The 2024 action-comedy Freaky Tales is a unique and hilarious anthology that brings together the lives of a handful of very different characters during one unusual night in Oakland, California, in 1987. Amid the cast of talented actors, including Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, and Dominique Thorne, is a remarkable cameo from Tom Hanks.Arriving completely by surprise, he delivers a monologue that’s one of the film’s more captivating moments. While his appearance happened as a favor, it turned out to define the movie in many ways.
Tom Hanks Appears as a Video Store Clerk in ‘Freaky Tales’
The scene in question comes almost halfway through the movie, during the segment Born To Mack. Clint, played by Pascal, walks into a video store where the clerk (Hanks) is watching the basketball game that becomes pivotal toward the end of the film. An exchange about the game’s score leads to a conversation about underdogs and why we find them so compelling. Hanks, wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a shirt for a real-life Oakland donut shop, launches into his top five underdog movies.
He begins with the “obvious” choice, boxing classic Rocky, declaring that “it’s best just to get it out of the way.” He then lists Hoosiers, The Dirty Dozen, and The Verdict, before withholding the number one spot when he learns that Clint is not there for movie recommendations, but the private poker game in the back room. He does hint that it’s a 1979 film that Roger Ebert called “a cinematic miracle”, which fellow movie geeks will inform you refers to the drama Breaking Away.Clint is perplexed by the entire conversation, simply wanting to gain access to the poker game, and invokes the ire of the clerk by confessing he hasn’t seen most of the movies that are in his top five. It’s a delightful tonal pause in the film, but also one that is in keeping with its themes.
The Scene Was Pure 80’s Nostalgia From an Icon of The Decade
It might seem odd that the multi-time Oscar winner would appear in a scrappy independent anthology, but the actor has some connections to both the film’s creators and its setting. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck worked with Tom Hanks on the TV series Masters of the Air, and wrote the cameo for him after learning that the star is something of a legend in Oakland, where the film is set. Growing up in the area, Hanks has publicly professed his love for the city’s baseball team, the Oakland A’s, and features on a mural in the city next to Too $hort, the musician who also stars in and executive produces the film.
The appearance is also a nod to a decade when the actor became a star. While he would become famous for prestige dramas such as Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan in the 90s, the 80s were where he became a household name with comedies that defined the cinematic era. Offbeat concepts like Big, The ‘Burbs, and Splash could be said to be in the ballpark of what Freaky Tales is inspired by, where reality and fantasy meet to create a fascinating story.
Tom Hanks’ Speech Fits Perfectly With The Themes of ‘Freaky Tales’
The cameo also serves as something of a rallying cry for the movie’s characters, all of whom are battling overwhelming odds of some description. Clint himself is trying to break free of a life of organized crime; while in other chapters, Barbie (Dominique Thorne) and Entice (Normani) are looking to prove themselves as rappers on a big stage, and Tina (Ji-young Yoo) and Lucid (Jack Champion) are looking to defend themselves against attacks from Skinheads. As Hanks’ character says in his speech: “That’s why we love the underdogs, it’s a projection of ourselves. We’re all just a bunch of losers. We cannot kill Darth Vader, we cannot win a rumble against The Soc’s, and we definitely cannot beat L.A. And yet, the underdog believes they can achieve the impossible.”
By the time the movie ends, the film’s various underdogs have done just that, almost motivated by that assessment. Hanks is seen as a comforting voice in Hollywood history – he’s played Santa Claus, Mister Rogers, Walt Disney, and many other figures we associate with authority or hope in the world. As such, he’s the perfect person to offer this rallying cry, even if it is delivered in a more sour tone than we are used to.
The scene turned out to be one of the standout moments of Freaky Tales, as the surprise and affection many of us have for Hanks is fostered in the neon-lit walls of a video store. For a film so affectionate about the past, who better than one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars to underline its message.Freaky Tales is available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S.
- Release Date
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April 4, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck