The Gray Man by Mark Greaney – Episode 18
The buddies enter the world of globe trotting assassins’ in Mark Greaney’s, The Gray Man. The action thriller, which which many (read: one person) described as, “a mix between Jason Bourne and Jackie Chan in Rush Hour” had the buddies hotly debating topics. Namely: why you never want to get between a Kazakh/Cossack and their gun, why blood type is fake and the many benefits of using meth. The buddies also give expert casting direction, even though the movie has been filmed and is set to be released on Netflix in 2022.
Intro: (0:00-3:05)
Favorite Scene (3:06-9:46)
Stock Up/Down (9:47-28:50 )
Favorite Character/Potent Quotable (28:51-31:07)
Love/Hate (31:08-43:11)
Listener Mail (43:12-46:37)
Casting the Movie (46:38-53:53)
Conclusion (53:54-55:15)
Next Book: SHARP OBJECTS by GILLIAN FLYNN
Transcript for SEO Purposes 🙂
Participant #1:
Welcome back to The Buddy Book Club. I’m Dylan. And this week’s episode is The Grey Man by Mark Greaney. I’m no solar operator, though. As always, I got my partner in crime. The going Gray Man. Keith, what an intro. Do you write those down or is that just off the dome? I have the Going Gray Man in my head. Okay, it’s still off the dump. You don’t have that scripted? No. First thing I thought about when I actually started reading about this is like, who am I reading this with the going? Great man. No personal attacks here. No personal tax. Keith, how are you, man? How’s your Thanksgiving? Good. Good. Yeah. Sophisticated dusting of Gray hair. Remember that? That’s your line that I’ve been using for the last ten years. Now, it’s important. It’s really important. Well, for all listeners out there, if you’d like to reach out to us regarding The Gray Man or The Gray Ingman or any past episodes, you can visit our website Buddy Book Club dot com or slide into our DMs on Twitter or Instagram Buddy Book Club podcast. You can listen to us on itunes and Spotify, so please download and subscribe. But let’s get to the book. The Gray Man is the story of an excier operative turned freelance assassin who finds himself at odds with a pencil neck paper pusher. Who’s the representative for some large shady company in the midst of a multi billion dollar oil deal. And this cubicle monkey takes the Gray Man’s handler hostage along with his family, including his two precious granddaughters. Well, I guess really. Only one is precious. The other? Yeah, the other one could have died, and it wouldn’t have been a problem. But the Gray Man now really out on a limb, must make it through the gauntlet of Europe while being hunted by assassins from all over the world to save his handler. And, more importantly, his one precious granddaughter, who he had an affiliation with. That’s about it, right? Yeah, that covers it pretty well. Yeah. Okay. Well, this is usually the part of the part where we crack open a libation before we jump into things. I kind of blacked out during this book. Not literally, but forgot if they drank anything. I know they did. I feel like when he went to his Buddy’s place, they had a beer, and there was definitely times of him being like, God, I really wish I had a beer right now, so I’m just going to enjoy post Thanksgiving tours. Light and a Turkey drumstick. Don’t judge me. So if you hear some lipsmacking, it’s the Turkey drumstick. Are you dark meat or white meat? Guy? Tell me the truth. I think white meat with gravy on it. If there’s no gravy than dark meat, I don’t know if that makes sense. That tricks out. Yeah. Okay. All right. I feel like Turkey in general, unless it’s on a sandwich, it’s whatever it needs. Gravy. That’s the only way, which basically just means I like gravy. Yeah, no, I couldn’t agree more. If you don’t have enough gravy and cranberry sauce, I’m out enough Turkey talk. Let’s get to the Gravy man. Let’s go into a favorite scene. This is obviously an action pack thriller. It’s fast paced pretty much outside of the opening scene, which kind of like, sets up who the Gray man is? It’s just this gauntlet of assassins coming after him as he tries to make it through Europe. So between Belgrade and Normandy, France, where did you find that? You enjoyed it the most. I think the first few chapters that kind of painted him as the Superman type person. Which of all the comic book superheroes, he’s my least favorite ubermens. Yes. Pardon. Superman came from German Uber Mench. Superman. Okay, nice. We do every day. What’s the point of having someone that’s just so good that no one else compares? Only weaknesses is Kryptonite, which I don’t even know what that means. How dare you not know what Kryptonite means? Okay. It’s shards for leftover from the destroyed planet Krypton, which Kahle sent me. Jerrell sent his son Kalil in a spaceship to Earth. Just get it together. I still remember that movie where his one weakness is Kryptonite. And then he picks up a planet size thing of Kryptonite and throws it off the planet. Did you see that Superman? Yeah. Gene Had. Oh, my God. Kevin Space. I’m thinking about the original Kevin Spacey, but anyways, so they paint him out to be this Superman. And then, like, the first time where he gets caught with the guy that’s making his passport and then uses the Doctor Eagle button to put him into a hole. Yeah, that was my favorite part because I was like, oh, shit. How’s it getting out of this one? And that’s really where the book became after that. There’s no way he’s going to this one. You could really see it in your head. And it would be a perfect action movie, which you’ve already pointed out. What Netflix picked up on that started out. I think all the other scenes kind of were somewhat similar to that where you’re like, there’s no way out of this one. And he came up with a ton of original ideas for that. But that first one was what kind of got me back into the book after being like, all right, this is going to be a Superman. Yeah, it’s like, how is he going to get captured here? Doesn’t make any sense. How is this going to work out? And they played it pretty well. He’s the grey man. He looks as unassuming everyday guy, but he actually has, like, a wire in his neck lining that he takes out to saw off his handcuffs. And it’s like, that kind of stuff. Oh, okay. This checks out. I’m enjoying this for me. It was probably the fight at the cabin in Guarda, which I think is in Switzerland. He goes there to get a bunch of weapons, like a safe house that he inherited. That’s when they had, like, the mesh, the little mesh wall thing on the door, which I thought was kind of fun. But I just love any sort of weaponscashetehouse. We had talked about Patchett Gary Paulson book on this podcast before, and that was a big book in, like, 6th grade. We had actually an assignment in 6th grade, which was, like, elaborate on hatchet, either, like, write a sequel or elaborate on a scene or whatever. And I went all out because I thought this was the coolest thing. And I basically invented this sequel where the kid stumbles upon some old military base. And for some reason, there’s some clandestine group out there that’s hunting him now, and he finds grenades and all sorts of guns, like Soviet era