The (super)Natural

Field of Dreams

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Cast: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Timothy Busfield, Gaby Hoffmann

Released: May 5, 1989

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (lost to Driving Miss Daisy)

Best Original Score - James Horner (lost to Alen Menken for The Little Mermaid)

Best Adapted Screenplay - Phil Alden Robinson (lost to Alfred Uhry for Driving Miss Daisy)

Field of Dreams is a movie I watched many times when I was younger because it was a favorite of my family's. Both of my parents (and many of my relatives) are from Iowa, so you can probably see why it was such a staple for me growing up! This is just such a quintessential American movie; it's got baseball and takes place in the nation's heartland. As someone who has been to Iowa many times, I can confirm that it definitely captured the state.

An interesting side note about the movie's title: as you may already know, Field of Dreams is an adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's novel, Shoeless Joe (which I read when I was a freshman in high school, but don't remember anything about it), but the studio didn't want the movie to be the same title because they thought that the audience would think it's about a homeless guy or that Costner is supposed to be the title character. Somebody suggested Field of Dreams, but the director didn't like it (not sure why!). He talked to the author to tell him that although the screening was well received, they had to give it a different title. Kinsella told him the he didn't come up with the book's title and said he wanted to call it Field of Dreams instead, so the director took that as a sign and thus that's how the film became Field of Dreams. I'm guessing whoever suggested the movie be called that in the first place already knew Kinsella wanted that as the original title of his book or maybe it was just a huge coincidence. 

It's been almost fifteen years since I've seen the movie so there were a few things I forgot. One of those is the movie gets going really quickly. It takes less than five minutes before Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) hears the voice.

We get some quick backstory about Ray. Actually, we first start with some quick backstory about his father, John Kinsella. He was born in North Dakota in 1896, was in the war, settled in Chicago and became a fan of the White Sox and a lover of baseball. He played in the minors for a year or two, "but nothing ever came of it." He moved to Brooklyn where he married his wife and Ray was born in 1952. As he was going through the timeline, I mentally did the math in my head and was thinking his father was pretty old when Ray was born. He would have turned 56 in 1952. Ray does admit his father was "already an old man" when he was born, and yes, he certainly was! His mother (no idea how old she was) died when he was three so he was raised by a man old enough to be his grandfather. He grew up knowing about Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and "the great Shoeless Joe Jackson." He and his dad fought a lot and when it was time for him to go to college, he "picked the farthest one from home" which turned out to be Berkeley. There he met his future wife Annie (Amy Madigan) and one of the things they had in common was that "she came from Iowa, and [he] had once heard of Iowa." After graduation, they moved there and got married in June of 1974 and his dad died the following fall. According to him, "a few years later" their daughter, Karin, was born. This does not track because Karin is played by a very young Gaby Hoffmann who was born in 1982. The movie takes place in 1988 and she can't be no older than six so saying she was born "a few years" after 1974 isn't quite correct. To me, a few years is maybe 3-5. But I suppose it's all semantics. 

Annie talked Ray into buying a farm and at 36, he tells us "Until I heard the voice, I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life." 

So, yeah, all that backstory takes less than five minutes to tell. I assume it's much more fleshed out in the book. Like, I bet W.P. Kinsella devoted more than a paragraph to that! Probably even more than a chapter!

Of course, the voice he's talking about is the one that says "If you build it, he will come." He's out in the cornfield when he hears it and his wife and daughter are sitting on the porch swing. When he asks Annie if they heard anything she says they didn't. When they're back inside, he tells Annie what the voice said and she seems to take it all in stride. She asks "If you build what, who will come?" which is a good question. She even jokes about it the next day (he heard the voice again laying in bed) when he takes Karin to school and asks him "What if the voice calls while you're gone?" He jokes back and tells her to "take a message."  

He hears the voice again and this time he sees a quick image of a baseball field, then he sees an image of Shoeless Joe Jackson. This seems to come out of nowhere and it makes me wonder how this was done in the book. Like, was he given more context clues? At dinner (where the family is eating freshly picked corn on the cob - yum!) he tells Annie he thinks he knows what the voice meant and if he builds a baseball field out there, then "Shoeless Joe Jackson will get to come back and play ball again." She replies "You're kidding" and laughs. Even though she tells him that it's "the craziest thing I've ever heard", she's very supportive of him. Oh, did I mention that Shoeless Joe Jackson died in 1951? She asks him if he's actually thinking of doing this and he replies "I can't think of one good reason why I should", then tells her he's scared of "turning into [his] father" and that he never "forgave him for getting old." The main reason he wants to build this baseball field is because his father never did one spontaneous thing and he's "afraid of that happening to [him]" and "something tells [him] that this may be [his] last chance to do something about it." As we already know, Annie thinks he's crazy, but she's very supportive. Perhaps a little too supportive. She tells him "If you  really feel you should do this, then you should do it." I don't think most wives would be that encouraging and let their husbands just randomly build a baseball field (complete with stadium lights)!

We next get a montage of him building the field. A few people have come by in their cars to gawk and take pictures. I was wondering how he got the money for everything (especially the stadium lights; where did he get those anyway?), but we'll find out later that he used most of their savings to build this baseball field. I wonder how long it took for them to build this because it seems Ray and Annie are the only ones working on it! While he's plowing the cornfield, he tells his daughter (and the audience if they weren't privy) how Shoeless Joe got his nickname: "When he was still in the minors, he'd bought a new pairs of spikes and they hurt his feet. So, about the sixth inning, he took them off and played the rest of the game in just his socks. The other players kidded him and called him "Shoeless Joe" and the name stuck." 

He continues his exposition about the baseball legend when he tells Karin about how Jackson's team (the White Sox) threw the World Series in 1919. According to the Wikipedia article I read about this, "Jackson and seven other White Sox players were accused of accepting $5,000 each (equivalent to $88,000 in 2023) to throw the World Series." Ray says that he did take the money, but nobody could prove that "he did a single thing to lose those games." 

You know, this reminds me of on Survivor when some tribes purposely lose because they want to go to Tribal Council to get rid of dead weight or a teammate who is toxic or isn't contributing anything. I mean, I know it's not exactly the same thing because nobody's being bribed on Survivor and it's not, you know, illegal to throw a challenge (but some people think it's a terrible idea), but you usually need everybody who's in on it to throw the challenge. Perhaps Shoeless Joe played as best as he could because he knew his other teammates were going to really stink it up. The commissioner of baseball (I had no idea there was such a thing!) suspended the eight players for life and they were never allowed to play professional baseball again. 

Later, when the baseball field is complete, he and Annie are laying out on the grass and he tells her that his father claims he saw Joe years later "playing under a made-up name in some 10th-rate league in Carolina." He looks around smiling as he says "I have created something totally illogical." He is very lucky to have such a supportive wife! I love this scene because you can feel the ambience of Iowa...a muggy summer night with the crickets chirping and perhaps the waft of cow manure in the distance (hopefully very far in the distance!). 

Annie gets up in the middle of the night to see Ray sitting by the window, just looking out at the field. Obviously, he's waiting for something to happen now that his field is complete. The next thing we know, there's snow on the ground and the house is decorated for Christmas. While he has family over, he's still looking out the window, but still, nothing has happened. This seems to be the only instance of time passing. I feel like there should have been more because the next scene is when he and Annie are discussing their finances (and how they spent most of their savings building the field) and Karin tells him "There's a man out there on your lawn." Karin forgot to mention the important detail that the man in question is wearing a baseball uniform! 

So we have an interesting dialect scene when Annie tells Ray "I'll put up some coffee." Most people (if not all!) would say "I'll put on some coffee" (or they would just simply say "I'll make some coffee"). I would had just assumed this was an Iowa/Midwest thing, but most of my relatives are from Iowa and I've lived in the Midwest my whole life and I have NEVER heard anyone say it that way. It doesn't sound natural to me. I even listened to it again to make sure the subtitles weren't wrong, but she definitely says "up".

Ray turns on the stadium lights and starts swinging the ball to the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) with the bat. At first, Joe doesn't say a word until he jogs up to Ray and after Ray says hi and introduces himself, he tells Ray that his name is Joe Jackson. He asks Ray if he (Ray) can pitch so he can swing the bat. 

After a few hits, Joe talks about how much he loves this game and even myself, who doesn't really care for baseball, starts to get nostalgic and sentimental for what he's talking about. And just wait until the James Earl Jones speech! He asks about the lights and Ray tells him that all the stadiums have them. He agrees with Joe that they "make them harder to see the ball", but tells him that "owners found that more people could attend night games." 

 

Annie and Karin have come out and head in their direction so they can meet Joe, but when he walks towards them and reaches the edge of the field, he stops. In a later scene, we will find out why he can't go any further. Karin, being a six-year-old asks him if he's a ghost. He asks her, "What do you think?" and she replies "You look real to me." Annie invites him inside (probably for that coffee!), but he says he doesn't think he can. He turns to go back towards the cornfield, but then turns back and asks Ray if he can come back again and Ray tells him yes, that he built this for him. Joe tells him there are others, meaning the other eight players that were also suspended and that "it would really mean a lot to them." Ray tells him they'll all welcome. Joe has one more question for Ray, probably one of the better known lines in a movie filled with famous quotes: "Is this heaven?" Ray replies, "No, it's Iowa." My aunt (who lives in Iowa) loves this line and often quotes it. 

