Tropic Thunder (2008)

And the movie starts. Boom. Wow. We got like real booties. Man, I want to bust a nut right now. Let me just say, right off the bat, I want to apologize. I'm very late. Wait, shut up. Shut up, Black. This is Jack Black here. It's 10. 45. I was supposed to be here at 10 a. m. Ben, what were you thinking right now with this coming in at you? Well, it was very hot. It was really tough getting out to that precipice. Was that a real baby you were playing with? That was actually a real baby. Man. The baby was very calm. Did the baby get hurt? No, the baby was totally... No babies were harmed during the shooting. That's cool. Yeah. Man, look at your hair. Fuck you, beautiful. Thank you, Robert. Yeah, this was actually the very last thing we shot in the whole movie. I think he prefers that you call him by his character name at this point. Do you want...

Lincoln Osiris or Kirk Lazarus or what would you? Just Lincoln, thank you. Lincoln, okay. Goddamn. Sergeant Osiris. Fuck, dude. Wait, wait, wait. Listen to VO. Here it come right now. Here we go again. Again. Again. Yeah. You see? That works. We took it and we took it one more time. That was good. I actually heard here we go again in a real trailer for a sequel this summer. Which was sort of ironic. Okay, Jack, here's your fallback franchise. That's me. They're all me, except for that guy. Did you draw on people you know in your life? No, but I did spend a lot of time in the mirror figuring out the best faces. for the characters. I was actually really impressed with the... The gay son had no prosthetic makeup, but I still look like one of the fattest. That's crazy. It was kind of redundant. Look at her. Me putting on a fat suit on top of my already fat body. No, we had to really exaggerate it. To make me look 25 pounds heavier than I already am. I like to bike a horse. Look at him. I like to bike a dude. You came up with a backstory for each character, though, didn't you? Yes. Yeah.

In a time... Wait, everyone shut up now. All right, here's... What's going on here? Look at that. Damn. Oh, wow, look at that. It's Spider-Man and Iron Man. Fuck, look at that lip gloss going down. Sort of an alternate universe for Spider-Man and Iron Man. Man, I was trying to ride Toby when we were shooting this thing. Oh, no. He wasn't having none of it. Talking about a happy Mary. Here it comes. Wait, ooh. Bend like that, Tate. I did like that. There's a lot of emotion behind it. Fucking begot! What are you screaming about? It's tortured. Just what's wrong with a man wanting another man's hand on his hands? Five-time Academy Award winner Kirk Lazarus. Okay, so, yeah, this trailer was actually... It is the new fastest way to an Oscar, though. I'm going to say this. Tobey Maguire came in and did us a huge favor. He was a last-minute replacement, and it's one of those situations where the last-minute replacement ends up being huger and more perfect than anything you could have imagined. So I have to say thank you so much to Tobey for helping us out. For being a gamer. Total gamer. And very attractive in the role, I think, too.

He's a-gamin'. So this is the beginning of the movie. I'm going to do one of those commentaries where I say exactly what's happening on the screen. I just want to say, here's what happened. I woke up at 5 a. m. this morning because the baby woke up early. Jack. Yeah? You miss me with that bullshit, man. You either on time or you're not on time. I am late. Yeah, you were very late today. By the way, this didn't happen when we were shooting, though. No, thank you for noting that. It wasn't kind of like the movie. They're not trying to follow the movie. You know, you don't have to talk about what's happening on the movie when you do your commentary. You actually can talk about other stuff. What are you guys wearing at the premiere tonight? Dior.

I'm just wearing a suit. I got something special cooking up. It's going to be a surprise. You always wear a T-shirt and jeans, right? Not this time, buddy. Man, that Kung Fu Panda, that shit you was wearing abroad, it was like you just woke up in the alley or something. I hope you pull out the stop sign. No, no, no, no. I'm sprucing it up tonight. People moving in, why? Because of the color of the skin. Woof, woof. Okay, so here's our... I'm going to talk about the movie. So here's our opening shot where we wanted to get that sort of, you know, that cool, like, sort of apocalypse feel, but we only had three helicopters. They got this right the first time, didn't they? I feel like this is fake. Like, this is not even real jungle here. That's how good it is. Is there cartoon computer jungle happening at all? No, this is all real. It's all totally real. There's nothing enhanced about any of these shows, except for the missiles. The missiles aren't actually there. People love this scene. Yeah, this was a fun scene to shoot. Was it? I was there, and I don't remember it as such. How do you remember it? Unadulterated torture. Yeah.

Really? No, it was fun. Oh, here I come, though. Everybody shut up. There you go. We shot this the first week. Very first shot you guys did. Look at Jeff. Here it comes. Here comes what? Here comes some more blood spraying the face. Here it is. Look at that, right on his own face. It's a tricky thing to fake that you accidentally are spraying yourself with something by accident. It's counterintuitive. Yeah. That's Jeff Imada. He's a very accomplished stuntman. Oh, gut shot. It looked a lot like Egg Fu Young, I remember, on the day. Well, we did a test with real animal guts, and that was too realistic, so we went with more cartoony sort of guts. Hey, Robert, maybe I'll just take this opportunity to ask you where you came up with the inspiration for Osiris and for the characterization. I don't remember. Hide at home. All I remember is that I was going to do a movie with Ben Stiller and Jack Black, and I thought, fuck, man, I don't have a clue in my head what I'm going to do with this dude. I also said, I don't want to get in trouble now. So the voice came...

I like your shades. They got that golden. True. Whoa, hold on. In the first couple days. Here it comes. I can't say anything. Look at this. The jiggle dance. Man, this is what you call physical comedy right here. Look at this. Wait, here it comes. Did you get out of that hole? Here it is. Here it is. You say a couple of obvious things. Here's when it all comes together right there. Wait. The close shot. Here it comes. God, I was really emotional. Here it is. Boom. Here it is. Nope. There we go. We added a little stuff there. There it is. That's the one that got me going. Look at that shit. Very serious there. I can't compete with that. Okay, now coming up here is some great stunt work by Robert. Yeah, we did this about 16 times, if I remember. And this is all improv on Robert's... This one. Peek-a-boo, I see you. Where did that come from? There it is. Now that's Robert. That's Robert doing that. You wouldn't tell because it's so wide.

How was it doing that shot, doing that roll? Because that was a one-take deal. It was adrenaline incarnate, man. Yeah. I wasn't wanting to carry a brother right here, though. Yeah, no, all through the prep of the movie, you were upset about this scene because you had to carry me. And then you had to carry me at the end of the movie, too. Now, Jack, that little roll was not easy. That was my stunt. This is good. Look at the eyes. That's not me, believe it or not. So that was our whole first three weeks of shooting. Finally, we made it here. This was where it sort of got more complicated shooting-wise, when we started to have to actually shoot the crew. Look at that dopey-ass look on Tug's face. All dreamy and whatnot. You got something to say, though, hold up. That's the trick of directing, isn't it, Ben? You got to take what's really fantastic.

what's really funny on the page, and then you go, wait a second, how do I do it? Yeah, Ben's arms tied in back of him, and we got these second attempt at the prosthesis up, because the first one's a little too stubby, if I remember correctly. Yeah, they look too realistic, and we wanted to do more of a starfish sort of thing. Dude, look, he's just smiling, passing out, trying to communicate. Fuck, I can't remember. It's so sad. And then you start dribbling, and that's where the audience starts laughing. and you really had to keep the waterworks coming for a long time on this just a bit yeah fuck I love you dude this is where we became buddies we definitely were in it together and there's Jack there's Jack hanging from a chopper there it is fucking dumbass limey man that's a crinkly face motherfucker right there

Yeah. Stevie Coogan. Little Stevie Coogan. Little Stevie Coogan. Yeah, fucking pussy. That's what he is. I still think he's a pussy. That really is your makeup person there. Yeah, this is all the real crew. I mean, we didn't go out and hire a fake crew to play the crew. We just literally filmed our own crew. We got Jimmy Rich over there holding the boom. Yeah, now Jimmy Rich's scene is included in the director's cut. I'm glad to hear that. Because he had a very funny scene where he's the boom guy and Coogan gets upset with him. There's our boy now. There's little Cody. Cody's handling it. Of course, that guy's not real, crew. That is the brilliant... Danny McBride. Danny McBride. ... sweater back here. I'm trying to put Tiger Balm on this jungle's nuts. Oh. Al Pacino hotline. What's up? What's up, baby? What the fuck is going on here? Everyone, please shut up. The Jets are coming in. We only have one chance at this. All three, baby. One, two. Do me a favor. I don't want to do a countdown before I do the scene. No countdown. Robert, you were wearing one of those mics on your lapel.

Yeah. And then right after this, you walked off to take a piss, and the sound guy just left your sound on, and I could hear you in my headphone, and I heard you taking a piss, and you were still in character. You're like, yeah, that's it. That's John Toll with the hat on and the sunglasses. That's how you piss. That's how a brother pisses. Yeah, you let it flow. Now, Jack, that is actually you back there, right? Yeah, that was me. Fuck you had us doing this scene all day and night. Well, you kept improvising. You kept on coming up with new stuff. Yeah, and I like... You just sort of fed up. Remember Nick Nolte falling over in the chair?

Just prepping for the scene. You know what, Kirk? I'm ready to do the scene. What scene? The scene was about emotionality. Well, it was important to sort of, like, set the, I think, the context of the movie, that it was, you know, making fun of the movie-making process. You almost drove little Stevie Coogan nuts doing this scene. As of two days in, the man was ready to quit the business. Look at him. Jump up and down. Hit yourself in the face with the monitor. We ain't printed nothing yet. We've been shooting for three weeks. No, he had to jump up and down a lot because we had to cover it. Yeah, there's the orgasmic Danny McBride. That's a good explosion, though. He really is. Danny McBride's just one of the funniest around, and he really went off on his little sides up there. This was our big explosion. There's you coming out of the thing. I'm just going to say obvious things. I got some good footage of that explosion on my camera video phone.

Oh, did you? Yeah. Everybody did. Yeah, that was an exciting day. That's D to the second AD. I watched it from like a mile away on the top of my trailer, and I felt the heat wave blast my face. Fingers are pointed at rookie director Damien Cockburn. Yeah, it was a real big explosion, and it went off without a hitch thanks to our special effects guy. Dude, I love this part. Hold on. There you go. Here it is. Yeah, Jack. Look at the eyes at half mastiff. Man, that's some real... I love that mug shot. What are you doing? The raw footage of you out in that lobby is really, really enjoyable.

to me we just grabbed all of that at the like the last day of shooting yeah which was and it ended up being stuff that was so you know important setting up the characters nice what made you go with the sarong that day I don't know but um pretty good definitely in retrospect there you go what made you go with the crazy beard so so uh there you go dude the shadow of your dick was impressive yeah it was definitely a huge look like a tree trunk down there I got a little something going on now is that from your reel inside the actor's studio That clip? No. No, mine was a travesty. Oh, really? This one was a corrective experience. This was all stuff we got at the very end. That's one of the last things you shot, right? That was one of the last things I shot. Oh, no. Yeah, and then Maria Menounos was nice enough to come in. Look at that shit. Yeah. His career has gotten cold. Look at you. That was a naturalistic thing. Here it is. Tyra was nice enough again to become a part of it. That was good, too.

Yeah, this whole little section always was a little bit of a tough one because we wanted to get the movie going, but we had to set up all the characters. He was trying to make Tug a little more likable. Like maybe he might give a shit about to do. That's right, which I don't know if that ever happened. was a box office disaster that many... We shot this. We really wanted to give it, like, a real lush feel. We went out to outside of L. A. to really... I think it's where they shot Seabiscuit, the movie Seabiscuit. We wanted to get a real sort of beautiful period. Yeah, she looks great there. But now the question is, can Speedman make audiences happy in what's being called the most expensive war movie ever? That's Jeff Weideman, who's a great young actor. I like him a lot. Looks like a young Brad Pitt. Here come the McConaughey. Here's McConaughey. So, Matty McConaughey comes in, and basically, the guy... I love that he takes his character so seriously, because he came at me with all these questions, like, real questions about Rick Peck and where he was coming from, his relationship, and fought for his character throughout the whole process of making the movie.

I was very, I think, it was great he took it. He's a real deal. Look, he's having a ball. Hey, what's up with the panda stuff? Was that you, were you taking a dig at my big movie? No, this was before. Not everything revolves around Kung Fu Panda in the world. Well, I don't know. I didn't even know Kung Fu Panda existed. It's like one of the 50 biggest movies of all time. Yeah, I understand that. I'm just saying. Oh, you mean the panda thing in the movie? Ben, it looks like you wanted to swole up for this sequence, like maybe you was too busy to pump. Yeah.

Might have been that we did a little reshoot, too. Oh, man. Matt's hair is pretty big. Yeah, his hair is bigger there than it is in other parts of the movie, but he wanted to give it a little bit of a... That's a handsome dude, though. He definitely photographs very well. He's got it all going on. He does. And he's also nice. I mean, think of that. Boom! End of story. They hook up the TiVo yet? Uh, no. What? They have digital cable, but... I mean, it's okay. No, no, no. Come on, man. It's not okay. It is not okay. This is somehow a chick-friendly movie, even though you don't see many ladies. Yeah, strangely, women do like the movie. The same way they like 300. That's right. They get to look at all those gorgeous bursting pecks. Ben, you was always drinking that same thing. Your character's holding right there a little, like, smarty pants water with some ice and all that. Smarty pants water, exactly. Tell you what, get back to work, genius soldier. The pecker's on a TiVo mission for the YLU.

That kid in the picture was the same one we used in the MTV short. Yes, we ended up using that kid in the MTV short because he was so good. I'm getting a little bit of Zeppo Marx off of McConaughey right now. Is that true? And Jack, can you stick around or you've got to cut out because we're still going to watch the rest of the movie together, you late-ass motherfucker. Oh, my goodness. I am late. Bring me some food. But the good news is I did get a great night's sleep. So that's a plus. Look at the way Hayter walks, swinging his arms. Man, what was you thinking? Is he just practicing burning things down? Yeah, he's just a little bit of a pyromaniac character. So here we are in the teleconference production meeting. This is some key shit. This is some key shit. Here comes TC. I have to give Steve Coogan credit. Yeah, here comes TC. And Steve Coogan is just, I think, just so good. And he did...

Such good work in this scene. We definitely shot a lot in this scene, getting the right tone, because he's getting bullied by Tom's character. Yeah, that scene was another beat down. Yeah, but Tom wasn't there when we were shooting, so Justin Theroux, our writing partner, was there shouting the lines off camera. We definitely shot a lot. It's so great, the new technology, that he can control the camera. Yeah, which is all real. It's all real stuff. And then you get Bill Pelluti there, who is our transportation captain. Look how natural it is for me to beat a man down. Bill Pelluti really is a tough dude. He is. I wouldn't mess with him. This is a smooth shot right here. Oh, God, it looks like he contacted him. That was take 15 of that. Oh, wow. Because he's a gentle man, and he really isn't a guy, you know, selling the punch was, he had to really go to a dark place inside of Seoul to find that. People at this point in the movie still usually don't know that it's T. C. and back all day. That's weird. Some people totally get it right off the bat, and then other people don't know until the end, too.

This is our, yeah, the reveal of them. So originally, actually the way we shot it was he took his hook and he scraped it across the window. Quint style. Very Quint style. That didn't work. It was a little too Quint style. The Robert Shaw character. Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, and it just was a little bit too much of an homage. It felt like, I think, a little too self-conscious. fuck note he's convincing us all get out the thing that's tricky about steve coogan's character is that his part was so funny on the page he had the challenge of making it as funny in real life well he's actually a fairly masculine dude and i see him every day we shot this movie i'm gonna beat him down like a sissy crazy little curly hair some burnt like a motherfucker but he really

He really squeezed it for all the glorious juice. Well, he's a great actor. He's a great actor. Besides the fact that he's a really funny comic actor, he's just a really good actor. He's a national treasure. He's amazing. And the Alan Partridge show, if you haven't seen that, is just like a classic. Man, don't be trying to fucking pump up a cookie. This is our time, man. All right. Jack, can I get a couple of them fries or whatever when your food comes? I didn't get fries. I want protein style. Because I'm trying to keep it real, even though I'm going twice as much meat as I should. You know what I mean? But you can have a sloppy bite. Okay. Hey, you guys in the control booth, if there are fries, leave them in there. Don't take them out now that I said that. You can bring his food in here, too. Yeah, you can bring that in here while it's nice and hot. It's pretty early in the morning for this burger. When Jack's eating and I take a nap, you can just run your fucking mouth for like 20 minutes if you want. Thank you, my brother.

The strange thing is sitting in this room that we're, you know, here we are a year later or whatever doing this, and Robert has sort of like a 70s stash happening and his hair blown back looking very, in a good way, like looking very sort of... Way dear to fries. What? The fries there. I'm here growing fries. But just to see the voice without all the makeup accompanying it is always enjoyable. Well, this is my promise to myself is... Well, you're doing this. Keep it to the commentary and then drop it for good. Right. It's staying true to the character in the film. You gave me a great gift, Ben. And you gave us a great gift. Thanks, Ben. That rap gift was great. That tote bag was amazing. That must be a lot of trouble you've gone through the last six months staying in that character. Yeah, what's that been like? How's that affected your other roles and just your other work? I had to cancel a lot of jobs. You're going to do Sherlock Holmes now, right? Yeah. So will that affect your... Elementary, my dear Watson. That shit's elementary, man. Don't even trip on that. Yeah.

There we all go in the thing. I'm back to saying obvious things that are happening on the screen. I like this song. Yeah, this is the name of the game, Crystal Method. And then we were... We got them to do a remix for the end of the movie, for the end credits. Teddy Shapiro, our composer, did an overlay, so there's strings that kind of come over it as we get deeper into the jungle, so it sort of becomes its own thing. But then at the end of the movie, the Crystal Method guys did a remix where they took some dialogue from the movie. That I want to hear. Yeah. One time I saw the commentary for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Did you ever listen to that? No. With Ang Lee and like the... head writer or whatever hold on me like the writer you show up here tardy and now you talking about another fucking commentary you're not even listening to the end of my story though all right bring it forget it you're right

I feel like everybody got along pretty well in this movie, and there wasn't a lot of... There was nobody... I don't think we could have made the movie if there was anybody who wasn't on board for the whole experience. I think it was for everybody, Nick Nolte and... I was never late at the movie. No, you weren't, just today. Just rehearsals, too. You fucked up in a couple of the rehearsals early on. That's true. This was another sequence that felt like we shot it for seven years. LAUGHTER This was a tough one. This was a tough one because we had a lot to... You know, every scene, there were a lot of actors in every scene, so we had a lot of coverage we had to get. But we rehearsed it. We went out and rehearsed it. We rehearsed it in the jungle. Yeah, we went out to the location and rehearsed it. Two-hour drive to the jungle. Yeah. And you know what? It worked. We were mentally prepared. Yeah, this was... God bless the 4x4. It's four patties of meat.