guns. I definitely failed that project, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And it reminded me of this. Just like, okay, I’m at a safe house. I have nothing. And then all of a sudden, he’s opening up these steel boxes, like, okay, shotgun boom, like, MP five, all super clinks. He keeps his stuff real nice. Grenades latched on Arnold Schwarzenegger and commando vibe. And then on top of that, he’s got booby traps, the place, the Iranians or whatever the group that comes to get him to blow himself up. He’s shooting a snowmobile out of the shed with a saw off shotgun in tow. Yeah, I’m all in. It was like, Mad Max in the snow. I’m down. I think I did the exact same thing anytime we had a creative writing assignment, like, those short stories, they’d be like, okay, we’re going to read the short story and they’d let you read the first half, and then you write the second half, and every time it would be, every time it would be. Okay. So this is a love story. And then it turns into this huge battle between the terrace. I would do that. Every writing assignment. I was basically Michael Scott when he would go to Improv, and then he pulled a gun down, and then they started shooting everyone every time might have failed a couple of those as well. But, hey, you got to get your story across. But I also need to call out your favorite team. So this is one of my hates now. But first of all, they find out that he’s going to the small little cabin with all his weapons. I forget who’s going to the trekking the road. Is it like the Iranians or they Trek up this mountain, they go to his house. And I mean, just from a military standpoint, why would you attack the house? One? Because you don’t know if the guy’s in there, you know, he’s going there eventually. So why don’t you just set up camp and wait till he exits the fortified building and just shoot him right when he comes out. So either wait for them to get there or because imagine if they just attacked the house and he wasn’t in there. They pulling Scott from Austin Powers right now. Like, no, dad, I’ll grab my gun. I got a gun in the room. We’ll go up there, we’ll shoot him in the head. It’ll be fun. That’s why I was like, yeah, just wait outside. Or either way, you should wait outside because you don’t know if he’s in there. It doesn’t make any sense. Do you go into his safe house where he probably has some shit going down? Or do you fight on your terms? Thinks he’s safe and sound? He walks out. Roll end Credits well, come on. You’re like my stepdad when I watch a movie with him and he’s like, that would never happen in real life. This isn’t real life. This is a movie. We’re watching a Disney movie. This isn’t really going to happen. This movie is called up like, balloons aren’t going to make this house float. Once I realized this book is not mitsrap, and it’s James Bond getting out of the crazy circumstances. That’s when I started to appreciate it more because the more and more you think it’s like, based on this reality. And, oh, this is what social forces guys do, the more and more you’re going to be disappointed because there are so many things you’re like, why would anyone 100 million% couldn’t agree with you more about that? And I think that’s an important part about this book is just recognizing that this is more fanciful. Like, it’s not something that one person could ever really do. And don’t get me wrong. I’m going to gripe on some of those aspects. I got some gripe in me. Let’s jump in some stock up. What are you buying? Stock up, sending a message, the whole League. I need a preference. Can you break this down for some people that might not understand, I was really back when I was in College or right out of College. Anyone that had wronged me or ghosted me, or I just didn’t care for their candle or someone that had a text or call. I would just immediately delete the number gone. See you later. So somebody, I text him and say, hey, what are you doing tonight? Doesn’t respond and find out that he went out to a party. He’s like, oh, I should have hit you up. And I’m like, yeah, bro, you text you, and then he does it again. The next week, he’s gone. He’s out of my phone book, deleted. You send a message to the lead right away, and then he text you back. He text you back, and you’re like, Who’s this? Yeah, 100% of the time. So, yeah, I’ve had to do this with a few buddies, and people are like, well, how would you know that? They know that you, like, delete your number? Know you send a message. So with that being said, had my boy, the Gramman only taken my advice and hold his grudge and Delete numbers like I did. Then, right when he finds out that Fitzroy betrays him, then he’s never talked to the dude again. Delete the number. He’s dead to you. You’re out of this whole conundrum. You don’t worry about the CIA papers and his kids on the shit. You’re just gone. You never hear from them again. That’s what he needed to do. Instead, he calls up and he plays a jaded card and all this stuff. No, just move on to leave the number, send a message. The whole League stock up. Okay. Yeah. It was kind of interesting that the guy turned it on, and he was just like, all right, I’ll still come save you because I had that one week with your granddaughter, and she’s so damn good at soccer. I couldn’t stand it. I got to get back. And then when he was on that call, he was like, all right, I’m about to hang up. And the guy’s like, you better listen. And he’s like, okay, he did that three times, and he’s like, Well, Yeah, I don’t care. I’m going to hang up now, and they’re like, you shouldn’t. You’re going to have better listener? I say he’s like, all right, I guess. I guess I’ll listen. What do you just hang the phone number? You talk to a lot of phone calls. I’m ever in a fight with someone like my girlfriend, and she’s mad at me. I was like, no, you better listen. And she’ll stay on. She’ll just be. Yes. All right. Cool. Yeah, I’m sure that will work. Okay. Send them extra. Whole League buying the stock. Love it. Stock up for me. Veterinarians assistance. I guess we don’t give them enough credit for their medical know. How is really what I gathered from this book? Because I’m thinking veterinarian assistant, dental assistant. Those are the commercials you see in between prices, right? Segments for people that are sitting at home being like, what the hell am I going to do with my life? It’s like, hey, come on. Check out ABC Medical. We’ll teach you how to become a veterinary assistant. They don’t know any actual medical stuff, but Justine, she was able to patch up our boy. She was down with breaking into pharmacies, like, not only their medical law, but she was just like, I’m going to break into the pharmacy. She doesn’t even know this man. This guy just stumbled on her doorstep. Completely bloody gunshot wounds and stuff. Yeah. Okay. I’ll Rob a pharmacy. I’ll stitch you on the highway. I’ll hang with you after a crash and support you after you brutally murder some guys because he like, hand to hand combat, brutally murders four men. And her only question to him was, they were bad men. No. So you’re getting a leading question I’m going