I didn’t want to give away the ending with a too detailed explanation of how the postman rang twice for the couple in question. That is, however, the quote as I found it; I don’t have the movie to check it exactly and if someone has a more extensive version, I’ll stand corrected.
In the book **One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest **, the Chief remembers a rhyme his grandmother taught him about (I think) geese - “One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”. There’s this whole theory about Nurse Ratched and McMurphy being two of the birds and the Chief being the one stuck in the middle, pulled both ways, but in my mind, I always thought the “Cuckoo’s Nest” just referred to the asylum.
In Apocalypse Now, I seem to recall it painted on something at some point in the movie, like “Our motto is: apocalypse now”, which I only noticed on the third or fourth viewing of the movie.
And I’ve not seen Midnight Cowboy so I don’t know about that.
The Stand. The title seems to be apropos of nothing until:
Mother Abagail tells Stuart, Glen, Ralph and Larry that they have to go west to make a stand against the Dark Man.
For fairly obvious reasons (if you’ve seen the films):
The Wicker Man
The Last of the Mohicans
The Crime of M. Lange
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
The Naked Kiss
Koyaanisqatsi
And to a lesser degree (references made mid-way through the films):
The Lady Eve
Passion Fish
Ashes and Diamonds
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
And even more opaque examples:
American Beauty
Magnolia
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
How about Mr Holland’s Opus? I think it’s obvious by the end that the title doesn’t refer to the music he’s been writing throughout the film.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen either, but it seems that both Vanilla Sky and The Ghost and The Darkness would fit.
Jacqueline Susann must have loved doing this. She has Valley of the Dolls, The Love Machine, and Once is Not Enough.
Junebug takes its title from the name that Amy Adams’ character intends to give to her unborn child.
The Day After Tomorrow. I love this title. The phrase in the film is never spoken in the film, but it just refers to the idea that the events could happen sooner than we think.
Ghost in the Shell. Sounds at first like a nonsensical (yet cool) title for a futuristic police procedural, but makes more sense as the movie’s main plot and theme become clear.
Whoops, gotta strike the first “in the film.”