MovieChat Forums > Midnight Run (1988) Discussion > Did ya notice...(little fun things)..

Did ya notice...(little fun things)..


One of my fav movies ever...

And with most movies, its the little things, that you may not notice until a 2nd or 3rd viewing...
Heres a couple I noticed....... anyone else have any?..

--In the opening scenes, when DeNiro is chasing the bad guy, they run down an alley, across the street is a little mexican restaurant. Google that restaurant, El Guanaco 2015 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, look at it on Google Street View... its exactly the same!.. 22 years later..

--When Walsh goes to pick up his money from Eddie at the bail bonds, it seems that Joe P(Eddie) may have improvised a bit, as DeNiro starts to say his line a couple times, and laughs a little in reaction to what Eddie was saying. Maybe it was how he was saying it..

--When they are on the plane and the pilot comes down to see whats going on, and says "You cant take a prisoner aboard an airplane, you should know that"... watch the flight attendant behind him, looks like she is trying to keep in a laugh throughout the scene..

--When Moron #'s 1 & 2 are waiting by the helicopters, the guy tries on a hat, and tells Tony to look at him. Watch Tony, he cracks up, drops his head to stifle a laugh...

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Thanks--great observations.

Among the most subtle touches are the background reactions of Mardukas and Gail when Jack Walsh is hugging the daughter he hasn’t seen in 9 years. The scene is a masterful coordination of great acting. This is an action movie, of course, so such a tender scene in the midst of it is amazing.

Another bit that grabs me is when Jimmy Serrano, at the airport, has his little moment of cruelty with Walsh and asks him if it doesn’t bother him that “another copper is f**ing your wife.” It is a credit to the film’s sense of reality that they don’t have Walsh make some snappy comeback. He hangs in pained silence—it is clear that the remark has really cut him, and there is nothing he can really say back to it.

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"Among the most subtle touches are the background reactions of Mardukas and Gail when Jack Walsh is hugging the daughter he hasn’t seen in 9 years. The scene is a masterful coordination of great acting. This is an action movie, of course, so such a tender scene in the midst of it is amazing.

Another bit that grabs me is when Jimmy Serrano, at the airport, has his little moment of cruelty with Walsh and asks him if it doesn’t bother him that “another copper is f**ing your wife.” It is a credit to the film’'s sense of reality that they don’t have Walsh make some snappy comeback. He hangs in pained silence—it is clear that the remark has really cut him, and there is nothing he can really say back to it."

Yes, precisely. The writer and director knew that they were creating a special movie. De Niro's personal pathos is a primary focus and all shots and scenes support this theme.

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better still, is after Eddie has spoken to Jack ("they can't run & tap tat fast"), Eddie storms back into his office, but catches his shirt sleeve on the doorhandle. Not missing a beat Joe P. carries on with his lines. It makes for a very realistic scene.

The Gunslinger smiled. "On the way to the Dark Tower," he said, "anything is possible."

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Actually Jack said to go to Chen Lou's cause "they can't run A tap that fast" referring to the guys phone tapping Eddies phones line in the van outside Eddie Bail Bonds office, and how they wouldn't be able to do the same thing fast enough with the phones at Chen Lous.

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Oh well, excuse me Mr Pedantic. I can sleep better tonight now i've been corrected after 9 months!

The Gunslinger smiled. "On the way to the Dark Tower," he said, "anything is possible."

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Excellent Gilbere,

I'm esctatic that i've improved your sleeping habits. Now all you gotta do to make it perfect is stick a sock in the mouth of your loud ass snoring wifey.

It's ok you can thank me later.

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You assume that i'm male & that i have a wife. Well done, one handed clap for you.

The Gunslinger smiled. "On the way to the Dark Tower," he said, "anything is possible."

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Haha the jokes on you my friend. You are aware that there are same sex marriages out there right?

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again, you are assuming i'm married.

The Gunslinger smiled. "On the way to the Dark Tower," he said, "anything is possible."

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You are...i'm physchic, I know all.

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good luck with that

The Gunslinger smiled. "On the way to the Dark Tower," he said, "anything is possible."

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Hahaha!! Now now ladies :D

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It's actually "joke's".

Thank you for your time.

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Why the *beep* would anyone think the line was "they can't run AND tap that fast"?
Are the Feds tap dancing?

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...because it is!

The Gunslinger smiled. "On the way to the Dark Tower," he said, "anything is possible."

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I have actually seen people who can tap-dance while sort of careering sidewards at amazing speeds and smiling broadly.

I would think that some pretty big distances could be covered using that method of locomotion.

I can sorta imagine Clarice Starling fleeing from Buffalo Bill with it to the tune of Happy Feet.

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Mosley's subtle reaction to the Fed saying 'that means Walsh' got your badge' - terrific acting, Yaphet Kotto has never been better! (another one, even more subtle, when same Fed says 'how come Walsh found him that fast?')