Has that ever been a tourism slogan for Iowa? If not, it should be! You know when you enter a new state and you see the welcome sign with the state's name and then some slogan (usually some pun or something the state is known for)? Well, I went to look up the signs for each state and Iowa's says 

The People of Iowa Welcome You

Iowa

Fields of Opportunities

First of all, I feel like these are two different welcomes and they should have gone with just one. Obviously the "Fields of Opportunities" is a play on of Field of Dreams. I will give them credit for that, but honestly, they really missed the mark with not going with

Is this Heaven?

No, it's

IOWA!

C'mon, Iowa Tourism Board! 

The next morning, Annie's mother, brother, Mark (Timothy Busfield), and Mark's wife are at the house. Mark is telling Ray he's going to lose the farm and the baseball field is going to bankrupt him and if he sells the farm now, he can get a fair price. Karin comes in to tell her dad that "the baseball game is on" and Mark thinks there's one on TV even though Ray and Karin go outside. 

They sit on the bleachers, Karin with her popcorn (nothing seemingly to drink, though) as the eight players emerge from the cornfield and start to play ball. A few minutes later, Annie comes out with Mark and the others as they're getting ready to leave. We quickly learn that Mark, his wife, and his and Annie's mother cannot see the eight men out on the field. When Karin tell him they're watching "the baseball men", he turns around, looking confused. I'm honestly surprised that they didn't show a shot of an empty field so we could see it from Mark's perspective. During this whole scene, the ball players are always in the background. Both Ray and Annie are surprised Mark and the two women can't see anything, but should they really be that surprised? These are ghost, for a lack of a better word, out there. 

When it's time for the ball players to go back to where they came from, they walk into the cornfield and visual effects are used to show them vanishing. I think this would have been more effective if they kept on walking until we couldn't see them anymore because eventually they would have disappeared into the cornfield! 

As Ray is heading back inside, he hears the voice again and this time it says "Ease his pain." He has no idea what that means and doesn't get any more instructions or details when he asks "Whose pain?" When he tells his wife he heard the voice again, she makes a joke, asking him if he has to build a football field this time. 

That evening, there is a PTA meeting scheduled to talk about book banning which really has Annie irked. While there, a future Trump voter holds up a book called The Boat Rocker by Terrance Mann claiming that "smut and filth like this has no place in our school." I laughed when Annie leans over to Ray and whispers, "Fascist. I'd like to ease her pain." She'll have a couple more zingers for this woman before the evening is over! 

One of the school administrators who's running the meeting tells the woman "That book is hardly smut" and is "considered by many to be the classic novel about the 1960s." Unfortunately, many of the attendees agree with Ms. Fascist. The administrator reminds them that the author if a Pulitzer Prize winner and "is widely regarded as the finest satirist of his time." Ms. Fascist continues her rant, saying the books of Mr. Mann "endorse promiscuity, godlessness, the mongrelization of the races..." Annie is getting very angry and her eyebrows are raised and she mouths "wow" in disbelief when the woman says that. 

 

During all this, Ray has been writing "ease his pain" over and over on the itinerary they were given for the meeting and has an epiphany that it may be referring to Terrance Mann. Annie stands up to confront Ms. Fascist (we actually do learn her name but I forgot what it was and it's more fun/accurate to call her that) and tells her and the rest of the attendees that Terrance Mann coined the phrase "make love, not war." She tells the woman that if she had experiences the '60s, she would think the same way too. The woman haughtily informs her that she "experienced the '60s" and Annie replies "No, I think you had two '50s and moved right into the '70s" and sits down. Ooh, burn, Annie! The woman retorts by telling her, "Well, your husband plowed under his corn and built a baseball field." After telling Ray that she'll "be cool", Annie stands back up and replies, "At least he is not a book burner, you Nazi cow." Yeah, pretty sure Annie won with that one, but the woman still snaps back with "At least I'm not married to the biggest horses' ass in three counties." Yeah, no, Annie still won. She takes over the meeting when she wants to "put it to a vote" and asks the audience "Who's for Eva Braun here?" Sadly, at first, it seems she doesn't have any supporters, even after she asks them "Who wants to spit on the Constitution of the United States of America? " But when she asks "Who thinks freedom is a good thing?", they start raising their hands. There's a funny moment when Ray is still deep in though and she smacks him on the shoulder and he raises his hand. 

As they're leaving, Annie is super excited that everyone is on her side now. Ray tells her he knows whose pain he's supposed to ease: Terrance Mann's. Annie asks how does he know that and he replies "I don't know I just know. I was right about building the field wasn't I?" Hmmm, sorry, movie, but I'm not buying it. Seems like a bit of a lame answer. Here's a fun fact: in the book, it's J.D. Salinger whose pain he has to ease. Annie asks him "What's Terrance Mann got to do with baseball?" He doesn't know that either and so we get a montage of him going to the library and looking up articles about Mann on the microfiche (the children of today would be horrified that Google or Wikipedia didn't exist back then!) and reading his works. Ray tells Annie that Mann stopped writing in the '70s and now "writes software for interactive children's videos (does he mean computer games?). He found a short story Mann published in a magazine in 1962 called "This Is Not a Kite" where the hero of the story is named John Kinsella; Ray's father's name. The last interview he ever gave was in 1973 where he says his dream as a child "was to play at Ebbets Field with Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers." Ray says Mann was "a baseball fanatic" and in order to "ease his pain", he needs to take him to a game at Fenway Park. (Mann lives in Boston.) This time, Annie isn't too sure about this. Building a field on their farm? Totally fine! Traveling to Boston? Big no-no! She doesn't want him to travel all that way because they are having financial problems and he needs to stay at the farm. They have a bit of a dispute and Ray tells her he strongly thinks there's a reason he needs to go and he thinks "something is gonna happen at the game." Annie admits that she had a dream of Ray and Terrance Mann watching a game together at Fenway Park, and what do you know Ray had the exact same dream, so it must be a sign! Ray now has Annie's blessing to go to Boston.

I looked up how long it is from Dyersville, Iowa (that's the actual town where the baseball field is) to Boston and it's a little over 19 hours to drive there without any stops. Too bad Terrance didn't live a little closer, like Chicago or Minneapolis. 

When Ray arrives in Boston, he finds out where Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones) lives (surprisingly this reclusive writer wasn't in the phone book!), but when he knocks on his apartment door, Mann isn't too happy to see him and tells him he wants to be left alone after slamming the door in Ray's face.. You could say that Mann is a bit of a grumpy old man. Ray tries again and asks him if he can have one minute of his time so Terrance agrees. Ray tells him "You once wrote, 'There comes a time when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place and the universe opens itself up for a few seconds to show you what's possible.'" Terrance doesn't have time for this and pushes Ray out of his apartment. He notices that when Mann slammed the door, the door didn't quite latch, so he's able to go back inside. He puts one of his hands in his coat pocket and pretend it's a gun. Mann doesn't buy it at all and grabs a crowbar, telling Ray he's going to beat him until he leaves. Ray is able to evade the weapon when he tells Terrance he's a pacifist and the writer stops short of taking a swing at him. 

Ray tells him he has to take him to a baseball game later that evening and that "something is supposed to happen there tonight." When he brings up the interview Terrance gave years ago about him wanting to play baseball, Mann denies ever saying any of those things. Ray tells him if he comes to the game with him, he promises he'll never bother him again. 

Here are two fun facts when they go to watch the game at Fenway Park:

-We find out that two hot dogs and two beers cost $7 in 1988. What a deal! 

-Apparently, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were extras during this scene. Makes sense since they are from Boston. They would have been about fifteen or sixteen at this time. I tried looking for them, but yeah, I did't see them. 

While watching the game, Ray hears the voice again and it has a new message for him: "Go the distance." At first, I was thinking that was the most vague message, but we'll quickly find out what the disembodied voice means when Ray sees a message on the Jumbotron. It says "Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham" and lists some stats about him including that he's from Chisholm, Minnesota and played for the New York Giants in 1922. So I'm guessing that "go the distance" means he's supposed to drive to Chisholm and find this guy. 

He asks Terrance if he heard or saw anything, but Mann doesn't know what he's referring to. Ray tells him that he didn't need to come after all and they can leave now. When he drops him off outside of his apartment, Mann asks Ray if he got another message. Ray doesn't want to take up too much more of his time, so he says the message was "The man's already done enough, leave him alone" and shakes Terrance's had. As he turns the car around, he has to stop quickly because Terrance is standing right in front of him in the street. He says "Moonlight Graham" and Ray knows that Terrance heard the voice and saw the stats about Graham on the screen. 

