3x3: favorite cab rides

Movies
1

Keep in mind these are cab rides. Not moments in a movie where a taxi happens to be there. The ride itself is important.

We discuss our favorite cab rides at the 1:41 minute mark (!) of the Qt3 Movie Podcast of The Goonies.

That’s right. The Goonies.

Dingus
3. Escape from New York
2. Quick Change

  1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Kelly Wand
3. The Fifth Element
2. Dressed to Kill

  1. Taxi

Tom Chick
3. 28 Days later
2. The Missing Person

  1. Goodbye Solo

What are your favorite cab rides in movies? Listen to the show to hear Tom read a bunch of cool listener submissions. Send in your choices for the next topic to [email protected].

2

  1. Total Recall (the original) - The homicidal Johnny Cab

  2. The Big Lebowski - The taxi driver wasn’t sympathetic to The Dude’s dislike of The Eagles

  3. On the Waterfront - “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.”

3

Dang it, Jason! That’s one of my favorite scenes of all time and I didn’t even think of it.

-xtien

“It was you, Charlie.”

4
  1. Night on Earth
  2. Night on Earth
  3. Night on Earth

I guess Helsinki, Paris, and Rome, in that order. My high school french was just good enough to appreciate the “Ivoirien” / “Il voir rien” wordplay. But the Rome chapter with Roberto Benigni making his confession to the bishop is, in my memory, perfectly funny. I kind of doubt it’s actually that funny, so I’m fine not seeing it again.

5

Pulp Fiction, taking a cab after killing a man in the boxing ring. “What does it feel like to kill a man”?

6

Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but did you guys mention the ending of Michael Clayton?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvqAmjTcVwE

If not, then I regret not sending you an email!

7

Actually we talk about it at length. But you should listen to find out why.

[sorry it will take you four and a half hours to get to that point in the podcast…oy]

-xtien

8

Oh. Well, ok then. Carry on.

9

My favorite cab ride in a movie might get shot down by the 3x3 police because it may not technically count - because the rider doesn’t know he’s getting a cab ride. In The Third Man, Joseph Cotton plays a hack writer visiting Vienna a few years after World War 2. Word gets out to some of the locals that he’s a “famous” American author and one night Cotton finds himself hastily ushered into the back of a car by a mysterious man. It takes off on a very fast and reckless run, and all the while he fears he’s being driven to his death. It’s only when he gets to the destination that he realizes he’s been brought to a book club and is the guest of honor to talk about his method of writing.

10

I really like the idea for this scene. I’ve never seen The Third Man and I’m not really sure if I’ve ever seen Joseph Cotton, but now I want to see this movie.

If the cops come for you man, I’ll whip out my phone and videotape it all!

11

Is the car into which he’s ushered a taxi cab? The answer to that question should tell you whether it’s a cab ride.

-Officer Tom, badge no. 1

12

Well, just going from memory, I don’t think it looks like a cab. That would kind of give the game away, you know? But in my defense - I don’t know that Vienna circa 1950 had yellow cabs.

13

Tim, lately I’ve been using the 3x3 thread to pimp out movies, much like I did last week to Christien for The Thin Man, but I absolutely love The Third Man. It’s most famous for its “cameo” antagonist, which I won’t spoil if you do try to watch the movie. But for what it’s worth, highly recommended by me.

14

No Die Hard With A Vengeance?

15

Collateral (unless it has been mentioned already).

16

After Hours

17

Yay, listened to the podcast today.

Well, for what it’s worth, Clooney is not that happy at the end of Michael Clayton because although he did win by doing the Right Thing ™, he’s probably going to lose his job and he’s still lost his retirement money (he could have really accepted that bribe). So it is bittersweet. I also think it’s appropriate that he’s letting of steam quietly and not being all crazy happy. It fits the tone of the movie. Lawyer-noir, is that a genre?

18

Also, I’ll be amazed if it wasn’t mentioned on the podcast, but Taxi Driver. If we have to be specific, the creepy Scorsese cameo, I guess.

19

I spent a lot of January and February catching up on 2015 movies I missed last year, so I decided to pick 3 cab rides from 2015:

  1. My third pick was gonna be from Taxi, but not the Queen Latifa one but then I felt lame about picking a movie that had the word taxi in the title but then I felt not as bad because it was originally called Jafar Panahi’s However You Say Taxi In Iran.

  2. I love the cab ride in the beginning of Anomalisa, especially how the zoo isn’t too big or too small. “It’s zoo sized.”

  3. I can’t believe it took until 2015 for me to learn why they have drive through car washes. Thanks, Tangerine.