SPEAKER_02 0:00

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SPEAKER_05 0:38

Is she actually a spy? Is he really a spy? What is this whole storyline?

SPEAKER_06 1:02

Welcome to the Two Old or Pure Gold movie podcast, where Gen X and the Next Generation revisit movies from the 70s, 80s, and 90s to see if they still hold up. In today's episode, we're discussing the 1994 action movie True Lies. I'm your host, Olin Vanderleaden, representing Gen X. Joining me today is my Gen X co-host, Matthew Stockton.

SPEAKER_07 1:20

Hi, everybody.

SPEAKER_06 1:21

Representing the millennials this week, we have Most Likely to be a Spy, Sean. Hi. We have Most Likely to Drive a Motorbike into a swimming pool, Anthony. Morning, guys. That tracks. And representing Gen Z, we have Horse Rights Activist Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Hi.

SPEAKER_06 1:38

But today's a really special episode. We've got an amazing guest joining us. He's an actor and stunt man who's been in a ton of great movies and TV shows, including today's film, True Lies. Peter Kent, thanks for joining us. We appreciate you taking the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Oh, you're more than welcome.

SPEAKER_06 1:53

And so for the listeners who may not know Peter Kent, Peter's probably best known as Arnold Schwarzenegger's longtime stunt double, working on some of his most iconic films ever, from The Terminator to Predator, and of course True Lies. But Peter's way more than just the guy behind the action. He's got a career spanning decades with over 180 credits, and he's a performer in his own right. And I've definitely got a few questions for you about some of the other titles on your list, but we'll we'll get to that. Peter's also the first Canadian inducted into the Hollywood Stuntman Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Congrats.

SPEAKER_06 2:28

And we're super excited to have him here to talk about what it was like behind the scenes on this movie. Today's movie is the 1994 action movie True Lies. True Lies stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, and I cannot leave off the list, Bill Paxton. The movie is written and directed by one of the greatest, James Cameron. The tagline from the movie poster is when he said I do, he never said what he did.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 2:54

That's a good one. And IMDB describes the film as a fearless, globe-trotting terrorist battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear warheads into the United States. Now, for those of you that have not seen the movie, I asked my 94-year-old dad to watch True Lies and summarize the plot.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

True Lies is a fun movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a secret agent Harry Tasker. We immediately get to know him as a debonair tango dancer at a high society dance party. But in reality, he is on a secret and exciting mission to deal with some nuclear terrorists while his wife believes that he has a boring job as a computer salesman. Unsurprisingly, his wife Helen truly leads a boring life and hankers for some excitement. This opens the door for used car salesman Simon to become her new friend. Get it? New friend? Harry mistrusts Helen's loyalty and arranges to interrogate her while hiding his own identity. She is made to believe that she too can be a spy and that she is to seduce a mysterious person who is actually Harry. Helen learns about Harry's true identity, after which they are captured by the real rogues, a group of nuclear terrorists. This is where the exciting part starts involving several fights, including daredevil maneuvers, needless to say, that all our heroes survive while the bad guys are killed. So go for it and enjoy.

SPEAKER_06 4:52

So what I'd like to do now is I want to just quickly ask everybody what they thought of this movie, and then Peter, if it's okay with you, I'd love to ask you a few questions about what it was like working on this film. Of course. Okay, so gang, what what did you think of this movie?

SPEAKER_07 5:07

So I'll I'll jump in, Olin. I've never seen it before. Liked it a lot. It's the it's it's the what it's a fun movie in the way that a lot of movies don't do fun anymore. You know, you can feel the scale of this movie, but it never forgets to entertain. It's indulgent, it's absolutely ridiculous, but confidently so, which makes it great. I I was a little bit dodgy because Tom Arnold's in it, not my favorite. But but but the flip side of that, you have Arnie who's in it, who's not the greatest actor in the world, but he's he's a genre all of his own and he always entertains, and you have Jamie Lee Curtis, who I adore. Like I'd I I I'd watch her in anything, right? So I was like pleasantly surprised. I watched it all and just thought it was it was a great film, about a film about relationships, really, right?

SPEAKER_06 6:01

Yeah, uh I mean for me, the for for me the movie is fun from start to finish, but I have a history with this movie because I saw it uh saw it when it first came out, and then when it first came out on video, VHS, this was the movie that we used to test new TVs. Like if you wanted if you wanted to test the latest TV with good color and good surround sound, this is the movie we plugged in. But uh to me, this is one of the best cast chemistry in movie history, like they just jive so well. And in a genre that has lots of repetition of similar stunts, this one does not. It has a lot of really kind of cool new stuff that I can't wait to talk about. Great mix of action and comedy as well. But but did it translate?

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Um I the way I summarized it for myself was it's a made-for-TV movie plot with a documentary length. I think that good or bad. It's bad. Uh you guys know I love Arnold, but I I thought this movie was done, and then I looked at the time and there was 53 minutes left. And I I don't know what their plan was for this, but it was it was like three movies in one. It was for me, it didn't job. If I loved Arnold, I loved some of the scenes. There were some great moments, but that that summarizes it for me.

SPEAKER_07 7:20

Okay, that's really interesting. That you thought it was too long because when it ended for me, I was like wanting not wanting more, but I just like it went fast for me. I enjoy it because I was into it.

SPEAKER_06 7:31

Well, when we get when we get to the uh to the reviews of this movie, there's a lot of people that question whether you needed the uh husband-wife part of this to make it work, but we'll we'll we'll talk about that later. Nicole, what did you think?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

I liked it more than most spy movies, because I'm not a big spy movie person. It had a lot of really cool stunts. That was my favorite. That like all all the spy stuff was cool and it didn't feel repetitive or boring. I think it could have done without the entire lying and tricking your wife plot. Could have just focused on the other stuff. And I agree that it was too long. I think my wife's cheating on me. I know the solution. I'll make her cheat on me with a fake man I make up.

SPEAKER_08 8:15

Sean was French man. Sean, what did you think? I really enjoyed this movie. My my wife and I had a good time watching it. I think we both actually struggled a little bit in the beginning. I I don't know why, but as cool as some of the opening was, I felt like that's the part that dragged for me. And then once we got into the rest of the movie, I I really enjoyed it. There are some questionable things perhaps that haven't aged the best, but for the most part, this was a fun ride with some fun jokes. Really good acting. I enjoyed this movie a lot. Oh, so I now want a Harry Jet. You want a Harry Jet. Yeah. That's on my wish list.

SPEAKER_06 8:53

No. Uh okay. Uh I want to get into this. So, Peter, before we get into this film, I just want to back up a little bit and ask you about your start in the industry. I mean, I'm just I'm fascinated by your your IMDB and all of the work you've done. Do you mind to share the story of how you got into being a stunt man and then how you met James Cameron and and how you got to be Arnold stunt double? I mean, I think that would be a cool story.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Well, uh in November of 1983, I was work living in in Victoria working at AMB Sound, the legendary AMB.

SPEAKER_06 9:29

We must have crossed paths because that's the same era that I shopped there.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

