"neat" touches in films

[minlokwat]

What minor details in movies do you consider, for lack of a better term, really neat?

I'm talking about something that was added in by a writer or possibly improvised by one of the actors that was not originally intended to be part of the film. Here are two examples.

In The Princess Bride during the wedding ceremony, there is a slow camera pan to the altar. Then, for God knows what reason, the priest begins with the words "Ma-wage..." and conducts the entire ceremony in a bizarre Elmer Fudd-esque accent. Pretty cool. Really makes you wonder whose idea that was.

In Death Becomes Her there is a banquet for all of those who have taken the eternal life pill. The emcee makes an announcement along the lines of "And remember, to all of you who have faked your own deaths, no re-appearing in public just to make cheap headlines," and then there is a cut of The King -Elvis, of course- who mumbles, "Hey, I was just trying to have some fun." A great touch that really works.

What else can you think of?

[Ross]

Well, it could hardly have been improvised, but I always loved the bit in Men In Black where Tommy Lee Jones introduces a newly suited Will Smith to a couple of alien brothers - I can hardly even remember whether they were separate entities or two hdeads on one body, but they were definitely a tad octopus-like, were sitting down operating some computer gizmo, and Tommy Lee Jones says, "This is BGLUGK! and Bob..."

It's gone very fast. I like that kinda thing.

[pesch]

Blood Simple -- During the first bar scene, the camera slowly travels down the bar towards the actors. It approaches a drunk, passed out on the bar, and the camera neatly rises up and over the drunk and goes merrily on its way.

Arty as all hell, but still neat to see.

[eunoia]

I'm not even sure if this was on purpose or not, but in Pee Wee's Big Adventure when Pee Wee gives a lift to the fugitive and their car careens out of control, there is a shot of the car going past some construction barriers. In this shot, you clearly see that the barriers are on wheels and being pulled towards the viewer to give the illusion that the car is moving away. What I thought was neat is that I never noticed it the first time, even though it's so obvious. It's so cheesy, but now it cracks me up every time.

[Daniel]

The The Princess Bride incident was in the book too. So I figure it was William Goldman's idea.

Some of my faves:

Disney's Hercules - as Meg is falling in love with Hercules, she's kind of denying the emotion and backing away and she backs into a garden sculpture sculpture of Cupid with an arrow; she backs right into the pointy end of the arrow. She feels it, turns to see what poked her, turns back and does this kind of a double take at the absurdity of what just happened. Funniest part of the whole damn movie.

Joe vs The Volcano is a brilliantly written movie by John Patrick Shanley with many subtle elements that don't reveal themselves until the 2nd or 3rd viewing. The opening sequence reveals Joe and everyone else going to work at their most hated job. The company logo is this stylized lightning bolt that kind of follows Joe through the movie; you see the lightning bolt in several scenes that have nothing to do with the company but always represent something dangerous. Anyway the company walkway is in this shape too. There are countless lifeless, spiritless workers slowly dragging their feet into work. It would be so easy to just cut across the logo walkway and walk straight to the door rather than turn and walk pretty much 2-3 times as far just to follow the logo's shape. There's this one guy who goes all the way to the edge of the first bend in the path, and he could be daring and direct and just keep on walking straight to the door rather than to take the turn, but then you see him turn to his right, the mindless drone following the path alongside the other unremarkable bodies being shoved into the office. There is something about that one man that I find so profoundly sad.

okay, this one is going to sound really weird but has anyone seen The Bibleman Adventures: The Incredible Force Of Joy? I bought it as a gag gift for a Jewish friend of mine on his birthday. Well we're watching this, and it has some deliberately cheesy acting and set design on the part of the bad guys. The bad guy's assistant/henchman (imagine a bad actor trying to impersonate Keanu Reeves from his Bill & Ted days . . . ouch) is commenting on the echo in their cave hideout. "This cave has a really wicked echo!" Then he goes to test it, and shouts: FALCOR!. We were laughing so hard the first time we saw it that we didn't hear the echo shout back, ATRAIU!

[JosephFinn]

In "The Usual Suspects," the nifty moment for me (out of many) is Kevin Spacey lighting the lighter in the detective's office. It's a very quick moment, but it works as a wonderful clue.

