Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: The wheelchair race between Cole and Rowdy – 'a phenomenal scene.' Tony Scott and Hans Zimmer making 'the stupidest scene ever' into something amazing. Kyle: 'It's my favorite race in the movie. I like it better than any of the car races.' Also the Cruise/Duvall emotional scene ('I'm not getting back in my car, I'm getting in Rowdy's').
• CR: The Gimme Some Lovin' montage of Cole's first four disastrous races. 'You can make the argument that Gimme Some Loving is the most effective montage song in American cinema history.'
• Kyle: The opening scene when Cole meets Rowdy – 'a Dick swinging contest. So much back and forth. I love that Rowdy goes and sits on his bike to reclaim status.'
• Also discussed: Cole's first scene with Duvall arriving on a motorcycle through smoke ('how many times has Cruise broken down a motorcycle in a movie?'), Cole's first race win, the rental car race on the beach, Cole ruining Russ Wheeler's victory lap, and Cole's Daytona comeback driving through the smoke.

• Bill: The theme song 'Last Note of Freedom' was sung by Whitesnake's David Coverdale at the request of Tom Cruise. 'Is there any other point in the history of America where Tom Cruise would have requested a song from Whitesnake's David Coverdale? 88 to 90 – that has to be the window.'
• CR and Kyle: Russ Wheeler's girlfriend – 'basically Brigitte Nielsen' with 'a high top fade and the crazy boxy blazer.' Kyle: 'Brigitte Nielsen wearing some sort of pantsuit with Mike Alstott's shoulder pads underneath the jacket.'
• Also: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman falling in love. Sponsors: Tide, Snickers, Skull, Exxon, and Mellow Yellow.

• Bill: Robert Duvall as Harry – 'rarely do you see somebody this overqualified to be in a sports movie where they actually care about the movie.' Unlike Gene Hackman mailing it in on 'The Replacements', Duvall actually explored the character. Kyle: 'This is a Robert Duvall movie featuring Tom Cruise, and Duvall wins the movie.'
• All: Cruise's hair – 'the best Cruise's hair has ever looked, ever.' Kyle: 'Really like a full Perk Plus commercial, a lot of body.' Also curly-haired Kidman: 'special place in my heart.'
• Bill: Two Oscar winners (Kidman and Duvall) sharing scenes together. John C. Reilly basically playing Reed Rothschild from 'Boogie Nights' – 'Is there any difference? Paul Thomas Anderson was just like, do the 'Days of Thunder' guy.' Cary Elwes as a reliable Dick.
• CR: Drunk Tom Cruise – 'it's like watching an alien try to speak French.' He's clearly never had alcohol. Kyle: Russ Wheeler's Iceman-identical hairdo – 'same shit, a blonde spike, might as well be Val Kilmer.'

• CR: A low-angle shot at Daytona 500 – cars passing the officials with balloons going up in the background. 'Tony Scott, you are an absolute demon for this. Pretty much everything in this movie could be a painting.'
• Kyle: The physical exam when Cruise and Kidman are standing face to face and you can see how short Tom Cruise is. 'He never let that happen again.' CR: 'Been posted up by Kidman and McGillis – those are the only two times he's gotten dunked on.'

• Kyle: Too much talking in the second half – 'in a race car movie where you just want to see ass kicking, a little too much talking.' Also: Rowdy Burns never really goes super intense – 'a very underplayed performance.'
• CR: The crash happens too early – 'you don't really get that much time with Cole racing in his prime before now it's all of a sudden a movie about CTE.'
• Bill: The middle of the movie craters for about 25 minutes. Rowdy's battle with a career-ending injury – 'just kill him off.' Every scene where Claire is mad at Cole or they're trying to establish tension just doesn't work.

• Kyle: Cole's courting of Dr. Lewicki – 'four steps of being a creepy stalker slash asshole.' Step 1: puts doctor's hand on his penis in a room full of witnesses. Step 2: waits by her car in the parking lot (serial killer behavior). Step 3: fills her apartment with $10K worth of flowers and balloons. Step 4: after kissing her mid-physical, says 'how are you ignoring me?' – 'the line from 'Fatal Attraction'.'
• Bill: Awkward Tom Cruise bedroom scenes – ranking them from 'Cocktail' (8), 'Top Gun' with McGillis (9.5), to 'Top Gun' Maverick with Connelly (solid 10 for chasteness). 'He can't just make out with someone. There's always props – sweet and lows, condiments.' The sweet-and-low scene here is an 8.5.
• CR: Cole's winning reaction after the Daytona reshoot – 'All right, all right' – way too muted. 'I want Tom Cruise to be like, let's fucking go.' Also: too many unresolved storylines crammed in.
• Bill: The video game was terrible. Also: Randy Quaid's character being named 'Tim Daland' in a movie with Cole Trickle and Rowdy Burns.

