Rewatchables Reference

• Ice Cube and the gang crashing the frat party after Kristy Swanson's date rape – the best sequence in the movie. 'Ice Cube is ice cube. He knows how to crash a party.'
• Cole Hauser recruiting Remy – 'You want to come along? What are you, some queer?' The scene is perfectly written to show how white nationalists prey on isolated, lost kids.
• Malik confronting Remy in the dorm room – Omar Epps busting through the door, Rapaport on the floor, the whole intense sequence.
• The school shooting and its aftermath – Rapaport's fight with Epps, the campus cop telling Remy he can still be an engineer. 'A really gripping 12 minutes.'
• Ice Cube's speech about being behind enemy lines – 'One beat down will never compare to 439 years of captivity.'

• The Kaepernick moment – Fudge asks Malik if he would stand for the national anthem. Singleton said in 2018: 'I can't believe that I was on that back in 1994.' Bill was blown away rewatching it.
• The themes of campus police violence, white nationalism, mass shootings, and date rape are all shockingly relevant in 2020.
• Skinny, weird-hair Michael Rapaport – 'legit good in this.' He nailed a part that could have gone really badly in the wrong hands.
• Ice Cube's Afro – a deliberate statement by Singleton to give the character a real identity.
• The Malik/Fishburne generational argument about Black advancement – younger generations wanting to fix society vs. older generations saying 'run faster.'

• The opening credits – 'absolutely abominable.' Van thought he'd bought the wrong movie on Amazon.
• Tyra Banks sucking Omar Epps's nipples – 'hands down' the worst-aged moment.
• The email conversation with Ice Cube at the campus Kinko's – 'give me a quarter per email.'
• The soundtrack – the closing credits Ice Cube song is 'the worst Ice Cube song I've ever heard.' Should have been incredible but was a mess.
• The white supremacist side characters are basically cartoon characters.
• Jennifer Connelly and Kristy Swanson kissing – was a huge deal in 1995, completely normal now.
• Laurence Fishburne's accent – 'he was the entire African diaspora.' Was he Caribbean? Nigerian? Nobody knows.

• Tupac Shakur in the Omar Epps role – 'completely changes the movie.' The anger, intensity, and the chemistry with Fishburne and every other cast member would have been transformative.
• Leonardo DiCaprio was rumored for the Remy role. If Leo had played Remy, Rapaport was going to play Cole Hauser's part.
• Sidney Poitier was Singleton's first choice for Professor Phipps. Dustin Hoffman was second choice, Sam Jackson third. The studio insisted on Fishburne.
• Vivica Fox was considered for the Tyra Banks role.
• Singleton originally wanted Gwyneth Paltrow and Juliette Lewis for the Kristy Swanson and Jennifer Connelly roles. 'Juliette Lewis would have changed everything.'

• Michael Rapaport in the shooting scene – 'It's my world. It's my country. You're nothing but a monkey. Look at me. I'm a man. I'm the man.' Van argued it works because he's regurgitating rhetoric under stress.
• Omar Epps after Tyra Banks is shot – 'a rough 40 seconds of acting.'

Adam Goldberg – 'What are you gonna do? Keep your fucking eyes open, man.' Trying to talk to Remy after he's gone full skinhead.

Busta Rhymes – 'a few three-pointers, a couple rebounds.' He kept it one-note in the best way. 'The fuck you call me? You know we're gonna square this, right?'

Already covered through casting what-ifs – the Tupac version of this movie is the dream recast.

• The sniper scene was based on the Charles Whitman incident at the University of Texas in 1966.
• Both Cole Hauser and Michael Rapaport are Jewish in real life.
• Singleton told Rapaport not to hang out with the cast to maintain his isolation.
• Kristy Swanson is now one of Hollywood's most vocal Trump supporters.
• The studio cut significant material from the Jennifer Connelly/Kristy Swanson relationship – there was a lot more that was removed.

• Omar Epps – no. His apex is 'Love and Basketball', or possibly ER.
• Mid-1990s college campus culture – yes. Between this, PCU, and 90210, peak campus movies.
• John Singleton – no. His apex was 'Boyz n the Hood', when he had the most excitement around him. By 'Higher Learning' he had the most juice, but Boyz was the better movie.
• Busta Rhymes – not quite.

• Why is the six-year senior Fudge rooming with a freshman?
• Wouldn't more people have gone to jail? There's a confirmed date rape and nothing happens.
• The campus cops are so cartoonishly biased that the head security guard comforts the mass shooter – 'you can still be an engineer.'
• The party beatdown scene – by the time they get to the frat house, it's completely not about the date rape anymore.

Already exists – it's called Dear White People. 'Dear White People really understands how college works.' No room left for 'Higher Learning' as a series.

• Did Kaepernick watch this movie?
• Did Fishburne's accent work? 'He was the entire African diaspora.'
• Is the 'unlearn' ending too much of a Spike Lee move? 'We've never confused Spike with really knowing how to end his movies.'

Ice Cube – 'the most concrete, understandable, relatable character. The only character who at the end of the movie has his arc resolved – he finally graduates.' Bill and Van agreed. Wesley saw it as more abstract – 'racism won the movie.'