter is a production of
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Speaker 6 (01:31:15):
This has been a tape Deck Media production. Thank you
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Last Action Hero: Production Notes - Advertising & Test Screening Blunders

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Last Action Hero: Production Notes - Advertising & Test Screening Blunders