[JosephFinn]

Originally posted by Daniel
"This cave has a really wicked echo!" Then he goes to test it, and shouts: FALCOR!. We were laughing so hard the first time we saw it that we didn't hear the echo shout back, ATRAIU!

I'll freely admit that I don't get it. Please enlighten me?

[Johnny L.A.]

In Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras I like the scene where the pseudo-intellectual couple are spouting inanities in a diner while Zombie! attacks a man outside the window -- and nobody notices.

In Creature Comforts I think having the animal (capybara?) defecate in the bacground is a good touch.

[Shiva]

How about Paul Bartel's depan line "You go to bed Honey, I'll bag the Nazi." from Eating Raoul?

Slays me every time.

[Lsura]

Originally posted by JosephFinn

I'll freely admit that I don't get it. Please enlighten me?

The only thing I can think of is the movie Neverending Story, that has a Luckdragon named Falcor, and a hero named Atreyu.

[Kamino Neko]

Originally posted by JosephFinn

I'll freely admit that I don't get it. Please enlighten me?

Watch The Neverending Story - now. You've missed out by not seeing it yet.

[lightthelight]

"Once Were Warriors" has many wonderful, deft touches. The one that stands out for me is the look in the eyes of the teenage daughter after being raped by her father's drinking buddy; it's only a matter of time before she deals with it the only way she knows how.

[JosephFinn]

Originally posted by Tengu

Watch The Neverending Story - now. You've missed out by not seeing it yet.

Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh!

Thank you.

[Medicinal Herb]

I think the way the camera shows, from above, the way the visitors and the hosts line up in opposing V formations at the beginning of Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing is very cool.

I really love the way Richard Dryfuss says "Hamlet. In love. With the duke's daughter. The duke thinks." in Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead. (I think it's "the duke", but it's been a while since I've seen it.) A lot of people have never even heard of this movie, but it's a real gem. It stars Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Roth and Gary Oldman.

[kylen]

In Pulp Fiction when Uma Therman is lying on the dealer's floor and John Travolta is about to stab her in the chest with the big@ss needle, there are several boardgames visible on a table in the background including "The Game of Life" and "Operation"

[ITR champion]

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of the villagers has shaving cream on his face during the witch-burning scene. He's only on screen for about half a second, so you have to look at exactly the right moment. I only noticed that around the tenth time that I watched it.
The line that the monks are chanting tranlates to "This is the beginning of the chant, this is the end of the chant", then they hit themselves on the head. The words in the Holy Hand Grenade scene are exactly the same.
When Sir Robin is travelling alone through the forest, he passes several signs that say things like "Certain death, 3 miles", and they always point in the direction that he's travelling. I missed that during my first few viewings.

[Soup_Nazi]

One of my favorite little touches in a movie is the scene in Jurassic Park where the big T-Rex leans down and peeks inside the car and the girl plays the flashlight over it's grapefruit-sized eye and the pupil dialates in response to the brightness. Really cool.

[ITR champion]

That just reminded me of the Jurassic Park scene where Malcolm is in the jeep being chased by the T-rex. He looks in the mirror and all that he can see is a few of the Rex's teeth. Of course, he also sees the words "objects in mirror are closer than they appear".

[Spoonbender]

In Memento, Leonard has a tattoo on his abdomen - printed upside-down so he can read it when he looks down - that says, "EAT."

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, at one point Indy walks past a drawing on a catacomb wall that depicts the Ark of the Covenant. At that moment, you can hear a few notes of John Williams' Ark theme from the Raiders score.

[Kaitlyn]

In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Michelle Yeoh is asking Chow Yun Fat why he came back, obviously wanting him to tell her it was because of her (which it was). This is a typical "He's about to tell her he loves her when he's interrupted" scene, but it's filmed differently from most. Early in the scene, we see a servant approaching from the background, unnoticed by either character, so there is never any suspense about whether he will reveal his true feelings; we (the audience) know the whole time that the interruption will come and exactly when it will come, making the whole scene one of sadness. I love it when a director finds a new way to play a stereotypical scene.