Apparently Ray didn't know what "go the distance" meant (gee, I thought it was pretty obvious - the most obvious of all the messages the voice says to him!) so Terrance has to explain to him that they need to find Moonlight Graham in Minnesota. He hops back into the van without even packing first! Dude, you're literally right in front of your apartment! Go upstairs and pack a suitcase! 

They travel 1,539 miles from Boston to Chisholm (which is a little over 200 miles north of Minneapolis; I Google mapped their route). When they reach the small northern town, they try looking up Archibald Graham in the phone book, but can't find anything. They go to the office of the Chisholm Tribune Press where an old lady who's probably been working there for over fifty years recognizes the name as Dr. Graham or "Doc" Graham as he was known. He had given up his baseball career to become a doctor. She has to break the news to the two men that he died in 1972. Terrane wonders what made them travel all this way to try to find a man sixteen years after he died. They interview some old guys at a bar who knew Dr. Graham. One of them tells them he "wore an overcoat, had white hair, and always carried an umbrella." In a few short minutes, we'll see why this scene is here. Though, I have to ask, don't most old people have white hair? We get another little detail that Doc's wife always wore blue and that the shops in town stocked blue hats because they kew he would buy one. Now you know this is a small town if everyone knows that! And just how many blue hats does one woman need? How many hats does one woman need? I looked up the population of Chisholm and 4,711 people lived there in 2022. I imagine it was half that or even lower in 1922! (Although back in the '90s, they were up to over 5,000!) 

Later that evening, Ray goes for a stroll and it appears he has been transported to 1972. He sees posters for Nixon, the movie marquee is promoting The Godfather, "one of this year's ten best" and he sees that the year on a license plate is 1972. I had totally forgot about this time travel scene. Probably because it only lasts less then a minute, then it's never really talked about ever again. Out of the mist he sees an older gentleman with - get this - white hair and wearing an overcoat and carrying an umbrella. He is indeed Archibald "Moonlight" "Doc" Graham (Burt Lancaster in his final role) and he invites Ray to his office. 

We learn that he only got to play half an inning, but then left to become a doctor because he "couldn't bear another year in the minors." When Ray asks him what his wish is, he tells him it's to play baseball again, more specifically that he would "have liked to bat in the major leagues." When Ray tells him he can make his wish come true, Doc says he believes him, but that he can't go with him because he can't leave this town and that his dream "will have to stay a wish." 

Later, Ray discusses it with Terrance and the writer thinks they were sent to Chisholm to "find out if one inning can change the world" and if Moonlight had "gotten a hit, he might have stayed in baseball." 

 

Ray calls back his wife who had called earlier and she tells him she talked to the bank and they told her that they had just sold the deed on the farm to Mark and his partners and they're going to foreclose. He tells her he'll be home soon, but first he needs to take Mr. Mann back to Boston. Lucky for him, Terrance tells him he's coming with him. Can you imagine how out of the way that would have been for him if he had to drive him back to Boston? He would have had to drive 1,530 miles east, then almost 1,220 miles back to Iowa. Now, since he's already in Minnesota and Terrance wants to go back with him he only has to travel 422 miles south. (Can you tell I like using Google Maps?) 

While driving to Iowa, Ray tells Terrance that not everybody can see the ballpark, but technically that's not true. They can see the field, they just can't see the players. They come across a young hitchhiker and he's carrying all his belongings all bundled up in a cloth with a pole attached to it. It's almost as though he's from another time! The boy tells them he plays baseball and he's looking for a place to play and that he's "heard that all through the Midwest, they have towns with teams." Ray tells him they're going to a place just like that and he hops in the van. After Ray and Terrance introduce themselves, he says his name is Archie Graham. Ooh! The plot thickens! 

While Archie is napping in the backseat, we get some backstory about Ray's relationship with his father as Terrance asks him about it. He tells him his father never made it as a baseball player, so he tried to get him (Ray) "to make it for him" and Ray ended up despising the game and refused to play when he was 14. That's when he read Mann's book The Boat Rocker. There's a funny moment when Terrance gets all indignant and says "It's not my fault that you wouldn't play catch with your father!" Ray continues, saying he said "something awful" to his father and left home at 17. It is implied he never saw his father again because he wanted to return, but didn't know how, but was able to make it for the funeral. The terrible thing he said to his father was that he could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal. He's referring to Shoeless Joe Jackson and when Terrance tells him he wan't a criminal, Ray replies he said it because he was seventeen. He has deep guilt about it and is sad that his father never got to meet Annie or Karin. 

When they return to the farm, there are now more players out on the field so now they will be able to play real games instead of just practices. It is established right away that Terrance can see the players and he is astonished that Shoeless Joe Jackson is there. Archie is amazed by how many players he recognizes (but I sure don't) - Smokey Joe Wood, Mel Ott, and Gil Hodges are the names he utters. Yeah, the only old-school baseball players I know are Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and thanks to this movie, Shoeless Joe Jackson. Oh, and I've also heard of Lou Gehrig, but mostly because of the disease. 

The young Archie gets his older counterpart's dream of swinging the bat. He misses the first couple of times but after getting some advice from Joe, he smacks the ball and gets a home run....I think....I'm not really a sports person, so I really don't know how baseball works. 

The next day, while Ray is watching a game with his family and Terrance, Mark stops by. He walks right in the middle of the field, nearly getting hit by the ball the pitcher throws. It's funny when the players get really angry at him, but I'm not sure why they just didn't wait until he had passed by them. Also, if the ball had hit him, would he have felt it? Terrance quickly realizes that Mark can't see the players and when Mark sees Ray's got company, he asks "Who is this? Elvis?" He doesn't believe Ray when he tells him it's Terrance Mann and introduces himself as the Easter Bunny. Mark tells Ray that he has a deal to offer that will allow him to stay on the land. Karin interrupts them to tell her dad that they don't have to sell the farm; that people will come to watch the game and will pay for a ticket. I laughed when she says that people will decide to come to Iowa City for a vacation, but they'll think it's "really boring" (yeah, who would go there for vacation? And I can say that because I've been to Iowa many times and have relatives (including my parents) who are from/still live in Iowa), so they'll drive to the farm and pay to watch the games. I had to get out the old Google Maps again....Iowa City is about an hour and a half away from Dyersville. 

Mark isn't listening to her, but Terrance is! This is when we get James Earl Jones' "People will come" speech and he waxes poetic about baseball and how "the one constant through all the years has been baseball." As he's giving his speech, the music starts swelling and he walks out on the field and all the players stop what they're doing, but this time they're more in awe and not irritated like they were with Mark. They slowly walk closer to him.  I did laugh when he said "they'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom." That would be another great welcome sign for Iowa:

Welome to Iowa

You've come here for reasons you can't even fathom

Though the heaven line is much more iconic and synonymous with this movie. At one point he says, "Oh...people will definitely come." When he said "oh", he kinda held it for a few seconds and I thought he was going to break into "Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies..." James Earl Jones would appear as an ex-ballplayer (and the owner of Hercules) four years later in The Sandlot and I have no doubt the director/writer hired him for that role because of this movie. 

Mark tells Ray he'll lose everything and will be evicted, but Ray tells him he's to signing anything. Karin ends up falling off the top of the bleachers and hitting her head. This is because Mark had grabbed her after she tells him there are people out on the field and he accuses Ray of turning his daughter into a "space cadet", but when he puts her down, she ends up falling instead. I think it would have made more sense if she had just accidentally fallen. 

Annie starts running back to the house to call for help, but Ray sees young Archie Graham coming forward and he tells his wife to "wait". Please, like any mother would "wait" for some ghost doctor to help their child. But she does and he does. When he steps off the baseball field, he turns into the old man doctor and is able to save the young girl who was unconscious because she had a hot dog lodged in her throat. Mark is able to see him, so did he just see some random old guy materialize right in front of him? He is also now able to see the other ballplayers and asks when they got there. 

Everyone's had enough excitement for one day, so Joe tells Ray that they'll see him tomorrow, then asks, "Do you wanna come with with us?" Ray thinks he is talking to him, but he is asking Terrance who is standing next to Ray. Ray is a bit upset he wasn't the one invited. He says he built this field and asks "What's in it for me?" Terrance tells him there's a reason they chose him, "just as there was a reason they chose you and this field." He then admits he did give the interview about Ebbets Field, the one that sent Ray to Boston to find him. He says there's something out there and he'll write about it because that's what he does. 

Terrance disappeared into the corn field and before Joe leaves, he says to Ray, "If you build it, he will come" and nods at the catcher who turns out to be John Kinsella, Rays' dad. I think he does actually have a line earlier in the movie (when the group is playing baseball), but nothing is ever given away about him being Ray's dad and since his face is always covered by a mask, Ray has never noticed until now. 

