Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn – Episode 11
The Buddies discuss one of their all-time favorite books in Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn. They go into detail about their admiration/awe/lust for Mitch Rapp, come up with a new saying for “bad guy”, and find a correlation between Volvo’s and Millers Lite. They also touch on some lighter subjects like torture, sexism, and destroying family relationships.
Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂
Welcome to the Buddy Book Club. Thanks for listening in. I’m Dylan here with my swim buddy Keith, to break down some bestsellers today in honor of summer breaking out here on the East Coast. We’re starting our Beach Reed Banana Anza. And what a better way to kick this off, though. Vince Flynn’s novel Transfer of Power. If you’d like to reach out to us regarding this book or any of us past or future episodes, you can visit our website Buddybookclub dot. Com or slide into our DMs on Twitter or Instagram Buddy Book Club podcast. You could listen to us on itunes, so please download and subscribe. Keith, let’s get to the content. This is your favorite book, right? Harry Potter is my favorite series. This and Harry Potter are the only reasons I read books I wasn’t able to read when I was younger. I wasn’t a good reader. We’re getting real. I mean, I’ve already told this story before, but this is what made me be like, oh, shit. It’s just a movie. If you can get into it. You know what I mean? It’s a movie. Yeah. I think that’s a really good way of saying it because I feel like with Harry Potter, it’s similar in that as you’re reading it. The visuals are there, and I don’t know with this one specifically because there’s been so much movie content around, kind of covert Ops stuff that you can kind of see the MP Five in the gassy hallway with the laser scope going, you can see that in your head or if it’s just the writing itself, because Vinny Flynn, he writes a phenomenal book. What else can you say? Like the narrative and the way he poses this, like sets up his individual scenes. You’re immersed. You’re just fully immersed, for sure. So tell us a little bit about Transfer of power, though, because I know that it’s a big book of yours, and normally I usually do the summary here, but I kind of want you to give a little background. This is basically a group of terrorists tried to take over the White House and our boy, Mitch Rap, who is maybe the greatest character ever written in a book ever. I don’t think there’s anyone that’s ever defeated Ian Fleming might have some issues with that, but okay, I don’t know who that is. James Bond books. Okay, so you got to say the character’s name. Come on, kid. Mitch Rap, James Bond. Okay. See James Bond? Yeah, I can give you that. They’re comparative, if that’s the word comparative. Bond has, like, 30 movies about him. That’s what Mitch Rap should have. It’s so sad we’ll get into that later. But anyways, Mishrap basically just dismantles the terrorist plan and saves the day. So amazing book. They obviously made a couple of movies. They ripped off of this. But the book is just phenomenal. And it’s the start of the series with Mitch rapper. How many times have you read this book? This is my third time. So the first time I was super young, second time was probably ten years ago. So again, this is a refresher and every time it just hits it’s the same. Yeah. So as you said, this book was published in 99 by Vince Flynn, R-I-P-I didn’t actually didn’t know he died, but he did. And he went on a tear. He wrote four books in four years. His first book was self published and then didn’t involve Mitch Wrap. And then after that he started writing books involving Mitch Rap, which was Transfer of Power, the third option and Separation of Power. He wrote those in 19. 99, 20. 00, 20. 01. And they were all bestsellers. Like what the fucking run? This is literally MJ’s first run at the Boss Championships without a question. It was just phenomenal. And to think of this as before terrorists like at least 911, right? Yeah. Well, I think technically all three came out before 911, but yeah, before terrorism, I guess was like the hippiest thing as weird as that is. But yeah. So four and four years the Mitch Wrap series. This is the one like you said that starts us off. It gives us our introduction to Mitchrab. There are other books that he wrote later that are kind of preludes to this whole story, but we’re going to focus here on transfer of power. We may or may not get involved with the other ones in our near future. I read this book for the first time at your recommendation and loved it. Continued on. I read the third option. Not sure I read Separation of Power, but either way. Great book. Let’s get into it. We’d like to start off with a little libation. Truthfully, we like to keep things pretty tight around here at the Buddy Book Club pod and we don’t like to go too long. All rules are out the window for this book. I’m not holding back. Alright. You know, it took three days for them to get back into the White House after these took over and this pod might go for three days. I don’t know. We got a lot to talk about, so feel free to crack a libation of your choice. We like to pick something inspired from the book we’re reading in this book. There’s a couple of options, but really, let’s cut to the chase here. It’s Miller Lights. The book opens with the assault to get Haroot to kidnap Haroot Wrap and Harris, the commander of the team. They share a postop Miller Light after capturing Haroot, which they’re dirty. They’ve been up all night. They finally get back to the base. Everything went smoothly. They crack an ice cold Miller light I just saw in my head when I read this part. Like a Miller like commercial commercial of like a bunch of covert op guys just dirty with face paint on. Cheers to some ice cold brews. I respected the shit out of it. More importantly, though, after Mitch Rap finishes his beer, he hits the shower, takes another beer with him, and I quote, when he had finished washing the dirt and smell away, he stood under the hot water for another five minutes and savored a second Miller light. Oh, baby, are you kidding me? We need a movie. Just imagine one of a top actor looking. I’m a big shower beer guy, but this takes shower, like, stock up for shower beers ahead of ourselves. But Stockway up for shower beers. So I’m cracking a couple millilities to Mitch Rapp and the crew. Good job, boys. I have a question before we get into character. Is there enough action in this book? Because when I think back on this book from the first time I read it, this is my second time. I was like, oh, this is an action packed White House takeover, all this stuff. There’s no action in this book. There’s less than I remember. To be honest, I agree with that. Is there not enough? Is there too little? I think if they made it into a movie, it’d be much more Mitch Rap killing all ten terrorists versus like, you should just stay in that room. But I also think you got to remember that when he wrote this book, I don’t think he was like, oh, Mitch Rap is going to be from now on, my main dude, because the book prior, Mitch Rap wasn’t in it. He wrote the first book, so I think he was like, I’m going to ensure all these characters and everyone’s like, Holy shit, Mitch wraps the fucking man. So then he made it much more centric, like killing everyone. Yeah, I actually think it’s pretty amazing how good and how much of a page Turner this book is, considering. Most of what Mitch Rap does is walk quietly around hallways and put surveillance cameras in, putting surveillance cameras in different places. Literally the book, but it’s awesome. Let’s talk about Mitch Rap for a second because obviously he’s the best character, so we have to pick outside of him. These are some things that were said about Mitch Rap throughout the book, right? He’s the most efficient and lethal killer in the modern era of the agency, the agency being the CIA, right? He’s an all American lacrosse player at Syracuse. Now for fun. His only other hobby is he runs iron man competitions. No big deal. He works out 2 hours a day, six days a week and doesn’t feel like himself unless he does. He’s got his scar from his ear to his jaw, which is some pink scar tissue, but it’s naturally offset by his bronze skin. He’s a man trained to act on his own. He’s a man used to spending days if not weeks in the field without the aid of his country. He thrives in the environment where every decision could mean life or death. He’s all man. And then some handsome and rugged. A real man. Maybe most impressively. He’s able to shower, shave, and get dressed and make coffee all within 15 minutes. I don’t know how that’s possible, but like you said, he’s not the perfect man. He’s got to have some flaws. What are his flaws? He drives a Volvo. Why does Mitchraft drive Evolvo? I literally have no idea. All right, you’re definitely jumping into a couple of my points there, by the way. Okay, well, we can talk about this later, but he drives Evolvo, and he hates dogs. Okay, so he’s got flaws, right? He hates dogs. I didn’t pick up on that. Technically, he hates guard dogs, but come on, he doesn’t like dogs. He says he’s a great dog. No, that’s libel slander, sir. But, I mean, if your only flaws is that you drive a Volvo and you don’t like dogs, like, he’s a cat guy, and he drives a Volvo. Whatever. I had as my