Nice

He was probably cast as a red herring. Everyone thinks he is the bad guy or going to die but he is just chicken shit who we never see again.

He only gets figuratively murdered, lol.

Yeah but they subtly threaten to kill him if he talks.

And not knowing the color of the boathouse at Hereford saved his life.

"You worried about saving your skin?" "Yeah, I am. It covers my body."

*Now they're ready to watch Bullitt, The Seven-Ups, The Conversation, The French Connection, Klute, Blue Thunder, The Sugarland Express, Three Days of the Condor, et al.*

Quintessential 90s cast.

Indeed. Those two made a great team. A sequel.could had been made with those two characters alone.

They were all amateurs compared to the CIA: the premier terrorist organization .

But is it betrayal ?

@@lexkanyima2195 Among the characters in the movie? No, they were classic Ronin, masterless samurai, "Wave Men" (aka "drifters" in mythology of the Old west). The story of the 47 Ronin wasn't an analogy for the events of the movie, merely a reference. "Sam" was an agent of the US, literally a Samurai, so while undercover, he didn't betray anyone. Gregor was a treacherous criminal. Seamus was a terrorist. Vincent and Larry were classic Ronin. It's not clear if the Russians were agents or Mafiosi. Arguably, the hired men on salary would be Samurai, since a State employer isn't part of the technical description. Mafiosi would certainly qualify as liege lords.

That worked for George Clooney in The Peacemaker, as well, my experience living near a military base was that the 20 somethings might have been in good shape, but it was the mid 30s guys that seemed to have the skills.

This is one of the big things for me about movies…. Nowadays they have kids playing these roles. That has always bothered me even when I was younger.

@@broodhunter21Clooney in “The American” will always be my favorite role of his. He played such a nuanced character that you could believe had a military type past, and brought the physicality to back that up too.

Totally agree - very underrated movie.

👍

Katarina Witt won many gold medals for East Germany. After retirement, she became a Photomodel, pictorials in Playboy and all. In one competition, she had a "wardrobe malfunctions" during her routine. Flashbulbs everywhere.

Massive crush on her as a teenager. Felt guilty with her being a commie and all. 😂

And she was together with "MacGyver" Richard Dean Anderson.

@bmw128racer, It isn't underrated, just overlooked, as is the case for a number of genre movies from that period. It was well received critically when released (as it has remained since), though not greatly successful at the box office.

I loved this movie. My parents had it on VHS in the late 90s and it was one of my favorites to watch as a kid.

@@johnbrown8570Same. I remember watching over and over when I was like 8 or 9. I don’t remember watching for the plot but De Niro’s character and the twists and action always caught my attention at that age lol. Appreciate it much more now as an adult.

100%

This film makes me want an Audi.

I think the director made a famous racing movie in the 60s. Grand Prix it was called

⁠​⁠@@CarlosRamirez-wb7zuOh, honey, no no no! It's the BMW M5 you're supposed to lust for. You don't want that waaaay front-engine'd Audi's massive understeer, lifeless steering, etc. Audis are fundamentally flawed from the start as they are front-wheel-drive-based with their engines all the way up near the front bumper and in front of the front axle. That makes them as bad as possible: most of their weight is on the front, and worst of all it's in front of the front axle! That makes it reluctant to turn and it just always wants to plow forward with understeer. It just doesn't want to turn. Then even worse: being so unbalanced they have to do extreme and bad things to the suspension to try to compensate for that bad location of weight and to try to keep the front suspension from bottoming out and avoiding the car constantly rocking forward, which then compromises the suspension overall. Meanwhile the BMW is fundamentally nearly perfect with the engine mostly behind the front axle, perfect 50/50 weight distribution, it's eager to turn perfectly naturally, and the engineers were able to tune the suspension optimally. Then on top of that the engine is a masterpiece stemming from the M1's engine's design and shares the same heritage as the McLaren F1 engine, the S70, designed by the famous 'Camshaft'-Paul Rosche. That S38 engine even has individual throttle bodies, making its response razor-sharp! And it's mated to a Getrag manual gearbox instead of some slushy old automatic gearbox!

@@pistonburner6448 There's a shop near me that specializes in servicing German cars. BMW, Merc, Audi, VW, Porsche. His lot is always filled with BMW's needing service. Not so much the other brands.

“ Il m'a sauvé la vie.”

I worked at a theater when this came out. The number of times I have seen it, complete or in parts, is staggering. Like hundreds of times. and I have owned it on DVD since it was released on dvd. Never gets old.

Subtle detail, but the reason “Sam” ambushes Sean Bean is because he recognized him and didn’t want his cover blown.

So what color WAS the boathouse at Hereford?

@@genghisgalahad8465 How the hell should I know

@trottheblackdog, He really didn't care what Spence claimed was his backstory. He already knew he was a fraud given his performance earlier on and just needed to be gotten off the team.

@@GearheadExplorer85 where's Waingrow??

The was he says Hereford is wrong it’s said like hera- fud

But it's no mere Macguffin. It's actually the case that they gave me!

I also had a "huh" moment at the end when I first watched this movie. It was a new experience for me. Even at my young age, I realized I saw something different and quite amazing. The group I saw it with didn't like it, so I went the next day by myself to see it again. This movie is the opposite of a mess. It shows you everything you need for the movie and nothing more. As soon as it came to VHS, I bought it. I've felt the same about Heist and The Spanish Prisoner. We don't get the extra, because it isn't needed for the story.

@LordVolkov, If you're truly committed to the cause, you can trust Skarsgard in Andor (though that won't guarantee you won't be sacrificed down the line).