to answer. Yeah, of course. Of course they were bad men. She’s like, Are you a bad man? He’s like, not anymore. There were a couple of those lines, and they’re so good. But, yeah. So if you just find yourself a good veterinary assistant, she’ll be able to take care of you and will not question any of your bad deeds. You could be like, shooting heroin and you’d be like, oh, B vitamins. Like, what are you taking? Yeah, I had that for stock down women in general in this book. Oh, the way the book represents women got you. You got a phrase that better. She’s driving back home. She was like, oh, I got all this money, but I’m going to be wanted for questioning for the burglary. I’m not going to be to able sleep at night from the four murders I just witnessed. That money is really not going to solve a lot of problems. You just for 20 grand or whatever. Hey, veterinarians, pay your assistance more, so they don’t get involved in any of this stuff. Okay, simple as that. Yeah. I also thought, like, the Fitzroy’s son’s wife just has zero lines in the book. Just immediately gets drugged up once he gets killed or his son gets killed, just like, yeah, she’s drugged up. You don’t need to worry about her. Yeah, that woman doesn’t care about her children at all. She’s so frail, she can’t possibly manage this grief to take her family out of the situation. Not a good look for women in this book, for sure, but also back to the veterinarian thing. A side note, they say that the Gray man Court Gentry, he has O positive blood, which I feel like isn’t the best blood type for a solo assassin, because in need, you can only get blood from other oh, blood type people. So things that presumably get messy, as they do in this book. If you’re on the ground somewhere in a foreign country, it’s like, oh, I need some blood. So they’re great. I got all the A’s. I got all the B’s you need. What do you need? A positive B, like, no, I need outs. Sorry. Don’t have a lot of that. Well, now I’m dead. So maybe the US government should start looking into only having universal recipients, which I think is like, a positive or B positive. I don’t know. The blood type thing. One of the most baffling things there is. Is there any evidence behind why you have certain types of blood? Why you can transfuse certain types? Do you even know what type you are? I have no idea. I have no idea what blood type I am. I think my mom asked me that the other day and I was like, no idea, and she was blown away. I remember asking when I gave blood. Can you tell me what that is? They’re like, no, it’s like a whole process. Oh, all right. I don’t care that much. Now. Transfusion yeah, I think that’s all made up. To be honest with you, it could just be a whole lie. I think the OS can give to everyone, but they can only get from other OS, so they must be good. Just good people because they’re givers they’re not takers. But has there been any studies? Certain types of blood are more like they have heart attacks or not or anything. Is there anything around that I’m interested other than just giving blood to people? Is there any other thing about that? You have to ask your, like, hematologist friends or something? You’re asking the wrong. Okay. You’re the one that bring the knowledge of this part. I bring the questions, you bring the answers. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing here. You argue with someone who turned hatchet into assault on Precinct 13. Okay. So do you have anything else for stock up? Yeah. Speaking of medical practices and things like that are super helpful. Meth stock up. I know the Nazis made this pretty famous, but I think based off of court’s experience, we should bring this back to the soldier. Yes. Well, they kind of do, but, oh, do they still do it? Well, I was talking to your buddy on Martha’s Vineyard. He’s a fighter pilot. No names here because I can’t even tell you his call sign, but I was asking him. I was like, So you guys take all sorts of drugs and whatnot what’s the deal? You guys taking masses when you fly? Because that’s what I’m interested about. And he was basically like, yeah, if you’re of, like, a long trip or say that you’re flying a really far and I could be talking out of my ass. This is one conversation that I vaguely remember, but he was like, if you’re finding a long trip into then like, a place where you’re fighting, there’s some sort of drugs that they’ll give you, like, you have to ask for them, but they’ll give it to you. And it’s not pseudo or whatever. Like the meth is it’s not meth, but it’s a similar kind of just, like, Adderall or something like, get up and be ready. Kind of drug. Okay, I take it back. But it’s still stock up, because just to give the context, court’s basically all fucking cut up, stabbed up, shot up. Is it a 50 cent restaurant
Participant #1:
rips three pills of some drug that are equivalent to speed and just is ready. Just sprinting through fields, ready to go. And people are like, I remember they comment on how fast he is, though. I need some of this fucking method he’s been using. They’re like, he’s a blur to that field. I don’t know where he is. The sniper is like, I’ve never seen anyone run this fast. But I also wanted to bring up some history. Vietnam was a big smoking weed, heroin epidemic. Why do you think we lost that? We weren’t doing that? Afghan police dig into some weird drugs as well as, like, OPM and heroin as well. Why do you think we lost that war two to two. Instead? We know children are going to do drugs. We should give them the good kind. Not the fucking slow kind. Yes, but the backbone for your argument is that the Nazis used it lost, and especially the Luftwaffe, which lost wasn’t any planes left in Germany, but they went like, 50 verse one, to be fair. So they held out pretty long not to give Nazis credit. We’re not about that here, Herman Gorring, super happy right now in his grave. Head of the loufaffa. Who’s the Nazi here? Kevin, I just read Rising Falls, the Third Reich. We should do that. It’s a long book. It’s like 55 hours stock up for me. Kazakhstan. Literally. My only knowledge of Kazakhstan was from Borat. You call it Borat? Are you a Borat or Borat? Borat. Okay, Borat. I’ve heard some people. What do you call it Borat? I called Borat, but I’ve heard some Borats out there. My name is Borat. Not that Kazakhstan referenced as the most skilled Gunners in this book, which is impressive considering that they also talk about all sorts of other special operations units and the Cozix. It was like, oh, we have the COsix there. They’re the most skilled Gunners. It’s like, oh, really? And I tried to look it up to see if there’s any factual evidence. There’s a lot of shrouds of secrecy, a lot of shrouds. So they’re definitely trained by the Russians. But are they the best? I don’t know. But, hey, I’m not getting between myself and the Kazakh when there’s a weapon involved. No, no way. No house 1 second. Is a Kazakh from Kazakhstan, or is it? I just know this from, like, real time strategy games. Those are the Kaussics. Oh, right. Are we sure? Well, the Cossacks don’t exist anymore. See, I asked the good questions you answered, as far as I know, or it might be like people without a state. Cosix are a group of predominantly East Slavic Orthic Christian people. Who that’s, like, old. We’re talking like Napoleonic Wars here. We’re like the Cossacks. Between 3.5 and 5 million people associate sales with a Kostic identity,