potent quotable. I’m going to use both of them because you basically covered them. But I basically said, I’m not sure why. There’s a quote about D man in this book. When you mentioned that he’s all man and then some nothing pretty about him, handsome and rugged, a real man. I mean, that is a phenomenal quote, but the one you missed is another flaw of his, which is a really big one. His only fault is he doesn’t tolerate mistakes or stupidity. I mean, that’s a tough fault to have. He’s too hard of a worker. He gives it to charity too much. He’s a lot of faults. When I read that part, I thought about the interview question. They’re like, oh, how do you attack an interview question when people say, what are your weaknesses? It’s like, oh, I don’t tolerate mistakes or stupidity. It’s the Michael Scott answer. It’s a phenomenal yeah, so good. So, yeah, that’s Mitch Rap. I mean, Besides him who resonated with you from this book because we got a lot of characters. I didn’t count him because I already mentioned he’s the best character in any book. I think I haven’t read a James Bond book, but I’ll stick to it. I liked two side characters. Milt Adams loved him. Honestly, if I’m being serious, though, outside of the Key and the Blueprints, which Mitch could have just brought with them, they didn’t really need them there. I just liked him. I like his demeanor. I like that he could bang out 50 pushups on command, which I don’t know. Sure why that proves that you’re ready to go into a Seal 20 push ups, whatever we round up. And the fact that he’s carrying a six shooter that’s not silent loved it. I loved it and that he’s allergic to dust. So he basically gives away. The whole thing is they’re trying to be sneaky, and he’s like, I can’t be sneaky, by the way. And he’s got a pee every 30 minutes. Yeah, he had no reason. So I think the cast of the movie, he probably wouldn’t be in it, but he could be a kind of a comedic Nick Cage almost to Sean Connery in the field. No way. No fucking way. I like them, though. Milk Adams is one of mine as well. I love it. He does bang out those 20 push ups without breathing heavy. I mean, he’s an older man. I don’t know how old he’s supposed to be. I think he’s in, like, his 80s or something. 70s or 80s. But let’s be serious. 20 push ups without changing your heart rate there. That’s pretty Savage. And he also includes that. He does 100 pushups and 200 situps every morning and then walks 5 miles. So, yeah, he’s pretty Savage. He served in. Iwojima I love that. He carries a. 38 special. Why? They allowed him to go in there with hand Cannon in a covert operation because the weight feels good in his hands. It’s like, all right, cool you do you, bro. But I will kick push back on you a little bit because the blueprints were super important. All right. They went over the blueprints a lot. Without Milt Adams, Mitchrap would have been blind. Couldn’t he just been in the situation room when he wasn’t a really big neat, like, he rolls out the blueprints? Like, what do you think, Milton? Milton’s? Like, I don’t know. And then he’s like, Well, how about this vent? I was like, you couldn’t do that? No, he definitely could have been in the situation. Yeah, it couldn’t be of another Navy Seal there, like, ready to help them. Right. Milt did carry the camera for him. That was important, but I think we should step on it now. The key. Who is allowing some man to carry this key that can get you into any door in the White House? It’s like a key from Ocarina of Time. Link can just get into any temple with this key. Why would this key be created? And some civilian just has it? It makes no sense to me. He’s not stepping up. He won an Eojima kid. He’s allowed to have it. They couldn’t take it from him. That’s the difference. Do you think he was giving it back? No. Yeah, I’m just wondering what the protocol was when they closed up shop afterwards. Like, all right, we’re all done. So you handed in the blueprints? Maybe not. What about that universal key that gets you into anywhere in the White House? Oh, I gave that to Glenn. Oh, Glenn has it. Yeah, he totally has it. No problem. All right, see you later. Like, what? That part made no sense to me. But either way, let’s move past that quick. No badge. Who else you got? Stancefield. He’s just Dumbledore. If you listen to the audiobook, the voice he has is Dumbledore’s voice. He’s just like the I kind of know everything. I’m relaxed, I’m calm. I have a cool head. Like I play everything straight face. I can’t be red. And I’m the smartest guy in the room at all times. I love Stan’s Field loves them. It’s funny you say that because it’s literally the only other person I had was Director Stanley. Oh, we’re both on the same page. Let’s go. Yeah. Calm, cool demeanor. What else do you need? He knows it all. He sees, all the pieces. You know what I mean? He sees the whole board. So I appreciate that before we get into some scenes, there’s some pretty awesome names in this book, right. So Mitch rap itself just slaps. Yeah, it’s great. I think my favorite name of all time for this kind of character is from shooter Bob Lee Swagger. That’s a great name. A phenomenal name. So I’m wondering if any of these beat it out for you. So we have Mitch rep. Like I said, Dallas King. Pretty good name. Sounds like a heel in the WWE or something like that. They end up being that. Yes. True. Skit McMahon. Not bad. Stone Alexander for an ABC correspondent. Pretty good. Hey, this is Stone Alexander checking in. That’s probably why I think I know the person because I’m like, oh, yeah, stone Alexander, of course. And he was briefly mentioned. We got Sid Slater, aka the Jewish Terror, who is the commander of the HRT. Pretty good. You can make a book series about him. That’s phenomenal right there. Jewish Terror. And then when it comes to nicknames or monikers, the Thief of Baghdad, pretty good nickname for a terrorist there. And then I’m going to finish up with my favorite Mick Reeves. Yeah. Oh, that hits. That’s it Mick Reeves. I didn’t realize how good those were. That’s a good call out. Yeah, I was just like, wow, if Vinny Flint, not only can he write good novels, but he comes up with some really good names. If he was still alive, I would send him some fan mail and ask him to name my first child favorite scene. Let’s get into it. Oh, God. Obviously it’s tough to Peel towards the action sequences because there’s only a few of them. But did you have something that was outside of the action sequence box? No. I mean, there’s one scene that it’s just like a scene that always stuck out to me. Him stopping the whole rape thing where everyone’s like, don’t do it because you’re going to give away. He’s like, I don’t give a fuck. I’ll go against whatever else is saying. I’m not going to listen to your orders because someone that’s innocent might get hurt. I fucking love that every time it gives me goosebumps. I remember that scene. I don’t remember anything else about the book. Really? That’s the only thing I remember. So that’s easily. Number one for me. I don’t know if you count that as an action scene, but I thought that was amazing. There’s no better way to murder someone than shoving the knife under the chin that goes straight up into their brain. It’s really the best. And after this book reading, I did go and watch Olympus has fallen, which was unfortunate. We’ll get more into that later, but he did do the knife through the chin into the brain. And I really respected that. So you know what? I’m with you on that scene, though. Him throwing the book out the window, turn, taking his headset off and going, no, I will not stand for this. Exactly. Okay. My favorite was the opening sequence, and I thought this would. I mean, if this was a movie, this opening sequence would be so sick because it’s them capturing Haroot and Mitch is dressed up as the old man limping through the alleyways. But just like, how you see it? Big picture with all the teams getting put into place and the communication. And it’s not just kind of Mitch doing a Mitch thing. It’s really like the snipers 500 yards away taking people out. The other team coming in. Yeah, that was awesome. Just that whole thing. Especially now after the whole taking down bin Laden stuff. And you’ve seen that video as well as the movie Zero Dark 300 Dark 30. There we go. Which was awesome movie. And that whole idea of this is how these operators get into these spaces and do stuff. That was kind of the first time that we saw it. I feel like as a civilian populace of we’re getting full view footage of this shit going down. It was like, Holy smokes. These guys are on a whole nother level. And to read it in this book, I could see it. I could see it in my head. It was awesome. So cool. And then afterwards, obviously, Cheryl Miller lights bra. I did actually have one more scene. That wasn’t an action scene. Now that I think about it. Okay. When Mitch Rap is in the meeting with all the politicians and he has this quote, which I think was great. But I thought a million times in a meeting, this can’t be happening. Please tell me this isn’t happening. This woman or man has no fucking idea what she’s talking about. Or he’s talking about that happens 95% of meetings where you’re just like, God damn it. Can these people just shut the fuck up and get out of here? They don’t know what I’m talking about, but he goes up to the front of the meeting and just shits on everyone. I was like, That’s