Final Thoughts on The Rock + Answering Listener Questions!

We weren’t expecting this miniseries on Dwayne Johnson to be so relevant, but as he debuted his “new look” at the Venice Film Festival and began his awards season campaign, Laci and Matt react to the news of the week and unpack his public comments. Johnson reflected on his own career with many of the thoughts we’ve had as we’ve gone through his filmography. Is he sincere about it, or just being a good politician trying to win an award? Does he mean it when he says he was ready to pivot to “serious acting” or he was forced to by having so many consecutive box office failures? And is Emily Blunt really his best friend? Does it matter?

We take the new information and give our concluding thoughts on the acting career of The Rock, and then rank the nine movies we covered during the summer.

And then, we answer some mailbag questions, including:

• Fuck/Marry/Kill: The duck who shows her tits in Howard the Duck, tiny Dwayne Johnson in Tooth Fairy, and the Thanksgiving turkey from Spider-Man?
• What relationship from any movie sums up our relationship?
• Is there a movie that strikes both of us in such a way that we connect over it?
• What are some underrated movie sequels?
• What makes us passionate about movies and TV?
• What movie makes us fight?

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!

Next week: FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992).

Bonus video: Matt does a deep dive into Tower of Terror (1997), the made-for-TV movie starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst and based on the Disney theme park ride  English-language: https://youtu.be/kQf9FbCcbn4 

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

Time stamps:

• 01:00 — Dwayne Johnson at the Venice Film Festival
• 34:38 — Ranking the Summer of Rock movies
• 37:02 — Mailbag

Sources:

• “Dwayne Johnson Gets Choked Up Discussing ‘The Smashing Machine’ in Venice” by Patrick Brzeski | The Hollywood Reporter (2025) - https://bit.ly/487IeV4 
• "Dwayne Johnson Uncontrollably Sobs as ‘The Smashing Machine’ Gets 15-Minute Venice Standing Ovation and Generates Oscar Buzz" by Rebecca Rubin & Ramin Setoodeh | Variety (2025) - https://bit.ly/466fCsG

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).

"Summer of Rock" theme song credits:Words and music by Matt Stokes Engineered, mixed, and mastered by TJ Barends | Bare Sounds