Participant #1:
but, yeah, that’s probably more of, like a real time strategy game. They’re good horse people, right? That was their thing. Yeah, they’re old time COsix. Cool. Yeah. So I think these are COsix, which is from Kazakhstan, but I also took a leap there. It didn’t sound like Kazakhs from Kazakhstan. I just went with it. Did you have anything else for stock up? Being late? Stock up? No. I don’t know if I can buy this stock. Go on. First off, it serves me well, I’m not the most prompt person in the world. I don’t like being there comfortably early. I just like being there. If you say forest, I’d like to be there, like, 415. Right. That’s foresh to me, but the Gray man shows up late. It’s super beneficial to him. There is no repercussions at all. They attacked him at all, and he came early. He probably gets killed. But instead, all this havoc is going on. When he gets there. People are fighting each other for some reason, which I don’t understand why, but the German dude and the Lloyd dude are fighting each other. It’s like everyone’s against each other. He shows up. He’s like, all right, this was easier. If I showed up on time. I’d be fucked. So showing up late, being late. Stock up. Yeah, good point. And consider, we’re right on the precipice of stock down. This could be a hate as well. I want to dig deeper into one of these. You said, why did they start fighting each other? It was like that Simpsons episode when Homer is in trouble with the Mafia or whatever. But then all of a sudden, the Korean gang shows up, and then the mafia and the gang are fighting each other as opposed to him. It didn’t make much sense. Even in that Simpsons episode. It makes no sense here. I think the idea is like, the Nigerian Prince is saying, okay, these guys suck all you assassin groups, $2 million to give me the head of the Gray Man. You can also kill each other, as opposed to being like, Why don’t you work together? And why don’t you just do that in the first place? If you knew that people are going to go absolutely all out and start killing each other? I don’t know. Yeah, it didn’t make any sense. I was unimpressed. I was unimpressed with that line because it was like, that’s how he gets freedom to just do whatever the fuck he wants to do. But let’s get into stockdown. What do you have there? Using the phone stock down. I just didn’t understand in any sense of the word, why Court would call or Grimy would call his enemies and give him updates all the time. He was just like, oh, by the way, I’m headed this way. And then somehow he’d always reveal some tidbit. Every time he called, he would always reveal like, he’s either telling him where he’s going or he would somehow get roped into things. Or he’d be like, don’t hurt those little girls. They mean everything to me. I’m like, Why would you say that? He said something about how you’re being the Nigerians little bitch right now. And I was like, Why would he know that? There’s no reason, you know that unless you’re just giving up Fitzroy now and then, like, five minutes later, they’re like, oh, he must be talking to Fitzroy. I’m like, Jesus Christ. And then the worst of all of them is he shows up late and they’re like, Well, I guess he’s not coming. We can get down to the fences. We don’t need to worry about him anymore. And he calls him and he’s like, I’m outside. I’m coming right now. It’s like the one time you have the element of a surprise, you give it up. Why is he doing that? And coming in from the Orchard. That’s me. Do you see that sniper? Yeah. He’s looking the wrong way. One of them am. This way. Here I am. That’s me. What are you doing? That annoyed me. I’m with you there. Okay. Al Jazeera news. I mean, this is a legitimate news organization. I’m not a big news guy, but Al Jazeera, I feel like it’s a legitimate news organization yet. The first chapter of this book, they just make it seem like they’re a news organization that just celebrates beheadings. They just are there for the beheading, and they keep being like, oh, the Al Jazeera news team. The Al Jazeera news team was there. The Al Jazeera news team is watching them strip these American GIS, and they’re going to watch them cut their heads off. Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera was like, shit. Is that what Al Jazeera is? Is this, like, the Islamic States news agency? But from what I understand, it’s like actually a news outlet, right? Yeah. I think it’s supposed to be actually very unbiased. I mean, it probably leans a little bit more sympathetic to the Middle East, but I think it’s actually supposed to be Super, super, like, actually trustworthy news source. It’s like, better than CNS. Yeah. So obviously there’s just not a lot of love by the author for Al Jazeera, but, hey, I’m selling that stock because it does not a good look for those folks. Stock is down for me. Corporate bureaucracy real quick. What’s the stock right now? I feel like it’s pretty high, considering you can’t really get anything done. And there’s so many middlemen in so many organizations that has to get trickled through. I’d say the stock is pretty high, but you’re buying that? No, I’m selling it because there was none of it. Wouldn’t it be low if that’s the case? Don’t try to bring logic into stock up. Stock down. All right. Now is not the case. It’s very logical. I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s very simple. But my point is basically that there is zero corporate bureaucracy in this book whatsoever. Normally, in these kind of situations, I feel like it’s one man against this giant machine, and the machine just can’t keep up because it’s one man making his own decisions where the other side has to trickle it through. All these different things. They’re always a step behind. But in this situation, for some reason, they just kind of let Lloyd, which I’ll get into later. They just got to let Lloyd free. And they say, okay, you’re our representative. You make all the decisions on the ground, you make all the decisions in the air, you make all the decisions, and there’s none of that. Okay, hold on. We got to run this through. Can we get all these different assassins. I don’t know. Let’s get on the phone with 20 different places. It’s going to take four days. It’s like, no, they’re on their way. Boom. Done. It’s like, can I kidnap these children? It’s like, maybe we should check that with HR. Like, Is that cool? None of that just kidnapped the kids. We’re good. So cover bureaucracy, suck down. I don’t care what you said. And my last talk down was the world’s elite special operations unit or all the units, I guess, because you get twelve of them from across the world, all hunting for one man. The best of the best. Four of the best teams, like, across the world. It’s like, the most extreme season of Amazing Race yet, but they can’t do shit. They all have to do is Hunt one