Mostly Film – Take 247: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 5B

An honest accounting of a difficult stretch. Jonathan and JP cover the long middle — eleven years, three films, roughly $165 million combined box office on budgets totalling nearly $180 million. None of them hits.

First, K-19: The Widowmaker. The most defensible of the three — a genuinely ambitious film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, edited by Walter Murch, shot by David Fincher's cinematographer, based on a true Soviet nuclear disaster that was classified for 28 years. Ford was paid $25 million for approximately 20 days of filming and was advised by everyone around him not to take the role. He took it anyway, specifically because Vostrikov wasn't a hero. The surviving crew members sent an open letter objecting to the film. It opened to $12 million domestically on a $90 million budget, ten months after September 11, asking American audiences to empathise with Soviet naval officers. Bigelow's next film was The Hurt Locker, which won her the Oscar. The character of Polenin is based on the man many historians believe prevented World War Three during the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year.

Then Firewall. The same Beacon Pictures team that made Air Force One tried to recapture that film's formula. They did not succeed. Ford was found sitting on the airport baggage carousel during a Vancouver shoot, going around in circles on his phone. Virginia Madsen thought his personal voicemail offering her the role was a prank call and didn't return it. Paul Bettany kept being told his punches were too soft until he finally hit Ford at full strength — Ford's response was "that's it." 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. The premise is stronger than the execution. The dog GPS sequence near the end is as bad as advertised.

Then Paranoia. Ford in a supporting role behind Liam Hemsworth, reunited with Gary Oldman sixteen years after Air Force One with the dynamic inverted. 5% on Rotten Tomatoes — lower than Catwoman. Opened to $3.5 million domestically. Oldman didn't attend the premiere. The distributor filed for bankruptcy two years later. Jason Hall co-wrote the screenplay and went on to write American Sniper the following year. Richard Dreyfuss appears in a small role and his scenes with Ford are the warmest thing in the film, which tells you everything.

Between 2002 and 2013 Ford made eight films outside of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. None of them worked. The question for the episode: was the decline inevitable, or were there different choices available? And is the commercial disappearance of Harrison Ford the movie star the same thing as the disappearance of Harrison Ford the actor?

Mostly Film – Take 246: What's New

Jonathan and JP are back, and this week the big one finally arrived.

List It or Nix It kicks things off with six trailers — Sacrifice, Double Trouble, Club Kid, Without Blood, Violent Night 2, and Run Hide Fight all go through the gauntlet.

In What We've Been Watching, both hosts saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day and there's plenty to say about it. Jonathan also caught The Rivals of Amziah King, before handing things over to the Kids Korner — The Rescuers Down Under, The Amazing Maurice, Smart House, and Little Rascals this week. JP brings Avengers to the table alongside Brand New Day, with Silo, Tires, and Furious on the TV side.

The news segment covers everything that dropped this week in Hollywood.

Mostly Film – Take 245: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 5

The persona episode. Jonathan and JP cover three films that each do something deliberately different with Harrison Ford's screen identity — and the results range from underseen gem to all-time blockbuster to one of the more quietly audacious casting decisions of the 1990s.

First, Sabrina. Sydney Pollack got Billy Wilder's blessing before he agreed to direct. Winona Ryder turned down the lead because she couldn't face Audrey Hepburn's shadow. Greg Kinnear stepped into his first starring role fresh from hosting Talk Soup on E! Paul Giamatti shows up in a small part. And Ford plays a romantic lead — gentle, comedic, slowly and reluctantly falling in love — in a genre he'd never really inhabited. It made $87 million. Ebert gave it four stars. Ford has called it underrated. The question: does Ford actually work as a romantic lead, or is he always slightly more interesting when he has something to push against?

