# Best examples of movie 'title reveals'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491 "2006-08-12T22:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/21 "2006-08-13T12:35:21Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Mapp] _The Postman Always Rings Twice_. John Garfield’s character explains what this means at the very end of the movie. Oddly, the 1980s remark left this part out, so people who hadn’t seen the earlier version (like my young self) had no clue what the title meant. [/QUOTE] Correcting a typo for clarity’s sake: 1980s **remake**. And I’ve found the quote (which was not on IMDB, and which is a spoiler for the end of the movie): “You know, there’s something about this that’s like, well, it’s like you’re expecting a letter that you’re just crazy to get. And you hang around the front door for fear you might not hear him ring. You never realize that he always rings twice. … He rang twice for Cora. And now he’s ringing twice for me, isn’t he? … The truth is, you always hear him ring the second time, even if you’re way out in the back yard.” i.e., they didn’t get away with murder after all. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/22 "2006-08-13T12:58:22Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] **They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?**. Named for the final line of the film, and the perfect name for it. Not a movie, but Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” is a great example of the technique, once again taken from the final line. [/QUOTE] I think **Chinatown** would be another good example. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/23 "2006-08-13T14:16:58Z")
In the movie **Star Trek: First Contact** , Zephram Cochrane finally utters the words themselves, when he asks, “… and you’re all on some sort of star trek?” And of course, the first contact aspect is made clear by dialogue too. Not really a surprise, more of a self referencing. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/24 "2006-08-13T14:41:50Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] In the movie **Star Trek: First Contact** , Zephram Cochrane finally utters the words themselves, when he asks, “… and you’re all on some sort of star trek?” And of course, the first contact aspect is made clear by dialogue too. Not really a surprise, more of a self referencing. [/QUOTE] This was already used in the fourth Star Trek movie, _The Voyage Home_. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/25 "2006-08-13T15:18:35Z")
The Irish comedy “The Closer You Get” has a title that becomes apparent as the plot unfolds. (It’s about men at an isolated Irish village who place an ad in the Miami Herald inviting hot chicks to come there and marry some of the local bachelors. Of course, the women in the village find out about it almost immediately, and, well, stuff ensues.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/26 "2006-08-13T15:24:36Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] How did you miss this? Both Charlie and Raymond say it straight out. [/QUOTE] Actually, the reveal comes when Charlie’s running the bath in the hotel room and Raymond has his reaction (keeping the baby from going into too-hot water), when Charlie realizes that Rain Man was Raymond. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/27 "2006-08-13T15:45:51Z")
“The Thin Man” ---
**Author:** ![Alistair\_McCello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/28 "2006-08-13T16:11:17Z")
The first one that came to my mind, well the second one after _Silence of the Lambs_, would be _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_ when Mary reads the Pope line out of her book of quotations. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/29 "2006-08-13T16:29:20Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] As for movies, the only thing I can think of is Iron Eagle, where the title doesn’t get aluded to in the movie itself until after Chappie is shot down and Doug plays the tape Chappie recorded for such a scenario. [/QUOTE] But “Iron Eagle” is a movie about F-16s. The title literally references the movie’s subject. “Iron Eagle” pretty obviously refers to fighter jets; it’s not quite as literal as Snakes on a Plane, but it’s close. The book before “Silence of the Lambs,” “Red Dragon,” refers to a watercolor with which the murderer is obsessed, which you find out about halfway through. (I’ve seen the painting. It’s creepy.) Less than clear titles from among the best movies ever: Fargo North by Northwest The Last Picture Show Brazil Blade Runner ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/30 "2006-08-13T16:52:32Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Actually, the reveal comes when Charlie’s running the bath in the hotel room and Raymond has his reaction (keeping the baby from going into too-hot water), when Charlie realizes that Rain Man was Raymond. [/QUOTE] No. He realizes that he was “the baby”, but it’s not until Raymond goes into his “bye bye Rain Man” bit that Charlie realizes Raymond was Rain Man. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/31 "2006-08-13T16:59:07Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] But “Iron Eagle” is a movie about F-16s. The title literally references the movie’s subject. “Iron Eagle” pretty obviously refers to fighter jets; it’s not quite as literal as Snakes on a Plane, but it’s close. [/QUOTE] Maybe, but the nitpicker in my head points out that the most obvious plane for “Iron Eagle” to refer to would be the F-15 Eagle (Refered to by F-16 pilots as “The Flying Tennis Court”), while the F-16 is the Fighting Falcon (called “The Viper” by it’s pilots, or the “Lawn Dart” by all the other Air Force pilots) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/32 "2006-08-13T17:13:10Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] This was already used in the fourth Star Trek movie, _The Voyage Home_. [/QUOTE] It was? Where? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/33 "2006-08-13T17:16:34Z")
[QUOTE=FilmGeek] It was? Where? [/QUOTE] I’ll tell you exactly just as soon as I get the urge to rewatch the film, but if memory serves the whale scientist says it to Kirk. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/34 "2006-08-13T18:02:10Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] I’ll tell you exactly just as soon as I get the urge to rewatch the film, but if memory serves the whale scientist says it to Kirk. [/QUOTE] I don’t think Gillian actually said the exact phrase “star trek.” I seem to recall that the words were spaced out among other words in her question. I, too, would have to actually watch the scene again (the pizza restaurant, right?) to get the exact quote and I don’t own this movie. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/35 "2006-08-13T19:37:09Z")
There’s a Vietnam war movie called _Go Tell The Spartans_ that was like this - the link fro Thermopylae to Vietnam wasn’t obvious just lookin at the movie blurb. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/36 "2006-08-13T20:05:13Z")
Life is Beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/37 "2006-08-13T22:06:20Z")
_Flowers for Algernon_ (changed for the movie). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/38 "2006-08-13T22:07:41Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] No. He realizes that he was “the baby”, but it’s not until Raymond goes into his “bye bye Rain Man” bit that Charlie realizes Raymond was Rain Man. [/QUOTE] Ah. It’s been a while since I saw the movie, so I was probably wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Petey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f1d935/32.png) [@Petey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petey)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/39 "2006-08-13T22:14:42Z")
“A Bridge Too Far” is another movie where the title is the last line of dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491/40 "2006-08-13T23:11:41Z")
Aw, **Howash** , ya big tease. Go ahead and spoiler it. Does the prisoner give the Marine the information he needs, when they’re talking about blueberry pancakes? Yes, I _know_ he said it was an entirely hypothetical example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-examples-of-movie-title-reveals/368491.md?page=3)