It’s Wednesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so glad you decided to stop by. Come on in out of the cold. We can check your hat and coat for you. There are still a couple tables available. They’re all good. The hostess can seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules
of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night, I asked you which young Cub with a breakout season in 2025 is most likely to sustain (or improve on) that level in 2026. Like me, the plurality of you are big Michael Busch fans as he got 47 percent of the vote. Cade Horton got 28 percent and 25 percent went with Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. You are free to skip that part. Don’t know why you would, but to each his or her own. The BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic features one of my all-time favorite films tonight.
Tonight we’re featuring the young vocalist Ella Cole who is making a name for herself performing tunes from the Great American Songbook. And of course, Christmas songs pay the bills that allow one to sing other jazz songs the rest of the year. So she released a Christmas album last year.
Here she is singing “That’s What I Want For Christmas,” which is best known as from a Nancy Wilson performance. This is live in studio last year.
You voted in the BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic between two time-traveling films and you went with the comedy, as Back to the Future advances over 12 Monkeys. You people do love your incest jokes. It’s OK. No judgments.
Today we have one of the biggest blockbuster films of all time against a low-budget indie film. I expect to be disappointed again, but at least I’ll be more understanding this time.
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Directed by James Cameron. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Robert Patrick.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the 1991 big-budget sequel to the 1984 small-budget surprise hit The Terminator. There are many who think the first film was the better one, but it was this film that became a cultural touchstone, made boatloads of money and brought the phrase “Hasta la vista, baby” to the American lexicon.
In case you are part of the two percent that are unfamiliar with the premise of the Terminator series, the world was destroyed in 1997 a nuclear holocaust by a malevolent artificial intelligence called Skynet. (We all remember that, right?) What remains of the world is ruled by Skynet and its machine creations, which includes the Terminators. In the year 2029, John Connor leads the human resistance to Skynet’s rule, so in the first film, the T-800 Terminator (Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time to kill John’s mother Sarah Connor (Hamilton) before he is born. It fails, of course, so in the sequel, Skynet sends a new and improved T-1000 Terminator (Patrick) back in time to kill a ten-year-old John Connor (Edward Furlong). Future John sends back a reprogrammed T-800 (Schwarzenegger again) back in time to save his younger self.
The paradoxes of such a set-up are not really addressed in the film because Terminator 2: Judgement Day is primarily an action/special effects film. It would, however, be unfair to say that the only point of the plot is to get into big car chases, blow stuff up and make Arnold Schwarzenegger look very cool. It’s unfair because it’s also designed to make Linda Hamilton look cool as hell.
I’m being unjustly snarky there. The heart of the film is really the relationship between the T-800 and the ten-year-old John Connor. John teaches the emotionless robot what it means to be human and why humans have value. In response to the criticisms of the violence in the first film, Cameron has the young John Connor order the T-800 not to kill anyone. Grievously wounding and maiming is just fine, apparently. You wouldn’t want a Terminator who couldn’t fight back at all, especially in a film like this one.
Meanwhile, the T-800 serves as a surrogate father figure and protector figure for John. Along with Sarah, who gets broken out of a mental hospital where she was placed after her repeated rantings about Skynet and Judgment Day, the three of them become a kind of family that draws strength from each other.
(As an aside, the one part of the film that truly bothers me is the way that Cameron fell back on the harmful “evil foster parents” trope early in the film. At least he uses the T-800 to show that you can make a family without biology.)
Schwarzenegger himself is the first to admit that he’s not the greatest actor in the world, but you have to give him credit for this, his greatest role. It helps that his character can’t show emotion, but the film manages to find ways to let T-800 become a character with real “human” traits and a story arc that we can care about. Patrick is terrific as the cold T-1000 villain.
