The criteria for this list is simple:
- NO easter-eggs: anyone can put a Captain American shield in the background.
- NO behind the scenes trivia: it has to be something IN the movie.
- NO bloopers: some movies have bloopers that end up on the final cut, but that doesn’t count, it has to be something intentional.
Life finds a way - Jurassic Park
The reason the theme park in the movie becomes a living hell begins when dinosaurs start reproducing, despite the scientists’ attempt to prevent that by making them all females. Jeff Goldblum’s character famous snarky comment is the only explanation the movie offers for why and how this happens: “Life finds a way.”
However, did you notice how this was foreshadowed WAY earlier in the movie, before they even reach the park?
When Doctor Grant sits on the chopper, his belt has two female buckles. He struggles for a moment, and then quickly fixes the problem by tying them together.
Life finds a way.
BWON BWON, BWON BWON - Inception
Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending heist movie “Inception” became notorious for that infamous sound bite, which went on to star in every superhero movie ever and every trailer for any movie since then.
However, did you notice how that’s actually just Edith Piaf’s “‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” slowed down?
The reason this is so clever is because that exactly the song the characters of the movie use to signal they need to wake up when dreaming… where time is slower. Hear the comparison here (warning, this may give you chills).
Remember Boromir - The Lord of the Rings
Boromir’s Death is one of the most emotional moments in the first chapter of The Lord of The Rings (spoiler alert, but not really because he’s Sean Bean), when he sacrifices himself to give Frodo a chance to flee the orcs.
What very few people noticed the first time around is that Aragorn honors the death of his friend by using Boromir’s leather braces throughout the rest of the trilogy.
Spock goes nuts - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Sigh.
I really hate to give these movies any credit, but there is one tiny detail on the third installment of the Transformers series that’s actually quite clever - “clever” being a rare adjective when talking about Transformers.
An ancient robot good guy is revealed in this movie, voice by the beloved Leonard Nimoy, famous for his role as Spock in the original Star Trek series (image above). This automatic street cred is used as base for a twist half-way though the movie, when it’s revealed that his character betrayed the Autobots and turned to the bad guys.
However, this is cleverly foreshadowed early in the movie, when a clip of Commander Spock is shown on the TV beating a computer with his bare fists - not-so-subtly implying his character goes crazy.
Nice touch. Still not worth seeing the movie for it, but there it is.
The color of death - Frozen
Frozen is still widely regarded as one of the best animations to ever come out of Disney, and for good reason: yes, we know you can’t stand THAT SONG or take it seriously anymore, but we have to give credit where it’s due: Frozen is a fantastic film.
Proof of that is the consistent color scheme throughout the movie: in case you didn’t know, PURPLE is referred to by filmmakers as the color of death. You can find more about this on the book “If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die”.
For that reason, Elza is seen on the first half of the movie wearing a purple cape, symbolizing both her resistance when talking to her sister Anna and the dangers of her powers.
On the movie’s most remembered song and scene, “Let It Go”, Elsa finally regains control of her life. And what’s the first thing she does? Gets rid of her purple cape.
Mind. Blown.
But it gets even better. After this scene, her sister Anna leaves their kingdom in an adventure to find Elsa. Anna is a very cheerful and naive character, being dressed with mostly with lively colors such as green, which compliments her red hair.
But what is the first thing she does when going to look for her sister in the cold weather?
She gets a PURPLE cape - which as anyone who saw the movie now knows, symbolizes the tragic outcome of her adventure. Mind. Freaking. Blown.
Butch’s War - Pulp Fiction
Among the many iconic stories of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Butch’s is simultaneously the most organized and probably the most surreal. When he goes back home to retrieve his father’s watch before running away from the city forever, he encounters the gangster kingpin he cheated and they make chase, but both are captured and locked up by sexual predators (?) in a gun shop and end up having to work together to escape.
What many people don’t realize, however, is how the famous Gold Watch monolog preceding Butch’s story pieces brings all of this together.
Right before Butch’s story starts, we have a quick scene where Christopher Walken’s character, Cap. Koons, gives young Butch the watch, telling him a tragically funny story of how the gold watch was passed from man to man during wartimes, and they had to hide it in a particularly NSFW way to keep it safe.
This subtly sets up the premise that in order to keep the watch, Butch must to through a great test of endurance, like his father and grandfather did. Right before telling the war story, Cap. Koons (Christopher Walken’s character) tells young Butch:
“Hopefully, you’ll never have to experience this yourself.”
But that’s exactly what happens.
The whole thing starts when Butch goes back home to get the watch, and everything after that is his own personal war, a testament he must go through to earn his right to keep the watch.
Movie within a movie - Fight Club
Fight Club is David Fincher’s cult classic, a brutal movie based on the equally brutal novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It provides complex, shocking and often misinterpreted commentary on modern day society by embodying everything wrong with it.
By the end of the film, we find out that Tyler Durden - Brad Pitt’s character - is a figment of Edward Norton’s imagination - an image he created of everything he wanted to be: beautiful, charming, daring and spectacular in bed.
However, there is a subtle hint that indicates HOW Norton’s character thought of Brad Pitt image in the first place.
On the second half of the movie, Norton chases Marla down the street, and for a brief moment we can see a movie theater marquee advertising “Seven Years In Tibet”, a real movie released a few years earlier that starred... Brad Pitt.
At first this may seem like a simple in-joke, but think about it: for a while there, everybody wanted to look like Brad Pitt.
And earlier in the movie it’s revealed that Norton works during nighttime as a projectionist on movie theaters, meaning he probably saw “Seven Years In Tibet” many many MANY times - probably while insomniac.
And to take it even further, “Seven Years In Tibet” is almost a self-help kind of movie, with an egocentric douchebag of a character going to Tibet and learning about himself with a young Dalai Lama. It’s certain Norton’s character despised this cheesy plot, something made obvious by a line Tyler says early in the movie:
“Self-improvement is masturbation.”
But at the same time, he wanted to go through a journey of self-discovery, something therapeutic to rid him of his demons and become a better person. His version of that was the fight club, created by himself with the help of the protagonist of that cheesy self-help movie he saw too many times - Brad Pitt himself.
Did we forget one of your favorite clever little details in your favorite movies? Be sure to tell us, there are too many to count! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook for more new articles every day!
