“Mission Impossible: Fallout” Trivia

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 51 Things We Learned from the Mission: Impossible – Fallout Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

7. They tested shorter cuts of the film per the studio’s request, but each attempt saw the scores plummet. Cruise told them “it doesn’t matter how long it is, it matters how long it feels.”

17. The HALO sequence saw them jumping out of the plane at 25,000 feet, and it’s all done live in a single shot. The city lights below are added in post, but the jump and fall are 100% real. “We talked about this for a year. How are going to get this shot?” The camera operator for the scene is wearing a camera mounted to the top of his own helmet, and the whole thing is a legitimately thrilling sequence. Here, I’ll let a very excited and proud Cruise tell you about jumping out of the plane for the scene. “Now he’s backwards. He leaves backwards. I’m coming right at him. Now I have to get from there I have to get within three feet, not two feet ten inches, not three feet and two inches. I have to be right at three feet to be in focus. Now I go past him in that and we had a window of three minutes to get that shot. Now I do this spin, now you’re in my face,I’m up on my back, he’s going up and around. It really is a dance between the two of us. I had to always make sure that the sunset was on my left shoulder. Now we’re traveling at 200 miles an hour at times toward the ground. I’m coming in, it’s like a sprint, boom, I have to hit him. When I hit him, I have to hit him, I don’t know where I’m gonna hit him on his body, I just have to try and take him out and down. And not break his neck, my neck, and not entangle the chutes, deploy his chute or my chute. Any of those things could have led to serious problems.” They built the largest wind tunnel in the world to train and considered filming some of the sequence in there, but it didn’t look real enough.

27. The “what if” sequence at 44:13 where they show the hijack and subsequent killing of dozens of police officers under the overpass was a concern as paparazzi and Parisian gawkers lined the other side of the river watching. They hung 300 feet of silk across the archways so that people wouldn’t see police being murdered, and the unintentional but welcome effect is the “eerie light” across the scene.

How Sly Stallone Made the Cover of a French Graphic Novel

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Today we have the Colin WIlson cover to the French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tête written by Matz and illustrated by Colin Wilson.  If you think the the tough-guy on the cover looks like Sylvester Stallone, you’d be right.

See, Du Plomb Dans La Tête was the basis for Stallone’s film Bullet to the Head.

What’s interesting to note is the character (that Sly ended up playing) from the original graphic novel was drawn to look a bit like Sly as Jack Carter.  When Sly took on the role for Bullet to the Head, Walter Hill (the director) opted for a different look and Sly agreed.  So in the movie Sly doesn’t look like Jack Carter but on the Du Plomb Dans La Tête cover he does.

And now you have the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say).

Ranking All “Rocky” / “Creed” Movies

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Sam Stone at CBR.com recently posted Every Rocky Movie Ranked. Stone did this by averaging the professional critics’ scores from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Joe Leydon at Variety had the same idea so All Eight Rocky Movies Ranked were done by Joe.

Not to be outdone, John Orquiola at ScreenRant provided All 8 Rocky & Creed Movies Ranked.

Follow the links above to see the individual comments and rankings for each of the Rocky/Creed films.   I created a chart to make comparisons easier.  I also added my rankings in the last column.

It was interesting to see that except for Rocky at #1 and Creed as #2 there wasn’t a majority consensus for any other ranking.

20 Walking Dead Easter Eggs Everyone Has Missed

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Shawn S. Lealos, at CBR.com, posted 20 Walking Dead Easter Eggs Everyone Has Missed and it’s a great read.  Here are my three favorites…

20  THE WHISPERERS
The Whisperers have finally arrived on The Walking Dead but they were hinted at a few years back by a character that isn’t even on the main series anymore. Way back in the Season 3 episode “Clear,” Rick and Morgan met up for the first time since Rick left Atlanta. Morgan was clearly driven mad at the time — losing his wife and son — and he was rambling about a lot of things. However, one thing that he said was clear foreshadowing for this season of The Walking Dead.

Morgan said he saw “people wearing dead people’s faces.” Fans of the comic books knew exactly what Morgan was talking about since the books had introduced the Whisperers, who wore the faces of the dead in order to walk among the zombie herds safely.