In The Bodyguard from Bejing (aka The Defender) Jet Li is the bodyguard of the Christy Chung, girlfreind of a Hong Kong businessman. Li and Chung have fallen in love. In the climactic battle, the villain takes aim at Chung and fires his gun. The boyfriend and Li both race from 8-10 feet behind Chung, outrunning the bullet, the boyfriend chickens out and leaps to the side, and Li jumps in front of Chung, all while the bullet is in the air, taking the bullet intended for her. She catches him, and the villain fires again. As this bullet flies towadrds them, Chung twists around, putting herself in the path; Li, realizing what she has done, turns them again, and takes the second bullet.

I'm also a big fan of the "bullies unwittingly confronting someone way out of their league" moments in action films. There is a good one in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon when Jen is confronted by the bullies outside the bar, and a great one in Kiss of the Dragon, when the pimp beats up Brigitte Fonda, leading to Jet Li telling him "I would very much appreciate it if you don't do that . . . again." And the move with the pool ball is very cool.

[initech]

Citizen Kane (lotza stuff in this one, but here's my favorite): The beginning of the movie includes the camera passing through a skylight to introduce the scene. Later, that sequence is repeated, but the skylight has been broken. Presumably by the camera.

[silent_rob]

In Clerks, Randal and Dante are having a conversation about jizz moppers in nudie booths (specifically what one is and how much they make). Jizz moppers wipe the windows clean in nudie booths. Anyway, as they talk, a customer walks up to the counter. The customer is "highly offended" by hearing this.
However, if you look on the counter, you'll notice that he is buying Windex and paper towels. This brings to mind the question; just what does he plan to do with those purchases?

[silent_rob]

Thought of a few more:

In Brazil, all of the different signs all over the place: "The Truth Shall Make You Free", "Information - The Key To Prosperity. Ministry Of Information", "Help The Ministry Of Information Help You", "Be Safe: Be Suspicious", "Loose Talk Is Noose Talk", "Suspicion Breeds Confidence".

In Fight Club, the different subliminal shots of Tyler and his appearance in the "Welcome!" clip on the hotel closed-circuit television show, before he is introduced.

[Pushkin]

Originally posted by Soup_Nazi
One of my favorite little touches in a movie is the scene in Jurassic Park where the big T-Rex leans down and peeks inside the car and the girl plays the flashlight over it's grapefruit-sized eye and the pupil dialates in response to the brightness. Really cool.

Or when the Raptor is attacking Laura Dern in the generator room and its head brushes against the naked light bulb, you can see its skin searing from the heat.
Ray Harryhausen AFAIK did the special effects for a King Kong movie, the one where Kong fights a T-rex and for one brief instant during the fight the T-rex stops, scratches his nose, and continues, neat! Apparantly this was as much a side effect of being locked in a darkened room doing nothing but stop motion filmatography as anything else.
Terminator 2, when the T1000 is smashing up the mall it pauses to look at a shop dummy which looks just like itself, completely silver and featureless.

[Johnny L.A.]

The line that the monks are chanting tranlates to "This is the beginning of the chant, this is the end of the chant"

Is that true? I always thought they were saying, "He is Jesus the Lord. Give it a rest."

[Why A Duck]

In Dr. Strangelove, when George C. Scott is walking backwards in the war room and trips, falls, get back up. Classic.

[Agrippina]

A lot of Stanley Kubrick movies in this post, because he always puts such interesting touches to his movies. Small details, and what not.

During the opening credits of The Shining, you can hear Danny riding his tricycle in the soundtrack. Other neat touches in that movie is Jack's typewriter refills itself during the scene where Wendy is bothering him. When Jack is talking to the ghosts, or meeting one, he's always facing or talking to a mirror.

(I mentioned this in another thread that died) In Toy Story, the carpet outside of Sid's room matches the carpet in The Shining. I love that, and I don't know why.

In A Clockwork Orange, when Alex is in the record shop, you can see an album cover of the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also, in the same movie, when Alex is being dragged in the country side by Dim and Georgie, the two's helmet numbers are 665 and 667, with Alex in the middle being 666.

In Beetlejuice, I've always loved the part where they're dancing to Day-O and in the background, you can see Lydia cracking up. The camera never focuses on her, but it's a funny sight.

