Random Movie Night Episode 3: ‘The Scorpion King’ Captures The Rock Figuring Out How To Be A Star

On the Random Movie Night podcast, Uproxx’s Mike Ryan and Keith Phipps watch and talk about a movie selected by a random number generator.

In 2002, Dwayne Johnson was famous, but he was wrestler famous. Still best known as The Rock, he’d become well known enough that even non-wrestling fans could probably recognize him, but not exactly an A-list star. Put another way: A lot of people probably knew who Steve Austin was in 2002, too. The movies changed that. Johnson took a supporting role in The Mummy Returns, the 2001 sequel to The Mummy, and that led to his first starring role in the 2002 spin-off The Scorpion King, an old-fashioned B-movie set in vaguely ancient times “before the pyramids.”

15 years later, Johnson’s an appreciably bigger deal as a movie star, with two big movies — Fate of the Furious, and Baywatch — coming out in the next two months. He’s was even able to look back with amusement at his starring debut in a recent video we reference in this, third episode of Random Movie Night, for which the random number generator selected the 30th most popular film of 2002. (It landed above Spy Kids 2 and below Red Dragon.) But there’s really nothing for him to be ashamed of in The Scorpion King. The Rock already has the charisma of a big star, even if he hasn’t quite honed it yet. We get into that and more, including songs that lied to us about the coming of peace on Earth, in the episode. We hope you enjoy. And, if you like it, please consider subscribing via iTunes and leaving a review. (We’ll be on Stitcher and Google Play soon.) And, as always, don’t hesitate to leave feedback in the comments.