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As "for the little fun things" ....
I loved the way Grodin (The Duke) looked at the bar owner as the latter was explaining why his bar was called "Red's Corner Bar"....
Grodin says: "What, you mean you've dyed your hair?" His facial expression during this exchange is quite brilliant given that he has just scammed him out of a wad of $20 bills....excellent!
An all round good-feel movie I'd say.

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...When Walsh says he will "dump him in an eff-ing swamp" and then shakes his head at an obviously worried Mardukas to let him know he's joking.

...When Eddie tells Marvin he is the best, and Marvin gives that little agreeing grin.


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Neither myself nor my partner can say configuration now seriously and always sasy configururation as in the Litmus Configuration when De Niro can't pronounce it properly in the con.

My favourite movie too by the way.

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The goons are great too - when one's on the phone and the other is practising his jabs and he kicks out at him and later when one asks if 'he (Cyrano) isn't mad at me is he?'

Walsh leaves his daughter on the drive and won't take her money and then lifts the Dukes coat flap into the car - the first sign things are changing and then the girl is left standing by herself and that music - chokes me up every time.

Just a truly great performance by everyone all round.

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Haha i love when the goon is on the phone and the other one starts playfighting with him, lmao.

also, when jack and the duke go to that bar-place, and the duke pretends to be a p.i or something, and jack is walking right up behind him and stumbles into him as the duke stops.

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This might not be the right thread to put this, but something always bothered me about Marvin's phone call with the credit card company.
He pretends to be Jack, or John Wesley Walsh, and then asks if they can tell him the last place he used his card.
Here is the part that seems odd: after he gives them the card number, it's not even 2 seconds before MARVIN says into the phone "The Amtrak office at Grand Central Station? Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember now."
See how odd this is? There simply isn't enough time for whoever he is talking to to give him that info before HE gives US (the audience) the same thing. This just seems a very odd fluke in the script that was never fixed (or noticed).
It seems to me the script writer(s) should have made this scene more believable by letting us hear who he was talking to so that HE wouldn't have to tell US, the audience, where the credit card was last used.
It just seems a very odd way of conveying a phone convo to the audience.

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I agree, especially about how short of a time there is between him giving the numbers and getting the info (can't check this right now but I take your word for it) - but about him giving us the information about where the card was last used, is a very typical movie cliche, it's just one of those "things" - maybe especially because in some cases it somehow sounds odd to put another person on the other end of the conversation on the phone. Sometimes it might just ruin the scene/feel to the scene. I dunno though, haha

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Cool I will have to check these things, it is one of my fav films of all times! And rates really high in my top 10 films of all time! I have seen it many a times, and never will get sick of it.

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I agree completely - Midnight Run is a fantastic film that never gets old no matter how many times you watch it.


All behold the spectacle! - Vlad Drac

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I thought it was funny that Phillip Baker Hall played a character named Sidney, who had mob ties and was located in Vegas. I wonder if PTA used this to create his character Sydney in Hard Eight.

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Phillip Baker Hall looks so YOUNG in this movie. He aged about 20 years when he was on Seinfeld as the library cop just a few years later. Wonder what happened.

Also, I've never heard or seen a thousand dollar bill. How would you go about cashing those at a bank without drawing attention to yourself? Also, Jack, being the dumbest bounty hunter ever, probably wouldn't even know if they were real or counterfeit. If it was full of hundred dollar bills, that would have been more believable. But 1000 dollar bills? I'm surprised they weren't pink like Monopoly money.

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one scene i liked but didnt "get" was when marvin hits the guy in that small town with a gun to his head he says something "make sure ur speaking to the microphone" what did he mean by that???


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[deleted]

As I recall, Marvin had already hit the first goon with some long, thin thing like a stick, I think, or maybe the rifle. I think he made some joke about that as he was doing that.

So then when he hits the second goon with the butt of the rifle, he's just making another joke, like the rifle is coming at the guy like a microphone. Part of the joke, too, is that the goon is threatening Marvin with who his boss is, so Marvin is also suggesting that this is not really important news by pretending that it is ... be-sure-it's-broadcast-all-over-town idea. Everybody in the movie seemed to have a pretty dry sense of humor.

I loved it when Yaphet Kotto was in the coffee shop and some of his underlings showed up. He said he had a feeling what they were going to say wasn't going to make him happy, and they said they didn't think so either, or words to that effect.

I think the only problem I had with the movie were when the guys in the helicopter died because it was out of sync with the rest of the movie, which was threatening but non-violent. Otherwise, I agree, it is one of my all-time favorites, too. By the way, if you liked this one, you might also like Charles Bronson's Murphy's Law. I need to see that one again. I remember really having liked it.

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Nah, the helicopter gangsters needed to burn - they were gonna shoot Mardukas. The film's hard edge elevates it above a goofy comedy with no consequences. Serrano's promise to kill Mardukas tonight then execute his wife also brought tension to the climactic showdown between all the players. The emotional scenes, especially with Walsh's family, also elevate the film.

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