Best examples of movie 'title reveals'?

Cafe Society
21

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.

22

I think Chinatown would be another good example.

23

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.

24

This was already used in the fourth Star Trek movie, The Voyage Home.

25

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.)

26

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.

27

“The Thin Man”

28

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.

29

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

30

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.

31

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) :smiley:

32

It was? Where?

33

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.

34

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.

35

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.

36

Life is Beautiful.

37

Flowers for Algernon (changed for the movie).

38

Ah. It’s been a while since I saw the movie, so I was probably wrong.

39

“A Bridge Too Far” is another movie where the title is the last line of dialogue.

40

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.