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Big Trouble in Little China

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About This Episode

Martial arts. Ancient sorcerers. Monsters. Kurt Russell driving a big rig. Somehow, Big Trouble in Little China managed to cram all of that into one unforgettable movie. This time, we’re revisiting John Carpenter’s cult classic and discussing why Gen X fans still can’t get enough of Jack Burton and the Pork-Chop Express. From its endlessly quotable dialogue to its unique blend of action, comedy, fantasy, and horror, we’ll explore what makes this one of the most beloved cult films of the 1980s.

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(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

Transcript

Jon Welcome back, Gen X Grown Up Podcast listener to this backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. I’m John. Joining me as always, of course, my buddy George. Hey, man.
George Hey, how’s it going, everybody?
Jon Good, you know it’s not a show without Mo, hey Mo.
Mo Hey, it going?
Jon It’s going all right. So martial arts, ancient sorcerers, monsters, Kurt Russell driving a big rig, somehow, Big Trouble and Little China managed to cram all of that into one unforgettable movie.
Mo is
Jon This time we’re revisiting John Carpenter’s cult classic and discussing why Gen X fans still can’t get enough of Jack Burton and the Pork Chop Express. from its endlessly quotable dialogue to its unique blend of action, comedy, fantasy, and horror, we’ll explain what makes this one of the most beloved cult films of the 1980s. And if you heard our last episode, you heard us saying that it’s going to be all we can do to contain this episode into the hour that we try to target it for.
Jon We have a lot of notes, a lot of thoughts, and I think a lot of us are huge fans of this movie, which we’ll talk all about in a moment.
Mo see
Jon But before we get to that, it’s time for our fourth listener email. Fourth listener this time around is Dustin F. Listen up close. The subject line of the email is Mad Max and George.
George Okay.
Mo there’s a hill is a hill someone’s dying on laughing
George ah
Jon Here’s another one. So here we go, George. Dustin says, George is the best part of Gen X grown up. We can all agree.
George I’m getting set up.
Jon Having said that, I recently heard an episode in which he said that Mad Max Fury Road was less than spectacular.
George Yeah, here it goes.
George Yep.
Jon Surely he was trolling because Fury Road is more than spectacular. ah
Jon No rebuttal? No?
George I mean, what’s the point of rebutting?
Jon Just let it go. Okay.
George You know, it’s one of those things where we’re going to have a difference of opinion that’s so wide a gap you could put the Grand Canyon in between it.
Jon Okay.
George It’s…
Mo yeah And weirdly enough, this is something I actually agree with George on.
George It’s not…
George Yeah, it’s not that it’s a horrible film.
Jon There you go.
Mo yeah
Jon There you go.
George I’m not saying that. I mean, it’s a Mad Max movie, so I’m going to like it, but…
Jon But less than spectacular. Yeah. Yep.
George It is not spectacular. It is a more modern version.
Jon Okay.
George They did they had new shiny video effects and car crashes, but it was a meandering plotline at best.
Jon There you go.
Mo she she she she
Jon There you go, Dustin. So he wraps it up by saying, he’s still my favorite, but now I have to question each of his opinions, Dustin.
Mo There you go.
George Eh, that’s fair.
Mo Which is always it was just a good thing to do just ah by habit, you know.
Jon That’s, you know, just, yeah, do do your do your own math. Do your own research. Yeah, you got double check what George says. You never know where he’s coming from. so
George Yeah, at halftime, i don’t even know what the hell I’m saying.
Jon thanks Oh, no. Thank you, Dustin, for writing in. We can all agree George is the best part of Gen X grown up. Yes, just maybe we don’t all agree on Fury Road. That’s all it is.
Jon We’d love that you wrote in. We’d love that you listened. Thank you so much for that. Fourth listener, if you would like your email featured here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. Just fire off an email to podcast at genxgrownup.com or read every single one. And most of them will eventually make their way into an episode.
Jon Okay. With that good business behind us, it is time to find a way to encapsulate Big Trouble in Little China in a single backtrack. We’re going to try right after this.
George I don’t think there’s any doubt that the three of us have been greatly looking forward to talking about this movie.
George So it’s time to dig in. And we always like to start movie podcasts with the synopsis of the movie as if you need it.
Jon Yep.
Mo David.
George If you’re listening to a Gen X grownup podcast, Big Trouble in Little China follows Jack Burton. Wisecracking truck driver extraordinaire gets pulled into a bizarre adventure.
George San Francisco’s Chinatown when his friend’s fiance is kidnapped. By a gang, of course. Jack helps track her down, stumbles into a hidden world of rival gangs, ancient magic, powerful sorcerer named Lopan, David Pan.
George David Lopan.
Mo david
George Oh my goodness. Yeah, David, that was the part that always got me.
Mo yeah
George He actually needs a green-eyed woman to break a centuries-old curse.
Jon which
George Jack teams up with his friend Wang and a handful of other quirky allies to fight through the supernatural warriors, mystical traps to reach Lopan’s underground lair and save the day.
Mo Yeah, that’s pretty much the movie.
Jon i
George That’s pretty much it. We don’t have to go any further. That’s the whole thing.
Jon ah I was grinning straight through every plot point you mentioned there, imagining some scene that I just watched.
Mo he
Jon Right.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon So look, so this is like so many things we’ve been talking about lately, 40 years old. July 2nd, 1986 is when it was released to theaters, right?
Jon And I don’t think there’s any surprise that we all enjoy this film. But when we do a film like this, I like to do a quick round table and find out what’s your familiarity relationship with this film.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon And why don’t we start with you, George? You know, it’s, I think it’s, we all know the answer, but what’s what’s your relationship to this film?
George ah Yeah, so it’s a it’s a triple for me on this movie. This movie is one of those movies that I i force myself…
Jon Hmm.
George Don’t force myself. I schedule to watch three times a year. Every year since I’ve been able to have either a VHS or a DVD or streaming services, i have watched this movie three times every single year because I love…
Jon Okay. Mm
Mo Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jon hmm.
George John Carpenter, anytime he’s going to team up with this crew that he brings, because it’s not just Kurt Russell. he always you know What he does with Kurt Russell is great, but a lot of the people that we’re going to talk about when we get into the cast section later on, he brings on a lot of his films. It’s not unlike a lot of directors like Judd Apatow or Kevin Smith.
George They get familiar and comfortable with a group of people and they like to bring them along with everything they do. And sometimes they even write roles for those people. So I watch this one three times a year.
George I think my favorite experience with this film, though, has to have been a couple of years ago, right before the pandemic, um I got to take my son to a local, small art house theater place that shows old films all the time in a little cramp theater. They had a John Carpenter night, and Big Trouble in Little China was on the bill along with the thing.
George So…
Jon Oh, no. Oh, wow.
Mo Oh, two good movies. Oh, what a double feature.
Jon Wow.
George Oh yeah, no, it was it was a great double feature.
Jon Wow.
Mo Holy cow.
George and Big Trouble in Little China, I mean, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George it’s a It’s hard to say which one of those two was better because they’re both so damn good in their own right.
Mo Yeah. And very different.
Jon And very different in tone, but both great in their own genres.
Mo Mm hmm.
George Mmm.
Jon Yeah.
George Yep.
Jon Oh, goodness. All right, Mo, how about you? What’s your relationship with Big Trouble?
Mo Yeah, this movie, actually, i particularly remember because was the first time in my life I went to movies by myself was to see this movie.
Jon Oh, neat.
George Mmm, okay.
Jon Yeah.
Mo You know, I mean, I was like 19. I never had seen a movie by myself, came out of it and realized I hate seeing movies by myself and I’ve never done it. I’ve never done it again.
Jon Never again. Really?
Mo Never again, because i’m like, to me, the fun of going to a movie is talking the person afterwards. What do you think? good are the Getting comments, you know, and leaving a theater and having nobody.
Jon Okay.
George Sure, yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo you know, and this is pre phones, pre texting, pre everything, you know, I came home and then by time you get home, it’s like, um I really want to talk, you know, you can’t really talk about someone who hasn’t seen the movie.
George That’s a tough one on this movie, yeah.
Mo So, but, but I, I was going to, as an experiment, I was like, I’m going to go see this by myself because nobody else wanted to go.