my fantasy. I appreciate how you said woman or man, because obviously he was talking about a woman and well, like, it can apply to anyone. Yeah, it can bite anyone. It can bite anyone. Kids just get into some stock down. Definitely my favorite segment here what stocks we buy and what stocks we sell. And let’s start with stock up. What do you got going to a war with Iraq. Stock up. I know a lot of people criticize us going to war with Iraq. But did anyone read this book? Fucking Saddam Hussein helped fund a terrorist attack on the White House. Can we lead with that? What’s going on here? Everyone talks about no nuclear bombs or any weapons obstruction over there. Like, who cares? This dude funded this terrorist attack. Are you with me? He funded a fictional terrorist attack. We should totally have sent all of our boys out there, right? Why didn’t people leave at that? I didn’t even realize that happened, but stock up. Yeah, especially considering, like, now we’re pulling bodies out of those areas. And after George Bush’s, what do you say? Mission accomplished. Yeah, stock was way down. So I appreciate that you’re buying that stock because the stock is definitely short. I obviously had. This is the last time I’ll say it, but until they sponsor us, I had familiar lights in there. Come on. Is there product placement at this point that was out of mind? I’m not sure between the Volvo’s and the Miller Lights, obviously, all the weapons aren’t being sponsored because he goes into detail about those. But for, like, popular brands with his second book is Miller Light sending him a few cases. What’s the deal? I was going to ask that. Do you think there is product placement in book? Because honestly, I was like, I need to go pick up some Miller Lights and drive a Volvo. Now there’s Volvo, amazing traction and sporty. I’m like Volvo. All right. I guess I got to go buy a Volvo now there has to be product placement right in books. There’s definitely product placement in books. But it just seems kind of weird to me. For his first national. I mean, his other one was a national best seller, but it was self published. So his first book is Volvo and Miller Light going to get involved in this Is NBEV going to be like, we need to support this book. I don’t know. But either way, if they didn’t, then they got some great free advertising. And I hope that they at least sent him, like, Lifetime supply of Miller Lights. But outside of the Miller Lights for stock up, I’m going with situation rooms in general or sit rooms because, of course, times of the essence. So you can’t say the whole situation. You have to say sit room. But is there ever a time where you’re watching a movie or reading a book that some shit goes down in a situation room that you’re not fully invested in. And that’s a lot of this book. Granted, it’s not done in the White House situation room, whereas ZZ is kicking his feet up and just watching the news. But you get all the brass in one room and they’re shooting ideas around. People have short fuses. It’s a lot of non action action. And I know Situation rooms are actually the stocks probably pretty high, especially after the Obama picture came out where he was watching the whole thing. Granted, that wasn’t the Situation Room, I don’t think, but just sit rooms in general, if I’m watching an episode of The West Wing and they’re like, Mr. President, we need you in the Situation Room. It’s like, oh, this is going to be sick. So I’m all in on Situation Rooms. Yeah, I think the best to do it is Michael Bay in his movies, like Armanded in The Rock with the green glow of this tree showing on the actors faces and stuff, he always is moving the camera left to right or right to left at all. In all seen, there’s no, like, still shots when he does it, which is Michael Bay. Once you see it once, you’re like, oh, yeah. Every time. So it makes it seem like there’s action going on because the camera is always moving. Okay, quickly, before we get into your next stock up favorite Michael Bay movie, The Rock. Oh, the Rock. Yeah, easily. Yeah. Okay. Not bad boys. Bad Boys two. Did he do? Yeah. Bad Boys two is a great action movie in theaters. That was one of the best. But The Rockle is a top 50 movie for me. Okay. Pearl Harbor. Good movie or bad movie? I like Pearl Harbor. I might have to rewatch it, though. I know people hate. I respect that, but I like it too, actually. You know what? I love it. I love Harbor. Yeah, I think that they put way too much of the love triangle stuff in there. I don’t know why I also love love. What’s her name? I understand why that happened. Sale. I understood why that was a love triangle. No issues with that. That should be the movie, right when she came down. Yeah. If my boy went down, I’d be like, Hell, yeah. What else do you have for stock up tangoes? I’m a big fan of the word Tango. Tango. We got eleven tangoes in the building. Yeah, the dance, the Tango, which I’ve never done. But I’m now interested. Tango Mandarin, which are basically oranges Tangerines. They’re seedless. And, you know, my biggest pet peeve is seeds and fruit. Yeah. So those are great. And honestly, I’ve been looking for a word to call fuck boys. Not as mean. And that’s not derogatory. And just being like, with this fucking Tango over here, that’s a good word. I’m going to start using it. It’s super succinct, and it hits the continent cards, which is important, right? Oh, my God. Tango. It just hits. Dude, that’s really true. He’s a bad guy, which is great. Just like you’re may or may. I’m all in on Tango, and I will be using it. It’s like, oh, like, you don’t shoot Hoops, like, no, there’s a couple of tangos on the court. Yeah, exactly. All right. Next for me, stock up torture.
Participant #1:
They go hard on Haru. They go real hard on the paint on the torture vibes with Haru. Torture hasn’t been cool since Abu Grab, Unfortunately. So we have to bring that torture stock back up. And I think they did a good job here because they show how impactful torture is at actually getting information out of people. So Haru not only gives up the amount of people in the house in the White House, he gives up the fact that they got this thief of Baghdad, which brought the whole thing into the reason why they had to move and get the President without him. They wouldn’t have known that. And then, most importantly, he gives them where a Z’s ends up. That allows Mitch Rap to go and finish the job. So without torture, they wouldn’t have had any of that. And they torture the shit out of him. They basically say, like, his brain was dirt. They’re like, Is he a vegetable? And it’s like, pretty much, sir. And it’s like, just chill. So torture. It works. I’m in suck up. No. 100% by actually on the other shoe, if you will. I had sucked down just to go right into that real quick. Being a torture expert, it’s not the best job, really. Thankless. So to your point, they literally find out everything about this terrorist attack within, like, 8 hours of capturing this dude and the woman they’re like, oh, I’d hate to have her job the worst job ever. And then they just shit on her for the next, like, half the book being like, you didn’t ask him how he’s going to leave. What are you, an idiot? We didn’t even go in there and babysit you and tell you how to torture this person, right? It seems pretty tough to fuck with someone’s brain and then also extract all this information and then not one. Thank you for it. They’re always a little hard on me. Be fair, though, I think the stock is already pretty down on torture experts. Like, you watch the old Dark Ages movies and stuff like that. You’re watching Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner, the people that did the torture, they’re always, like, gross, and they don’t really have a lot going for them in society. They got to wear hoods. Any job you have to wear a hood. It’s hot. It’s hot under a hood. It’s not a good gig. It is what it is. Yeah, that’s true. Imagine at a dinner party. What do you do for work? It’s like, oh, I’m a torture expert. It’s just like, Jesus, it’s like, you want me on that line. You need me. We need torture experts out there. Exactly. We got to appreciate the people behind the curtain. All right, well, let’s stick with stock up. Did you have anything else before we got into the Stockholm? Yeah, the only one was the product placement in books, which I think should happen more often. Quickstore, too, is like Butterbeer. I went to the Harry Potter world and they’re selling Butter Beard, which is just like creme soda for $8. But you had to buy it, right? Like that is such a good product placement in the book. And Harry Potter, that it’s. Money. Mitch Rapp, want something? I want it a big opportunity in marketing. I always thought butter beer was literally, like warm beer with melted butter in it. So, yeah, it never really appealed to me. And throughout the Harry Potter series, I thought, like, Wizards could have probably figured out a better drink. Right. Also, Harry Potter tidbit. But remember, they’re drinking it when they’re, like, ten years old, and then they’re 17. They’re drinking it and they’re like, Well, the effects of Butterbeer might make us do something interesting tonight. It’s like, wait, I never picked up some alcoholic connotation to it. Yes, which I didn’t either. Maybe they added, when they get older, I don’t know. Yes. Maybe I put a little spell on it. Just be like, ABV five boom.