Oh, my God. You can see the Ben's moron swole in this scene now, too. That is crazy. That is insane. Are there four patties? There's four patties, but there's no bun. Oh, I see. Protein style. I have to say, though, Coogan, just to... Coogan handles it again. Yeah, he really does. Man, he was all over him with the prop test and when he's got to get this up. Yeah, he had a lot of stuff. You shouldn't have to be, man. He knows it's all got to time out. Yeah, no, he had to. He was just so spun at that point he couldn't hit his ass with both hands. No, he didn't. You broke him down. You broke that motherfucker down. He's one of the best actors I've ever experienced, worked with. That's seen a lot, Ben. Yeah. That's true. You worked with Robert De Niro. Yeah, Robert De Niro, Robert De Noni.

You know, he had his monologue, and he just had to do this monologue a lot, and he really brought so much to it. And he's such a good classical actor, too. He's got that, you know, he was really creating a real guy here. And I love that the whole movie's sort of about his character up until this point. He had a lot to deal with. A lot of bags, a lot of props, a lot of maps and things. I just love how cocky he is right now. He's going a little crazy. Look at that. Look at Ben glaring at him. Well, that was because we had to really make it clear that Tug's screaming. We had to make it clear Tug really thought the movie was happening. Right. Because... Hold up now. And then... Right. And he blows up.

Yeah! Woo! It's pretty great that that port noise is still all charged up even after he blows up. Yes, and that woo is really good timing. That's good for the audience. The way that he lets, yeah. Yeah, man, all them cats were good, too. The Jungle Brothers. Yeah, that's Trieu Tran, who's a really great actor. Young actor who plays the character Tru. And he really just, I was amazed when he came in and auditioned. He was on fire for this sequence too, man. Here we go. That must be an old French mine. It's a remnant from colonial Indochina. This jungle must be full of them. Hey! Don't you get it? He's messing with our heads. That's what all that playing God stuff was about. He's trying to get us to act good, save the movie. He ain't playing God. This was when we had to figure it out. Yeah. Yeah.

This idea came up in a writer's room right before we started. Before we went to Hawaii, we did a writer's room and we sort of had a bunch of guys there. Flavored corn syrup. I think that just popped out of a group of people saying, hey, what if I actually held it? Welcome to the movie factory. Look at this. Here's where it all come together. Ben wasn't giving a fuck. Yeah. That was... Look at me. Ooh. We added in a little of the chin there, the computer. Is this disgusting to hear me eating the cheeseburger? No, it probably adds some flavor to the commentary. I don't like the idea of the squishy mouth noises, but it does taste really good. Yeah. It's not a good scene to eat, too, though, if you're watching the head sauce come out. That's a sweet kick, man.

This was a great little location that we found, a little promontory near where we were shooting the compound. And that helicopter, you can't really tell from the way it's shot, but that helicopter actually had to be landed right on the top of that little area, which was not very big. because there's this sheer drop that goes right down, which you can't really see there also. But Danny McBride, again, very, very funny writer as well as actor. Okay. Uh, Damien, we're go for explosion. Ready to kick the tires and light the fires when you say so. Damien, we're go for explosion. Do you copy? I got an itchy trigger finger here. I'm ready to blow some shit up. All right. You happy now, huh? Can we do the scene? Or do you need a formal invitation? Come on, let's go. That's nice. Let's just sneak it off. Settle. You going to do a little of that Skag day? You're not really sure yet. Don't really know what he's up to. There you go. That's classic, man. Did you think there was a little chaplain in there, Robert? A little something, yeah. It looks like he pulled down a miracle, too. This is the shit, man.

Yeah. I got a bad feeling. This was all... I love that part, man, where you're trying to tell him to get back in the scene. He doesn't know. Yeah. This scene to me was when we were writing the script just to have the chance to do some sort of bad, over-the-top Vietnam movie dialogue. And this character you created, Jack. Give us a little of that. Well, yeah, no, I saw a guy in platoon who had a voice like that. Really, really horse and from New York, from Brooklyn. And it just embodied Vietnam war films to me. And I thought, if someone's got to do that voice, it might as well be me. I thought we all should have our own sort of bad characters. Glinting and glaring and chewing on. It actually stepped on Jay Baruchel's character because he's the one who's supposed to be from Brooklyn. Right. But I didn't care. I really wanted to do my voice so badly. You sort of became Husky Boy Scout. Yeah. That's what you became. Yeah.

And then the Criss Angel Mindfreak reference that always makes me laugh. I didn't like that I was so separate from you guys. I had to be off camera for a bunch while you were doing all your... Hang on a second. This is where you're going to say the joke that we're doing right now. Thank you. He's nervous. He's on the ropes a little bit. Man, I don't drop character until I've done a DVD commentary. Boom. Boom. That's why we... See? See how we brought it around? This makes me actually... This is like the show within the show inside another show. There you go. It's crazy. Clever, right? Real clever. Fuck, man. So, yeah, that was... So you thought of the head coming off and licking the blood from the head? Like... We did a writer's room. But just like a week before we started shooting? It was like the last thing? Not a week before. Like a week before we went off to location. So, you know, we just do a punch-up. You go through the script. So you had been writing this thing for 20 years, right?

On and off for 10 years. And then you kept on writing as we were. Yeah, well, there's so many changes. Never stop writing. Yes. The number one rule of making comedy, don't stop writing. How many grenades did Ben throw? I'd say about 65. Oh, you mean in terms of takes? 605 grenades to get that moment right. Yeah, I'm not really an expert grenade thrower. Man, you was butch as all get out, though. You was probably way ahead of the curve. So, Robert, you're saying that sometimes Ben is really pumped. And then a lot of other times he doesn't look like he's got muscles. Well, I mean, right now he's on smoke. Later on in the movie, he sees even more Jack, which is weird because he didn't have no time to work out. Damn, I was jealous of them guns, I got to tell you, man. Well, you were coming off of your Iron Man thing, so you could let yourself relax a little bit. Dude, at my height, I still didn't look as good.

as good as you with no swole. No, that scene where you have your chest open and you're sticking your hand in your heart and all that stuff, that was, you looked very good there. Well, there's a difference between, like, looking pumped up and actually, like, having dangerous muscles that actually can kill. Yeah. What would the difference be? Dangerous muscles, you don't even look impressive a lot of the time. I remember this day, too. We was like, man, what are we doing this tertiary shit for? This ain't gonna be in the film. This is the stuff that I love because to me it was all the stuff that those movies are about. An audience really respond to this next beat where you're doing some hand mucking. Yeah, that's coming up. After we cut away. D-Rod, D-Rod, this is Pudding Face. How are we coming on that hot plate? Something's up. I think we better drag ass back there. Make sure Damien ain't forgot how to use the talk box again.

Jack, this is one of my favorite moments of yours in the movie. This was like a... This is part of a long run of takes, right? We did like 12 in a row without cutting. This one's really on the down low. Yeah, this really makes me laugh. Man, that one somewhere was like... Back to one, back to one. Or was that the last one? That might have been the last one. Uh-oh, here it is. It's the timing you had with the... Look up there, run room, go back there, there's a snake, stop. Yeah. Something else. Makes sense. I'm already starting to freak. If you focus on me from now on, you'll notice I'm starting to freak out. As a director, you really have to trust your actors because you can't watch them while you're doing the scene. I know. You'd think you wish you could. Here come the classics now. You want to have the eyes in the back of your head, but you can't. Here come some classic shit. Classics still are down there. Robert, what you're doing in this scene really makes me laugh just because...

You do these sort of asides and takes that are really huge. To me, these sort of looks and sort of... But I'm still your buddy. See, I'm smiling at you. There you go, right there. We own the same page. See, that one always makes me laugh. You're playing out to somebody who's out there. We don't know who's out there, but you're playing out to them. I don't know how you somehow come off looking taller to me in this scene. I just took the high road, and I made sure they dug a ditch next to you. I was wearing my lifts. I was like, fuck, man, how's this dude doing? Every once in a while, you've got to sort of take that directorial advantage. I looked at, scouted out the terrain. I mean, it was very uneven ground, for sure, and I definitely did. Now, I'd heard a story, actually, from an actor once that they said that

another actor had a ditch dug for them so that they could remain taller. But it's nice to be taller than you in one scene. I loved this day, man. Yeah, this was great. You and I became like film lovers on this day. Yeah, this is where we had some fun in terms of just improvising. Yeah, you pushed me right over the edge. Yeah. You just kept on coming up with funny stuff. Look at how dead serious you are. You're so grounded. It's like you're talking straight business right now. Look at you. And what Robert did was just, you know, that attitude to me, what you're playing there, talking down to me, yet pretending that you're sort of like, you know, with me, but sort of mocking me. Look at you. Yeah, that's just... The moments there that you've got going on are just... Look, I look like a little dude next to you. You motherfucker.

