Harrison Ford- Franchise Films!! Film Foundations Franchise-ish: An Intro to Indiana Jones and more!

On this week's episode of Film Foundations, Chris and Ryan change it up and discuss the franchise films of Harrison Ford! Everything from Indiana Jones and Star Wars to Jack Ryan and the MCU. Do you agree? Disagree? Tell us in the comments!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Film Foundations, the collaborative
show between weirding Way Media and Someone's Favorite Productions. As usual,
i am your co host, Ryan Verrell from The Disconnected,
Someone's Favorite Productions, and probably some airline that has rented
out a private jet to our host of today's episode.
Your other co host is.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Christashu all the way from weirding Way Media, a big
fan of Harrison Ford and his abilities as a pilot.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, we're not going to talk about too many crash
landings today, but on the show we add a lot
of them. On this show, we ask an answer four
questions about a given topic that is surrounding either an actor, director, franchise,
or micro genre, and today it's kind of an amalgamation
of two of those. We're gonna be talking about a
specific actors franchise films because man, he's got a vast

(01:00):
and varied filmography, So today we are discussing specifically the
franchise films of mister Harrison Ford. As usual, our job
on the show is to entice you to broaden your
horizons on film, to encourage you to take a flight
through film tangents and side roads that you may never
have traveled down otherwise hopefully landing safely at a destination

(01:20):
that you enjoy today. On our Harrison Ford film franchises, Chris,
why do you share the list of titles that are eligible?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I would love Can we just keep making airplane puns
and gags the entire time bringing this in for a
safe landing on this one, it's a little pumpy andad
Oh jeez, Harrison Ford. So, like Ryan just mentioned, we
are not We're not talking about everything Harrison Ford. So
unfortunately we will not be bringing up his singular moment

(01:49):
in Bruno that is the best moment of his entire career.
We're gonna be focusing on his long form work, so
anything Star Wars, that being episodes four, five, six, seven,
and nine, Blade Runner and Blade Runner twenty forty nine,
Indiana Jones one, two, three, four, and unfortunately five, The Fugitive,

(02:10):
which has a sequel that is Us Marshal's that features
the same character from that movie that Tommy Lee Jones
plays in The Fugitive. Also the Jack Ryan Films, which
is Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The other
one is American Graffiti, which he is in not one
but two of the films.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
We also have.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Expendables three, Anchorman two, and The Secret Life of Pets two.
So if those show up anywhere beyond here, you know
why because they're fair game. Am I saying they will? No,
Because they probably won't. I just again, like when we
were making this list and doing this up ahead of time,

(02:49):
like some of these things, especially the later ones.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I completely forgot about.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I'm interested Ryan to just kind of kick this
back to you to set some more of this up.
This is also, I think the first time we are
talking about someone that is considered to be a cultural
icon in true because franchise work for Harrison Ford is
almost like you're essentially talking about the three characters that

(03:16):
he's played four if you will five maybe, But we're
really talking I mean, like, in a lot of ways,
most people only know him for two characters, is my point. Absolutely,
we are going to expand that outside of that and
make a case that there are some other things possibly,
But we're talking about someone who's like almost too big
to like, he's so big we had to separate it.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, his filmography. I talked about him on an episode
of The Disconnected in the last year and looking on
all of his filmography and trying to explain them back
and forth with me, right, I know, yeah, just making
sure's like that was me. No, I know, I know.
And that's why kind of why we led to this topic,
because we were discussing it at length, and for those

(04:00):
that listen to it, we we got to some odd conclusions,
like for me, I don't think a lot of people
expected My Number One to be witnessed, but that movie
has been super underrated and underseen by a lot of people.
Less so underrated probably, But when you're talking about those,
it's really easy just to just to simply go to
the franchise films that you've seen forever, and we didn't

(04:21):
really give like a lot of attention to those that night,
So we wanted to make sure that, Yeah, it's it's
really easy to let those control of conversation, so kind
of this is like a redemption point for that night,
and so we are here to give them that intentional
attention here. So I'm excited to talk about it. I
will say I am. I'm gonna play a card right

(04:43):
now a little bit and say I'm not a huge
Star Wars guy. It's never been something that's been super
important to me the you know, episodes four, five, and six,
or our.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Decent audience left by the way, just turn it off.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, that's all right. We don't need subscribers, no big deal.
But it is something that I definitely respect the hell
out of, you know, him being there from the very
beginning and continuing to play literally the exact same character
through like seven entries if you count all the little
side shit he's done for Star Wars stuff. More than that,
even I think he's up to like nine or ten.

(05:18):
But it's it's impressive that he would hold on to
that for so many years, and he continues to do
that for things like Indiana Jones obviously. So even though
it's not like my favorite thing, I revere certain things
in the Star Wars franchise, and I'm eager to see
what your picks for some of these are as well.
What's your history with these franchise films specifically? Boy, I mean, I.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Don't know how to put this lightly, but there's still
an Indiana Jones poster for my favorite one in the
room at my parents' house. Like the Indiana Jones franchise
for me is just I don't know. I mean, look,
the first three obviously we're four and five are very
much their own thing. For a very obvious reason, Indiana

(06:06):
Jones is the Harrison Ford franchise for me, like just
getting it out of the way here. Like you mentioned
the lack of Star Wars on yours, the importance of
Indiana Jones to mine. I liked Star Wars growing up.
I probably liked it more then than I do now. Again,
similar reason to Indiana Jones. For obvious reasons. Not because
I don't think I can't just go watch the originals
and enjoy the performances. Then it's just at some point

(06:30):
we have to ask ourselves, can we do something else
here and not just the same thing over and over again?
And look, I mean again, franchises are the way that
they are because again, you know how you made money,
so you can just keep trying to make money the
same way you've already made it. I don't blame them,
but for me, Indiana Jones is the inverse of Star Wars.

(06:52):
With you, it's the important franchise for me. Star Wars
was important at one point in my life, not so
much anymore. Indiana Jones is. I mean, Indiana Jones is
the big one and one of my answers may be
a little surprising because I don't know if one of
my answers will be from either of those, given that
there are a fair amount of other things that we
could talk about. But for me, I mean, Harrison Ford

(07:13):
is one of those people I kind of grew up with,
like watching Indiana Jones because my family loves Indiana Jones.
My parents saw Indiana Jones five in theaters way too
many times, which I still don't get because again, diminishing
returns on a character like that at this point twenty
twenty three. But at the same time, I think it
speaks very highly of why Harrison Ford is being dogged

(07:37):
by people to be in a movie in twenty twenty
three that is reprising his character from Oh, I don't know,
say nineteen eighty fucking one like it. To me, I
think is a testament to who he is as an
actor and as a cultural icon quote unquote that remember
when they talked about recasting Indiana Jones as Chris Pratt

(07:59):
and everybody went ape shit. It really wasn't a good reason, right.
I don't think it had anything to do with Chris Pratt. Really,
I think it had to do with the fact that
it wasn't Indiana Jones as Harrison Ford. Because Indiana Jones
and Harrison Ford are one and the same. You can't
remove one from the other.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Just like.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Unfortunately not really the case, but the Han Solo movie,
it's kind of hard to have a Han Solo movie
without Harrison Ford. Ergo, that's one of the reasons that
the Han Solo movie just kind of flopped. One of
the many reasons, but one of those is Han Solo
is played by Harrison Ford hard Stop. Indiana Jones is
played by Harrison Ford, hard Stop. Rick Deckard is played