Participant #1:
Nice. All right. We’ve mentioned Harry Potter, like, three times so far and Nick Cave for other stock ups I had. I mean, the US military, specifically the US Special Operations Forces, whether it be the Army Rangers or the Navy Seals. Come on. Why invest in any of these commercials they put in? I think they invest something. The military in general invest something like $6 million a year. Maybe it’s more just in the NFL in terms of putting people in the Stadium, like when you have veterans coming home and stuff. Obviously, those are good things, but they spend money, like it’s actually advertising for the military. No, just read this book. Just tell everyone. Read Transfer of Power and you will join the military. It’s guaranteed. I looked up to see if I’d be washed out. There’s no way I could possibly make it, but I just looked up to be like, how old you have to be to go into the military? Could I be a Navy Seal at my ages of 33 years old? Is that possible? It turns out it’s not really, but it made me want to. He thought about it. Yeah. I want to be a real man. A man’s. Man. Rugged. Yeah. Well, yeah. I told you when I was twelve, I was like, all right. I’m going to the army now after this book because it sounds so sick. Also, in this book, if you’re like, a pretty boy, like anyone that’s pretty and not Rugged is like, the worst person. They’re just like, conniving, worst precious shit ever out there. Don’t have, like, brain cells. That question, authority. That’s a bad thing. That’s not true. I mean, Mitch Rap question. Yeah. Okay. To some degree. But yes, in general, though, the idea of chain of command is very important, which is why I would always be flushed out of the military. My last stock up was push ups and sit ups. There’s a big craze going on the last 20 years or so. Whether it be people working out on the Esplanade with an instructor or CrossFit or getting into a gym and doing pelotons, whatever the case is to stay fit and keep that body tight. It costs a lot of money. And this book we’re talking about some of the hardest motherfuckers in the universe and every single one of them. When they talk about their workout regimen. It’s like, I do push ups and sit ups. And that’s how I stay hard. Jack Ward, the Secret Service agent in charge of the President. Yeah, he does 400 crunches every day except Sunday because of Jesus. And then on alternating days, he throws in 200 push ups. That’s how he stays hard. Oh, Milt Adams. Yeah, he’s an 85 year old man. What does he do? He does push ups and crunches. No big deal. Push ups and sit ups. No big deal. Whatever. Fuck you. You know, all these guys old school workouts, drop the fucking heavy weights. Don’t go to your silly little bike that costs $5,000 a year. And you got to also buy this membership with some person on a video screen telling you you can do it. No. Get your ass on the floor and lift your own body weight a thousand times and tell me you don’t fucking feel it. It’s as simple as that. All right. Although science has kind of said that the whole crunches sit ups thing is probably not great for your back and planks are probably a better exercise. But, you know, I’m not going to tell these. Stop being a pretty through the pain, fight through the herniated discs. It doesn’t fucking matter. Stay hard, boy. I love it. David Goggins, where you’re at? So I was just going to bring that up. Have you ever done a David Goggins workout? No, I’m not a psychopath. Oh, my God. Yeah. I didn’t know what that was about. And the beginning of Panamaic. People like, oh, just do this with us. It’s like, okay, we’re going to start off with jumping Jacks. And I’m like, oh, jumping Jacks are kidding me. You just do 20 minutes of jumping Jacks, which by minute three, your casts are literally on fire. You can’t do another jumping Jack, and he’s like, stopping a pussy, and he just does 15 more minutes of it. Holy shit. And then the next thing is like, all right, now we’re doing squats for literally ten more minutes. David Goggins is my if I don’t feel like working out or something like that, I’ll just go to his Instagram channel and watch two of his Instagram videos, like, just quick 30 seconds and just him telling me to stay hard and I’m like, okay, I’ll work out. Doesn’t that depress you? He’s so superior that I’m like, oh, my God. Yeah, well, until you see his feet and then you’re like, okay, I don’t want my feet to look like that, so I’m never going to work out that hard in my life. Are you kidding me? David Goggins. We love you. You’re a fucking animal. Let’s get the stock down. I know you already gave one of yours, but what else do you got? Counting chickens before they hatch? Big time stock down. Yeah. So Anna and Mitch get in that feud after he saves her about what she can publicize. We’re still in a room in the White House that’s locked down by Ten Terrace with bombshell wrapped around it. Can we talk about the book stuff like after we get out and alive, talk about counting the chickens where they hatch. Like, let’s survive this thing first before we start planning the book. Rice. I’m very concerned about her story, considering they were in the midst of an assault and she was living in the closet. It was a bit odd. Like, what can I release or what can I do? But I also thought it was a bit odd for Mitch to be super concerned about what she hears, considering that she may die. And then this will be a moot point. And then you won’t have to worry about it. But maybe Mitch is like, I’m never going to die. No one near me is ever going to die. I’m an absolute Savage. Well, that’s true. But, yeah, I’m with you on that point. I had politicians specifically left leaning politicians or intellectuals in general. Just not a good look for those people. I mean, they open up with the whole pay to play in terms of the whole thing. It started because Aziz gets in into the White House with basically a donation to the Democratic Party, which somehow skips him all sorts of lines that he doesn’t need to get through. Vice President Baxter or excuse me, Sherman Baxter III. They mentioned that he’s heir to one of California’s finest family wineries. So California. I mean, he’s obviously a Democrat because Hayes is a Democrat. But California, specifically, they’re just shoving it to the lefties, right there. Actually, this one is interesting. Dallas King refers to President Hayes as, quote, unquote the simp. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the nomenclature of the day, but a simp is like what all the kids are calling their friends that are nice to their girlfriends. They’re calling them simps. So I don’t know if you’re familiar with the phrase. Are you? I’m not. Yes, I don’t really like Cook. Simply all the things that everyone just uses. That doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t care for it. I don’t jump on those. No, it’s easy. I mean, that’s kind of what our society. I say Tango. You suck at Tango out here. It’s pretty much like what our societies come down to is just like, use dumb words that don’t mean anything to express your feelings. But I just thought it was kind of funny that now it’s so hip. And he’s referring to President Hayes as a symp. I was just like, oh, okay. He’s way ahead of time. Like we said, yes, but let’s get back to this. Politicians and intellectual stock down. Scott McMahon, who’s at the top of his game, has noted that he’s one of the few people in the Bureau without an accounting or law degree. So good for you. Don’t get a higher education. You’re way better if you just don’t and just stick with the guns. There’s a quick line saying how Saddam plays the weak UN and the political left like a drum. It’s just like if you’re reading between the lines that you like to do here, let me defend Vince Flynn, a K. Mitch Rappler a little bit. I think things weren’t nearly as divisive. Or what’s the word divided? You can say divided, but divisive divided. Divisive. Whatever. Back when this book was written, when I read it back then, they didn’t even register as any sort of political. I think he also criticizes both sides in terms of politics and media. He just like, both these things suck. They get in the way. I think his real only strong stance is that the military should be supported more, and we should trust military experts more. That’s it. Yeah. Well, I mean, I totally agree that politicians in general, at least in my personal opinion, are probably all sociopaths to some degree. No debate here. I’m with him on all those points about all these politicians trying to advance their own careers. But it did seem like there was a lot of lefty hate, which is fine. It’s his