Neither of us are super tall. No, neither of us are super tall. But you're definitely taller than me. See, now we ended up in an area where we're about the same. Which is good for the scene because now you're low status. Exactly, right. Fuck, you thought everything out. And you dropped the bomb on me in terms of, you know, just out thinking what I should be doing. You got great eyes for film, man. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. Look at them blues. And you, I love your look with the blue contacts. I sort of gave you like a Peter O'Toole sort of vibe. I'll take it. That Satan's out. Look at you right now, looking over my chin. It makes sense. I don't know what I'm looking at there. You're looking like, wait a minute. I don't get it. You're just really... What the hell? What's he laying me on to, you wonder? You had a little fear in you there. This was a place where sometimes it was actually hard to understand what you were actually saying.

Because we didn't want to push it too much in terms of like, because you were just doing the character. But sometimes it was hard to actually get exactly what you were saying. But the intention behind it was pretty clear. So here, this scene was, we had a very short amount of time to shoot this scene because the sun was going down. It was our last thing we shot in that drop zone area. Yeah, they really did. I have to say, Nolte came on his game every day, and just that look to me in this scene that he has is just so great. It's just so sweaty and grizzled. The aviator glasses. Yeah, this is where Cody's dreams sort of get shattered. This was sort of a change we made late in the script, too. The idea of him discovering that he had real hands early on. It used to be a lot later when they were already captured. I'm getting naughty in 48 hours. That's a man who knows how to be an action scene right there. See that? Definitely. He really does. He's done some crazy-ass classes. He's the real deal. K3 and whatnot, everything. This is Jack's improvs here. Watch Jack handle it. Where did that come from, Jack?

Maybe it came from sometimes I do hate movies. And you get your JoJo's jelly beans. What did you think, R. D.? I didn't think it was going to look that good. That was some good special effects. It was full of industrial lights and magic. That was. That's a full CG bat there. I was very happy with what they did there. And then here's the peace scene. It's one classic after the next. No wonder they love this picture show. Robert, really, you really make the last one to say. You went to boot camp, right? You can read a map? Yeah, I think so. And I know Steven got everyone convinced we out here making Planet of the Apes on YouTube or some shit, but I don't buy it. You want to step on a real landmine, you want to die? You want to get shot by a real motherfucker? Keep looking ahead, man. Of course not. If I can put that map in your hands, can I count you in? Uh, well, yeah, I guess you can. Dynamite, come out. We love Ben. Ben's lovely, but look at him. Thank you. All right. Ben directed this movie.

Look at him go, wait, man, this matches me step for step. Watch this shit. I enjoy what Robert's doing in the background here. Except he takes it a step further. Yeah. Robert's checking out what's going on in the back there. That's lovable. Man, you a butch motherfucker, dude. You a real soldier. See, what I love about you, Robert, in these scenes, you're doing huge stuff here. It's like... Huge takes that you can get away with because you're so good. You're like in a real war movie right now. Sort of. He's in his own movie. You must have been stressed out, man. Look at you. You thin as a motherfucker. Eating nothing but like green and red peppers. Some water. Thunder chips. Did Jay Baruchel get a nomination for supporting actor in Million Dollar Baby? I don't believe so. And there you go eating the bat. Why the hell, man? That was a crazy old prop. Now, why do you throw it twice? I like that you throw it twice. Oh, because I wanted it to really go far. And I didn't...

You look sad, dude. I'm feeling the pain. That's my turning point, is my character. Here's the compound. That's Nick Nolte for real in a helicopter. Crazy. Yeah. So here we are at the river. Here's the river scene. The ruins, the ruins at the river. I can't see no fucking ruins, man. They're all there. I see them now. I saw them on the day. They're sort of layered in there. There's like a giant face off to the left when the camera pans over. Man, Ben was leading the charge on this scene, I tell you. This was not an easy scene just because of the footing. Everybody was on these slippery rocks. Was the river higher than it was supposed to be? See the face there, the broken face? Yeah, it's still subtle. It was just complicated because we had to be half in the water and half out of the water. But Robert, you really... Hold on, brother. What do you mean, you people? What do you mean, you people? I think what Tug means is you people, you actors, you people.

This was sort of late in the shoot when we did this scene. I think everybody was a little tired. Jack, you had to really be in pain the whole shoot. That must have been sort of tough for you. Especially for that scene, but throughout. That's what I knew. This was, yeah, one of those scenes where I had to be in maximum discomfort the whole time. Now, this scene, I just want to say, this little scene came out of the fact that Robert had to cover some ground to get the map for me, and we never figured out how you were going to get the map and the script at all. And so you just sort of came up with that right in the moment, didn't you? You're dead serious right now. Look, that's the only reason it works. Look at you. Well, you know, we had to figure out a way for you to outsmart me. Fuck, you're dead serious. And you came up with this little Rambo rant. Any tips? Any tips?

Here's where it gets hard. Look at Ben. Look at Tug. Tug working with feelings now in a minute. Look. Fuck me. Son of a bitch. There's about five different versions. Look at Jack in the back. Jack working it. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Ha, ha, ha. And this was in one of the earlier drafts of the script where you dropped character, your character, where Lazarus drops the Osiris character and went to his normal real person. And then later in the development, we decided to keep him. Thank God, man. You was real strong on that conviction, and I'm glad. Yeah, I mean, it sort of gave you somewhere to go and then to let go of later. But for a long time, you became Irish because it was Irish, not Australian. Ben made it across that river.

Yeah, there was... So easy, but he keeps the tape where it slips a little bit. Like maybe he ain't even gonna make it across the river alive. Right. Give it a little bit of a... Watch this. Here it come. It's on the next cutback, right? Here it come. That's selfless, man. Whoops, you dumbass bitch. That was real, wasn't it? Yeah, you could have been carried down the river and never seen again. Yeah, that river was not, you know, it wasn't... Which the crew probably would have celebrated. They probably would have been happy. But then when he stuck out, they would have to do it. So all these shots we got sort of all in the same area. I have to say this improv coming up that Robert has really made me laugh and comes out of the Jay Baruchel really would talk about things like HD, DVD, and Blu-ray.

You know, this film geek stuff. How did this work? This was just an accident. The bug actually flew in my face. It's serendipitous. Yeah, it was a real, obviously a real praying mantis, and then it flew in my face. And I was just amazed that it did. So this is all improv. There's nothing in the script. It's just like trekking, you know, guys trek through the jungle. So this whole thing was just the actors coming up with their own thing. And Robert, what you're doing... Again, getting away with just gigantic use. You had us going through something that had been cleared. But you know what's funny? The timing of this line. Jay Baruchel at the time of this improv was kind of predicting that HD was going to win the race. That's right. Couldn't have been wronger. We actually had to go back in ADR and change it because by the time the music was editing. Man, this was crazy that you was up there. Yeah. Man, nobody should have let you do that. That was our last shot we shot in Hawaii there. Death defying.

But your timing on you talking to me this whole time is really, to me, one of the funniest things. How did you get up there on that mountain peak? They dropped me off in a helicopter. The helicopter hovered over there. It doesn't really look quite as dangerous anymore. Man, you had gone crazy at that point. You were doing shit that no normal motherfucker would have allowed himself to do. It was the last thing we were shooting in Hawaii, so if something went wrong, we would have had most of the movie, the exteriors, in the can. So it wasn't that big of a deal. Even the stuntman said he was scared shitless. Yeah, Brad. You're really nailing the accent more than you ever have. Yeah, yeah.

We should go back and redo some of the... It's my last time, baby. So this is our dusk scene, and we shot this over the course of about three different dusk hours, three different days. Here's where Ben asked me to go too far. Well, we were on, like, take 15 or 16 or 17. I was giddy, and you kept telling me to turn up the two-dimensionality. At this point, you were cracking yourself up and really just going, this is ridiculous. I think you probably were sure that it wasn't going to be in the movie. That's really where it got so... But it had to get to that point for him to finally call you on it. And it's fun to just see how the audience finally at this point really has been waiting for this to be said to you. And then the hop away is just always an unexpected moment. Brandon just came up with that on his own. Uh-oh. Hey, was Pump the Bricks in there?

Is that coming up? That's coming up. Yeah. Sorry. Puppy breaker kid. So here we are in the hole. Every time everyone else is done, Banner goes shoot some crazy shit all by himself. This man never rested. He didn't sleep for like five months. Look at him. It's like what he's doing to give the audience a little something to hold on to.

Oh, this is good. Shooting in the rain, fake rain, because this was on a stage, is not fun, though. You poor son of a bitch. I can't imagine doing a whole movie in the rain. It's really, really uncomfortable. Has there ever been a movie all in rain? Like that, wasn't that movie Hard Rain? Who'll Stop the Rain? I don't know. black rain wait a minute yeah what the hell is that thing it's actually um there's a combination there's a uh is it animatronic it was there's an animatronic head and then there was a um a um a little person inside of a suit um stuntman guy and he and i wrestled a little bit it's like that movie alien though the less you see of the beast the scarier it is right except for this beat we have to reveal this is a little bit what you think when you see that mr black

Death of a franchise. Yeah. You guys are really fucking with my livelihood here. It's like all the goodwill that Kung Fu Panda built up for us was just totally killed there. I remember seeing you shooting this scene too. Oh, were you there? Really? I was walking by. I was about to shoot something else. Yeah. Man, these guys work together like a charm. Yeah. It was great to see these two guys work together. They complement one another. Yeah, and I think Danny and Nick became friends during the shoot, and they just had a great rapport. They were staying in the same hotel room by the end. Were they? Yep. Do you think Danny gets to go over and hang out at Nolte's house now? Are they friends like that? At the complex. I've always wanted to go over there. It's a hell of a spread. I heard he's got a... Have you been there? Yeah, man. I heard he's got a sweet layout down... Don't, don't, don't, don't go there, brother.