(08:40):
by Harrison Ford hard Stop Jack Ryan. Different characters, different interpretations,
But for me, Harrison Ford is an actor that is
irreplaceable in what he is in because of who he
is and who he has made himself. And look, when
the guy is in not one, not two, not three,
but four franchises that are are fondly remembered along with

(09:01):
others that he's in because of how well known and
culturally important he is, I think that speaks volumes to
the actor that he is. And look, Harrison Ford is
one of those people that I would love to talk
to in real life and have a genuine conversation with
because he seems like an interesting person. He seems like
such a reluctant actor in so many ways, and it's

(09:23):
maybe not reluctant to acting, but reluctant to the things
that come with acting. And I totally understand that. And
I think that there's like a there's a mystique around
Harrison Ford still because of the way he carries himself,
and that's again, that's a thing that's that's that I
appreciate because it reminds me a lot of when cinema
was cinema and this was a thing that people were like,

(09:44):
there's a level of mysticism and ambiguity and mystery around
our actors. They're kind of one level above us. But
that's okay. It kinda we don't need to know that
they go to Starbucks and buy coffee like paparazzi and stuff.
Really destroyed the mystique of being an act in a
lot of ways, because again, Rock Hudson and so many
of these other people were able to be massive movie

(10:05):
stars but keep their private life private, and I think
we see a lot of that with Harrison Ford. He
is the last of a breed of actors that are
considered movie stars capital M capital s.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Beyond that, when you look at his entire filmography, he
embodies that movie star status. He's somebody that has never really,
I don't know, you know, taking his foot off the gas.
That's not a plane pun there, it is.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Maybe pulled the throttle back a little bit. He's never
throttled down as it were. He never put his flaps up,
as it were.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
And maybe that's an issue, no, yes.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
And in fact is an issue as someone who has
spent over fifty hours trying to get their pilot's license
and not trying because I was bad, but trying because
I never finished it. Harrison Ford's pilot shit is just
wild to me because like, I love the guy, but
man like, it would have been a real shame and
if any point in his life he had died from
crashing an airplane, because what an ignominious end to a

(11:07):
genuine cultural icon like right does He'd been mentioned in
the same breath as like Jim Crowch or John Denver
or Stevie ray Vaughn, you know, And it's like, I'm
glad that's ever been the case, because I'd like Harrison
Ford to stick around for as long as possible, as
long as he'd like.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
To work, I agree fully. So to go back to
what I was joking about, something about his career is impressive.
So not only just the franchise films here, but the
fact that he is always on top of his game.
He is somebody that even in like lesser films, which
he really doesn't have many, he is always magnetic. He's

(11:42):
somebody that when he's on screen, he is somebody that
will draw you In every single role, he clearly gives
it as all. And when he plays in like these
off character type films, So something like Witness something like
regarding Henry, something like some of the more rare And
I'm like, when you look back on his filmography now
you don't immediately think of things like American Grafviti for

(12:06):
a lot of us that are our age, or even
the fact that he was in you know, some of
these like Apocalypse Now he was he was Colonel Lucas
Apocalypse Now. It's a big, big deal. But when you're
when you're looking at him, you think of franchise films,
But he gives them all the same amount of attention,
the same amount of honor, the same amount of I
am doing a job, and I'm here to do a

(12:27):
good job, and so I will continue to do that.
So he's always impressed me as an actor, and I'm
I'm just eager to jump into this. So let's talk
about that first one there, Chris, What is uh, what
is that first film that when you think of when
you're trying to get somebody to watch a Harrison Ford
franchise film, What is that one title that is the
best entry point? Man?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
You put me on the spot to be the boring
one first here, and I think, and I think it's unfortunate.
And what's funny is I actually I actually think that
while I want to give the boring answer, I'm going
to give the right answer, which is my answer. I
will sit here and acknowledge, as I'm sure you would,
that the answer if we're going to use Indiana Jones
as the franchise should be Raiders of the Lost Arc, Right.

(13:12):
I mean, it's not gonna be my answer. Because I
love Readers of the Lost Arc, I can acknowledge that
it is. And we've talked about this a little bit
already on the show. It is a perfect film period,
Raiders of the Lost Arc. Is a perfect movie from
the bottom down, from the bottom to the top, and
the top to the bottom. It's a perfect movie. Everything
about it.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
It works.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
It is one of the best written scripts ever made.
It is one of the best directed films. The choreography
and stunt work in that movie is top notch, if
not phenomenal, if not so iconic that it's been aped
in plenty of things since and will.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
Continue to be aped.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
So I can't sit here and not at least acknowledge
the fact that the answer should.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Be Rateds of the Lost Arc.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
However, because I am me, my answer is Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom for two reasons. Ay, it
comes before Raiders of the Lost Arc chronologically, so I
can make the case that if you've never seen Raiders
of the Lost Ark and you watch this first, it
actually leads into Raiders of the Lost Arc pretty well.
Watching Temple of Doom after Raiders of the Lost Arc

(14:13):
makes very little sense, frankly in a lot of ways,
especially now the way that the films have kind of
come out, especially the way that Dial of Destiny ends,
I would contend to that Temple of Doom needs to
be watched now before Raiders of the Lost Arc, given
that it is a prequel. Anyways, However, I find for
me his performance in Temple is a little different than

(14:36):
in Raiders. He's a little bit of a rougher character
than he is in Raiders, and Raiders he's a lot
more refined and he's kind of getting his legs under
him in Temple of Doom, and Harrison Ford portrays.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
That really well.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
He's able to kind of pull back a little bit
on the stick of what the character is and kind
of levels out differently in a way that I think
works for Temple of Doom. And then I think Last
crusee it has its own thing that he's doing. He's
kind of navigating something else that I think the expectations
of each movie are different, and I think if you

(15:09):
look at Temple of Doom, for me, I think it's
a little bit of a different performance that has a
little bit more of an interesting edge to it, and
I think also the subject material. Look, I understand people
will bristle at the idea of the movies offensive. I
don't think the movie's offensive as much as it's just
it's portraying a place in the world the way the
movies that these films are paying homage to would do.

(15:32):
These are pulp serial inspired films.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
India, in India.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
And places around the world that people had never been
to before were stylized in a way that we know,
they don't eat monkey brains in India, no shit, even
though you probably have never been there. I have been
to India. I know they don't eat monkey brains there.
You know that they don't eat monkey brains there because
you're a what you're listening to our show, so you
must be, you know, pretty smart, sar super smart, super smart.