Along the same lines as eunoia mention of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, I like how in Willy Wonka you can cleary see the string on the glass elevator.

I probably have more, but have to think about it.

[lawoot]

In "Toy Story", the tool box that the evil kid next door has in his room is labelled for 'Binford'(or something like that)... anyway, it is the company that sponsor's 'Tool Time' on Tim Allen's "Home Improvement"

[Agrippina]

Originally posted by lawoot
In "Toy Story", the tool box that the evil kid next door has in his room is labelled for 'Binford'(or something like that)... anyway, it is the company that sponsor's 'Tool Time' on Tim Allen's "Home Improvement"

That just reminded me. In Toy Story 2, Jessie the Cowgirl says, "Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln!" The mother of Lincoln was Nancy Hanks, whom Tom Hanks (Woddy the Cowboy) is related to.

Wait...is that a "touch"?

[gobear]

Is that true? I always thought they were saying, "He is Jesus the Lord. Give it a rest."

Well, I don't have a copy here to check, but from memory, I'd swear they were chanting [i]Kyrie eleison, miserere Dominus", which translates to "Lord, have mercy" in Greek and Latin.

Which leads to a neat moment in A Fish Called Wanda, when the first little dog is being buried. The boy choristers are singing, Miserere, Dominus. Canis mortuus est, which translates as "Lord, have mercy, the dog is dead."

[Katisha]

The Monty Python monks are definitely saying Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem, which comes from the Requiem Mass and roughly translates to "Sweet Lord Jesus, give them rest." (Saw it at the movie theater yesterday -- woo-hoo!)

In Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, I always liked all the little Shakespeare references on the billboards: Prospero Fine Vintage Whiskey, a strip joint (I think) called Mistress Quickly's, and (my favorite) Rosencrantz's wiener stand.

[Finagle]

In Roxanne, the Steve Martin remake of Cyrano DeBergerac, Steve Martin's character, C.D., is supposed to be this incredibly bright, sophisticated, but insecure, Renaissance man (with an incredibly long schnozz). There's one scene where he and the hunky dolt Chris are in C.D.'s home that does a wonderful job of establishing C.D.'s character just by the set design. Steve Martin is casually whipping up some gourmet dinner while trying to get Chris to write a love letter, and in the process of panning through the room you get a view of books and models and art -- it's just obviously the room of someone who's smarter than the average bear.

[Sublight]

This may be a little dark, but Number Six reminded me of something I liked from Bodyguard from Beijing.

In so many movies, there's an annoying little kid who causes no end of trouble for the hero yet manages to waltz through the most dangerous situations without a scratch. In this movie, they shoot the kid! Not fatally, but in the big fight scene at the end, the little brat takes one in the leg. IIRC, he was even doing something annoying that caused him to get shot.

Now, I don't advocate violence in real life, especially against children, but this was such a change from so many other films I'd seen, I couldn't help enjoying it.

--sublight.

[ruadh]

In The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, the way that Helen Mirren's dress changes colors whenever she walks into a different room.

Actually, I could probably mention a lot of things in Peter Greenaway's films....

[occ]

Originally posted by eunoia
I'm not even sure if this was on purpose or not, but in Pee Wee's Big Adventure when Pee Wee gives a lift to the fugitive and their car careens out of control, there is a shot of the car going past some construction barriers. In this shot, you clearly see that the barriers are on wheels and being pulled towards the viewer to give the illusion that the car is moving away. What I thought was neat is that I never noticed it the first time, even though it's so obvious. It's so cheesy, but now it cracks me up every time.

I remember this part too, and theres another example from that movie thats in the same vein: near the beginning of the movie, when Pee-Wee goes to the shopping center and chains up his bike, he takes a ridiculous amount of chain out of the "saddlebag" on his bike (the gag being that theres no way he could have that much chain in the saddlebag). However, you can quite clearly see that the chain is really stored beneath the saddlebags, offscreen, and is being pulled up through a hole in the bottom. It's pretty obvious and HAD to be done intentionally.

[ToobaTeacher]

I just love that Hitchcock appeared in all of his films.

I also love it when big stars do a walk on, like many did for Robert Altman's brilliant spoof of Hollywood "The Player".

