# If you play it backwards.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945 "2009-04-13T15:42:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmosdes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cmosdes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmosdes)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/1 "2009-04-13T15:42:28Z")
If you play “Lord of the Rings” backwards… you get a story of a little mad man who finds a ring in a volcano and walks home with it, gaining more serenity as he goes. If you play “Rambo” backwards… you get a story of a man who uses his vacuum gun to miraculously pull bullets out of people and heal them. If you play “Matrix” backwards… you get a movie about a guy who decides to ditch the resistance and go take an office job. Note: All of the above shamelessly stolen from various places around the net. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/2 "2009-04-13T15:45:52Z")
If you play “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” backwards, you get a very ordinary and slightly dull movie. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/3 "2009-04-13T15:47:31Z")
If you watch the Original Star Wars backwards, you get a story about a guy who retires from fighting with space ships and light swords to go live in the desert. (Isn’t that what the 3rd prequel was about too?) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/4 "2009-04-13T15:51:43Z")
If you play Time After Time backwards, you get the story of a genius who responds to modern violence by going back in time to the simpler age of Victorian England and Jack the Ripper. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/5 "2009-04-13T16:01:32Z")
**Friday the 13th** (any of them) - Jason comes back from the dead, and so do at least a dozen teenagers who step back from having sex, put their clothes on, walk out of the woods and back into the camp, and finally go home to their parents houses. ---
**Author:** ![cmosdes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cmosdes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmosdes)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/6 "2009-04-13T16:13:44Z")
If you play “Jerry Maguire” backwards… you get a movie about an independent agent of a single player who decides to join a much larger firm. If you play “Dances with Wolves” backwards… you get a movie about a man who, having lived with Indians for quite some time, decides to go back to “his own people” and join the US military. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/7 "2009-04-13T16:17:07Z")
If you play _Memento_ backwards, you get a movie that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/8 "2009-04-13T16:37:15Z")
If you play _Guys and Dolls_ backwards, you get two couples breaking up. One of the women returns to her roots as a Christian missionary, while the other becomes a dancer in a nightclub. Both of the men remain friends and become successful professional gamblers. If you play _Scent of a Woman_ backwards, Col. Slade rips a strip off the Baird School over its treatment of Charlie for witnessing a prank. Then, having made sure Charlie gets his scholarship to an Ivy League college, he and Charlie celebrate by heading off to New York for some adventures. Afterwards, they head home: Charlie returns to school, and Col. Slade returns to his garage, where he smokes cigars and listens to the radio. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/9 "2009-04-13T17:28:28Z")
If you play _Requiem for a Dream_ backwards, you get a heartwarming story about four people who beat their harrowing drug addictions and go on to lead happy, fulfilling lives. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/10 "2009-04-13T17:33:05Z")
If you play The Blues Brothers backwards, you see two guys get released from prision as a reward for saving a Catholic Orphanage… ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/11 "2009-04-13T17:37:26Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > If you play The Blues Brothers backwards, you see two guys get released from prision as a reward for saving a Catholic Orphanage.. Don’t you mean “released _into_ prison?” ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/12 "2009-04-13T17:41:52Z")
If you play Eraserhead backwards, you get a weird plotless thing that makes no sense whatsoever. Oh wait… If you play My Cousin Vinny backwards you get the story of two murder suspects who put a can of tuna on a store shelf while on their way to New York. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/13 "2009-04-13T17:45:46Z")
If you play Gone With The Wind backwards, you get the tale of poor people who fight a war for slavery, and then get rich by having slaves. If you play Casablanca backwards, you get the tale of a guy who leaves the French Resisance and the woman he loves to open a little bar in some god forsaken desert. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/14 "2009-04-13T17:51:43Z")
If you played **Forward to the Past** : You get the story of Marty McFly as he’s sucked backwards through a vortex into 1955. He then proceeds to single handidly screw up his entire family’s history until every life he touches is destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/15 "2009-04-13T17:52:59Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > If you play The Blues Brothers backwards, you see two guys get released from prision as a reward for saving a Catholic Orphanage.. I interpreted it as 2 guys sent to prison for stealing the orphanage’s tax money. If you play _3:10 to Yuma_ backward, you have a lot of angry people who just don’t want that guy to get off the train. If you watch _Burn After Reading_ backward, you see that would have been better to off to _Burn After Writing_. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/16 "2009-04-13T18:19:09Z")
If you watch Spartacus backwards, you see the Romans rescue Spartacus from near death, give him on the job training as an army general, and then retire him to a gladiator village. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/17 "2009-04-13T18:27:47Z")
If you play country music backwards, you get your woman back, your dog back, your job back… If you play new age music backwards, you get new age music. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/18 "2009-04-13T18:40:17Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > If you play country music backwards, you get your woman back, your dog back, your job back… > > If you play new age music backwards, you get new age music. You are a brilliant person! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/19 "2009-04-13T18:54:22Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > If you play “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” backwards, you get a very ordinary and slightly dull movie. Actually you get a story of a man who lives his life in an odd world where everyone around him gets younger as he grows older. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945/20 "2009-04-13T19:51:46Z")
if you play **The Departed** backwards, Marky Mark touches off an epidemic of shambling zombie cops! If you play **Ghost World** backwards, Thora Birch shows up on a Bus from Nowhere and carefully repairs every relationship in her life. Early on, she gets Steve Buscemi a job and screws his brains out shortly thereafter. I love this gal! If you play **Raising Arizona** backwards, Nicholas Cage steals a football from some kid, sneaks him out a window after a lengthy conversation with his dad, rescues a scary biker and gives money and diapers to a string of convenience stores. If you play **Monk** backwards, Adrian springs a guy out of jail, tells him how to commit an ingenious crime, and then goes to therapy while it happens. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-play-it-backwards/492945.md?page=2)