• Bill: This movie is way better if Cole Trickle is just Brian Flanagan from 'Cocktail'. 'It's called 'Cocktail' 2: 'Days of Thunder'. Brian Flanagan has gotten divorced, giving up the bar business. He always enjoyed driving.'
• Kyle: 'I miss Tom Cruise's old teeth. They're real, they're authentic, and I love that the biggest movie star in the world had a snaggle tooth.' He got braces in the early 2000s and Kyle wants them back – 'like Jordan wearing the original dragon ones for his last game in the Garden.'
• Bill (warm-up take): Michael Rooker should have been a way bigger star. CR thinks he was missing Bill Paxton's sense of humor. Kyle: also missing Mel Gibson or Val Kilmer's leading-man looks.

• Cruise wanted Kurt Russell for Rowdy Burns, but Russell did Backdraft instead.
• Robin Wright was the first choice for Dr. Claire Lewicki.
• CR's alternate lineup: Robin Wright as Lewicki, Tom Sizemore as Rowdy (or Dale Earnhardt), Paul Newman as Harry.
• Dale Earnhardt Sr. was discussed for Rowdy but turned it down because he didn't want to play a bad guy – ironic since Rowdy is not the villain. Bill: 'Unbelievable career move for Dale Earnhardt to be Rowdy Burns in a Tom Cruise movie.'
• Don Simpson cast himself as driver Aldo Benedetti. Also: the stripper on the bus – Simpson dated one of the actresses (Donna Scott); she later married Tony Scott.
• Harold Faltemeyer ('Beverly Hills Cop') was first offered the score but declined and introduced the producers to Hans Zimmer.

• Cruise in the car a couple times – his voice goes too high when he screams 'Son of a bitch.' Also all of Cary Elwes.
• CR: Duvall's trademark move – provokes someone until they get mad, then laughs at them. The ice cream scene where Cruise gets out of the car and Duvall gives 'a real De Niro 'Cape Fear' crazy laugh.'

• Bill and CR: JC Quinn – Rowdy's pit guy. CR: 'He's forever the guy in Maximum Overdrive who gets blinded by gas.' Bill: 'He was the chef in 'Vision Quest' – it's not about the six minutes.'
• Kyle: Nick Searcy – the ranger who says everyone's under arrest for transporting alcohol. 'Same guy who's the ranger in 'The Fugitive' saying wider perimeter.' Also in 'Cast Away' and later Justified.
• Also mentioned: Margo Martindale (probably her first feature).

• Bill: Leilani Sarelle (the stripper/police officer) – AKA Roxy from 'Basic Instinct'. 'Why wasn't she one of the biggest stars in the 90s? She does 'Basic Instinct' and then that's kind of it.'
• Runner-up: Fred Thompson – 'calls people monkeys, tells a long story, calls them the Japs with lettuce.' CR: 'Always reliable to come in hot and be awesome, but also mildly racist.'

• Bill: Just get Val Kilmer for Russ Wheeler – 'What are we doing?' CR: 'You could have taken a little out of the gym budget and hit Kilmer's quote.'
• Bill's flex category: Was there a better title for this movie? Nobody likes 'Days of Thunder.' Kyle: 'It sounds like a storm movie, it sounds like 'Twister'.' Suggestions: Daytona, Dropping the Hammer, just Thunder. No consensus answer.

• Hendrick Motorsports supplied the main cars; they were raced in real races three times for extra footage.
• The rental car beach scene: they put birdseed on the beach for the bird-scattering shot. First take, the cars ran over a bunch of birds. PETA violations were had.
• Donna Scott (the pit girl/bus scene) broke up with Simpson, dated Tony Scott, married him, had two kids.
• Cruise got a speeding ticket in Carolina – 85 in a 55 – because he was revved up from filming.
• CR's sliding-doors discovery: Dr. Jerry Punch saw Dead Calm and mentioned it to Tony Scott, who cast Kidman, leading to Cruise/Kidman, leading eventually to 'Eyes Wide Shut'. 'Without Dr. Jerry Punch, there's no 'Eyes Wide Shut'.' Also: half the cast of Justified is in this movie (Nick Searcy, Margo Martindale).
• Nicole Kidman wanted to study neurosurgery for her part but the producers told her it would be a waste of time.

• Cruise: No, but 'we're in the cruise vicinity' – still a few good men away.
• Duvall: No. Kidman: Not yet.
• Cruise's hair and teeth: Yes and yes.
• NASCAR: No.
• Lunatic Don Simpson stories: Yes – 'this is Apex right here.'
• Cruise as a believable real-life playboy bachelor: Yes.
• Rooker: No – 'Cliffhanger'.
• John C. Reilly: No. Cary Elwes: No – Princess Bride.
• Hans Zimmer: Probably not. Simpson/Bruckheimer: No. Mellow Yellow: Yes.
• Car racing movies: Probably Talladega Nights has better legs.