Hamilton has to play crazy for much of the film and Cameron pulls off a neat trick by having the creator of Skynet played by Joe Morton. Sarah Connor’s obsession with Skynet leads her to try to murder the man whose creation will doom all of humanity. This is a parallel plot to the way that the T-1000 tries to kill young John. The trick is that Morton is one of the most likable actors around, so if she goes through with killing him, there’s no coming back from the crazy. But she does, and Hamilton does a good job of it. The T-1000 has no such qualms about killing the young John, making a nice contrast between the two attempts to change the future.
All of this is fine and good, but what elevates Terminator 2: Judgment Day to a classic is the special effects. The T-1000 Terminator (or just the Robert Patrick one if the numbers confuse you) is made out of liquid metal. Shoot it, tear a limb off or whatever, it just oozes back into place. He’s also a shapeshifter that can morph into different people or inanimate objects. T2 wasn’t the first film to use CGI as a special effect, but it was the first one to use it this much and to this great effect. Quite frankly, the effects still look very good by the standards of today. By the standards of 1991, it was positively mind-blowing.
The special effects were a big, but not the only, reason that the Library of Congress put Terminator 2: Judgment Day on the National Film Registry in 2023. It was also one of the biggest box office hits of all time.
Here’s the trailer for Terminator 2: Judgment Day
6. Repo Man (1984). Directed by Alex Cox. Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter and Olivia Barash.
Repo Man is undoubtedly one of the most creative, out-of-the-box films ever made. Helmed by a first-time director in Cox on a shoestring budget, it throws pretty much everything it can against the wall to see what sticks. It doesn’t all hold together, but what does is pure magic.
Repo Man is a lot of things. It’s a great science fiction comedy film. It’s a good car film. It’s one of the greatest “punk” movies with a fantastic soundtrack featuring the greats of the Los Angeles hardcore scene of the early-eighties as well as an Iggy Pop theme song. It’s one of the more quotable films you’ll ever watch. On top of that, this is a truly great Los Angeles movie, featuring parts of the city that you don’t often see in other films.
Did I mention the whole thing was financed by Michael Nesmith of The Monkees?
The macguffin of Repo Man is a pair of aliens in the trunk of a ’64 Chevy Malibu. The aliens never leave the trunk, so the special effects are minimal. Also, if you’ve seen Pulp Fiction, the mysterious glow of the briefcase in that film owes a lot to Repo Man. Except in Repo Man, anyone who opens the trunk and looks at the glowing aliens spontaneously combusts and dies, leaving just their shoes.
Otto (Estevez), is an aimless punk who gets roped into helping a car repossession by Bud (Stanton). Initially disgusted by the idea of working as a repo man, he changes his mind after realizing he has no job and no money. Otto comes to love being a repo man after his first real job when he discovers that “the life of a repo man is always intense,” as Bud puts it. Otto, like Bud, likes intense.
After a $20,000 bounty comes in for that Chevy Malibu, everyone is out to collect it. Not just Otto and Bud’s Happy Hands Acceptance Company, but the rival Rodriguez brothers, who seem to be a bit more competent at repossessing cars than they are. The CIA also wants the aliens in the Malibu back, as well as a shadowy group called the United Fruitcake Outlet, whom Otto comes in contact with after he picks up the lovely Leila (Barash).
There is also a group of Otto’s former punk friends who go around “doing crimes” as they put it. They end up stealing the Chevy Malibu by accident.
The film’s sight gags are legendary. Generic products are everywhere and at one point Otto eats out of a can of food simply labeled “Food.” Pine tree-shaped air fresheners hang everywhere and not just on rear-view mirrors.
The men and women who work as repo men are also hilarious characters. Bud is best known for his “Repo Man Code” that he recites, but there is also Miller as the crazy mechanic who doesn’t drive and believes every single conspiracy theory he’s ever heard and repeats them in a deadpan manner. The rest of the Happy Hands people have their own wacky personalities as well. The Rodriguez brothers, Leila and her boss Agent Rogersz (Susan Barnes), the punk crime gang of Duke (Dick Rude), Debbi (Jennifer Balgobin) and Archie (Miguel Sandoval) are hilarious characters in their own right
Oh, and the Circle Jerks play themselves performing one of their songs as a sad lounge act.