Jon Right. Yeah.
Mo And I did.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo And I loved the movie. Hated the after movie party, which didn’t occur.
Jon And this movie coming out of it, you want to talk about stuff.
Mo Oh yeah. There’s so much to talk about.
George Yeah.
Jon It’s not like coming out of a so-so movie that had three plot points, right?
Mo Yeah.
Jon This is like, I need to so discuss this.
Mo Oh.
Jon Yeah, man. So coming out in 86, I don’t think I ever saw it in the theater, right? So you were a little bit older than us, but I mean, I was, what was I? 15, 16 or whatever. I was a junior in high school.
Jon This is definitely a VHS rental. I discovered this. so the box cover is a guy driving a big rig. Everybody in my family drove a big rig.
Jon Plus it’s Kurt Russell and i’m John Carpenter. i’m like, it ought to be okay. And I remember, I remember renting it. I remember looking at it on the shelf and going, cause I passed it by several times, not knowing what it was.
Mo Mm hmm.
Jon And then, Of course, then then you rent it again every three months because you’re like, well, nothing else to see. Let’s watch that again because it’s kind of a everything movie, right?
Jon It’s got fantasy and science fiction and adventure and and ninjas and and comedy and drama and love.
Mo Comedy.
Jon and There’s lot of movies that try to do all that or if they try, they don’t do it well. So it’s kind of one of those rare unicorns of a movie. So yeah, VHS rental for me.
Mo Yeah.
Jon So, all right.
Mo Wow.
Jon We… we Where do you go from there? you said, George, you there. We love it. End of podcast.
Mo Yeah.
Jon But we did dig up some interesting nuggets about the origins of this film. Mo, what did you find out?
Mo One of the things that this was based on a script that was supposed to be a Western, you know, an 1890s Western and Jack Burton was supposed to be a cowboy looking for his lost horse and of all things.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yeah.
George Yep.
Mo And then that evolved into his truck, which is the Park Chop Express, you know, which is the best name ever for a truck.
Jon e
George Yes, it is.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yep. ahll We’ll talk a little bit more about this later, later in the, and in the show. But ah I learned from the guy who wrote, I didn’t speak with him, but I learned about the guy who wrote the ah original screenplay that when they moved it to a contemporary timeframe, which at that point was the eighties, right?
Jon Not 22 thousands, but it wasn’t originally didn’t have that, that vein of comedy running through it.
Mo Hmm.
Jon But apparently he found that when you brought it to modern day, people would be so critical, of the people in the movie would be so critical and in disbelief of everything that he had to layer that comedy in there to make it believable.
Jon And so it kind of changed genres as it changed years when they moved from a Western, which I thought was interesting.
Mo That’s interesting.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned the yeah the box cover that you see the Pork Chop Express, which, by the way, has there ever been a better name for a big rig in any movie ever?
Mo I know. That’s… He’s driving.
Jon I don’t think so. No, I don’t think so.
George Nope. nope
Jon George definitively. No, fixed.
Mo Yeah.
Jon OK, but so Kurt Russell actually learned how to drive a big rig.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon for for filming this movie. And i can’t I guess there’s so many scenes where he’s in the truck.
Mo he’s driving
Jon you know I imagine him like driving down that narrow, narrow alley and the stacks are smacking the signs because it’s so narrow and all the the guys are coming out to the to fight in the alley.
Mo yeah
Jon But apparently it wasn’t a stunt driver. It wasn’t him figuring out how to do that. And when I learned that, only recently I learned that because I mentioned my reason I initially saw the box cover was because my dad was a long haul truck driver. My uncle was. My brother became a long haul truck driver. It’s just kind of in our blood. And so to know that Kurt Russell actually became not a truck driver, he became a licensed vi truck operator to do this.
Jon That just adds an extra layer of, of course they did. Why wouldn’t they? But I like that about it.
Mo Yeah.
George I mean, I would say Carpenter is known for getting the best out of his actors. So that’s one example. And when they put this in front of the first test screening audiences, it was crazy, overwhelmingly positive.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George The reviews from those test audiences, they were like, holy crap, this is the greatest thing ever.
Mo I could, of course it was.
Jon I can imagine.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George And, you we echo that sentiment today, as we’re saying, but… They’re not the reason oftentimes when a movie is successful or not successful, it’s usually due to the studio’s promotion and timing of the release of that film.
George And unfortunately, 20th Century Fox decided to take a shit all over this movie, barely put any effort into marketing promoting the movie.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George It ended up bombing, so to speak, at the box office, even though we don’t think of it like that now. I mean, to us, it’s one of the best movies of that time period.
Mo Yeah. Mm-hmm.
George But to think, we’ll get into the numbers a little bit later, just that this movie at at least one point in its lifetime was considered to be a flop.
Jon oh Oh, that hurts my heart.
George That’s kind of heartbreaking, really, when you think about it, because this is one of those Carpenter films that, you know, Escape from New York, The Thing, all of the, you know, Halloween, you think about
Mo yeah
Jon Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George Carpenter is so good at getting so much out of so little. You would think that a studio at that point in his career would have recognized, hey, this guy can make a good film. We just need to prop it up the right way.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George They couldn’t figure out how to do it.
Mo Yeah. And you have to remember, this is mid 80s. So it wasn’t like throwing a trailer on the Internet or putting something on YouTube.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo You know, when they had to promote a movie, they had to create a trailer.
George No.
Mo They had to get critics to come see it. Then have critics talk about it. Then, I mean, there was ah I mean, it took a lot to push a movie back then.
Jon h
Mo Like it was it was a pretty active thing where say someone seems like a little more passive because they just throw ah a trailer up on YouTube. And, you know that’s pretty much it. You know, but but back then, though, it took work.
Jon Yeah, and and maybe get them to run the talk show circuit or something, right?
Mo Yeah, right.
George right
Jon That’s, you know, get them scheduled, right?
Mo Get the actors on the talk show circuit and that kind of thing.
Jon Yeah, yeah.
Mo So, yeah, it definitely was very. um Yeah, they definitely did not push this movie. It’s just a shame. You know, I mean, you mentioned how Carpenter gets the most out of people and.
Jon yeah.
Mo Jack Russell’s character, his monologues were just. Almost poetry, they were just amazingly he just so much.
George i know you I know you got confused there. It’s not Jack Russell. It’s Kurt Russell playing Jack Burton, but that’s okay.
Mo Oh, Kurt Russell, let would say Jack Russell’s dog.
Jon That’s…
George It’s hard it’s easy to confuse the two.
Jon That’s…
Mo Yeah. it Kurt Russell, but he, um you know, I’m sorry that I found out from doing the research that, you know, the end scene where he’s driving off in the rain and all that stuff.
Mo And he does that whole, you know, you just listen to old Porkchop Express here now not and take his advice on a dark and stormy night when the lightning’s crashing, the thunder’s rolling and the rain’s coming down.
Jon Mm-hmm. The thunder’s rolling.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo I didn’t realize that he was talking about the three storms that he fought in the movie.
George Yes. Yep.
Mo You know lightning, thunder and rain.
Jon Thunder, rain, of lightning.
Mo That was the storms.
Jon Yeah, that’s cool.
Mo And it was just a little thing like that that he put in there.
Jon You
Mo I was like, that’s that’s cool. I don’t know why. I just thought that was just cool.
Jon you know, something i I think we all just rewatched the film one more time just to get ready for this show.
Mo Yeah. Oh, easy.
Jon And I didn’t know this little trivia bit. In the opening credits, it says Big Trouble in Little China, and then it has Chinese characters under it.
Mo Mm
George Right.
Jon And I almost got out my phone to get Google Lens. I almost did it, but I didn’t.
George ah
Mo hmm. Let’s translate the sucker.
Jon I just watched the movie and enjoy it. But I did find out that that Chinese text underneath in Little China does not say Big Trouble in Little China. It says, and it’s almost like a subtitle, literally translates to evil spirits make a big scene in little spiritual state.
Mo ah Yeah, that’s it.
Jon Which is still accurate, but it’s slightly different.