Oh, no. I remember the first draw up they did of that costume. I said, that's some funny shit now. Yeah, this is one of the more lonely scenes to shoot. Just trying to figure out whether or not that made sense when we were doing it. Look at your crazy eyes. Vivica, get off the line now. A hooker. All right, you killed a hooker. Calm down. Here's what you're going to do. Get your hands on some bleach, some hydrogen peroxide, and a shitload of lime. Noah Panda. Thank you for Panda. Amanda. Come on, dude. Also one of the last things we shot in Hawaii. Noah Panda. Panda? A sweet, cuddly, vicious little panda. So, Jack, talk a little bit about the experience for you. Was playing the guy, because I feel like you were the one who had to sort of go through the most physical.

I was just wondering, though, if Matt McConaughey was basing it on any one agent in particular. I don't know. You'd have to ask him. Did he want to go and spend time with your agent? No, I think Matt was... You know, obviously he knows agents and has been in the business, but... I'm just saying, because your agent is named Nick, and his name is Rick. Yes, there is a Nick-Rick similarity. When I first read the script, I thought Nick... Stevens your agent should just play the role yeah Nick would have been hilarious playing the role totally different a different way to go Okay, obviously That was a little cartoony version of a Withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't find any really good footage of people going through hardcore withdrawals. I watched some documentary footage of people, and then I just like, you know what, I'm just going to imagine it. I'm just going to imagine wanting something so bad. Well, the jaw thing was just sort of a kooky thing that I always wanted to do. Yeah, and it's hard to do that. There you go.

Yeah. Anyway, back to me. And so what I ended up doing, I just watched a lot of movies with people going through stuff. I watched your movie. Oh, you did, yeah. I watched Permanent Midnight. Yes. I watched Drugstore Cowboy. There you go. Whoa. I was doing this scene, Robert. I was emotional as all get out. It's kept us down. I just thought if a man has no understanding of black culture, probably the first thing to come to him is like a theme song or something. Seemed to play out pretty good. Shot a couple times, moved on. That theme song actually is a stone-cold gem. Me and Kyle used to cover it when we did Tenacious D concerts. Really? Jefferson's? Really. Moving on up.

It's a great jam. Brandon T. , God bless him, man. He helped us get the balance right. He did. So we didn't have people coming after us. Not that we wasn't sensitive. We have a moral psychology of sorts. No, but it was really important, obviously, to have his point of view. And when we were in rehearsals, we changed that scene around to make that feel right. That's where Jack says he wants to wear the entrails of the cloven-hoofed animal like a leotard. I don't think anyone... I don't know that it's actually a side effect. of going through withdrawals is that you want to eat big animals. Well, really, that came out of the scene where, and it's cut out in Platoon, the let's do the village scene. Oh, yeah. Have you wanted to do the yak? Let's do the yak, which we ended up cutting out. It's not even a yak. What's it like directing a scene where you're tied to something?

Well, this one was easier than the one in the beginning when I had my hands behind my back because I was sort of able to get in and out of it. This is where you come into full effect right here. Yeah, this is where Tug comes in. Tug really thinks he's really deep in the movie. Look at you flexing that bicep, too. Yeah, when he saw that security camera, he starts to play it up. Look at that shit look, man. That almost looks like a leg. That's a big-ass arm. But my mind wanders free. Ah! Wait, wait, wait. Let me do the line again. Let me do the line again. My body may be shackled, but my mind, one is free. Good. Again. Again. Good. Good. Now let's do the torture scene. I see moss on both sides of that tree. Well, you know, maybe if I wasn't the only one who can. My belly really hurts, you guys. I'm not joking, I'm not even obnoxious. Let me off, I gotta puke. I don't wanna die like Hendrix. Are you okay, Jeff? I'm awesome. Holy shit. Everyone down, down, down.

Well, I'm sure that looks like the POW came from out the script, yo. Stephen was right. I don't think so. Look at the cooking vats, the armed guards. Looks like a heroin processor plant. We're in that chopper for hours. I don't even think we're in Vietnam anymore. Fuck, shit. We ain't even in Nam? No, most likely Myanmar or Lao. What the fuck is Lao? It's a golden triangle. The world's hard drug superhighway. How do you know about that? It was a really long trip. I read the in-flight magazine. That couldn't have been any fun. That was... You know what? The only thing that was tough about this was that we had to shoot it over two days, and we didn't get it the first time. Now, was that just your hands in there, or did they have something running down to a belt in the back? No, no, just my hands. That's crazy, man. Yeah. I like your monocle thing that you used, too, your single-sight thing. I like the...

Figure that out. You know, this is like the point of the movie where you sort of just, if the audience wasn't on board, we would have been in big trouble just because it's really having to buy into the fact that, you know, that this character thinks he's in a movie. Why does he do that? To try to intimidate me. Seems to work. What, did you have on knee pads when they threw you on the ground? I did have knee pads. Thank God, man, that's a hell of an impact. Yeah, this was back in L. A. , shooting on the stages. You really worked with that young man. Yes, he was amazing. He was a natural, but he needed you. Well, Brandon Soo Hoo, he's a really great young actor. It's his first movie. He came in, he just nailed it in the audition. Just a hell of a turnaround, man. The audience goes crazy for this bit. And he did not hold back on the switch.

And he was amazing. Seriously, though, this kid is just... That's a great subtlety, because they're realizing that you're the actor. Yeah. Yeah, he got all these moments. He got all these moments, and he didn't hold back at all, and yet he's, you know, very... He's a very sweet kid, too. He's just, you know... You're playing all kinds of levels yourself right now. I don't know. Am I a simple joke? Am I just going to work? What does he want? Right, trying to figure out what's going on. Am I dissing the script? But I was relieved the first time we screened the movie that people sort of laughed at this moment. Man, they loved it. Because we didn't know if people would buy into the fact that, you know, that I actually thought it was in the movie. And that was a good sign. Which means people wind up liking Tug. Right. It was a good sign. They're with him now. Yeah. You got him right where you want him both. And I do feel like that's, you know, really important in a movie like this. You have to sort of keep the momentum going and that the story at this point has to kick in. Otherwise, people are sort of...

You know, at this point, like, any of the humor that comes just out of stuff that you divert for is not going to support itself when you get deep into the movie. Got to dig deeper. Yeah. Got to dig deeper. I love that we've actually accepted Robert in this voice for the whole commentary. And, again, I find myself strangely liking this guy more than the regular Robert. I can't believe I got to let him go. It wouldn't be PC if I did not. No, of course. You got to. Are you going to do it, like, when you're going to drop character at the end of the credits? You got to go. Are you going to go into Lazarus? Australian and then decompress? I think once Osiris ain't Osiris no more, I got to be Lazarus. Okay, good. And then maybe be Meepo B. Good, all right. Sounds good. Here comes some serious, crazy shit again. All right. So here we are in Les Grossman's office, and, you know, the process on the DVD, you have a...

little extra where we see Tom's makeup test where he sort of developed the dance moves and his whole thing in this movie really just developed organically from a lot of his ideas and I hope when you go into the Vietnamese character that you do a little bit of that too though okay oh yeah you should do that guy too but we did like three or four makeup tests with Tom to get to this look And then in one of the makeup tests we filmed, he started to do a little dancing, just started to do a little of this hip-hop dance with no music playing. And it was so enjoyable. This is a remarkable journey. Yeah. No, no, it's crazy. This is us at our best, what we do. It's a complete transformation with TC. Yeah, and he really went for it. It's fun to see how his eyes pierce through the makeup. It's hard to make that motherfucker look ugly. It is, very hard. That's a handsome dude. You have to work on it.

But of all the elements... We wanted to take the hair off of his head and put it onto his chest and arms. That's really what the goal was. But Tom had this idea for the big hands. He said, I want this guy to have really big hands. And he had these prosthetic hands made up. And I had the bald idea. And it just sort of became this combination. Look at that hand. It looks like someone else's hand is in there right now. It's a big hand. dad is a big ass man yeah yeah and he really uh he really goes off on this and uh this run he really nailed this run down on a godly fucking firestorm upon you you're gonna have to call the fucking united nations and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you i am talking scorched earth motherfucker i will massacre you i will fuck you up

Now, this take, Reggie, just that take to me is just such a smart comedic actor. Yeah, Reggie's a stone-cold dude. Yeah. And he gave him real weight, you know, which made it, I think, funnier. So here we are at the compound, and we really wanted to go for a... Yeah, I'm going to give you a hand right now just for the show that's coming, man. Thank you. Thank you very much. Fuck, you went all out. You know, we wanted to go for sort of a Gilligan's Island vibe to the... Coconut head. Coconut head. Straw. Look at you with the burlap and get out. Yeah. Fuck, man. Sort of like a King Kong sort of feel. What did you think of that dude when he put his teeth in your teeth? Look at this. That's a brave motherfucker. We did a little Texas switch here. Did you? We call it the Texas switch. It's actually, they're not his. That doesn't look like a Texas switch down there to your nuts.

