Episode 201 - Skyscraper

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Paul F. Tompkins (Spontaneanation, BoJack Horseman) and Rhea Butcher (Three Swings, Put Your Hands Together) join Paul and Jason in-studio to discuss Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the 2018 action film Skyscraper. They talk about why it would be impossible for The Rock to make the jump from the crane to the burning building, the hall of digital mirrors room, and the duct tape budget. 

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[SideofMcG 225]

Bad Guy to Building Guy: "You know I can't kill you." 

10 seconds later fires automatic weapon at him repeatedly.

Gee I guess he just plain forgot about that no-killing him thing, huh?

 

[SideofMcG 225]

.

[grudlian. 4725]

Probably my biggest problem is that the movie would make so much more sense if The Rock already had the job he interviews for in this movie. The entire villain plot hinges on The Rock getting the tablet that day. It means he has to ace the interview which would definitely be highly competitive. It means the building owner would just give him the tablet immediately. BUT if he had been working there a while, he would already have the tablet. It would explain why his family is living in otherwise uninhabited floors of this building. It would explain why The Rock and his family know the layout of the building so well.

You could easily have Rock's friend from the FBI visiting him to see how successful he is after the incident. That way you wouldn't need the bizarre plot point that the FBI friend who is now a criminal somehow set up the interview. You wouldn't need Rock to say he's "working out of his garage" which he clearly isn't.

[ToddSkoda 5]

So was the plan to leave on the helicopter or to jump the whole time?

[pscudese 701]

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

Probably my biggest problem is that the movie would make so much more sense if The Rock already had the job he interviews for in this movie. The entire villain plot hinges on The Rock getting the tablet that day. It means he has to ace the interview which would definitely be highly competitive. It means the building owner would just give him the tablet immediately. BUT if he had been working there a while, he would already have the tablet. It would explain why his family is living in otherwise uninhabited floors of this building. It would explain why The Rock and his family know the layout of the building so well.

You could easily have Rock's friend from the FBI visiting him to see how successful he is after the incident. That way you wouldn't need the bizarre plot point that the FBI friend who is now a criminal somehow set up the interview. You wouldn't need Rock to say he's "working out of his garage" which he clearly isn't.

I agree, but let me go one step further...

The whole concept of The Rock's character in this film is LITERALLY POINTLESS.

The Rock is only brought in because his former partner needs to get the tablet from the billionaire to the bad guys. There is nothing The Rock specifically has to do in order for the bad guys to succeed. It's not like The Rock is the original engineer or security expert that created all the saftey measures of The Pearl. If that was the case, than that is why The Rock would have the tablet and be so instrumental to the storyline. But how the movie is constructed, all the elite villains had to do is create a shell company similar to The Rock's (maybe using Squarespace.com ; offer code "bonkers"), and just have a bad guy portray this expert to sign off on the building. He would have then gotten the job and just walked out the door with the tablet.

Bingo Bango. 

[SideofMcG 225]

1 hour ago, ToddSkoda said:

So was the plan to leave on the helicopter or to jump the whole time?

I think the helicopter was Building Guy's. The bad guys were going to jump.

[pscudese 701]

After The Rock's daughter is kidnapped, the squad tells The Rock to get the USB drive or she'll die. Pretty simple troupe, but there are two things that infuriated me:

1. The Entire Villainous Team Leave The Rock ALONE!!! Why?! Why would they not leave one person to watch over The Rock and ensure he does as he's told?! What if right after everyone leaves, the billionaire sees that The Rock is alone and decides to open the doors? Then he and The Rock can team up and come up with a plan to rescue the daughter and escape.
2. The bad guys tell The Rock to get the USB drive. The Rock has no clue what that drive looks like, therefore the billionaire could easily give him some other random instrument that also looks like a high-tech vibrator. 

This movie is soooo sloppy even for a popcorn film staring The Rock. 

[grudlian. 4725]

22 minutes ago, SideofMcG said:

I think the helicopter was Building Guy's. The bad guys were going to jump.

Speaking of the helicopter, there's a scene where it's "too hot" for the helicopter to be near the burning building, but Rock can just hang there from the side of the building?

[pscudese 701]

When the secondary team breaks into the offsite security office, I got really pissed off on how they executed everyone.

As you can see in the provided image, the 4 shooters were just aiming aimlessly at all the technicians below with no regards to hitting any of the high tech equipment. This would be fine if not for the next scene, the hacker needed to tap into those same computers to overtake The Pearl.

Also I don't see this movie as just a shitty Die Hard... because it's more of a shitty combination of Die Hard and Die Hard 4. In fact this particular scene happened exactly in Die Hard 4... when Timothy Olyphant's sexy asian girlfriend (Maggie Q) attacking an offsite security office. Again image provided. 

From Skyscraper

 

From Die Hard 4:

[SevenDollarsWorthofHoobastank 226]

The Scandinavian villains name was "Botha".....I was REALLY hoping someone in the movie or one of the folks on the podcast would have made a "is his last name 'Dee Snuts'" joke. But alas, I'm immature.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

I agree with a lot of points about how the Rock's backstory doesn't matter and such.

