# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 167
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3322 "2019-07-27T13:48:29Z")
I started a thread that lasted ten years? Damn, I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3323 "2019-07-27T17:58:36Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > This thread turned ten years old just two days ago. Thank you, Dr. Science. Edit: Unless I’m misunderstanding your point. I think you didn’t get my joke. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3324 "2019-07-31T21:32:42Z")
“Bustin’ makes me feel good!” - Ray Parker, “Ghostbusters” Duhhhhhh. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3325 "2019-07-31T21:46:43Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I started a thread that lasted ten years? > > Damn, I’m old. Well, yes, this quite an obvious thing about this creative work. \*Or does this comment belong in the ‘Rumor’ thread? \* ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3326 "2019-08-01T13:33:11Z")
Two from the original novel of _Gone With The Wind_\*: Rhett tells Scarlett he goes to New Orleans to visit the young boy (he calls him his “ward”). Later, Belle Watling tells Melanie she has a son who goes to school in New Orleans. Obviously, they are talking about the same person. The book talks about Scarlett drinking alcohol during her second pregnancy, and giving birth to her daughter Ella, who cannot keep her attention on one subject for any length of time. Mitchell described a child with fetal alcohol syndrome decades before it was official recognized. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3327 "2019-08-04T16:01:31Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I have to say, though, that bad stunt replacements is sort of a sign of the time. And it wasn’t just stunt performers. Anything involving aircraft crashing would inevitably have one type of aircraft doing the main story and a different type shown blowing up. “Eh, it’s a helicopter, close enough.” ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3328 "2019-08-09T08:26:20Z")
Last night I was watching the movie _ **Witness** _, starring Harrison Ford. I’ve seen it a couple of times before, but it had been a long time. I noticed something which now seems really obvious, but I hadn’t picked up on it before. Here’s the scene: Early in the movie the little Amish boy witnesses a murder in the restroom at the train station and is hiding in the last toilet stall at the end of the row. The murderous cop is checking the stalls one by one. The tension is rising as he works his way down the row, and just before the cop kicks in the door to the last stall, the boy drops to the floor and slips under the dividing wall into the next stall over which had already been checked by the cop. But as the boy slides under the wall, his wide-brimmed hat falls off his head onto the floor of the stall. He reaches back under the wall, grabs the hat, and pulls it under the wall just in time before the cop bursts into the stall to find it empty. Clearly a wink to Ford’s contemporary role as Indiana Jones, and Jones’ last-second grabs of his fedora. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3329 "2019-08-09T11:28:33Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Early in the movie the little Amish boy witnesses a murder in the restroom at the train station and is hiding in the last toilet stall at the end of the row. The murderous cop is checking the stalls one by one. The tension is rising as he works his way down the row, and just before the cop kicks in the door to the last stall, the boy drops to the floor and slips under the dividing wall into the next stall over which had already been checked by the cop. But as the boy slides under the wall, his wide-brimmed hat falls off his head onto the floor of the stall. He reaches back under the wall, grabs the hat, and pulls it under the wall just in time before the cop bursts into the stall to find it empty. > > Clearly a wink to Ford’s contemporary role as Indiana Jones, and Jones’ last-second grabs of his fedora. Not necessarily. There’s a scene right at the beginning of _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ where a wall is slowly closing and Indy has to reach under and grab his whip. Grabbing his hat, according to TVTropes, didn’t happen until _Temple of Doom_, and (according to IMDb) _Witness_ was already filming when _TOD_ was released. I do remember a friend and I joking about it at the time; jumping through a closing door in the nick of time and reaching back to grab your hat. As a trope, it may pre-date _Raiders_ and Indy. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3330 "2019-08-09T12:15:40Z")
I was watching “The Predator” last weekend, very stupid movie but I had fun and thats all that matters. Anyway, the music playing over the end credits was a version of “Long tall Sally”, a nice little nod to the scene in the original where that song was playing in the chopper at the start of the film. Listening to the words of the song something finally clicked for me! Near the end of the original film Bill Dukes character is chasing the predator through the jungle and as he runs he keeps breathlessly mumbling, “gonna have me some fun, gonna have me some fun”. I always thought it was just some random thing, talking gibberish in his adrenaline fuelled anger, now 20 years later I realise for the first time that he is singing words from the song they were listening to at the start. Bill Duke has had “Long Tall Sally” as an earworm in his head ever since they got into the jungle! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3331 "2019-08-09T13:48:02Z")