You took some abuse, baby. Brandon learned how to pull his punches there. This was, again, like having to just... Ben, look at you, man. That's all I got to say. Look at your ass. Another lonely scene to shoot. None of the rest of the cast were there. Here we come. Wait, everyone shut up. I got to hear this. Like that little tiny kid. Yeah. And he was really, there's two twin young boys, and they were very good actors. And here we are. Wow, look at this. Man. Hey, now. Restrain yourself. I know. Start over, boss. My God. So here we are at the campfire, and I was really pleasantly surprised how these scenes came out, just because in the script they were always very expositional scenes. We had to just get the story forward. They had to plan what they were going to be doing, and...

Um, they ended up being some of the funniest scenes in the movie, I think, just, uh, because we, A, I think we kept working at them to try to find the jokes in them, but also the guys are so good. Like, you see what, how everybody's interacting here. And at this point, you're seeing, uh, all the characters interacting. They all have their own dilemma. Um, and everybody's, I just feel like you guys are such good actors that it was, it was really fun as a director to be able to just... Where there's a dilemma yet to be exposed. Yes, there is. That is another element. The missing dilemma is made clear. Yes, that's for sure. But even just the little moments in here, like what you're doing, like Jack, I love this close-up of you. This is how your skin is shining, and you're so into it. Remember that? It just looks great, and you really are... I'll throw another little tidbit out at you. In earlier drafts of the script, that catapult idea was actually what the third act was. The guys actually catapulted themselves into the compound, and it was so stupid.

that at a certain point I said, this is way too stupid. We cannot do this. In fact, we have to pitch it as an idea, and then everybody has to look at him and say, look at him, this is the stupidest idea ever. You probably made the writers feel real small that day. But luckily you saved the movie again. I take responsibility. You saved the movie every fucking day almost, you did. I ain't lying. The writers. Man, that's a stone cold fact. I'm just telling you, I made myself feel small that day. Spit that shit out, man. There it is. Man, I was having a ball that day. Crazy eyes. Look at that. That's it, dead eyes. I ain't even in my body. That's one of those things you just can't explain, but to me it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a movie, ever. I'll just say it, dead eyes. And there, look at how we got lucky with that. The boom right in front of the face there. And we are trained actors, motherfucker. And I ain't gonna sugarcoat it.

Now, you must have felt like you were really right in your groove. Did you feel like you were in your groove right here with this moment? Like not on the same flight. This was all on the studio. Yeah, all on the stage. Dude, that's a man. Yeah. This is, to me, like how the Sarah thing gets ratcheted up, and now we're like into the mechanics. This is a fashion action movie now. And Bill Hader, just in his full-on studio. Was this the most surreal part, though, of directing the movies, when you got Tom Cruise there on the set and you're directing him? I imagine that that would be the most... It's definitely, because Tom is such an iconic figure in our culture, it's definitely a little bit... Well, if you're directing Tom Cruise, you're like, well, holy, we are in Hollywood right now. There's no way around... Yes, but, you know, because of his look and everything, it was just so different, and everybody was just, I think, into the moment. And then you got McConaughey there. You got a lot of bigwigs on the set. You know, Tom was just really having so much fun with the character. I like this line.

How about I send you a hobo stitch? What? And he just did that crotch grab on his own. You know, he was going with it. And then here, also here. He changed it up a little instead of a yell. He goes, hi. Go fuck yourself. Improv. We don't negotiate with terrorists. That's a Tom Cruise improv. And the little relationship between him and Bill Hader here. Look how deep his eyes are. Look at him. That's fucking fantastic. You don't want to be on the other end of that, you know? It's like he's really laying it out there for him. Have you been talking side projects with Tom Cruise? We have not been talking side projects. You wouldn't tell me if you were. No, we, you know.

Diplodocus. Don't be so diplomatic. What you got going on with the TC, brother? Got three projects in the pipeline. I want to work with that motherfucker. You got for sure at least one in the pipeline. I want to work with Bill Hader. Look at him. Look at him, right over the shoulder. He's a young buck, but he's got it. Bill Hader's really one of the most talented guys. He's the shit, man. He's got the goods. Yeah, and as an impressionist, it's insane. You can do an impression of anybody and find an essence of them. McConaughey's bringing it right here, too. This moment I really wasn't expecting even when we shot it. Tom would just sort of do this right there. I don't think anybody was really expecting that he was going to go to that place.

I like that McConaughey is really selling it on the other side. Man, without McConaughey's reaction, it ain't going to work. Look at him. Look at Matt's tripping. He's trying to make sense of what's going on. Haters saying, let it happen, baby. Oh, my God, TC's on fire. Nobody's got moves like Tom has here. I mean, this is just crazy. Yeah, people blown away by how that white boy danced. And, you know, he's got the G5 move there. That's for my boy. Oh yeah. Player. Player. Big dick player. Swinging past your knees. Big dick baby. Yep. Oh, now what? The party's over. See, it's one way or the other. You can grow a conscience in the next five minutes and see where that takes you. Let me get this straight. You want me Let my client of 15 years, one of my best friends, die in the jungle alone. Pour some money in a G5. Yes. A G5 airplane. Yes. And lots of money. Play. Yeah. Smack it up, flip it, rub it down. See, now we're back into... Look at him with the double guns in the hands. Yeah. He's playing cowboys and Indians with himself. Yeah. So here you guys are watching. Here's the comeuppance. You got the Cyclops working.

This scene actually went really smoothly, I thought, when we shot it. You guys, again, near the end of the shoot, and you guys really had a good rhythm going with each other. Yeah, we only did like 60, 70, 90 takes of this. Fuck! Remember when you had him smack me all goddamn day, Ben? I remember like it was fucking yesterday. Well, you did need to get your comeuppance for doing this, right? Hey, I feel it was like karma on the spot. Why you still doing this chicken jaw shit? I have no idea. Neither do I. It's beyond me. It's beyond me. You confused. I am a little confused. I know. That's you improvising with Brandon. But are we cool? Oh, yeah. Not really. You really are not okay. Oh, no, damn. This to me, it doesn't get any better than this. Everybody shut their fucking mouth except Jack right now. Hey, so if it's no big deal, I think I'm just going to hang back here for the mission.

Watch this stuff. Is that cool? What? No. We need you, Jeff. What are you talking about? OK, look, man. I got something to tell you. This is kind of like your thing, where you had to make sure everyone bought that you thought you were still in the movie. Yes. Right. This is a big thing for me to try to pull over on the audience, is that my character still believes no one knows he's addicted to drugs, even though it's been so obvious. to everyone else. It's important that... This right there, where did that come from? It was just a little conniption. When times are tough, you're in a corner. Sometimes your body's not going to cooperate with what your brain's telling it to do. You got it. I really love how that was lit. Yeah, well, that scene really is amazing looking. I mean, that's John Toll doing his thing and finding just like a little pinpoint on your eye. Makes my eyes rain. Oh, dang. Gilligan catching a kidney shot.

Okay. That's where to keep him. You really were great in that scene, and right off the bat, we did a couple of takes, two or three takes, but it was just so everything sort of came together in that scene. I remember feeling very excited when you did that. That was one of those scenes I was relieved when we got it. Yeah, yeah. It just ended up better than we thought it would be. There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear. Here's where we sort of have to buy that Tug is kind of going over to the other side. That was a cute little boy. You loved that boy. Yeah, he was very sweet. I mean, him and his brother, twin boys, about five years old. You know, this was really trying to figure out a way to have Speedman go to a place where he... You kind of look like Jake Gyllenhaal there for a minute. I'll take it.

You know, but it was sort of like this, we had to figure, you know, we didn't want him to become Simple Jack, but we wanted him to sort of somehow get brainwashed into wanting to be with his captors and that whole thing. And also the idea of him wanting to have a son. Which tracked from the beginning of the movie. Wait a minute, in that poster back there, is you chasing a butterfly with a sledgehammer? Yes. That's weird, man. Why the fuck would he want to kill a butterfly? I think he's just trying to have some fun. Look at all those stars. Now, this scene, again, this is the other campfire scene that I was just pleasantly surprised that we were able to... It really becomes, I think, due to what you guys were doing. It's all about the buffaloes just putting his face right next to Robert's. Yeah. You guys really brought this scene to life, and at this point, people, I think, you know, because you're such relatable people as human beings, that people are actually caring about the characters and...

So it takes what is, like, could have been just the... Look at me in the back. You see my package? Look at you. Not bad. I'm trying to, like, sort of talk about the... Sorry. Theoretical idea. Check out my dick. But your package is there. Wow. Look at that package. Oh, my God. Wait a second. Is that it? Is it possible that that's my stuntman? What? And that's you. That's you, Jack, for sure. Yeah, he was tied to that tree for a long time. My stuntman doesn't have the gut. No, it's Kevin. Why'd you call him Radar? You call him Radar. Look at my dick. Oh, it's gone. It's out of focus now. Busy chubbing up. You know. Ben would lift weights and I would chub up. Everyone has their own preparation. Yeah, Jay is great in the scene. He's the grounding force. Man, look at Brandon T. That's a beautiful man. Yeah, Brandon has great skin. Really just has a thing which just jumps off the screen. Oh, he's handsome.