[Sultan Kinkari]

This isn't from a movie but I still thought it was neat.

In Madonna's What it Feels Like(for a girl) video, she slams the door to her motel room, #669; The 9 swings down(held only by the bottom nail) and the room # appears as 666. Very cool.

[robinh]

In the novel Silence of the Lambs, in the scene where Clarisse meets Hannibal, he makes a little speech about what he can tell about her from her appearance, citing her "cheap shoes and good handbag" and her "add-a-bead necklace." In the movie version, which follows the novel fairly closely, Hannibal doesn't use the "add-a-bead necklace" line, but Clarisse is wearing one. I liked that.

[Gilligan]

In Contact, when there were big crowds around the radio antenna facility, there was a Chevy Vega owners club in the crowd, which I thought was clever. May have been in the book, too, I haven't read it.

In Raiders, when they first open up the Well of Souls, Salla is scared by a carved head that gets lit up by lighning. Then he recovers with "Sorry, Indy."

In the final battle scene of Army of Darkness, Ash chops off a skeleton's head with his sword. The skeleton turns to watch his skull go flying. I don't know how they animated the skeletons for that movie - stop motion or whatever, but I just loved that they made a headless skeleton "look" at his own skull.

[Freudian Slit]

I always liked the "Objects in Mirror Are Closer..." in JP.
Another thing from JP which I didn't even notice until I went to the Internet Movie Database, is Dennis Nedry's name is an anagram for Nerdy Sinned. I guess that should be attributed more to the book, but still.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure- I really liked how at the end, when they're giving their presentation, they interview Freud. Freud "examines" Ted, and then asks Bill if he'd like to be psychologically examined, too. Bill responds, saying, "Nah, I just have a mild Oedipal complex" an the camera pans to Missy, his hot stepmom. The whole moment was really great for some reason. I liked that even though it's just a "fun" movie, they would include a term that not a lot of people might know. Not something they would do in a more recent flick, IMO.

[irishgirl]

i love the way the artwork in hana bi mirrors the action.
especially at the end.

and in another film (possibly called fish eyes, i'm not sure) about a gunman in glasses kitano appears in cameo as a dumb yakuza who buys the gun. the opposite of his usual character.

[Mofo Rising]

Originally posted by eunoia
I'm not even sure if this was on purpose or not, but in Pee Wee's Big Adventure when Pee Wee gives a lift to the fugitive and their car careens out of control, there is a shot of the car going past some construction barriers. In this shot, you clearly see that the barriers are on wheels and being pulled towards the viewer to give the illusion that the car is moving away. What I thought was neat is that I never noticed it the first time, even though it's so obvious. It's so cheesy, but now it cracks me up every time.

It wasn't intentional, unless they were willing to take the joke really far. Tim Burton and Paul Reubens discuss this scene and the bike chain scene in the commentary on the DVD. Burton says it was unintentional, but that the scene had been hailed by several critics as "showing the falsity of moviemaking" or somesuch remark. On the DVD the scenes have been edited so you can no longer see the flubs. A mistake in my book.

[Sam Stone]

Disney movies are full of self-references. In 'Tarzan', when the apes are trashing the camp the dinnerware set is the same as Angela Lansbury's Teapot in "Beauty and the Beast".

In "Aladdin", when the old sultan is making a tower of toy animals, mixed into the tower are various Disney characters.

In "Hercules", the scene where Herc becomes famous shows a bunch of kids buying toys at the "Hercules Store", which is a direct parody of Disney's own tendency to market the crap out of everything. Nice to see they could laugh at themselves.

In "Star Wars", when the Stormtrooper that Luke knocks out or kills to take his armor is called "THX 1138", which was the name of Lucas's first sf movie. Those letters appear in all kinds of Lucas films.

In 'An American Werewolf in London', the porn movie playing is called, "See you Next Wednesday". John Landis works that title into most of his movies, if I recall correctly. I can't remember why.

Then there are the wacky cameos... John Landis appears as a crazed Iranian in "After Dark". Steven Spielberg is the Cooke County Claims Adjuster at the end of "The Blues Brothers". And in the final jailhouse scene, the crazed convict dancing on the table is Joe Walsh.

