Mission Creep

Is Rocky II almost as good as the first one? How much worse is Rambo II than Rambo I?

If time travel gives the traveler God-like knowledge, what does that mean for the status of their relations to others in the world? Is it even possible for non-coercive relationality to exist in such a state? Andie MacDowell's slap montage wants to have it both ways. In this essay, I will...

Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, a cross-country road trip, and a CB-radio prank. What could go wrong? This movie attempts to answer that question. Or perhaps, this movie IS an answer to that question. I guess it depends on whether we know what a movie is.

On third thought, do we even like Robert Zemeckis movies?

Get in, loser. We're going to the future, and then the past, and then the nightmare bizarro present, and then the past again, and then -- if all goes well -- the present we can truly desire.

What does it mean to be tardy when you've got a time machine? What does it say about the nature of time and human life that the unfolding of future events really only seems to depend on a couple key moments? What kind of recursive weirdness is involved in Marty parenting his own parents?

It is a whole different kind of nostalgia at work here, and no one says it better than Annie: "1996: when racism is casual and suicide attempts are punk rock." Do we accidentally deviate for a moment and discuss Catholic high schools, nuns-as-teachers, underpaid and unrecognized women's labor, and school vouchers? We sure do!

Stephen Dyson and Jeff Dudas, hosts of the UConn Popcast, join us to talk about whether there is any redemption (in all the senses) for Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, whether Glen Powell's "Hangman" is supposed to be a reincarnation of Iceman or of Maverick, what Jennifer Connolly's Penny Benjamin has to teach Maverick, and -- ultimately -- whether it's possible to defeat two 5th-Gen enemy fighters in an F-14 the characters describe as "so old," a "bag of ass," and a "museum piece."

When a new Linklater comes out, we obviously have to drop everything and talk about it. The question that really kicks off this conversation comes from Andy: Is this a Richard Linklater movie?

In the first installment of a short miniseries within the pod, Andy Smarick helps us think through what the original Rocky and Rambo have in common as future icons of 80s American cinema (and beyond). Both of the titular characters are symbolic of lives irresponsibly wasted -- but by different forces, and in different ways, and with different possibilities for redemption.