Mo Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Jon And it surprised me all those years. I just assumed it was a direct translation of Big Drama Uncle China, which I guess it kind of is. But yeah, I almost I almost found out accidentally by pull whipping my phone out, but did not.
Mo That was a funny scene. Yo, the scene where he’s breaking into the brothel and he has wear like that He’s be the goofy.
Jon I love that scene.
George Oh, yeah.
Mo Did you know that that that outfit was the outfit he wore in the movie used cars with the 1980 movie used cars as the same outfit you wore the he that he.
George The glass. Yeah.
George That’s, and that’s not the only tie in for that scene.
Mo Oh, really?
George That scene is also an homage to the Bruce Lee film from earlier where he was the telephone repair thing.
Mo Oh, with the phone, wait. Right, right.
George Yeah.
Jon Oh, right. Yep.
George Yeah.
Jon Yep. And now that you mentioned, I can see him in that outfit.
Mo Oh, yeah, totally.
Jon Yeah. He comes in all clumsy.
Mo Yeah.
Jon He’s like, so the cab driver told me I could, um, you know, wait here.
Mo Yeah, cash or charge.
George Well, he he had a lot of different costume changes in this. Remember, like at first when he’s going to the brothel and everything and he’s wearing, it’s that suit that you’re talking about, but it’s just, he’s got the glasses and the little, the tape over him kind of thing.
Jon He did.
Mo Yeah. Yeah.
Jon Yep.
George It’s the nerd. It’s just so funny. Oh my goodness.
Jon oh And what?
George There’s so many good scenes.
Jon Where did he get all those costumes? Right. And where’s where those clothes come from?
George Right. Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George He didn’t have them in his truck.
Jon then There’s this mentioning costumes is funny.
Mo Yeah, talk about that.
George I don’t think.
Mo That’s important.
Jon Watching this this time, i think about continuity now that I’m, you know, do more video production.
Mo Where
Jon I’m an editor and I think about that stuff. There’s a scene where they’re crawling through a pipe and in the pipe he takes off his jacket. And that’s when he then has the tank top on. Right.
George Right.
Jon It was underneath his jacket. Right. And i’m I don’t know this for a fact. I didn’t find this anywhere, but I’m sure it was a continuity thing. Like they had a scene where he’s wearing the jacket and he’s wearing the tank top. Like, okay, we need a little scene in this pipe where you take off the jacket.
Jon Otherwise it’ll be confusing.
Mo where does jackie go
Jon Where did you get it? Right. Where’d the jacket go? And you actually see a moment. ah They’re doing dialogue and he’s peeling off. They never see the jacket again. It’s just gone.
George you know, we were talking, I was talking earlier and I wanted to get through to the numbers and stuff because of the rushed release schedule, the stiff competition, believe it or not, this came up against, uh, aliens that got released at the same time.
Jon Oh yeah. Yeah.
Mo Ooh, that’s a tough one. Yeah, that’s a tough that’s a tough weekend.
Jon Oochie ouchie goodness.
George Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George That’s a really good film. I, you know, if I’ve got both of those films, cause I didn’t see it in the theater either, John, like you, I found it in VHS rentals after the fact, but, I would have had a hard time figuring out which movie to go spend my single movie money on that I would have had at that time.
George Cause 86, I was 15.
Jon Oh damn.
George That would have been tough to decide between those two. And i think no matter which one I would have gone seen, i would have been happy, but also wondering like, was that, should I have gone seen the anyway?
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yeah.
George The budget for this film was somewhere between $19 and $25 million, dollars depending upon which source you look at on the internet.
Jon A pittance.
George So not a hugely expensive film, but not cheap either for the day.
Mo Yeah, it’s not horrible. No.
George This is little bit later on in um in Carpenter’s career, so he’s giving they’re giving him a little bit more money to make films with.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George The box office didn’t even do half of that. It did $11.1 million.
Mo Mm.
George So box office wise, yes, it was a flop, but we all know two out of the three of us didn’t see it in the theater.
Jon mm-hmm yeah
George We saw it at home on VHS for the first time.
Mo Yeah.
George And I think the more telling stat, because I went looking to try and find like, you know, how many rentals did this thing do? Are there any numbers on sales or anything like that? I couldn’t find anything the top of my head, but I did find one website.
George There are seven different rentals. home release versions and i don’t mean like director’s cuts that kind of thing i just mean on different formats and and boxes and things like that so there’s like two or three vhs tapes that have been released international domestic all this stuff there’s laser disc there’s dvd all ah there’s seven different versions of those things out there for home media before the streaming era began
Jon mm-hmm
Mo Yeah.
George I think that’s more telling than an $11 million dollars box office to how popular this film really was. If they’re going to release seven different versions, you know it was making money every single time.
Jon And I’m trying to think with my way through that for myself, right? So I’m like, I know I rented it multiple times.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon I know I bought it on VHS. I know I bought it on DVD. I quite likely bought it a special edition DVD that came out. loud I’m guessing I can’t picture it, but this is the kind of movie there would be.
Mo Probably.
Jon So if it existed, I would have bought it. And yeah, so i probably I probably myself easily spent personally $400 on this movie just in just in buying physical releases.
George Yeah. Well,
Jon Just one guy for a movie I’d seen multiple times.
George well I mean, you talked multiple times earlier, John, about how the box that you saw was him driving the truck. I don’t remember that box cover. The one I remember is the one of the movie poster, which is him standing with the submachine gun and the, and the, you know, Kim Cattrall is kind of laying Princess Leia style at his feet a little bit.
Mo him if the Yeah.
Jon Oh, you guys got the guns.
Mo yeah
Jon Yep. Yep.
Mo yeah
George And there’s the truck in the background that just shows you, they had to have released both the box that I remember and the box that you remember.
Jon Yep.
Mo here
Jon Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George Those
Jon Yeah. And I don’t know what, where what, maybe it was on the back of the box, but I remember seeing a truck on it and going, Oh, I got it. Right. One of those things.
George Right. And that’s the thing.
Jon Yeah.
George They, you know, this movie was that popular in an era where there was so much competition for homes, home movies, VHS, DVDs, and everything like that is we’re going through from the eighties to the nineties.
Jon Yep.
George I mean, to keep releasing it shows just how popular it was.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yeah, without a doubt. All right. Stick around. We get back from the break. We’re going to talk about all the people that made this thing happen. Some of which we mentioned. Some we haven’t yet.
Jon Quite often when we talk about a a great film or a great piece of media or literature or whatever, we talk about the people behind it. And they’ what a cast of people in front of and behind the camera that made this thing happen. And a few we’ve talked about and we’re going to expand a little bit on.
Jon And some of them are bit actors that are doing their best bit stuff ever in this movie.
Mo she says
Jon We’ll get to. But why we start at the top? let’s talk Let’s talk about the man that directed the film, George.
George Yeah, I mean, his name is John Carpenter, in case you guys hadn’t picked up on that.
Jon Mm.
Mo Who’s this guy?
Jon Right?
George We’ve only mentioned it about 700 times.
Mo Who is he?
Jon Who now?
George Yeah, ah he made a couple of movies.
Mo he He made a couple movies.
Jon yeah
George um I would say that for me, John Carpenter was the quintessential movie director of the 80s. And I mean, not that like Spielberg doing E.T. in Close Encounters, and that kind of thing.
George Spielberg was… you know, the A-list and probably still is today, but Carpenter’s films, to me, they captured more of the eighties feeling than almost any other director.
Jon Mm.
Mo Mm-hmm.
George Like you look at his plethora of work, Halloween thing, big trouble, uh, escape from New York. Um, they live, i mean, what in that period of time,
George I don’t think you can put like who else had a more cult like status of film than, than Carpenter.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George And this is just one we’re we’re talking about one.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Like if we did one of those podcasts, like we’ve done in the past where we talked about a director and all of his films, I’m,
Jon Mm-hmm.
George it would be another, like with Carpenter, it’d have to be a whole damn season because you couldn’t do it in one podcast.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Right.
George It’s just ridiculous how talented the man was and still is to this day. um And it’s not just his films, but I think for me, the thing that I i for didn’t realize when I was younger, but I forgot a little bit as I was in my middle twenties, but now I’ve grown to appreciate him later in life is just how good of a sound score person he was.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon Yeah.