(16:01):
But my point being, I mean again, I can understand
people bristling at that and being upset about it, but
at the same time, for me, it's really paying homage
to what these movies were doing in the past, and
going to exotic locales and eating exotic food and being
exposed to exotic things. You never forgot the fact that
Indiana Jones eight monkey brands in that movie. If you

(16:22):
saw it, I guarantee you that. And and I'd also
like to point out that Temple of Doom also has
a very nice redemptive story connected to it now with
Kihwei Kwan who comes out of nowhere forty years later
and kills it in a movie. And that's because of
Temple of Doom. Is that why I'm picking it? No,
Temple of Doom, I think for me is the movie
that you get to see Indiana Jones at I think

(16:45):
his most interesting and his most kind of I mean
again cutthroat I think in the first movie is a
word I would use to given the scene in the
market with the Cairo swordsman is a great scene, but
it's also, like what it is, is also pretty fucked
up the way he handles it. It's very funny, obviously,
but I like when Indiana Jones has a little bit

(17:06):
of an edge to him, and he has an edge
to him more in Temple of Doom, and I think
that Harrison Ford when he has an edge to him
really works. And I didn't bring up Hans Solo here
and we haven't really even mentioned it. I know we're
gonna get brought out of town by some people because
of it, but Han Solo is proto Indiana Jones. For me,
Indiana Jones is just the character I want it out

(17:28):
of Han Solo. He's a much more interesting Han Solo
in a lot of ways. So in my mind, it
doesn't exist without Star Wars, but he's not the focus
of Star Wars. In Indiana Jones, he's the named character,
titular character. So yeah, for me, it's Temple of Doom.
And like I said, I feel like I put a
pretty good defense up for anybody who wants to try
to pick it apart, and I get it. Temple of

(17:49):
Doom is a hard movie to love, especially the tone
of the movie is a little bit more horror adjacent
than Raiders are the Lost Arc. I mean, look, the
ending of Raiders is pretty horror adjacent. I like, it
goes full horror movie for like a minute and a
half two minutes, and Temple of Doom is that throughout.
The setting is pretty great. I love a movie set

(18:10):
in India. Obviously, am I a little biased, sure, But
at the same time, I love everything about Temple of Doom,
and it has some of the best outside of Raiders
it has. I mean, all three Indiana Jones movies have
amazing practical effects and stunt working choreography, so I think
it's almost unfair to say it's the best one. But
for me, Temple of Doom is at the top. It

(18:31):
really is, even though I, like I said, I acknowledge
Raiders should be the answer here.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Well, this is a great choice. I'm also kind of
impressed because this is going to lead to an interesting
dichotomy with what my choice is for this one. And
I love that I set the groundwork for the Star
Wars slander at the beginning, and my answer here is
going to be a perfect companion with yours, because I'm
going with the Empire strikes Back. I easily could have

(19:00):
gone with Raiders. I easily could have gone with the
New Hope. But I think in all of these major
franchise films, I think one of the most interesting storylines
that one of his characters goes on is in Empire
Strikes Back, especially because you're left in that ambiguous field
of like, oh shit, Han Solo is actually in danger
at the end of this movie. And the other big thing. Yes,

(19:22):
I know he's not the named character in the title
of the film or anything, but man, he is prominently
displayed as the main character in the poster for this film,
and this movie, like a lot of people will say,
the first New Hope was probably more of a Han
Solo film, even though none of them really are just
a specifically Han Solo film, but this one specifically, his
arc is interesting. His arc makes him out to be

(19:45):
this like just very incredible hero character that is deeper
than what we get from most of the other people
in this movie. And the way that they wrote this
movie to be sort of redemptive for the parties that
need to be redeemed. He is able to deliver that
feeling to a lot of people simply just by being around.

(20:08):
Like his bravado is his ability to control and be
the cool one intense situations is what leads to him
being that admirable type of character and what has led
to you know, Han Solo himself as a character being
worshiped for We're on five fucking decades, like it's it's
such an interesting way to hang your hat on a franchise.

(20:29):
And he is not like the shy little Luke Skywalker
character that we know is going to be groomed to
be this main character hero because he's the hero of
the entire time. He's the one that uh you know.
His iconic line of uh you know is two words,
I know melts the hearts of tons of people. It is.

(20:49):
It is a great movie. I will argue potentially that
it's maybe the most perfect movie that he's been in
all these franchise films, even though Raiders is up there
for sure, but interns perfect, right, Yeah, one can be
more perfect. I'm just kidding. I get it.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
I get where you're one percent agree with you, though
I get what you're getting at entirely. I'd pick Empire
over Raiders if I were gonna watch something.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Right, and I think there's a little more like variety
in genre and that's what appeals to me quite a
little bit. But yeah, I think, no matter what, these
two franchises specifically are Harrison Ford at the heart of it.
And I know that everyone's gonna say that Star Wars
is Luke and all that, but I mean he's not.
He's not the hero of that story. He's He's not Harrison.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
He's not.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Nope, the second movie is Harrison Ford's movie like it
is yours. I would actually say, more more properly, it's
Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher's movie. I mean obviously, I
mean you already mentioned the I know line being such
a big thing, and to your point about the I
know line, it only works because it's Harrison Ford saying it,
and he's so effort like, he's so effortlessly cool. And

(21:56):
that's the thing. Like even now he's like in his
mid eight he's so cool in a difference. He's like
he's been able to maintain his sense of cool his
entire career. And I think he's eighty one, by the way,
which is fucking insane. He's been able to maintain it
because of the detached sense of cool that he offers,
because he's at it's a little detached, not fully detached.

(22:17):
He's not like to go to Johnson levels of detached.
I mean, you can be detached and be an actor.
That's William Hurt for me, Like I never speaking of
Harrison Ford. I've never understood the appeal of a William
Hurt because he seems to super detached and disinterested. But
for me, Harrison Ford strikes the balance of like cool
because part of being cool is like not giving a shit, right, right,

(22:37):
and not giving a shit is just another way of
saying detached. So like he he balances that he treads
that line very finely of being like because I mean
you've seen him destroy that lego millennium falcon right, Like
I know he's in on it. But he does such
a good job of like playing the part of being
like the cool older guy who just doesn't give a shit,
and like, nobody does it better than Harrison Ford.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
And at the heart of it, it's literally because he's
an incredible actor, so pulling off a video like the
destroying the Falcon like he it's fucking Harrison Ford. He
can act the pants off of anyone. And I say
that literally because the man is gorgeous. He's always been
just a beautiful person and he has ever since the
first movie that he's been and he is like that
handsome person that shows up on the screen. He go fuck,

(23:21):
like why this is so perfect?

Speaker 2 (23:25):
It's so unfair. He looks so right well, and that's
the funny thing, Like for me, the funny thing about
it is and like you kind of mentioned it, he
is so like charming and magnetic and the camera loves
him like the camera loves him and you know it.
What's so iconic about him even as an actor. And
we were talking about this offline. In Indiana Jones and

(23:45):
The Last Crusade, they have to tell us why Indiana
Jones has a scar on his chin, But it's actually
Harrison Ford's scar on his chin that they're actually trying
to mythologize, which is so meta and hilarious that it
always cracks me up, because that's got Indiana Jones's chin scar,
it's Harrison Ford's chin scar. They just made it part
of the character forever, intrinsically linking the man to the

(24:07):
character further than he ever could be. All the people
that were happy to see Chris Pratt taking that roll
over back in like two thousand and fourteen or whatever that.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Hell it was, Oh man, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
They tried to recast on solo. When we saw what happened,
I'm like, what a thankless job to Like, I don't
know if we'll ever talk about that movie on this
show otherwise, but talk about a thankless job having to
portray young Harrison Ford, Like what, yikes, dude, you you
might as well just put the boulder on your back
and try to climb up a fucking steep like vertical

(24:40):
cliff face, Like, I don't know, it's like trying. It's
like someone going and being cast as a.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Young George Clooney Like yikes, yikes.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, I'm not raising my hand if somebody's asking me
what person I want to play a younger version of it.
Ain't somebody who's an amazing actor, because you are hamstrung immediately.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
I'm trying to figure out why you just typed angel
el Gort in the private shit.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, Ansel Elgort's the perfect guy to be young Harrison
Ford or young would he be young George Clooney or
young Harrison Ford?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Probably more Harrison Ford. But I was joking around just
because it's the most random ass name that you could say. Right.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
It doesn't even sound like a name of a person.
It sounds like a cleaning product.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah. I heard my aunt got diagnosed with angel Elgort
last year.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, angel el Gordon. Angel Elgort's actually the sound that
your garbage's bosal makes when there's a fork caught in it.
And lo, lord and earlgart.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
That.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, please, you're welcome Anzel el Gort in it. He
has like the greatest he has one of the great
actor names. But here's the thing, so does Harrison Ford.
Like I literally don't know how to put this any
other way, but the man's name is Harrison Ford. There's
that he wasn't born as something else. He's Harrison Ford.