man who’s wounded and not one of them can do anything except for one Korean solo operator who manages to stab it. I was really hoping, too, that the Korean. I thought they were hinting at this in Braveheart when they charge each other, the Irish and the Scottish, and then they’re like, hey, what’s going on, man? They like, handshake. That’s why I thought the Korean was heading towards, like, right one. At his lowest moment, he was going to be like, oh, no. This guy is about to stab me in the dark, and he’s like, just kidding, bro, what’s up? And they’re like, high five, and they’re like, yeah, and then he helps them out along the way. But I was really hoping someone just one person would be like, Pro Gray Man, but we couldn’t get one. It’s funny. I was thinking the exact same thing. I was thinking, like, okay, like, a single shot rings out, and it’s actually like shooting the Afghan terrorist that was behind him or whatever. And I was ready for that. I was ready for, like, oh, this guy was like, either part of the CIA or he knew that he was getting exposed in this dossier, or one of his buddies was killed by the company. Whatever the case was, I just thought that was a good opportunity to have it on the same side. And you could easily then kill that guy off. It’s kind of like in Star Wars, where random person will show up and they’re like, oh, this is my friend from back in the day came at the perfect time. He doesn’t need to be part of the story of the rest of the story. It’s just like he jumped in there and he just out and like, oh, I have boys. I forgot about the guy that used to shoot swamp rats or whatever with Luke. That guy just comes in, hey, what’s going on? Yeah, he’s great to shoot swap rats. Did you have a favorite character in this book? Obviously, the Gray man is out. If that was where you’re going, I think you already covered it with the French nurse. Really? Yeah, he’s just perfect. She is a ride or die like that. And that’s what I want on my team. That is the only person that actually came to his rescue. I also actually liked the guy that committed suicide there or blew up his apartment and money. Mercedes Benz, like, fully stocked with everything he could possibly need. That guy was met in the man, too. Yeah, I feel like Maurice was like because we said there’s more James Bond than anything else in, like, Jason Bourne. Yeah, he was like, Q instead of providing court with an Austin Martin, it’s a Mercedes laden with four cases of well oiled weapons. Perfect. What else do you need? No, you don’t need anything else. I also liked your boy that you referenced earlier, Sabo the Forger. It’s funny you said that with the doctor evil thing because A is 100% true. And I also thought of him as just like a minor Bond villain. Like, I take passport picture. Now you in hole, Mr. Bond. Everyone’s coming for you now. There’s nothing you can do. So I like Sabo, and he was just like a man of no scruples. Just didn’t matter. I respect those people. Yeah. You knew he stood at all times and he stood for himself. He’s going to do whatever made his situation better. So it’s perfect. Also, I did have I know we kind of got rid of potent quotables, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this particular line, which was, I’m coming hard? Hold your fire. And I just wanted to say if I had a nickel for every time a woman said this to me, I would have approximately two and a half cents. But it’s just when I heard it read it, I was like, oh, my God. If a chicken ever said I’m coming hard, hold your fire? I can’t trigger stuck and we have our clip again. No, that’s not a lap veto. Hold your fire. Don’t come hard, love hate. What do you got? What’d you love at the beginning of the book? Three right into the action. I actually appreciate that, even though I would have liked to see how he assassinated that guy since the whole story revolved around that. Yes, but my problem with that part is there’s very little exposition or, like, talk about what’s happening. It just kind of throws you into the fight, but without explaining the fight, it’s just explaining the gear. It’s like he pulls out a Barrett 50 Cal, which can shoot a. 50 caliber round over 2 miles. Who are we talking about? Where are we? What’s happening? I don’t want to know about his backpack that holds a. 50 Cal. That part. It was a tough intro for me personally. Yes, I agree with that. Although I did like the one quote, I’m coming hardhold your fire. Oh, no different one. You’re going to have to be nasty to survive. And the guy says, what about you. He says I’m already nasty. I was like, oh, I just like that. I appreciate that quote. Anyway. Yes, I did, too. And I like that there was a lot of those like, oh, my God. Just like, really. And that’s why it was more James Bond than Jason Bourne because there was a bunch of those I could have pulled out from the book that were like that. It was like, dirty, hairy or something cheesy, but fun but fun part I love about this book is it’s ultimately the ultimate Guys Beach book. You just flip it open and you’re kind of in the story and it’s basically like a movie. It’s right to the point. There’s not a lot of exhibition. There’s not a lot of character building. Yeah, there’s a bunch of geography jumping around. There’s a bunch of different assassins, all these bad guys. I used to read this from the other end when I was a lifeguard. There’d be these, like, beach romance killer books that light around that you read it and you instantly forget it. But you will enjoy reading it. It’s kind of like this book three weeks today. I’m not going to remember really what happened in this book. I just remember it was good time reading. Definitely good time reading. The pace was good, which is one of my loves because we’re in there. But this is porn for guys. It’s the equivalent of a romance novel for men. That’s what I’m saying. It’s like the exact other end of the coin. It’s 50 shades of the Gray. Man is what it is. Wow. Done, sir. Yeah, I enjoyed it for what it was, which was a great beachery. But I definitely when I first started, it was, oh, my God. This is romance novel, Four Men. But, you know, you were talking about how it jumps around all the time and stuff like that a sporting event or some ridiculous action movie because us men, we just can’t keep our attention spans for more than, like, 10 seconds. We’re just like dogs chasing a tennis ball. So that’s pretty much what it was. So I like that as well. The other thing is just geography. I almost thought this is stock up because there was so many. I wish I had been to Europe or been any of these places. There’s so much jumping around and again, different assassins from different countries and driving on different highways and roads and adventures. This is why it’s perfect for a movie, because there’s so many scenes that you could have from different perspectives. And it’d be exciting for if you were an actor to be like, hey, you want to sign on for this movie? You’re also going to spend a week in Geneva. You’re going to spend a week in France. You’re going to say, okay, I could bring a family. That’s not too bad. One of the things