![]() Ignore alien commands!įun Fact #3: Speaking of aliens, numerous extraterrestrials are seen throughout the movie, in the guise of both male and female humans. But I’ll say this much: it will make you wonder if the tinfoil-hat-wearing nutjobs among us are really that crazy after all. I don’t want to give away too much, for the sake of the unfortunate among you who haven’t yet seen this movie. With the two leads in place, the chemistry of their begrudging friendship carries the characters through the film, while the thoroughly Carpenter-esque plot did the rest of the work. FF #2.5: This legendary brawl was referenced in the South Park installment “Cripple Fight,” in which handicapped Timmy and Jimmy duke it out for nearly the entire episode. The director was so impressed with the final product, he made no cuts to the scene. The rest of the fight was slugged out for real, and it created the intensity that dragged the combat out for more than five minutes. ![]() In fact, they decided among themselves to make the melee as authentic as possible, and only punches to the face and crotch were faked. However, unbeknownst to Carpenter, Piper and David had been secretly choreographing and rehearsing the fight for weeks. The back-alley brawl between our two heroes was scripted to last less than 30 seconds. He wanted someone just as big, strong, and intimidating as his lead, and he got it in David, whose commanding presence has been seen in many films over the last several decades.įun Fact #2: Arguably the greatest fight scene in the history of film is contained in this movie. Second billing went to Keith David, who Carpenter had previously worked with on “The Thing.” In fact, he wrote the role specifically for David, because he saw him as an actor who would play the character of Frank as a strong entity in his own right, rather than simply a standard sidekick. So, as it turned out, Piper was a fine choice for the role. But who else, in 1988, could embody the muscle-bound, wisecracking antihero he had written? Enter “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, a WWF star whose character was pretty much exactly that.įun Fact #1: Piper ad-libbed the classic line “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass……….and I’m all out of bubblegum.” He often came off the cuff in a similar fashion in his wrestling promos. Initially intended to be yet another team-up between Carpenter and muse Kurt Russell (following Escape From New York, The Thing, and the aforementioned Big Trouble), the director ultimately decided that he was playing favorites, and should give someone else a chance. However, a close second would be another Carpenter film, “They Live.” Kickass fight scenes, quippy one-liners, genuinely terrifying creatures, and aliens unlike any you’ve seen before, all come together to form a truly unique cinematic experience. He best displayed this unique amalgamation in 1986’s brilliant “Big Trouble in Little China,” a genre-defying classic that has no equal to this day. Director John Carpenter is known for his masterful mixing of horror, action, sci-fi, and comedy. ![]()
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