Ray and John introduce each other and I'm not sure if John knows Ray is his son. (Ray just says his first name.) Ray introduces him to Annie and Karin and almost tells Karin he's her grandfather, but instead introduces him as John. Annie says they're going to let the two of them talk and takes Karin back to the house. John asks Ray "Is this heaven?" and Ray replies "It's Iowa." John says, "I could have sworn it was heaven" and when Ray asks if there is a heaven, John tells him there is. They say goodnight and as John walks away, Ray calls out, "Hey Dad, you want to have a catch?" and John replies "I'd like that." Considering that was his reply, he would have to know that Ray is his son or otherwise he'd be like "What did you call me?" 

The movie ends with a long line of cars lined up as far as the eye can see waiting to see the game. They're not even ready for all those people because they only have one set of bleachers! And what about all the food they're going to need?

I've been to the filming location in Dyerville and I just remember the baseball field being smaller than it looks in the movie. People were playing baseball, but I was more interested in the cornfield! 

An Unprecedented Day in America

"This is horrible." 

 "We have several situations going on here. It's escalating big time and we need to get the military involved in this." 

"There is simply no way to accurately describe the emotion this evokes in people all over the world; friends of the United States, and enemies of the United States, as well." 

"What we are seeing now is nothing less than the worst nightmare that one could imagine come to life, probably worse than anyone could have imagined." 

"September 11th, 2001, you're going to remember this day for a long time and a lot of things in this country will change as a result of what you're seeing on your screen now." 

I've been watching a lot of 9/11 documentaries wherever I can find them and I found the most fascinating video on YouTube. Someone had made a "dashboard" of 9/11 where events are synchronized in real time. It took me a few days to watch because it's a little over four hours long, but it was so fascinating and probably the best source for anyone who wants to learn more about that fateful day. This video has been up for one year and already has over nine million views!

Here is a screenshot so I can better explain how it works:

There's the live TV broadcast (it changes from all the major networks) that is the most prominent. Underneath that is a box which has the latest event. This will include things like when the terrorists take over, any kind of information about the planes (such as when United 93 is pushed back from the gate; resulting in a 40 minute delay or when the revolt begins on that same flight), where President Bush is during certain times, etc. You'll see the map and this tracks the flights of all four hijacked planes. Sometimes the map will turn into a diagram of the airports that the hijacked planes took off from or amateur footage of the attacks will be shown or a map of the WTC area showing us where pieces of the plane were found. It's pretty much used for anything that's a visual aid. Below that is the status monitor of the four planes. They let you know when they're still on the ground, airborne, hijacked, and crashed. Once they've crashed, they picture goes black and white. Yeah, it's pretty morbid. The pictures of the World Trade Center and Pentagon just let us known when they've been hit. When the towers collapse, they go dark. At the top you'll see a digital clock, so you know when events happen in real time. You can't really it, but to the left of the clock it says "New York Fire Department" and "Air Traffic Control Radio". Each of these buttons light up and we hear when there transmissions from either one in real time. At the very bottom is the timeline of major events. It shows when the planes are hijacked and the targets are attacked.

One of the most interesting things about this video is that it starts at 7:48 am Eastern time, which is exactly one hour before the first plane hit. Most live news programs of 9/11 that you can find on YouTube start right after the first plane hits so it's hard to find footage of this day when everything was still normal. In the first hour, the live TV broadcast only flips around three different networks: NBC, CBS, and CNN. As you can see, I took a screenshot of Today at 8:04 am with Ann Curry just finishing up "the top news stories of the morning." There's just something uncanny about seeing "Tuesday September 11, 2001" on the screen before knowing what the date actually would become (to the people who were watching this live). 

What were the top new stories before the biggest event in our country's history would happen in 44 minutes? Glad you asked, because if the terrorists attacks hadn't happened, this probably would have been the most mundane day in our nation's history. To be fair, most days are pretty uninteresting and not much happens (which is a good thing!). Here are a few of the news stories mentioned:

- There will be a hearing to see if Andrea Yates is fit to stand trial. If you don't know who that it, I'm sure there's many true crime podcasts that cover her story. 

- Michael Jordan is returning to the NBA. This was one of the top stories that all three networks talk about. Was this when he was still playing baseball, then returned to basketball? I'm not sure. Needless to say, I didn't remember this story at all! 

-Elizabeth Dole is running for the U.S. Senate.

-Ann mentions that President Bush will be at an elementary school in Florida today discussing literacy programs. Of course, we all remember him being in that classroom when he heard the news.

Those are just some of the stories mentioned. I won't spoil you with all of them (and let's be honest; none of them are really that interesting). But I thought it was just an interesting snapshot of what was going on in the country before everything turned to (literal) hell. 

Another interesting thing about the first hour is that it includes commercials. Once the attacks start, there are zero commercials. Now more news channels are added (FOX and ABC) so I don't know if the creator is just able to jump around the different stations without ever having any commercials, but I feel pretty certain none of the major networks were running commercials. I don't 100% remember, but it would feel pretty weird to be showing commercials at a time like this. It would just seem to be in poor taste to show a commercial of a squirrel selling Post-its (you'll soon understand the reference) while this horrific event is happening. The only commercials that I remember are the ones with celebrities: a Pier 1 commercial with Kirstie Alley and a KFC commercial with Jason Alexander. A lot of the commercials just seem so antiquated now! You should have seen the Travelocity commercial that shows their VERY '90s website. (And we'll see more terribly created websites, just you wait!)There's a promo for the Latin Grammys (featuring Jennifer Lopez) which will be on CBS that night. Hmm, something tells me they're gonna be cancelled! (Spoiler: they were.) Speaking of cancellations, Tracey Ullman is supposed to be on Today and Ray Romano is scheduled to be on The Early Show, but, no surprise, neither will be interviewed. 

We see a sneak peek with Tom Brokaw telling us what will be on NBC Nightly News. You can bet that story never saw the light of the day. Almost makes you feel sorry for the poor person who worked on it. 

On the Information Board (where the map is shown), before each plane takes off, we get a little dossier about each one: where it started from, where it will (sadly, never) land, how many passengers and crew, how many terrorists. The creator got these little fact sheets from Wikipedia.

Remember I mentioned the FDNY and ATC Radio buttons? Well, we first hear ATC at 7:50. The creator has muted the volume of the CNN story that's talking about how to get your start in the modeling business (major eyeroll) and we hear ATC telling American Airlines 11...something. Probably they're about ready to take off. To be honest, it is kind of hard to understand what they're saying sometimes and there is no transcript of it on the screen. Okay, I'm sorry, but I had to laugh because during this "how to be discovered as a model" mini story, they show a woman in her office with a freakin' Rolodex! Were people still using those even in 2001? Good Lord! At least this first hour has some lighthearted chuckles before things take a turn for the absolute worse! Another thing that gave me a good chuckle is when CNN asks viewers "What do you think of Michael Jordan's Return? Send e-mail to daybreak@cnn.com." Bwah! E-mail! So antiquated, it's hilarious! Oh, and things get worse when they show a picture of their "website" (looks like something I would have made circa 2000!). 

Speaking of terrible websites, at 8:10 the channel flips to CBS and Bryant Gumble is talking to a woman who is promoting a bunch of baby websites and they all look even worse than the CNN one. Gumble even asks if the first one they talk about, babycenter.com, is a free site...what the hell? Aren't all websites free? I'm confused. 

After this insipid segment about baby websites with outdated graphics, we see that AA 11 has been hijacked at 8:14. It is the first major event in the timeline to happen and in the information board we get data about the hijackers: how old they are and what country they're from. This information will be up when all the planes are hijacked. The oldest was 33, the others all range from 20-29, so it really puts into perspective just how young they were. The majority of them were from Saudi Arabia.

We know AA 11 was hijacked around this time because ATC calls for them to climb 35,000 twice, but receives no reply. You can hear the sternness in his voice when he says "American. Eleven. Boston." You know he's not playing games and he wants the pilot to answer him because he has a job to do. I have to wonder, if at this point, the idea of hijacking was going through his head. We even hear him call another plane to ask if he can hear him and that pilot says he hears him "loud and clear". We then again hear him say "American. Eleven. Boston." He has a tone in his voice which means "answer me".  

The guy at ATC must call his supervisor because we hear him telling a guy that AA 11 won't respond and that he's turning a different way and the guy responds, "That's fine." The hell? Maybe he said that because at the moment the plane isn't in any other flight path, but that's kind of a weird reply, especially when you've been told that the plane isn't even responding to you. 

It's been three minutes since ATC has tried calling for AA 11 and they are still trying, but to no avail. He must have tried calling them nine or tern times. He is desperately trying to get a hold of that plane. 

It's 8:19 when AA 11 flight attendant Betty Ong calls an American Airline reservation center in North Carolina and alerts them about the hijacking. Air Traffic Control has just given American Airlines 77 permission to takeoff. While all this is going on, ironically, CNN is running a segment with John Glenn who's talking about a new visitors' center at the Capitol. Ironic because that was supposed to be the target United 93 would have hit. That or the White House. 