I loved, the spy covertoplingo trigger man, pavement artist wetwork material, which I’m sure if I had read the book, I would just write it as material. The guy narrates. He’s like, material sounds exotic. What is material? But pavement artist? If you’d ask me what’s a pavement artist, I would be like, there’s guys that draw, like, 3D chalk drawings. Are you sure it’s not that still, I don’t know. Well, because at first the book, that’s what I thought. Why do they have all these pavement artists? Is this a thing? Because European countries, they have a lot of street performers. So maybe those are their spy network. It’s just like all the pavement artists. But then I looked it up, but it’s just like someone that can kind of blend in with their surroundings and not be recognized as surveilling. So that’s a pavement artist. But, hey, maybe they have multiple jobs by day, I draw chalk drawings of Mario, and at night I search for CIA agents in the streets of Paris. Both. Yeah. Why not? Let’s get into hate. What do you hate already talk. There’s not a ton of character development or just like, who the grey man is. Other than there’s literally nothing. He’s a notorious assassin. Which gets me into my next point, which is he’s a notorious assassin, but it defeats the whole purpose of an assassin. Everyone knows who he is, every single person they’re like, oh, that guy got assassinated. It’s like, oh, there’s probably 1000 assassin, but it would only be this one dude that every person knows, and they know his handler and they know his description. And how is he? A good assessment if everyone knows who he is? Yeah, he’s the least secret, most secret guy. The worst part, too, is Lloyd shows up to Fitzroy or the fuck. His name is going to keep on messing it up place. And he’s like, Listen, this guy’s not going to be able to assassin. It’s a dime a dozen. We need to kill him. Like, we’ll give you some money to do that. And then the next sentence is, oh, the reason I knew that he is the assassin is because no one else could do this. He’s the best assassin in the world. Everyone knows that. And I was like, you just said a second ago, he’s a diamond. What the fuck are we talking about here? So that annoyed me. It was like, James Bond. Don’t know. Hotel. I’m James Bond. Oh, cool. Who is James Bond? I’m super secret, but I’m James Bond. One of my hates was just Lloyd, the character himself. You just referenced Lloyd, but the character just doesn’t make much sense to me. It was a total. You had to put everything out of your mind to just believe that. Okay, whatever this could happen, because it’s just not plausible. Why is he in charge? It’s a multinational organization, and they just let this one guy, this attorney, take some kids hostages and work freely. This isn’t the only deal they have. It’s not the entire company relies on this one deal. He also fucked up the contract. Yes. And he screws up the contract. This could have been in stock down. It’s just like lawyers in general, because you blew a contract. And it’s also a President who is notorious for asking for too much and not delivering and being cagey. These are the people you get in bed with. So you then fuck up a contract. Also, who follows? You think this guy is really tight with this contract? And then Lloyd also doesn’t care about collateral. He said, I don’t care about collateral damage. We just talked about Al Jazeera. There’s other news organizations out there they’re going to be talking about. There’s something going on in Europe that they’ll pretty quickly figure out, especially if you take kids hostages and you murder them. It’s like, oh, some family was murdered. Their bodies were found. Oh, wait. They weren’t found. It was just teeth. Like, how many wet work teams would you need to clean up this fucking mess? Why isn’t Kurt Regal in charge? He knows exactly how to handle these situations. Instead, they put this low grade paralegal on it. No, I’m falling for that. Mark Lloyd made zero sense. He didn’t even know what he was doing. And it was supposed to be absurdist, I think, like, a bond villain totally fish out of water. But he’s just going with it. But I feel like one of those guys, like Kurt Rio would have just shot him in the head and be like, all right, I’m taking over. This is ridiculous. There’s no oversight at that Corporation. Come on. Come on. Everyone’s got a boss. This dude is not grounded in any sort of reality. That’s why, again, the Mitch Rap books. The bad guys are like, oh, I can understand their perspective, even though I don’t agree with it, because they’re, like, my brother got killed and he served in these areas, and he did this and this, you basically build up his personality. Yes. And the guy got in those books, like, he was trained or he was schooled in an American education system. Top of his class. I went on to then go into the Middle East and became a general and fought in these. It’s like, okay, this guy knows what the fuck he’s doing. Where he’s going? I’m an attorney. I’m a low level attorney for this company. I’m going to fight the Gray man. I don’t care about these kids. Let’s go murder them. And the whole thing is, we need to kill him because we can’t have any bad publicity at released from this Nigerian guy who knows that we do bad things. So you’re going to stop that by creating a shit, more bad publicity by just killing random people and murdering people on the street. It’s like, what? How does that. How would that stop? It’d be like, if you had a huge thing at work with, like, a giant client. And the person you put on it is the kid who just started, like, first day on the job. All right. Hey, you I know you screwed up that first task, but now you’re going to do a huge presentation for the client, and we’re going to figure this one out. That’s going to be fine. So, Lloyd, get the fuck out of here. Hate you. I also didn’t like the typical action tropes were, like, entering a standoff and being like, Did I show up at a bad time? I just shooting the bad guys. I was like, you travel all this way. You first alert them that you’re coming, and then you just show up and you’re like, oh, what’s up, guys? I’m like, why would you shoot the dude right away? Mozambique them. Which was a great term, by the way, Mozambique these motherfuckers right away mosenbique for those who don’t remember that’s when you shoot him twice in the chest and one in the head. I love that. That takes me out of the book. It just annoys a shit out of me when you’re doing action trope, especially in a book. You can understand what they’re thinking. You can say all that stuff without having to say it. When in a movie, you understand why you have to say it because you’re, like, trying to get some, you can’t just show up and fucking shoot the guy in the head because it’s kind of like the underwhelming. You can do that in a book without having to do that. Well, I think, like you said when we first started reading this book was that it’s more of a screenplay than a book. The stuff that said it is ready to be turned into a screenplay. Yeah, I agree with that. Anything else in the hate, like Lloyd holding the CIA files over his head? I didn’t really understand what motivation the Gray man would again, maybe because we don’t have the background on his character. But why would you care? The CIA fucked you over know, it would be a great way to help out and attack this compound. Know who would be good for that? The people that have a ton of resources that would be most affected by this. The CIA. Why not reach out to them and be like, Yo, this, like, 16 people here are about to release all the information of your guys. If you don’t go there and attack them, that would be the people that you should reach out to. That would take care of that very quickly. 