book. He can do whatever the hell he wants, but definitely stock down. Definitely stock down for the Democratic Party. After all the stuff that they go through in this one. Did you have any other stock down? Two more. Ask your coworker on a date. 15 minutes into the job. Stock down. That’s the way you said that reminded me of, like, the internship when he’s, like, having a beer with your boss. So sorry. What was your stock down? Yeah. So Anna Reilly gets asked out by that coworker within literally 15 minutes of stepping into the job. This guy not heard of me too before. Like, you got to pump the brakes there, dude. Just relax. Pull up. Also, he’s a pretty boy. That was Stone Alexander, wasn’t it? Yeah, stone. Come on, bud. Come on, Bud. Reel it back a little bit. We wait 30 minutes here. We wait 30 minutes before sexual harassment, because it’s literally I’m with you there. I got stock down. The Secret Service. Not a good look for the Secret Service in general. They open up by explaining that the Secret Service is 5000 agents, the majority of which focus their attention on catching counterfeiters. That’s not great. When we think of the Secret Service, we’re thinking about the guys running in the motorcade with the wrist mics and the sunglasses. Those guys like, oh, wow. Badass. No, actually, just so you guys know that’s a small percent. Everyone else just focuses on the plot of Lethal Weapon for looking at counterfeit money. Not interesting. They also say the Secret Service is comprised of a paranoid group of people who, although well meaning, they have inflated sense of self importance. Not good. And then Additionally, not only do I mean, it’s really them who lets hises into the White House. You can blame the staff, but hey, guys, you’re the last line of defense. So it’s on you. So you can blame the staff. But that’s on you. And then on top of that, they allow the truck into the tunnel. It’s a truck. It could have anything in it. They don’t inspect it because him and the truck driver, like the Secret Service agent and the truck driver go out and have a beer every now and then. No, they let them into a side area. Well, it’s the treasure building, but it’s still access. But the whole thing was it shouldn’t access the White House. There’s that secret tunnel they have. Well, if it shouldn’t access the White House, then why is the Secret Service man in the booth? This is correct. Well, they’re protecting other people within the treasury building. Fair enough. But, hey, Secret Service, whatever building you’re protecting, you didn’t protect it. Stop down. I’m selling. I’m out fair. That’s fair. My last one was the anti Bill Bell check method. Pardon me. Stop down. It’s a double negative. Don’t worry about that. So, Hayes, at the end of the book is like, Anna, I’m going to hook you up with all this inside access media access, inside scoops all this shit. Let her write a book, and then we shouldn’t be divulging company secrets to here. This is not Bill Belcher. You don’t do any favors for us. You know, my thought on the media D man and Bill Belchick’s thought. And me and him are very alike. I like mushrooms, feed them shit and keep them in the dark. That’s your Boston accent. After growing up outside of Boston, can I try one more time? Kind of like JFK.
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All right, well, I know you have a good accent one more time. Feed him shit and keep him in the dash. Yeah, but now you go. That’s good. I’m not challenging you on this. You go. You can’t say I have a shitty one and then not do it. I’m not going to do that. You also had the number one accent the last time we did accident. I’m not going to put that stake on the line with this one, but what I will say, oh, my God. You’re a coward. You’re a pretty boy. Coward. I’m all man. Tango. Fucking Tango. What I will say to your point was that and this I was going to bring up later, but I’m going to bring up now because you brought it up. So she has a story that she has compiled. It’s her story, and that’s what she wants to tell. This is the makings of a national bestseller. It’s going to get her on every single talk show out there. It’s going to put her name in the record books. She’s going to be moving up the rank. She might be on NBC Nightly News after this. And instead, she uses that leverage to get the scoop that Aziz managed to escape the White House like, 30 minutes before everyone else does. So she gets to break one story earlier than other people do. That’s going to be a huge story anyways, and it’s going to get flooded out by all the other news agencies that do it 30 minutes later. So she gives up her book deal pretty much for this one scoop that’s going to get her a little bit ahead of the line and maybe a one on one with the President down the road. Like, negotiation skills. Not great at all. I thought she was giving up, hey, we look over your shoulder like she was like, I’m going to write whatever I want to write. And they’re like, no, you’re going to let us double check that stuff, but we’ll give you all this other stuff instead. I still think she’s writing the book. It’s just names are taken out. Some of the other additional stuff is now they just basically get. That’s why I thought, Well, I assume you wouldn’t trade that because it was like she asked, what things are you going to look at? And they were like, Well, and then President Hay steps in. He’s like, Well, how about this? Instead, I’m going to give you this scoop and she’s like, yeah, that’s a trick. Goodbye. I am a subservient woman, which is what this book says. That’s not me talking. Oh, damn. I’m clipping that. Oh, you’re going to have to clip a lot later then, because I’m fighting for women later on in this. Let’s jump into love hate. Wow, there’s so much to love about this book. I don’t even know how to pare it down. I’m going to start with you, so I get my brain in order. What do you love about this one? I think the biggest thing for me is I can’t wait to get in the Carbook. So obviously I listen to the audiobook. And typically, I don’t like driving that much. I’m not someone that just like, if you get a ball bound, then you would. Yes, that is the difference. I need a ball bound. It’s really comes down to it. But this is one of those books I’m like, oh, nice. I want to drive 15 minutes to go to the grocery store because I got to listen to Vince Flynn. I think ready. Player One was one of the first audiobooks I really got into like that. And then this book is right up there with it again. Amazing. Pace. We already talked about that. I love the gun descriptions. I love everything about the military stuff. It really makes me, like, brings me back to when I was twelve and wanting to be in the military. This happens more frequent than in future books as well. But the mindset of being in the book when you’re outside of the book. So looking around corner and one thing in the future books, misrepres do is when he sits in a booth or in a room, he always has his back to the walls, so there’s, like, no one can come behind them. Yeah. Dude, when you’re in a hotel, you always get the far bed in the hotel. It’s as simple as that. Always get the far better. It’s kind of like if you play GTA a bunch and then you go out and you’re thinking about running people over it’s like that. But more like I’m an assassin. Now I consider these type of audiobooks. I read this book. I didn’t listen to the audiobook. I’m kind of excited to, because now I’m just itching for more Mitch Rap to read the third option, whether or not we do it on the pod. I’m going to read it, but it’s what I like to call a drive by your house book. It’s one of those books that you’re so interested in that even if you’re that’s a better catchier phrase and can’t wait to get in the car book. Yeah. So it’s like if you’re in a place where you’re coming back home and you’re in the middle of a chapter, it’s like I’m going to drive around the block just one time so I can finish this out. It’s so good. How about sit in the car while the engines running in the garage potentially commit suicide type, sit in the car while the engine is running. Put a hose, put a hose in the exhaust pipe and put it into your window kind of book. Yeah, no, but I do that sometimes, and I’m like, oh, I probably shouldn’t be sitting in here. Those are different type of book. Okay, love. Call signs, love. I need a call sign in my life. Obviously, Mitch Rapp’s Iron Man because he runs Iron Man, which there was a brief period in the early two thousands where they would televise Iron Man once it became like, super hip and wasn’t just in Runners magazine. Mitch Rap would have been so pissed because now at that point, he couldn’t run in Iron Man anymore. He would have had to do, like, the Moab 250 or something like that. Another call sign. So the President always picks a name for himself to be called like a call sign for himself for the Secret Service. And this President Hayes goes by Woody his call signs. Woody. I don’t know why he chose that. Do you know why he chose that? A Democratic President similar written around Bill Clinton time. I think I know I think I know why. Fair enough. Yes. I just thought that was weird. Out of all the names you’d go by, but Austin Powers. His side name is Richie Cunningham. So that would be my Mitch Cruise would be Richie. Okay. And I appreciate you saying Austin Power since we hadn’t covered that yet. Thank you. But I don’t have a call sign. And I did kind of try to think about it because call signs are big. Top Gun was a big one. Maverick
