Well, I thought Closer would be a shoe-in but I couldn't have been farther from the truth!

Anyhoo, here are the rules as composed originally by Don, iirc.

Player one: Star Wars, Player Two: Mark Hamil, Player Three: Corvette Summer, Player Four: Annie Potts, Player Five: Ghostbusters, etc., etc.

[nemarsde tweak]No repeats within 5 steps and avoid getting caught in a loop with MCU or Fast & Furious movies, for example. Long-running franchises with ensemble casts can allow you go round and round indefinitely.[/nemarsde tweak]

No IMDb please <expect to look up dates of movies with identical titles or spellings of names>. grin

You need to follow the chain as it is drawn, no jumping. If we have Stephen Moyer on the table and someone plays Prince Valiant then the Prince Valiant you have to go out of is the one that had Stephen Moyer in it, no matter how many other movies out there are named Prince Valiant.

A clarification on play. We want to avoid using archival footage. For purposes of our game Dick Clark, Bob Hope, President Kennedy etc. Did not appear in Forrest Gump.

I won't make this a rule but rather a recommendation. Please avoid films that have not been released/aired in the U.S.

And just for the sake of putting it into the written rules mostly for sake of newcomers voice work (animated films) and made-for-TV movies are allowed but not mini-series.

OK, we need to start with a Christmas theme here sooo...

Die Hard

Alan Rickman

Harry Potter and that Half Blood Prince

Dame Maggie Smith

Hook

Robin Williams

JUMANJI!

Kirsten Dunst

Spider-Man (2002)

Tobey Maguire

Oh I want to say a movie for Tobey, but I think I should hold off Not everyone might have seen it.

Avoiding the other Spider man movies, Tobey was in Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas iirc.

Oh yes, he was the hitchhiker wasn't he?

OK, so let's go with Johnny Depp.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!

Eddie Redmayne

Jupiter Ascending

Sean Bean, which should rhyme but doesn't

National Treasure!

Nicolas Cage

Face/Off

John Travolta

In the spirit of Christmas, Travolta played Santa last year in a commercial, reuniting with a fellow actor from

Pulp Fiction

Samuel L. Motherf***ing Jackson

Seasonally:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Chris Evans

Santa-man (in the stinger)

Michael Douglas (fir)

Last Christmas Vegas

(God Rest Ye) Morgan Freeman

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Watched this on Christmas Day. Only one dance scene!

Keira (O Holy) Knightley

Pirates of the Caribbean: At (Year’s) World's End

Johnny Depp

Murder on the Orient Express (the recent remake)

Many to choose from in that one, but the one that will always stand out in any movie screen she graces - Michelle Pfeiffer

Batman Returns with ...

Christopher Walken, since (cow)bells are seasonal....

He was in Blast From the Past with ....

Brendan Fraser

Last time we had Brendan Fraser I picked The Quiet American and bombed the thread, so this time around...

Bedazzled

Who can forget that actress in that red dress!!

Elizabeth Hurley

Yeah, you remembered that one pretty sharpish Dugan. OK, rather than go for an international man of mystery let's take a gamble on her only other film (that I know of).

Passenger 57

Not on the chain, but I just saw Ms. Pfeiffer on a movie I watched on my red-eye flight home from vacation: French Exit. Her acting was superb. And it was the only thing good about that movie.

As for Passenger 57, I was holding off since I wasn't sure, but since we're gambling I *think* that was the origin of Wesley Snipes' quote "always bet on black".

If I'm wrong, I'll start a new chain.

Always bet on black, you guessed it, AquaDyne.

OK, so Snipes has been in a lot of films but I'm going for White Men Can't Jump.

Woody Harrelson

Now You See Me

Morgan Freeman

The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard!

Leaving this one for nem

I got bad news!

I checked back if I'd played Samuel L. Jackson this thread and I have, but the problem is, so has Morgan Freeman... twice on page 2!

Yeah, I saw that but it was more than 5 iterations.

Ah yes, OK. Hmm, to avoid us going in around in a circle I'll break out with Salma Hayek.

Apparently, an NDA kept her from discussing Marvel movie work with her co-stars, but I think I'll use a non-Marvel movie to continue.

Wild Wild West (1999)

Kevin Kline

A Fish Called Wanda

Jamie Lee Curtis

Trading Places

I am Inga, from Sweden! Please to help me with my ruck sack?

Dan Akroyd!

Sneakers

Robert Redford

Hmm, I know quite a few films but not sure how much others know other actors. There's the 1974 Great Gatsby, the recent Charlotte's Web, and of course in the Disneyverse, Pete's Dragon.

How about a classic that I still can play one of the soundtrack songs (The Entertainer) on the piano:

The Sting

Paul Newman

The voice of Doc Hudson in Cars

And Owen Wilson was Lightning.

That he was! There were also some cameos by actual NASCAR racers who also cameoed in non-animated racing movies, that would have been fun to use.

But for Owen, let's spring it wide open for the next choice:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Hmm. So so many to choose from! I'll let someone else have a shot first.

Looks like I better have a go myself then!

Willem Dafoe

Spide-Man: No Way Home

Ooh, nice one! Good film too. Many choices but let's choose the favourite of the hour...

Zendaya

The Greatest Showman, that I just watched for the umpteenth time yesterday. Never enough!

Michelle Williams

Huh, and that brings us back to spiders! Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Tom Hardy

We can't accept that submission with a Tom Hardy grunt to go with it.

This one's for you, Mina!



Meanwhile, I will go for...

Mad Max: Fury Road

Lol thanks!

In case anyone missed it then...

Mad Max: Fury Road

Charlize Theron

She's painfully good as Furiosa. Perhaps my favourite heroine since Ripley.

OK, hmm, sooo let's contrast that with a film in which she sucked (it was the screenplay's fault imo).

Prometheus

Michael Fasbender

steve jobs

Kate Winslet was in that, wasn't she...?

She was. She was also in Finding Neverland.

Johnny Depp. Thanks for reminding me of that film, AquaDyne! It was quite lovely in places and I'd forgotten all about it.

I really like one of the songs from the musical version, but alas the rest of the musical is much more boring than the film.

This is our third Depp this game but he's been widely spread. Still, I'll try to avoid using the same connections as the previous two times so that excludes Fear and Loathing in Vegas, Fantastic Beasts, Pirates, and Murder on the Orient Express.

How about Sleepy Hollow?

Let's spin this into a new direction... Jeffry Jones!

Ferris Beuller's Day Off

Mia Sara

Legend, the fantasy movie by Ridley Scott not the London gangster film

Wow, I had only vaguely remembered one other Mia Sara movie but not the title... but I knew it was a Ridley Scott film, and it was the film just preceding Top Gun for

Tom Cruise

Knight and Day

Viola Davis is the less obvious answer but does lead onto one star-packed franchise.

Star-Packed franchise? But THE HELP was not a franchise?

Emma Stone was in that.

And in Cruella

Along with the other Emma.

(Thompson)

Hardly a classic but Men In Black 3.

Tommy Lee Jones

The Fugitive

Han Solo. I mean Indiana Jones. I mean Jack Ryan. I mean Harrison Ford.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

Daisy Ridley

Hmm, not sure whether to get into an argument with nem on whether is an appropriate comment for IX. Yeah, it wasn't perfect but it redeemed the fiasco that was VIII.

And Daisly Ridley. I have 3 choices:
- Bounce to VII or VIII.
- Bounce back to the wide-open train murder movie with lots of cool people and I'm disappointed everyone's avoiding Josh Gad but I digress
- Punish you for your choice with a voice role in an animated film with some other cool people

I'll go with the last one. Peter Rabbit.

The sequel trilogy as a whole gets a from me. I thought The Force Awakens was a nice palate cleanser and set things up nicely but after that it nose-dived into a sarlacc pit.

Anyway, Peter Rabbit was such a lovely, fun film, enjoyed by the whole family.

Featuring a solid turn by the ever-reliable Sam Neill.

But the sarlacc pit was an awesome scene! Changing directors did kind of screw the whole continuity up, though. And all are still better than the episode that shall not be named.

I'm pretty sure Sam Neill was the XO in The Hunt for Red October

Great film!

Sean Connery

A movie I loved (and most did not) The Avengers (not the same as the Marvel movie) with...

It was absolutely fine. Didn't deserve the critical drubbing it got.

But um, male or female... let's go with Uma Thurman.

The Producers, which was not as good as the musical.

Ah yes, the one with Will Farrell as the Nazi guy.

Eurovision Song Contest
The Story of Fire Saga

Dan Stevens was damn genius in that but I can only think of... 3 films he's been in? So instead we'll go with Pierce Brosnan.

"There are no gay people in Russia."