Then Air Force One. Kevin Costner turned it down for The Postman. Ford called the White House himself to get access to the real plane. Randy Newman wrote the entire score, Petersen hated it, Jerry Goldsmith replaced him with twelve days to deliver something new — and part of Newman's rejected work was reportedly recycled into Toy Story 3. Ford insisted Gary Oldman actually punch him in the face. 'Egor Korshunov' is credited as 'Ivan Korshunov' in the end titles. $315 million worldwide. Ford's last film to cross $300 million. The Wall Street Journal ranked President Marshall the greatest fictional president in screen history. 'Get off my plane.' The question: is Air Force One a great film or a great movie — and is there a difference?

Then What Lies Beneath. Made by Robert Zemeckis during the production pause on Cast Away while Tom Hanks was losing weight and befriending a volleyball. Screenplay by Clark Gregg — later Agent Coulson. Ford and Pfeiffer together cost $35 million of the $100 million budget. Zemeckis's casting logic was simple: the twist only works if the audience cannot conceive of Harrison Ford as a killer. Pfeiffer is functionally the lead despite equal billing. The bathtub sequence is considered some of the finest technical suspense work Zemeckis has ever done. The question: does the central gambit — using Ford's trustworthiness against the audience — actually work?

Air Force One is the last time Ford was the biggest movie star in the world. What Lies Beneath is the last genuinely good original film he made before a long run of misfires.

Mostly Film – Take 244: What's New

Jonathan and JP are back, and this week Jonathan has apparently been running a full-service children's cinema out of his living room.

First, List It or Nix It — thirteen trailers this week. Confinement, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, Primetime, Animals, Just Play Dead, A Tale of Two Cities, Beware Boiúna, The Bluey Movie, The Yellow Tie, Crawlers, Victorian Psycho, Wicker, and Gentle Monster all go through the gauntlet.

Then What We've Been Watching, and there is a lot to get through. Jonathan caught The Invite, End of Oak Street, and The Odyssey on the film side — and then the Kids Korner takeover began. Space Jam, Daddy Day Care, all three Night at the Museum films, Richie Rich, Smart House, The Sandlot, Air Bud, The Day the Earth Blew Up, Prince of Egypt, James and the Giant Peach, Bedtime Stories, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and Zathura. JP meanwhile went in a slightly different direction — GoodFellas, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, The End of Oak Street, and The Odyssey, with The Sopranos, Silo, and The Devil's Plan on TV. Two very different weeks.

In the News: D23 dropped and Marvel made some noise with X-Men casting announcements. The guys break down what was revealed, what it means for Avengers: Doomsday, and whether the multiverse is finally starting to take shape.

Mostly Film – Take 243: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 4

Peak Ford. Jonathan and JP cover the three-year stretch — 1992, 1993, 1994 — where Harrison Ford was the biggest movie star in the world outside of his own franchises. Combined worldwide gross across three films: approximately $572 million. All three opened at number one. One of them held number one for six consecutive weeks.

First, Patriot Games. Alec Baldwin was unavailable due to a Broadway commitment, McTiernan left when Baldwin left, Tom Clancy publicly asked for his name removed from the production, and Ford stepped into Jack Ryan anyway. The original ending tested so badly they scrapped it entirely and reshot the climax — during which Ford accidentally hit Sean Bean in the face with a boat hook and gave him a scar that the Sharpe makeup department later leaned into for authenticity. The satellite strike sequence caused brief concern at the Pentagon. Roger Ebert complained about the Indiana Jones ending. The question: does Ford make Jack Ryan his own, or is he always playing Alec Baldwin's character?

Then The Fugitive. Twenty-five drafts, nine writers, six editors, and a script that still wasn't finished when they started shooting. Baldwin, Costner, Douglas, and Nolte were all considered before Ford. Nobody involved had seen the original TV series. Tommy Lee Jones improvised "I don't care" during a freezing sewer sequence, told Joe Pantoliano nobody would win any awards for this film, then won the Oscar, the Golden Globe, and every critics' prize going. The train crash was 27 cameras, one take, no miniatures. The St. Patrick's Day parade was shot in the real parade with no rehearsal. Seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture. The only TV adaptation ever nominated for that award. The big question for the episode: is The Fugitive the best film Harrison Ford ever made outside of Star Wars and Indiana Jones?

