# weird & subtle movie references **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2001, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838 "2001-03-21T06:42:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2001, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/41 "2001-03-23T22:37:26Z")
In Tarantino’s _Jackie Brown,_ the bail bondsman catches a movie at the mall where all of the hijinx end up occurring. Anyway, as he’s walking out of the movie theater, the soundtrack plays the end-credit music to whatever movie he just watched. At the end of _Jackie Brown,_ the same end-credit music plays. What movie had he seen? ---
**Author:** ![Venkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ec9cab/32.png) [@Venkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venkman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2001, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/42 "2001-03-23T23:15:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robot Arm \* > \*\*Two of the characters in _Jurassic Park: The Lost World_ (Roland and Van Owen) were named for characters in the song “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” by Warren Zevon. \*\* That is the EXACT song I was listening to when I read this! Of course, I’ve been listening to Zevon non-stop for nearly a week now; it fits my current frame of mind. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/43 "2001-03-24T01:01:10Z")
“See You Next Wednesday,” as John Landis uses it, was the name of an early movie he wrote. Also, regarding the hieroglyphs of Threepio and Artoo in _Raiders_, as Bill Givens wrote (I’m paraphrasing here) in _Reel Gags_, it’s too dark to see on home video, but if you’d like to rent a theater to check it out, go ahead! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c2a13f/32.png) [@The\_Man\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_Who)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/44 "2001-03-24T03:25:57Z")
This is TV not movies, but what the heck. On an episode of Growing Pains, Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) refers to his father (Alan Thicke) as “the guy who looks like a talk show host.” Thicke was getting his ass handed to him by Johnny Carson at the time. Later Mike refers to his mother (Joanna Kerns) as looking like Donna DeVarona, an olympic athlete and broadcaster who also happens to be Kerns’s sister. -Myron ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/45 "2001-03-24T15:46:34Z")
Just thought of this… Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal,” in which Max Von Sydow plays chess with Death, has inspired a LOT of parodies. I know that Woody Allen wrote a sketch or short play in which a guy plays gin rummy with Death. Woody’s fans undoubtedly got the Bergman reference. But I wonder if ANY of the teens who watched “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” got the joke when Bill & Ted played Twister and Battleship with Death. ---
**Author:** ![Jenericho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenericho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenericho)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/46 "2001-03-24T15:47:55Z")
In Fled (a slightly dismal Larry Fishburne/Stephen Baldwin film), Stephen Baldwin’s character keeps referring to other films (mostly ones that Fled “pays homage to” (trans: lifts bits from)… at the end, he punches Larry Fishburne in the face and says “Didn’t you ever see ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’?” Don’t bother watching Fled by the way…it’s really not worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/47 "2001-03-27T04:13:47Z")
In Frankenheimer’s 1996 remake of _The Island of Doctor Moreau_, fat old Marlon Brando as the mad scientist had a tiny sidekick: an incredibly small bald midget, wearing the same style clothing as the boss, hanging around and mime-mimicking his actions. In one scene Brando is playing the piano while his tiny sidekick plays along on a miniature piano. It was only when I caught _Dr. Moreau_ on TV the other night that I realized Mike Meyers had – how shall we put it – “appropriated” this idea for _The Spy Who Shagged Me_ and cast a midget as Mini-Me alongside Dr. Evil. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Red\_Menace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@The\_Red\_Menace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Red_Menace)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/48 "2001-03-27T05:01:56Z")
I don’t think this one’s been mentioned: In _Fight Club_ there is one scene where a rundown theater lists _Seven Years In Tibet_ as currently playing. Brad Pitt starred in SYIT, so the motive behind the reference is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/49 "2001-03-27T06:21:39Z")
In _Point Break_ where Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze are surfing cops, and many hijinks and plot twists ensue, there is at one point a search going on. One of the places they say they looked is “Patrick’s Roadhouse”. A reference to Patrick Swayze’s previous movie: _Roadhouse_. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/50 "2001-03-27T18:01:31Z")
In _Fierce Creatures_, John Cleese is talking to Jamie Lee Curtis and says something like “yes Wanda, I mean Willa”. In _Rocky & Bullwinkle_, Robert DeNiro goes into his “are you talking to me?” spiel. ---