George All of his films, you know it’s a Carpenter film when that music starts right away.
Mo Yeah, you could tell.
Jon A lot of heavy synth stuff, heavy bass, a lot of techno almost in the background because he can do it all.
George a Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah.
Mo hmm.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George I mean, don’t get me wrong. I know the guy’s had his problems. You know, he’s got some personal issues and everything, and I’m not putting him up on a pedestal. But as far as a filmmaker, one of the best out of the 80s, if not the best.
Jon yeah
Mo Yeah, I say when all his movies were just fun to watch. you know, like you just you just you just enjoyed it.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon You’re right. Yeah.
Mo Like you just sat there and just enjoy the movie. they’re They’re never really super deep. The thing maybe is little extreme, but the rest of them, though, aren’t super deep, you know, but they were just fun. Like they’re just you went.
Mo It was a summer movie kind of thing you wanted. That’s what you wanted in a summer movie.
Jon um I’ll even defend the thing. It was a horror movie, but it was fun.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Like I never had more fun trying to figure out like this mystery of who is the monster and who isn’t kind of thing.
George Yeah.
Jon Still fun, even though it was terrifying.
George And I don’t know of a director and writer who came out of the eighties with more known one liners from films than Carpenter.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Oh yeah.
George Like, is there a single one of his films that you can’t think of like 10 lines from that film? I mean, it’s it’s almost Rob Reiner. Like it’s, it’s crazy.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Yep.
Mo yeah
Jon Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Good fit for this film, and I’m glad it ended up that way.
Mo Yeah, and we we talked about the that this script was rewritten, but one of the final writers was Gary Goldman and another one, David Weinstein. So couldn’t find too much about David Weinstein, not too much about him.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo But Gary Goldman, though, he definitely went on to write. It was just his first big writing credit one, and he went on to write Total Recall, Navy Seals.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yep.
Mo um he He did pretty good as far as the 80s. His career kind of fell off a little bit after that, but he definitely took advantage of ah that this the cachet from this movie and went on to write other things.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon think he worked on Minority Report too. I think he was either the a writer or rewriter.
Mo Yeah, he did Minority Report as well.
George o
Jon Yeah, script script screenwriter for that. Yeah. So I looked at his list of credits too and I’m like, oh my goodness, that’s a lot of that’s a lot of heavy hitters that he wrote for.
Mo Yeah, but all big 80s movies.
Jon Yep. Okay. Can we talk about Snake Plissken now? Have we gotten that far?
George Yeah, we should talk about steak whiskey now.
Mo Snake Bliskin.
Jon Can we…
Jon Kurt Russell as Jack Burton. ah good Goodness. So the movie starts, we don’t see him right away. um um When movies do this well, it’s amazing.
Jon We start with people talking about the character you’re going to see, right?
Mo Yeah.
Jon They’re asking, and and Egg Chen is there like, you leave Jack Burton alone. He’s done a great service. He’s an amazing man. He’s he’s talking him up so big. you’re like, who is this hero going to be?
Mo he
Jon and it’s amazing. And then we get to see him. We get to see he’s kind of doof.
Mo yeah
Jon He’s well-meaning.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon He’s so heroic in his mind. He’s and not as capable as he thinks he is, but he’s he has an amazing heart and soul, despite the fact every time he tries to do something, he’s the hero that isn’t the hero the whole way through the movie.
Mo It goes wrong. Yeah.
Jon And Kurt Russell can be the badass hero, la Snake Plissken that I just mentioned. He can be a heavy hitter. He can be the capable guy in the room. The fact that this was rewritten to be a kind of a comedy and let him, it would be so easy for him to have been the hero.
Jon and someone else be the sidekick joke. They made the hero the joke and let everybody around him do the actual work.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And Kurt Russell, he always has this gleam in his eye, this kind of like shimmer, like he’s in on the joke. He gets it. He knows what he’s doing. And he’s enjoying being that second banana that’s dressed like the first banana, you know, and he does it so well.
George for me, having watched this movie so many times, it it took me a little while to pick up on it, but the character is almost the definition of a narcissist.
Jon Yeah.
George Like he believes wholly in his superiority in every situation, even though it’s the people around him doing all the work, as you said, John.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo In himself.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Yeah, that’s right.
Mo Yeah.
George And
Mo Yeah.
George I thought that that was such a smart choice on the behalf of the writers and the directors and everybody who was involved because so often a person like Kurt Russell with that chiseled jaw look, typical leading Hollywood man kind of vibe thing that he had going on,
Jon Mm-hmm.
George They took that character and they made him the idiot of the film in almost every regard.
Jon Yeah.
George And Egg Shen defending him at the beginning of the movie, you leave Jack Burton alone. He’s a great man and everything. It’s almost like the knowing parent defending the bumbling child a little bit.
Jon Yeah. Right.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George And I don’t think you pick up on that your first time watching it.
Jon Probably not.
George I think it’s something you find out like your 10th time watching it, maybe, or your 20th time.
Mo Oh yeah, for sure.
George And it puts that character in a whole different light because without his supporting cast, Burton dies pretty damn quick in this movie, if you ask me.
Jon Oh, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Right.
George But…
Mo ah for sure
Jon So you’re saying like Egg Chen knows he’s not capable of standing up to the criticism. So just leave him alone because he’s kind of a buffoon.
George Right?
Mo yeah
George Yeah. Yeah.
Mo It’s funny how his character, i mean, but he played it so well. Like he could, he would walk into the room when that line, like, all right, calm down.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo I’m here. you know? Like from that line to when he shoots somebody, guys, like, is that the first time you ever plug somebody? He’s like, no, but you knew it was like you absolutely knew it was.
George Right, you’re right.
Jon Yeah, right.
George Yeah.
Mo um But but you saw his face.
Jon Nah.
Mo You knew it was the very first time he’s ever done something like that.
Jon Yeah.
Mo But he played it off like, no, no. Yeah. I mean, he played the character really well.
Jon Yeah. So but let’s take a little what if, a little could have been. So look, ah Kurt Russell, he’s in the stable of people John Carpenter uses.
Jon That’s the actor he wanted to play Jack Burton.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon But the studio wanted some other folks. So imagine this, if you will.
George Eh.
Jon Jack Nicholson as Jack Burton.
Mo I cannot see it at all.
George No.
Mo I know.
Jon Where’s the self-deprecation? You’re not going to get that out of Nicholson.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Great actor, not for this role. Clint Eastwood was another one the studio wanted.
Mo Oh, God, no.
George Was that when they wanted it as a Western?
Mo I.
George Before it became the modern piece, maybe?
Mo No, it was it was after I saw i saw that article. It was like, yeah, I can’t picture it at all.
Jon Really?
George Wow.
Jon Yeah. I can’t, I don’t see it. I just don’t see it. Why would it maybe the, maybe studio didn’t understand what the movie was.
George No.
Jon Maybe that’s Right.
Mo ah they they think i don’t think they did.
Jon Right.
George Well, they obviously didn’t. they They screwed up on all the promotion of it.
Mo yeah
Jon Yeah. With the promotion.
George So, yeah.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. Fortunately, both the actors that the studio wanted, they were not available. So they’re like, fine, just use Kurt Russell, which turned out great. So thank goodness they were occupied doing something else.
George Yeah.
Jon I’m glad.
Mo But, you know, I mean, besides Kurt Russell, obviously, there’s a just amazing cast in this movie overall. But they had young Kim Cattrall as Gracie Law, you know, Sex and the City, you know, before that, though.
Jon Mm hmm. Yep.
George Oh, yeah.
Mo I mean, because back in the 80s, she was in a ton of movies in the 80s. I mean, she was in Porky’s. She was in Mannequin, Star Trek, ah Star Trek Six.
George Mm-hmm. Yep.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo She was in as well, you know, and so she was, you know, this is earlier in her career, but she was definitely like one of these rising stars, I think, at this point.
Jon Yep.
George Yep.
George she was the breathy damsel in distress in this role, right?
Mo here
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Like she, everything was very exaggerated with her speeches.
Jon Yeah.
Mo jesus
George And like she put a large effect on her patterns of speech in this film that it always strikes me. But at the same time, she was more capable than Kurt Russell’s character.
