# Movies that tell you what's going to happen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262 "2016-06-01T23:35:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/1 "2016-06-01T23:35:46Z")
I don’t mean movies where the plot is foreshadowed or predictable or by the numbers. I mean one where the characters literally tell you, in dialog, what’s going to happen in the rest of the movie. I was watching _Moulin Rouge_ the other evening, and I was delighted at _The Pitch_ song, where they sing a song explaining exactly what’s going to happen in the movie. Another movie that did this recently (not in musical form) was _The Interview_. What are others? Please, no plot spoilers (presumably, by the time you get to the appropriate scene in the movie, it’s going to spoil itself for you). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/2 "2016-06-01T23:44:07Z")
I suppose you could say that the original _The Producers_ lays out the entire film within the first few minutes when Wilder’s Leo Blum tells Mostel’s Max Bialystock the whole premise. Not sure if they did this in the stage play or the film version of the play, I haven’t seen either. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/3 "2016-06-01T23:49:01Z")
Shoot 'Em Up. There’s almost no plot. All you need to know is right there in the title. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/4 "2016-06-02T00:07:14Z")
The Princess Bride. The Grandson: Has it got any sports in it? Grandpa: Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/5 "2016-06-02T00:18:11Z")
_Sunset Blvd._ begins with the narrator face down and fully dressed and dead in a swimming pool. (Not a spoiler because it is literally the first scene in the movie.) _American Beauty_ begins with a main character telling you he is going to be dead soon. A novel but I’ll mention it anyway: in _Breakfast of Champions_, Vonnegut told you but he explicitly what’s going to happen several times. (There is a movie version as well, but it is unwatchable. ) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/6 "2016-06-02T00:21:57Z")
_Memento_ begins with the final scene of the movie, and then works backwards. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/7 "2016-06-02T00:50:50Z")
I haven’t seen it, but a complaint I’ve read about A Few Good Men is that Cruise’s character lays out a strategy for the final scene, which then plays out exactly as he describes. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/8 "2016-06-02T00:50:56Z")
“Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.” Pretty sure that was in a movie at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/9 "2016-06-02T00:56:31Z")
_Love Story_ begins with Oliver talking about Jenny completely in the past tense. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/10 "2016-06-02T01:20:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > A novel but I’ll mention it anyway: in _Breakfast of Champions_, Vonnegut told you but he explicitly what’s going to happen several times. IIRC, in _Galapagos_ he puts asterisks by the names of the characters who are going to die in the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/11 "2016-06-02T01:33:45Z")
The book John Dies In The End tells you. When I read the thread title, I thought of True Lies when Arnold’s character is given truth serum and tells them exactly what he’s going to do. But that was just one scene, not the whole movie. ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/12 "2016-06-02T01:45:15Z")
Obliquely, The Prestige. Cutter: Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”." Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/13 "2016-06-02T01:48:23Z")
At the beginning of **Shaun of the Dead** , Ed says this while suggesting they get drunk to help Shaun get over Liz: “Bloody Mary first thing, bite at The Kings Head, couple at The Little Princess, stagger back here, back at the bar for shots.” That’s exactly what happens. [Screenshot, also a spoiler](https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2013/08/Shaun-Foreshadowing.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/14 "2016-06-02T02:17:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Sunset Blvd._ begins with the narrator face down and fully dressed and dead in a swimming pool. (Not a spoiler because it is literally the first scene in the movie.) That’s a movie told in flashback, as was Citizen Kane. I don’t think they’re telling you what’s going to happen, just where the story ends up. You watch the movie to see how you get there. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/15 "2016-06-02T02:39:17Z")
> [@porcupine](#): > > Obliquely, The Prestige. It’s a really clever meta-narrative. The narrative is set up to mimic the structure of the illusions they’re performing, after a fashion. It’s pretty clever. I strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it. ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/16 "2016-06-02T02:49:53Z")
The prophecy in the first Tim Burton _Alice in Wonderland_ movie. It wasn’t even a cryptic prophecy, it pretty much told the audience how the movie would end. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/17 "2016-06-02T04:10:44Z")
At the beginning of _Machete Kills_, there’s a trailer for the movie _Machete Kills_, that’s just so over the top and silly that you’re like, “Yeah right.” And then that’s the movie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/18 "2016-06-02T04:15:34Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > At the beginning of **Shaun of the Dead** , Ed says this while suggesting they get drunk to help Shaun get over Liz: > > “Bloody Mary first thing, bite at The Kings Head, couple at The Little Princess, stagger back here, back at the bar for shots.” > > That’s exactly what happens. [Screenshot, also a spoiler](https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2013/08/Shaun-Foreshadowing.jpg) Also the names of the 12 bars of the “Golden Mile” in The World’s End basically outline the entire plot. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/19 "2016-06-02T04:19:07Z")
Not a film, but in Game of Thrones, Bronn basically lays out how the battle between The Mountain and Prince Obberon is going to play out: "I’d be a bloody fool if he didn’t frighten me. He’s freakish big and freakish strong. And quicker than you’d expect for a man of that size. **Maybe I could take him, dance around until he’s so tired of hacking at me, he dropped his sword, get him off his feet somehow. But one misstep…[snaps fingers] and I’m dead."** ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262/20 "2016-06-02T04:22:29Z")
Well, near the end of _Lord of War_, Nicholas Cage tells a character “now let me tell you what is going to happen”, and it does. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-tell-you-whats-going-to-happen/756262.md?page=2)