# Little moments where the movie \*hasn't\* spelled everything out for the audience. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725 "2019-07-27T18:58:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/21 "2019-07-29T22:23:54Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > What about Valkyrie and the Asgardians? The Ravagers (I assume the spaceships were Ravagers)? The Wasp? Pepper? And Strange organized the whole thing while still on Titan - he had to contact all the wizards, explain the situation to them, assign their tasks, have _them_ contact the people they were mobilizing, explain the situation to _them_, wait for them to line up before the portal… Organizing that many people that fast may sound easy, but it really isn’t. There’s a reason professionals study logistics. > > I’m not saying it counln’t be done, I’m just saying it was perhaps the most impressive feat performed that day. Don’t forget he had several million tries to get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/22 "2019-07-30T04:27:56Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I love that at the end of _Avengers:Endust,_ they send Cap back to “return the stones to the moment they were taken”. > > Ye gods, that’d be another three hours of screen time, multiple dramatic “heist” moments, and a lot of fanwanking (how do you put one back in Loki’s sceptre, or the destroyed tessaract, and into Jane Foster)? > > And they just do it all off-camera, no explanations, and it only takes the viewer thirty seconds to learn “Yep, all done, along with forty years of other stuff.” “Ok, cool.” …interestingly this came out last week: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4vjs_0CoRs4/maxresdefault.jpg "How Captain America Should Have Returned The Stones") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vjs_0CoRs4) (How Avengers should have ended) I had never actually thought about what it would take to return the stones until your post, then watching the video made me realize that the whole process would be infinately more complicated than I originally thought! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/23 "2019-07-30T04:32:46Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > I had never actually thought about what it would take to return the stones until your post, then watching the video made me realize that the whole process would be infinately more complicated than I originally thought! Yes, I assume he visited Red Skull back at the Soul Stone location. Must have been neat. ---
**Author:** ![Smitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/24 "2019-07-30T13:49:01Z")
Not a movie, but from **Doctor Who** - “But if the time lock’s broken then everything’s coming through; not just the Daleks but the Skaros Degradations; the Horde of Travesties; the Nightmare Child; the Could’ve Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres…” A entire list of things that we’ve never seen or heard of before that seems to make the Doctor nervous as much as the Daleks. That’s kind of terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/25 "2019-07-30T15:37:43Z")
Also with the Doctor: the Terrible Zodin, which has often been mentioned as his foe, but has never appeared in the series. There is a conceit that the Doctor has visited many places outside of the TV and other adventures. In the movie “Phantom Boy,” the villain (The Man with the Crooked Face) whose face looks like a Picasso cubist painting, tries to tell the story of how he got that way. He’s always interrupted, so we never find out. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/26 "2019-07-30T16:21:47Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I love that at the end of _Avengers:Endust,_ they send Cap back to “return the stones to the moment they were taken”. > > Ye gods, that’d be another three hours of screen time, multiple dramatic “heist” moments, and a lot of fanwanking (how do you put one back in Loki’s sceptre, or the destroyed tessaract, and into Jane Foster)? > > And they just do it all off-camera, no explanations, and it only takes the viewer thirty seconds to learn “Yep, all done, along with forty years of other stuff.” “Ok, cool.” Imagine what that experiance was like from Jane Foster’s POV. She gets sucked into a protal to an alien world; infected with the Aether; taken by her God-Boyfiend to another alien planet to meet his God-Parents; attacked by a crazed, talking raccoon and having the Aether forcably removed, only to be attcked by Captain Freaking America seconds later to put it BACK IN; and then still have to go through the rest of the plot to Thor: The Dark World. No wonder she and Thor broke up ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/27 "2019-07-30T16:54:31Z")
The movie **Primer** is like that, all the way through. It’s a time-machine flick, but you pretty much discover all of the weirdness as the guys in the film do, and it’s up to you to interpret what is happening. I really liked this style–it was thought provoking–but there were so many loose ends that I had to resort to finding a site that provided the explanations for everything. On a tangent, the **Godfather** movies I and II did this to some extent not by intent, but because they omitted so much of the source material. Readers of the original book see hints at cut scenes all throughout the movies. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/28 "2019-07-30T21:23:50Z")
In the Ocean’s Trilogy (2000’s version Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13), the crew frequently discuss the names of various cons they are considering pulling. Some are real, some are made up, but none are ever explained. It is left to the audience to go and look up what a “Billy Martin” is, or a “Crazy Larry” or “the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever”. Or wait for someone else [to compile a list](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-names-and-meanings-of-all-the-cons-in-the-Oceans-movie-trilogy) ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/29 "2019-07-30T21:52:49Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > In the Ocean’s Trilogy (2000’s version Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13), the crew frequently discuss the names of various cons they are considering pulling. Some are real, some are made up, but none are ever explained. It is left to the audience to go and look up what a “Billy Martin” is, or a “Crazy Larry” or “the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever”. Similarly there’s a somewhat obscure George Clooney/Sam Rockwell movie called **Welcome to Collinwood** in which all of the characters, who are all small-time crooks, use a vocabulary of old-timey sounding criminal slang like “Bellini” (a perfect heist) and “Mullinski” (someone who confess to your crime and will do your prison time in exchange for money) throughout the film. None of it is ever explicitly explained, you have to figure out what they mean on your own. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/30 "2019-07-30T21:56:24Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > In the Ocean’s Trilogy (2000’s version Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13), the crew frequently discuss the names of various cons they are considering pulling. Some are real, some are made up, but none are ever explained. It is left to the audience to go and look up what a “Billy Martin” is, or a “Crazy Larry” or “the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever”. > Or wait for someone else [to compile a list](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-names-and-meanings-of-all-the-cons-in-the-Oceans-movie-trilogy) The Princess Bride has this exchange: Inigo Montoya: You are using Bonetti’s Defense against me, ah? Man in Black: I thought it fitting considering the rocky terrain. Inigo: Naturally, you must suspect me to attack with Capa Ferro? Man in Black: Naturally, but I find that Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro. Don’t you? Inigo: Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa… which I have. All real people, though not necessarily showing their actual techniques. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/31 "2019-07-30T22:44:36Z")