100%. Once again, why? I thought the South Korean was like, a burned agent or something like that, because it would be like, oh, we’re going to get my file out there. But with court and granted, we haven’t read any of the books in the series. So if someone was listening to this and was like, oh, come on. There’s like, four other books and they go into that. But it seems from what we understand so far that he’s just a lone Wolf. So worst case scenario, he just goes underground again. It’s not like he’s got concerned about family or whatnot, but, hey, maybe it’s not. And even with the Netflix stuff, they said they’re going to expand on different storylines and whatnot? So maybe it’s in there. We didn’t really get a lot of information as to what else was going on, because even with the Nigerian print stuff, Lloyd was like, oh, there’s more to that. But I don’t think they really talked about that. The fact that there’s, like, eleven of these books makes me think that it gets more rounded and better and better. I mean, if you add in some of the elements I think we’re talking about and keep the same like, wow, this is really creative way to get out of this out of something that seems impossible to get out of. I think you wouldn’t be taken out of the story as often as I think I was at certain times. Yeah, that’s fair. I also think that there’s enough holes in this story where they told the story. You’d follow the story. But those holes could be a fun way to take future books. So maybe that was his idea in the first place. I have these unanswered questions that could definitely have made the story a little easier to understand. But also, it just helps me expand this universe a little bit. Let’s get some reader mail. You have some reader mail, do we not? You’ve got mail. This is Chris from Kenny Bunk Port Main. He said, I love the Gray man. Just wanted to know, where does he stack up in your rankings of leading action heroes? Okay. Do you want to tackle this? Sure. I mean, I think your Gray man, just from a perseverance standpoint, is number one. I think he’s the best in terms of what he went through in order to fucking game up. He’s got to be number one. I kept him in, like, so now he’s dead, and they’re like, no, he just took some speed. He’s good. I was like, Holy shit. All right. Do you see that James Bond movie when the guy smushed his balls? That was the only other thing I was thinking, which is funny, like, this guy got stabbed and shot and isn’t sleeping for, like, 80 hours. But those balls, that’s the only thing similar. But in terms of actual true rankings, I listed out my top five, and I think there’s some debater on here, but number one is Mitch Rap. I just have to go with my boy. We knew that number two, Dutch from The Predator. I mean, I really want to take the whole cast, but we’ll just take Dutch, but he represents everyone. I mean, the Native American, too. Yeah, he’s so good. I can’t remember the actor’s name if he didn’t die I would. That actor is a bad guy in 48 hours just for that. Yeah, I put the Gray man at three just to get perseverance. I appreciated that. John Wick four. And then Ethan Hunt five. I like Ethan Hunt smarts. Are we talking like, training day? Ethan Hunt from Mission Possible. Oh, Ethan Hunt. Who am I thinking of? What’s that actor’s name? Ethan Hawk. Yeah. Okay. There’s a bunch of runner ups, but I think those rounded up my top five. Oh, so no, Jason Bourne in there. I feel like he’s an ace all spades or what is it called? Jack of all trades? Jack ball. I like ace of all spades. I’m going to stick with ace all spades, but he’s not the best at anything where all these other dudes are, like, Misrap is the best at everything. Yeah. Dutch is like, the biggest badass, just like a one man war, grey man’s best perseverance. John Wick. They killed his dog and he’s revenge guy. I love that. And then even Hunt, like, the smartest guy. So those are, like, why I picked those five shit. Aceball Spades is born where he’s like, He’s smart, he’s good. He’s not, like, the best anything. Yeah, well, hey, talk about reader mail. You send something in. Keith’s going to spend a day thinking about this just throughout his day. Like, you do a whole montage of him, just like at the grocery store, like picking up a Cheerios box. But really, just thinking about, like, is he two or is he three? I don’t know. I really just thought of him more as, like a mix between Jason Bourne and Jackie Chan in Rush hour. Less Jackie Chan in terms of the martial arts skill, more Jackie Chan in terms of someone’s daughter. That really isn’t that big of a deal. But you’re going to change your entire life to save them. Yeah. So that was more where I was going. But Jason born from the I’m going to get out of a tight situation and travel across Europe because that’s pretty much what Jason Bourne does. That’s true. It is very Jason born out. Andy pays that woman, like, $10,000 to drive in somewhere, and she just said yes. So this is exactly now I’m thinking about it. I was like, fuck. This is exactly Jackie Chan and Jason Bourne. Perfect. Done mixing together. Well, let’s cast this movie. Obviously this movie was made or is being made. I think it filming wrapped in July, so they’re probably editing it. This is the year 2021 welcome. Somehow there’s not too much fanfare. I feel like considering it stars Brian Gosling, Chris Evans, the previously mentioned on The Pod On A Day Armas. It doesn’t have a trailer yet. That’s true. When you get it, it doesn’t have a release date either, but it was directed by the Russo Brothers, who did a lot of Marvel movies and episodes of Arrested Development and Community talk about range wow. So he’s going to have some comedy chops to this, too. I mean, you’re going to get all those tropes you like, and this had a 200 million dollar budget, supposedly, which is the most ever spent by Netflix. So it’s a big movie, and the plan is to build this into its own kind of universe. So they’re going to use stories from other of his books. So props to Mark Greenie. It’s big for him. Obviously a nice paycheck for him. And it could be really interesting. I doubt they’re going to stick to this story very much based on the cast. Like on a day. Armor like that woman is in the book for two scenes. It kind of bothers me that they have to have a love interest kind of thing, because that’s just have you seen the new Bond? No, I haven’t spoilers, but Armor is in it for ten minutes. 15 minutes. Amazing. 