Rewatchables Reference

• The train/bridge crossing scene – flawless four-to-five minutes of filmmaking (Bill and Chris's pick).
• The pie-eating contest (Lard Ass) – iconic, especially for kids.
• River's milk money monologue – the big dramatic scene about the teacher stealing the milk money.
• River's speech about Gordie's writing gift – 'God gave you something, man'.
• Gordy and Chris vs. Ace – the gun standoff ('Suck my fat one, you cheap dime-store hood').
• The ending – Gordie saying goodbye to Chris, Chris fading from the picture.

• The movie's timelessness – set in 1959 with enough period distance to be a permanent time capsule (Bill's pick).
• The narration by Richard Dreyfuss – usually narration is a flaw, but it works perfectly here.
• The Cobras as villains – simple, effective villainy; Ace plays chicken, carries a knife.
• Kids smoking – hilarious in retrospect, the way they talk like adults about it.
• Young Kiefer Sutherland – his career trajectory from this to Lost Boys to Jack Bauer.
• Fat Jerry O'Connell – sneaky good performance; became handsome, married Rebecca Romijn.
• The Jack Nitzsche score and the Ben E. King song.
• Childhood urban legends and mythology – goochers, superstitions, stories mutating among 12-year-old boys.

• Everything that's happened with Corey Feldman – the last 25-30 years of self-parody; hard to separate from his performance.
• Kids smoking (placed in both aged-best and aged-worst).

• Adrian Lyne was originally going to direct but Nine and a Half Weeks ran long, so Rob Reiner got the job.
• Corey Haim auditioned for Gordie; the studio wanted him to play Chris Chambers but he turned it down and made Lucas instead.
• Sean Astin, Stephen Dorff, and Ethan Hawke were considered for Gordie – Bill thinks Hawke would have been really good.
• David Dukes, Ted Bessel, and Michael McKean were considered for the Richard Dreyfuss narrator role – David Dukes actually shot a scene.

• Corey Feldman – 'Feldman, a thousand percent' (winner).
• The kid who plays Eyeball 'really going for it'.

• Bruce Kirby – Gordie's dad / the 'quidacciolo's' guy (Chris's pick).
• Marshal Bell – plays Gordie's dad AND Kuato in 'Total Recall'.

• John Cusack as Denny – wonderful in his brief scenes, perfect casting (winner).
• Kiefer Sutherland – eligible but almost too good/prominent; feels like the fifth star.
• Lard Ass – only in the movie for five minutes but iconic.

Eyeball Chambers – suggest Jason Patric, Ralph Macchio, Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Christian Bale, or Christian Slater.

• Jerry O'Connell said for two weeks the kids just hung out and played games, didn't rehearse – 'Rob is great with kids'.
• Filmed the barf-o-rama in Brownsville, Oregon; extra filling was mixed with large curd cottage cheese to simulate vomit.
• The McCloud River Railroad Trestle (the bridge scene) is near MacArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park in California.
• Wil Wheaton was actually faster than River Phoenix, but his character had to lose the sprint.
• The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

• Wil Wheaton: Yes – this is his Apex Mountain.
• Teen smoking: Yes – 'definitely teen smoking'.
• Rob Reiner: No – his Apex is probably early 90s ('A Few Good Men' + Castle Rock/Seinfeld).
• Corey Feldman: Probably not – Goonies also a candidate.
• Jerry O'Connell: Probably just marrying Rebecca Romijn.
• River Phoenix: Candidates are 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' or My Own Private Idaho.

• How did the leech get through Gordy's jeans and underwear to his groin?
• They don't outrun that train – the bridge height and jump at the end would be a ~50-foot fall.
• Gordy clearly has the drop on Chris in the sprint but Chris turns on 'double Carl Lewis speed'.
• The pie-eating contest judging – a lot of pie left on Lard Ass's plates when he's declared 'done'.

• What was the plan when they got to the body? For either group – the kids or the Cobras.
• Where is law enforcement in Castle Rock? Ace seems to operate completely unchecked.
• What is Gordie's writing career? Fiction? Nonfiction? Is he famous?

• Could be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show but they hope it doesn't happen.
• Chris pitches: 'It should be called The Cobras' – basically Narcos but about those guys.
• Bill suggests a Cobra Kai-style 'catching up 35 years later' concept.

• River Phoenix – both Bill and Chris agree.
• Bill makes a brief case for Rob Reiner (the movie led to founding Castle Rock Entertainment, which syndicated Seinfeld).
• River Phoenix gave 'a generational performance' that has 'completely stood the test of time'.
• Chris notes Phoenix's acting style would seem perfectly at home in a modern HBO show – completely timeless.