[Miller]

I think that was Frank Oz, not Spielberg, as the claims adjustor in Blues Brothers.

One of my favorites is in the climax of Big Trouble in Little China, when Kurt Russel kisses Kim Catrell and gets her lipstick all over his mouth. It's there for the rest of the scene, including his dramatic show down with Lo Fong ("You're messing with Jack Burton now!" "Who?")

I also loved the scenes in zero g in Final Fantasy. Just can't do that sort of FX properly in a live action film.

[pldennison]

Originally posted by Miller
I think that was Frank Oz, not Spielberg, as the claims adjustor in Blues Brothers.

Nope, it was Spielberg. Frank Oz is the officer at Joliet who gives Belushi back his personal belongings at the beginning of the movie.

[silent_rob]

Originally posted by Mofo Rising
It wasn't intentional, unless they were willing to take the joke really far. Tim Burton and Paul Reubens discuss this scene and the bike chain scene in the commentary on the DVD. Burton says it was unintentional, but that the scene had been hailed by several critics as "showing the falsity of moviemaking" or somesuch remark. On the DVD the scenes have been edited so you can no longer see the flubs. A mistake in my book.

The scene with the bikechain (similar situation with the other scene, I believe), when originally shown in theaters, did not show the bikechain coming from below the basket, so the DVD actually didn't edit out the flubs, but restored that scene to what Tim Burton intended, and what was seen in theaters.
The way it worked was that when widescreen movies became popular, some theater owners, in an attempt to cash in on it, used "masking". So if a movie wasn't widescreen, they'd mask the top and bottom to change the aspect ratio to make it seem widescreen. Filmmakers generally hated this because it altered their original vision. However, some filmmakers used this, so they could shoot on cheaper film (with a different ratio from widescreen), but still show it in widescreen. Pee-wee's Big Adventure was one such film.
However, in Europe and on television, they use a different aspect ratio. The critics Burton was talking about in the commentary were in Europe (France, I believe). Burton had no idea the masking wouldn't work in Europe until he actually saw it at a screening, there.
The same thing happened with the subsequent TV showings and video releases of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Because they were shown in the format it was originally shot in (the same ratio as TV), they didn't bother pan-and-scanning the widescreen (because they didn't have to). So because it wasn't masked, you got to see the whole picture, and the bike-chain thing was revealed.
However, because many people have seen it this way for years, they think that's the way Burton originally had it in the theaters.

[Daniel]

Originally posted by Sam Stone
Disney movies are full of self-references. In 'Tarzan', when the apes are trashing the camp the dinnerware set is the same as Angela Lansbury's Teapot in "Beauty and the Beast".

Glen Keane, head animator for Tarzan, was also head animator for The Beast. So the the reference in Tarzan is a much stronger connection than simply a random Disney presence.

[Guinastasia]

In the movie A Time to Kill, when the racists rape the little girl, the camera angle is looking up at their faces, as they would appear to her, which is really disturbing.

In Anastasia, despite numerous inaccuracies, there are some little touches that stand out, such as:

-The picture she draws for her grandmother is an actual picture that the real Anastasia painted for her father.

-The figure of Alexandra dancing with Nicholas in the music box, and when Alexandra's ghost comes out of the painting, she is wearing mauve. Mauve was the real Alexandra's favorite color.

-The "Dream Waltz" scene-all of Anastasia's sisters look like the actual Grand Duchesses. Alexei's ghost limps-something the real Alexei did, as he suffered from hemophilia.

[Gundy]

There's a scene in the otherwise-mediocre Pacific Heights where one of the characters walks out the door of a hotel in the left side of the shot, then the camera changes focus to something in the foreground - a glass with only ice cubes, which right then shift and clink. It has nothing to do with the story as far as I can see but it's nifty to look at.

[Spoonbender]

In Pulp Fiction, in the scene where Vincent and Jules are carrying out their hit: while Jules is interrogating Brett, Vincent hangs back and smokes a cigarette - he knows that Jules likes to toy with his victims and that it'll be a few minutes before the shooting starts. Then, when Jules launches into his Ezekiel bit, Vincent (in the background) stubs out his cigarette and gets his gun ready - he knows that Jules' routine is almost finished.