On Yeats, yeah. And then uh I just got tired. It was the economy wasn't doing that well. I was working on commission, I wasn't making any money. And I thought, I've got nothing to keep me here. Uh, what could what could I do? And I looked south and I thought, well, I've been doing a lot of I did a lot of theater acting and Shakespeare and all that stuff. Um, and then I thought, well, why don't I go to LA? You know, which is somewhat of a naive concept because so many people have said, oh, I'm gonna go to LA and make something out of myself. And they call it the Boulevard of Broken Dreams for a reason. Um, but anyway, that's what exactly what I did. I packed up everything I had into one suitcase and my box of tape cassette tapes that I had and my Walkman. And uh I went to LA and I landed the first night up on Hollywood Boulevard, and and I went to stay in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which was an amazing hotel. And then uh the next night I realized I couldn't afford to do that because I only had about 1800 bucks in my pocket for you know whatever this venture was. And so I went to the YMCA, lived in the Y for, you know, about six months, and I I was reaching out every morning. I'd get up and get some change and try and make phone calls and try and find some kind of a connection. I didn't know about Variety Magazine or any of the industry inside things because and and I wasn't in the union, so they wouldn't have benefited me anyway. But I did eventually then uh I made a phone call to some group and they said, Well, we are casting, they called me back and actually left a message at the desk of the why. And I phoned them back, and this is based on a snapshot that I had of a Polaroid, not even a real headshot. They said, Jim Cameron has seen your photo. We're doing the background for this movie called The Terminator, and he wants you to come in and meet him uh for standing in for lighting. And it just so happened that the place he wanted to meet me was three blocks away from the Y. So without further ado, I raced over there before anybody else could, and uh I got in there and met him, and he said, you know, uh he noticed my Canadian accent. Uh he said, you know, you're from Canada. I said, Yeah, Vancouver. He's like, Oh, I'm from Toronto, and we kind of chatted a bit, and then he said, Great, sign him up. So that was initially for the lighting and just standing under the lights for Arnold as a basically a page as a bookmark. And then he kind of turned back to me and asked if I'd ever done any stunts, and I thought, you know, I'm I I I haven't, but if I don't, if I say no, maybe I don't have the other job, and I was just about broke at that point. So I just nodded and said yes, and there we go. And so uh, you know, day one, I got I was called to the set. I went down there, I walked on set at the Department of Water and Power in downtown LA, which was the underground parking lot. We were shooting the sequence where Arnold comes through cruising in the car looking for Reese and Sarah, and they're sitting in the car, and he's trying to explain to her that he's from the future. And you know, I walk onto set, and in the corner under some lights, is Arnold. And I I'm I'm dressed in the same wardrobe and everything that uh that he has on, a copy of it all, of course. And I walk up to him and he looks at me and he goes, Yeah, you're too tall. And uh I just I kind of turned around, I figured, okay, I'm fired then. And he said, No, no, come sit down and started talking to me and finding out where I was from and all of that stuff, and we kind of hit it off. And then I don't know, about an hour later, Cameron came up to me and he's handed me a shotgun. He said, Get in the car, drive by and start firing out the window. And I'm like, Okay, I can do that. And uh basically that was my initiation into it and my day one.

SPEAKER_06 12:59

Nice, and then your career took off from there. So, so you're obviously self-taught as a stunt man, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Oh, yeah. Well, yes and no. I mean, I got to a point where, yeah, you know, I I got to the where I had some sequences to do, and the stunt coordinator looked at me and he said, you know, you don't have any idea what you're doing, do you? And I said no, and he said, Okay, I better show you. Um, because I can't have you getting killed on my watch. Yeah, you know, and so uh, and then when we I I made it through that film, and then when we got to Commando, a fella named Bob Yerkes that did the swing across the galleria on that banner, which the guy was only about five foot five, you know. And I I was quite prepared to do it, though I had no clue how or what it even involved. And they but they had called him in, he was a circus performer, and he had trained people for Circus of the Stars, and so he came in and he did it in one take and swung across the galleria, landed on the roof of the elevator, and went down. And uh, and then he said to me, you know, I I appreciate that you want to do the gag when you don't know what you're doing, but maybe if you want, you can come out and train with me. He had a big facility out in the San Fernando Valley on Parthenia Way that was set up as a circus because he trained people for Circus of the Stars, so he had trampolines and high wire and fall high falls and all that stuff. And many uh aspiring Sunk guys actually um owe their careers to Bob Yerkes. A lot of guys were living on his property and trailers and stuff like that, just trying to get their you know, their their uh fill their suitcase with as many um experiences as they could. So, you know, we owe Bob a lot, and God bless him.

SPEAKER_07 14:31

I love I love I love that he just like kind of went, screw it. I'm gonna just like that's a great attitude to have, just jump in. Oh, I love the tenacity. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Fake it till you make it, but I I didn't I didn't um you know, I I had been pretty athletic as a kid growing up. I did track and all that stuff. And also I was incredibly naive. I mean I didn't even know what stunts really was, you know. And uh I it was just like okay, uh I just came to things one at a time. Here, go do this, okay. Here, go do this, okay. Here, go do this, okay.

SPEAKER_07 15:08

As and as a gay band, I have to say it helped that you had to smoke in a hot bod back then as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Well, I mean, uh it's funny because I didn't even start working out until I was like 27. Wow. Uh which is which is crazy. Uh that was the year I left to go to LA. So I guess the year before. And I didn't start even working out until then. And so, you know, once I got working with Arnold, um, you know, it became a thing. And and because we started to become friends, etc., then he was like, Well, Peter, come meet me at the gym here at seven o'clock in the morning. And so I would, you know, every morning.

SPEAKER_07 15:43

And if anyone knows technique, it would be him in the gym, yeah?

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Well, yeah, so I trained with him for those the 14-15 years that I worked with him every day. That's great. I didn't have any excuse to get away. Even days when I had the crap beaten out of me on set, you know, I'd try to skulk back to the hotel and lift my boots, and he'd be like, Eita, we go to the chin now. And I'd be like, You gotta be kidding me, man. I can barely freaking walk here. That's fantastic. Yeah, and he'd or he'd track me down to the room if I managed to skulk off and evade them. He would find me in my hotel room and brag me out anyway. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:17

Well, by the way, I find Schwarzenegger very inspiring. I mean, it w you know, when he talks about grit and determination and all of that stuff, uh I love him. So, Peter, out of your career, what's the stunt you're most proud of?

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Oh boy, uh well, there's a couple, I suppose. I couldn't really define one. I mean, if it had to be actually just one, I would say it would be the tr that the tanker run in T2 across the bed of the truck, uh out of the out of the little pickup across the bed and up onto the hood, and then blowing the windshield out because all that was freehand at 60. And if I had fallen, I had fallen, I would have been dead. And Jim, and funny enough, Jim Cameron even iterated that when we came out on DVD with the movie, there was a making of section, and they had the stunts in there, and he even mentions that he says, now watch, watch this. This is Peter. He's actually doing this, he's running freehand, no cable, no nothing. And uh, he could have been dead at any time. He goes, he was goes, This is the most dangerous stunt I've ever done in my life, and I would never ever do this again. And I'm like, I I look back at that now like, gee, thanks, Jim. You know, several years later it comes up. Uh but on the night, you know, it was one of those things I I had the feeling, I mean, I knew, you know, there was a moment there where I just kind of said to my mom who was in Vancouver, I said out loud to the sky, I'm like, uh, you know, I hope I get through this and make it, because I've had a moment there where I was think thinking I might not. Wow. Wow. Wow. And then I did a 20-story well, I did a 20-story wire drop down the side of the Long Beach Hilton, which had no airbag underneath it. So if the wire snaps, you go straight to the concrete.

SPEAKER_07 17:52

That's terrifying. How do you have how do you have a relationship with somebody who's stressing about you every time you go to work? Yeah. Well. Oh my god, I'd be so I'd be like, goodbye, honey. It might be the last time I see you while you go shoot today.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Yeah, well, I didn't have a I didn't have a wife or a girlfriend back then. I was just pretty much my own man. Okay. Made it a bit easier, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_06 18:17

So Okay, next question. What's the worst you were ever hurt doing a stunt? Because it sounds like it was a little bit more the Wild West back then than it is now.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Well, you have to understand everything we did back then was practical. We don't there's no there was no green there was some green screen, but it was always kept to a minimum, and especially working with Jim, you know, he always wanted to have just as much realism as possible. And even and many of those films. So it would have been on it would have been on the film Eraser. I got hit with a three-ton overseas shipping container a hundred feet in the air, and it uh broke my collarbone and my scapula and my top three ribs. The doctor said when I went to the hospital, I I blacked out after they pulled me down. And that when I got to the hospital, the doctor said, You shouldn't be here, I should be viewing you in the morgue.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 19:05

Wow, that's crazy. Well, we're glad you survived it. Well, me too. We're gonna get back to the movie in a second, but since we're we're lucky enough to have you, I do want to ask a few questions about the rest of your experience. So I wanna what is your favorite movie or show that you worked on as a stunt man or actor?