(26:02):
Like that name. You know how many times my wife
and I have talked about if we had a son,
that would probably end up being his name, no joke,
We've talked about it like a million times. For whatever reason,
it just has a nice ring to it.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
I have to change that middle name. They'll probably be
Harrison Dodge.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Dodge for Harrison super Roof Forward. This actually will be
his middle name will be Ford, and his last name
will be out one fifty God.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Anyways, Yeah, the hard part about discussing something like this
is they're franchise films. Like in all reality, almost all
of these would be a great entry point, and they're
it's not like a franchise film like we've talked about before,
like with the Harry Potter franchise, where the lore is
so dense that you can't watch any of these first. Because,
let's be honest, most of the Star Wars movies you

(26:52):
could start with and be okay. Most of the Indiana
Jones movies you could start with and be okay. Obviously,
you're able to get more enjoyment out of the if
you've seen the others, because there's references and stuff that
you won't necessarily get. But even then they're not like
they're not stronger movies if you've seen all of them.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
And that's something funny. And we didn't talk about it.
We did Harry Potter, and I think we can kind
of have a mild tangent but totally necessary conversation here.
Franchise films made pre Iron Man are not the same
as franchise films made post iron Man post MCU. The
way MCU treats franchise films now everybody else kind of

(27:30):
has to do this thing of like, well, we gotta
have hints and things and fucking easter eggs and like, look,
Last Crusade has all of like what one two It
has the thing where they see the arc when they're
in the catacombs and she's like, is that the Ark
of the Covenant. He's like, yeah, it is. You know,
to trust me on that. Trust me on that one, lady,

(27:51):
I know.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
And like it's got a couple other references, right.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
But they're not like it's not like it like you said,
like if you it's not like if you don't know them,
you're not gonna be able to the movie.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
The MCU becomes.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
The thing where it's like you have to have seen
all of these to get this.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
It's like you know and six TV shows, right, And I.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Appreciate a lot of it, but at the same time,
like as someone who is more susceptible to it, because
I grew up in a time and a place where
this was a thing that they were making this, they
were making it for me and tailoring it to me.
The smart fan as we're who is And like you
said with Harry Potter, educated about the franchise and the
backstory of it. There's no backstory with Star Wars. The
Star Wars backstory is actually those three movies that came out.

(28:31):
That's the mythology. Now, just like with Indiana Jones, Indiana
Jones five is really hinting and aping and referencing just
three other movies. It's not referencing really anything else. But
like you said, with the mc like you've said and
like I'm crowing about here, with the MCU, MCU can
draw from comic books and it's like just packing it

(28:51):
with all kinds of shit. Now, that's the thing. Before
it was, like you said, you could go into a
franchise movie and the expectations of the films were that
they understood the expectation of the watcher, which is they
don't need to have seen everything else to enjoy this,
And the filmmaker wants to make sure that you can
watch Temple of Doom without having to see Raiders of
the Lost Art because guess what, less people can see

(29:12):
your movie if they haven't seen the first one. More
people can see your movie if they're just coming to
watch it, not realizing it's the seventeenth movie and a
sixteenth movie chain, which is again like it worked for
the MCU, but now it's not anymore. Like literally, it
got to the point where it's bloated and they have
to like pop the damn thing and let all the

(29:33):
guts fly everywhere and rebuild because it's just bloated and
tried and over referencing on itself and making promises about
things that are never gonna come to fruition. I misfranchise
movies like this, I really do, like cause like the
original Star Wars, I like the original Three Indiana Jones.
Like they don't make them like that anymore intentionally. It's

(29:53):
not like a lull Oh they lost their way. It's
like they just aren't interested in doing those kinds of movies.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Anymore.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
It's true. That's really true. And the funny thing is,
you know, we we brought the MCU up again because
we kind of always do, uh, but this one specifically,
like the point that you're making, you can cross that
with the comic book films of the eighties and nineties,
like all the Batman films that everybody loves. You can
watch any of those and have that be the first
Batman film you've seen and it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
And you can watch the George Cloney Batman movie and
have and know nothing about Batman, any of those Batman movies,
and yeah, like, yeah, I'm with you it. The expectations
are different. And I'm not saying it sucks that everybody
is perceived as smart now, because that's a good thing
in a lot of ways. But I don't understand why

(30:42):
it has to be like that completely totally. There's no
room for anything.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Else, one hundred percent, one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
So let's move on.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, So, speaking of uh, let's take a turn away
from the more known franchises and maybe talk about the
lesser known franchises. So Ryan, I am very curious because
this is where that this is where the episode for
me is going to get it hasn't been I'm not
saying it hasn't been interesting up to this point, but
I feel like we're gonna possibly diverge here. Maybe we'll see.
So what is a lesser known gem of Harrison Ford's

(31:16):
franchise work that you would say, well, maybe this isn't
where you want to start, but it's not a bad
second or third choice.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
This is an odd choice because we had to discuss
if this was even a franchise film. But my answer
here has to be The Fuguit.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
The God damn it, dude, fuck you diverging. We're right
on top.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Of each other. Col nineteen ninety three is The Fugitive
is a damn near perfect movie. And the fact that
it's a part of a franchise, yes, is a little odd.
But to be quite honest, us Marshalls isn't a terrible movie.
It's just it's it's connected by Tommy Lee Jones. But
this movie has so many lines, like Richard Kimball himself

(31:58):
is an incredible character that is fleshed out in the
most Harrison Ford of ways. Like the Harrison Ford of
the eighties was effortlessly cool, but the Harrison Ford of
the nineties was effortlessly like masculine and cool, and the
Harrison Ford of the eighties that was just you know,

(32:19):
just Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Indiana Jones and
deckerd whatever. But the stuff he did in the nineties
takes everything to the next level because he was the
epitome of like the badass dad at that point. He
kills it in the future this movie. Man, I could
talk about the Fijid for hours at this point. But

(32:40):
first off, him and Tommy Lee Jones incredible like adversarial
chemistry in this really really well done. Some other like
interesting faces in this of course, but oh my gosh,
the action that happens in this movie. The way that
they shoot this movie is so so much better than
a lot of what they call action movies nowadays. It's

(33:03):
more engaging, and obviously the stuff in the nineties because
they weren't doing as much with special effects. It feels
so much better because they're on location for most of
this shit. They're doing this not on a set, but
in a real place that you can feel that it's tangible,
that is beautiful to look at, and on top of
that that makes them be a little more creative with
how they shoot, and so you get more dynamic shots,