He is. Man, look at him. The thing about, and Brandon did a great job in this scene. He does glisten. Because this is a big reveal for his character. He was all over him about the knitting and how he made the knit. Need to make the knitting look a certain way. You were fucking up in his head that day, man. I can't, I don't know how he made it. You toxic motherfucker. Damn, you would let it go, Neat. Cut. Back to one. Get the thread up. It doesn't look like you're really threading the needle. And you don't even give a fuck in the scene. Man, you was tripping on him. I felt like John Toll, the cinematographer, put a little extra effort and magical mustard sauce on the lighting of this. Yeah. Because he's known as the greatest outdoor cinematographer ever.

And I think he bristles a little bit when people always put the outdoor at the front of his title. Yeah, bullshit. He's like, yeah, well, check this out. This is indoor. What do you think about this? Boom. I have to say I was blown away as much, if not more, by the interior lighting that he did on the movie, especially in that cell and all that stuff. What's sad is I think I was trying to suck in the gut as much as I could when the camera was on me. Man, I don't mind your titties. There you go. I mean, I look right at them. I think your skin looked great in that scene, Jack. Thank you. I love the purple and the shiny and the whole thing. What a nice little glisten of my own. You were struggling a little bit with your skin. If I remember with the bugs and all that. Oh, no, that was when we was on the island. That was on the island, dude. How the hell do you know Chinese? Land of Silk and Money with Gong Li, second globe, third Oscar. Prepped for that one by working at a Beijing textile factory for eight months. That might be all right.

So obviously here's our little homage, our apocalypse homage that was too homagey. That water was most filthy. But Ben did not give a rat fuck. I come all with respect. Hold your cock! So there you go. Now, Jack, you didn't love being on the back of the water buffalo. I feel like Robert had a better connection with the water buffalo than you did. Let's just put our cards on the table. Yeah, he was actually like an animal whisperer. Yeah, you had a nice, you put out a good vibe with the animal. And of course the animal was pregnant, we didn't know that. No, but once she had it, she still didn't like me very much. Man, I was off the hook. Yeah, this scene, you really had the eyes. You're working the eyes. I'm an Australian playing a black man playing the Vietnamese at this point. Then got everyone gussied up back on the fucking mark. It stopped raining. Get back to the mark. We're doing this all day and night. This was definitely involved. A lot of POV shots. Yeah.

Stuff going on. Everyone was half crazy at this point. This was deep in the thick of it. This was like really like the last sort of, you know, final hurdle. Getting to this location was like, it was a mission. This was a tough one. This was really hard. It was about an hour. Electrolyte! This was the most remote of all the locations, yeah. Yeah. What do you guys doing here? He has hands. He killed Damien. Bullshit. Uh-oh, here we are back with the boys. Yeah, so they're in their own world, and he's relieved that he didn't kill the director. So, Robert, you want to talk about your ADR sessions coming in to have to loop this stuff? Because you had to come in a few times. Ben had me going smooth off doing the Mandarin. But first we did, what we did was when we first tested the movie, we had somebody loop your lines in Chinese and Mandarin. Didn't work. It did not work. Didn't work. Then we actually had your English lines with Chinese subtitles. We thought that might work. That didn't work. Still didn't work. Still didn't work. And then finally you came in with the idea to do it as Lazarus, as Osiris. That's right.

in the Chinese. And that really gave it the spin that it needed. This is like the tension moment. This moment, I really got to give a lot of credit to Phil Neilson, who was our second unit director. And you worked with him on Iron Man too, right? And he really had this great idea. for you blowing out your guns. This moment, here's my farms, motherfucker, to me was like for, I mean, I really was excited about this moment for years. You kept changing the line from here's my farms, motherfucker, to here's my motherfucking farms. Sorry. No, which is fine, but in my head I had here's my farms, motherfucker. Here's my spassable chicken head! And this was all, Phil had this idea to pull back and the sort of...

Yeah, and I really... Look at that break free. I got to give him all the credit. Look at that, man. I could just watch that all day. I could, too. Look at Jack fishing for the flow five. There is. Now, Jack, you got your hand deep in your pants there. It's kind of an homage to Zoolander, really. Oh, yeah, you're right. It is a little pulling the briefs out. Reaching down into the crevice to find the thing. This coming up is a classic which the audience also loves. I tried to put a little poo on the tip of the gun. You so did. And it didn't work. You used little mud. There you go. Look at that. That run. That's great. Don't judge me, baby. Don't judge. Which, you know, I think every person can identify with. That's what it's all about. Addiction issues. Yeah. It's central to the character. Take off your clothes. Take off your clothes. What do we do now? So now we're into the rescue and things have broken through here. Be swayed. Don't move.

I think Teddy Shapiro did a great job with the music here, too, where he really gets things ramped up. Boom. So they were going from location to the studio. And then we had to get all your stuff off and start the sort of deconstruction of your character. Yeah, yeah. Nice and easy. I go high, you go low. Yeah, go up that straight-ass wooden ladder, which is impossible. This was like the big... There's a puzzle at the end of the movie in terms of, like, all the editing, like, how to keep all this stuff going and how much you show of what. It's perfect, man. You've got a bunch of different things going on. Here. What's this? It was sort of a process of weaning it down. Jack, you had to do a lot of this stuff with the second unit guys in this fight, didn't you? Yeah.

And that fight ended up getting cut down a lot, too. Yeah, you was loving those days. Man, you was a crab, you was a motherfucker. Boom. Gotcha. So, uh... Steady curtains. This, uh, this, you really, that air of being in this weird... Really going for the... There's someone off-camera showing the kid how to move his hands. Yeah. That's the best shot in the movie right there. You did hit me. You fucking hypnotized me. I mean, were you guys, when you were writing this, were you trying to keep it within, like, I know it's all comedy and funny, but there is an undercurrent theme about, like, not knowing who you are and, like, hiding who you are and trying to find out who you are with, like,

Yeah, no, I mean, that ended up being like we had to really sort of figure out what these issues were that the actors were going through at the end. Yeah. That's why we ended up keeping your character and character the whole movie. He had to have a reason why he stayed in character because he was afraid to drop character. It has to be that without Speedman being in the state he was in, he never would have got Lazarus to fall out of the character he was in. Right. Exactly. And we all helping each other. Flipped it around, you know. I love that scream, Jack. There you go. Look at that. Come on. Full-on commitment. Boom. Boom. Boom. Jesus. Yeah. And that was your stunt guy, Jimmy, did that drop. Jimmy's the best. Yeah. And there it is. What's going through your head, man? You ain't going nowhere. It's just like the mashed potatoes. It was sexy. Yeah. He was Richard Dreyfuss in that moment. Definitely a little Close Encounters moment there.

This was, again, like when you shoot all this action stuff, you end up hanging on to it as long as you can, even when the movie doesn't support it necessarily, because you remember how much it costs and how long it took to do it. They could let their fingers go. Yeah. This is a little sort of... I want to taste it so bad. They only laugh at my farts. Jeff, you really need to go now. This is all I deserve. I'm sorry. So close. Almost had it. But I'm feeling your pain, man. You farts save your life. Because farts are funny. Farts make people laugh. But the farts also save your life and motivate this whole shit. Yeah! You've had enough of the fart humor. I have. Listen to this bit. Let's move. We only have 16 hours before the window. There you go. It's a little joke. Time for a little joke. Sounds like the dinner bell's ringing. These assholes are going to be crawling in here ready to fucking eat us. Come on, let's go. Come on, what are you doing?

This is where we're just into a weird world where you're just asking the audience to get on board with these characters. They get the refrigerator box. No, they like the refrigerator box. That we locked into something. Refrigerator box. Give me the flamethrower. You've got to strike the camera. No, fuck that. Just give me the flamethrower. No time. I'll take care of this. All right. Give me your hooks. Don't worry, I'm not gonna put them on again. Just give me your goddamn hooks. All right. Get those boys back to the bird. Pronto! Again, like, just trying to keep the reality level, because he had no bullets. How do you keep him alive? That's how. Yes. The deus ex machina. You know, this is when I just, I have to say that moment shooting Nick with that flamethrower. For real, it was a real flamethrower. Nick was blasting that thing. It was just a really enjoyable moment for me. Well, it was enjoyable for me to watch him do it on the day I remember I was there. But look where Ben's at right now. It's just as enjoyable to watch Ben watching the stuff that he loves. Ben was in the zone right here, though. What? You dudes don't know what duty is.

Or are you a dude who has no idea what dude he is and claims to know what dude he is? What the fuck are you guys talking about? I blame other dudes. I know what dude I am. You're scared. I ain't scared of what? You're scared of who? Scared of who? Come on, guys, we really need you. And this whole sequence was shot on, there you go, on the stage. Uh-oh. Son of a bitch. Yeah, this was, you know, the question, like, whether or not the audience would actually care. This is Lincoln Osiris signing on forever now. All right, okay, that's going to happen right now. Thank you, people. All right, really one of the great comedic characters of all time, in my opinion. Thank you, by the way. Thanks for letting me float with you, man. Oh, this is weird. I love you, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, it's hard to let go, but it's open. May your arms strong. I remember, uh, the audience.

