Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: The prison riot – the preparation (passing shanks, digging up contraband) and the chaos that follows.
• CR: Money kills the Beast – 'so visually overwhelming, him being covered in blood in these white shorts.' Runner-up: Money's welcome-home party.
• Craig: The final showdown in the desert cage cells.
• Also discussed: Bottles' voiceover speech ('The fact is we all started out as someone's little angel...'), Bernthal's extended death scene ('I'm no punk').

• CR: 'When getting caught is part of the plan' trope – Money deliberately getting put back in prison.
• Bill: The concept of a 'shot caller' as a term; the outdoor box cage cells in the desert; bulletproof vest fake-out + prepaid cell phones; Lake Bell; the horseshoe mustache; Jon Bernthal (especially pre-We Own This City).
• The letter to his son: 'Make your mark on this world, be your mother's protector.'

• Coster-Waldau's accent slipping in a couple scenes.
• The terrible soccer scene.
• The parole board scene – obviously corrupt guard vouches for Money despite 20 new tattoos and a horseshoe mustache.
• Sexual assault as a prison movie staple.

• Bill: Jacob becomes a gang banger 'a whiff too fast'; his decision to completely cut ties with family felt overly harsh.
• CR: The gun deal dynamics between Shotgun, Herman, and the Mexican gangs get 'convoluted or compressed.' The actual payoff/shootout 'doesn't 100% work.'

• Omari Hardwick in the car scene with Benjamin Bratt, doing the flashback monologue about getting shot.
• Also: Bernthal's extended death scene.

Evan Jones (Chopper) – credits include Jarhead, 8 Mile, 'Den of Thieves': 'I always have to look him up.'

• CR: If the movie were told linearly instead of dual-timeline, it would maximize the 'rock bottom' effect. Waugh compared it to The Deer Hunter's structure.
• Craig counters: the non-linear opening is 'grabbier' and prevents clicking away during 15 minutes of stockbroker life.

• Adam Driver was the consensus winner for hypothetical recast as Money.
• Gerard Butler or Pablo Schreiber also discussed (both worked with Waugh later).
• Michael Mann as director – the film has heavy Mann influences (LA driving scenes evoke 'Collateral').

• Bernthal's character (Pen One / Public Enemy Number One) is a real white street gang from Orange County.
• The Beast was loosely based on white supremacist Steven Single.
• Prison hierarchy: Wood -> Pen One -> Nazi Low Riders -> Aryan Brotherhood (top).
• Books on Money's prison bookshelf: The Book of Five Rings, The Art of War, The Bible, Nietzsche, The Prince, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

• CR: Uber – 'If Jacob had Uber that night, none of this happens.'
• Coster-Waldau: Around this time, between Thrones seasons 7 and 8.
• Aryan Brotherhood: 'Have they ever been commemorated like this cinematically?'

• Bill: No cafeteria scene – 'It's a fucking staple.'
• Craig: No prison basketball scene showing Jacob's character arc.
• CR: Redwood's beef with the guard is referenced but never explained; the gun deal logistics get muddled.
• Bill: Jacob blows a 0.1 – 'Just hold off an hour and do the police station blood test.'

• CR: A series would allow more family content and detail on the gun deal.
• Bill: If made three years later, Bernthal would have been the lead. Proposes a 'Bernthal Rating' for action movies: 'How many guys could Jon Bernthal have played?' This movie has a rating of 4.5.

• Why did they shoot at Money at the house party?
• How do you learn to quick-stab in prison?
• Would the shot caller really have this much control?

• Don't drive drunk.
• 'If you're getting thrown in with the big boys, you got 24 hours to prove you're not going to be a victim. Warriors or victims.'

• Bill: Jericho Mile + 'Shot Caller'.
• CR: 'Den of Thieves' + 'Shot Caller'.

CR: Rick Roman Waugh – 'He goes on to write 'Den of Thieves', he's kind of created this subgenre... contemporary LA crime thriller.'

• Craig confirmed with his father (a lieutenant for 30 years) that vehicular manslaughter convicts really do get housed with violent criminals.
• Three suggestions to take it from 'an 8 to a 10': a cool heist scene, more pre-prison character development, and a prison basketball scene.