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Well, I think it would have to probably be either True Lies or T2. I I mean I had a uh strange relationship with Jim because you know we were both Canadian. I started out with him on the very first Terminator back when he really had no ego or a minimal anyway. And and so, you know, uh as he progressed along, um, of course, you know, his reputation as a bit of a tyrant grew, but I I never I never, for want of a better word, tolerated that. And and I think, and and you know, and my mom always told me when I first told her I was working with Arnold, she said, just treat him like anybody else, dear. Don't kowtow. And so basically I treated Jim the same way. You know, Jim would say, you know, I I'm not gonna drop too many expletives here, but Jim would have something to say to me, I'd be like, F off, Jim. And the whole crew would look it around and go, Oh my god, he just told Jim to F off. And Jim would just laugh at me and he'd go, Yeah, you too, Peter, whatever. Right? And you know, uh, and so we just, you know, I we had a good rapport. But I think um, you know, my probably my favorite movie I think of working on all of all time would probably be T2. It was a lot of work though. I mean, it was it was brutal every day, especially the scenes like when we got out to the tanker, we got out to the uh steel plant. There was it was it was pretty much six months of just pure beating every day.

SPEAKER_06 20:41

Well, that's one of my favorite movies of all time. It's in my top five, and I and I just told the the story on a on a previous podcast about T2. I was lucky enough to see it in the theater on the first day that it came out, and what was exciting about that is that we didn't know the big the big reveal in that that the bad guy was the good guy, right? And so we were surprised in the theater by that. Nobody else gets to experience that anymore in that film because everybody knows. Yeah. Okay, well, uh for for the rest of you guys, I don't know if if you looked at Peter's IMDB, but I'm just gonna call out a couple of titles that really caught my attention. One is Melvin and Reanimator. We just did that episode, and we love that movie. This yeah, this one's very this one's very personal for me. Baywatch. Tell me what it was like doing Baywatch.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Uh I actually did three episodes of Baywatch, and I did Baywatch Nights the Pilot. Um, it was great because I I got to work with uh uh Greg Barnett, who is the stunt coordinator, and Ronnie Rondell, who is legendary stunt coordinator. Uh, you know, it was it was a fun shoot. I mean, you know, you spent the day on the beach every day. You just you know, it was it doesn't get much better than that to just be out getting paid and being on the beach and hanging out. So it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Sounds pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_06 22:03

Yeah. Sounds sounds amazing. Another one that stood out for me is the A-Team. You were on the original A Team?

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Yes, I was, yeah. Oh, it was uh Mr. T was legendary. He was awesome. Uh, I can't say the same for George Papard. It was still fun to work on.

SPEAKER_06 22:18

That was just a fun show. I mean, it would that's so great. Okay, and then one more. I'm just gonna call out Matthew and Anthony, if you remember in the first. So uh Peter, we're now a hundred episodes deep in this podcast, right? And we never we never thought we'd get this far, but our in our first ten episodes we did red heat.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:36

So that's yeah, I saw that in your IMDP too. That's pretty exciting. Okay, well, let's the this podcast is about true lies. So can you tell us what it was like working on true lies?

SPEAKER_03 22:49

It's interesting because I had uh a bit of a falling out with the stunt coordinator that we had at the time. And so when the movie first started, uh there was some disparity and argument there about what my if I was coming in or not and all of that. And they had already left and gone down to Miami to start shooting. And I was like, Okay, I guess you guys are gonna go up without me. And then all of a sudden my phone rang one morning the next day, I guess, after the day one, and it was Jim Cameron, where the hell are you? And I and I was like, I don't know, you'll have to ask the coordinator, and he says, Okay, there's gonna be a plane ticket for you, and I want you at the airport this evening. So basically that was it. I got down there and we started work. It was, you know, the an epic scale, obviously, with the jets and all of that stuff in it. We were shooting, we were based out of Miami first and then Marathon Key, which we stayed in Marathon Key for almost four months. So yeah, that was a bit of a sort of a you know, you come you come off work and you're staying in a luxury resort, so it doesn't get much better than that. Um and that was the same on Predator as well. But anyway, yeah, you know, and it was it was like there was a lot of big gags in that and a lot of a lot of uh a lot of fun. I mean, I I enjoyed working with Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie Lee's just phenomenal. She's the best. She's got such a huge heart and great sense of humor. Uh, you know, she that small black dress she had on, she kept popping out of it all the time. You know, every every time she did, the people would be staring at her, the crew would just be like you know, goggling. And one day she just pulled the top straight down and stuck it out and said, Everybody, take a look, let's go. And and then pulled and then pulled it back up again and then said, Now let's move on. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 24:39

That's a great story to hear because I think we're all Jamie Lee Curtis fans here. Like she's and and I think this is the height of her power. Is like I I loved her in training places, she's fantastic in that, but this is one of her best roles. She's so good in this.

SPEAKER_05 24:52

Yeah, she had a lot of range in this. She like started off as like the meek housewife, and then at the end she's uh freaking spy. It was really cool. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

She um she's a lot of fun to work with, and you know, and Tom Arnold, there's another uh interesting one to say the least. You know, uh yeah. I I don't know I don't know really what to say about that. I mean she uh he and and Roseanne were a team at that point, right? And we had uh uh when Arnold got his Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque revealed, uh we had a party at the Roosevelt Hotel and uh in the in the room there in the big conference room, Roseanne was there with Tom, and I was like, wow, what a strange combination this is. I mean, just like the weirdest couple you could ever imagine. Yep.

SPEAKER_06 25:39

Well, I I remember Tom Arnold in this film when I saw this movie, I'm like, oh, Tom's funny.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

So this is subjective. This is the first time. There was yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:50

Well, I I have it in the trivia that he uh he auditioned several several times for this role, and as he did his read-through with Arnold, and then as he left, he leaned into James Cameron and said, He's not so big, I can take him. And apparently it made James laugh, and that's why I hired him. Yeah, I could see that. So, Peter, what stunts did you do in this film? What are your your big stunts here?

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Well, as I said, we had a couple of different things going on with myself, and that they brought in another stunt guy, obviously. Um that's why I was uh you know kind of push pushed back at the at the beginning. Um and I've worked with him before. So Bill and I kind of traded places in a few of the scenes here and there. But I did uh and I also I don't know if you noticed anywhere, but I also played the uh a couple of the bad guys in the sequence there when I'm driving the truck uh and it gets rocketed on the freeway. That's actually me driving, speaking and screaming in faux Arabic. And uh, and also I've got like six different costumes on uh in the shootout in the warehouse when Arnold finally breaks free and all hell breaks loose and the trucks take off with the warhead. I'm actually six of those different bad guys that get killed out in the back beside the warehouse. That's so funny. I also did the uh the big explosion rocketing the pickup, rocketing the fuel truck, which was crazy. My and you know, and then running using the flamethrower, which uh Arnold's was just a close-up and with a bit of a flame on it, but I was the one doing the flame, which was shooting 60 feet, and you know, you I was wearing fi uh fire-resistant gloves, but uh my hands still got badly burned even right through those, and my face as well. I wore, I don't know if you noticed it uh, or you probably wouldn't, but I was the first guy ever in the industry to wear a like a rubber latex Mission Impossible mask. We started doing that on Terminator 2. I had never worn it up until that point. So they had this to make me look more like Arnold, it was kind of the sum and the difference of our two faces. Um and so I was wearing that obviously when I was doing the flamethrower stuff, and because it was latex, it just dried right out. But in fact, it did create a barrier for me to keep my forehead from blistering. But yeah, it was it was pretty brutal. And then when we did the explosion, uh, you know, Jim said to me, Jim said to me, uh, we only have one of this uh truck. We only we can only do this once. So I I was sent off. Uh this is like you gotta remember, it's like two in the morning, we're night shooting. Um, and we're in that little bay area which is around the warehouse, and they sent me away for lunch, which you'd call lunch at two o'clock in the morning. So I went to the to the catering truck, which I'd walked about a quarter mile to get to off the set, and I was loading my plate up when suddenly I hear a scream from one of the guys' radio beside me. It's Jim. He's like, Where the hell is Peter Kent? And I just dropped the plate on the ground and ran full tilt all the way back to the to the harbor there. And we had nine cameras set up on that shot. And Jim walked up to me as I was approaching and he said, Where have you been? You've been in Arnold's trailer, just sitting there smoking cigars and acting like a little kid? And I said, I said, Jim, look who's acting like a kid now in front of their crew. And he went up on his toes and I could see his fists clench up, so I just looked at him and I said, Jim, you get one and I get one. And and then he looked at me and he and he and he goes, Okay, Peter, never just just make just do it. And I said, Well, what do you want, Jim? He goes, Harry Tasker is a pro. I want a 10 out of 10 dive. And so that dive in with when I'm take the running takeoff I took, and I knew the hell the explosion was gonna be hellish. And there was chunks of steel flying, I nearly got the back of my head taken off by one of them before I hit the water. And funny enough, that harbor that I splashed into, we'd had it locked off so that any contaminants from the truck or anything would would not go into the environment and they could be skimmed off the water surface. And they also put uh flame bars under the water to make the water look on fire. There was also a giant barracuda trapped in there with me.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