At 8:24, Mohammad Atta, the oldest and ringleader of the terrorists (and "pilot" of the first hijacked plane) is heard by ATC. They think he pushed the wrong button and thought he was talking to the passengers because he tells them to be quiet and that "nobody will get hurt". Pretty sure ATC now knows they have a serious situation on their hands if they didn't already. Okay, I know this is super serious and this is going to turn into the worst day of our nation's history, but I'm sorry, I had to laugh when a few seconds later you hear the ATC guy reply, "And, uh, who's trying to call me here?" He just sounds so incredulous! Of course he doesn't get a reply except for when Atta tells the passengers (that he thinks he's talking to) to "just stay quiet." 

At 8:30 we see the Today crew outside greeting the crowd that has gathered around. There's just something very chilling seeing all the people outside Rockerfeller Center with their handmade signs, all happy to be there on a beautiful blue-sky Tuesday in September. Katie Couric and Al Roker are talking to a few people and everyone is all smiles and happy. They talk to one couple who tell them they're there for their anniversary and a woman who's with her husband and son on vacation. Hoo, boy. That's one vacation they'll never forget! I had to chuckle a bit when Katie talks about some of the stories that are coming up and that they have a lot to get to. Oh, Katie. Katie, Katie, Katie. Trust me, you won't be talking about ANY of those stories! Katie turns to Al for the weather and comments, "It is such a pretty morning, isn't it." Such a sad statement, but yeah she's right, it is a beautiful day, but we're now 17 minutes away from the first plane hitting the North Tower. Al agrees: "It's the perfect fall morning." He quickly corrects himself and says "it's still the perfect summer morning." 

Here is a screenshot of the country's weather map on that day. You can see that the ATC radio button in red and you can see events in the timeline at the bottom a bit better than the previous screenshot I posted. 

At 8:32 the woman who talked to Betty Ong has gotten hold of ATC and is reading the notes she wrote about what she was told about the terrorist (from the sound of it, she's only describing one guy which is interesting). I guess she didn't know how to patch ATC through the plane itself? The plane is in "rapid descent." She tells him that the flight attendants are concerned because they can't get a hold of the pilots in the cockpit and when she asks him if he can, he says they can't either, then seems to hesitate before he tells her that they don't want to tell them (the flight attendants) that. I'm assuming they don't want to incite even more panic because they realize there's really nothing they can do. I mean what can you do besides scramble some fighter jets to shoot the plane down if you think it's aiming for an area with lots of civilians? It's a no win situation for everyone on that plane. 

At 8:37, United 175, of all flights, confirm to ATC sighting of AA 11. A few moments later, the pilot will again report to ATC that they heard "a suspicious transmission" (from AA 11) of someone telling everyone to "stay in their seats." This will be literal moments before they themselves are hijacked which just makes it so eerie. 

The channel flips to CNN where they are promoting their Sunday special called  "Hurricane: When the Big One Hits." Yikes! In a few short minutes, this is going to age terribly! I have no doubt the editor of this video knew exactly when to show a certain news channel. 

It's now seven minutes until the first crash will occur and CNN is live at New York Fashion week where a reporter is interviewing pregnant models for maternity wear. This is just so weird and silly juxtaposed with what's going on with the hijacked plane. 

At 8:42, an American Airlines supervisor named Nydia Gonzalez "with expertise on security matters" is patched into a call with Betty Ong. She (Nydia) is also on the line with ATC, so we're hearing her side of the convo with them, but not with Betty. She tells Betty "she's doing a great job" and "to keep staying calm." We hear her say "We are, absolutely" so Betty must have asked if they're doing everything they can. Surprisingly, we get info that the "passengers in coach may not be aware of what's going on". That surprised me because it's only two minute until they hit the tower and aren't they descending rapidly? They must have known something not right was happening. At 8:45 Nydia reports that "the aircraft is erratic again." That must have been so terrifying. Thanks to Betty, we do get a lot of information such as the first class passengers were moved back to coach and before that she (or perhaps it was another flight attendant) reported that a passenger was stabbed. 

When the plane crashes in the North Tower at 8:46, in the information board we are shown that infamous footage that was taken by a French-born filmmaker who, with his brother, was working on a documentary about the NYFD. They were out with them just doing a routine check or something when the filmmaker sees the plane and turns the camera, and, of course, the rest is history. Because they were with firemen, it takes only three seconds for them to call it in.

Nydia is trying to get a hold of Betty, but obviously she's not answering. It's so eerie when you hear her say, "I think we may have lost her." I think she's just talking about she lost her on the call, but they have literally just lost her and all the other souls on that plane. ATC quickly realizes that the plane that hit the tower was their hijacked one, so they're probably the first to know that this was a terrorist attack. 

While this horrific event just happened, CNN is running a commercial about Post-its...with a squirrel. It's a cute commercial, but a bit difficult to enjoy under the circumstances. Obviously, in real time people watching CNN didn't know what had happened yet. It takes a few minutes for the stations to jump on the story. Here are the times when each station brings the story:

CNN: 8:49 (To their credit, they are the first to bring the story, so the squirrel Post-it commercial can be forgiven.)

ABC: 8:51

CBS: 8:52

NBC: 8:53

FOX: 8:54 (I believe they brought up the story a bit earlier than that; but this is the time when the bring up a live picture of the burning tower.)

Obviously, everything is just chaotic. Nobody really knows what exactly happened just yet. It's surprisning how many eyewitnesses that are interviewed via phone by the morning news anchors claim it was a small plane that crashed into the tower. I don't know if it was that they were so far away or that they couldn't compute that a 767 could crash into a New York skyscraper, so their mind told them it was just a small commuter plane. Just looking at the gaping hole it left, it's so obvious it was NOT a small plane! 

Diane Sawyer from Good Morning America on ABC says they don't know yet if this crash was "deliberately or accidentally." I do remember a lot of people thinking this was just a "horrible accident" when the first plane hit, but looking back, it's kind of stupid anyone could have thought THAT was an accident. It was a clear day and even if the pilot was having difficulties, they're not going to fly the plane into a building; they'd probably try to pull a Sulley and crash land it in the river. (Yes, I realize this predates the "Miracle on the Hudson" incident.) 

At 8:59 the phone message that United 175 passenger Brian Sweeney left for his wife, Julie, is played, as that is when it was left in real time. I believe this is the only piece of audio aside from any transmissions from ATC and the NYFD that is played. This is a pretty famous phone message from that day. I'm sure there are many people who have messages left from loved ones who perished that day and have never shared them because they want to keep them for themselves and that's totally their right, but I'm sure those who have shared their loved one messages with the public find it therapeutic for them. I know a few phone messages from United 93 have been shared as well. People grieve in different ways. I know that Julie Sweeney donated a recording of the call to the 9/11 museum. Her husband (who was only 38) sounds fairly calm, but perhaps that was for her sake. Maybe resigned is a better description of how he sounds. 

Moments before United 175 crashes into the South Tower, we hear ATC pretty much confirming in disbelief that they see the plane heading toward the building. The live broadcast is on NBC and they're showing a far away shot of the towers. I gasped when I could see the plane heading right for it. Honestly, if you were watching this live, you probably wouldn't even notice the plane because you would have been watching the tower with the gaping hole and billowing smoke. Amateur footage is also shown of the plane hitting the building at a different angle. I was literally gasping when I watched this. I KNOW what's going to happen, but it gives me such anxiety. On NBC, when the second place hits, you don't actually see it because they have gone to a close up of the first tower, but then they pull back and you see the huge fireball the explosion caused. Obviously, they will go back and show us (repeatedly; as will all the other stations) what happened since they caught it on tape. 

Katie Couric and Matt Lauer had been talking to an NBC news producer who must have seen the first plane crash and after the second plane crashes, she says the dumbest thing ever, I'm sorry, but it's true. She says "I wonder if there are air traffic control problems." WTF? Even if the pilots couldn't communicate with ATC, they're NOT going to fly into a building! Al Roker, bless him, even says "What are the odds of two separate planes hitting both towers?" I'd say the odds are pretty good when it's terrorism and the planes are deliberately being flown into the buildings! Katie Couric says "It is completely impossible to understand why this is happening..." This just shows how some people could not grasp the idea of terrorism even after a second plane crash. 

But, to be fair, the Today crew aren't the only ones who have that kind of reaction. I've watched several news stations to see how they reacted that day and some of them are, honestly, just mind-boggling. If you watch the CNN footage of the second plane, they're getting it from their New York affiliates and they thought the second explosion was from the fuselage of the first plane...I guess they thought it jumped from one building to the other? I don't know how far apart these buildings were, but pretty sure that would be improbable. It's so odd because you see a quick clip of the incoming second plane, but then the camera jumps away from it. The voiceover of the anchor says "One of our producers says perhaps a second plane was involved, but let's not even speculate to that point..." and I'm thinking, this guy is going to look stupid in a few seconds because his producer was 100% correct! They obviously figure it out when they go back to the tape and clearly see what happened. The anchor also has a similar reaction to that NBC news producer and says "I don't know if perhaps some kind of navigating system or some type of electronics would have put two planes into the World Trade Center within about 18 minutes of each other." Uh....no. It's called terrorism. It's so OBVIOUS that they were both deliberate, but nobody wanted to admit what it was. Even if ATC was down, pilots would steer clear of two big ass buildings. It just seems too perfect of a target for that to be "an accident". 