Participant #1:
goose. Those are some good ones. Other stuff I love about this, and we kind of danced around it. But the research, the research that he did into it, it blows my mind that he came out with these three books in four years, considering how much. I mean, it’s not research, like an Eric Larson book or something like that, but it’s research in the actual schematics of the White House, different little things that happen, like little details. I’m thinking like the Roosevelt Room, for example, he talks about the Roosevelt Room just in passing and says, Theodore Roosevelt or Teddy Roosevelt’s portrait hangs over the fireplace when a Republican is in office, and FDR’s portrait hangs there when a Democrat is in office and it’s like, oh, those are fun. Especially me a liking history and B loving trivia. That’s a super cool, interesting detail to involve that has nothing to do with the story but portrait. It paints a picture and really helps you get into it. And that kind of ties into his way of doing this brief but specific detail. And he does it with all the equipment they use. I’m just thinking of one of the things. Like, one example is he talks when they’re doing the Haroon raid, he talks about the helicopters that bring them in. He’s like, oh, it’s an MH 53 J pave low. Yeah, it’s $40 million and considered the most advanced military helicopter in the world. But that’s all he says about it. He doesn’t go into any more detail, just as $40 million price tag. Considering the most advanced military helicopter in the world drops the boys off. Whatever continues the story. But he does that with whether that be weapons or other equipment they’re using. It’s just this really quick detail of what it is. But he doesn’t go on this whole thing, like, take a paragraph to explain what’s going on with it. It not only does a good job of showing you what this equipment is without having to look it up. Especially this is like pre real Internet error, but I feel like it makes you visualize it better and also get you into the story more. I thought it was really well done. I love it. Flynn, you’re a fucking hero. Yes, I completely agree. And that’s the difference between I tried to read Rainbow Six when I was the same age because I don’t know if you played the video game, the original one, but I love that. It was like, super in detail about MP five and SWAT team tactics and everything like that. And I tried to read the book. I got 200 pages. I think it’s like, 2000 page book and nothing had happened. It would be like he carried five here is like, the origins of them. It would just be like a history book for, like, yes, swamp page sales. This takes me out of the story. I like to know it, but it’s like, come on, let’s go. Let’s get it going. Yeah, it’s not necessarily a hit. It’s almost like opening up the instruction manual, like, when you buy one of those things, it’s like, I don’t want to read this. Yeah, exactly. I’m sure he knows all this stuff, too. And he’s like, Let me put that I think is most important tidbit about this one thing and then go on. Yeah, I get that people might be into that, but I just think Vince Flynn has a really good way of doing it. Yeah. Let’s go through the loves. We got to hate. The hate is real. We got to throw some hate out there where there is Yin. There is Yang. What’s the other side of the coin for you? What do you got that you hate? So one thing is, I didn’t understand why a Ze has kept the Secretary alive. So he escapes with the Secretary as the hostage, and then he throws her in a ditch, and then she’s like, yeah, the Z dude took me away and escaped, and they’re like, oh, okay. I didn’t realize he escaped. They were been looking for his body. It could have blown up in the blown up building. They had no idea he escaped, and he just murdered tons of innocent people without even thinking, like, blinking an eye. And then he just left her alive to tell them that she was there. That didn’t make any sense to me. We found her in a ditch, and I was like, oh, cool. They found her body in a ditch. She was alive. I was like, Wait, what? Why was she alive? He has no remorse for anyone. Why would he leave anyone alive to tell a tale? Like, who knows what details she picked up? It made no sense to me. I’m with you. I’m 100% with you. It wasn’t even a note that I had, but it’s towards the end of the book, and I finished it last night, so, yeah, I was so confused. Yeah, this is a big one for me. This is a big one for me. Where is the concern for President Hayes throughout the first 60% of this book, he’s in his bunker. They’re like, okay, they’re like, the President made it to his bunker, and they’re like, okay, cool. And then they just forget about him. He’s not involved in this whatsoever. It’s like, oh, Aziz fucked up. He left him in the bunker. He let him go and he’s in the bunker. He’s totally safe. That bunker can withstand anything. And then Rap even says about Aziz. And I quote, we know he’s a meticulous planner. He thinks everything through from start to finish and prepares multiple contingencies in case things go wrong. So they know that he wanted to get the President immediately and it went wrong. So multiple contingencies, yeah, maybe. And then shortly thereafter, he says, and I quote again, he knows without the President, he’s not getting home. So you’re saying that the President is literally the football? He needs the football. And he’s like, You’re just like, no, President is still fine. Still fine. And then even later, when Irene Kennedy talks to the massage agent, and they’re like, all right, we got these three guys. One is a 19 year old. The other one is Iraqi, who’s known into breaking into impenetrable safes. But it’s probably not him. And she’s like, yeah, you’re right. It’s probably not him. We don’t have any impenetrable safes in the White House. It’s probably this 19 year old for Cannon Fodder, like a Z just gets a person for Cannon fodder. That’s his thing. It’s like, you don’t think he has eleven guys. He knew exactly what everyone’s job was. No, there was no concern for the President. And then eventually they’re like, oh, my God. He’s going for the President. He’s going to get him in, like, 2 hours. It’s like, what the fuck have you guys been this whole time? Are you kidding me? Well, we have the benefit of knowing this only happens whatever. Three days, we have the benefit of knowing that that’s happening. The assumption is it’s a brand new vault. You could have had just a quick conversation, which is like the presence in the vault. It’s like, okay, great. It’s like, what are the chances that they said it’s impenetrable, right? Everyone’s like, all right, we’re good. Then I saw Die Hard with a vengeance. They stole all the gold. You know, it happened. All right? Nothing is impenetrable. Let’s be honest with that. They needed. Apparently, they wouldn’t need, like, 500 dump trucks to steal them gold. So that’s a little bit misleading, sir. Let’s not take that. In fact, I’m taking it. In fact, the gold is too heavy, so there would be no way they could transport it. That little of dump trucks. Good. But either way, there was just not enough concern or talked about whatsoever or, like, opening a line of communication, anything. Especially when they finally brought up to Irene. The fact that she didn’t immediately go, oh, my God. Wait. What does this guy do? They were just like, it’s probably a 19 year old. Let’s move on. Yeah. So I hated that part. What else you got? I already kind of brought it up, but I obviously didn’t love the political stuff. I didn’t remember it being this political. Obviously. I think things are much more political these days, so I think if you read this book back then, it’s like, oh, yeah, he’s kind of a