(33:25):
you get more of these focus shots that when you
pull on Harrison Ford's face with the camera, it pulls
you to the next scene in a way that is
just engaging. And I think we've lost that in a
lot of modern filmmaking. And not that we don't make
any good films anymore, because I strongly argue against people
who say that, but there's something about this era of

(33:46):
the nineties that was so frickin' special with how they
filmed these I can watch this movie literally ten times
a week and probably never be bored.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
I mean I would actually go one tick further and
you would say it is a perfect movie, like straight up,
and I think it's probably Harrison Ford's And here's the
thing up until the moment where I was like right
us Marshals and we and we talked about that, like
I would say.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
It's his best movie period, Like I think it's.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Up it's up there, it's up there, it's and again,
like you said was with Star Wars, and I mentioned
with Indiana Jones, like this is the movie where it's pretty.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Much just him the whole time.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
It's just him and I'm a little disappointed he didn't
refer to Joey Pants as one of.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
The people who's in this movie.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Joe Pantaliano is so good in this movie. He comes
back in the second one too. I believe the second
one that has a speaking of the MCU. It has
Robert Downey Junior in it, like pre pre MCU, but
post like early two thousand or pre early two thousands
problems because I guess I came.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Out in like nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah, it's always weird to see Robert Towney Junior and
stuff like the nineties and two thousands, like just before
Iron Man. He's always just like it's the weird energy
that Now it's like, oh no, it's like kind of
nice energy.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Now. Fugit is good.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Choice, you don't say.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
So. Here's the thing, So I had a contingency plan
here because, like you just said, the fugitive is more
or less I think the obvious choice here, but I
would contend. And this may rustle some feathers, but I
think my answer, since you chose the fugitive is actually
Blade Runner twenty forty nine. Okay, I think he's really

(35:31):
good in Blade Runner twenty forty nine. I like Blade
Runner twenty forty nine more than I like Blade Runner.
I actually think it's a more interesting movie that has
more interesting things to say. Not to take anything away
from the original movie. I think the original movie is
a beautiful film and has great music, has great performances.
But I actually think the performance from Harrison Ford, specifically
in the sequel, is more interesting. He's playing a more

(35:53):
interesting character. And I think it's also like the closest
we've ever gotten to ears and Ford playing in self
on screen. He's so curmudgeonly and just he's such a
miserly dick in Blade Runner twenty forty nine, but he
redeems himself at the end. And his chemistry with.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Ryan Gosling is amazing.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, he and he and Gosling are I actually think
it's funny. I think if there was a modern day
comparison Harrison Ford, I think Ryan Gosling is a.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Very good comparative in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
He's done all kinds of stuff, but in a lot
of ways like he is the focus, he is the star,
and he isn't. And I would consider not saying Ryan
Reynolds isn't because I think Ryan Reynolds is another good comparative.
I think Ryan Gosling is a capital A actor the
way Harrison Ford is as well. But Blade Runner twenty

(36:47):
forty nine, I think is my choice for sure, outside
of the fact that you picked the most obvious best choice,
totally the best choice. But I think that Blade Runner
twenty forty nine, he actually gets forgotten that a lot
in that movie because he's only in the second half,
and it's a three hour movie too, obviously, so the
second half of the movie's an hour and a half,
so it's essentially its own movie within the movie. He's

(37:11):
really good in it, and I'm really glad that that
movie ended up coming out and that he was involved.
I actually think out it's the best franchise thing dnis
Villeneuve has done outside I mean, because he's done great
movies pre Dune that were not anything like anything Dune
is at all. I think that Blade Runner was like
his like test film for Dune. It ends up being

(37:33):
like his his audition tape for Dune. How can he
handle a legacy sequel? And I think Blade Runner twenty
forty nine got lost for a lot of people. Not
enough people saw it in theaters clearly. Obviously we know
that because it kind of failed at theaters. But it
was also three hours long, you know, And I understand
that kind of being something that would make someone apprehensive

(37:55):
to see it. But Blade Runner twenty forty nine is
an epic sci fi film the way Dune is, and
I genuinely think it will be reappreciated the longer time
goes on, because people love these Dune movies so much,
and they're gonna look back and want to watch another
Dnieville move sci fi movie. And they've got Arrival, which
is nothing like Dune and it is a very different film,

(38:17):
and then Blade Runner, which touches on the same things.
But Harrison Ford is really really good in Blade Runner
twenty forty nine, And that was something that I didn't
realize until I was on an episode of The Projection
Booth last year. The year before, we talked for like
three hours about Blade Runner twenty forty nine, and my
appreciation for that movie essentially inversed with the original movie.

(38:38):
I used to love the original movie a lot. Now
Blade Runner twenty forty nine is heads and shoulders, a
better movie and a more interesting movie.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Frankly, so.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I kind of want to hit on a couple things
before we go to the next question. One is, instead
of the Fugitive, I was on the verge of saying
the Last Crusade here. Actually, I gotta be honest, when
I'm looking at the Indiana Jones franchise as a whole,
I look at The Last Crusade as my favorite of
all of them. Get it something about this movie. I

(39:13):
think it's because of the way I think about like
puzzles and shit, and so that last act of going
through all the booby traps some shit is so it's
so much fun. And just to think like how how
they filmed this when they filmed it, that it would
have been so much fun to make this fucking movie.
And the chemistry between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford is

(39:34):
just it's so good. I love this one, and I
think I've seen it more than any of the Indian
Indiana Jones films. But I can be honest that original
trilogy is up there as like one of the only
few perfect trilogies in my mind. It's up there with
Back to the Future. For me, it is something about
that era of filmmaking, especially with Harrison Ford, Sean Connery,

(39:58):
Steven Spielberg being involved in a way that you are
taking a franchise that you obviously have reverence for and
really trying to say, let's just give this our all
when you can tell in some of these other franchises
like it's the third movie and we're getting a little tired,
like I know that we got to do this for
the money. But with Indiana Jones, I don't think it
ever felt like that in those first three films at all, Like,

(40:19):
not even for one scene.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
I know people kind of have issues with the third movies,
like more comedic tone and it's a buddy cop movie,
like it's a buddy movie. Like it really is, like
you said, Indiana Jones is literally Steven Spielberg going, They're
not gonna let me direct James Bond because the people
who made James Bond never wanted the director's name to

(40:41):
come before the name of the character. Doub seven, the
director cannot outshine the materials. So Spielberg pound rocks Pally,
you can't, You're not allowed to do this.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
So what does he do?

Speaker 2 (40:52):
He goes and makes his own James Bond movie, And
then what does he do? Oh, by the way, they're like,
in the third one, who's the best person to play
Indiana Jones?

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Is that James Bond?

Speaker 2 (41:01):
So and like and in my mind like that that
ends up being for me. It's the one that I've
seen the most. Even though Temple of Doom is my favorite,
I've seen the third one the most. You know why
because it's my.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Parents' favorite one.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah, and I and it was my grandfather's favorite one.
It was I do you remember the pepsi Ad? Do
you remember that pepsi ad? You remember the pepsi Ad?

