Rewatchables Reference

• Bill and Sean: The opening ~12-minute Steadicam one-shot sequence – 'in the running for best overacting of Cage's career.' He's a 9.5 out of 10 on the Cage scale. 'How the fuck did they do this for 10 minutes?'
• Van: Gary Sinise revealed as truly evil, executing his accomplices. Also loved Carla Gugino wiping blood off in the bathroom.
• Sean: All four POV/flashback Rashomon sequences. Also: the overhead shot of the Atlantic City hotel rooms.

• Bill: The gold embossed flip phone. The assassination plot making way more sense in 1998 before camera phones.
• Sean and Van: Huge heavyweight fights in Atlantic City as a cultural event.

• Sean: The 'maestro movie' – letting a great director cook, a type of film that barely exists anymore.
• Bill: The moment in action thrillers when you realize someone you trusted is the bad guy.
• Van: The 'Josh Gad-type guy' being used by a hot woman thinking he's the man – 'God, you're that guy.'

• Bill: In 2025, a woman randomly showing interest at a casino is assumed to be a scam. The assassination would have been caught on multiple camera phones immediately.
• Sean: The special effects on some of the overhead shots haven't aged perfectly.

• Bill: The overhead shot of the Atlantic City hotel rooms.
• Sean: Gugino's glasses falling to the floor – 'the camera's all the way on the bottom looking at the glasses, and you're like oh no somebody's going to step on those glasses, and then crunch.'
• Van: A long shot through a cracked door at the pre-fight party.

All three: Nicolas Cage in the opening sequence – 'an all time dial up by him.' A 9.5 out of 10 on the Cage scale. 'All time Ruffalo Hannah Rubinic Partridge combo overacting award.'

• Bill: The cut tidal wave ending – 'we danced toward it for 90 minutes and then the movie just deflates.' Had it as the weak link because the storm is set up and never pays off.
• Sean: Agrees – 'it's significantly better if you put the tidal wave back in.' Also: the Kevin Dunn self-assassination at the end is 'very strange.'
• Van: Gugino's character's plan is incoherent – 'there's a more efficient way to do what they want.'

• Sean: The tidal wave ending should have stayed. Also: 'The Untouchables' is overrated – 'the less classy the material, the better the De Palma movie.'
• Bill: Nick Cage is the #1 all-time actor you could cast in any role in a Vegas or Atlantic City movie – 'blackjack dealer, cop, crooked cop, gambler, bookie, fight fixer, pimp, security guard. He could play all the parts.'
• Van: Cage has never lost a movie he starred in – 'he has this overwhelming energy.'

• Al Pacino was offered the Sinise role and turned it down.
• Will Smith was offered it but wanted $20M (they offered $12M); he did 'Enemy of the State' instead. 'We all won.'
• Sean's hottest take: Tom Cruise as Santoro and Tom Hanks as Commander Dunn would have made this a $900 million movie.

• Bill: Michael Rispoli – 'the most that guy of all the that guys.'
• Sean: Rispoli and Mike Starr.
• Van: Jenard Burks. Also: this might be 'the That Guy movie of the 90s' – Kevin Dunn, Rispoli, Starr all in the same film.

Sean: Jane Heitmeyer as Serena the redhead – 'a prototypical Dion Waiters.'

Sean: The title 'Snake Eyes' doesn't connect well to the movie – prefers 'Fight Night.'

• The tidal wave was filmed by ILM and can be viewed on YouTube.
• David Koepp also wrote Carlito's Way for De Palma, connecting the two films.
• This was the last De Palma film for which Spielberg viewed the rough cut – marking the unofficial end of their collaborative friendship.

• Cage: No – probably Leaving Las Vegas or 'Face/Off' era.
• De Palma: No.
• Atlantic City as a movie destination: #2 behind the Louis Malle film.
• Fixed boxing matches in movies: Possibly.
• Boxing matches in non-boxing movies: Yes – 'in a movie that's not about boxing, there's a boxing match.'

Bill: 'Obviously Scorsese. This would have been a cool Scorsese movie.'

Bill: Sinise's part. Sean: Gilbert Powell (the John Heard character) – 'when he's yelling about his plan and what's going to happen. That's a very PSH kind of moment.'

• Van: Pre-fight crack party in the dressing room; Gugino covered in blood and nobody stops her; no security screening for Cage sitting next to the Secretary of Defense; 'slightly high-BMI heavyweights.'
• Sean: Gugino's plan is incoherent; the fighter José Pacifico Ruiz's acting is terrible.
• Bill: Gugino should wear contacts not glasses; the crowd is unrealistically energetic in round one; the romantic spark between Gugino and Cage at the end comes from nowhere.

• Bill: The bloody $100 bill, Nick Cage's jacket, or the fight poster.
• Sean: The ruby red ring revealed in the concrete slab at the end of the credits – 'chip that out.'

Bill: 'I'm naive. There's worse things to be.'

• Van: 'Face/Off' – 'run it right back, Nick.'
• Sean: 'No Way Out' (sleazy crime drama in the world of high-power politics). Other nominees: 'Blow Out', Dressed to Kill, 'JFK', 'In the Line of Fire', LA Confidential.

• Van: Cage – 'I don't think Cage has ever lost a movie he starred in. He has this overwhelming energy.'
• Bill: De Palma – 'his last one that actually made some money and was memorable.'