Two Guys In A Car

We are all familiar with the Two Guys In A Car set-up. Done properly and you have poetry in motion, quite literally. This scene may in fact be a pivotal moment for certain films. For the characters involved, the car usually serves as a confessional booth. Writers and directors love this scene, almost as much as the audience. Most of the time, the scene is a heavy one. Some of the time, it is light-hearted or comical. And other times, it does not only involve guys. Yes, you read correctly. Women can do this scene as well. Or perhaps a guy and a woman, the combinations are endless.

Here are some of my favorite Two Guys In A Car scenes from various films. In my opinion, they are very effective. They leave us satisfied and smiling. And most important of all, they have us coming back for more.

Training Day (2001)

On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears. Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) receives the training of a lifetime from the veteran Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). It’s difficult to isolate just one scene as most of these lessons are introduced to Jake inside of Alonzo’s 1979 Chevy Monte Carlo. Such education requires multiple scenes. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

While cruising the streets, Alonzo brings Jake gems such as “To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf” and “This shit's chess, it ain't checkers”.

Jake and Alonzo discuss the meaning of justice. “What's wrong with street justice?” asks Alonzo. “Oh, what, so just let the animals wipe themselves out, right?” says Jake. From this rhetorical question, we learn that even Jake's logic follows police protocol. The answer to his question is one that he does not see coming. “God willing. F*ck 'em, and everybody that looks like 'em.” says Alonzo.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption. When Quentin Tarantino made this film, he revolutionized the story-telling aspect of a screenplay. It opened doors for films like Memento. Tarantino also brought us some of the most meaningless, yet captivating dialogue of all time. One of these conversations takes place in a car. The two guys in said car are Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson).

Jules: So, tell me again about the hashbars.

Vincent: Okay, what you wanna know?

Jules: Hash is legal there in Amsterdam, right?

Vincent: Yeah, it's legal, but it ain't a hundred percent legal. I mean, you can't just walk into a restaurant, roll a joint and start puffing away. You're only supposed to smoke in your home or certain designated places.

Jules: And those are hashbars?

Vincent: Yeah. It breaks down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's still illegal to carry it around, but that doesn't really matter 'cause... get a load of this: if you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you. I mean, that's a right the cops in Amsterdam don't have.

Jules: I'm going, that's all there is to it, I'm f*ckin' going.

Vincent: Yeah baby, you'd dig it the most.

Fargo (1996)

Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson. Remember when I said that the Two Guys In A Car scenes feature women as well? I wasn’t lying. Forget for a moment that Fargo is one of the best films of all time. And let us revisit the legendary scene in which Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) and Lou (Bruce Bohne) discuss a crime while driving in their patrol car. Now, put the two together and what you have is one of the best films of all time, because of scenes such as this.

Marge: Did you look in his citation book?

Lou: Yeah, last vehicle he wrote in was a tan Ciera at 2:18am, under plate number he put DLR. I figured they stopped him or shot him before he could finish filling out the tag number.

Marge: Uh huh.

Lou: So, I got the state looking for a Ciera with a tag starting with a DLR, they ain’t got no match yet.

Marge: I’m not sure that I agree with you one hundred percent on your police work there, Lou.

Lou: Yeah?

Marge: Yeah, I think that vehicle there probably had dealer plates. DLR.

Lou: Oh…Geez.

Marge: Say Lou, did you hear the one about the guy who couldn’t afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404?

Lou: Yeah, that’s a good one!

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. In terms of psychological character analysis, it does not get better than The Hurt Locker. In a world where every single soldier wants to return home safely and as soon as possible, Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) stands alone. He is not in a rush to get home. Parental responsibilities and grocery shopping, scares him more than disarming an explosive device with his bare hands. While driving back to base in a Humvee, James and Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) have one of the most surreal conversations in this film, while shedding somewhat of a light on each one’s personalities, intentions and innermost thoughts.

Sanborn: I'm ready to die, James.

James: Well, you're not gonna die out here, bro.

Sanborn: Another two inches, shrapnel zings by; slices my throat- I bleed out like a pig in the sand. Nobody'll give a shit. I mean my parents- they care- but they don't count, man. Who else? I don't even have a son.

James: Well, you're gonna have plenty of time for that, amigo.

Sanborn: Naw, man. I'm done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will. I mean, how do you do it, you know? Take the risk?

James: I don't know. I guess I don't think about it.

Sanborn: But you realize every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death. You roll the dice, and you deal with it. You recognize that don't you?

James: Yea...Yea, I do. But I don't know why. I don't know, JT. You know why I'm the way I am?

Sanborn: No, I don't.

Point Break (1991)

“What’s he searching for”, asks Johnny Utah. He is referring to Bodhi, a man so intriguing that Johnny is instantly under his spell. “The ride”, says Tyler, “The ultimate ride!” 

Kathryn Bigelow is an expert in directing characters that do dangerous things for philosophical reasons. Point Break is no exception. In fact, it sets the standard for characters whose motives and behavior should not be analyzed, for the simple reason that living an ordinary life is never an option for any of them.  Their actions may be criminal, but their reasons for them, are anything but. 

