IIRC, something similar happened in an episode of Boardwalk Empire. The sniper was the disfigured WWI vet who wore a mask to hide his wounds.
It was definitely that way in the book - the plane had been hit by flak, but was still flyable, and the gunner (Snowden) had been injured. Yossarian spent some time dressing wounds on his arms, legs etc, which looked relatively superficial. And then he discovers the awful truth.
You know, I don’t understand why people were so shocked by the ending of Planet of the Apes. It was a great visual, and a perfect spot to end the film, but shocking? There were humans there, and apes! Everyone was speaking English! Of course they were on Earth the whole time; it had never occurred to me that they might not be.
I watched this a couple weeks ago. I didn’t see it when it was released but of course I had seen parts of it through the years. I was also surprised that the ending had been such a shocker. The fact that it was Earth was obvious through the whole movie. But then I started thinking that people weren’t as sophisticated about science fiction movies back then. There hadn’t been any other big movies about encountering humanoid life on other planets. So this novel idea made it easy to handwave the fact that everyone spoke English and there were people, apes, guns, horses.
Subtle, but shocking in a “something bad’s about to happen” kind of way: Regan saying, “you’re gonna die up there”, then peeing on the floor, in The Exorcist.
Good mention. I saw it in the theater, and it freaked out the audience. I saw a video on YouTube that lists that as the #1 movie jumpscare.
Not a movie, but from TV: I was shocked beyond belief the first time I saw the ST: TOS episode “Shore Leave.” If you know the show, you know the moment I’m talking about.
McCoy takes a lance through the heart? WTF?!? They’re killing off a major character? Can’t be! 
(I was 16 at the time and had only been a Trek fan for a few months. Damned right I was surprised!)
Exactly. People were used to films like Forbidden Planet were humans traveled to alien worlds. No one raises this objection to the Twilight Zone episode where the exact same thing happened (and Serling was a scriptwriter for Planet of the Apes).
A common conceit in SF when Planet of the Apes came out was of the alien planet that is “just like Earth except for just one thing”. I probably saw it on TV before I was 10 so I don’t really remember if I was shocked by the reveal, but I can imagine the ending being a surprise to 1968 audiences.
Not really shocking except in a good way … when the first Star Wars movie came out in the 1970s, the scene in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon where they made the first jump to lightspeed. Everyone in my move theatre gasped and then cheered.
Another “good” one - I seem to remember much more of those! One of the early James Bond moves with Roger Moore, the introductory scene before the credits. He was on skis and escaping pursuit, and skied right over a cliff. A parachute opens - patterned with the Union Jack! Again everyone in the cinema cheered (I am in the UK so it was to be expected!)
(OK actually you got it right but any excuse for a bit of Alan Partridge)
Really? Deep Blue Sea? I saw that on a small screen and even so the clumsy cut to the obvious “green screen” scene mixed with the monologue he was doing made me immediately think, well, that it’s for him. However I think Sam is the only actor to be eaten by a shark and a dinosaur, so that’s an interesting bit of movie trivia.
In the original Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb when Slim Pickens as Major Kong is going through the contents of the Evasion and Survival kit he comments, “Shoot. A guy could have a pretty good time in Dallas with all this.”
The movie was to be released in December, 1963. In November they had that little incident with JFK. Luckily there was enough time to dub “Vegas” over “Dallas.”
Yes, really. That’s the first example I thought of for this thread.
Maybe this is another example of how something that worked when the film was made doesn’t work as well today, because our expectations have changed. Or maybe you’re more sophisticated than the average moviegoer, doesn’t think about “obvious green screen scenes” while getting caught up in a movie. But the scene seems to have worked for Rober Ebert—I assume that’s the one he was talking about when he wrote:
It was surprising because he was right in the middle of his monologue. If he were going to be eaten, in a typical film it would be after he had finished his monologue, and turned to the port. And no, most people aren’t carefully watching horror movies for green screens (because that takes all the fun out of it).
My hazy memory of the first time I saw the film, the moment where everyone (including me) gasped than cheered was, “Use the Force, Luke” (when the deceased Obi-Wan’s disembodied voice advises Luke during the trench run on the Death Star). It’s become a cliche, and worse, a meme, but at the time, it was truly surprising.
I hated the connotations for the Star Wars universe but a certain light-speed jump in Star Wars episode 8 brought genuine shock and awe to the audience.
I saw the movie before I had a chance to hear any spoilers. I was already guessing at the outcome but was still shocked.
THIS. As a child, it scared the hell out of me. I used to hide behind the chair in my living room when it came on, much to the amusement of my sister, three years younger.
As an adult, I still find it unsettling.
Hmm, fair point. I’m not looking for green screens either, but that one was just so glaringly obvious, it was impossible to ignore. It couldn’t have been clearer if he were wearing a “Dead Man Monologuing” t-shirt with Steam in the background singing, “Na na, hey hey …”