166. Pain & Gain (Summer of Rock)

Author: Laci Roth & Matt Stokes
Published: Fri 25 Jul 2025
Episode Link: https://sites.libsyn.com/99026/166-pain-gain-summer-of-rock

Pain & Gain is Michael Bay’s magnum opus, a razor-sharp dissection of the American id. This movie has it all: Con artistry, prosperity gospel, and drugs, drugs, drugs! It also features career-best performances of Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Anthony Mackie, and it’s easily Bay’s best movie. Indeed, it’s a look at an alternate career for Johnson where he could play interesting, complicated, vulnerable characters like he does in this movie. Instead, he made a bunch of movies with big cars and/or gorillas.

Still, Pain & Gain is an absolute blast and we had a great time breaking it down, marveling at how much fun it is and how well it predicted what America would feel like in 2025.

Next week: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

The Summer of Rock is our summer 2025 miniseries covering the movie career of Dwayne Johnson through nine movies, presented in chronological order. Starting with his attempt at crossing over from the world of wrestling, The Rock’s career got off to a bumpy start before finally taking off in the 2010s. But it wasn’t long before the bumps returned, and we’ll be telling the story for you all summer long!

Bonus video: Families in movies are always eating breakfast together, but nobody in real life actually does that, right? https://youtu.be/DwJNZkJ_SzA

Subscribe to our Patreon, Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition for $5 a month to get two extra episodes! patreon.com/loadbearingbeams

Time stamps:

00:12:07 — Our personal histories with Pain & Gain and Michael Bay

00:27:08 — History segment: The Rock returns to WWE from 2011-2013 for two matches against John Cena; Michael Bay’s relationship with the American military; the real-life Sun Gym Gang

00:42:43 — In-depth movie discussion

01:51:42 — Final thoughts and star ratings

Sources:

“Pain & Gain” by Pete Collins | The Miami New Times (1999) - https://bit.ly/4f1U30B

“Pain & Gain: Where the Real-Life Sun Gym Gang Characters Are Now” by Francisco Alvarado | The Miami New Times (2013) - https://bit.ly/4kQFmyQ

“‘Pain & Gain’ killers spared from death by Miami juries. They’ll still spend life in prison” by Charles Rabin | The Miami Herald (2024) - https://bit.ly/44Z5ukX

“MICHAEL BAY - Understanding A True American Auteur (PART 1)” by Patrick H. Willems | YouTube (2019) - https://youtu.be/pyx7YRU4trs?si=y6YVZjRKXzld8ipA

“MICHAEL BAY - Understanding A True American Auteur (PART 2)” by Patrick H. Willems | YouTube (2019) - https://youtu.be/kzzO14E-NLg?si=YYq1-nCEaT2_AGVl

Artwork by Laci Roth.

Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).

Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:

“Summer of Rock” - https://youtu.be/dvRY72jNIEE

“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM

“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg

“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ

"Summer of Rock" theme song credits:

Words and music by Matt Stokes

Engineered, mixed, and mastered by TJ Barends | Bare Sounds

Personnel:

TJ Barends - backing vocals

Wade Hymel - drums/guitar/backing vocals

Laci Roth - vocals