All three: Scorsese. CR: Cruise went on to work with Spielberg but 'I always wished he had done more with Scorsese because I love Color of Money so much.' Kyle's Scorsese narration: 'Harry had this wonderful system for doing the moonshine. He would slice the barley so thin it would liquefy in the jar with just a little yeast.'

• Bill: A little bit older as Harry, or younger as the John C. Reilly part.
• CR: As Russ Wheeler – just showing up at the end 'being like, hey Cole.'
• Kyle: Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddy from Talented Mr. Ripley as Russ Wheeler – 'full on cocky asshole over the top.' Also as Big John (Fred Thompson's role) – 'talking about the Japanese this and that.'

• Bill: A NASCAR driver from Eagle Rock, California is ridiculous. Lewicki falls for Cole in about two minutes despite a terrible start. Unclear why she doesn't have a boyfriend. She goes from 24-hour shifts saving brains to being available for every race across the country.
• Kyle: Dr. Lewicki is 'awfully preachy and judgmental about race cars for someone who jumps on the back of a Harley with no helmet and some asshole she just met.' Also: the passenger-opens-door-while-driving movie trope.
• CR: Cole claims to know nothing about cars but later confronts Harry with expert-level technical knowledge about carbon monoxide and restrictor plates. 'So are you Mr. Goodwrench, or did you not know anything?' Also: the film relies too much on the high pass – 'every race basically hinges on can Cole pass this guy high until he passes him low.'
• Craig: After Cole T-bones Cary Elwes's car in the pits, NASCAR doesn't punish him at all. 'Wouldn't that have been the craziest story in the history of NASCAR?'

Sequel reported less than six months ago: Tom Cruise doing a 'Days of Thunder' sequel with the 'Top Gun' Maverick team. CR: 'I will believe Tom Cruise passing the baton when I actually see it being taken out of his cold, dead hands.'

• CR as Denzel/DB Sweeney: 'Goddamn Cole, I didn't know I was working with super driver and a motherfucking Australian girlfriend. You better pass Russ on the high side or your lady is going to be doing AMC theater ranchos all fucking time, big boy.'
• Kyle as Wilford Brimley from The Firm: Randy Quaid's head of security takes Cole for a drive – 'Imagine this Cole, here's your page. One day she walks to the mailbox looking for her Red Book magazine. What does she find instead? Heartache, Cole. Pictures of him with the stripper from the bus. Not just screwing Cole. Intimate acts, oil and whatnots.'
• Bill: Tony Romo – 'He might go high, Jim. Oh, he's going low, Jim.'

Bill: Hans Zimmer. It got nominated for best sound, so maybe that wins. CR: 'Don Simpson said Robert Towne should get an Oscar for this.' Bill disagrees.

• Bill: Cole's Daytona odds – coming off a major accident, not his car, guessing 100-to-1 or higher. Also: what happens if Duvall does Godfather 3 instead of this? Bill thinks Jack Nicholson becomes Harry.
• CR: Do you think you'd be good at driving a pace car? All agree it would be terrifyingly nerve-wracking.
• Kyle: At what point of the shoot did Cruise and Kidman get together? His take: right after the violent hallway makeout scene – 'Kidman really goes for it. After that scene they're like, we should do this for real.'

• Kyle: The Mellow Yellow racing suit embroidered with 'Cole Trickle' – 'my 8-year-old could wear it for Halloween.'
• CR: The Super Flow hat.
• Bill: Agrees the Mellow Yellow suit is the answer.

• Bill: 'I'm more afraid of being nothing than being hurt.' Great yearbook quote.
• CR and Kyle: 'Rubbin' is racing.' Applies to life, sports, everything.

Kyle: Triple feature – 'Days of Thunder', Far and Away, and 'Eyes Wide Shut'. 'I want to see that relationship from beginning to end.'

• Kyle: Cruise – 'just such a one seed that's hard to knock off.'
• CR: Tony Scott – 'in the hands of somebody else this does not work. He makes every car racing scene, every crowd shot, the smoke going across the road – he's just an artist.'
• Bill: Duvall 1A, Tony Scott 1B – 'I just love Duvall in this movie. He saves it from actually being a bad movie.'

• Craig hadn't seen it before. 'This movie reinvigorated my love for America. I watched it on Pluto, so every commercial break was just the Harrison Ford Jeep commercial.' Wondered why Tony Scott, a Brit, is 'our most patriotic director of the last 40 years' – 'Top Gun', 'True Romance', 'Crimson Tide'.
• Thought the movie needed 15 more minutes at the beginning – 'This movie starts and it's just like Randy Quaid in a cornfield. I don't know who either of them are.' The five-week edit makes sense because 'they're chopping scenes left and right.' No closure on Rowdy Burns – 'we're supposed to see him one more time.'
• Loved the freeze-frame ending – 'there's something about the old guy running next to the young guy. Cruise is so happy in that scene.' Called it 'my top choice for a movie to be on in a bar, and I mean that in a very complimentary way.'