There’s a _lot_ of this in Tarantino movies, but my favorite “little bit that you were supposed to get” comes in Kill Bill vol. 1, the motorcycle scene. The Bride pulls up to the stoplight, next to Oren Ishii’s henchwoman Sofie Fatale. The bride looks over as Sofie’s phone rings a very familiar tune, seeing her pick it up and talking Japanese to the person on the other end. There’s a (anime) flashback to the murders at the beginning of the movie where you now see, clearly, that Sofie Fatale was there as well. The Bride, shaken, roars off, running a stoplight. What wasn’t explained: That the Bride had amnesia regarding Sofie Fatale’s presence until she heard the cell phone tone. How you are supposed to understand this is the case: The tune Sofie’s cell phone played? _Auld Lang Syne_. The words to the part of the tune which was playing? “Of auld acquaintance we forgot…” ---
**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:** [July 31, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/32 "2019-07-31T12:15:06Z")
> [@Smitty](#): > > Not a movie, but from **Doctor Who** - > > “But if the time lock’s broken then everything’s coming through; not just the Daleks but the Skaros Degradations; the Horde of Travesties; the Nightmare Child; the Could’ve Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres…” > > A entire list of things that we’ve never seen or heard of before that seems to make the Doctor nervous as much as the Daleks. That’s kind of terrifying. I actually started a thread about lines like the one you quoted, including that very line: [Favorite Sci-Fi Mumbo-Jumbo](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=694817). However, I do think there’s a difference between things we the viewers are _supposed_ to understand ourselves, which is what this thread is about, and things we _have no way_ of understanding ourselves, which is what the linked thread was about. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/33 "2019-07-31T14:42:14Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > What wasn’t explained: That the Bride had amnesia regarding Sofie Fatale’s presence until she heard the cell phone tone. > How you are supposed to understand this is the case: The tune Sofie’s cell phone played? _Auld Lang Syne_. The words to the part of the tune which was playing? “Of auld acquaintance we forgot…” I thought that was pretty clear without knowing what the song was. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/34 "2019-08-02T00:05:19Z")
Schindlers List. The whole movie was a warning to the world and a statement to the world. But that one moment of the Jewish Police – that was for people who knew the history, and that was speaking to them. And now for something completely diferent: “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” I loved it when the Blue Blaze Irregular helicopter just appears and drops a ladder to him. Of course there is a helicopter 🙂 Some of my friends who like to have everything spelled out just found that irritating. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/35 "2019-08-02T00:10:37Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Shaun of the Dead never explains the zombie plague, because the main characters are completely disinterested in learning about it. It’s been a while since I saw it. But, I remember a scene with a TV newscast in the background. We hear about a new and impressive satellite leaking radiation that is having strange effects. BTW I feel that Shaun Of The Dead has the most realistic zombie apocalypse. Things are bad for a bit. Then, the military gets rid of the undead hordes. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/36 "2019-08-02T02:15:48Z")
Trading Places. The ending is still unclear what exactly is happening, all you know is that Dan and Eddie have the real information and the Duke brothers have fake info. Somehow they make a mint when the real report is broadcast by buying stock after it happens. I know this has been explained but it is really not clear how they are making so much money. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/37 "2019-08-02T05:35:12Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > It’s been a while since I saw it. But, I remember a scene with a TV newscast in the background. We hear about a new and impressive satellite leaking radiation that is having strange effects. > > BTW I feel that Shaun Of The Dead has the most realistic zombie apocalypse. Things are bad for a bit. Then, the military gets rid of the undead hordes. I think there are other contradictory stories? Yeah, zombie movies rely on people holding the idiot ball a lot of times. 28 whatever Later were pretty realistic too, I think. > [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Trading Places. The ending is still unclear what exactly is happening, all you know is that Dan and Eddie have the real information and the Duke brothers have fake info. Somehow they make a mint when the real report is broadcast by buying stock after it happens. I know this has been explained but it is really not clear how they are making so much money. It’s pretty clear, but requires specific knowledge. They basically sell stock they don’t actually hold when the price is high by promising to buy it at a future date when the price is ?. It’s a very risky bet, but helped by them learning about plans earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/38 "2019-08-02T14:23:04Z")
In the 1984 version of “Dune”, Paul apparently makes it rain. That’s not in the book, weather control is not one of Paul’s stated abilities in either the book nor the movie, and it’s done without any explanation whatsoever. It seems to exist ONLY so that Alya can say that Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach (Well, that was a totally inane and irrelevant because weather control also isn’t a stated ability of the Kwisatz Haderach, which only means that he can access genetic memory, not turn into Storm from the X-Men. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/39 "2019-08-02T14:50:06Z")
I was like, “man, those worms are _fucked_.” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725/40 "2019-08-02T22:20:26Z")
In the movie adaption of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, they never explain how Remus Lupin and Sirius Black know about the Marauders Map, and (nor does Harry even bother to ask). That annoys the hell out of me. Otherwise, it would probably be my favorite movie of the whole series. They, along with Harry’s father and Peter Pettigrew, were the ones who created the Map in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-moments-where-the-movie-hasnt-spelled-everything-out-for-the-audience/837725.md?page=3)