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (41:21):
My god, yeah, dude, uh huh? On the VHS for
the third.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
One, right, mm hmmm, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
If you know what we're talking about, you, if you know,
you know, And if you don't, you could probably find
it on YouTube. But that's how much I saw that
third one. If we were at my grandparents' house and
we wanted to put something on that everybody could agree on,
it was either a Schwarzenegger film or it was an
Indiana Jones movie. And if it was Indiana Jones, it
was the third one.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
I mean, that sounds like a good time. It was
sounds like a good time in nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Hell yeah, man, Hell yeah, dude.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
That's the thing.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Like, my grandfather was such a fucking he was such
a fucking troll. He showed me when I was like seven,
Predator and all like die Hard and all sorts of
shite where it's like I shouldn't be watching this, but
hell yeah. Like I appreciate so much the movies that
I watched growing up because the people that in my
life that liked movies end up liking good movies. They

(42:15):
liked Indiana Jones and Star Wars and Alien and It's
being spoiled grow yeah, and time and place. But it
bums me out when people say they don't like how
fun Last Crusade is, because for me, Last Crusade is
the fun Indiana Jones.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Oh absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
And it's the one that's more quotable for me, like
it has some of the best lines, like no ticket
is just I mean everything everything about the third one
is fantastic. I did want to ask you in Latin,
how is Jehovah spelled?

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Oh God, I'm not going with an eye.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
You said you like Last Crusaded at the end of
the movie. That's my favorite line. But in Latin, Jehovah
spelled with an eye. Then he steps on the wrong
thing and falls into it and you get that awesome
matte painting. Yeah, they'll make movies like that anymore because
they can't be because now we have computers.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
I know.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
It's such a shame.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Matt paintings and doing things in camera. My god, what
a novel concept.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
That reminds me. There was a documentary that was made,
I think this year last year, of the movie Clue,
and the way they did the scene of them driving
up to the mansion in the beginning of that was
it was an actual house, but they did like they
did basically a matte painting on fiberglass around the shape

(43:31):
of the house so they could hold it up and
make it look like it was way up on a
hill and crazy dark and all this other shit. And
those were thought long lost for a long time, and
somebody finally found them like a year and a half ago,
And that sort of thing is just like, that's a
part of cinematic history for so many of us that
loved these films. And another example, they just did one

(43:55):
of those crazy Hollywood auctions and there was some like
one of those crazy miniatures where they built like the
entire scene from a small town like Back to the Future.
They did miniatures all the times for big shots like that,
And the fact that you can just be be in
la and buy one of these things for like five
thousand dollars and own a piece of cinematic history is
insane to me.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
I know, I feel like that's the final frontier that
neither one of us have really broached. I know you
have some stuff, but neither one of us have like
a thing, like a thing like the stuff you've shown
me at your house. Stuff I had. Similarly, it's like
small things like yeah on a card or like something.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
To that effect.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
But you know, the life size Sylvester Stallone that was
frozen in Demolition Man. That maquette is up for sale
right now if you want to buy it at least
like five thousand bucks is the starting bit. You imagine
having that hanging on the seag of your house like
they used to have Planet Hollywood, because I'm pretty sure
that's where they're selling it. From a random tangent, not
really random, but something that I think about often. I

(44:55):
used to have a book, a coffee table book as
a kid. I don't know if you remember this book.
It was like the Lucasfilm Archives book and it had
like Indiana Jones props and they took like really nice
pictures of them, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah,
that book was fucking awesome.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
It was like a museum.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah yeah, and man you got to see all the
props and shit. And this was like a couple of
years after the movies were done, so they were not
completely degraded, which always makes me laugh that people think,
what do you think props for movies just don't degrade.
That's what the puppet looks like. Now, Yeah, that's what
the puppet looks like. Now it's like seventy years old.
But yeah, I have a very large affinity for practical effects.

(45:33):
And then like the props from the movies, like cause again,
like there's really very few things as iconic in cinema
as Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones hat, the bullwhip and the
fertility idol. I mean, the fertility idol for me is
up there for like iconic things from movies, and.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
I mean, where does it come from? Indiana Jones? So yeah, Indiana.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Jones for me is just like it's like you said,
I think it's a perfect franchise the first three.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
It's a perfect trilogy.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, not a franchise anymore. No, I will say a
young Indiana Jones if you've never seen it kind of
smacks yeah, it's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah. I didn't even say it's better than that. It's
it's very very good.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
If you've ever wanted to see Indiana Jones fight Lad
the Impaler, that's where one should go to do it
because that's a real thing. And if you ever want
to see how they thought they were going to end
the Indiana Jones character story, you can also do that,
because boy, they decided to take some choices in that
show with where Indiana Jones ended up late in life.
That's the only thing I'm glad that the movies did

(46:35):
is they clarified that that shit's actually not happening, because
I didn't want that shit to happen the way the
show said, Oh he has no eye now and no
lag or whatever. It is like, Oh this is fun.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Uh So this whole episode is kind of based around
like the epitome of pop culture, and so this next
question is going to be, I think a very interesting
one because it's it's either just the fact that he
exists or we're going to give some really like philosophical
answers here. So, Chris, what is the biggest impact that
Harrison Ford franchise film specifically has had on pop culture?

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Look, I know people like to talk about Luke Skywalker, right,
and like you've mentioned it already, Like, huh, Luke Skywalker
such a good character. I love Mark Hamill, Okay. I
think Mark Hamill is one of the greatest actors of
a certain generation and he is a period I think
he and Kevin Conroy are two of the great voice
actors of all time for a number of reasons. However,

(47:39):
I think Harrison Ford is genuinely, like the greatest actor
living right now. And I think, like you said, like,
is it fair to say his existence is enough?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
I think that's I mean to your point, like, clearly
your point, Like that's the lazy answer here. I think
it's the fact that Harrison Ford has created and instilled
within more than just one generation of people a love
of cinema that hopefully led to things beyond Indiana Jones
and Star Wars, because those are two very very solid

(48:10):
entry points into cinema period. Let alone action films, let
alone sci fi films, Harrison Ford being able to maneuver
his career and be in movies that are classics. He's
how many movies is he in that are classics?

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Like, so it's hard.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
I was about to say with those one specifically, any
actor in the world would have been honored to do
one of those two franchise and you got to.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
Do both well.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
And I say this all the time with John Williams,
like can you imagine just doing the Star Wars theme
and that being your calling card? Let alone? Superman, Jurassic Park,
Harry fucking Potter, Uh what else?

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Jaws? Oh? Do lessen forget Jaws?

Speaker 1 (48:50):
Never heard of it?

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Like again, I could
keep going, but for me, it's like there are just
some people that are working that if they were not working,
the world would be a lesser place for it because
the level of pop culture importance that they bring to
everything that they work on is hard to ignore period.