And so when just before I went to do the dive, I checked my landing spot and I looked down, and this huge big flash of silver went by you know, all teeth, and I'm like, okay. I threw a rock at it, it just went away and came back again. I'm like, so I got this to deal with. That's crazy. So I got it in one take. It was uh it was just like getting slapped on the butt by Zeus himself and uh hit the water, and all the parts of the truck were raining down, and we're talking a real truck blown into segments. They literally took that fuel truck, cut it apart with a cutting torch, and then tacked it back together again and filled it with explosives. So literally that whole truck, as you see, just disintegrated. And so, you know, I'm standing, I don't know, hundred yards away. And I told the special effects guy, I go, where and this was the special effects guy I'd worked with a couple of times, so I trusted him. I worked on T2 with him. He was the only guy that I trusted. And I said, Tommy, where's the where's the um where's the cutoff point for this? Where do I need to be? And he said, but he drew a line in the gravel. And I said, Okay, so I can stand here. He's like, yep, but he goes, but you better get the hell out of that spot right away, start running. So I dug in as best I could a couple of foot chalks for myself to get started. And just as soon as I got the countdown, three, two, one action, I just pushed off as quick as I could, got to the edge of the dock, did the freaking jack knife, touch my toes, and boom. And it was done. Amazing, cool. And it was done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

This is fascinating to hear all these details about how the stunts are done.

SPEAKER_06 31:36

I love I love hearing about this because I don't think people watch a movie like this, I don't think they appreciate what goes into it, and especially on the stunt work.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Yeah. And you know that where where he comes down the rope upside down and snaps the guy's neck in the warehouse. That was me coming down the rope, you know, and then as I said, I played the and then of course cut to the wider angle, and I'm in there also playing the bad guy, and then driving the truck, and driving the truck was crazy because we were ripping that, you know, it was a Jim. We had we had a thing where it's called, you know, you're uh you're on call as a stunt person. So if I'm not doubling him, they need a stunt guy for other things, so then I would be pressed into whatever other service was required. And so uh driving that truck, we had uh there's a the truck ahead of me gets hit first, and then I the mine gets hit next. And so uh I have to drive through the flaming remnants of the other truck, and when I did that, I had the camera crew in the back standing with a camera on bungees, you know, filming over my shoulder out that window through the fire and all that, and and I was like, if if anything happens, guys, you know, I'm trying I gotta keep it on track, but we could go off the side of the bridge here into the water, ostensibly, if anything happens, if I hit the curb, because I was totally blinded by this massive sheet of flame in front of me, right? So you just have to just grip the wheel as tight and straight as you could with the steering wheel and just make it through and out the other side. But we did.

SPEAKER_06 33:02

Wow. It's amazing. I have I have one stunt that I I liked in there that I want to ask you about, which is the motorcycle scene, jumping that into a pool. That uh that may not have been you, but did you see how that was done?

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Yeah, it was done on a on a bungee as well. That was um that was a professional bike rider, and I can't remember exactly who it was. And the other thing was funny enough, the guy riding the horse, and I have a lot of horse experience because I grew up on my aunt and uncle's great aunt and uncle's big ranch up in Clinton. And so the where he's riding the horse through the pool of water there and in the fountain, yeah. I was actually uh called on to set to do something else for another unit that we had. And so the guy who did the riding for Arnold in that sequence is actually the owner of the horse. So the horse ran through that water, and as soon as he came out the other side of the pond, he slipped and went down and pitched the rider face first onto the concrete. The guy didn't even get a chance to get his hands up, he took about 20 stitches in the forehead. And I was like, Well, I'm glad that wasn't me.

SPEAKER_06 34:03

Yeah, I heard about that. I I actually have a question for my mom too. She wants to know how that scene was filmed with the horse in the elevator.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

They wrote him in. That's so funny. Yeah. Done. Yeah, though they they um uh I'm trying to remember his name. His last name is James. The stunt the stunt guys, the stunt guy and and yeah, I'm trying to remember their names, but I know the faces. The stunt guy and girl that were standing in the tr in the elevator with with the horse, just in case it freaked out and started kicking people, they put stunt guys in there.

SPEAKER_07 34:32

Yeah, that totally makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Do you remember the horse's name?

SPEAKER_07 34:35

Peter, I was I was uh I was gonna ask actually if you uh had to do training horse. I used to ride when I was a kid, and I was like wondering if you had to learn to ride four movies, but you you grew up riding, which is Yeah, no, I've I've been around horses.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

I've got a big horse tattoo on my arm, which they had to cover all the time with makeup when we did the movies where Arnold's arms where Arnold's arms were revealed. So they used to use what was called Pax Paint, which is uh rubber-based flesh-colored paint, and they'd spray it on there and then it would stay for probably three or four days as opposed to like grease paint that would wipe off. Right. But yeah, no, I've been riding for a long time, and I I there's a couple of movies that I've done uh on my IMDB there where I was actually on horseback. So yeah. That's cool.

SPEAKER_06 35:22

That's cool. That's cool. Well, I mean, I'm I'm gonna transition us into so you know we we have to talk about the movie a little bit on this, um, because it's a discussion podcast. I'm gonna transition us into best parts, and I will say, because we already talked about it, a chase scene on a horse, so good. Like that that was so unique, and I thought that stunt was so good, and even the touch at the top when Arnold was looking like he was gonna go take that jump into the pool with the horse, and the horse stops. So so well written. Guys, what did you like from this movie? Give us your your best parts.

SPEAKER_05 35:55

That that whole horse scene was the best part of the movie for me. I loved it, just so well done. I even looked over at my wife and I said, Yes, if you're watching now, it is a horse chasing a guy, a terrorist on a Kawasaki. It's actually happening.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

That was and then I had one of my favorite quotes, which was make it quick, my horse is getting tired.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

And then uh the Doberman scene in the in the beginning when he's running away and he just turns around and they clank their heads together. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Are two large rubber dobermans.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

Were they rubber? That makes me feel better.

SPEAKER_07 36:28

Yeah, they were. I was so my my husband grew up with two dobermans that look like that. So and I was so glad I let I love in movies when they go back to show you that the dogs are okay. So after he did that, I'm like, no, the dogs, but then they show them get up. I'm like, okay, that's cool.

SPEAKER_05 36:44

Yeah, the whole all the stunts in this movie were awesome. That was my favorite part. They they made it really well done.

SPEAKER_07 36:49

I think mine were the strip tease. Jamie Lee Crittis is so she's just so cool. Like that the whole thing. She's beautiful. Like, she's beautiful, gorgeous. And I also loved so Bill Paxton plays this sort of like trying to win women, but whenever they confront him, he peased himself as like laughing. I'm naval lint!

SPEAKER_06 37:12

That character was so good and such a nice touch. And I I love Bill Paxton generally, but this was a fabulous role.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

I have Bill and Bill, I've been friends with Bill since we he played the punk with the spiked hair in uh the first Terminator. And uh I've known him for a long time. God bless him. I'm so sad when he passed away. That the funny part about the how we met in Terminator was um, you know, Arnold grabs him and throws him backwards, and he just kind of seems to go out of frame, and then the other guy he rips his heart out, etc. But uh Jim said to me, We we need we didn't have much money on the first Terminator, obviously. And we were up at Griffith Park Observatory filming that scene where Arnold arrives, and and Jim wanted Paxton to get flung backwards, and he's like, Peter, I want you to tie a piece of rope, and this is all we had. This wasn't even like great stunt gear. I got a piece of rope from the from the grip truck, tied it around his belt, tied it to the handle of an old hammer, ran it through the the grate of the of the gate behind him, and then went around the corner and myself and another grip. We when Jim called action, we just yanked on that rope as hard as we could on that hammer, and just literally yanked packs and flying backwards. And I don't even know that he had any pads on. I can't remember now, but it it it winded him pretty severe. I was like, I'm sorry, Bill. I said Jim told me to give her.

