I was watching a rather well-made (in my opinon) werewolf movie recently called Dog Soldiers. One of the characters had the improbable nickname (I assume it wasn’t his real name) of “Spoon.” It seemed like a rather silly name for a character.
Anyway, somewhere toward the middle of the movie Spoon is killed (sorry if this is a spoiler, but come on – this is a werewolf movie for Pete’s sake. The only spoiler would be who doesn’t die). Another character finds the body and, when asked where Spoon is, replies, “There is no Spoon.”
And yes, this movie was made after The Matrix.
So now I’m wondering – what other movies have you seen that reference (either directly or indirectly) other movies? And no, Gus van Sant’s “remake” of Psycho doesn’t count…
Go to [url=“http://www.imdb.com”]IMDB** and search for the movie of your choice. On the left-hand side, click where it says “Movie Connections.” The listing for Shrek is:
References
Three Little Pigs (1933)
Old Mill, The (1937)
Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
Dumbo (1941)
Cinderella (1950)
Peter Pan (1953)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Vertigo (1958)
West Side Story (1961)
“Star Trek” (1966)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) (TV)
Godfather, The (1972)
Superfly (1972)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
“When Things Were Rotten” (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Blues Brothers, The (1980)
Time Bandits (1981)
Poltergeist (1982)
Last Unicorn, The (1982)
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Trading Places (1983)
Unendliche Geschichte, Die (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
“Dragonball” (1986)
Highlander (1986)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
Babe (1995)
“Xena: Warrior Princess” (1995)
Super Mario 64 (1996) (VG)
Xiao Qian (1997)
Final Fantasy VII (1997) (VG)
Vita è bella, La (1997)
Mulan (1998)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The (1998) (VG)
Darkstalkers III (1998) (VG)
Gladiator (2000)
Wo hu cang long (2000)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Paper Mario (2001) (VG)
“Dragon Ball” (2001)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Spoofs
Frankenstein (1931)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938)
Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Cinderella (1950)
Peter Pan (1953)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
West Side Story (1961)
Mary Poppins (1964)
“Dating Game, The” (1965)
“Monkees, The” (1966)
Graduate, The (1967)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Return of the Pink Panther, The (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Ladyhawke (1985)
“WWF Prime-Time Wrestling” (1986)
Highlander (1986)
Spaceballs (1987)
Princess Bride, The (1987)
NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, The (1990)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Lion King, The (1994)
Riverdance: The Show (1995)
Babe (1995)
Rock, The (1996)
Independence Day (1996)
“Raw Is War” (1997)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Fifth Element, The (1997)
Mulan (1998)
Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, The (1998) (V)
Bug’s Life, A (1998)
Matrix, The (1999)
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Shanghai Noon (2000)
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
Knight’s Tale, A (2001)
Jonathan: Can you give specific cites? I know Shrek (and other movies) parodied the fighting style from the Matrix (the whole “Bullet Time” thing), but were there actual quotes used? And where in Batman was Citizen Kane referenced?
I do remember the “That’s not a moon – it’s a space station” quote from Twister.
I consider myself intimately familiar with two of these games, and familiar with the third. Does anyone happen to know what the Shrek references to them were?
All Kevin Smith movies - or at least the ones I saw: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - have Starwars quotations in them.
The scene in Sunset Blvd. where the producer Sheldrake, in reference to Gone With the Wind, says something along the lines of “who ever thought they [the movie-going public] would want to see a civil war picture?”
“There is no X,” where X is an obstacle, was a common pseudo-Zen movie phrase long before the Matrix. (“Ignore the pain, grasshopper. There is no pain!”) But I sure don’t remember “There is no spoon” before Kenau & co. came along.
Maybe on the Tick?
Back to movie references: I was just re-watching 12 Monkeys, and there’s a sequence where the two main characters are in a theatre watching Vertigo and discussing how that movie is like their current predicament.
This is followed by a sequence in the theatre lobby where Madaline Stowe surprises Bruce Willis by showing up in disguise. The scene where he takes her in his arms is a shot-for-shot recreation of the Vertigo scene where Jimmy Stewart gets his first look at Kim Novak 2.0 made up as Kim Novak 1.0. (Or rather the other way around. It’s confusing.)
In “Swingers”, the characters are sitting around a poker table talking about how directors steal from other directors (Tarantino stole from Scorsese, etc.) as the camera rips off, almost shot for shot, the opening sequence to “Reservoir Dogs” and then, after they complement the slow-mo walking scene from the credits in “Reservoir Dogs”, they walk down the street in a reproduction of that shot.
It’s rather amusing the first time you see it. After that, at least for me, the Average White Band song gets on my nerves far too much.