(49:12):
It's why people are so disappointed when the movies that
come out post the trilogy of Indiana Jones are very good, because,
like you said, those movies are remembered so fondly it's
hard to not get disappointed. It's hard to not watch
those movies and go, oh man, Indiana Jones four kind
of isn't great, But at the same time, it's a
lot better than people give it credit for the first half,

(49:32):
at least, given where we end up with the fifth one.
But that disappointment comes from a place of love for
an actor and the things that he's done and a reverence.
That's what it is. Harrison Ford has created and has
has allowed us to revere characters in a way that
only he can because of the level of actor that
he is. Indiana Jones isn't really Indiana Jones. It's just

(49:55):
Harrison Ford in a hat. Han Solo isn't really a
character in a movie. It's just Harrison Ford in a jacket.
And like, that's how good of an actor jacket vest carbonight,
pretending to be blind, Boba Vet Bubavett where Harrison Ford.
I think it's just it's hard to it's so hard

(50:16):
to talk about Harrison Ford holistically.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Which is why we're not.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
We're talking about a one specific group of things. It
just happens to be that those are the things he's
known for, like period, and I don't even know if
he's known more for Indiana Jones or for Han Solo.
I think that those horses are in a competing race permanently,
because when it's Star Wars movies coming out, it's Star Wars.
When it's Indiana Jones, it's Indiana Jones. And then, like
we've mentioned, there's plenty of other things that he's been

(50:42):
in as well. But Harrison Ford I think, just again,
like just being Harrison Ford is enough, but he has
created characters that stand the test of time, unlike pretty
much unlike even people from the movies that he's in
with him, Like you mentioned Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalk is
a fun character in all but to me, he's like
Leonardo from The Teenage Bean Ninja Turtles. He's like the boring,

(51:04):
uninteresting one because he has to be the goodie two
shoes hero. It's like Harry Potter. Harry Potter's not an
interesting character. He's pretty boring. Everybody else surrounding him is
much more interesting because they're fallible. And somehow Harrison Ford
made a character that is seemingly infallible, lovable and fallible,
but seemingly able to navigate it in a way that again,

(51:26):
most actors, if damn near any had been able to.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
So I looked at this one and I kind of
went down the same path. At first was just yeah,
it's it's Harrison Ford, and these are some of the
greatest movies ever. That should be enough like pop culture,
that's that's it exists because of this. But one thing
that I've experienced in the last couple of years through
one of these franchises, actually I really wanted to highlight

(51:53):
here is that these these franchise films, specifically from Harrison Ford,
have created the ultimate let me share this with future
generations films, And so sitting down with my kids over
the last couple of years to watch the Indiana Jones
movies was like one of the most iconic moments for

(52:17):
me in parenthood so far. Showing them back to the future,
showing them jaws, showing them Indiana Jones were the moments
that I've been dreaming of since the moment my wife
told me that she was pregnant, and seeing my kid's
eyes light up like this dude is running from this
giant boulder, This dude is the Holy shit, they're eating
monkey brains, Like the moment that I can see them

(52:39):
discovering cinematic history through the same eyes that I watched
them thirty years ago was absolutely life changing and fulfilling
something that I've wanted for a very, very long time.
And so now I'm really starting to think like, these,
specifically from Harrison Ford, are some of those movies that,
through different points of my kids' lives, are going to

(53:02):
be foundational films for them the way they were for me.
When I show them Indiana Jones when my kids are
seven and eight, that's one thing. But when I show
them Blade Runner when they're eleven and twelve, that's gonna
be something different altogether. When I show them The Fugitive
at thirteen and fourteen, they're both gonna be like, dude,
this is rad. And I can already tell that they're

(53:24):
going to love those sort of things, and just watching them,
watching them grow through his cinematic history is something that
is so so cool to be able to experience alongside them,
And again, I think it's the perfect entry for that.
There's other films that you can have that same feeling for.
Like I said, Back to the Future is one of
those big ones for me too, But there's something about

(53:45):
there's something about Harrison Ford as an actor that makes
that magnetism for Indiana Jones specifically so much more fulfilling for.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
A cynical as a guy as I think he may be,
or at least the way he portrays himself when he
does like media appearances and talks about stuff and again, cynical, curmudgeonly.
However you wanna approach it, I think you struck the
chord best, which is this is like he's just there's
a level of genuineness that Harrison Ford exudes that is
really not It's hard to do that intentionally.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
You just have to be that way.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
And he's managed, like you said, to do it in
a way that it will persist. It has persisted, it
needs and in a lot of ways. Again, I know
that people are like fucking Star Wars fans getting old
man baby and upset. You know what, let him be upset.
It's fine. But I'll tell you what. Indiana Jones is
a character that is Harrison Ford, and to try to

(54:42):
do anything else with it doesn't feel blasphemous, but it
doesn't feel great, which is why they didn't do it.
And that's because, again, when you have a seminal talent
in a role that he's known for making it not
only his own, but something that will literally live on
long before he's gone. Like you said, there will be
a time where you show your children his movies and

(55:04):
he is no longer with us, He's no longer making
anything else, and that I think is a testament to
who he is. Just like a Spielberg. I mean, just
like you said, you showed them Jaws, like you're showing
them Jaws for a couple of reasons, and one of
them is it's a good starter film for Spielberg, especially
for kids, which is hilarious. But I think like there

(55:26):
are just some people that we talk about where it's
like the world would be a much dimmer place without
them in it, and Harrison Ford is one of them,
at least in terms of the pop culture aspect of it.
I mean, he's a good advocate and ambassador for a
lot of other philanthropic things. But we could talk about
Harrison Ford for ten hours and that would be zero

(55:46):
point zero one percent of the amount of conversation that
needs to be had to really help define and explain
how important he is to So there are people who
are archaeologists now because Indian Jones was their favorite character
growing up. And that's not because Harrison Ford wasn't Indiana Jones.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
It was because he was Indiana Jones.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Because you wanted to be the coolest guy in the room,
even if you were covered in sand and dirt. He's
still the coolest guy and he can make looking dirty
look cool. There's no cooler version of Indiana Jones for me.
Then ripped shirt Indiana Jones from Temple of Doom.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Right.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Conversely, there's no suaver version of Indiana Jones than Indiana
Jones doing the James Bond thing at the beginning of
Temple of Doom in the white dinner jacket, Like, there's
nothing more iconic for me than that, And it's Harrison Ford.
It's not somebody else doing it. It's Harrison Ford.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's well said. That's again going
back to that effortlessly handsome thing. No matter what situation
he's in, it is full.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah, he gets it period the end.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
A man. Man, uh gosh. This this final question is
gonna be a wild one too, because this one is like,
how do you how do you exist in life and
be a fan of cinema and have never seen any
of the Harrison Ford franchise films. I think most people
probably have. But if you hadn't, I don't mean to
quash this, and if you have something else to answer,

(57:14):
please do. But I feel like the obvious answer here is,
like any of the other biggest franchises, they are trying
to be Harrison Ford. You've seen some sort of franchise films,
whether it be Robert Downey Junior and Ironman, or whether
it be Michael J. Fox and Back to the Future,
whether it be you know, uh, some of the you know,
some of the names that are kind of cool in

(57:35):
Lord of the Rings, like a lot of people are
just trying to be Han Solo, a lot of people
are trying to be Indiana Jones. And so watching any
of these, I don't know that I have an answer
for anything that could be a bridge to this when
he is the epitome of it all.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
I have one that I've already mentioned, and it seems
a little unfair given that one of the one of
the actors who portrayed this character is in one of
the franchise movies. But if somehow you've seen no Harrison
Ford films and you're a fan of the James Bond franchise.
A lot of Harrison Ford's franchise films are going to
appeal to you because and I'll say this much, and
this is going to really be a hot take. If