What makes Point Break an outstanding film, is that Bigelow makes it easy for us to accept scenes that are completely out of this world. Usually, jumping out of an airplane without a parachute or even going skydiving in the first place with a man whom you know wants you dead, are categorized as absurd, but Bigelow makes it work.

 Kathryn Bigelow

“Little hand says it’s time to rock and roll.”

“We are the ex-presidents and we need just a few moments of your time. We’ve been screwing you for years so a few more seconds shouldn’t matter, now should it?”

“Forget about it kid, they’re ghosts!”

“Why don’t you tell me this theory of yours and we’ll go get these guys!”

“The ex-presidents…are surfers.”

“You trying to tell me the FBI is going to pay me to learn to surf?”

At first, Johnny sees surfing as a task. He’s a cop, this is just another assignment. “Surfing is the source” a fifteen year-old kid tells Johnny. “It’ll change your life” says the kid. It does exactly that! The sport lures Johnny into the world where he meets Bodhi. Being a part of Bodhi’s world is a privilege for Johnny. So much that he no longer recognizes why he’s there in the first place. Things become even more confusing for our hero when he becomes romantically involved with Tyler.

“I wanna do what you do.”

“This is a line, right?”

“That’s Bodhi. They call him the Bodhisattva. Guy’s even crazier than you, Johnny.”

Bodhi channels his energy through surfing. His entire way of life can be summed up by a few surfing metaphors. He uses this technique so that he can relate the information to the rest of his team. They are nowhere near as bright or articulate as Bodhi, but he is far more enlightened and has found a way to communicate with the rest of them. A very pivotal scene is Johnny and Bodhi’s first real conversation:

Johnny: Who are those guys?
Bodhi: Nazi assholes! They think they’re some kind of death squad around here.
Johnny: What’s their program?
Bodhi: Brains are wired wrong, they’re into some bad shit. They only live to get radical. They don’t have any real understanding of the sea, so they’ll never get the spiritual side of it. You still haven’t figured out what riding waves is all about, have you? It’s a state of mind. It’s that place where you lose yourself and you find yourself.

This is where the film picks up. After all, this is an action film. One of the best sequences is an on-foot chase scene through streets and backyards. There are no mounted cameras for this chase scene. The cameraman is following the action on foot, at neck-breaking speeds. This is where Bigelow truly shines as a director.

“Peace, through superior firepower” says Roach, a minor character. I think this quote applies perfectly to the quality of the screenplay. Since 1991, I have yet to see an action film with such precise direction, intriguing characters and 100% pure adrenaline. “Yo Johnny! I’ll see you in the next life” says Bodhi. Let’s hope that it won’t be that long until we see another film this great.

Freaks & Geeks

“Man, I hate High School”, was one of the first significant lines spoken by the lead character Lindsay Weir. With that one statement, followed by the show’s theme song, we were launched into instant nostalgia. Even though the show is set in 1980, the Pilot episode opened up a platform for almost anyone to identify with. The generation gap never existed and if it did, it was quickly bridged by great and simple story-telling, as well as brilliant and subtle performances by the leading and supporting cast.

Come along with me as I revisit McKinley High.

High School is a religious experience.

“Hey, I believe in god, man. I've seen him, I've felt his power! He plays drums for Led Zeppelin and his name is John Bonham, baby!” – Nick Andopolis

“Friday night, always a good night for some Sabbath.” – Neal Schweiber

“Jesus is just alright with me.” – Millie Kentner

Self-discovery.

Daniel Desario: Am I a loser?
Harris Trinsky: You're not a loser 'cause you have sex, but if you weren't having sex, we could definitely debate the issue.

“Sam. Did Mom and Dad tell you I was the only one with Grandma when she died? They went down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. And all of a sudden Grandma looked so terrified. I didn't know what to do. She grabbed my hand, told me she didn't want to go. She looked so scared, Sam. I said, well, you know, can you see God or Heaven or a light or anything? ‘No. There's nothing.’ She was a good person all her life and that's what she got.” – Lindsay Weir

“If I were Bionic Woman, what would I wear?” – Bill Haverchuck

“Well, everybody's got parents, Jean, even hookers.” – Harold Weir

 “You know, there was this girl in our school and she had premarital sex. You know what she did on graduation day, DIED!”

“High school is for learning but it's also where you should be learning to socialize. That's what high school dances are all about.” – Jean Weir

“My dream was to be an astronaut, but you just don’t see any moon rocks here, do you?” – Mr. Andopolis

“Teacher leave them kids alone.” – Pink Floyd

“I know you're struggling. That's what they made guidance counselors for. To help you. I understand—you've just been through puberty, you guys are tall— I'm surprised you fit through that door, quite frankly. Okay? A lot of times you might see, maybe you're taking a shower or something and you go, "what are these?" "what's that?". But you feel alone and confused. And you don't think anyone understands. Well. I do” – Jeff Rosso

“Last one to class first one on welfare. It's your choice.” Mr. Kowchevski

***

“I’m sorry, your butt was calling to me.” – Ken Miller

“Are you calling me irrational? Because I'll tear your head off, Daniel. I'll tear it off and throw it over that fence.” – Kim Kelly

“I don't need another friend. I already have two. I mean, how many more friends does a guy need?” – Sam Weir