point of view. That’s X. It doesn’t matter. It’s not my point of view, but it’s whatever. But now it’s like, I can imagine this book being canceled, people being like, oh, you read that book? How could you even read that? Which kind of sucks. He also hates the media, which I hate the media, too, though. So cancels out. Yeah, I think everyone hates the media. We’re talking about an organization that’s pretty much run by a very few amount of people. Everything is now a conglomerate of something else. It makes no sense. I’m with one there. And I do agree, though, that the political aspect. You have to separate yourself from that. I’m shitting on the fact that he shit on the Democrats. And whatnot, you don’t take that shit personally? It’s a book. You know what I mean? This is his point of view, and that’s what he’s going for. It’s fun. Like, this book is meant to be. Oh, yeah, I have no issues with it. The only thing I’d be worried about is recommending to someone and then being like, oh, you like this guy’s politics? No, it’s just a good phone. Yeah. That brings me to my next point in my next hate, and I have to do it. Someone did ask me for a book recommendation, and this person happened to be a woman. And I was like, I’m fucking reading this book and it’s phenomenal. But I was like, oh, if I suggested this to a woman, I think she would hate it because I’m not really a huge fan of the way they characterize women in this book between Tuttweiler, Valerie Jones, the president’s chief of staff, Anna Reilly. They just make women out to be these scared, shrill, weak creatures that are, like, subservient to men. And maybe that’s just the way I read it. But Mitch Rap thinking of Tuttweiler, the attorney general, with the scene that you talked about earlier when he said, this woman has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. Yeah, true. But did she need to be the one that they focused on in that situation? I don’t know. And then Tuttweiler, after the whole thing where I don’t know who gets shot, but the guy gets shot, the first hostage situation, she’s obviously not in a position to really be in charge there. She’s kind of forced to be based on the chain of command, and she has a totally reasonable breakdown. One of the guys says this stupid bitch is in shock. It’s like, yeah, well, some fucked up shit just went down, and yeah, like, maybe she wasn’t fully prepared, like, one of you guys should have stepped up. And then Additionally, I don’t know why they make Valerie Jones the president’s chief of staff, like a character in the bunker, but they make her out to be, like, shrill and incompetent. She’s like, Wait, why? I don’t understand. Why is that happening? It’s like, oh, my God. I have to explain to this chick why this is happening. I just explained it to her. It’s like, what? Why did they have to make that character like that made no sense. I mean, even Irene Kennedy, who no, if you’re going to use, well, if you think he portrays women negatively, like, look at Irene Kennedy, she absolutely crushes it. She gets assaulted. At one point, McMahon and I quote, reached out and grabbed Kennedy’s chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. No more games. I want the truth. Excuse me. Don’t fucking touch me. It’s what she should have said. But instead, she was like, hey, we’re not in the right communication standpoint or something like that. It’s like, you don’t just go out and grab people with you in the eye. It was like, Pardon me. What? And now Anna Riley, Mitch, after cleaning her up after the whole assault and whatnot? He cleans her up and he says, I’d say, we have a regular tough girl on our hands. Like, don’t fucking talk down to me, bro. I just got assaulted. Yes, I am a tough girl. Shut the fuck up. And then I’m kind of surprised he didn’t Pat her on the head afterwards. Was it just like talking to someone? Hold on. Later, Mitch says, you must be one tough chick, to which she replies, I have a lot of brothers assuming that a woman can’t be tough unless she has a bunch of brothers in her family. Like, just being a woman and herself can’t make her tough. It’s ridiculous. I just didn’t like the way that they made women weak creatures when there are lots of strong women out there. I’m not talking South Park strong women. I’m talking real strong women. And, yeah, it didn’t stick right with me. It didn’t stick. Right. I think if I suggested this book to a woman, she would have a very different outlook than we had. But Vinny is still up. All right? It’s fair. I mean, you make some good points. I let you say. But you did. All right. Let’s go. Also into the fact that the only person that especially in the future books that Mitch Rapp, who doesn’t listen to generals who doesn’t listen to literally the highest person in the military. He just ignored their commands. The only person you respect and listen to is Irene Kennedy, right? So that’s a woman that actually is supposed to be the most, the smartest and most competent person in the book pretty much. And it’s the only person he listens level headed, and he hates everyone else. He literally hates. There’s no one he likes. And all the politicians who are men are also demonized as well. I agree. You’re right. But at the same time, you can’t take it to the fact that 90% of the men are shitty people, too. I think that are shitty, like in the future books, right? The two biggest characters are Mitch and Irene. Well, I would say that I think Vince Flynn, based on how much he hates women in this book, I think that he originally wrote his direct superior, the Irene Kennedy role as a man. And then when he submitted it to his editor or publisher, who were women? Women run publishing companies who were women. They gave him a doctor evil line, and they said, they said, Vince, throw me a freaking bone here. He changed Irene Kennedy. Let me just get your argument down here. You think that he changed one character, but the editor, who is a woman, I guess, is not strong enough to tell him that all the other characters you’ve made, their women are shitty. So you’re saying that the woman rolled over that in this instance. So you’re the fucking sexist one. That’s what I Mary. No. She said, hey, I appreciate your intellectual property, but maybe if we want one woman to read this book, we should probably have a woman in a strong role and not in an absolute Meek and subservient role. And he goes, okay, I’ll give it to this one. And she said, thank you. And future books, too. Irene Kennedy obviously deals with a shitload of sexism because she becomes sorry, spoilers. But the head of the CIA, and she obviously has to deal with all the pushback she gets from that. So I think he develops that better. This book. I’ll probably agree with you a little bit on that. That’s it, though. That’s all I’ll give you. That’s all I’ll give you. I wanted a mile and you gave me an inch. I appreciate it. Cast a movie. So two movies were made that were, quote based on this book, White House Down and Olympus has Fallen. Neither one of these movies is this movie. I mean, Olympus has fallen. A was the Secret Service agent. Nothing ties into it. Really? Nothing. I don’t know why this movie hasn’t got made. I tried to scour the Internet and check it out. There’s nothing there. It makes no sense. This seems like a perfect suspense thriller. Take away all the boom explosions all over the place. The White House actually burning down. Let’s make this a covert up thriller. It’s so sad, but let’s cast it. If we did Mitch Rap, they are the most important character. Yeah, this is a big one. The Hollywood is listening. So this is a big one for me. I had a few that I was thinking of, and then I kind of whittled it down. So I was thinking of potentially John David Washington, Denzel’s son from Tenant. I think he could fill the shoes. Michael B. Jordan again. He just played the new movie on Amazon. He plays. Have you seen that movie? No, I heard it got medium ratings, but he’s good at he can play the drama after. Oh, fuck. Yeah. And I want a gritty version of this movie. I don’t want some fucking poppy star leading Taylor Kittish, who I love from Friday Night Lights. Yeah. Sorry. I think he’s a little bit. I don’t know how great he can get. That’s the only reason I lost. Well, he already did it in London. Survivor. Okay. Yeah. So he wasn’t bad in that. But again, ultimately, I think you need a dude that looks like a military guy that looks big that can muscle up. Tom Hardy is who I went with. I know American accent is not probably the best on him, but he, I think, actually looks like a military person. He’s got the physique, the drama look, he’s hard, you