15 minutes. But I kept on waiting for her to come back. She did not. Oh, my God. That’s very frustrating. Yeah. Okay. She brings absolute fire, though. So let’s cast it ourselves because we’re all brothers. You guys might not know or might need to do some reshoots. So if you want to reshoot the entire movie, listen up. What do you get for a cast for this one? I really like Ryan Gosling, but I don’t necessarily think unless you’re going for the comedy angle of the lead. I don’t necessarily think because he’s either comedy lead, like an action comedy, right. Or he’s a drama that doesn’t talk very much like Drive and a few of these other dramas he’s done where he’s, like, deep thought, not really saying much. Not really an action. Here. More of an introspective, like dark dude, right? Yeah. I necessarily like that casting again, unless they’re doing the funny angle. But I think this guy is supposed to basically be equalizer. The older Denzel, aka the younger Denzel AK. John David Washington. Who’s that? Who’s John David Washington. That’s Denzel’s son. He’s in Tenant. That’s Denzel’s son and Tenant. Yes, he didn’t know that. No, I had no idea. And that’s funny because that was my first thought, too. I was like, that guy from Tenant would be perfect for this movie. Yeah. No way. That’s Denzel’s kid. No, he’s like the same manner. If you saw he’s in Ballers, you can really see his mannerism there that are similar to Denzel. I don’t watch Ballers, but Ballers is very good, but it’s supposed to be basically an equalizer guy. So you just want a younger version that you can make multiple movies with bank. John David Washington. I think he’s a better fit for me. What about you, 100%. I thought if you took the beard away from him, that’s like, who I picture. I said, Mahershala Ali and I went with Mahershala because not that Mahershal is a bad looking man. He’s gorgeous. There’s no question about that, but Ryan Gosling is like stopping the streets. Yes, he’s not necessarily Greyman. Gray Man is supposed to be like, I can kind of blend into the scenery. You know what I mean? I’m just like walking down. Although I think rehearsal at least six something, so that could change because Gray Man’s supposed to be just like, average height, average build, average guy. I mean, that’s the idea. A guy with a backpack on not looking conspicuous whatsoever. But yet in that backpack, he’s got Arsenal, he’s got sauce sewn into his shirt. He’s a total assassin. All that cool stuff. So I just think Ryan Gosling doesn’t really fit the bit for me. I’m sure he’s going to do a great job. There’s no question about it. Yeah, I’m 100%. Watch it. Yeah. Okay. I like that casting. I feel like he might be a little too old, right? That’s true. I wasn’t really thinking about this multi series thing, but, yeah, we’re going with your guy. We’re going with Denzel’s kids. Simple as that. Okay. Cool for Lloyd. I actually liked the casting they had Chris Evans. I said Chris Pine and Chris Evans. Both of them good looking dudes. Both have that looking smugness. Have you ever seen horrible bosses, too? That’s coming up. Who I would think Chris Pine could potentially be player. Sam and Chris Evans is basically playing his character from none other. But yes, both of them are good looking, and you can see that they have some sort of authoritativeness, but you don’t think they necessarily deserve it if they play that role. Yeah, they get Daddy’s Money vibe to it. Yeah, a very Ivy League. I was born with everything type vibe, which is what basically Lloyd is. Yeah, I did it. I actually didn’t have someone for Lloyd, but I’ll go with that. I’m down for either. The only other one I had was Michael Caine for Fitzroy, but. Oh, I didn’t do Fitzroy. That’s perfect. Yes, that’s literally perfect. You know who they cast for him? No. Billy Bob Thornton. Yeah, I don’t get that at all. But is he going to be British? I don’t know. He’s supposed to be like a Lord. I was thinking of the guy from the inside job, you know, the inside job. The British, or maybe Clive Valley. No, the old dude that has the Bank, Christopher Plummer. Okay, that’s what I was thinking. But anyways, I like yours. That’s perfect. I mean, you basically bring a tenant cash together. What’s the name of the director?
Participant #1:
Okay. Do you have anyone else for the cast? Melanie Laurent? Melanie. I don’t know if there’s the French actress from Inglorious Bass as the French vet. I mean, that’s just too easy. Yes, it’s way too easy. I think the best guessing for this movie by far. German dude. You guessed it. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I know he’s Austrian, but either way, Arnold Schwarzenegger, I think, is perfect. Like the savvy vet that’s seen us 100 times. But has some young punk running this plays Regal. Yeah, that one’s. Easy. I’m down for it. Actually, I read this tidbit recently. That was when they did the German version of the Terminator. They had to think like, oh, Arnold can just do it or he can just do that character. But basically, they couldn’t use him because his accent would be like the version of having a Southern accent for the Terminator. You know what I mean? That’s right. Yeah, it’d be like, oh, hey, come with me if you want to live. Is that true? I suppose. I don’t know. Obviously, this was something I just randomly read. And maybe not, but basically, the bottom line was his dialect just wouldn’t work. The thing is, he has, like, a deep voice and he looks like a fucking Jack rip dude. Things like a Southern jacked. Yeah. Call me if you want to live. Yes, that’s actually a Western epitome of a Western guy. I don’t think that would be an issue, but I don’t know. We’re not in charge of these production companies. Yeah, we should be. Would you recommend this book to someone who wasn’t listening and didn’t hear us break it down for the last hour? Yes, I think it’s ultimate beach book for a guy. I wasn’t blown away, but I’m 100% going to watch the movie when it comes out, and I’d probably read a second. I wouldn’t go on my way to do it, but, I mean, that’s the ultimate test. Would you read another one of these? Yes, but I wouldn’t just be like, yeah, we got to read the next one where Events Flynn? I know I kept comparing to that, but events when I’m locked into the next one ready to go? Yeah, I’m similar vibe. Definitely like a fun beach read. Like, we missed this for Beach Reid season, but I guess we’re back, but maybe it’s cabin Reed season, because like you said, I probably wouldn’t search out later ones. But if I was on a ski trip or something and all those random Airbnb ski houses have books in there for some reason. And they’re always like, Clive Cluster books and whatnot? They might have one of these. And I would say I’ll pick it up and start reading the first chapter or whatnot I can hang around. So. Yeah, definitely no mishap for me. Didn’t blow me away, but it was a fun job. What do we have next? Sharp objects. We’ll find out what those are by Gillian Flynn. Gillian’s, Gillian. I think I’m excited to read it and then get back out with you, the Listers and have a chat about it, because these things are always enjoyable for me. So thanks for checking in. Take care. Alley.
