The Sure Thing- Episode #853
Zen Pop
Todd and Cathy Adams
4.9 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Todd and Cathy discuss The Sure Thing (1985), Rob Reiner’s early, quietly subversive road-trip rom-com starring John Cusack as Gib Lloyd, a smart, restless college guy chasing a guaranteed hookup that slowly reveals itself to be hollow, alongside Daphne Zuniga’s Alison Bradbury, a sharp, principled counterpoint who refuses to play the “cool girl.” Set in a pre-internet, pre-cell-phone America, the film captures mid-80s college culture while exploring the tension between impulse and integrity, desire and discernment, with Anthony Edwards’ best friend serving as a cautionary caricature of male entitlement and Nicollette Sheridan’s “sure thing” functioning more as fantasy than human. They share why Reiner softened the original raunchy premise into something more meaningful and human, and how the movie quietly suggests that growth, conversation, and shared values are the real turn-ons. Todd and Cathy also dive into their regular categories, plus their five favorite John Cusack movies and their five favorite two-person road-trip films.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right. |
| 0:12.6 | This is the best I could find as far as the song that might open this podcast. |
| 0:17.1 | It's a song by... |
| 0:19.5 | Rod Stewart, baby. |
| 0:20.6 | Rod Stewart. And this opens the movie. It does. The sure thing. You usually do the trailer. Was the trailer just no boy enough? I didn't even look it up. I don't even know why. Probably it wouldn't be a bad idea to find that. Well, maybe we can do a good job of explaining the sure thing. Do you have your AI? |
| 0:40.0 | I do. I have my three-act sets. Well, and let me just say this as you're looking that up. |
| 0:45.1 | So, hello, everybody. This is Kathy. I usually don't open this way. I am Kathy. And Todd's over there. |
| 0:53.7 | And we, this is Zen Pop, and we are doing Rob Reiner |
| 0:56.9 | month. Last week, we talked about heated rivalry, which is not by Rob Reiner, but we just had to talk |
| 1:02.8 | about it while we were all watching it. But we're going back to Rob Reiner month, and we're talking |
| 1:08.7 | about the Sure Thing today. And the Sure Thing is a very early movie. This is a 1985 movie, and so there might be a lot of people listening who either are like, did I watch that? Have I seen it? But it's one of my favorite movies as far as what Rob Reiner has done. But really big picture, as far as being a Gen Xer. I love the sure thing. So I'm glad we're doing it. I don't really even remember exactly when I watch it. Maybe we'll get to that when. Remember when? We get to the Remember When. And my daughter Cameron always makes fun of trailers because back in the old days. They were pretty bad. This is a non-filtered trailer. |
| 1:44.6 | I don't know if it's going to be good or terrible. |
| 1:46.2 | It's three minutes long. |
| 1:47.0 | We're obviously not going to play three minutes, |
| 1:56.8 | but maybe we'll give everybody kind of a snapshot of the feel for the movie. Okay, cool. What you have an eight o'clock? What time is it? Nine to eight. Uh-huh. Life out. |
| 1:57.7 | Uh-huh. |
| 1:58.8 | Let's, |
| 1:59.2 | Lance, Walter Gibb Gibson lives life on the edge. |
| 2:03.1 | What do you think of that guy, Giff? Walter Gibb Gibson lives life on the edge |
| 2:02.6 | What do you think of that guy, Gibbs? |
| 2:05.0 | I don't. |
| 2:05.9 | Forget it Gibson, I hear she likes the intellectual type. |
... |
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