Recommended on this episode
MediaRecommended
The Godfather Part II
Francis Ford Coppola (inferred)
“I love both of them”
“probably Godfather II more than Godfather I, but I love both of them. But I love the divided story in Godfather II.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Casino
Martin Scorsese (inferred)
“I love the end of Casino”
“In some ways I prefer Casino, but the invention is really in Goodfellas. I love the end of Casino”— Dan Houser
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson
“I love the book so much. I was obsessed by it”
“I love the book so much. I was obsessed by it when I was about 17, 18. And I enjoyed the film, but I preferred the book.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
The Office
Ricky Gervais (inferred)
“One of my favorite comedies of this century is The Office”
“One of my favorite comedies of this century is The Office because it was incredibly funny, but also because it had narrative and heart”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
True Romance
Tony Scott (inferred)
“I love True Romance. Possibly the best, one of the best scripts ever written”
“I love True Romance. Possibly the best, one of the best scripts ever written.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Come and See
Elem Klimov (inferred)
“the most intense film ever made”
“it would be a Russian film called Come and See, which is probably the most intense film ever made.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola (inferred)
“if I'm feeling slightly less serious, Apocalypse Now”
“if I'm feeling slightly less serious, Apocalypse Now, and I would always want to watch the original cut.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
George Roy Hill (inferred)
“it's just impossible to imagine any buddy film without Butch Cassidy”
“That film, it's just impossible to imagine any buddy film without Butch Cassidy.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Unforgiven
Clint Eastwood (inferred)
“I love Unforgiven”
“I love Unforgiven, but the truth is with Red Dead, I'd seen a lot of Westerns as a kid.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Tetris
Alexey Pajitnov (inferred)
“completely addicted... the most addicted I ever was to anything in my life... nothing comes close”
“I remember being completely addicted at one point... for months at a time, to Tetris on a Game Boy.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott (inferred)
“Blade Runner, is my favorite”
“The story was Blade Runner, is my favorite, and that's obvious, you know, the replicants are better than the humans.”— Dan Houser
BookRecommended
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
“That was amazing”
“I read it when they first did Crime and Punishment. That was amazing.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
Super Mario 64
Nintendo (inferred)
“very amazing when you first saw them”
“I think the N64 ones. All of those early 3D games were very amazing when you first saw them.”— Dan Houser
MediaRecommended
The Legend of Zelda
Nintendo (inferred)
“They are these amazing things that could only be video games”
“Zelda really pioneered a lot of sort of the feeling of a world... They are these amazing things that could only be video games.”— Dan Houser
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Middlemarch
George Eliot
“It's the best novel written in English”
“Middlemarch. It's the best novel written in English.”— Dan Houser
BookRecommended
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
“one of the best novels written in Russian”
“War and Peace is one of the best novels written in Russian, I would argue.”— Dan Houser
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray (inferred)
“I used to love the novel”
“Vanity Fair, I used to love the novel, not the magazine. Because same thing, all of life is here.”— Dan Houser
BookRecommendedISBN verified
1984
George Orwell
“Love 1984... became obsessed by it... it's so good”
“Love 1984... became obsessed by it. And it's got the elements of that creeping into A Better Paradise. But it's so good.”— Dan Houser
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Animal Farm
George Orwell
“the book I've read more than any other book”
“the book I've read more than any other book is Animal Farm by George Orwell.”— Lex Fridman
BookRecommended
Life and Fate
Vasily Grossman
“Life and Fate, which is amazing”
“the most complete one, because it is this all of life being there, probably is Life and Fate, which is amazing.”— Dan Houser
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
Grand Theft Auto III
Rockstar Games
“I think GTA III is probably one of the most influential games of all time. It created a feeling of an open world.”— Lex Fridman
MediaBy the guest
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rockstar Games
“in a game like GTA IV, which I worked on and loved and I thought the story was great”— Dan Houser
MediaBy the guest
Grand Theft Auto V
Rockstar Games
“or when playing as Trevor in GTA V if you wanted to be crazy. I think those were when it really worked”— Dan Houser
BookBy the guest
A Better Paradise
Dan Houser
“the AI system, Nigel Dave, you've been working on recently. As part of A Better Paradise World, which is more dystopian, dark, tragic”— Lex Fridman
MediaBy the guest
Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar Games
“You said that Red Dead Redemption 2, in your opinion, is the best thing you've ever done.”— Dan Houser
MediaBy the guest
Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar Games
“When did you know how you were going to end Red Dead Redemption One?”— Dan Houser
MediaBy the guest
Red Dead Revolver
Rockstar Games
“We made Red Dead Revolver, decided that, or finished Red Dead Revolver that had been a Capcom game.”— Dan Houser
MediaBy the guest
American Caper
Dan Houser
“So American Caper is, first of all, epic comic book. I love it, the art.”— Lex Fridman
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
Goodfellas
Martin Scorsese (inferred)
“I'm sure another influential movie was Goodfellas, Scorsese. That's faster, right? A mixture of crime and humor.”— Lex Fridman
MediaReferenced
Leaving Las Vegas
Mike Figgis (inferred)
“You got what, Nicolas Cage Leaving Las Vegas? I mean, falling in love with a prostitute.”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Thin Red Line
James Jones
“The Thin Red Line is another book and movie that shows that.”— Lex Fridman
MediaReferenced
The Wild Bunch
Sam Peckinpah (inferred)
“I think for me it's two films from, I think, pretty much the same year, Butch Cassidy and The Wild Bunch.”— Dan Houser
BookReferencedISBN verified
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
“The end of On The Road by Kerouac: "Forlorn rags of growing old." I just remember closing that”— Lex Fridman
MediaReferenced
Sea of Thieves
Rare (inferred)
“My son is obsessed with that game, Sea of Thieves, at the moment, so he's constantly saying, "Do a pirate game."”— Dan Houser
MediaReferenced
The Elder Scrolls
Bethesda (inferred)
“another really powerful open world is The Elder Scrolls world. It's role-playing, it's fantasy, dragons, all that kind of stuff.”— Lex Fridman
MediaReferenced
The Witcher
CD Projekt Red (inferred)
“And The Witcher, same thing.”— Lex Fridman
MediaReferenced
Baldur's Gate 3
Larian Studios (inferred)
“And Baldur's Gate 1, 2, and 3, really interesting. They really tried to make every choice that you make genuinely branch the game”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified
Winter Holiday
Arthur Ransome
“You picked Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome.”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
“Second one was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified
Tender Is the Night
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Then Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Thin Red Line by James Jones, and Middlemarch by George Eliot.”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
“the dystopian novels are really interesting: 1984, Brave New World.”— Lex Fridman
BookReferenced
The End of the Affair
Graham Greene
“the three great World War II books are The Thin Red Line, Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. And The End of the Affair, Graham Greene.”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
“I mean, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It seems like that context reveals, in the most pure way, human nature”— Lex Fridman
BookReferenced
Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoevsky
“into this, Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, nihilistic kind of worldview.”— Lex Fridman
More from Lex Fridman
All 1990 recommended