Then there are the quotes. “The life of repo man is always intense” is one, but there are several other lines that you’ll never forget. Many of them I can’t repeat here, but there’s also:
Bud: Credit is a sacred trust, it’s what our free society is founded on. Do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia? I said, do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia?
Duke: The lights are growing dim Otto. I know a life of crime has led me to this sorry fate, and yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am.
Otto: That’s bull[bleep]. You’re a white suburban punk just like me.
Duke: Yeah, but it still hurts.
Debbi: Duke, let’s do some crimes.
Duke: Yeah. Let’s go get sushi and not pay!
Leila: What about our relationship?
Otto: What?
Leila: Our relationship!
Otto: [bleep] that.
Leila: You [bleep]! I’m glad I tortured you!
Agent Rogersz: It happens sometimes. People explode. Natural causes.
Kevin: There’s [bleep] room to move as a fry cook. I could manager in two years. King. God.
Again, there are several others that I just can’t repeat. The broadcast TV edit of Repo Man is legendary for its creativity as well.
Repo Man is the kind of film that the studios just didn’t get and it basically got buried until the soundtrack started to sell and the record arm at Universal started bugging the film division to start promoting the movie. It got a second release and became an underground hit. It also took off on home video and has remained a cult classic ever since.
Here’s the trailer for Repo Man. There are some more very quotable lines that I didn’t repeat in here.
Now it’s time to vote.
T2 is on Netflix and Paramount Plus. Repo Man is available for rent.
You have until Monday to vote. Up next you get another chance to vote for a Terry Gilliam film as Brazil (1985) takes on a classic piece of Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell (1995). Brazil was on TCM last month, I hope you got a chance to watch it. Otherwise, it’s available for rent. Ghost in the Shell is on Amazon Prime (through the end of the month) and the Criterion Channel.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
As you’ve no doubt heard, former Cubs reliever Brad Keller agreed to a two-year, $22 million deal with the Phillies earlier today. Obviously that’s good news for Keller and bad news for those of us who wanted to see Keller return to the Cubs.
So tonight’s question is should the Cubs have matched or topped that offer? Keller was a key part of the Cubs bullpen last season, going 4-2 with a 2.07 ERA and three saves. He pitched 69.2 innings and struck out 75 and walked 22. His fastball averaged over 97 miles per hour. His underlying numbers indicate that that wasn’t a total fluke season.
But of course, relievers and their performance is a volatile thing. As good as Keller was for the Cubs last year, it’s easy to forget that he came to the Cubs on a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. The year before he was released by the White Sox, who lost more games than any other team in modern baseball history.
That 97 mph fastball was also completely out of line with the rest of Keller’s career, where his velocity was a full four miles per hour slower. Some of that increased velocity is due to pitching out of the bullpen instead of starting, but Keller pitched out of the pen in 2024 and didn’t throw 97 that year. Yes, he made some adjustments coming into last year, but can we really be so sure he’s going to hold that velocity into his thirties?
The other issue is that from all accounts, the Cubs are still trying to sign starters Tatsuya Imai and Michael King. It’s hard to know how much money they could spend on Keller without knowing how much it will cost to sign one of those two. And neither starter has any incentive to sign anytime soon.
So you know Brad Keller. Would you take a chance on signing him to a two-year deal? It’s team president Jed Hoyer’s modus operandi to build bullpens out of spare parts and for the most part, he’s been successful doing so. He did give Phil Maton a two-year deal this winter, but for a much lower AAV than Keller got. I’m also reminded how many around here were upset when the Cubs lost out on closer Tanner Scott to the Dodgers last year. Now that was a four-year deal, but I’m sure the Dodgers would just give Scott to the Cubs for free now to get out from under that onerous contract after one terrible year for Scott.
Thank you for stopping by. A big thanks goes out to everyone who voted or commented this week. Please get home safely. We can get your coat for you now. Stay warm out there. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.
