Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: Adrian coming out of the coma, saying 'Win,' followed by 'What are we waiting for?' and the training montage through the end. 'That's it.'
• Van: The 15th round fight (1A). Apollo and Duke's 'He's all wrong for us, baby' conversation (1B) – 'the scene I wait for whenever I watch this movie.'
• CR: The entire last 28-30 minutes starting from 'What are we waiting for?' Also: the whole opening credits with the remastered 'Rocky' theme song.

• CR: 9.5% mortgage rate. Bill: Buying a house in Philly for $16K with a 9.5% rate.
• Bill: Roberto Duran appearing as a sparring partner – 'a year before he beat Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal and two years before Sugar Ray fucking disgraced him in New Orleans.'
• Van had the affordable house as 'what's aged the worst' – 'a young couple buying a house is aging pretty bad right now.'

• Van: The 'Rocky' lore/universe – 'Creed' (2015) borrowed heavily from 'Rocky II' (running montage with kids, training montages). Carl Weathers is 'a phenomenal athlete and actor' – 'when you watch the movie, you're just blown away at how good of an athlete Carl Weathers is.'
• CR: Tony Burton's monotone hype-up speech to Apollo in the locker room. Also: can't pump your own gas in Jersey.
• Bill: The Spectrum being filled with actual extras; the spending sprees; the zoo callback.

• Bill: Stallone dials the brain damage too high – 'Rocky is an 8.5 out of 10 on the brain damage scale vs. a 4 in 'Rocky' I.' Also: Adrian not going to the fight – 'go to the fight, your guy's fighting, you might get killed in the ring, and you're watching it on a black and white TV in 1979? 15 minutes from your house.'
• CR: Too many characters with 'little to no brain activity.' Also: Paulie.
• Van: A young couple buying a house easily; stickball kids playing outside; Paulie's character (advocates domestic violence); Adrian going back to part-time work at a pet store to support the family.

• Bill: The little kids running with 'Rocky'.
• CR: First fight footage being projected onto Mickey as he analyzes tape.

CR: 'Gonna Fly Now' over the training montage (with Frank Stallone on vocals). Bill: The opening credits ambulance ride with the remastered 'Rocky' theme.

• Bill: One-eyed, slightly brain-damaged 'Rocky' beating a prepared, motivated, angry 'Creed' in the rematch. 'If he can't see out of his right eye, 'Creed' should've been up by 100 points heading into round 15.'
• CR: Two things – the coma (11 minutes), and Gazzo being in the movie with no impact on the plot. 'If he had not been in this film it wouldn't have made a difference.'
• Van: Adrian – 'that's it.'

CR: Burgess Meredith as Mickey – 'every scene he's going Rock! Rock!' Also: 'permanent! permanent! poy minute!'

• CR: If Stallone had listened to his sensitive filmmaker side, 'Rocky II' would have been called 'Creed' and been the Godfather Part II of sports movies – told from Apollo's perspective. 'Apollo's the more interesting character.'
• Van: 'Rocky' and Apollo's lives would have been better if they swapped wives.
• Bill: A long tangent ranking the best-looking Black women of the 1970s, inspired by Apollo's wife – featuring Diana Ross, Ali's third wife Veronica Porsche, Lola Falana, Thelma from Good Times, Pam Grier, and the lady who played Apollo's wife.
• Craig: Stallone is clearly a better movie runner than Tom Cruise.

• CR and Van: Frank McRae (the meatpacking boss – also in 48 Hours). Bill: Is he a 'that guy' or has he graduated?
• Tony Burton as Duke discussed as the Dion Waiters pick – 'if that's the case, he's the Dion Waiters of all time.'

Bill: Would recast the commercial director with CR – 'I would just use AI to make it work and just have CR play the character.'

• Stallone claims the switch to fighting right-handed wasn't in the script – it came from a near-complete pectoral tear while weightlifting with Franco Columbu.
• Talia Shire's coma plotline existed because she was filming 'Old Boyfriends' (with John Belushi) and could only shoot near the end of production.
• Brent Musburger appears as himself as the fight announcer.
• The running route covers 30.2 miles if mapped from Rocky's house to the Art Museum steps.

• Stallone: Debated. CR argues yes – 'forces his way into the director's chair, gets points, makes $200M, creates an iconic character.' Van and Bill say mid-80s Stallone was his true peak.
• The Spectrum: Definitely – coming off the Broad Street Bullies era, big wrestling, and now 'Rocky'.
• 'Philadelphia' Zoo: 'Definitely the most famous thing that's happened there.'
• Talia Shire: No – Godfather somewhere.
• Carl Weathers: No. Burt Young: Bill says mid-80s ('Miami Vice', 'Rocky' Four, Back to School).

CR and Van: Scorsese ('it's Marty'). Van adds he'd like to see Spielberg's version – 'this big expansive morality tale.'

Bill: Probably Mickey. Van: Paulie. CR: 'Paulie would be a good Paulie. Or a good commercial director.'

• Bill: Rocky's definitely getting more than one commercial after the first fight – Sports Illustrated would be following him, he'd be a huge celebrity in Philly.
• Van: 'He is the greatest heavyweight of his generation. He's beating Clubber Lang. He's beating the Soviets on the worldwide stage. This fighter exists. He's not going broke.'
• CR: Mick set up 10 easy fights for him so he wouldn't get hurt – 'is he really the greatest heavyweight or does he just get easy fights?'
• Bill: Adrian's pet store never has a customer. 'What kind of foot traffic did they get?'

Bill: Bill Conti for the score. CR: 'What a great call.'

• CR: Does 'Rocky' love boxing? 'I don't feel like he's ever like man I can't wait to get back in the ring because I love it.'
• Van: 'Rocky didn't want the rematch with Apollo at all. You would think he's the one who wants it more than anybody.'
• Bill: What happened to Gazzo before 'Rocky' 3? Van thinks he got swept up in the RICO statutes.

• Bill: The Beast aftershave bottle from the commercial – 'very stealth, I could put it right behind CR.' Also: Rocky's fake nose from the commercial, or either fighter's trunks.
• Van: Apollo's trunks or the car.
• CR: The snow cone machine that 'Rocky' says he's going to buy Paulie – 'I miss having snow cones.'

• Van: Don't listen to your ego – 'Apollo could have literally let 'Rocky' fade away into obscurity. The whole thing is about Apollo, but it's about 'Rocky' now because Apollo chased it.'
• CR: Don't read your mentions/hate mail.

• CR: 'Rocky III' – for variety since this is so close to 1. Also recommends Diggstown from the non-'Rocky' universe.
• Bill: 'Rocky III' – 'the 28 minutes from the end of 2 through the first 10 minutes of 3 is probably the best stretch in history.'
• Van: Diggstown/'Gladiator' (the Cuba Gooding Jr. boxing movie).

Stallone – directed, wrote, and starred. 'Yeah.'

Craig: 'The 'Rocky' franchise is really interesting because you get to witness the transition from 70s Hollywood to 80s Hollywood. The first two movies are in the 70s and it's the gritty 70s, then the next two in the 80s and it's the glossy 80s. The first two are two hours, the next two are 90 minutes.' Admitted he likes 'Rocky' 3 and 4 more.