Sometimes brilliant moments in movies go completely over our heads. For those of you that have missed some of these moments, this list is for you. Some directors tend to do this more frequently than others so there is a lot of Tarantino, Scorsese, and Fincher on this list. Read on and you might learn a little something new about your favorite movies. As “American Beauty” tells us, “Look closer.”
*Potential spoilers if you haven’t seen some of the most popular movies of all time for some reason*
Team America: World Police
1. The cobblestone roads in Paris are croissants in “Team America: World Police.”
2. The clocks in the diner in “Groundhog Day” are stopped, mirroring Phil’s predicament.
3. When Llewelyn finds himself wounded on the sidewalk in Mexico in “No Country for Old Men,” the mariachis who wake him sing in Spanish, “You wanted to fly without wings, you wanted to touch the sky, you wanted too much wealth, you wanted to play with fire.”
4. In “The Shawshank Redemption,” Red says Andy’s dream of going to Zihuatanejo is a “shitty pipe dream.” Turns out his dream was in fact shitty, and in a pipe.
5. When The Narrator and Tyler get on the bus in “Fight Club”, The Narrator only pays fare for one.
6. Also from “Fight Club, ” when The Narrator answers Tyler’s call in a phone booth, it clearly states, “No incoming calls allowed.”
7. When Forrest Gump calls hotel security, the man who answers says, “Security, Frank Willis.” The same man discovered the Watergate Scandal in June 1972.
8. Brad Pitt’s character in “Se7en” receives a call of the first murder at exactly 7 minutes into the film. Morgan Freeman’s character says John Doe “will win” at exactly 7 minutes left.
9. In “The Usual Suspects,” the order in which the men receive their personal packages is the order they are killed off.
10. Frank Costello tells the clerk to give a young Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) a loaf of bread and two quarts of milk at the beginning of “The Departed.” At the end, Damon’s character enters his apartment with a loaf of bread and two quarts of milk, right before he dies.
11. In “Requiem for a Dream,” every main character assumes the fetal position in their final scenes.
12. Walter is right about everything that takes place in “The Big Lebowski:” the fake severed toe, the fake kidnapping, no ransom, and Bunny returning to the Lebowski mansion on her own.
13. At the beginning of “The Truman Show,” a bottle of Vitamin D is sitting on the kitchen table-needed for those without proper exposure to the sun.
14. The real Jordan Belfort welcomes Leonardo DiCaprio’s character onto the stage during the sales convention at the end of “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
15. When Jake becomes a Na’vi in “Avatar,” Dr. Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) tells him to not play with his tail because “he’ll go blind,” which is a reference to masturbation (Na’vi tails are genitalia).
16. When Harvey Dent’s face catches on fire in “The Dark Knight,” the very first frame shows the Batman logo.
17. If Mary married Lloyd in “Dumb and Dumber,” her name would be Mary Christmas.
18. One of the autographs on The Bear Jew’s bat in “Inglourious Basterds” is Anne Frank.
19. In “Unbreakable,” when David and Elijah meet for the first time, David is wearing a red shirt and Elijah is wearing a purple suit-colors that are on opposite ends of the visible spectrum.
20. In “Idiocracy,” Frito’s last name is Pandejo. His full name is Frito Pandejo, which means “fried dickhead” in Spanish.