know what I mean? And I’m hard. Yeah. I don’t hate it, considering we don’t have errors here, and we’re allowed to draft people from the past. Okay. I had a young Mel Gibson interesting. Yeah. And I think because if you were to make this movie a he’s got the sex appeal for sure. He’s got the look. It’s basically the point. We’re going short hair, Mel Gibson. But I just think that if you were to make this movie, there’d be a lot of scenes where he’d actually be, like fighting a couple of terrorists, you know what I mean? And you need his like, he gets so into it, like, The Patriot or Braveheart when he has those wide eyes that it’s just like, oh, my God. This guy would go through a fucking brick wall. Mitch Rap is a little fucking nuts, and that’s what we need. Maybe I want milk. Is it because of my Milk Adams pick? And I picked Milk Adams first, but Milt Adams is set for a present day Danny Glover. And not only like you said, he should be having a little comedic side to him. Yeah. I thought Danny Lover did pretty well with that in Lethal Weapon, but more importantly, I’m pretty sure Vince Flynn wrote this book with Danny Glover in mind. Or there was no homage, because at the end of the book, I understand Mitch is like, oh, we’ll do this again sometime or something like that. Milt says I’m too old for this stuff, which is definitely a Danny Glover line from Lethal Weapon. When he says I’m too old for the shit, makes sense. Yeah. If I’m not picking the character, I let Vince pick the character. And Vince picked Danny Glover. So, hey, I’m going with Vince. I like that a lot. I didn’t have one for me. Adams. I just couldn’t think of anyone that would be perfect for him. But Danny Glover, I think, makes sense. The only problem is my dark gritty movie. I don’t even know if I want anyone that has comedic justice. You know what I mean? Well, Danny Glover is not necessarily a comedy guy. Like, he wasn’t funny and shooter. Oh, yeah, that’s true. Yeah. That’s a good point. I almost would take him out of the movie, more of the Mitch Rap just leading everything. And then obviously, Anna Riley would do more of the Mill Adam stuff. I think if there was a real movie made, I don’t think his character would be in there or he’d be in there for, like, when he goes into his basement and shows the blueprints in his basement and they break that stuff down. And then maybe after that, he’s in the sit room outside of that. I mean, if Michael Bay did it, he might be in it. It would be more of, like a Nic Cage feel like I said this one, I think might be my best casting of all time. Stan’s Field, Morgan Freeman. I think it’s just the smartest person in the room, relaxed, knowing everything. He’s basically the CEO and Batman. He just plays that role again. Interesting. Okay. Because he’s, like, too quiet. Almost. Well, that’s what Stanfield is. Yeah. The thing is about Morgan Freeman is when you see him on screen, you instantly are like, this dude is the smartest person in the room. This dude just has that presence about him that everyone respects him right away. Right? You’ve seen The Wire, right? Yeah. My pick was Lance Reddick, who plays Lieutenant Daniels or Major Daniels. Oh, yeah. So I thought he had that vibe of, like, doesn’t say a lot, but says a lot with his eyes. And you just have no idea where he stands. Is he with you? Is he against you? Is he trying to. He’s just, like, so blank. And he’s also, like, skinny, but imposing. It’s weird. He’s just such an enigma. That’s a really good one. I’ll give you that’s. That definitely good for Kennedy. I wish we had a young Meryl Street steep. What’s her name? Steep. Okay, perfect. I just think she has that same thing with Stanfield, like that calm, blank face. She can play that scary in the room without even saying anything. But obviously, if I’m guessing today I had to go someone different. She’s a little too old for the role at this point, but I want Jessica Chastain, who’s from Zero Dark 30. Same thing. Commanding presence doesn’t really need to say a lot. I didn’t have someone for Irene Kennedy, but the only picture in my head was there. I think it’s a James Bond movie. There’s this Russian woman who has a scar on her face, and she’s super badass. But again, Roy. But if she wasn’t aggression. No, it wasn’t allotted. Did you break Win before me? Didn’t know it was your turn, baby. I don’t know what her characters, but she had a vibe, so I don’t know. I’m out on that. And then lastly, for Anna, I had probably because of the same name, but I love her. Anna Dearness from Knives Out. Oh, dude, stop it. Stop it right now. Okay? I will feel like a twelve year old boy. She’s my celebrity crush. Huge fan. I feel like perfect. She was dating Ben Affleck. Yeah, good for him. Crazy. Crazy. Yeah, she’s amazing. Oh, God. Yeah, I’m in. My backup was Alicia Vickander, who’s, like, in Ex Malkia. Oh, yeah, she’s really good, too. I don’t know why those are good. Yeah, I just thought Anna had would have a more of a foreign look. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but exotic, I guess, is the word. Yeah, that’s fair. I had Kate Mara, who I thought would be good. They also just explain Riley, as he says, she’s £105, which is like, Honey, go get a fucking bite to eat. I don’t know, women to weight. So, yeah, I was like, okay, £105 is like, super duper thin. I don’t really respect that you’re telling women what they should do and what they shouldn’t do with her body, but that’s just me. I mean, I’m for women’s rights, not you aren’t. Well, I’m just saying, if it’s like, he’s like, She’s a full figured woman at £105, it’s like, well, something’s not right. I think Vinny Flynn wasn’t checking in, right? Because £105. That’s an emaciated person. But. Yeah. So basically, I’m saying she has to be. The actress has to be smaller. Yes. She should reprise her role from A House of Cards, playing like a media person. Oh, yeah. There you go. Boom. Easy day. Perfect. Don’t get hit by a train. Did you have anyone else? No, that was it for me. President Hayes, Martin Sheen. Don. Easy peasy sake. Easy. I got to say it. Would you recommend this book to our listeners and friends? 100% Mitch Rap, by the way? Probably. You’re right. It’s a very action, very guy book. So I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a lady if she wasn’t into that. No, I’m with you on that front. I mean, even like, my dad who reads history books, I was like, hey, I got this book. You should read it, and then I’m like, you know, truthfully. I don’t want someone to not finish this if I ask them to read it because my feelings toward them would be effective. That’s why I didn’t want to really tell my dad because he likes to read. And I was like, oh, you should read this book. But I was like, I don’t know if I want to share with him, because if he didn’t get through it, I don’t think I’d love my dad anymore. That’s stern. But it’s also fair. It’s very fair. It’s just like, one of those things that you love so much that when you share with someone and if they don’t love it, it hurts. Yeah. No, I get that to be like, this is a book. I recommend. That’s, like, a big honor to bestow on something. And yes, if they just reject it, it’s an insult to you and your whole family. And truthfully, nothing makes me feel better than when I recommend something to someone no matter what it is, whether that be like a book, a movie, a recipe, a way to get from A to B, and they’re like, oh, I took that shortcut and it worked. I’d be like, wow, you did that. Nothing makes me feel better as a human being than when those things happen on the opposite side. Nothing makes you feel worse than when they don’t. Or someone’s like, hey, watch this movie or if I’m like, hey, this movie is great and I’m like, oh, did you watch it six months later and they’re like, no, it’s like it was 2 hours. Do you hate me? You don’t trust me. What’s the deal? You introduced me to this book originally. I’m glad I was able to reread it years later and have a newfound love for Mitch Rap and Vinny Flynn. I’m glad we did this pod. I feel like this whole thing was kind of created with this book in mind and the milestone for us here at the Buddy Book Club. Book ten and the books. Well, this is book Ten. What’s next for us? Next book is going to be Dark Matter by Blake Crouch We found this book basically while looking for good beach reads that weren’t necessarily romantic novels or murder mystery novels. So this one seems to be a psychological suspense, so I’m ready to jump in and just fucking get lost. We’re going all in Dark Matter will be the next episode. But until then, love you, Ma. Got em. Alright, take care.
