# Movies where a character acknowledges they are in a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809 "2006-12-04T14:34:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/1 "2006-12-04T14:34:34Z")
For example, Ferris Bueller address the audience directly several times, acknowledging that he is in a movie. Also, in Goldmember, Micheal York tells the audience something to the effect of “don’t think about continuity errors, just enjoy the movie”. Are there many other examples of this? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/2 "2006-12-04T14:39:23Z")
Do you count movies about the characters making a movie, e.g., Silent Movie and Ma Femme est une Actrice? ---
**Author:** ![Corporate\_Hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/65b543/32.png) [@Corporate\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corporate_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/3 "2006-12-04T14:49:08Z")
In **Kiss Kiss Bang Bang** , the whole movie is narrated by a self-referencing narrator that makes several allusions to the fact that it’s a movie. He even apologizes for sloppy narration, plot cliches, and and a drawn out ending (“I promise this movie won’t end like Lord of the Rings”). In **Fight Club** , at the end, the main character makes a subtle allusion to the fact. Since most of the movie is a flashback prompted by Tyler Durden asking the protagonist at gunpoint if he has anything to say, at the end when the movie returns to the present the protagonist answers that he still can’t think of anything, Durden chuckles and says “ah, flashback humor.” There are a bunch more, I just can’t think of them at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/4 "2006-12-04T15:01:18Z")
**Top Secret!** - As Nick and Hillary are floating to earth in parachutes, there is a bit of dialogue that goes like this: \ ***Nick Rivers:** Listen to me Hillary. I’m not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground. **Hillary Flammond:** I know. It all sounds like some bad movie. \* [Long pause. Both look at camera] ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/5 "2006-12-04T15:03:00Z")
Hope/ Crosby Road To movies. Frequent references. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. At the end, hearing their awful playing, the time traveler turns to the audience and says “They do get better.” ---
**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:** [December 4, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/6 "2006-12-04T15:03:26Z")
**The Blair Witch Project.** ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/7 "2006-12-04T15:03:35Z")
_Blazing Saddles_ _Wayne’s World_ _The Great Muppet Caper_ ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/8 "2006-12-04T15:24:32Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] For example, Ferris Bueller address the audience directly several times, acknowledging that he is in a movie. Also, in Goldmember, Micheal York tells the audience something to the effect of “don’t think about continuity errors, just enjoy the movie”. Are there many other examples of this? [/QUOTE] This is called “breaking the fourth wall.” One of my favorites (even if it does take you out of the film) is in the Bond movie _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_. This was the first time that Bond was played by an actor other than Sean Connery (George Larzanby), and in the pretitle sequence he spots and follows a beautiful woman (Diana Rigg) who drives down on the beach and then tries to drown herself in the ocean. Bond chivalrously goes to rescue her, only to be attacked by several mysterious henchmen. While he’s fending them off, she steals Bond’s car, drives back up to her own car, and disappears into the night. Bond holds up a slipper that she dropped (making him Prince Charming) turns to the camera, and slyly intimates his status as the new James Bond by saying, “This never happened to the other fella.” Stranger ---
**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:** [December 4, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/9 "2006-12-04T15:34:28Z")
Even though Ray Liotta is narrating during the whole movie, at the end of GoodFellas he talks directly to the camera. Jim Carrey accepts an “Oscar” for his performance in The Mask. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/10 "2006-12-04T15:35:27Z")
Was there a Marx brother movie that did not break the fourth wall? Not movies but George Burns and Gary Shandling took breaking the fourth wall to a high art. Flawlessly going in and out of the show. Jim ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/11 "2006-12-04T15:40:00Z")
Spaceballs. When Dark Helmet wanted to find out where the heroes had fled to, he had his underlings put a tape of Spaceballs: the Movie into a VCR. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/12 "2006-12-04T16:01:22Z")
Also, there was a point in the movie where the heroes stunt doubles got captured. ---
**Author:** ![PaperBlob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@PaperBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaperBlob)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/13 "2006-12-04T16:12:01Z")
In **Sixteen Candles** , when Ted is driving around with the prom queen in the Rolls Royce, and she goes down on him, he turns to the camera and says “This is getting good!” ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/14 "2006-12-04T16:14:28Z")
Airplane, at one point the protagonist turns to the camera and says something like, “What a pisser!” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/15 "2006-12-04T16:19:35Z")
For whatever reason there stikes me as being a difference between simply breaking the fourth wall and explicitly acknowledging that one is in a movie. That being said, in “The Pirate Movie” Mabel breaks the fourth wall pretty continuously (as does the Pirate King I think, and possibly Frederic) and toward the end she starts demanding a happy ending for her story (which, since it’s a dream, may not actually indicate awareness of being in a movie as much as being in the dream within the movie). ---
**Author:** ![hey\_alright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/90ced4/32.png) [@hey\_alright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hey_alright)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/16 "2006-12-04T16:25:18Z")
More than once in _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back_, the actors acknowledge the audience and how they were suckered into paying to see a crappy movie. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/17 "2006-12-04T16:27:22Z")
The tail ends of **Ferris Bueller’s Day Off** and **The School of Rock** both tell the audience that it’s time to leave the theater. **The Sweetest Thing** also had a scene where the women decide they have time “for a movie montage,” and proceed to have one. It’s bizarre. ---
**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:** [December 4, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/18 "2006-12-04T16:42:20Z")
**The Last Action Hero** – Danny Madigan goes into a move, and thinks he’s the hero and can’t be harmed, but realizes at the last second he’s only the comic relief. (It’s kind of hard to figure out what layer this is, of course – he knows he’s in the Jack Slater movie, but probably not in **The Last Action Hero** ). In one **Monty Python** skit, the Pythons discover they’re on film. There’s also **Duck Amuck** and other Warner Brothers cartoons that referred to the fact that they were in a movie. The clearest example of the OP in the Marx Brothers – where’s it’s acknowleging it’s a movie instead of just breaking the 4th wall – is in **Horse Feathers** , where Chico starts playing the piano and Groucho says to the audience, “I have to stay here, but there’s no reason you can’t go into the lobby until this all blows over.” The actors in the film within a film in **The Purple Rose of Cairo** realize they’re in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/19 "2006-12-04T17:08:52Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] Spaceballs. When Dark Helmet wanted to find out where the heroes had fled to, he had his underlings put a tape of Spaceballs: the Movie into a VCR. [/QUOTE] Even before that, the plot summary is given during the Mr. Radar sequence, and Dark Helmet makes sure the audience gets it. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809/20 "2006-12-04T17:42:25Z")
[QUOTE=hey alright] More than once in _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back_, the actors acknowledge the audience and how they were suckered into paying to see a crappy movie. [/QUOTE] There’s also the part when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are filming Good Will Hunting II (Hunting Season) and they are talking about how sometimes you have to take a crappy role in a movie to pay back a friend. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-a-character-acknowledges-they-are-in-a-movie/382809.md?page=2)