That was quite a trip going from that to the context. Wow is right. The insecurity level with you guys is ridiculous. See, now you're totally different. I can't get over how much you really changed in this character, into this guy. It's like a rebirthing. But the ego still resides. We're saying a lot in this scene, you know? asking the audience to make quite a leap. This is where Robert Downey just wipes the floor with us, the actors. He says, sorry, I'm going to my other place. He's on another level. You struggled with that a bit. Yeah, I did struggle with that one. You trusted it at the end of the day. audience rather enjoys it yeah and quietly i like how sensitive you are to light even though you've only been there for like two days maybe not even it's probably just fucking hell man remember this this whole sequence it was just this was uh this was a lot of work you guys were doing a lot of stuff here now he totally fucking came into his own and then we uh jack i love this stunt of yours hanging off pulling him up and then the uh

Four Leafs. Call them Four Leafs. I don't know if anyone's ever going to catch that without watching this commentary. You know what I'm looking forward to is the Saving Private Ryan moment coming up with you as Matt Damon. Definitely coming up. Boy, this kid just won't quit. Yeah, he won't stop. And then everybody has to beat the RPG, except for Sandusky. Mm, bangers.

this we got them they have no idea what's about to happen and now the fantastic that's good man recreation of the beginning of the movie and you literally became an action star in this moment look at you this is amazing just throw the flaming oil Barrels in there and there you go man, so that's really fun to watch it as my arms in an audience I'm actually getting a bit of diamond. Okay. Look at you so fucking disoriented This was a Look at John swinging. We sort of worked... We worked our way back towards the chopper in this action sequence. This was our march to the chopper. I was a little freaked because that bridge was a little moist. Action Jackson is back. Look how he jumps over the barrel. Unnecessary barrel jump. Flaming barrel jump, no less. You had to put some sand on this bridge because it was extra slickery in the mud.

And I was appreciative that someone was thinking of that because I was carrying this guy on my shoulders. Well, if you weren't, man, you'd be brave. And you really did a good job. Look at that, man. You are strong as an ox. It must be revealed at this moment. I mean, Jack just fucking went for it. Ben had a lot of options for this scene. I remember he was trying them all. We shot this scene three times also over dusk three nights in a row. Or not in a row, but over a few nights. And, uh... Your close-ups in this look, I think, particularly good. You look very something. I think your wife says you're living dangerously-ish. You're very Mel Gibson. Yeah. You got a whole thing going on there. The blonde looks good on you. I'm actually buying this. I think you guys both look good blonde, by the way. Jack, I got used to you. You say you gotta go back. I know. Look at that, I'm buying it. It did kind of piss me off when I realized that he was also blonde. I was really stoked that I was the only blonde. He had to steal my blonde thunder.

I never understood that one, but it works. He joined the circus? Yeah. That's an oldie improv. That looked a little Charlie Chaplin-esque, by the way. You run around the corner there. Well, he's doing the limp, because he also had a limp. That was a bridge too far, really, wasn't it? It was the running sideways. Oh, here it is. Oh, fuck, man, that's the classic right there. Look at him go. Stabbing me in the back. Fucking kid. Yeah, doesn't really work out the way. Fucking Nolte doesn't even understand. So here it is. Nolte, that's a real chopper happening behind him. He's going for the real... Look at this. Dive up. Boom. That gets him every time. And then Nolte does the full-on dive. Nolte. There it is. Whoa. Boom. Yeah. Fucking A, Ben. Yeah. Blew up that bridge. That's commitment. Here comes a sideswipe on the MI3. Oh, the sidesplody. Yeah, that is definitely a nod to J. J. Abrams' action there. Gorgeous. It fucking works, man. The whole thing comes together nice. Oh, yeah, you had to have that. I wouldn't have had that little fucker fold his arms. Just see him crawling away.

Do you want to feel like he drowned? And Ben, you've got us right back where we started and we bought the whole ride. See, now you're like in a real movie there, Robert. You're actually, and you are too, Jack. You're excited and I'm back. Yeah, but you're still Tug. Tug is in his own world. Look at him. That's a help me right there. Give me a hand. And Teddy Shapiro. Fuck, man, you were crawling out of the effluvia on the other side of that ravine. Yes. Can we try to do your run the same as in the beginning of the movie? Yeah. I'm cold. I can't feel my legs. No, no, they're in the puddle. See, there's a puddle right there. I mean, that doesn't even make sense. Even the cheap jokes make no sense. No, it still gets a laugh, though. We were literally brothers at this point. Yeah, we were in it. You started crying. You're my friend. Fucking fantastic, mate. You're my brother. But like a really cool brother, you know? Like a brother where there was no animosity. We're almost out of Hawaii now.

Almost, yeah. Almost. This sequence is also sort of hard to shoot because there were so many different pieces and chopper and that, you know, a lot of second unit intercut with first unit stuff. And then this was the first thing McConaughey shot. He lost his voice by the end of the day. He didn't know how many... Yeah, this is literally the first thing he shot in the movie. Speaking of full mags, he had no idea how many rips you'd be doing. That's right. He committed full... And that's a strong-minded man. Fucking awesome. Oh, shit! Remember in some of the test screenings, people going like, why does a TiVo... Why does he have TiVo? You're like, uh-oh. Yeah, why is the TiVo important? And then he's happy. Save him. That is fucking wonderful. And then we jump forward to the Oscars. And the Oscar goes to...

Yes, Tugg Speedman. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. Voight and Tobey Maguire. It's nice to see that Tobey got some recognition for Satan's Alley. Absolutely. And I got Alicia Silverstone as my girlfriend. Yes, you do. Nice. Nice. And hello, Lance. Why didn't he kiss him the fucking poof test? And there, yeah, this was... Great moment for you, man. It all came together for him. Hey, great hair there. Thank you. I was actually talking to Robert, but... You too. Thanks, man. This is two guys doing their thing. Nice little team. Really? No, big head, of course I could. A nutless monkey could do your job. Now go get drunk and... Take credit at all the parties. I would never do that to you. I'm joking. Yeah? Yeah. There he is. Okay, there he is. There he is. Fuck, okay. Thank you, Les. Thank you. We have a good night. But seriously, a nutless monkey could do your job. Good. Good. You knew when you saw that you had the take, huh? That was good shit. Those guys were great together. Cruz brings it all home right here and now. He sure does. He sure does. His own private Idaho.

This is just one of those scenes I could watch over and over again just because the moves that he's got going on. And then what we sort of wanted to do was work in a bunch of the stuff that we cut out of the movie into the end credits. When we start seeing the highlights of things that blew up in the movie. Damn. Yep. Yeah. This is good, dude. Congrats, Ben. Thank you. And look, look who's back. Look who's back. Oh, hi. Robert Downey Jr. Oh, man. He's finally made it. Congrats to you, Robert. Come on, man. Thank you. It wasn't easy. Jack, great work. Thank you. I feel very lucky to have worked with you guys in this movie. I am fine that you were late. It was the other brothers that were intolerant. I know. Look.

I feel like we just shot the whole movie again. Going back, do you feel, if you could sense the relief in this room. I know. We're actually done. We're done with this movie. We just did the DVD commentary. It's all happening. The premiere is tonight. It's all going to be. Oh, it's going to be so good. Part of everything. And for all you guys who watch this special feature, I do want to say thanks. I hope you got a look behind the fourth wall, you know. Yeah. Yeah, well, there's a lot of stuff to look at. We're a hell of a bunch of guys. We're really down to earth. We're not in Iraq. I feel like I missed some little nuggets, though. We are not. Robert Downey Jr. Yeah. Big cheer. Big cheer. There you go. Look at that. Come on. Nolte. Yeah. Should we do the whole thing again? I got to say. From the top, though. Yeah.

And I got to say, just Kyle Cooper is just a genius, the guy who did these titles. And I worked with him on Zoolander, and he's the best. Then we get a little callback to, there he is. There's our buddy. Things haven't really changed in the relationship. Wait a second, so he got his jet and... He got his jet, he got his cake, and he ate it too. And his son still doesn't look... Oh, look at that picture. Yeah. This is freaking nuts. You know why I think it works so well, though? Now, here's the Crystal Method remix that has shout-outs, your guys' lines from the movie and stuff. You can turn that up a little. You don't think I'm staying here to listen to this fucking song? This is still part of the commentary. The commentary goes till the end of the final credits. Hold on. You heard it. I tried to play this for you before. That's good. Crank this shit up, dude.

But Ben, seriously, if I may kiss your ass for a moment. Don't. Please don't. It's your appreciation of everyone's performance that really gave us the energy, I think, to pull it through. I had so much fun working with you guys. Because a lot of times you work with people and you don't really feel appreciated that your stuff is... Yeah. Really? What do you mean, really? No, I don't... Really, that's interesting to me because I feel like as a director, when you have guys who are that good... It's almost like a secret that you have, because you go, oh my God, I've got these great guys doing this incredible stuff that I get to be part of my movie. I think the problem is the directors get into this head trip that they want to take all the credit for the thing, so then they don't ever really just sit back and enjoy what everyone's doing. So if anyone asks me, hey, I want to direct the thing, I say, he is enjoying it, like Ben does. For sure. I mean, that's what the fun of it is. Benjoy. You must Benjoy. Ben Joya. All right, guys. Thank you. Thanks, Ben. All right. Thanks, everybody. We dude it. That's it. What the fuck? That ain't bland.

I'll cradle the balls, stroke the shaft, work the pipe, swallow the granite. You got to cross the fucking line. I know who I am. I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude. Motherfucker.