(58:13):
they didn't have the rule that Indiana that James Bond
had to be British, Harrison Ford would have been Indiana
Jones for less, for for less than five movies, maybe
maybe given how kind of he doesn't like to do
some of this stuff, but it would have been more
than one, is my point. It probably would have been
like a Sean connerything where he's like, I'm just chicking

(58:33):
fucking tired of this shit, and it's like I get it,
Like I get it, because I think Harrison Ford and
Sean Connery in the same breath are very similar, right,
Sean Connery. The reason that James Bond is the way
that it is and has been handled the way that
it has is because Sean Connery said, I kind of
don't want to keep doing this anymore. I want to

(58:54):
go do something else, and Harrison Ford kind of said
the same thing with the uh, I mean again, not
to spoil a movie that's forty fucking years old at
this point, but return of the Jedi was meant to
have the death of Han Solo that we end up
getting later in the franchise, right, And that was what
he wanted because guess what, he didn't want to keep

(59:14):
doing the Han Solo thing. And I can only imagine
how much money he made to come back for Force
Awakens and then to show up for like two seconds
in the other one. But my point is, like you said,
like in a world where cinema exists, how could you
have not seen a movie of his? Like like you said,
he's in some of the biggest movies of all time.

(59:36):
I think maybe another cheat answer here is if you
are into big name actors like a now for a
lot of people, Robert Downey Junior, he didn't used to
be but he is now. He's kind of had an
up and a down and then a way up to
the point where he doesn't even have to act anymore.
Like a Robert Downey Junior or a Tom Cruise or
a Sylvester Stallone, like the people that are venerated as

(59:58):
movie stars from a time a place where it's a
different way of being a movie star than.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
It is now.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
If you like movie star films from the seventies and
eighties and nineties, and you've never seen a Harrison Ford film.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Somehow he would he should.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Be added to your selection of movies with well known
actors in them. And those actors are cast in the
movies because they're good actors, but.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Also because they're well known.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
There are plenty of actors that we know out there
that are not great actors, that they're cast in things
because of who they are. Like again, I don't want
to drag Megan Fox, but she's a good example. Like
she's cast in a lot of stuff because she's Megan Fox.
I mean, I don't know how great of an actor
she really is, but she's most things right, but not
most things. Harrison Ford. I don't think he's been bad

(01:00:44):
in anything. No, And again, like that's because they cast
him in things because he's Harrison Ford. So yeah, you're right.
I mean, there's no easy way to answer this. I think, Mike,
she really is James Bond, because like again, Indiana Jones
really just is Steven Spielberg James Bond. And frankly, I
wish I had fifty Indiana Jones movies and less some

(01:01:05):
of those Bond movies. I would trade for an Indiana
Jones movie of similar or higher caliber quality.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Well, and what's funny is that James Bond answer kind
of fits with mine and makes a little more sense too,
because it's a bunch of actors that are trying to
be that cool person and just aren't as cool as
Harrison Ford. So it's just proof positive that he is
head and shoulders above so many others.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
I don't so funny enough, I don't agree with that statement.
I think that I actually think that Connery is on
the level of Harrison Ford. I think that I think
Roger Moore is as well, and I think Pierce Brong.
As much as I don't like Daniel Craig, I actually
think all of the actors are on his level because
they wouldn't have played James Bond if they weren't.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
No, I'm not saying they're not good actors. I'm saying
some of them are undeniably as cool as Harrison Ford. Consistently.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Okay, we're If we throw that last word in there,
then yes, I agree with you. Did you grow consistently
in at the Edge?

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
I agree because Harrison Ford, and this is the other
thing that we didn't mention here, We alluded to the
fact that we've talked about this before on your show.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Disconnected.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Harrison Ford is great in everything else too. That's not
a franchise movie, right, and like that's a hard thing.
It's it's hard enough to be good in the franchise
movies and maybe you're just phoning it in on everything else,
but being great on both. I mean, my picture in
my little subtitle here has nothing to do with a
movie that we're talking about, but it's a great movie

(01:02:36):
in and of itself. It's Diehard on an airplane with
the President of the United States, who's played by Harrison Ford. Like,
and you know what, by the way, I take him
over any president that we've had. Could you imagine a
president as cool as Harrison Ford or Bill Pullman from
an Independence Day? I mean, that's that's the guy that
I want my president. Thomas Whitmore is for president is

(01:02:56):
let's make that T shirt and sell it, because brother,
that speech Independence Date gets me going every time, unlike
anything else I've heard in real life. So yeah, I
mean Harrison Ford even played the president at one point,
Like what what do you need to say there?

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Yeah, not much else you can say and not only
played the President, played the coolest president probably ever.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
And was referenced in Scary Movie three as well as
being President, which still cracks me up. President Ford just
a picture. Oh no God, But I guess that takes
place in the Air Force one universe.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Well, now that's a franchise.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
That's a franchise, so we could say Air Force one.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Well, let's go back and re record.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
Air Force one is totally worth watching.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
I think it's I think that's it's It's un it's
unfortunate that we didn't get to talk about some of
the other actiony movies that Harrison Ford.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
Has been in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
But I don't think any other one really needs to
be mentioned other than Air Force One, because I think
all the other ones are franchise movies.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Let me take a look. I mean, he's he's on
some other.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
Spring of cowboys and aliens.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Please don't do it. You know better, and so do I.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Speaking of is it weird? Is it weird that he
was in that with another James Bond the same way
he was with a James Bond in Last Crusade, And
yet the the and yet the outcome was so drastically.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Different that is very very true.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Yeah, yeah, and you know what the sad thing about
that movie is, that's like the worst Jon Favreau movie,
which is like of like, it's still a pretty high
bar to be the worst Jon Favreau movie.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
That's true, that's true. Yeah, I like him a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Yeah, that's hey, his name just made the list.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
That's a sinister but I agree, all right, Chris, I
mean that that brings us in for a landing on
this one. And now I'm curious what we should do
to bring us to our end of the episode here,
So why don't you share where everybody can find you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
You can find me over at weirdingwaymedia dot com, where
this show and so many other fantastic shows can be found.
We'll name all of them and bore you. You should
go look them up yourself and click on an episode,
Give it a listen, give it a try, even if
it's something you don't know a whole lot about. You
might be entertained by the people talking and maybe want
to jump into the thing that we're talking about. Sometimes
you can. Sometimes the horse can lead the cart. Sometimes

(01:05:15):
the cart can lead the horse. Weirdingwaymedia dot Com.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
What about you, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Everywhere under the Disconnected and someone's favorite productions. And one
thing I'll say about this show before we pull it
to an end is we don't say this enough, but
we'd love to hear your answers to these questions. Tell
us about in the comments everywhere that you're reading about
this everywhere. We share this on social media, rate the
movie on iTunes wherever else, you listen to podcasts, let

(01:05:41):
everybody know what you think because all of these, all
these questions are fully subjective, and we know that many
people are gonna have different opinions, and that's kind of
what we hope. The draw of the show is, is
you listen to this if you've never heard something, because
you're interested in diving into it, or if you've heard something,
you might listen to it and go, what the hell
are these crazies talking about? Like I want to see
what's wrong with our answers here, So let us know

(01:06:02):
in the comments how wrong we are. But in the meantime,
we hope that you watch something new, broaden your horizons,
and just go on, go on weird cinematic journeys, because
that's where we learn the best about ourselves. So until
next time,