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THE SURE THING 1985
Before Tap came out, Reiner began shooting his first studio movie, a romantic comedy about two mismatched college kids (John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga) who find love on a cross-country road trip. A modest success at the box office, it became a Gen-X classic. ''Teen sex comedies were always kind of dopey. It was always about a kid trying to get laid. I said, 'There's got to be a way to explore what kids actually go through — the emotional part that's a little deeper.' In a way it was a precursor to When Harry Met Sally.''

STAND BY ME 1986
When Adrian Lyne dropped out as director of this adaptation of Stephen King's novella ''The Body,'' Reiner stepped in and crafted his first hit: a coming-of-age tale about four boys on a quest to find a dead body. ''Spinal Tap was a part of my personality, but it's also something my father [comedy legend Carl Reiner] had worked in all through Your Show of Shows. Same thing with The Sure Thing — my dad had done The Thrill of It All! So this was the first time I was making a film my father never would have gone near, and was really reflective of who I was.... The fact that River Phoenix winds up dead at the end of the film — he disappears — it's just so creepy and weird. He was struggling with that scene [where he broke down about his bad-seed reputation], and I said, 'Don't tell me what it is, but is there any time in your life when an adult let you down?' He never told me what it was, but the next take we did, he started letting go and crying.... We shot it up in Oregon, and it was beautiful sun for 60 straight days. People who lived up there said they'd never seen anything like this. Everything about it was magical.''

THE PRINCESS BRIDE 1987
Reiner's next project was a true fantasy: bringing his favorite book, William Goldman's adventure/romance/satire/fairy tale, to the screen. He unveiled a world with Rodents of Unusual Size (manned by little people), majestic sword fights (Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes did all their own sparring), and the most beautiful princess ever (Robin Wright Penn). ''The whole making of that movie was a completely surreal experience. One day, I was shooting a scene, which never got in the movie. It's the end of the movie, and the little boy [Fred Savage] starts leafing through the book. He hears something outside his window; he looks, and hanging in suspension are the four characters on the white horses, and they're waving at him. I didn't include it because everything else is grounded in reality. But we shot it. Andre the Giant weighed 500 pounds, so we couldn't figure out how to get him on the horse. So we hooked up a pulley system with wires. Now, this is the day the Beaujolais nouveau has come out, and he starts drinking at 9 a.m. By the end of the day, he's literally drunk 20 bottles of [wine]. I'm finishing shooting in the Fire Swamp. [A crew member] said, 'Governor, do you want to take a look at this rig?' So I go to the other end of the studio. They open the doors of the soundstage, and there's this semi-drunken giant being lowered from the ceiling onto this horse, and he's going, 'Hullo, boss!' And I'm thinking, 'What do I do for a living? What is this job I have?'''


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