1  BREAKING BAD CONNECTION
The Walking Dead might be the most popular television series in the history of AMC but it is nowhere close to being the most critically acclaimed series on the network. That would arguably be Breaking Bad and there are a lot of clues that indicate the worlds from the two television series are actually connected.

Daryl had a bag of narcotics in the season 2 episode “Bloodletting” that included a blue powdery substance that fans of Breaking Bad will immediately recognize. There was also a red Dodge Charger that Glenn stole in “Guts” that was the exact same color and year as one that Walter returned to a car lot and a general manager named Glenn. Also, Gale’s crazy coffee maker from Breaking Bad showed up in Milton’s lab in season three. These Easter eggs have made some people wonder if Breaking Bad is a Walking Dead prequel.

15  THE SCRIPTURES
On the fifth season episode “Strangers,” the survivors ended up at Father Ezekiel’s church and found an interesting situation. Ezekiel was alone in the church, having refused to allow his followers in, and the group found one man alone surrounded by his belief in God. On the board in the background were five Bible verses. Interestingly, these verses all had an eerily similar theme.

A fan on Reddit took the time to look them all up and they involved rising from the dead, returning to life, being unable to pass on, and living among the dead. The books of the Bible ranged from the Old Testament in Ezekial to the final book of Revelations. While not really meaning zombies, they all tie into the themes of the show.

Palle Schmidt’s Stiletto is Coming!

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That’s the cover to Stiletto a crime graphic novel by Palle Schmidt premiering in March.  I just finished reading  The Devil’s Concubine and was impressed by Schmidt’s great story and art.  My review will be coming soon, but here’s a spoiler, Schmidt’s The Devil’s Concubine gets my highest recommendation.

Stiletto which was nominated for the Danish Pingprisen award, a rarity for crime comics.  Lion Forge is going to release Stiletto, as three 48-page issues, priced at $5.99 each.

Here’s how Schmidt describes Stiletto…

“Stiletto looks like a buddy cop movie at first glance, but you’ll definitely be surprised to see where it goes,” says Denmark-based writer and artist, Palle Schmidt. “This is a gritty neo-noir full of twists and turns, corruption, betrayal, and greed. I spent years working on the book, really pouring my heart and soul into the project.”

You can get more info and see more art for Stiletto at Bleeding Cool.

Jack Carter and John Wick by John Beatty!

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On November 23, 2018, aka Black Friday, John Beatty and I met in his studio to do a livestream broadcast of John’s John Wick / Jack Carter drawing for my Stallone Sketch Collection. Click on the photo above to see a much bigger version.  We were joined in the studio by Ron Wendt who took the photos below.

That’s John…

That’s me…

And that’s John with his reference working on the art.  You can click on the video link below to see and hear how everything went down.  We had a blast with viewers texting in questions and even a couple of call-ins to the studio.

John is considering adding tones to the Carter / Wick piece and if he does I’m sure I’ll join him in studio, so maybe you will consider swinging by as well.  John draws live most Monday through Fridays and loves to interact with those who tune in.  You should give it a go and tell him I sent ya.

Dead Film Franchises Begging to Be Revived

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ComingSoon ran a piece called Dead Film Franchises Begging to Be Revived.  Of the films listed, here are the three I felt most deserving and a couple of more that didn’t make the list but should have…

Kill Bill – Tarantino has talked up a sequel for many years now.  The set-up was right there in Kill Bill, Volume 1:  Ambrosia Kelley (who played Vivica Fox’s daughter) is now grown and would return to take revenge on The Bride.

Blade – I didn’t care for Blade; loved Blade II and thought Blade: Trinity was good.  So, why not bring back Snipes for another outing?

Dirty Harry – My initial thought was, “No.”  But the idea of Scott Eastwood picking up his dad’s role as Harry Callahan got me thinking that it could work.  My biggest concern is that the social climate is much different now than it was when the original Dirty Harry was released.

Two movie franchises that didn’t make the list but should have…

Billy Jack – I’d love to see a remake of Born Losers, the film that introduced Billy Jack to the world.  Get someone like Kurt Sutter to take the reigns and you’d have a winner.

Escape from – Snake Plissken continues to be a popular character with fans.  Have Wyatt Russell (Kurt’s son) put on the eye patch and let’s go.