Then Clear and Present Danger — three screenwriters, Clancy still not fully happy, and Ford's own stated favourite of the two Jack Ryan films he made. A film whose central thesis is that telling the truth to Congress is more dangerous than participating in a cover-up. It felt provocative in 1994. It has dated extremely well.

After 1994, Ford never made another Jack Ryan film. The question that hangs over the episode — and sets up Episode 5: what happens to Harrison Ford's career after the peak?

Mostly Film – Take 242: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 3

The thinking man's thriller era. Jonathan and JP cover three films in three years — 1988, 1990, 1991 — all of them asking Ford to be quieter, more internal, and more uncomfortable than anyone expected from the man who played Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

First, Frantic. Roman Polanski's Paris-set thriller — his comeback after the catastrophic failure of Pirates — with Ford as an American surgeon whose wife vanishes from their hotel room and whose attempts to get anyone in authority to care are met with total indifference. Ford suggested they rename it Moderately Disturbed. Polanski was not amused. Ennio Morricone scored it. Robert Towne rewrote parts of it uncredited. The studio cut 15 minutes and imposed a new ending that neither Ford nor Polanski wanted. It's now a cult classic, and the Hitchcock comparisons have stuck.

Then Presumed Innocent — by far the biggest commercial hit of the three, $221 million worldwide on a $20 million budget, and the one where Ford plays a prosecutor on trial for the murder of his own mistress. Gordon Willis shot it. John Williams scored it with unusual restraint. Raúl Juliá walks away with it. And the 2024 Apple TV+ series with Jake Gyllenhaal remade it entirely — which version holds up?

Then Regarding Henry. J.J. Abrams' first ever produced screenplay, written in his early twenties. Mike Nichols directing. Ford as a ruthless Manhattan lawyer who takes two bullets during a convenience store robbery and wakes up a different person. Bill Nunn doing some of the warmest supporting work in Ford's entire filmography. Critics gave it 47%. Audiences gave it 79%. One of those gaps that tells you something.

All three films are about a professional man whose competence and authority get stripped away by forces he can't control. None of them let him punch his way out. After all three underperformed, Ford went back to Patriot Games and The Fugitive.

The question for the episode: did these films close a door — or did Ford close it himself?

Take 241: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 2

The Peter Weir years. Jonathan and JP dig into the two-film stretch that makes the strongest case for Harrison Ford as a serious actor — and the one that proves audiences weren't ready to follow him there.

First, Witness. The film every major studio passed on, that John Badham dismissed as "just another cop movie," that Sylvester Stallone turned down and later called one of the worst decisions of his career. The film that got Ford his only Oscar nomination, that Roger Ebert called a thriller Hitchcock would have been proud of, and that Peter Weir shot with the same cinematographer, composer, and editor he'd bring to the very next film. The barn-raising sequence. The dance to Wonderful World. The final porch scene with no dialogue at all. The big question: is this the best performance Ford ever gave?

Then The Mosquito Coast. The film Weir had been trying to make since 1981, the one Jack Nicholson left over salary, the one Paul Schrader wrote, the one River Phoenix made at 15 years old before Stand By Me had even come out. Ford playing Allie Fox — brilliant, volatile, increasingly unhinged, dragging his family into the jungle on the conviction that America is finished and he can build something better from scratch. A character so far from Han Solo and John Book that audiences simply didn't show up. $14.3 million on a $25 million budget. Zero Oscar nominations. A genuine financial disaster.

And underneath both films, the same question: Weir and Ford missed the Witness Oscar ceremony because they were already in Belize shooting Mosquito Coast. The film they skipped the ceremony for then flopped. Ford went back toward safer, more commercial roles. Indiana Jones. Patriot Games. The rest of the career we all know.

Did the failure of Mosquito Coast close a door? And if audiences had embraced it — what kind of actor does Harrison Ford become?

Take 240: What's New

Big week. Jonathan and JP are back and there's a lot to get into.