SPEAKER_07 38:41

No, he was like he's he was such a good actor, he really was. Uh yeah, he he was he was like uh you know, it was a smaller part, but he really made the movie, you know.

SPEAKER_06 38:51

A very small scene that I always remember about this film because it's just so true to real life, the low battery scene.

SPEAKER_09 39:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Oh it's funny because the this young that young kid that played the Arabic guy with the battery with the camera and the battery, he had never done any acting before and he was sort of higher, it was his one line. And he was really nervous on that day where he had to give the a line battery aziz, right? Battery aziz? And and so we as stunt guys, he was going around everybody like, how should I say this? How should I say this? And of course, we as stunt guys were only too happy to tell him to shout it as loud as he could.

SPEAKER_10 39:29

Battery Aziz!

SPEAKER_03 39:31

You know? And and so he took that away and he went in front of camera and screamed it at the top of his lungs, and Jim's like, Cut, cut, what the hell are you doing? You guys are so cruel. We were all rolling on the floor in the background, all the stunned people that were like set him up for that. And he's he's just kind of walleyeing, looking around at us and realizing that he's suddenly been had. And Jim's like, just tone it down about 5,000%.

SPEAKER_07 40:01

I mean, the fact that he was probably really nervous because that was his line. He should have been nervous, probably worked well for him as well. Yeah. Yeah, and what you run out of batteries while like a maniac is trying to do his death to America speech, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:16

And all that stuff we did with the with the concrete and stuff, that was real pouring real concrete. It was crazy. You know, I was like, okay. We just loud. I don't I don't know what they did with that old warehouse at the end of the day, but yeah. Trashed it.

SPEAKER_06 40:31

Interesting. Uh one more scene that I really liked. Uh you got one, Nicole, you want to go?

SPEAKER_01 40:35

I really liked that whole warehouse scene. I liked Helen dropping the gun down the stairs, and it just happens to perfectly kill all of the bad guys.

SPEAKER_06 40:44

Hilarious. So funny. Actually, Helen, like her transformation in this movie, her whole arc I really loved, and not to spoil best lines, but I love the part where she says, Harry, let me handle this.

unknown 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:57

Uh one more best scene I want to call out before we move on is the lamppost scene with Tom Arnold. Guy shooting at him, and he's behind the skinny lamppost. It's like, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, so funny.

SPEAKER_08 41:07

Okay. That's a very funny scene. We have to call out everything with the Harrier jet, though, because that was just fun. And I love the Harrier jet, like when his daughter is on the um the crane and she's like desperate, and then he shows up with the Harrier jet and she's just like, Dad?

SPEAKER_06 41:24

I like when he first takes off in it, and Tom Arnold's saying, like, oh, he knows how to fly. This is fine. Ah, it's just like riding a bike. He's a little rusty.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

He's like running into everything and hitting stuff.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

And you know, we had we had those, we had the Harriers we brought in from the Air Force base down there to fly for us. It was crazy because they flew out over the ocean and and when they flew and when they turned the burners, the afterburners down straight down on the water, it cavitated the water about 40 feet. Wow. You know, it just pushed like the pressure was just mind-blowing, even on the ocean surface. Um, but the the one that Arnold actually jumps into is was a wooden mock-up.

SPEAKER_10 42:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

And it's actually when he takes off the f from the ground, it's actually being picked up by a crane. That's cool.

SPEAKER_08 42:10

Oh. That's fun. That's a very good model, because I did not notice. I mean, I did it didn't think he was actually flying a Harry jet, but I didn't notice it was for the fake. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:20

Um let's let's talk about worst parts. Anthony, I think I know your worst part.

SPEAKER_05 42:26

Oh, is it when Tom Arnold's talking about his daughter?

unknown 42:30

No.

SPEAKER_05 42:31

So I wanted I wanted to punch Tom Arnold right in the mouth. If that like, how can you talk to someone about their daughter like that? I just yeah. That bothered me. That probably put me off the whole movie. That's why I didn't like it as much.

SPEAKER_06 42:41

Oh. Okay. I was gonna say you were gonna say two hours twenty-one minutes were uh our That's a close second.

SPEAKER_05 42:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:48

We we've learned, Peter, our our younger generation here favors 90-minute movies.

SPEAKER_05 42:53

Uh-huh. I can listen to a podcast for four hours. I can't sit and watch a movie for more than 120 minutes. That's my my philosophy.

SPEAKER_06 43:01

My first worst part, misuse of government resources.

SPEAKER_10 43:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 43:05

Oh geez. But I found that hilarious because Well, you work for government, of course you did. It's just normal, Sean. Maybe that's it. But I just the you know, it's an exaggeration on a thing that definitely happens. And it's funny thinking of it as a CIA because they had the nice setup line early in the movie where they talk about like because of the urgency of this and the guy having nukes, we've been given, you know, an unprecedented level of control, right, on some of these things for wiretapping, I think was the specific reference. And then he's just like, Okay, we're going all out on tracking my wife, it's just so ridiculous when the helicopter comes in.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Yeah, my worst part is stalking your wife.

SPEAKER_08 43:48

How about ask her a question? Okay, that was a bit problematic. I mean, to be fair, he did ask her. He asked her directly before he stalked her.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

He could have tried being honest first. I feel like he was lying a lot more.

SPEAKER_06 44:03

I loved how confident he was in his work life and then in his personal life he's so insecure.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 44:10

I think my worst part was that Tom Arnold was in it. He's just not I just I always thought of him as having a career because of who he married. Like I never got his humor or his acting ability. I didn't either, but I liked him.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

He's a buddy of yours or something, Peter, but I just No, no, no. No, not at all. Oh. Okay. And then I mean it was we we always were wondering if he was on some sort of substances on the set because of the just the way he acted all the time. Yeah. Um, like I was looking at the guy going, I'm pretty darn sure, and Arnold would be like, No, no, he's not doing that anymore. He's all clean, and I was like, Okay. That's just who he is. I I side with you, Peter. Yeah, I had I had that I just had that feeling throughout the shoot looking at him. But anyway, it is what it is. Um yeah, it was it was a fun movie to work on. I've you know, I I'm pretty lucky to have had the career that I had with working with Arnold from all through all of those films.

SPEAKER_07 45:07

And uh what's it like being somebody who's been in like so much? Like all these are all memories of my childhood. Do you ever like sit down and go, Holy crap, I did all that? You know?

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Um, it's funny, you know, like you have to I I will say this even to my sons. I say life is like chapters, you know. You go through these uh X chapters, and I went through uh you know 14 of them down there. I I actually wrote a book called Stand or Fall Autobiography of a Stun Band, which I think is out of print now. But I uh devoted a chapter each to each one of the films that I worked on. Oh and try to find it Yeah, you know, I think you might find used copies out there on Amazon, but I don't know that you'll find it's not in print any longer. I might I've been asked to reprint it and I may at some point. I just I don't have a I have a lot on my plate at the moment. So um have you but have you seen have you seen the movie uh Fall Guy yet? I have, yeah, it was good. It was very well done, written by a stunt man.

SPEAKER_07 46:02

Yeah, it was uh we just my husband and I just watched it and we're like it didn't do well, but we're like this it was such a good movie. I thought it was really good.

SPEAKER_06 46:10

I was a fan of the Lee Majors show. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

One of my worst parts was watching watching him walk his dog and he was just yanking on that poor little chihuahua's neck.

SPEAKER_09 46:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Which brings me to one of my best parts, which was Gizmo. I loved Gizmo. Yeah. Any scene with Gizmo was a hit.

SPEAKER_05 46:32

Yeah, he had the scene when she had the dog in her lap or whatever, and then I looked at him like that looks like uh a gremlin. And he's like, hey Gizmo. Oh, that's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

Perfect name. We almost adopted a chihuahua named Gizmo once.

SPEAKER_06 46:44

Let's uh take a quick stop at Favorite Lines. You guys have hit a lot of them already, but what I really liked is when she's uh with the used car salesman and puts her head in his lap, and Tom Arnold just says, Maybe she's sleepy.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah, I I liked when when Arnold was about to be or oh sorry, Harry was about to be tortured, and they said, See if you can guess his specialty, and he said, Hmm, oral hygiene?