I just realized that every single song of Tom Paxton’s “Annie” trilogy is set in a bar. (Has Annie Been In tonight?, "Annie’s Going to Sing Her Song, and "When Annie Took Me Home). That makes the basis of a good Broadway or movie musical. It also makes me wonder if Paxton was following me around in my younger days! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3332 "2019-08-10T14:49:32Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > And it wasn’t just stunt performers. Anything involving aircraft crashing would inevitably have one type of aircraft doing the main story and a different type shown blowing up. “Eh, it’s a helicopter, close enough.” Can’t remember which movie but it had some stock footage of an airliner about to touch down from the side, then cut to from the end of the runway as the plane’s passed overhead and you get the chirps as it settles. Thing was, the former had four engines while the latter had two. In the comments track the director dryly said, “It ejected two engines to cut down the landing weight.” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3333 "2019-08-10T15:10:11Z")
**Daredevil** by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. I just realized why Richard Fisk, the Kingpin’s disappointing son, looked so weird. They made him look like Fredo Corleone! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3334 "2019-08-10T15:32:38Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Can’t remember which movie but it had some stock footage of an airliner about to touch down from the side, then cut to from the end of the runway as the plane’s passed overhead and you get the chirps as it settles. Thing was, the former had four engines while the latter had two. In the comments track the director dryly said, “It ejected two engines to cut down the landing weight.” In the 1980s revival of Mission Impossible, the bad guys subverted the software on a US submarine, and the class of the submarine varied from shot to shot; my friends and I joked about the power of that software hack (it could change the shape of the sub!) (It must have been this episode [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649386/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649386/)) ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3335 "2019-08-10T15:57:45Z")
Airplane! is one of my favorite movies and I’ve seen it many times. Today I realized why the autopilot was named Otto. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3336 "2019-08-12T18:40:23Z")
I just realized: All those kids conceived after their parents watched Titanic? They’re old enough to drink now. (Technically, I guess this isn’t really about Titanic. But still…) ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3337 "2019-08-12T19:10:12Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Last night I was watching the movie _ **Witness** _, starring Harrison Ford. I’ve seen it a couple of times before, but it had been a long time. I noticed something which now seems really obvious, but I hadn’t picked up on it before. > > Here’s the scene: > > Early in the movie the little Amish boy witnesses a murder in the restroom at the train station and is hiding in the last toilet stall at the end of the row. The murderous cop is checking the stalls one by one. The tension is rising as he works his way down the row, and just before the cop kicks in the door to the last stall, the boy drops to the floor and slips under the dividing wall into the next stall over which had already been checked by the cop. But as the boy slides under the wall, his wide-brimmed hat falls off his head onto the floor of the stall. He reaches back under the wall, grabs the hat, and pulls it under the wall just in time before the cop bursts into the stall to find it empty. > > Clearly a wink to Ford’s contemporary role as Indiana Jones, and Jones’ last-second grabs of his fedora. Well, mebbe; but the boy grabbing his hat just before the cop sees it and figures out where he’s gone is a pretty good way of building suspense in the scene, so maybe it’s there for dramatic purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3338 "2019-08-20T00:40:20Z")
I was reading the thread on comedy through repetition and it suddenly occurred to me title Laugh-In was a take off on Love-In. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3339 "2019-08-20T02:05:32Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Can’t remember which movie but it had some stock footage of an airliner about to touch down from the side, then cut to from the end of the runway as the plane’s passed overhead and you get the chirps as it settles. Thing was, the former had four engines while the latter had two. In the comments track the director dryly said, “It ejected two engines to cut down the landing weight.” You may be thinking of [this scene](https://youtu.be/mk7uSjmZdZI) from _The Usual Suspects_. Variations on that happen all the time, if you know what to look for; like a DC-10 taking off and then a shot of 747 landing gear being raised. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3340 "2019-08-20T14:27:14Z")
> [@Sir\_Prize](#): > > I was reading the thread on comedy through repetition and it suddenly occurred to me title Laugh-In was a take off on Love-In. That seems to be something I was aware of at the time & yet forgot over the decades. Yes, I am that old (57). ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3341 "2019-08-20T14:54:40Z")
In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, “Once More with Feeling”, the whole thing turns on Xander acting strangely cowardly, by summoning the music demon Sweet and then not owning up to it even though he had big parts in many songs [(It must be witches, some evil witches, and Wicca good and love the earth and I’ll be over here), his song and dance with Anya, etc etc.]. Throughout the series Xander had always had courage, perhaps foolish courage, but courage. He was the group’s figurative heart, after all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=166) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=168)