Mo Oh, yeah, absolutely.
George Like her character was more capable, still not capable enough to do what needed to be done.
Jon Yes.
George But I just always found that funny because she could see through Kurt Russell.
Jon Mm
George It’s almost like the others could, but couldn’t see through Kurt Russell’s character, but she could, which was nice.
Jon hmm. i In this rewatch, I felt that she fell for him too easily because I think he she did see through him.
George A little bit. Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And she came around to being, you know, kind of a romantic interest a little too easily.
George Yeah.
Jon I think she would have been more, i would imagine her being a little more disinterested because he’s kind of a goofball, but is that what it was?
George It was that jawline, man. This is an 80s woman swooning at the Kurt Russell jawline, man.
Mo Yeah.
Jon okay. All right.
Mo yeah
Jon You could be a doofus as long as you got the look. I get you.
George Right?
Mo Well, after you watch the movie 20, 30 times, the other thing you pick up on is that she’s the one that explains everything. Lopin? I mean, Lopin, the head of blah, blah, blah, who’s said that the blah, blah, blah, blah.
Jon Oh, right.
George Right.
Jon Because she’s a reporter.
Mo And she also is very talkative.
George Yeah.
Mo like It fit her character that she would explain everything back as soon as she heard a name, like to show that she knew who this person was. you know So without her, like you would not know who Lopin was. that you know He’s such a recluse.
Jon ye
Mo No one’s seen him in 50 years. you know That kind of thing.
George Right.
Jon Right. Somebody’s got to be there to tell you that stuff.
George Yeah.
Jon if You won’t know it.
George ah I think one of the other people that he goes a little unsung when people talk about this movie, but Dennis Dunn, who plays wa Wang Chi or Chai, I don’t know how, but I’m i’m going with Chi.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George He’s an actor that in this movie, he stands out for his physical abilities. He he’s an incredible gifted martial artist in this film, but
Mo Oh,
George it’s not the only thing that Carpenter used him in. He’s been used in other Carpenter movies like Prince of Darkness. He was one of the research assistants of the, of the staff of college students in that film that were trying to research this thing in the Catholic church.
Mo no okay.
George But, I think he holds his own in almost every scene that he’s with Kurt Russell in, which is not easy to do in the mid 80s Kurt Russell era.
Mo Oh, yeah.
George Like who stands up to him in a scene? Not many people, but I think he did a good job of it. I think he was very serviceable.
Jon Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. So I want to talk about James Hong. If you don’t know who James Hong is, so first in this movie, he played David, call me Dave, David Lopan.
Mo Yeah.
Jon He makes me, his career makes me think of, do you remember in the teddy bear movie, Ted two, and there was a young lady named Sam Jackson and she’d never heard of Samuel Jackson.
Jon And in the scene, they go, wait a minute, you know who Samuel Jackson is? Have you ever seen a movie? Yes. He’s the black guy.
George Right.
Jon right
George Yeah.
Jon James Hong, if you needed an older Asian guy, really throughout his career, any age, an Asian actor to play anything. He was in Blade Runner. He was in that shadow movie with Alec Baldwin.
Jon um there’s
George Lethal Weapon 4. Yeah.
Jon Lethal Weapon. Right.
Mo Mm hmm.
Jon he’s If you look at his IMDB, like I’ve been scrolling through it and have not stopped scrolling.
Mo Oh, this goes forever.
George Yeah.
Jon It must be 800 pages long. Every TV show you’ve ever seen. And so in this, he played Lopan and he kind of played a dual role. He played the evil sorcerer Lopan, but also…
Mo hmm.
Jon the ancient, apparently thousands of years old is from the legend, right? So he’s been around forever and ever and ever.
George Yes.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And he played the the the decrepit version of him that he’s trying to get out of so he can become flesh and blood because right now he’s like a ghost. And that’s how you only look like you ran over him with the truck or whatever. And what he does so well in this for me is because he’s such a well-versed actor is give gravitas and give an actual sense of stakes.
Jon Like, oh, he is dangerous.
Mo Yeah.
Jon but he still has a little tiny vein of I’m in a funny movie. There’s something about him that’s not menacing, just frightening. That’s that’s very subtle.
Mo Yeah, I love with you.
Jon i hope we know what I mean, but a little bit. Yeah, I like that about him.
Mo One thing is that mean his voice also like you hear him, you know, it’s him, you know, because he’s done a lot of voice work over time.
Jon Oh, yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Mo He was in Mulan and Kung Fu Panda and all these.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo As soon as you hear me like, oh, I know who that guy is.
Jon Yep.
Mo I’ve seen him and stuff.
Jon He’s been in everything.
Mo You know, it’s like he’s just been around forever and he’s still around and kicking to 97.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon Yep.
Jon I 97 years old man. don’t if he’s still working, but bless him. He’s, he’s put in the work.
Mo Well, good for him, man.
Jon He deserves a break.
Mo Yeah, you’re not kidding.
Jon Awesome.
George You know, somebody else who was an older Asian guy in this movie, I hate to do the segue that way, but it’s true. um
Jon Yeah.
George ah Victor Wong played Egg Shin.
Jon I love him.
George First of all, one of the best character names you’ll ever find you know film.
Jon Egg. ah
George Egg Shin. Shin. And it wasn’t like, they never like addressed it like, is it a nickname? Did he cook eggs?
Jon e
Mo No, it’s just.
George and a kid They never address it at all. It’s just, he’s Egg Shen.
Jon Yeah.
George And he runs he drives a little tour bus in Chinatown. And he’s you know the the good sorcerer to David Lopan’s evil sorcerer.
Jon And George, doesn’t it say eggs tour bus or something on the side of his bus?
Mo yeah
George I think so on the tour bus.
Jon think it i think it says his name.
George Yeah, yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah. So, I mean, he’s… the actor, first of all, another guy that Carpenter likes to use again in the movie, Prince of Darkness along, you know, like I say, Carpenter’s known for doing that.
Jon Yeah,
Jon there you go.
George His character in this movie, when you watch him, he’s so old and he’s so slow that you have no belief that his character is going to be of a useful benefit to this mission to go save Gracie.
George And, ah the what what was the, the meow?
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Meow.
George Uh, what was, yeah.
Mo Meow Yin. Meow Yin.
Jon Meow yin.
George Meow again.
Jon There we go.
George You have no idea that he’s going to be useful in that situation, but he ends up, saving most of the battle with his little potions bag and he throws yeah he throws the little fire bombs at the people and stuff.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon ah
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George And he’s got the little twisted finger sorcery thing. And the probably I’ll talk about it later.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George I’ve gone back and forth. You guys keep talking about ah down below. We’re going to champion a scene later on.
Jon Yeah, yeah.
George I can’t pick one goddamn scene in this movie.
Mo Yeah, it’s hard.
Jon ah Good luck.
George It’s the whole movie, but
Jon Good luck.
George i Yeah, I don’t want to spoil anything. Eggshin is the bomb in this damn film.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yes.
Mo So we also got to talk about his, Aikshan’s bodyguards, not Aikshan, Lo-Pan’s bodyguards, excuse me, you know, which for me, that scratched that martial arts itch that I needed in this movie.
George Lopan, right, yeah.
Jon Oh, big time.
George Hmm.
Mo Yeah. You know, this, this, because I mean, there was good fight scenes with the normal people with quotes in the air, air quotes around it.
Jon Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo But when you brought in people named thunder, rain and lightning. You know, you’re like and and their their styles were were part of it. Like we’re part of their embodied, you know, you know I mean, um of the three Carter Wong, he’s probably if you’re into martial arts movies, you know who Carter Wong is.
Jon They embody those elements. Yes.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo He I think he started something like over like almost 70 of these Kung Fu movies over his time.
George Yeah.
Mo You know, he’s just all over place. um Peter Kwong, you probably would see him. He’s been in a couple of the movies. He was in the Golden Child. Is he the one that the Golden Child?
George Yes.
Mo Yeah, he played.
George Yeah. He was, he was one of the bad guys in golden child.
Mo He was in the Golden Child.
George Yeah.
Mo Yep.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo um
Jon James Hong was in the Golden Child, too.