Our international friends over at the BBC have seemed to miss the second plane completely! I'm not sure how; perhaps they weren't watching the monitor? Because you clearly see it on the screen and there is absolutely NO reaction from the male or female anchor. They're talking to an eyewitness and the woman interrupts 40 second in to say "It looks like both buildings are on fire." (Yeah, no kidding!) Then about a minute after that,  she says "It's not really clear if there was a plane crash", then adds that there are "unconfirmed reports of a second plane" and I'm thinking, What?! Go back and check your tapes!  The male anchor says that because they are seeing both towers on fire, "it could be that the aircraft went through one and the debris has affected the other tower." How are they going this long without not knowing what happened? Surely there are other people in the studio who saw what happened. Finally they do get the footage and replay it and the woman calls it "a double plane accident at the World Trade Center." I feel like "double accident" is an oxymoron. 

 

In this horrific event, I had a bit of a chuckle when Matt Lauer says something to the effect of if they could find out if ATC had contact with these planes. Uh yeah, no duh. Obviously not contact since they couldn't communicate, but they very much knew there was a situation going on. 

I believe the first mention of this being a deliberate act and terrorism is at 9:12 when the channels flips to CBS and Bryant Gumble is interviewing an eyewitness who told him the planes "aimed for it and they did a very good job." He says the towers were "targets". Although to be fair, even though this isn't shown in this video, after the second plane hits, the Fox News anchor says that it's "deliberate" and even drops Osama Bin Laden's name three seconds later. Of course, if you know your OBL facts, it's not that hard to pinpoint it on him: he was a known terrorist; he hated the U.S.; he had tried to do a terrorist act with planes back in the '90s (or even the '80s?), but it was thwarted; he had the money to fund this. If the shoe fits...

So a lot is going on right now: At 9:16 we hear ATC say they've lost contact with American Airlines 77; at 9:29 Katie Couric announces that it was American Airlines 11 that was hijacked and crashed into the WTC (I can't even imagine hearing that and having a loved one on that plane; also I was a little surprised she got that information so quickly); at 9:33 Fox News mentions Osama Bin Laden as a likely suspect (although, like I said earlier, they already mentioned his name right after the second plane hit); 9:37 is when AA 77 crashes into the Pentagon and the security camera that caught it is shown. Kinda crazy that three out of the four crashes were caught on some type of camera, especially back in 2001. By 9:49 CNN has "breaking news" of "reports of a fire at the Pentagon" and at 9:42 NBC and CBS show smoke coming from the Pentagon. Nobody knows what's happened, but they think it may be a bomb or some kind of explosion. Gumble mentions he doesn't know if this is a result of another aircraft. 

Okay, so while all this is going on, over on the map I see that United 93 has gotten pretty far into Ohio which is shocking, especially since they left from Newark and their target is either the White House or Capitol. They flew all away across the entire state of Pennsylvania. We know the flight was delayed 40 minutes and that it took the hijackers 46 minutes to take over the plane. It's no wonder we know so much about this flight because the passengers had time to find out what was going on and were able to call loved ones and tell them that they were going to storm the cabin which will happen just before ten.

This day gives me a lot of "what ifs?" and most of my "what ifs?" revolve around United 93. What if their flight was delayed just a little bit longer and never took off because by then the city of New York had already closed down their air space? What if they (the passengers and flight attendants; sadly I don't think the pilots had a chance) had successfully killed or at least incapacitated the hijackers and had managed to land the plane (probably would have been more of a crash landing)? We do know one of the passengers was a pilot (though don't think he flew big jet airliners) and another worked ATC for a few years, so it's not totally impossible to think they could (crash) land the plane. Can you imagine what heroes everyone on that plane would have been? And the stories (and many books!) they would have to tell? The Paul Greengrass film would have been totally different and he would have many consultants! Of course, they are all heroes, posthumously, for diverting the plane from crashing into the Capitol. 

 

At 9:45, in an unprecedented move, U.S. airspace is shut down and it only takes two hours for every single plane in the nation to land which is quite incredible. Of course, we know that many international flights were directed to Canada and if you have never heard of the incredible story of the Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, you should check it out. 

It's been an hour since the first crash and the three main stations have called in their anchors of their nightly national news broadcasts: Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather have now joined their respective stations (NBC, ABC, and CBS) within a few minutes of 9:46. 

There is more confusion at 9:59 when the south tower (the second one to be hit) collapses nearly an hour after it was first struck. They just see a "large plume of smoke" and it takes a few moments for them to realize that the whole building has collapsed. One CNN correspondent even thinks that "the second tower is encased in smoke". 

As I mentioned not too long ago, the passenger revolt on United 93 began three minutes til ten, now it's three minutes after ten and the plane has crashed in a field in Shanksville which will be the only thing this town will be known for (and calling it a town may be a bit generous). Very eerie timing that the two United planes crashed exactly within an hour of each other. Five minute later is when ATC gets word that a plane has crashed in Pennsylvania, 10:37 is when the Associated Press first reports about it; 10:48 is when CBS first reports about it; and 10:58 is when CNN reports about it. I remember watching international coverage (might have been the UK) and when they reported about United 93 they said they didn't know if that plane was part of the terrorist attacks or if it was just a random plane crash. Okay, in the words of Al Roker, what are the odds of that? Of course that plane was involved! I suppose since the plane just crashed into a random field that's why they thought that, but, c'mon...

Once all the planes have crashed, the flight paths of all four planes is put on the information board and the map will eventually disappear as it is not needed anymore. 

At 11:15 American Airlines confirms the loss of its two flights, but what I found really interesting was that at 11:25 United Airlines says it is "deeply concerned" about flight 175. They have confirmed that United 93 went down. To me, it is odd that they used those words about flight 175 (which, ironically, is the flight the entire world saw come to its demise if they were watching live at that moment) because they have not yet confirmed it was hijacked or part of the attacks. Were there other flights that were unaccounted for? If not, wouldn't it be obvious that flight was the one used in the attacks? By 11:53 they have confirmed the loss of both flights. It's just a little detail that I have no recollection of that day.

I know it seems like I told you everything that this video offers, but trust me, I didn't. There's so much more information and graphics that I didn't tell you about, so I would definitely recommend this if you are interested in learning more about the day that nobody will ever forget. 

The Heat is On

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Director: Mark Molloy

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylor Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Kevin Bacon

Released: July 3, 2024

Viewed: July 3, 2024

It just happened to be pure coincidence that I had recently watched and reviewed the first three Beverly Hills Cop movies; I had no idea there was a fourth one coning to Netflix, but since I had watched the first movie, the trailer for the new one popped up and that's how I found out about it. By the time I had watched all the previous films, I was ready to watch this one and I caught all (well, most of) the shout-outs and nods of the previous films (well, the first two, really).

This movie is definitely going for the nostalgia factor for the old school fans. Why, within the first ten minutes you hear not one, but two songs that may sound a little familiar (especially if you just watched the first two films!). The opening scene starts with Axel driving through Detroit as "The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey is playing on the radio (even though it appears to be winter, so kinda ironic!). If you remember, that's the song that started the very first film. So here's something I never knew: that song was written specifically for Beverly Hills Cop. Talk about a TIL moment! I have always been aware of that song for as long as I can remember, but I had no idea it was specifically written for BHC until I read it just now on Wikipedia. I was wanting to see what year it came out, thinking maybe it was the hot summer song of 1984 or maybe it came out a few years prior. Thinking about it now, it makes sense since "The Heat" is slang for police (I guess it has something to do with the red siren on their cars...IDK). 

About ten minutes later, when Axel and his partner (who's pretty much a nonentity in this as we never see him again after this scene) are chasing bad guys who were robbing the Detroit hockey arena (I guess they were taking rings and trophies, something that must have been of value), they start playing "Shakedown" by Bob Seger which is the opening scene of Beverly Hills Cop II. Now I knew that song was specifically for that movie as it was nominated for an Oscar. Here's a hot take (maybe, I really don't know if it is or not): I like "Shakedown" more than "The Heat Is On".

We'll also get "The Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters that played early on in the first movie later on in this movie when Axel is getting into some hijinx in Beverly Hills, around Rodeo Drive. A remix of "Hot in the City" plays when he arrives in The Hills, but I can't remember if they played that song in any of the original movies. 