**Author:** ![shimmery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@shimmery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shimmery)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/51 "2001-03-27T23:27:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Just thought of this… Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal,” in which Max Von Sydow plays chess with Death, has inspired a LOT of parodies. > \*\* No!! Just when I had repressed all memory of ever seeing that movie… Slight hijack but in **The Shining** , when they are running through the hotel and they open a door, and inside is a guy in a bunny suit (I think), what’s that all about? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/52 "2001-03-28T00:07:12Z")
Not a reference in a movie, but in a TV show about a movie and a TV show. On “Third Rock from the Sun” there are a series of episodes where William Shatner plays the alien boss, and he’s talking to John Lithgow. He mentions on the flight in that there was a creature on the wing and Lithgow says “You saw him too!” or something to that affect. Both actors played the same roll about a passanger on a plane with a gremlin on the wing; Shatner on the Twilight Zone TV show and Lithgow in the Twilight Zone Movie. I think a good chunk of the audience got it. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/53 "2001-03-28T13:49:38Z")
I saw “Triumph of the Will” last night, and noticed that: - one of the military marches being played during that endless marching-through-the city-center-of-Nurnberg scene was featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the part where Henry and Indiana have to go back to Berlin to get the diary from Elsa and they come upon a huge book-burning rally). What’s funny is that I’ve liked to whistle that march since I first saw the movie as a kid - I didn’t know it was an authentic Nazi-era tune. - the end of Star Wars pays homage to the scene in Triumph where Hitler and a couple of his cronies march up to the memorial to fallen Nazis and have a somber moment. Can’t think of any more right now… ---
**Author:** ![Spoonbender](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spoonbender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoonbender)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/54 "2001-03-28T15:19:09Z")
In “Dogma,” at one point Silent Bob knocks somebody off a moving train, turns around and says, “No ticket.” This is a reference to “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” where Indy kicks a Nazi off a zeppelin and utters the same line. This is well-known, but I’ll bring it up anyway: when you hear the line “I have a bad feeling about this,” it’s often a Star Wars reference. That line (or slight variations thereof) is spoken in all the Star Wars movies. One example: Tim Roth’s character (Mr. Orange) says it in “Reservoir Dogs.” Anybody know any other occurrences? This might not count, but I think it’s neat anyway: in “Last Crusade,” at one point Indy and Elsa are walking through a tunnel, and Elsa points out a drawing on the wall depicting the Ark of the Covenant. At that moment, you can briefly hear the Ark Theme from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Probably only interesting if you’re a John Williams fan, but I get a kick out of it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/55 "2001-03-28T23:13:02Z")
I only noticed it on the second time I watched it, but there is a Nosferatu reference in the way Woody Allen enters his apartment after his mother makes an appearance in the sky in “Oedupis Wrecks”. ---
**Author:** ![exchicagoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/0ea827/32.png) [@exchicagoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exchicagoan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/56 "2001-03-29T08:46:22Z")
The movie ALLIGATOR (was just on SCI-FI CHANNEL) The sewer worker that gets killed—his name is ED NORTON. Art Carney’s character on THE HONEYMOONERS. Robert Forrester says it and it’s on the blackboard behind him during the news conference scene. I was an extra on it and a member of the crew pointed it out to me. BTW–that was VIC MORROW in that scene in THE TWILIGHT ZONE film. Not Van Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/57 "2001-03-29T16:14:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FreakyZeke \* > **I thought I was pretty cool when I got the reference to ‘Trading Places’ during the movie ‘Coming to America’.** And the reference was…? I’ve seen “TP” lots of times, but only saw “CTA” once, years ago. Please enlighten me. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/58 "2001-03-29T17:50:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kinsey \* > And the reference was…? > I’ve seen “TP” lots of times, but only saw “CTA” once, years ago. > Please enlighten me. Thanks! in CTA, Eddie Murphy gives a wad of cash to two homeless guys on the sidewalk who are revealed to be Duke & Duke from TP. “Mortimer, we’re back!” ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/59 "2001-03-29T17:57:26Z")
IIRC, in _Coming to America_, Eddie Murphy is sitting at a window table in a restaurant, having dinner. Then, outside, the two older millionaires from _Trading Places_, Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy, suddenly come wandering by. They’re in rags, filthy, now bankrupt and penniless because of having been on the wrong end of the scam. They press their faces against the window; a strange moment passes as if they all vaguely recognize one another from a past life or something. It’s kind of dark humor, but I thought it was pretty funny. It’s been many years since I’ve seen it, though, so if I’m remembering it wrong, please let me know. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838/60 "2001-03-29T18:00:10Z")
Woops, simulpost, and _ **I was wrong.** _ That’s the end of the movie. Drat. Like I said, it had been many years. Sigh… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-subtle-movie-references/58838.md?page=4)