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Tom Hanks on Toy Story, Sequels and The Scene He Regrets
Where this was said
The Legendary 1990s Run and the End of a Golden Age
At 14:40 · chapter starts 14:15
Listener Neil Anderson flags the 'frankly ridiculous' graphic of Tom Hanks's 1990s run and asks whether Hanks knew at the time that he was in the middle of something once-in-a-generation. Hanks says no — he was simply fascinated by each subject as it came along. But looking back, he's willing to make a sweeping claim: the 1990s may have been the last great decade of cinema, a rare alignment of artistic daring and matching economics that the franchise era has since foreclosed. [1] — Tom Hanks "The 1990s as cinema's last great decade: Tom Hanks argues the 1990s may have been the last great decade of cinema, combining artistic darin…" 14:38 He's blunt about what happened next: sequels and franchises took over. He imagines, with dark comic relish, a version of his career in which he'd be here defending Forrest Gump 12. He didn't make sequels — outside Toy Story — and he argues that's precisely why those films still hold up. Most strikingly, he reveals that studio executives told him no one would see Apollo 13 because they already knew the ending. His response: in that case, no one would ever rewatch Star Wars, Casablanca, or Citizen Kane.
The 1990s were the last time artistic ambition and box-office economics aligned in Hollywood. Hanks argues that window is closed — sequels and franchises have replaced the one-off originals that defined an era.
Tom Hanks argues the 1990s may have been the last great decade of cinema, combining artistic daring with matching economics, before sequels and franchises took over.
Executives told Hanks that nobody would see Apollo 13 because the ending was already known. He pointed out that by the same logic, nobody would ever rewatch Star Wars, Casablanca, or Citizen Kane — and made the film anyway.
