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According to Ryan Reynolds, the 1980’s was brutal garbage and the Cuban Missile Crisis played a huge role in that decades disastrous time.
Ryan Reynolds says ’80s nostalgia “paves over all the trauma” of the “tumultuous” decade:
— Variety (@Variety) September 2, 2026
“The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a fucking mess and people forget that. It was a tremendous strife. Socio political tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off… pic.twitter.com/CvNE3KLfff
Reynolds said modern nostalgia can obscure the darker realities of distinct periods in history, including the decade depicted in his latest movie.
“When you get far enough away from a time period that’s quite distinct, there’s always a lovely feeling associated with it, almost like you pave over all the trauma with puppy dogs and ice cream,” Reynolds said in an interview with Variety. “The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a f—ing mess and people forget that.”
When I first read about his comments I laughed. I mean, seriously. The 1980’s was brutal?? Wow. That’s a take.
I laughed even harder at the Cuban Missile Crisis bit. You know, that definitive event that happened in … October of 1962. Two decades earlier than the 1980’s. TWO.
Reynolds, who was 9 years old in 1986, has zero clue as to what the ’80’s was really like.
Yes, we were in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. Yet, even in the early 1980’s the world knew that Soviet infrastructure was fracturing. Things that helped widen those fractures was the 1980 Miracle on Ice, movies such as Rocky II, Red Dawn, Top Gun, and more.
Were there geo political issues that had impacts upon the US and the world? Definitely. The fall of the Berlin Wall capped off that decade.
However, in the 1980’s the US embarked upon a decade of music, night clubs, movies such as The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s fire (yes, I’m dating myself), and a huge scale of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Seriously, the 1980’s brought us the very devices we use today.
Yet here comes Ryan Reynolds to proclaim that that decade was a brutal time for all. Again, he was a CHILD during that time. How the hell would he know what it was like??
What’s even more ironic about his comments is the fact that he stepped on that ’80’s rake at the premier of his movie, “Mayday.” Which, as Christian Toto explains here, is a total homage to the 1980’s itself.
Ryan Reynolds is Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a Navy pilot who gets shot down during a dangerous mission over Mother Russia. This is 1987, and the Cold War is still raging. You wouldn’t bet money on Troy making it out alive in such inhospitable conditions.
Enter Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh) – call him Nik, please. He’s a former KGB agent who disowned his party after consuming American culture.
Top Gun
Mcdonald’s
Bruce Springsteen music
Of course, Toto wrote that review BEFORE Ryan found the rake and jumped on it.
“His ’80s comments are so stunning. First, he was living in Canada during the 1980s and was pretty young at the time — he’s 49 now, meaning in 1986 he was just 9 years of age,” he said. “Much more importantly, his new movie ‘Mayday’ is a love letter to the 1980s. It doesn’t describe the decade as perfect, but it’s a perfectly sweet nostalgia blast atop a buddy comedy template. Why he would trash the decade, ignoring its joyous spirit and all-American vibe, is a mystery.”
“Ryan Reynolds is one of the best marketers in Hollywood. And he happens to be an A-list actor, too. His business savvy is unusual, and he personally helped make the ‘Deadpool’ series a smash via a series of clever comic shorts. He’s funny and self-deprecating, too, which never hurts,” he added.
Yeah, well. Ryan’s business savvy was taking a serious nap during that interview with Variety. And people have definitely noticed, and have offered up a LOT of commentary. Very little of which is complimentary to Reynolds.
I can confirm that whenever we sat around the mall food court in our neon parachute after a hard day playing Galaga at the Alladin’s Castle all we could talk about was the Cuban Missile Crisis https://t.co/TGIQFWJNaC
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 3, 2026
Spencer Pratt took notice and served up a clue bat in response.
It makes perfect sense that Ryan Reynolds' view of the 80's is the inverse of what normal people think. In 80's movies, bad guys were villains. Today, the bad guys are the heroes. Hollywood now bends over backwards to redeem wickedness and mental illness.
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) September 4, 2026
Top Gun and St Thomas… https://t.co/nResuc7we7 pic.twitter.com/W1lQcye64h
Yes, in the ’80s we knew EXACTLY who the bad guys were. They were actual bad guys. Now, Hollywood culture and the leftists have been working overtime to tell us that fatherhood and men standing up for their wives and children are bad and must be diminished. Don’t you dare go after politicians like El-Sayed, because if you do you are being racist towards Muslims. He and Mamdani have said bad things about 9/11? That’s ok. Today 9/11 was just passenger jets accidentally crashing into some skyscrapers.
The 1980’s was brutal. For those who had to survive behind the Iron Curtain. In the United States we had FREEDOM. And the ability to look at and understand exactly who the bad guys were.
Here I am trying to bring back American film jobs, and then these tools keep saying stupid crap like this and making every normal American hate them. Hollywood is seriously its own worst enemy. Just stick to the Cricket wireless ads, dude. https://t.co/49Ufh71XG0
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) September 3, 2026
Ryan didn’t read the room. And decided to lecture us on how bad it is that we are nostalgic for the ’80’s, while standing on the red carpet at the premier of “Mayday” a comedic homage to the ’80’s.
Christian Toto added this regarding Spencer’s clue bat.
“His takedown of Reynolds’ comments also leave[s] a mark. No decade is perfect. The ’80s gave us the AIDS crisis, worries about nuclear war, the Challenger explosion and more. It also delivered great pop culture classics and lacked the cultural hand-wringing that weighs down so much of our lives today. It was a more simple time, and it’s impossible not to miss that,” he concluded.
We can be nostalgic about the 1980’s while remaining clear on problems during that decade. It’s possible to do both. Reynolds doesn’t understand that. Hence the rake followed up by Spencer’s clue bat.
Feature Photo Credit: Ryan Reynolds 2018 Deadpool premiere via Flickr, cropped and modified
Cameron says: Ryan, you are an actor and a good businessman. Stick with that and be wise enough to ask about topics you aren’t knowledgeable on before you do this to yourself.
Seedy See says: I was a full grown American male with a great job and some change left over after the bills were paid,chasing wine,women an song during the 80’s.This guy was just a snotty nose kid so he don’t know nothing about the 80’s or American culture in general.I can assure him no one was thinking or worried about what he’s dreaming.
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