Fifteen Minute Movies: Adventures in Babysitting (Part Two)

 However, this does not cover the second fifteen minute increment of Adventures in Babysitting. Oh no. I didn't say arbitrary, well, arbitrarily. I mean it. Today we're going to jump ahead past the chop shop, the Buddy Guy "Babysitter Blues," past the double-F-Bomb-in-a-PG13-movie gang fight and hospital chase to the University of Chicago party that Anthony Rapp decides the kids need to attend. Where two guys are convinced that Elisabeth Shue's Chris is "Miss March" from Playboy. Where we meet "The Rudd."

 By this I don't actually mean Paul Rudd, but instead the character that Paul Rudd would be playing if Adventures in Babysitting were made immediately before / after Wet Hot American Summer. Rudd's a little too old to be playing a college junior / senior now, but somewhere between Halloween 6 and Wet Hot I could see him playing the dude who logically outwits the "Miss March" idiots, woos Chris, and then drives the kids to Dawson's garage to meet Thor.

 Ah yes, Thor. I believe I mentioned him last time. Why? Because chances are you saw another movie in 1987 with the guy who plays Thor, the guy who owns Dawson's Garage (which I guess probably makes him Dawson, but whatever). The actor's name? Vincent D'Onofrio. If the name doesn't ring a bell, the face will, from another rather famous 1987 release, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

  Here's D'Onofrio as Private "Gomer Pyle" in Full Metal Jacket.

 and as Thor in Adventures in Babysitting.

Maybe you can understand why it is I never once thought I knew who the mechanic in Adventures in Babysitting was. The best part? Full Metal Jacket was in theaters two weeks before Adventures in Babysitting, so there's a slim chance that eagle-eyed cinephiles might have seen D'Onofrio's transformation from pudgy psychopath to God of Thunder.

 So we have a moment where the childlike innocence of a girl who loves Thor saves Chris and company from being five bucks short in paying for a blown out tire, and then we're off again. Fifteen minutes was winding down just as Chris drives past the fancy restaurant she and Bradley Whitford were going to eat at, and the kids see his car! Is there a showdown looming? Were there shenanigans with Brenda at the bus stop? Well, I guess you'll have to watch Adventures in Babysitting, because when this feature resumes, I'll be moving on to another movie...

 Until then, keep watching in bite-sized portions!