Well, the driver, Bean and Reno were criminals/hired guns, I think. The girl and Seamus were IRA. De Niro played a ronin, but I think Skarsgård was one and presumably the Russians too. Apart from Sam, none of them really had masters and even he might have been more like a commonly-used specialist-for-hire they'd sort of let off retainer and mostly stopped employing, who they simply hired for this one, than an operative. In a way, they were or might have been all ronin except for the guy Sam contacted for the phone trace.

@blechtic , Yes, while it may be obvious, I've wondered why Sam's contact told him, "I thought you were out" (or something to that effect) when they first met, if Sam had never left the agency and was on a regularly directed mission. Why would he say such a thing, in the moment, as he too, was clearly aware of the effort?

That gave me a good giggle. lol

Yep. Though, I like to spell it “klick”, lol

And commonly adopted in Canada after we went metric.

Sneakers is criminally underrated. What a brilliant movie. Also the technology doesn't look out of place even 30 years on.

Frantic is very good, lots of Polanski classics to react to if they've put Rosemary's Baby behind them... ;-]

I like the real car chase, no added sets or studio. Just real filming

The Driver (1978) had the greatest final car chase scene and a bonus car park scene where the driver shows his skill to his clients

@@RaagulanRR I need to see that one

Freidkin tops himself in "To Live and Die in LA" for a car chase sequence.

All great movies!

@@RaagulanRR Seven Up has a great car chase scene.

Lonsdale was a class act. RIP.

@@andrewcrowder4958 So commanding; he just draws you in with his performances, you can't look anywhere else when he's in the shot.

I thought so too for many years but no, it's not the same tunnel, but it is practically identical. Diana died in Pont de l'Alma, the chase is in Boulevard Peripherique.

@@SierraSierraFoxtrot Ha, you mean a Paris taxi driver told me a lie?? LOL. I was literally told this during a business trip to France as we were in the tunnels. Oh well.

But is there so many added cgi ?

@@lexkanyima2195 Can you explain what you mean?

I think he dies off screen. No loose ends for the Irishman.

Very true, even though CGI existed at this point (say, 1993's Jurassic Park) it still wasn't used as much as it is today where it's everywhere which is partly why movies now look so different, alas.

​@@LarryFleetwood8675and they should have deminished by 2010's

@toddfuresz462, I agree the contents of the case aren't truly meant to matter to us, but I suspect Sam (and his taskmasters) wanted the 'material' secured just as much as Seamus had to be neutralized.

I really wish they would react to the 1974 version

@@clash5j I heard the other one was pretty lame. Absolutely has to be the original. Editing my comment.

@@marcuscato9083 I'm sure their patreons will never vote for it, but I know they would absolutely love it. What a fun gritty NYC heist film!!

@@clash5j i saw it in a theater as part of a film festival. The crowd absolutely loved it!

@@marcuscato9083 Yes, the remake is awful. The original is a masterclass in how to make an action movie.

Hear Ford and Wor-chester-shire. I feel your pain as a person living there.

Pulp Fiction has another classic case of a McGuffin. You never find out what's in Marcellus' briefcase.

Two great suggestions, adore them both especially the Frankenheimer movie it really is an exciting unsung classic thriller that I'm sure they'd enjoy watching.

Beverly Hills Cop 4 and Bad Boys 4 might bring it back.

Me too. Don’t have one yet.

To this day, it's still my ultimate "sleeper" car

@@jasonm8017 don't forget to replace the original injectors for the custom ones once you get the car :)

Rather have the Mercedes 6.9😂

That's sadly the case, yes. In many ways, we saw the last great decade in films with the '90s.

It's the post-spy thriller.

Very real

Mamet finally directed his own lesser heist flick later, 2001's Heist with Gene Hackman but it's nowhere as good as this film. Interestingly enough, De Niro himself later on made a heist movie called Heist (2015) which is even worse... He made quite a few of these, the overrated Heat (1995) and the underrated The Score (2001).

​@@LarryFleetwood8675Nah. Heat is not overrated. It's really one of the greats.

Completely agree on The Score. Few people I mention it to have ever heard of it. Almost as good as Ronin, but DeNiro & Norton turn in some tour de force performances. 👍🏻

Yes, they're very different in story but so equally good heist movies.

Agreed. Kelley's Heroes is excellent.

Yes, such a classic war comedy/caper... 💰

Same writer (now also directing) as this movie, Ronin.

It's okay I guess, though not as good as Ronin.

​@@LarryFleetwood8675Heist is a solid movie.

Don’t forget The Jackle

@@faroldmatthews5833 If you mean "The Day Of The Jackal", PLEASE watch the 1973 original with Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale (the model samurai guy from "Ronin"), not that 1997 Bruce Willis/Richard Gere abomination

Yes for "The Peacemaker" and "Out of Sight"! Peacemaker is a nice, often overlooked old school thriller movie with George Clooney at the start of his movie career and a great Nicole Kidman (first ever movie to be released by DreamWorks). "Out of Sight" is a Soderbergh classic, the chemistry and sexual tension between Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in this is off the scale!

And “Malcolm” 1986

That scene was filmed in the same tunnel where Princess Diana got fatally injured in that car wreck...I even read somewhere they were holding the movie release back a little because it happened after filming.

Agreed these guys will love it

French Connection, too.

It's great when you watch it again... you see her touching her lips, contemplating the moment, realizing they may be there a while, he's also not that bad... and alley-yoop get's on top of him, lol.