Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: The professor reading Gib's short essay at the end – 'Does God exist? Who invented liquid soap and why?' Also: the opening credits with Rod Stewart's 'Infatuation'; the swimming pool scene; Gib and Allison getting kicked out of Gary Cooper's car (show tunes, shotgunning a beer, cheese balls, Allison flashing a car).
• CR: The dive bar scene – 'the only scene that can be cut, and it might be my favorite scene in the movie.' The waitress, the drunk guy ('I had fried food today'), the random characters.
• Craig: Also the dive bar scene. The drunk guy at the bar is 'some of the best drunk acting' he's ever seen.

• Bill: Writing detailed letters to friends from high school; writing funny sex story letters to Penthouse; Allison's Culture Club poster (had a 5-month shelf life by 1986).
• CR: The ride bulletin board at college – getting in a car for three days with someone who put an index card on a cork board. Also: 'I'm talking to you cordless.'
• Craig: The line 'I'm talking to you cordless.'

• Bill: The soundtrack (the reason the movie isn't streaming); the vision of 1980s college life – the classes, the fashions, Allison's regimented day, the Friday night partying.
• CR: Professors with cool accents reading essays; snowy college campuses; the stuffy boyfriend character (flannel sheets, gin rummy); young Cusack's charm.
• Bill: How the movie made college seem like the most awesome place.

• Bill: Cusack's ballet girl accent; 80s teens fascinated by stars/outer space to impress girls ('It's all out there, man').
• CR: The character named Walter Gibson ('not a name you see a lot on white guys anymore'). Also: hitchhiking – 'we don't do that anymore because Netflix has made 45 true crime documentaries where the hitchhiker gets murdered.' Traveling 3,000 miles to get laid when there are apps now.
• Bill: Sharing a hotel with two double beds with strangers – 'I don't think that happens in 2025.'

• Bill: 'Penny Lover' by Lionel Richie drops at a really nice time for the slow dance. Also: 'Infatuation' by Rod Stewart in the opening credits.
• CR: 'When You Walk Into the Room' at the frat party – 'that's what I want to hear if I was walking into a Tahitian themed frat party.'

• Bill: The Nicolette Sheridan character (the Sure Thing) – 'they just don't do a good enough job with the character. I wish she had been 10% more on it.'
• Craig: She's the hottest woman in LA and no man is speaking to her at a frat party – 'she would be hounded.'
• CR: The presentation of the two other people in their lives (the boyfriend and Sheridan) – 'I understand why you have to make them caricatures' but they could be more relatable.

Bill: Cusack a couple times – 'but I love it every time.' Especially as the crazy hitchhiker.

• CR: Gib and Allison met just a hair too early to make it really work. 'Freshman year's tough, man. Those guys are going to go through a lot of changes.' Doesn't think they're a forever couple.
• Bill: 'Risky Business' and 'The Sure Thing' are the two best 80s teen movies. Mount Rushmore: 'Risky Business', Sure Thing, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller. Also: Daphne Zuniga should have been in the Brat Pack – could have replaced Ally Sheedy in all Ally Sheedy parts.

• Anthony Edwards almost got the lead, then Cusack got the part and they moved Edwards to Lance.
• Robin Wright auditioned for the title role, didn't get it, and filed it away for Princess Bride.
• Mare Winningham was considered for Allison.

• Bill: Larry Hankin (the trucker) – 'legendary TV actor' who played Kramer's alter ego in the Seinfeld TV-show-within-a-show episode and the cranky neighbor on Friends.
• CR: Carmen Filippi (the bus station bum) – also the preacher in 'Halloween' 4 and in Tim Burton movies.

• Bill: The teacher (Vivica Lindfors). Tim Robbins right behind. Also: Anthony Edwards as Lance.
• CR: Agrees the teacher wins. Robbins is 'take good care of yourself, two blocks.'

• A guy named Robert Bauer played the same character named Moke in this and Spinal Tap.
• The shotgunning beer scene was added because Cusack told Reiner it was one of his talents.
• Reiner shot at multiple colleges to keep it generic but obviously Ivy League.
• Cusack wears a green and gold Kangaroos jersey of an Australian National Rugby League team – they gave it to him because they liked how it looked, and Australian fans mentioned it to him for 20 years.

• Daphne Zuniga: Yes – followed by Spaceballs the next year, then Melrose Place.
• Shotgunning beers: Yes – 'has it been a more integral part of a movie?'
• Anthony Edwards: No.
• Road trip movies: No.
• Skinwalkers: Discussed at length in a bizarre tangent.

Bill: Gib's buddies at the college – the film could have used one more funny buddy.

• Bill: The actual essay that closed the movie – 'whatever the written one.'
• CR: 'I would even take the one with the pepperoni stains on it.'

Bill: 'Next time, just take the bus the whole way.'

• Bill: 'Stand By Me' (another Reiner classic).
• CR: One Crazy Summer (Cusack follow-up with Demi Moore in the Zuniga role).

Bill: Probably Cusack, but they'll say Reiner. CR: 'Yeah, let's say Reiner.'

Craig: 'This and 'Risky Business' are probably my two favorite teen movies that I've never seen before.' He thought the drunk guy at the dive bar delivered some of the best drunk acting he's ever seen.