Mo Yeah, James Hahn was also a hit, too.
Jon Yep.
George Yeah.
Mo And James Pax at Lightning, who from watching them, I mean, but they were all super talented. They all studied martial arts at some point in their lives. um They were all mostly of them two of them were American, actually, um believe it or not.
Mo um But they, you know they just did such an amazing job of embodying those characters that, I mean, they could done the whole just with the three of them. You and I would have watched it with absolutely would not have been a problem.
Jon right yeah a spinoff with the three storms right if you could have right yeah right another history oh well speaking of you know you mentioned he’s um a couple more american james hong was born in minneapolis dude
Mo Yeah, exactly. Like how they became the storms. I really want to know. Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon Believe it or not, you talk about scratching that martial arts itch, Mo, and just, it makes, I’m gonna call back real quickly to the the big fight scene in the alley with the two rival groups.
Mo yeah
Jon Just how wonderfully goofy with these quick cuts of a broken elbow or a broken knee.
Mo Yeah.
George ah
Jon And then we go to slam somebody into a wall. and It was a quick cut. And it was clearly like an empty bunch of cloth where they mush it against the wall.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It was so hammy. And I love that was like that over the top, like we’re not being funny. It’s just, it is funny situations. Yeah. That I thought of your, cause that’s where, that’s where we first see the storms too, is that big fight scene.
Mo hmm.
George You know, the storms that we’re talking about here, that’s kind of a trope in a lot of Kung Fu martial arts movies from that era.
Mo hmm.
George The three elemental fighters kind of thing.
Mo Right.
Jon Is it?
George Thunder, rain, lightning, and wind usually is accompanying them, but they did.
Jon Okay.
Mo Five deadly Venoms.
George Yeah.
Mo yeah
George we didn’t have that wind in this one, but I think Carpenter was definitely a fan of those films coming out of the era previously.
Jon Oh, right. Yeah.
Mo Oh, had to be.
George And that’s why he made sure that they had such a prominent role.
Jon of Yeah.
George and I know the writer, you know, they got, cause I can’t see those three characters in the cowboy film version of this.
Mo No.
George I mean, that, that doesn’t have a place, but as this thing evolved, it got new writers and Carpenter had his influence on it.
Jon Right. Mm hmm.
George I’m sure that that’s a large reason why you got to see those characters and they, I feel like Mo does. like I could see ah more of them and be happy with it because I felt like they were other than Thunder.
George Thunder was more heavily utilized than Rain and Lightning.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George I feel like we definitely could have, but with the 90 minute runtime limits that we had in the eighties, they couldn’t, you know, they couldn’t put, i would have liked to have gotten rid of some of the other good guy secondary characters and focused more on them.
Mo I know, I know.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Focus more on them. Absolutely.
George It would have been nice.
Jon Oh, you you’re make an amazing point, George.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon This thing’s 90 minutes. It’s so tight.
George Yeah.
Jon the The editing is different these days, but it like it doesn’t drag. is because they because they i think they had to force to make it so tight because of the restrictions. and It turns out if that keeps it from dragging watching it in modern times.
Jon That’s another good point.
George Yeah. Now, before I get into the next person, the last one we’re going to about in the actors and crew, I do want to correct myself from earlier. I said James Hong had been in Lethal Web before. That was a different actor. I got I just get so caught up in these things that I get.
Mo no
Jon Okay.
George James Hong was the the other role that I don’t know if we mentioned or not the role that Mo and I know him the most from is Blade Runner.
Jon All right.
Mo Yep, absolutely.
Jon Mm-hmm. he was he’ the made the eyes for the replicants, right?
Mo Yes, I make eyes so
Jon Uh-huh.
George Yes, exactly.
Mo so-called
Jon Yep. Okay.
George It’s so cool. But the last person, it’s not a name that anybody is probably going to recognize. Jeff Imada. Now, this is a guy who played Needles.
George That was the name of the character, although you never heard the name in the movie.
Mo He’s never out to even talk.
George He was just simply one of the… He was one of the two factions of fighters. He was one of the lead guys. Like John, you’re talking about in that alleyway fight scene. You notice how even though they showed everybody, they focused on just like three or four of the non-main character people in those scenes.
Jon e
Jon Right. Prominent people. Yeah.
George He was one of them. He always has this long flowing hair and this Fu Manchu mustache beard combination with the receding hairline.
Jon Got it. Got it. Yep.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Got it.
George The actor, Jeff Imada, I recently, like about maybe four or five months ago, there was a YouTube documentary kind of thing.
Jon I know you’re talking
George It was like an hour long on him and his life and everything that’s going on with him.
Jon Hmm. Wow.
George The guy has over a hundred credits to his name, mostly a stunt work, as you might imagine,
Mo Oh, yeah.
George But specifically, there are certain roles that he’s kind of quote known for this being one of them, big trouble, little China’s needles, but also Mo, I know you and I have talked about it.
George He was in this very famous scene in die hard and he’s one of the bad guys that’s securing Nakatomi tower and he’s
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah,
George in one scene when they’re all preparing for the police to come rushing in, he’s like behind this little glass thing full of snacks and he pulls out a candy bar and starts eating it.
Mo Yeah.
George Like while he’s trying to cover the door still, that was an improvisation.
Mo Oh,
Jon yeah, yeah. yeah
Mo really?
George That was not in the script. He did that on his own. He was also in the movie Lethal Weapon. I was thinking about Lethal Weapon earlier. He was in the first Lethal Weapon.
Jon Yeah.
George He was the the bad guy who tortured Martin Riggs with the electric car battery in the water.
Mo With electrical things.
Jon Oh, yeah, like the battery or whatever, right?
George Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George um
Jon Yep. Yep.
George He plays those kind of roles. Anytime you see him, you know it’s him, but he doesn’t get very many speaking lines. But
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Character actor.
George According to the documentary, every time he was paired with a certain director or anything like that, they felt he was indispensable in everything he did.
Jon Yeah.
George So I just like to shout out those people that are in these cult classics because they don’t get the notoriety that a Kurt Russell might get, but they deserve it because without them, those fight scenes that you love in that alleyway, John, they don’t happen because he’s a fight choreographer.
Jon Yeah. He’s got a look.
Mo Yeah.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Yeah, they’d be hollow.
George He’s a stuntman.
Jon That’s right. There
George Those are the people that to me, ah anytime I see them popping up in a movie, I’m like, Oh, that’s the guy from
Mo Yeah, it’s and his his career as a stunt coordinator or ah directing those fight scenes. I mean, he did some of the Bourne movies. He did The Crow. he did I mean, he he has a he has a pedigree.
Jon wow
Mo you know is He’s one of these people, I bet, in Hollywood, everyone knows who he is. You know, like everybody knows who he is, you know.
George Yeah.
Jon yeah
Mo um But yeah, he’s he’s just been in so much. it’s It’s one of those faces that you just constantly see when you You’re like, oh, look, he’s in it again, you know. ah Look, he’s random guy number four for some reason.
Jon There he is. it Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Look, he’s there. He’s got the look. He’s the stunt coordinator.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I’m sure he, he comes into that naturally. So he’s got the look, he’s got the skills, the talent. And he’s what, he’s what gives those kinds of movies, the flavor and texture that otherwise would just be, you know, Hollywood actors trying to, trying to play act instead, they can actually do the work.
Jon So.
George Yeah.
Jon All right. So, uh, George, we’re almost there. I know were having trouble choosing a favorite scene, but when we get back from the break, you’re going to have to pick something.
Mo Oh, my God. We have to pick a scene.
Jon Yeah. Right.
Mo I mean, I know we’re going to all do our best to pick a scene, and I will also bet that each one of the scenes we pick is probably one of the favorite scenes we would have picked. Oh, anyways, you know, if we did it.
Jon If someone else hadn’t picked it. Yeah, I’m sure.
Mo So, John, I mean, pick.
Jon Yeah.
Mo I’m going to say your favorite scene. Pick a scene that you like. I mean, that’s just we should call this.
Jon So, yeah. So I’m picking a moment that always makes me laugh because it’s so well illustrates.
Mo Mm hmm. Mm
Jon Jack Burton and it’s toward the end of the film.
Mo hmm.