List It or Nix It kicks things off with seven fresh trailers — Mayday, I Play Rocky, The Uprising, Behemoth, The Other Mommy, Bad Apples, and Doomsday all go through the gauntlet.

In What We've Been Watching, Jonathan saw The Odyssey and then apparently went on a full childhood cinema tour — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Pagemaster, Harriet the Spy, Stuart Little, Shark Tale, and Zathura. JP brings Project Hail Mary, Lawrence of Arabia, After Hours, and The Odyssey to the table, with House of the Dragon and Silo on the TV side.

Then the news, and it's a good one this week.

The Odyssey opened to $124.5 million domestically and $264.1 million globally — Nolan's biggest worldwide opening ever, beating The Dark Knight Rises. The only films that opened bigger this year are Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Jon Bernthal filmed the Trojan Horse sequence submerged in cold water, Nolan offered to pull him out, and Bernthal's response was essentially: try harder. The film has no real competition until Spider-Man on July 31, which gives it room to run on a $250 million budget that needs the legs.

And then — the Avengers: Doomsday trailer dropped this morning. First proper look at Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Thor rallying heroes, closing with "we need a miracle" before turning around stunned at a "hey pal." Channing Tatum as Gambit. Cyclops, Mystique, Ant-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Wakandans. Tickets on sale now. Opens December 18. The SDCC Hall H panel is Saturday — further reveals expected.

It's a good time to love movies.

Mostly Film – Take 239: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 1

A new series begins. Jonathan and JP are spending six episodes inside the Harrison Ford filmography — not Star Wars, not Indiana Jones, but everything else. The films he made between the blockbusters, against the blockbusters, and long after the world had already decided who he was.

Episode 1 starts with a question: who is Harrison Ford when he isn't playing a hero the whole world already loves?

First up, Hanover Street — the 1979 WWII romance that Ford took because he'd never played a love scene before, hated making from start to finish, and has never seen. A film so thoroughly forgotten that it's not currently streaming anywhere. And yet there's a case to be made for it — Christopher Plummer quietly doing excellent work, a second half that generates real suspense, and Ford visibly more comfortable the moment someone points a gun at him than the moment someone kisses him. Which turns out to be genuinely revealing.

Then Blade Runner. Fifty-plus consecutive nights of artificial rain. A crew so fed up they wore protest T-shirts. A director and star who feuded constantly over the voiceover, the Deckard question, and basically everything else. A film that flopped on release the same day as The Thing — both considered too cold and strange for audiences who just wanted to watch E.T. — and went on to become one of the most influential science fiction films ever made. Ford has called it not one of his favourites. The Final Cut suggests he was wrong.

The big debates: is Deckard a replicant? Which version did you watch? And does Ford's performance hold up, or does Rutger Hauer walk away with the entire film in the last ten minutes?

Up next: the Peter Weir years — Witness and The Mosquito Coast. The argument is that it's the best acting Ford ever did.

Mostly Film – Take 238: What's New

Jonathan and JP are back for List It or Nix It — Digger, Buddy, Soulm8te, and The Wrong Girls go through the gauntlet. And about that Digger trailer: Tom Cruise, a Southern accent, a pot belly, a combover, and Iñárritu calling it the culmination of Cruise's 40-year career. The Dr. Strangelove comparisons are already flying. Is this the one that gets him the Oscar, or is it too strange for its own good?

In What We've Been Watching, Jonathan went deep on the Despicable Me universe (all of it, essentially), plus The Furious, Death of Robin Hood, Kiki's Delivery Service, A Goofy Movie, and Inside Out 2. JP brings Oceans 11, Send Help, The Drama, and The Furious, with House of the Dragon and Silo on the TV side.

In the news: Moana opened to $43 million and it's a disaster on a $250 million budget — potentially the worst live-action Disney remake debut ever. Is that era finally over? Toy Story 5 keeps rolling toward a billion. And The Odyssey opens this Friday in IMAX — tracking for $100-120 million, which would make it Nolan's biggest opening ever. Does it have a shot at being his best film?