I also wanted more with the kids. I was pretty surprised this was made for Chinese audiences with those kids, honestly. Maybe I am the racist here (I hope not!) but I have been told Chinese audiences don't like black people. I know the Rock is half Black. But those kids were somehow darker than he is. 

Another thing about the kids, where does the boy go when Neve Campbell is being badass? I assume he's in the care of the paramedics who were giving him oxygen. But I wouldn't want to leave my young child alone when he was in that kind of distress/his dad might be falling to his death at any minute. 

I also thought the Rock should have surrendered himself to police and told them what he knew. I got that he thought the police thought he was part of it, but what kind of police would be like "no we won't send a helicopter to save small children." It felt more like he was doing the climbing stuff to prove his own honor. 

I didn't think they were very good parents.

The note I remember writing was "is this whole movie really an ad for duct tape?" I am still unclear on that. 

[TentPitcher 0]

If The Rock was slimmed down he would look like Tiger Woods. On a side not is it proper to capitalize The when you are talking about his name? is it The Rock? or is he just Rock?

[SolarBaby 3]

Just to clarify why the Rock left with the tablet, he said that the last thing he had to do to give them a thumbs up to open the residential areas was to check the offsite location.  That is why the were on the ferry.

[SolarBaby 3]

1 hour ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

I agree with a lot of points about how the Rock's backstory doesn't matter and such.

I also wanted more with the kids. I was pretty surprised this was made for Chinese audiences with those kids, honestly. Maybe I am the racist here (I hope not!) but I have been told Chinese audiences don't like black people. I know the Rock is half Black. But those kids were somehow darker than he is. 

Another thing about the kids, where does the boy go when Neve Campbell is being badass? I assume he's in the care of the paramedics who were giving him oxygen. But I wouldn't want to leave my young child alone when he was in that kind of distress/his dad might be falling to his death at any minute. 

I also thought the Rock should have surrendered himself to police and told them what he knew. I got that he thought the police thought he was part of it, but what kind of police would be like "no we won't send a helicopter to save small children." It felt more like he was doing the climbing stuff to prove his own honor. 

I didn't think they were very good parents.

The note I remember writing was "is this whole movie really an ad for duct tape?" I am still unclear on that. 

This!  I asked my wife where the boy went when Neve was being a badass.  Then I predicted that he would be right there when the Rock found his wife again and I have never been prouder to be right.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

I would've loved to have seen the conversation Neve had with the kid.

NEVE: Hey I know you're having an asthma attack and feel like you're dying, but Mommy is going to go with the police to fight bad guys.

KID: ... shouldn't the police do that? Why do you need to go?

NEVE: I'm a woman so I'm the only one  allowed to fight the lady bad guy.

KID: Aren't there police ladies? There's one right there.

NEVE: Nah, I want to kick her. You stay here. Let me know if Dad falls to his death.

[grudlian. 4725]

33 minutes ago, SolarBaby said:

This!  I asked my wife where the boy went when Neve was being a badass.  Then I predicted that he would be right there when the Rock found his wife again and I have never been prouder to be right.

Neve was just heartless.

Think of that scene in the elevator. There is a moment that should be emotional. Neve and the boy could easily die. They might never seen Rock again. Rock says "I love you" and Neve says "you better". This may be the last time you see each other. This isn't the time for sarcastic one liners.

[stueygeorge 15]

What bothered me most about this movie was, how was everyone moving around so easily inside this building that is on fire?  The Rock's family was staying on the 99th floor.  The bad guys set the fire on the 96th floor, so Neve and the kids have to go down to get below the fire.  The panic room is on the 220th floor, the mirror room is at the very top, and the turbines are above the 200th floor.  The Rock explains how the building's elevators can't be used in the burning structure, which is why he attempts to murder his wife and son but putting them in the elevator and sending it hurtling 90 stories down.  So how is everyone getting back and forth between the upper floors and the middle floors so easily?  They would have had to go by FLAMING STAIRWELLS the whole way.  When the bad guys show up in the indoor park to kill The Rock, they're not even out of breath let alone singed; ditto when they go back up.  Of course, if the Rock can jump from the crane into the building and hold up a bridge by himself, repeatedly climbing and descending 100 stories of flaming stairs is just like falling out of bed.

[Shannon 2953]

Hey popping in this thread because I assume y'all will be active today...

Paul is trying to find a post or user that has been tracking the total time of movies watched + podcast hours? Or something? 

If anyone can point us in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated!!! 

[grudlian. 4725]

29 minutes ago, Shannon said:

Hey popping in this thread because I assume y'all will be active today...

Paul is trying to find a post or user that has been tracking the total time of movies watched + podcast hours? Or something? 

If anyone can point us in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated!!! 

You want firsttimecallerlongtimelistener. He has spread sheets of this and they are online I think. He doesn't post as much anymore but he's definitely linked it before. You can try checking his post history.

