Rock and roll. >> Everybody freeze!
>> Nobody move!
>> For the first
episode of Things You Didn't Know in 2018, we wanted to do what we do best,
talk about a movie for other reason than because we want to.
And we really want to talk about Johnny Utah, Bodhi and
the best meatball sandwiches in town. >> Utah, get me two.
>> We'll get you more than two, Busey.
How about seven things you didn't know about Point Break, probably.
(Sound) >> 100% pure adrenaline.
Other guys snort for it, jab a vein for it, all you gotta do is jump.
>> Point Break, more than anything else,
is about chasing adrenaline.
So you can probably guess that some of that carried over behind the scenes.
And nobody chased it more than Patrick Swayze.
The Swayze, in fact, made skydiving almost compulsory among the cast.
He even made Gary Busey jump out of some planes and
Busey's character never gets near the extreme sports in the movie.
Of course, production hated all the extra curricular risks taking and
tried to force Swayze to stop but the suits clearly didn't have a problem with
the rest of the movie which is a segway.
(Sound) For
a movie about adrenaline junkies to really work,
it was important to have the actors do as many of the stunts and fights as possible.
So stunt coordinator and
second unit director, Glenn R Wilder, held little fight schools for the actors.
The one actor that didn't show up to the first day of fight school, however,
was Red Hot Chili Pepper's front man Anthony Kiedis.
>> That would be a waste of time.
(Laugh) >> Which is why in this fight scene at
the beach, he gets punched out immediately.
Pretty clear message from stuntman Glenn, don't show up to class,
you won't do anything cool in the fight scene.
(Sound) >> With everybody feeling
the thrill-seeking vibe of the film even when the cameras weren't rolling,
the beach football scene also became a little more of a hazard than it
needed to be.
Its some early 90's macho stuff, for sure.
But what you may not know is how much the macho stuff didn't stop between takes.
There were weights on set to keep the sleeveless actors jacked for the scene and
wrestling matches would break out between bros when they weren't filming.
But that's more of a boom bonus thing.
The real thing here is the competitive juices also caused Patrick Swayze,
who was a gifted athlete, to take it a bit too far.
He actually blew out his knee while filming the football scene.
The swelling was so bad a doctor had to drain it every night just to get Swayze
back on set the next morning.
By the way, total number of Swayze injuries while skydiving, 0.
But now you are saying, hey, isn't blowing out your knee playing football more
of a Johnny Utah thing? >> That knee again?
>> Well I am glad you asked.
(Sound) >> Hey Angie,
here's your guy. >> What?
>> Patrick Swayze was orginally
offered the role of Johnny Utah. >> I know man, isn't it wild?
>> If you're having trouble picturing
Patrick Swayze as anybody but Bodhi, you're not alone.
Swayze himself said he'd only play the guru surfer.
And, if you're having trouble picturing anybody besides Keanu Reeves as
Johnny Utah, director Kathryn Bigelow agrees with you.
She was determined to cast Keanu in the role.
Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, and ever Matthew Broderick were also considered for
the lead role of Johnny Utah.
But, that was before Kathryn Bigelow even came onto the movie.
(Sound).
Before James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow were attached to Point Break,
none other than Ridley Scott had a shot to make it.
Point Break started out as an idea co-producer Rick King had while walking
on the beach.
Wouldn't it be cool if an FBI agent went undercover as a surfer?
That's it.
None of that La La Land magical industry bullshit.
King took it to writer W Peter Iliff who
was actually waiting tables at the time to turn the nugget of an idea into a movie.
For a few months Iliff wrote the screenplay while still waiting tables and
after three drafts Columbia Pictures bought the script for Ridley Scott.
Actually, you know what?
That really is some La La Land shit.
At least until you get to the part where production got shut down out of nowhere.
(Sound) They've even been building sets for
five months, so it was back to waiting tables for another four years for
Iliff before Point Break got a second chance.
(Sound) By the time they did get around to filming
Iliff's script featured a few conversations that happened mid sky dive.
Including this one in the climax of the film.
>> Pull the cord now!
>> Nah, you pull it!
>> But, it turns out talking to
each other while hurtling towards the earth is actually kind of impossible.
Skydivers reach speeds of around 120 miles per hour during their jump, so
even shout talking like they do here, is out of the question.
To film these scenes, the production built a rig with individual cranes for
the actors and the cameramen.
The rig was set on top of a fan to simulate the wind and
Bob's your movie magic uncle, we're talking and skydiving at the same time.
And honestly, it had me fooled but that's why I'm just a dumb voice in a booth.
(Sound) Let's end in the same place
the movie does.
Waimea Bay?
The 50 year wave that takes out Bodhi was filmed in one of Hawaii's
most famous surf destinations.
But they actually got crazy lucky.
At the time, the surf at Waimea hadn't broken like this in over two years, and
was close to being the mythic waves that Bodhi had been chasing.
For Derek Doerner, the big wave surfing pioneer who doubled for Swayze,
it was probably a pretty cool gig, except for the fact
he was hired specifically to wipe out in some of the biggest surf in the world.
(Sound) That part probably sucked. >> Adios amigo!
>> That's it for today, but
hit the thumbs up if you liked this episode about a law enforcement agent
going undercover in an extreme sports world to root out some criminals.
A story that's impossible to do twice.
Thanks for watching and subscribe to Cinefix for more truish things about
movies and sometimes 90s macho stuff, right here on things you didn't know.