SPEAKER_08 47:11

This this movie has a lot of good quotes. I think my personal favorite is uh when he's on the truth sylloom and Helen asks, Have you ever killed anyone? And Harry responds with yeah, but they were all bad. That's my number one favorite line from the movie, Sean. Yeah, good taste.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

I thought you would like I Married Rambo.

SPEAKER_08 47:34

I I also quite liked the uh I'm starting to like this guy, and Harry just stares at him with so much anger, and he's like, We still gotta kill him, that's a given.

SPEAKER_07 47:44

I liked who he takes the ice cube trays out of the freeze.

SPEAKER_06 47:47

Oh, I got the trivia about that. You want to know the trivia on that? That line is in there because it actually happened to Tom Arnold when Roseanne Barr left him. She took the ice cube trays out.

SPEAKER_05 47:55

I was gonna say that's probably what happened.

SPEAKER_06 47:57

It's a real story.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

I love that. Um of my favorite quotes was when he was talking to the horse, he said, Look at me when I'm talking to you. What kind of cop are you?

SPEAKER_06 48:09

Yeah, that's good. Okay, well, uh, I want to transition and tell you guys how this movie did. So, so Peter, there's we're going through a couple of categories here now where I talk about how the movie did in a little bit of trivia and stuff. Obviously, you're you're totally welcome to stay with us on that, but I want to be mindful of your time as well. So we can we can we can cover this stuff without you. We've already got these great stories from you. Guys, do you have any more questions for Peter before we cut him loose and then clean up these categories ourselves?

SPEAKER_07 48:39

No, other than to say thank you for being on.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Are there any stunts that you've never done that you wanted to do? Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_03 48:47

Uh I don't know. I mean, um, it's funny because I had I had all I'd never done really a full fire burn. And then I was a city councilor in Squawish. Oh, from 2014 to 2018. And one of my campaign promises was if I get in and and we get a certain percentage of the vote, I will set myself on fire. And funny enough, we got that. I got in, we got that percentage of the vote. And so I was, you know, bound because I had said I would do it, I will do it. So CTV was there, and uh, you know, the whole deal. Um so we went to the where they shoot where they have the loggers uh sports ground, and we got in there and we set everything up and you know, got the fire suit on and the gel and all of that, and it started to pour rain, pour down, just like biblical rain. And so, you know, we had probably 200 people waiting outside in the pouring rain to watch. And they they had the cameras all set up. The camera crew had been there from a couple of different news outlets for quite a while. So they lit me on fire, and I'm staggering towards the the you know, and it was a it was a decent full burn from but only lasted for probably 30 seconds because of the amount of rain coming down. And funny enough, my the my wife opened my her the umbrella that she had and put it right in front of the camera of CTV. Thus blocked that the perfect spot that they had set up in and waited for all day thus blocking their shot completely. The guy was absolutely furious. We had to keep he he got one of the other news outlets to give him the footage, but oh man. That's so tiny. Well, thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_06 50:31

Peter, so I know you thanks for being I know you're a realtor now on the island, and we got a lot of people on the island listening to this. Do you wanna do you want to plug yourself? Where can people find you?

SPEAKER_03 50:38

Well, you can find me at kentrealestate.ca and I appreciate you bringing that up. I've lived in Qualicum Beach here for for uh 10 years now almost. I love it here, but I service the entire island literally from tip to tip now from from Euculet. I've sold properties up there all the way to Victoria. So I'm I cover a little bit of everything. I'm residential sales and I really enjoy working with people. I think I had a bad experience when I sold my place in Squamish and we left there with my realtor, and I swore I would never be like that guy. So I'm I'm very much into communication and to speaking to my clients on a regular basis so they know what's going on. Because I think you know it's the biggest purchase and investment in your life, and so um, you know, you want to know what's happening with it. And so I try to be the guy that's always there for my clients and reach out to them as much as I can.

SPEAKER_07 51:26

Listen, Olin's always trying to get my husband and I to move move to the island. So when we do, I'll hit you up. Please do. Yappy down.

SPEAKER_06 51:34

The rest of us were 80% islanders here of the of this cast. Peter, thanks so much for joining us. You know, it's so exciting to hear what went on behind the scenes. Your career is fascinating. You must be very, very proud of your career. I'll love some of those titles. I could probably talk to you for about six hours straight on your IMDB. But uh I I just want to say that I really appreciate you taking the time to support our our little family podcast here.

SPEAKER_03 51:59

Well, thank you for having me on. I appreciate you being uh, you know, putting it out there and asking me. Great.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

That was really awesome. Thanks for doing that. It was really insight, Peter.

SPEAKER_06 52:09

You're more than welcome. Sure, it's great. Thanks, Peter. Bye.

SPEAKER_08 52:12

Very cool person.

SPEAKER_06 52:14

I I gotta tell you, I love hearing behind the scenes of these movies. Like the ones that we did, uh, you know, the Jumanji episode and the one with the editor.

SPEAKER_07 52:23

I didn't realize that. Um there's actually real danger involved. Oh my god. So much. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Like I knew there was I can't believe that he was just like, yeah, I'll do stunts. I don't have any experience or know what I'm doing. That's so dangerous.

SPEAKER_08 52:37

When you have nothing, you want anything. I what I found the most interesting was which stunts were dangerous because you know, the explosion and the diving into the water, I assumed that was extremely dangerous. The just using a flamethrower didn't dawn on me at all. That one would be dangerous. The the driving through a wall of fire, I just assumed you drived through the fire. Like I didn't think much of it.

SPEAKER_06 53:00

And the diving in the water, I just thought they would have just thrown some s some debris in the way. I didn't realize they actually blew up a truck. That's insane.

SPEAKER_05 53:10

Yeah, that was cool. They cut it up and pieced it back together.

SPEAKER_06 53:14

So let's get through the regular categories for our listeners here. So, ranking according to box office mojo worldwide. I can't believe this movie wasn't number one, but true lies was the third biggest earner at the box office in 1984. This is the year of the Lion King. So that was the biggest earner at the box office this year, with six times the earnings of True Lies, and was also beat by Forrest Gump, which I think is a bit of a crime, but anyhow. However, True Lies beat out everything else this year, including speed and pulp fiction. So it was a it was a banger. Schindler's List was the Oscar winner this year, and although Schindler's is a fine film, True Lies is way more fun. And this is where it gets interesting. Budget $115 million. That lines up. So uh Terminator 2 was Cameron's first movie over 100 million, and then this one was 115 million. What do you think it did at the box office? Uh 300. Fall hundred two hundred and thirty.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

I like whoever said three hundred.

SPEAKER_06 54:16

I did. Sean, you were closest. 378. Boom. Nice profit. James Cameron, by the way, the internet says that he's ranked number one all time in box office, so he's the highest earning uh director. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_08 54:29

So many good movies.

SPEAKER_06 54:31

Only one award came out of this. Jamie Lee Curtis won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy for this. You know, if anyone was gonna win something, I'm glad it's her from this movie. Oh god, she was so good. Okay, Rotten Tomatoes, though. Are are critics snobs or do they appreciate a movie like this? And how much did the audience really like it? What do you guys think?

SPEAKER_07 54:52

Critics gave it like a 60, and the audience gave it 72.

SPEAKER_08 54:57

I'm gonna go with uh critics uh 70 and audience 76.

SPEAKER_04 55:04

I think critics uh 78, audience 87.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

I'll go 75 across the board.

SPEAKER_06 55:16

You guys were very, very good on this. Actually, for once Matthew was the stinker here. So critics rub it in critics 77% of critics said this movie was good, and 76% of audience. So Sean. Yeah. Matthew had a 21.

SPEAKER_07 55:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 55:35

Uh Anthony had a 12. Sean, you nailed the audience. Too bad there's not a reward for getting it on the button because you got the audience right on the button. You had a total score of a seven, and Nicole had a three.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Is this my best score?

SPEAKER_05 55:48

Imagine scoring a seven and not winning. That's crazy good performance.

SPEAKER_08 55:52

Crazy good. I am Imagine scoring a seven but having one right. So I had the other one.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

I'm never letting this go. Browning jewel.

SPEAKER_06 56:02

If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, Terminator and Terminator 2 are Arnold's highest ranked movies by critics. And True Lies is his fourth highest ranked film.

