Movies with Backwards-running sections

Actually, I think the Bond films did this quite a bit. At the end of You Only Live Twice the sub is supposed to be surfacing under the raft Bond is in, but the water is clearly not moving correctly for that. If you really did try to surface under a raft it would be extremely difficult to get properly centered, I think. And the odds are the water washing off would take the raft with it. It’s much easier to film the sub diving with the raft atop it, then show it in reverse.

Oddly enough, I understand that the scenes of the candles coming up out of the water in the recent musical version of The Phantom of the Opera is not reversed – they had special devices made to give the impression of candles coming out of the water and lighting.
Waste of money, IMHO. It would’ve been better spent hiring someone who could sing better than Gerard Butler.

In Brazil, Robert DeNiro was filmed backwards with trash newspapers being pulled off of him. When played forwards, it appeared he was being attacked and covered by the papers.

I’ve seen this technique used for when someone is suddenly entangled by a rope or whip. They just film the rope being yanked off of a person and play it backwards.

The squid in Disneys *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea *was shot backwards so that is appeared to grasp the Nautilus. This had the unintended effect of making the squid appear to swim tentacle first, an error.

In Barbarella, Jane has such great sex her hair curls up, which is obviously just roller-curled hair being blown out by a big fan, then shown in reverse. (Don’t ask me why I remember that!)

IIRC, the metamorphosis scene in American Werewolf in London involved people pulling hairs through synthetic skin, which is shown in reverse so it looks like hair growing.

The scene at the start of *Monkey *where Sandy jumps out of the water.

Wow, that’s totally going to jump out at me now.

The shot in Pulp Fiction in which John Travolta stabs Uma Thurman right in the heart with a rather sizable syringe full of adrenaline (or something) was filmed backwards.

I’ve noticed that, but always assumed it was an intentional effect to add to the overall “alienness” of the scene. Almost like a mystical Arabian Nights kind of thing.

When Boba Fett wraps Luke with his little projectile cable on the skiff in Jedi, the same technique was used.

Ditto the tendrils of the growing dog-beast in the cage in Carpenter’s The Thing.

I think you’re thinking of the musical number “The Inquisition” from History of the World, Part I, but I could be mistaken.

Used several times in Jean Cocteau’s Orphée. Special effects on a mini-budget. Gotta raise the dead somehow.

Esther Williams?

I’m not so sure, one of the most impressive things about Japanese trains for me was how they always pulled up exactly in line with the door markers on the platforms.

There’s a part in Anaconda where the boat stops in a particular spot. Nice shot with a waterfall in the background, etc. When the boat has to leave…? Yeah. They just ran the footage backwards. Yes, even with a small waterfall in the shot. And yes, it was obviously falling upwards then. :smack:

Not what you asked, but in the intentionally eerie category there’s the evil girl in The Ring. (Come to think of it, didn’t they use it in The Grudge as well? )

Not a movie, but the video for Weird Al Yankovic’s Amish Paradise has a backwards scene.

Another from Star Wars. Not quite the same thing, but anytime there are automatic doors, such as on the Death Star, it’s shot in slow mo then sped up, because the effect was done with a crew slowly pulling open heavy doors. Hence the wooden looks on the actors faces while they hold still for a couple minutes.

Spaceballs, when sucking (and later blowing) the air from Druidia. All the shots of the trees and snow-capped mountains get reversed.

Also Miss Piggy.

I’m pretty sure that in at least one scene in The Mummy, the effects for Imotep’s sand-form are done in reverse.

Never could figure out why they didn’t do that with Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams-perhaps it’s because Kevin Costner would have to shown throwing lefty as well…