“I’m going to make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed for Superfan number 99 over here.” That’s the classic quote from Trent in “Swingers” as he taunts his friend Sue as they play hockey on the Sega Genesis. It’s one of the great scenes from this amazing movie and probably offers one of the best summaries of gaming in the 90s. Grantland just posted this great oral history of the making of the film and they discussed the making of this scene.

Ludwig: Wayne Gretzky’s head bleeding was the hardest thing to shoot in the whole movie. We finished up and we had the camera for another 72 hours before we had to return it. So we had to shoot an insert of a TV screen where one of them makes Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed. We’re in the editing room with the TV set and we’re playing that game and the editor can’t make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed and then I can’t make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed, Doug can’t make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed. And we’re shooting this for a couple of hours and we can’t do it. So we called up Jon in the middle of the night, it’s like one in the morning, and he comes over and he can’t do it. And finally we had to call Vince and get Vince over there at two in the morning. Four and a half hours after we started, he gets Wayne Gretzky’s head to bleed.

One of the reasons this film became such a huge cult classic on video is that it truly captured the midset of young men, particuarly men in their twenties. It was about chasing girls, cool night spots, slick clothes, video games, gambling in Vegas and so much more. The road trip to Vegas was another critical part of the movie. These were not the kind of guys that be happy to play bingo of course. They wanted action in Las Vegas, even if they were broke and some of them were clueless about the basics of blackjack, which led to another classic scene in the film.

But for many guys, even those who aren’t gamers, the Gretsky video game scene is still one of the most memorable in the film.