SPEAKER_08 56:12

Wow. Yeah. I mean, honestly, this is one of those few times where I feel like those ratings are pretty much accurate. Yeah, I think it's a both movie. I love this movie, but it's not it's not perfect.

SPEAKER_06 56:23

No, it's it's not. And in fact, Sean, my one feeling watching this, I love this movie. I do love this movie, but my one thought looking at it is I go, oh, it's aged a little. Like it's not quite what it didn't 100% live up to what it was for me before.

SPEAKER_07 56:39

But it's it's also it's also oddly like it's just such an enjoyable film that the fact that it's not like perfect is just for me okay. Weirdly. Like sometimes I just think a movie that I don't have to overanalyze, I can just sit down and sit down and enjoy it, and that's what I felt like with this movie.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

I really I liked everything about it other than the lying to and tricking your wife part. Like he was he was torturing her.

SPEAKER_07 57:04

Oh, can we talk marriage? Can we talk Woker joke for a second? Okay. So I so okay. It's really interesting how the women in the film are portrayed. Like this is like 90s strong woman versus what it would be now, right? So the baddie woman who gets slapped twice by that guy, like the women were still kind of defined by the men that they are married to or working with. And it was at the time it was like very like, ooh, strong woman 90s, but now it's just sort of like like that woman getting slapped twice really bothered me. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 57:44

I agree with that. Interesting. But the um I I think it is worth a little bit of discussing the um the back and forth line too, because I actually think in some ways that's some of the most interesting part of the movie. Um is that dynamic because both sides I I my wife and I were talking about this afterwards because we we both thought you know, we we knew about that scene coming in, and we both thought we would hate it, and we both kind of didn't really have an issue with it. And I think it's because both sides were wrong, and the movie didn't pretend like people were right in their actions. So, you know, the the wife was cheating, or you know, like it seemed like it and kind of was emotionally cheating at the very least. He was absencees, they were both problem, you know, like they they were not good together at that point, and the movie at no point was like what you're doing stalking her is okay. It was very clear that it wasn't okay, right? The you know, it was just a a person in pain who clearly loved his wife, even though he wasn't there for her. And the end thing was interesting to me because it is, I think the classic going about things wrong. I think Harry was trying to give her what she wanted and what she was going to Simon's character for. And I don't think he went about it well. And it was a terrible idea, but I I can see, I mean, other than taking away the extremeness of movies and the CIA powers and all that, I can see a real human being trying to do right that way and doing it completely wrong.

SPEAKER_07 59:27

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 59:28

Which is what I saw there.

SPEAKER_07 59:29

Yeah, it's and I that's a really good point, Sean, because like in the end, I think the movie was less about spies and more about the relationship. Absolutely. Yes. And and you know, I not not to be a sob story. Um when I was young, my father wasn't a great provider. So one thing I realized I had a discussion with my husband at one point in time was like, even though it's just the two of us and then we don't have kids and stuff, I have this like innate, this very strong, innate I need to be the provider in the relationship that comes out of that. And you get so caught up in your work and trying to provide that you th that you think you're doing what's right for the fam, but in fact, it's just a misalignment of understanding of what's needed at the time. And I think a little bit of that happened as well, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:16

You know, you you make a great point, Matthew. It's always been a pet peeve of mine when you know movies portray the husband that's away at work all the time and too attached to his work as as being the bad guy, and we know it's not healthy, but at the same time, you know, uh, usually they're trying to provide. So, you know, I've I've been lucky that everybody in my life is understood. Like if I'm not there for everything, I'm trying to provide for the whole family. So yeah, that was uh Sean. Very interesting points that you bring up. And and by the way, think thinking about all of that Jamie Lee stuff, just uh our a really favorite moment that I didn't even write down is I just love when she's being interrogated, and then she just flips and starts smashing the stool into the into the glass. Yep, yeah, that was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

She's just the best. We gotta get her on here.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:02

She's she's beautiful, she's a great actress. She seems like she well, from hearing Peter Kent, sounds like she's as lovely in person as she is on screen. And she just, you know, she brings you in. I I think this cast is great. You know, another one I I I skipped for for brevity, but you know, in best parts is Arnold's stare, like when he gives you that evil eyebrow lift. Like he communicates so much with just his face. He's great too.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:28

He's better at communicating with his face than his mouth, I think.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:31

I think so. I had an interesting thing with this movie where there were multiple points where I'm like, oh, Arnold is a way better actor than I thought, and also moments where I'm like, maybe he isn't. And I realized he's really bad at the like trying to act happy with a family. But he's really good at like a lot of the face emotional acting in a lot of those scenes. And I gotta admit, I did something I I I went against the the plan with this uh one a little bit because I actually really did enjoy this movie, and so I did read a little bit of trivia, and I don't know if these two are on your list, but you know, Matthew, you mentioned your favorite uh scene being the strip tees, and I saw two pieces of trivia in that that I love and I want to make sure get shared because they're so funny to me. One is Harry dropping the tape recorder was not scripted, he actually dropped it accidentally, and it was kept in. That's great. And the other is Jamie Lee Curtis when she she falls during the striptease. That was her idea, and she didn't tell Arnold. She told James, but not Arnold. So Arnold getting up to help her was Arnold actually getting up to help her because he thought she really did fall.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:46

That's nice.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:47

That's that's so cool. I like that. I thought those are both really fun.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:51

Those are great. Before we get to more of the trivia, I just quickly want to ask you guys what's your favorite Arnie film?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:56

T2. But that's kind of dunno. Feels like it's cheating.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:02

I'm with you. I'm with you. T2.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

It's I've never seen that, I think. No, maybe.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:06

It's hard to say. I mean, you've got Terminator, Predator, Conan, Running Man, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Eraser, Heat. Like, there's so many to pick from.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:14

Yeah, Predator was all. I love Tim and Predator. Yeah, Predator's probably his best fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Um I think his his best one that I've seen is probably this one, but my favorite one is Running Man because it's like funny bad.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:26

Oh, yeah, that's it's great.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:28

Yeah, I think Running Man is funny bad. I like that. Um and I think that I kind of like them in twins. So bad.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:40

I I feel like one of the best things about Arnold as an actor is if you go to an Arnold movie, you know you're gonna get one of two things: a genuinely awesome movie or a hilarious bad movie. Yeah, cheese, right? Like either way, you're having a good time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:57

Agreed. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:58

Fair point.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:59

Okay, a couple of trivia points for you guys. It took Arnold six months to learn the tango.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:05

Okay, can we talk? Can we talk about the tango? So the tango, actually, they I was watching. I like I love watching dance, right? I I can't dance, but I love watching dance, uh, dance competitions, ballet. They were actually not doing too badly, and Jamie Lecritus was great at it. Way better than the first woman that he tangos with. And I thought it was very it was the right choice. It takes two to tango for the movie, for the the the the whole line of a relationship, right? You know, that takes two to tango, it takes two to to do it. So I thought that was brilliant that they put specifically the tango in there. I didn't catch that. I love that though.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

I do like that as well. Matthew, you should come visit and come dancing with me. I go dancing on Tuesdays.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:50

I will. After Steve, like we're you know, Steve's not I told uh Olin after Stevie goes away to little Stevie Heaven and Justin and I are gonna come out and visit you guys. Great. Sweet.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:03

Okay, I'm gonna keep moving this along. All three actors, all three lead actors call this one of the best movie experiences of their careers. Uh Woker Joe. Nicole. Would you like to take this one?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:15

Lying to your wife and assaulting her. Because kissing her when she thinks you're a stranger is an assault.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:22

Yeah. I I had a variation of that. Making your wife strip for a bad guy, or so she thought it was a bad guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

No, he from his perspective, it's just him and his wife. From her perspective, she's being manipulated and assaulted by a stranger.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:35

You do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

No, I love that she did that. And I actually love that she was really mad at him and not going to forgive him for all the lying. Because I was worried that she would just be like, Oh, my husband, I love him. But no, she was rightfully pissed.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:50

Yeah. Well, how were we? I asked I asked Justin, I'm like, what would you do if you found out that like all these jobs I've had is just a front and I'm actually a spy? He's like, you have such a big mouth, he's he's like, I would be completely shocked.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:07

I wouldn't believe it. That's funny. I always think that is one of the most interesting, like how do you navigate that if you do a job like what he does? Because at what point it's one of those things where you can't tell people until you're a thousand percent sure. But also by the time you're a thousand percent sure, you're almost too deep in the lie, and also you lie for a living, so it's probably so naturally it's just so one of those ones where it would be really hard to figure out how to handle that as a responsible person. You can't tell on the first date, probably can't even tell. Like, think how many relationships die after a year, right? So when when can you actually reveal that? It's a really rough one, right? Or can you 17 years?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

I think by the time you've been married for over a decade and you have a child, maybe maybe a good time to mention it.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:03

No, I think if you're a spy, you you you you have to you gotta go whole hog. You can love the person, but you can't tell them raw hog.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:11

You could at least tell a similar job, like I work for the government.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:15

Nope. Where's your dedication to your country? Sean works for the government.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:19

And he's get him!

SPEAKER_07 1:07:21

Sean's a spy.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:22

Okay. However, you guys felt about this movie, I promise you there's others who liked it more or less than you. For this movie, there were 105 10-star reviews out of 508 total. So I kept it really brief, just picked a couple I liked. This movie is both the best action movie and the best marriage movie of all times. Great. Next one's similar. It says this movie mixes marriage counseling with terrorism and it works.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Interesting.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:48

It is kind of is that that marriage would not have survived if they hadn't been the true serum incident.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:55

A midlife crisis with missiles.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:58

That's fun.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:59

That describes it well. And then the last one: a horse chased through a hotel into an elevator. 10 out of 10, no notes.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:06

I hope the horse was okay. Kind of tough.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:09

I love that horse.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:11

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

The horse and gizmo were my favorite parts.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:14

Good old Gizmo. Now we hear from people who liked it less, and there were only 14 people who gave this movie a one-star review. The biggest complaints were the misogyny and the overenthusiastic U.S. patriotism. So Conan the Cribber said, I hated this movie from start to finish. I thought the humiliation of his wife was atrocious. What a double standard. He's been lying to her for 20 years, and she has coffee with another guy. So she has to sleep with a foreign agent to make up for it.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:41

Yeah, it that there's a little there was a little bit of uh ooh to that point, if I'm honest, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:08:47

Like and so a reviewer called Potosa, I think he might be pervert, uh, he calls it the worst film ever made. Says, check your IQ, and if it has a value below zero, you should see it. If your IQ what's below zero? Can you have a negative IQ?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:03

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:04

I think you're dead if you have a negative IQ.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:07

Yeah, hilarious.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:08

And then someone called Betty Davis says Jamie Lee Curtis with nude scene is really stupid. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a bad actor in this, and the director is the dumbest in the world. He thinks that's a nude scene. There was no nude scene, so I just read them, Sean. I don't edit them. Uh Siskel and Eber.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:28

Can we can we just sorry just for a second? Jamie Lee Curtis. You know, she's done a few nude scenes in movies across all the years. And like Jamie Lee Curtis feels like she was always so ahead of her time because she always in all the movies where she does it, she feels like she has her own agency and she's should she like and what Peter's telling us about how she just like pulled down her shirt to show it off. It's like, okay, let's move on. She's just so in control of herself, which I love, you know?

SPEAKER_06 1:09:58

It's great. She's got a confidence that's attractive. Yeah. Siskel and Eber. So Ebert said the movie has stunts and special effects like he's rarely seen before. He called out Tom Arnold as a surprisingly good sidekick.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:11

He said that the ending action scenes were amazing. However, it wasn't all praise. He called out the infidelity storyline as cruel, not funny, and said it slowed the movie down.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:21

I agree.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:21

Totally agree. Yeah, it kind of did.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:24

Felt like there was like three movies pushed into one.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:26

It was a lot of people. Yeah, they could have done it. They could have brought her in and the relationship in a little bit differently than an infidel the infidelity thing, you know?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:35

Well, Ebert gave it a thumbs up. Siskel, on the other hand, was very angry about both Jamie Lee and Bill Paxton's storylines calling them deadly boring and stupid. He gives it a thumbs down.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:46

I totally agree. Just so much fluff. I don't. I was almost confused at one point. Like, is she actually a spy? Is he really a spy? What are we what is this whole storyline that they've pushed in the middle of this? Like, oh, he's just a scumbag. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:00

Do you guys think this movie deserves a remake or a sequel?

SPEAKER_07 1:11:04

You know what? I'd like to see it remade, but role reversal. The the women, uh the the Jamie Lee Curtis character, the that the Arnold Schwartz night character is like a woman, and and I said this to my husband, and he's like, Yeah, then you just have Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:22

Yeah, that's basically what it is. I I mean I I think that's the point, right? The remaking this, it's a good I enjoyed it, and I think you could actually make it better. Like I think you could clean up a lot of a lot of the things that did not age well, but at the same time, the plot, you don't need to remake it to do that. You can just make a movie that tells similar stories.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:48

Well it was so successful you would think it had a sequel, but it didn't. But a sequel was planned quite quickly to follow this, but it was scrapped because of 9-11. James Cameron said that in this day and age, terrorism just isn't funny anymore.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:02

I did have a feeling near the end, I forgot to write it down, but I remember now that I felt like they were at the end they were trying to push this as like a sequel, like they would be a team together.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:13

I mean, it would have been a great sequel.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:15

Yeah, I would I probably would have liked that a little bit more, but then again, like Matthew said, it's just a movie that's been made again. We've seen it.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:22

Okay, well, we are at the end of this uh long episode, but it was so fun having Peter on. Uh is this movie too old or pure gold?

SPEAKER_07 1:12:30

I think it's an ease, easy watching pure gold. Not not like Fez Fesbian high art pure gold, but I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:38

I just I I r it was one of my favorites from my youth, so I call it pure gold.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

I'm conflicted because I really liked it, and after I watched it, I thought pure gold, but then the more I talk about the details of the things I didn't like, I realize how poorly they aged and how much they bothered me. So I'm kind of thinking maybe maybe too old, even though I liked it.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:58

Okay, that's a fair assessment. That's that's fair.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:01

I think it was too old. Oh, well, it's not too old, but it's it didn't do anything for me. I did not enjoy it. There was some some really funny parts and some good scenes, action scenes mostly, but the movie on the whole, I would never watch it again.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:14

I think it's pure gold. It is not a perfect movie, but it is a fun movie that I I really enjoyed watching again, and I think this is a really good I I think one of the things that's important for movies that are in the pure gold category is they they capture a a time and a place, and I think this movie does, right? It it captures a a tone and a style that I I think it's imp I think it's something that would be worth people checking out.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:45

Okay, I I actually have a couple more questions. Sean. Government workers using taxpayer money to get a hrier jet, too old or pure gold?

SPEAKER_08 1:13:55

Pure gold. If if I could gain access to a harrier jet, I would I probably no. The sad truth is it's something that really happens, so you can't hide from those.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:06

And now I just want to ask you guys getting Peter Kent on, what did you think? Incredible.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:11

I love those stories of the behind the scenes and yeah, he was just I could listen to stories like that from him all day. Agreed. Me too.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:20

Me too. I'd love to see if you could get him on again to do another one of his bigger movies that he was in.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:25

Yeah, I'd love to. We'll we'll see. We'll get this one out and we'll see if he's willing to do it again. I'd love to have him back on too, because I think more and more stories are gonna come out.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:33

And he's a Qualicum Beach guy, you could come and do it live in the studio. True.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:37

I also I I I also like B, uh Canadian boy done well, right, which is cool. And and C, uh I also like what he was saying about what he tells his sons about stages of life and different things, and you know, because he's doing different things now, but it's he seems to have a real head on his shoulders, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:56

And I I love his tenacity. Like, I mean, he was successful because he just went out and and pushed for it.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:02

And I think he's a bit of a I'd I buy house from him. Yeah, yeah. I think he's a bit of a trendsetter, too, with the whole setting yourself on fire if you want to become a politician. I think yeah, that's awesome. That should be yeah, that should be a thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:14

More people should do that, agreed. More politicians should set themselves on fire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:20

Guys, thanks for doing this one. Thanks for bringing the energy. Uh, I am over the moon about being able to do this one. This is what the podcast was made for, right? Yeah, that was a great episode. Good good discussion. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day. Thanks, everyone.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:34

See you guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:13

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