Another way they get the nostalgia factor is bringing back a lot of the characters from the previous movies. Of course we will get Judge Reinhold and John Ashton returning as Rosewood and Taggart (40 years older, but to be fair, everyone is 40 years older than they were in the first movie!), but we also get Paul Reiser returning as Jeffrey Friedman and Bronson Pinchot returning as Serge. Jeffrey is now the Chief and in his office there's a photo of Inspector Todd, the Chief from the first three movies, so that was a nice touch. When Axel and his partner (whose name I don't even remember because it's not that relevant) are chasing the bad guys in a snowplow (very reminiscent to when he and Rosewood are chasing the bad guys in a cement truck in the second movie), the partner calls it into the station and when one of the officers hears it and says "Let me guess...Foley", Jeffrey sticks his head in the room and says "Did you say Foley?" Ha! 

A bunch of cars and city property get damages because Axel can't drive the slow plow (I don't think Axel can drive any vehicle that isn't a car) and Jeffrey is furious. It't not an Axel Foley movie without Detroit or Beverly Hills getting completely destroyed (and BH will soon get its turn!) and the Chief getting angry with Axel. Jeffrey is irked that he himself was screamed at "for 45 minutes straight" by the police commissioner. He tells Axel that he's retiring and basically he won't be there anymore to help get Axel out of his jams because that's apparently what he did in the past. 

Of course, there are new characters too. We find out that Axel has a daughter named Jane (Taylor Paige) who he rarely sees. She works in (or perhaps near) Beverly Hills as a defense attorney and we see a quick shot of her ID card which has her birth year as 1991. This confused me a bit because this would mean that Axel had a young child in Beverly Hills Cop 3 (which came out in 1994) and, of course there is no mention of that because they didn't know they would be making a sequel thirty years later where Axel would have a grown daughter. It's just interesting that's the year they chose as her birth year. We get some backstory that he moved his family out to Beverly Hills when Jane was a kid because it wasn't safe in Detroit because the 12th Street Mafia was out to kill him and his family. He eventually divorced Jane's mother and moved back to Detroit. We never find out who the mother is (nobody we know, presumably) or if she's still around and we never find out the story with this 12th Street Mafia. I honestly don't even think the writers know and didn't really care that much. It certainly sounds like we could use a Beverly Hills Cop 3.5 because there's certainly a movie (or two!) missing from this timeline! 

Because Jane dislikes her father so much, she goes by Jane Saunders instead of Jane Foley. (I'm guessing Saunders is her mom's name.) When we meet her, she is meeting a young man in prison named Sam Enriquez who claims he's been set up to look like he killed a cop but insists he didn't. She tells him she is representing him pro bono and wants to hear his story of what happened. He says that somebody talked him into "muling one time". He was in the passenger seat with Copeland, an undercover cop, and he saw a black SUV trailing them. He tried to call someone, but his phone wouldn't work. The SUV pulled up alongside them and a gun pointed out and shot Copeland. Sam grabbed the wheel and steered them into the SUV, but lost control and hit a pole. The next thing he knew, he was waking up with the gun in his lap next to a dead body. 

Jane is suspicious of Copeland and thinks he's a dirty cop. At the court hearing, she tells the judge that "the defense will be submitted a motion to subpoena Lieutenant Copeland's finical records as [they] believe he was involved in potential criminal activity." 

In the parking garage, after she gets in her car, she gets a very clear message that there are people out there who do not want her working on this case. She knows this because her car, which she is still in, mind you, because she was unable to escape, is pushed off the parking garage by about four men in masks and she's just dangling there (the masked men were kind enough to at least tie her car with chains attached to poles so at least she didn't drop). However, that was just a warning, and next time she probably won't be so lucky. 

The police arrive as well as Rosewood, who now has his own investigating company. Apparently, he was the one who got her involved in the case. He tells her she needs to drop the case because he doesn't want to have to tell her dad that she got killed. When she refuses to give up on the case, he tells her that she and her dad are exactly the same. Billy calls Axel to tell him what's going on and this is the reason for Axel going to Beverly Hills. After hanging up the phone, two men have their guns pointed at Billy and he is kidnapped. He was in a junkyard and had "just got the evidence [he] needed". Axel had heard dogs barking and asked him where he was and learning that he's in an impound will be a clue for later on. 

Jeffrey drives Axel to the airport and tells him to "watch his ass out there" because he's "not 22 anymore." I believe that's how old Eddie Murphy was in the first movie (or at least, somewhere in his early twenties) so that was a fun little callback. Axel just smiles and replies, "They love me in Beverly Hills." 

Billy was supposed to pick up Axel at the airport, but he never showed up. Axel calls him from his rental car, but doesn't get an answer, so he goes to his office of Rosewood Investigations which is set in some hotel room (interesting place for a business, a little seedy if you ask me!). When he gets there, he notices the doors has been broken into and he walks in where he sees two guys rummaging around. Being who he is, Axel immediately acts like he's also supposed to be there. He asks them what's taking them so long and acts like he's looking for something. One guy asks who sent him and he (smartly) replies, "Who do you think?" These guys must be so dumb because one guy replies with "Beck?" and Axel replies (and this made me laugh), "No, LeBron James. Yes, Beck!" They're just giving him the answer that he needs! However, one of the guys sees a photo of Axel and Rosewood and points out to Axel that it's him (which he says is Wesley Snipes). Luckily before he was caught, he had ripped a page out of Rosewood's planner and surreptitiously put it in his pocket. 

Axel knows he's been made, but he's able to escape. Now there's a third bad guy and they're after him. This is when we get him wrecking havoc on Beverly Hills by driving a little scooter car through the posh shopping area while "Neutron Dance" is playing. At the end, the cart has flipped over and many tourists come up to him with their phones and start filming/taking pics of him. 

He ends up at his old stomping grounds of the Beverly Hills Police Department after he is arrested. He meets Detective Bobby Abbot (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who has pulled his files and is quite familiar with his time in Beverly Hills. There is a funny moment after he mentions his time in BH in '94 as "not your finest hour." Obviously a nod to Beverly Hill Cop 3 just being a suck show. 

Axel sees a photo of Bobby that shows he was in the LAPD Air Support, meaning he used to be a pilot. This will come back later (and if you've seen the previews, you probably know). Bobby wants to know what Axel was doing in Rosewood's office (very similiar to the first movie when Taggart and Rosewood want to know why Axel was in Maitland's office), but Axel won't answer him, instead asking if he can talk to Taggart or get a phone call to call his lawyer, meaning his daughter. It takes three tries before he can finally get through to her without her hanging up on him. When he blurts out that Rosewood called him last night and if she can bail him out, he'll tell her everything. 

We get a brief scene of Axel reunited with Taggart and he asks him why he hasn't retired yet. He said he did (which is true, they mentioned it in the third movie how he retired and moved to Phoenix), but he said he got back together with his wife, Maureen, (I guess they were the Ross and Rachel of this franchise because they were always breaking up and getting back together) and apparently he moved back to Beverly Hills and now he's working again so he can be anywhere but home. Let's be honest, John Ashton wasn't in the third movie because he didn't like the script, but came back for this one. 

Taggart introduces Axel to Cade Grant (Kevin Bacon) who runs the "interdepartmental narcosis task force." When I first saw the preview for this movie I knew immediately that he was the bad guy, but it wasn't like they were trying to hide it. The discussion turns to Sam Enriquez and Taggart isn't happy that Axel's daughter is defending an assumed cop killer. 

Oh, yeah, we also find out that Jane and Bobby have a history. They used to date, but they broke up because she didn't want to date a cop. There's a really awkward moment where Axel asks them (after noticing their attitudes around each other) if they've had "intercourse" (yes, that's the word he uses). Like, dude, why would you ask your daughter that? At first, I felt a little bad that Jane was being so dismissive of him, but now I don't really blame her for not wanting him in her life! But what are the odds that those two would know each other? Yes, I suppose they do work in the same circle, but still. 

When leaving the police department, Axel asks Jane why Rosewood would be at the impound and she tells him that's where Copeland's car is and they go there to check it out. On the way there, Jane tells her dad that Sam's "just a kid who got talked into muling cocaine for his uncle", who is "some big dealer on the east side named Chalino." Axel doesn't think it makes sense that if Copeland worked for Chalino, why would Chalino kill him? 

When they arrive at the impound, Axel does what he does best and pretends to be someone else to get the information he needs. He tells the young man behind that counter that he's the "producer of the new Liam Neeson revenge thriller, Impound" (what a terrible name for a movie!) and that they're looking for a technical advisor. He sees a headshot of the guy on the wall and asks if he's an actor and the guy replies that he was in Jupiter Ascending which is the most random movie and one that I've never seen and don't know anyone who's ever seen it. Wanting to butter him up, Axel giddily tells him he loved him in that movie. Knowing that her father has never seen the movie, she asks him what it's about and he replies it's about Jupiter...ascending. It's so stupid, but funny. The dumb guy behind the counter is so happy he's being considered to help them with a new movie, he doesn't even pick up that Axel has never seen Jupiter Ascending and can't even tell his daughter the plot. (I certainly wouldn't know what it's about!) He quickly changes the subject back to the faux film he's working on and tells the guy "the movie starts off with Liam Neeson breaking into a police impound yard." The guy stops him to tell him they just had a break-in last night and Axel is mock shocked. He asks if they could have a look for "research" and are allowed access where they find Copeland's car and Axel quickly discovers a surveillance camera that somebody installed. The SD card is missing and he surmises that's what Rosewood was after. Janes says there's nothing about a camera in the car in the police report and thinks that's what they were looking for in Billy's office. 