Jon It’s right before they do the the six demon bag and do the potion and drink it to give them the energy and everything.
Mo yeah
George Oh, yeah, to get the courage, yeah.
Mo Yes.
Jon Yes, yes. So they they find this, one of those those paper wall things, you know, he just cuts it with his knife and goes in. and Somebody walks in and goes, oh no.
Jon And Jack Burton goes, I know, it’s an elevator and only goes down. Like he’s resigned to the fact that this is the kind of crazy shit that’s going to happen to me.
Mo Yeah.
George Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha
Jon I’ve seen it before in this very movie. It happened because at first he was surprised the first time it happened.
George ha ha ha.
Jon He’s seen so much in this movie.
Mo Yeah.
Jon He’s so resigned to the fact that he’s about to drink a potion and I know it’s an elevator only goes down.
George Yep.
Jon hes just And it’s so dismissive. And then they have the elevator ride. Like, I feel good.
Mo Oh my god.
Jon Do you feel good? I feel good.
Mo says I feel kind of invisible.
Jon Yeah. Everybody feels good right before this. Yes.
Mo ah
Jon Yeah. Before this big fight, that scene, just them in the elevator going down, kind of hyping each other up.
George Yeah.
Jon It’s one of my favorite moments. And it’s that line from him.
Mo Yes.
Jon I know he’s, he’s already fine. This is my life now. This is how going to be.
Mo Yeah.
George You know, that scene, it reminds me so much of the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones, bullwhip gun fight scene.
Jon Yeah, right.
Mo Yeah.
George It’s the same kind of vibe, right?
Jon Nothing surprises me.
George It’s like, oh, Jesus, you got a bullwhip.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George I’m tired all this. Let me just shoot you and move the hell on.
Mo Yeah.
George And that’s kind of like Burton.
Jon Let’s get it over with.
George He’s like, oh God, here we go again. Another elevator that only goes down.
Mo Yeah. Goes down.
George Fine.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
George like when is this 90 minutes going to be up so I can go to my truck?
Jon So.
Jon ah Where’s my get my truck back.
George Jesus.
Jon Yeah. All right. That’s mine. George, what’d you land on?
George Yeah. I cheated.
Jon Okay.
Mo and You have a couple, don’t you?
Jon Okay.
George I’m to talk about two. Yeah.
Jon Okay.
George to talk about two. Uh, you know, it’s, I don’t care. John cheated in my game segment last week. So I’m going to cheat this week, uh, in this favorite scene, but,
Jon Turnabout’s fair play. Sure.
George Yeah. um Two things. Number one, I love the Jack Burton CB radio podcast.
Mo No. He’s talking to nobody.
George I mean, it was a podcast before it was a podcast, but it was just for truckers. John, your family it was all truck drivers. I don’t know if people really did that on the radio or not, but I hope they did because I would want to be entertained by some schmuck on the CB radio talking as he’s driving down the road the way that Jack Burton did, you know, on a stormy, rainy, thunder, lightning night.
Jon Not like that.
Mo Yeah.
Mo He has so much wisdom he has to share it. Yeah.
Jon Yeah. He’s so self-important.
George Yeah.
Jon He knows everybody needs to know what he wants to say.
George Right.
Jon Yeah.
Mo yeah
George ah It’s just so great. Oh my God. And Kurt Russell delivers those lines so like earnestly and like none of the, none of the moments where he couldn’t pull the knife out of the boot or, you know, jumped up just in time after David, uh, after his buddy had already killed the bad guy, you know,
Mo Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jon Everything is done. Yeah. yep
George none of that entered into his mind when he’s giving these podcast, you know, like sermons, so to speak over the radio.
Jon Yeah.
George It was just, Oh, it was so beautiful. So that’s one of my favorite scenes. The whole movie is favorite.
Jon Okay.
George It’s, but the other one, The Egg Shin and David Lopan video game duel in the underground lair when they’re having the big you know battle downstairs.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George And they have like these little, they both put their hands up in these little symbols and they have these samurai warrior laser beam guys come out.
Mo Yeah, like like hologram-ish kind deals.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Okay, that part alone is crazy, magical, stupid fun. But what I loved that Carpenter showed in those scenes was the actors maneuvering their fingers like that was doing a goddamn thing.
Jon Right. Like they’re driving.
Mo Yeah, like the controller.
Jon Like they’re mechs. Yeah. you know Yeah.
George And especially joe James Hogg’s, like he’s going, he’s cackling, he’s laughing. He’s so happy that he’s winning this video game of magic. It just, oh my God.
George And it what is it? It’s like maybe a 20 second scene in the movie, but you remember it as soon as you think about it.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah. yeah it’s
Mo Oh, sure.
George It’s, it’s iconic.
Jon yeah Like my little elevator thing.
George So yeah.
Jon It’s just a moment. And all these little moments add up to just make you smile for the whole damn movie.
George o
Jon Yeah.
George Absolutely. Moe,
Mo oh
George I’m assuming you’ve got something probably just as good because it’s coming from this movie. The only way it could be worse is if it didn’t come from this movie.
Mo Oh, yeah. That’s true.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo So this is a scene. i it just popped my head because remember just I laughed out loud. really loud at this scene, which was before the elevator scene where they’re going, they pull up the, they go down the fire pole and they’re in under the belly the earth and the earth’s earth’s lifeblood or whatever it was.
George Oh, yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo They’re walking through and this creature comes out, grabs one of the people, pulls them in, egg throws this thing and says, it’ll come out no more.
George Right. Right.
George yeah
Mo And Jack Burton’s like, what, what won’t come out anymore? Like, like it is his,
George Cause it was behind his back.
Jon but
Mo Yeah, like his whole facade just fell, right? It’s just everything fell. He’s like, what the hell? is like Like, it’s just, you know he was a terrified little kid right then, you know?
George Yeah. No more bravado.
Jon yeah right
George Yeah.
Mo Yeah. He’s like, he what?
Jon But what was it?
Mo What? Yeah. What? What? What? Because h cause x he’s like, it’ll it’ll come out no more.
George What monster was under my bed, dad?
Jon ah
Mo he’ll he’s like.
Jon Right. Right. He knows just what to do. He’s got this thing in his bag. news He’s this, see he’s this other side of low pan.
Mo yeah
Jon He’s the Obi-Wan, right? And he knew what to do. Right. You know, well, what what the hell was it though?
Mo Yeah. you know What’ll come out no more?
Jon Yeah.
Mo Because actually I was wondering too. What the hell was that thing?
Jon Yeah. and Inexplicable.
George Yeah, like it was literally just a big giant puppet thing that pulled a person through the tunnel.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Big spider mouth, whatever.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Crazy.
George Oh, that was funny.
Jon Yeah. Okay. And also, and also before we get out of this segment, every other scene also, our favorite scenes as well.
Mo Too many good scenes.
Mo Yeah, pretty much.
George Every other scene.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon just So, okay. Real quickly, we’re running a little bit long, but we warned you it was going to happen. We get back. We’re talk a little bit about the lasting legacy of Big Trouble in Little China. Stick around.
Jon A movie doesn’t become this beloved and this successful over time and this well-revered without having a lasting impact on pop culture and merchandising and reading reference and other things. And for starters, most every popular movie like this probably gets a video game treatment. You found one, Mo.
Mo Yeah, which I had never heard of this, actually, but there was a ah video game was published in 1986 by like Electric Dream Software, which I never heard of.
Jon I didn’t either.
Mo um Now, I think probably the reason why this I never heard of it is it only came out for the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC, which are not the hottest platforms.
George hmm
Jon oh Oh, okay.
Mo I mean, the Commodore 64 is probably the most popular of that group.
George oh yeah that’s the that’s the largest selling a pc of all time yeah spectrum was big and yeah
Mo um
Jon Yeah. Well, Spectrum was big overseas, so.
Mo Oh, that’s true. That’s true. But I never, but I had never heard of the game. I looked and I’m still trying to hunt down some gameplay of this thing. I’m curious as hell about what kind of game this was.
Jon Hmm.
George I would have never thought to look for a video game on this movie. I don’t know why.
Jon No.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Like, what what would it be?
George I would have never thought about it.