One of my favorite Pierce Brosnan films is The Thomas Crown Affair

You are studiously avoiding my attempts to get to Josh Gad, aren't you?

Faye Dunaway was in that movie.

Think she was in Towering Inferno

I can't offer you anything out-field on that one. Steve McQueen was definitely in it though.

I'm tempted to say The Thomas Crown Affair (the one with McQueen and not Brosnan) but the only direction I know we could go after that is Faye Dunaway again.

So how about The Magnificent Seven

Hmm... hmm... and another hmm. Who to choose? Has to lead somewhere obvious as possible. Robert Vaughn?

Well if you wanted to lead to TV-land that'd be a good choice, but I'm scratching my head at other films.

There was a classic superhero sequel in which he was very prominent, along with several other big names. Also quite a famous budget sci-fi movie that started the career of an acknowledged master of sci-fi film-making.

I can think of him from only one campy horror flick, sorry

Bullitt

Robert Vaughn was in Superman III, Aquadyne, with Richard Pryor too.

OK, so Bullitt but we can't use Steve McQueen or Robert Vaughn. That's a tricky one!

I would offer Jacqueline Bisset if we are still looking for an actor from Bullit?

We are, dude! Jacqueline Bisset it is then!

Which is great because she was in The Deep... in a wet t-shirt.

She was in Dangerous Beauty (1998)

I think Nem got in first, Mina.

Indeed!

OK, so anyone know who else was in The Deep?

Robert Shaw

Jaws

Richard Dreyfuss

Stakeout

That was the one with Madeline Stowe, right?

Yeah. And I think she was in quite a few films but the only one I can remember off the top of my head is The Last of the Mohicans and that cowboy one with the all female leads.

It seems pretty unlikely that no-one here remembers The Last of the Mohicans.

Daniel Day Lewis


theme song by clannad

Gangs of New York

Will we have to recruit Phoenix Prime to fix this one too?

Gangs of New Yorks, Lewis famously played Bill the Butcher. Won a BAFTA for the role and was nominated for the Oscar.

Nem- I guess you do...

Gangs of new york had quite a few notable names in it- kinda surprises me that our movie buff folks are sitting around eating popcorn.


Daniel Day Lewis, Liam Neeson/ Cameron Diaz... the one I am choosing for this turn is...

Leonardo DiCaprio

Well, now that I looked it up, yes, I should have known that. I definitely remember Leo as the Irishman. I just had forgotten the name of the movie.

Won't make that mistake again.

I think one of my favorite movies he's been in, that I re-watch at least once a year, is

Catch Me If You Can

Jennifer Garner

The canonial 13 Going on 30

Is there a dance number in this one? Gah, I only vaguely remember it and I can't remember who the co-star is.

A few options connecting to the Disneyverse and some well known films. You know the actors but did you know them this early in their careers?

Nope, it's gonna annoy me when you tell me but I just can't picture the faces. I even remember the dress Garner was wearing in the dance scene---bit tight across the bust---but not anyone else she was dancing with.

More specifically the MCU.

Mark Ruffalo

(as well as Brie Larsen)

He was in Almost Like Heaven with...

Indeed, although one of my favorite Disney actresses that I've met personally (Megara voice in Hercules, originated Belle on Broadway) had a part in that.

And the voice of Gollum in LOTR was also there.

But indeed, you hulk smashed the male partner to the female lead.

As for Mina's choice, I think I know the movie with Ruffalo but wasn't it "Just Like Heaven"? If so it also had Reese Witherspoon, who was awesome in...

Aqua, it was Just Like Heaven, thanks for the catch.

And Reese was also in Cruel Intentions

I think I remember seeing that. I think I remember not liking it. I don't think I remember anyone in the cast other than Reese.

I remember it quite well but I can't think of other films the leads were in. They're TV actors, no? I'll take a punt anyway. Ryan Phillippe was in it, if you know who he is.

He was in Chaos with...

BTW Cruel Intentions also had (Selma Blair, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amy Adams, Joshua Jackson so it has a nice cast)

Ah, it was only Ryan and Sarah that I could remember. Didn't realise Amy was in it, that would've been a better choice!

Not sure about Chaos, can't even place the poster, trailer, anything about it.

I’m suspecting a game 50 coming up.

Sorry, I'm no help here as I've never heard of that movie.

Game 50 then. Mina, you're up!

Chaos had Wesley Snipes and Jason Statham in it <le sigh>