Axel quickly realizes they're being followed and he uses his camera phone under Jane's car to discover it has a tracker. He pulls it off and they drive away where he places it on the back of a stopped bus. They soon find out the two guys that were in Rosewood's office are following them. Axel and Jane start following them now and they go to a swanky restaurant where the father and daughter will use their magic to get into the private club on the rooftop. There they see the two goons with Cade and when Axel asks what they were doing in Billy's office, he replies that Billy "stole a crucial piece of evidence" which he needs to recover to exonerate Copeland and that he "will do whatever it takes to get it back." Sounds pretty ominous to me! 

Axel checks out the home of the address he found in Rosewood's planner. He tells his daughter that there was a lot of security there "even for Beverly Hills" and that he saw the guys that were following them. They're in the car when they're having this discussing and lucky for them, Bobby is following them. I say lucky because Bobby pulls up next to a car and he hears one tattooed man say to another tattooed man to take out the people in the car ahead of them, which just so happens to be Axel and Jane. It's a good thing Bobby knows Spanish because that's the language the tattooed men are speaking. We next get a crazy moment that should have made national news, but only seems to make the local news: the two men get out of their car and start shooting at Axel and Jane who by now have gotten out of their car and are crouching down to hide from the gunmen. One of them sees Jane in a side mirror and is about to shoot her, but Bobby shoots him and the other guy. Luckily, no one is killed here except for the bad guys. We find out that they were part of a "cartel kill crew out of Adelanto." Ah! I knew it! They looked like guys who would work for Gustavo Fringe. 

Apparently, Rosewood had tried to put these guys away, but somehow it never happened and perhaps that's because Cade was also involved in their case. Taggart denies that Cade is dirty and Axel questions him if he's part of this. Bobby is suspended without pay for what happened and he accuses the chief of not wanting to solve the case. Now he, Axel, and Jane are the only three people to check into the case. Jane had done some research of the mansion that was heavily guarded and they find out it was bought with drug money. The house next door to that one is for sale so they decide to recruit Axel's old pal, Serge (Bronson Pinchot), who is friends with a real estate agent (who feels like she should be on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and Bobby and Jane pretend to be a married couple who are interested in the house.  

We get some fun moments from Serge who seems to be completely the same at 60 as he was when he was in his 20s and 30s. When he pulls up in his convertible, he exclaims "I'm on an undercover mission with Ack-well Foley and I'm so happy!" 

At the house, we get another callback to their relationship when Axel asks how many bathrooms there are and when Serge tells him there are ten, Axel says "Get the f*** out of here!" and Serge (predictably) responds with "No, I cannot!" They're just giving the audience what they want.

While Bobby and Jane are being shown the house, Axel sneaks away to check out the shady house next door. There are lots of statues in the backyard that are very similar to the ones in the yard of the mansion in the first movie, so obvious a shoutout, but those statues just make the yard look cheap even though I'm sure they're very expensive. Of course, having lots of money doesn't mean you have good taste. We've all seen Trump's New York penthouse in The Apprentice. He sneaks into the garage and takes photos of the hood of a car parked in there. A camera catches him and one of Cade's minions calls Cade to tell him that Foley was at the house. 

Axel took photos of the car because he sees paint on it that must have come from Copeland's car and he found a device that's used to disrupt cell signals. Jane remembers how Sam had tried to call for help, but wasn't able to get service. They need to find the SD card and the only person who knows its whereabouts is Billy, but where's Billy? 

Axel and Bobby decide to talk to Chalino, Sam's uncle. They think he'll probably want to talk to them since Grant is trying to pin the murder on Chalino's nephew. Chalino's (Luiz Guzman) operations are in a bar-like establishment. Bobby says he's a little nervous since he knows there will be armed men everywhere and when he asks Axel if he's nervous, he replies that he's from Detroit and it will be just like going into Buffalo Wild Wings, heh. When they go inside and find Chalino singing karaoke (a half Spanish/half English "Man Eater"), he says, "This is nothing like Buffalo Wild Wings." They tell Chalino they're there because they know his nephew is being set up and is "about to go away for life for a murder he didn't commit." While pointing a gun at Bobby's head, Chalino wants them to give him a reason why he should trust them. Axel replies that his daughter is representing Sam and that the same guys who are trying to frame him almost took her out. Chalino agrees to work with them and tells them that Grant has dirty cops working for him, "protecting the cartel's interests." When ask why Grant killed Copeland, Chalino tells them "he was gonna go clean" and that he was talking to a PI that Axel realizes was Rosewood and when he asks about said PI, Chalino says "They caught him sniffing around the east basin of the port where they bring in the drugs." So now at least he knows Rosewood's last known whereabouts. I have to say, while people are concerned about Rosewood, they don't seem that concerned. 

When Axel and Bobby leave the bar and walk to their car, they are surrounded by Grant and his men. They have been obviously set up when Grant opens the trunk to reveal cocaine in a hidden spot. Both are held handcuffed in the country jail, but Axel, being Axel, manages to get them both to escape, but the only way out is on the roof where there's a helicopter...and remember, Bobby used to be a pilot for the LAPD Air Support. What he didn't tell Axel is that he doesn't fly anymore because he crashed the last helicopter he flew and now has PTSD from it. He must have forgotten how to fly because he does a terrible job. He's flying very close to the ground (like, he's level with the cars on the street, that's how low!) which just seems super dangerous. Cade shoots at the chopper and it ends up crash landing on a golf course. After listening to a couple of podcasts, I guess one of the golfers they see is from Happy Gilmore, but I've never seen that movie, so I didn't even realize that the first time I watched it. 

By this time, Taggart knows that Cade is behind this since he literally saw him shoot the helicopter. While Axel and Bobby are checking out the place where Billy last was and distract his captives to escape with him in a truck filled with statues that are full of cocaine, Jane is kidnapped when she gets into her car to drive home. Billy tells them he hid the SD card in his Rambo knife that's in his office and Axel calls Jane to let her know but Cade answer her phone and tells him to bring the SD card (by this time he already knows that Billy is with Axel) before he does something he "might regret" and to meet him at the Sunset Point Warehouse on Alameda in one hour. The audience clearly sees he's lying because he's at the mansion and Axel gets this confirmed when he calls Jeffrey to ask him to track Jane's phone. Billy thinks they should call for backup, but Bobby doesn't think that's a good idea since they're fugitives driving a truck full of cocaine (well, when you put it like that!). Axel sidesteps a police car that has a car pulled over on the side of the road and soon many cop cars are following the truck, but they soon lose their backup when the cars all crash into each other since Axel is driving so erratically. 

The truck crashes right through the front of the house which I'm sure you've seen if you've watched the trailer. I won't lie; it was a pretty cool moment. There's lots of gunfire as the bad guys are shooting at Axel, Bobby, and Billy. A few moments later, Taggart shows up and as he's pulling a gun out of the trunk, he's muttering, "That damn Foley! Here we go again." He's such a curmudgeon; I love it! Although, this guy is in his 70s; should he really be going into a house full of gunfire? When Billy does his "Drop your weapons!" routine, a clear shoutout from the first movie (and of course it doesn't work), Taggart just shakes his head and replies, "Some things never change." This is the first time we see Taggart and Rosewood together in this movie and it just dawned on me that we haven't seen them together since the end of the second movie since Taggart wasn't in the third movie. What a beautiful reunion! 

Axel spots Cade upstairs and makes his way to the second floor. We see that Jane has slipped out of her handcuff and we know that Axel taught her how to do that because they talked about it in an earlier scene. The guy watching her hears a noise and when he goes to check it out, this is when she breaks free of her restraints and smashes a vase over his head. 

Axel comes across Cade and they have a standoff. Axel tells him to put his gun down and Cade compiles because he sees one of his men have a gun on Axel from behind. When Axel is about to get shot by that guy, we see him get shot by Jane who had taken the gun from the guy watching her. Cade shoots at Jane, but Axel throws himself in front of the bullet, which hits him in the front of his shoulder. Bobby arrives just in time to shoot Cade in the head. Of course, this whole sequence is done in slow motion. 

Axel is taken to the hospital, but he's going to be okay and now he and Jane are on good terms. The movie ends with a callback to the first one with Taggart and Rosewood in a parked car outside the hospital to make sure Axel doesn't leave (he had already snuck out to get some food at a nearby diner). They're arguing about something and Axel slips into the backseat and tells them they're the worst surveillance team in the world (he ain't lying!). 

The first BHC movie will always be the best, but I think this one is the next best. The third is just terrible and the second one has its fun moments, but is a bit of a hot mess and I felt like this one was more thought out and at least the storyline made a little more sense.