Jon they’re like
Mo Yeah, i I have no idea, but I will find, going to find a clip somewhere.
Jon is Like, you could make a movie out of any scene, right?
George he
Jon um You could make a game, rather, out of any scene in this movie.
George Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Is it the ninja fights? No. Is it driving the truck? No. Is it like, what what’s it going to be?
Mo What is it?
Jon Is it doing the video game the hologram things?
Mo Yeah.
Jon What is it, right?
George ah
Jon Who knows?
Mo and Well, that would be a cool game. But anyway. yeah
Jon Right, right.
George That would be a cool game.
Jon but So speaking of video game connections, ah the famous Ed Boon, maker of Mortal Kombat,
Mo Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jon The trio of sorcerers, Thunder, Rain, and Lightning, they directly, you probably have seen it, like it’s similar. Oh, no, directly inspired Ed Boon and John Tobias when they created Raiden in Immortal Kombat’s franchise.
George Yeah, that makes sense.
Jon So the hat is not as big, not made out of wicker like their hats are, right, or whatever those were.
Mo Yeah.
Jon But the big wide hat, and especially the lightning that dances around Raiden’s, you know, and that’s his superpower.
Mo g
Jon That was Ed Boon and John Tobias, just like us. They were kids of the eighties that were like, damn, that movie’s good. Let’s use that in our video game. And it became Raiden. Yeah.
George There you go.
Mo they They copy good stuff.
Jon Reused.
George Yep. I was talking earlier too about how so many great lines come out of this film. So many one-liners, but, uh, Jack Burton’s catchphrase, give me your best shot, pal.
George I can take it. Uh, it’s been parodied in pop culture and reference across a whole bunch of movies, TV shows, everything.
Jon yeah Reused.
George I mean, what has it been from this movie? Really?
Jon Mm-hmm.
George I mean, you just talked about mortal combat. They stole Raiden from this.
Jon Yeah.
George I mean, it, I don’t know. there’s There’s just so much. I don’t even know how to go into it all because it’s, it’s like the thing.
George It’s like they live. It’s like Halloween.
Mo Yeah.
George It just has taken on its own personality, its own culture, the film itself.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George I mean, it, it’s just iconic.
Mo Yeah.
Jon You know what I hear parodied a lot or just reused a lot is anything after, you know what old Jack Burton says, and then you say whatever you want after it, right?
Mo Yeah.
George Right. Right.
Jon It gives it somehow some legitimacy because old Jack Burton would say it talking to the third person.
Mo ah
George Yep. ah
Jon I’ve heard that many times over and over.
Mo Something else I found out is that um they’re looking their they’re talking about making a sequel or a remake of this. i don’t know which it is.
Jon Mmm.
George Mmm.
Mo The Rock apparently is really interested for some reason.
Jon Mmm.
Jon Mmm.
Mo um But I heard that Carpenter is sort of like meh about it.
George Oof.
Mo you know It’s almost like he’s he’s been there, done it.
Jon Yeah.
Mo I don’t think he has any interest in redoing it again. And I hope they don’t.
Jon I hope not.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah, right.
Mo Because I can’t see how they can make a better movie than what was made.
George I don’t…
George Well, you know, I don’t disagree with you, Mo, in this case, but then again, I said the same thing about Battlestar Galactica, and look how that turned out.
Mo I don’t know.
Mo That’s true. that’s it It would have to be really special, though.
George You know, it would have to be special.
Jon Yeah.
Mo You know?
Jon Yeah.
George It would have to turn it on its head. The one problem that I have with what you’re talking about is I don’t think I could see the rock in a Jack Burton role.
Mo Yeah.
Jon As Jack Burton, right.
George Because the whole…
Mo I can see him trying, though. That’s the problem.
George I can see him trying and I know he’s a self deprecating type of actor.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo ah Yeah, he is.
George He can do that.
Mo He can do comedy.
George I just don’t think he pulls it off very well.
Mo No.
George Like somebody who could pull that off a little bit better might be like a Mark Wahlberg. Maybe he could probably pull that self deprecating stuff off a little bit better.
Jon Sure. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
George Like he did in the family plan movies. um
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah. I don’t, who could play that role other than Kurt?
Mo Yeah.
Jon Keanu Reeves.
George Boy, that’s tough. Keanu Reeves, maybe. Okay.
Jon I could see that. Yeah, I could see that one.
George I could see that. He’s got both sides of that fence. Yeah.
Jon Mm hmm.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo oof hu
Jon there’s There’s precious few people like 80s Kurt Russell. That’s the problem.
Mo yeah
George Yeah. Hmm.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. but So speaking of sequels and remakes, let me share this with you. So, you know, my buddy will over the 1980s now podcast just a few weeks ago, he interviewed Gary Goldman.
George Hmm.
Mo Oh, nice.
George Hmm.
Jon So look, the big trouble, little China circuit is happening. It’s 40 years, right?
Mo Yeah.
Jon So everybody is talking to him.
George Right.
Jon So he spoke with Gary Goldman. And during that conversation, they spoke about the fact that that when I mentioned that I knew they had a change from serious to humorous when they went to a contemporary, I learned that in his interview with Gary Goldman.
Jon During that conversation, Gary said, He is seriously considering pitching his original script, a treatment of his original script as a prequel and doing the Western because Lopan’s been around for thousands of years.
Jon You could do these people and these legends and you could have Egg Chen maybe involved somehow.
George Okay.
Jon Maybe he’s been, we don’t know, but he’s talking about taking his original treatment. and making it a prequel to Big Trouble Little China, the movie he initially thought he wanted to make that nobody wanted.
Mo That be interesting
Jon And that wouldn’t tread on the ground of what we know. So I’m encouraged by that.
Mo Yeah
George Yeah, as long as it doesn’t invalidate anything from the movie that gave it life to begin with, i’m good I’m good with that.
Jon Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
George I’m not horribly against a remake. It just needs to be done in the right manner.
Jon Hmm. Oh, that’s the problem.
George I don’t know if it needs to go ultra serious like BSG did or if it needs to stay closer to its comedy roots with the right type of actor cast in the role. I don’t know, but I could see a sequel.
George I could see a prequel.
Jon Yeah, sure.
George I could see a remake.
Mo I want to see a prequel to Storms, how they became the Storms.
Jon yeah you’ We’d all watch it.
George Yeah.
Jon It’s just we’ll be like it.
George Yeah.
Jon That’s the problem.
Mo um
Jon Yeah, that’d be awesome.
George Oh, that’s a good point.
Jon Mm. Yep.
George Or a comic book. There’s got to be a comic book series out there on this, right?
Mo Oh, this guy, you would think, right?
Jon You would think at least ah yeah, at least a translations. oh Okay. me Okay. All right. So as we enter our six of the track about big trouble, little China guy, mean, it’s, it’s so easy to talk about.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It’s such a, there’s so many things you could drill in on, uh, before we get out of this episode, I do want to thank another brand new patron. who headed headed over to genxgrownup.com slash Patreon and said, hey, we know you’re going to spend an hour and a half talking about Big Trouble Little China.
Jon We want to support you and make sure you continue to do this show and what we do on YouTube and everything. And that’s No Dig Bob signed up for that regular monthly recurring pledge.
Mo she
Jon Incidentally, he signed up at a level that he will get regular pledge. a regular feed of this show with no commercials. If you sign up at the $5 level or above, you don’t have to listen all the commercials.
Mo o
George Oh, nice. Yeah.
Jon It’s just another service that we do for our patrons. You appreciate us. We appreciate you. Try to give you everything we can to make your life a little bit easier. So thank you. No dig, Bob. but You’re joining a roster of amazing people. And we’re so happy that you did.
Jon That then is going to wrap it up for this backtrack on big trouble in little China on its 40th anniversary.
Jon What do i say next? Oh, Don’t worry. We’ll be back in two weeks with another backtrack. Next week is the standard edition of our show. Until then, I’m John. George, thank you so much for being here, pal.
George Yes, sir.
Jon Mo, you know, i appreciate you, man.
Mo Always fun.
Jon Fourth listener, it’s you. We all three appreciate most of all. We cannot wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye.
George See you guys.
Mo Take care, everybody.
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About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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