[SolarBaby 3]

3 hours ago, TentPitcher said:

If The Rock was slimmed down he would look like Tiger Woods. On a side not is it proper to capitalize The when you are talking about his name? is it The Rock? or is he just Rock?

Seems like "the" would not be capitalized if we treat the Rock like a rock band, which is how one should treat the Rock in my opinion.

https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/CapitalizationTitles.html?page=1

TL;DR - Names of bands do not capitalize the, but album names do.

Quote

Q. For rock fans, such as myself, it is sometimes important to know whether one is to capitalize the “the” preceding a rock group’s name. For instance, the group “the Who.” In the middle of a sentence, do I say “the Who” or “The Who,” given that the “the” is an integral part of the title and furthermore is the first word in the title?

A. When the name of a band requires the definite article, lowercase it in running text:

When I first saw the Who, they had short hair; when I last saw them, that was again true.

I can’t believe the Rolling Stones didn’t retire with all their money years ago.

The day I was introduced to the The was the day I learned that irony was finished.

It is true that “the” often gets capitalized on album covers, but our rule is to capitalize the first and last word in any title, which fits in with that practice (the The has usually employed a lowercase “the” nested above an uppercase “The” on its covers). Exceptions to the proper the rule are names that are captured within italics or quotation marks within running text. Hence,

Have you ever heard “The Real Me,” that song by the Who?

I have three copies of The Soft Parade, one of the Doors’ lesser-known albums.

but

Hey! Where did you put my Soft Parade LP?

The very last example illustrates the dropping of the article when it is grammatically convenient.

 

[justinforabit 15]

I am overwhelmed with joy that this is a STUDIO episode! Thank you thank you thank you!!! Hope this keeps happening. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

.Kimi

12 hours ago, grudlian. said:

Probably my biggest problem is that the movie would make so much more sense if The Rock already had the job he interviews for in this movie. The entire villain plot hinges on The Rock getting the tablet that day. It means he has to ace the interview which would definitely be highly competitive. It means the building owner would just give him the tablet immediately. BUT if he had been working there a while, he would already have the tablet. It would explain why his family is living in otherwise uninhabited floors of this building. It would explain why The Rock and his family know the layout of the building so well.

You could easily have Rock's friend from the FBI visiting him to see how successful he is after the incident. That way you wouldn't need the bizarre plot point that the FBI friend who is now a criminal somehow set up the interview. You wouldn't need Rock to say he's "working out of his garage" which he clearly isn't.

Yes!! Unless they have a bad guy in H R or are in charge of hiring/ what was the plan if The Rock didn't get the job? Were they going to take out his competition so he's the only applicant? Also wouldn't it have just been easier to stack the deck of applicants with bad guy contractors you paid off to infiltrate the company so that you would know for sure you would get the iPad? That way you don't have to fight anyone at all. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

9 hours ago, pscudese said:

After The Rock's daughter is kidnapped, the squad tells The Rock to get the USB drive or she'll die. Pretty simple troupe, but there are two things that infuriated me:

1. The Entire Villainous Team Leave The Rock ALONE!!! Why?! Why would they not leave one person to watch over The Rock and ensure he does as he's told?! What if right after everyone leaves, the billionaire sees that The Rock is alone and decides to open the doors? Then he and The Rock can team up and come up with a plan to rescue the daughter and escape.
2. The bad guys tell The Rock to get the USB drive. The Rock has no clue what that drive looks like, therefore the billionaire could easily give him some other random instrument that also looks like a high-tech vibrator. 

This movie is soooo sloppy even for a popcorn film staring The Rock. 

I want a hilarious comedy about a thief accidentally stealing a fancy Business Lady vibrator instead of the high tech McGuffin they were hired to get now

[gigi-tastic 2322]

So I was skeptical about the nighttime panda feeding and thought maybe the movie meant red pandas which are nocturnal and  crepuscular (and the cutest things on this planet) but I wanted to do some research. It turns out that the movie might be correct! I don't think the Hong Kong zoo has a nighttime feeding . I don't even think they have pandas. I know there's a sort of panda theme park but I don't think it has anything to do with the actual zoo. Regardless according to this article( http://thewildlife.wbur.org/2015/08/07/pandas-dont-play-by-the-rules/ ) about research done by scientists from MSU (always nice to read something that isn't about horrific scandals for a change. ) pandas have three peak times of activity: Morning, Afternoon, and Midnight.

"

In a statement from MSU, research associate Jindong Zhang said, “We cannot simply say the panda is a crepuscular creature. Giant pandas show complex activity patterns that are closely related to food quality and water availability,” Zhang said. “They need to eat food more frequently, such as at midnight, since the nutrition quality of bamboo is low. The study of the activity patterns of pandas opens a door to discovering the unique adaptations of pandas to their environment.” 

"

So there you have it. My insane brain is FINE with people running around a burning building willy nilly, cutting steel cables with an ax, and jumping off a fucking crane but nighttime panda feeding , that shit needs to be fact checked!