Here’s another George Lucas reference. Harrison Ford had a cameo in Apocalypse Nowas an intelligence officer and was told he could name his character. His character became Colonel Lucas.
In one scene from Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes, a ripped poster for Jaws appears on a wall.
In Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, made four years later, an identically ripped poster for The Hills Have Eyes appears on a wall.
In Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, made 2 years later, 2 characters are watching Evil Dead on television.
Minor hijack, but . . .
Knowers of all things weird, I challenge you:
In The Matrix, when Neo is talking to Spoon Boy in the Oracle’s waiting room, the telivision shows a street. Marching down that street is what appears to be a group of giant rabbits.
It happens about 71:00 into the movie.
Anybody know what that’s about?
King of Comedy
When it’s discovered the Jerry Lewis character might not make his TV show, Tony Randall turns to the director of the TV show and says “You’re the director. You tell us what to do.” The TV director was played by the film’s director, Martin Scorsese.
His Girl Friday
When asked what Hildy Johnson’s fiance looks like, Walter Burns say, “He looks like that actor – Ralph Bellamy” Bellamy played the part.
Arsenic and Old Lace
Alas, they didn’t do this in the film, but when the play first ran on Broadway, one of the characters says he murdered a plastic surgeon because the doctor made him look like Boris Karloff. Karloff said the line on stage.
Well, if we’re doing that now, in Romeo Must Die, when Trish is running from Maurice, he shouts “I’m’a find your Aaliyah-looking a** . . .” Aaliyah played Trish.
So I like action movies. 
Gremlins … was executive produced by Steven Speilberg. In the beginning of the movie when Zach Gilligan is entering the town, a movie theater is showing a double feature of “A Boy’s Life” and “Watch the Skies.”
“A Boy’s Life” was the working title for E.T. and “Watch the Skies” was the working title for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
This is a pretty well known one, but in Predator 2 when Danny Glover is looking at the Predator’s trophy room, there is an obvious skull of an alien from Alien
Not as subtle as some of the references here, but in Stakeout starring Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Esteves, they’re playing a game of “guess the movie quote.”
The film quote Esteves gives is, “This was not a boating accident!”
Dreyfuss replies, “I don’t know.”
The line is from Jaws and was spoken in that film by Richard Dreyfuss.
Even earlier:
What’s Up Doc
On the final line, Barbra Streisand looks at Ryan (“Love Story”) O’Neal and says “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” O’Neal replies, “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”
At the end of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, Sean Connery says something about naming Indy after the dog. I’m sure most of y’all already know this, but George Lucas’ dog was named “Indiana”.
Mysphyt:
Neo was instructed to follow white rabbits. A reference to “Alice in Wonderland”? The movie is “Night of the Lepus”.
[On why Henry calls Indy “Junior”]
Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this… this “Junior”?
Professor Henry Jones: That’s his name. [points to himself] Henry Jones… [points to Indy] …Junior.
Indiana Jones: I like “Indiana.”
Professor Henry Jones: We named the dog Indiana.
Marcus Brody: May we go home now, please?
Sallah: The dog?! You are named after the dog?!
Indiana Jones: I’ve got a lot of fond memories of that dog.
Oh… Lawrence Kasdan wrote the screenplays for “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
So, when he directed “The Big Chill,” he included a few references to those films. First, Kevin Kline’s kid’s room is decorated with Star Wars memorabilia. And when the women run screaming from a bat in the attic, Kevin Kline grabs a tennis racket, and runs to their rescue, singing the Indiana Jones theme music.
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 from the movie “Food of the Gods,” based on a H.G. Wells story about gentically modified food creating giant animals. Unfortunately, it was adapted by the excerable Bert I. Gordon. What giant rabbits have to do with "The Matrix is anyone’s guess. For all I know, the Wachowski brothers saw “Food of the Gods” on the Son of Svengoolie show here in Chicago when they were growing up and though it would look right. Or maybe the theme of modifed beings seemed right. Don’t know.
There’s a game here. Can you get from one movie to another through connections in references.
I suck at this type of stuff but you see how it works right? Let’s say I’m in “Blazing Saddles” I can go the “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” since Achoo references is. In Men in Tights Cary Elwes says “at least I can speak with a British accent.” a clear reference to “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” etc. etc.
Sounds like fun?
Who can go from “American Graffiti” to “JFK”?
ok, so I don’t remember the exact situation but in die hard 3 bruce willis mentions something about captain kangaroo (I think it’s near the beginning around when he is doing the riddle about the man with nine wives and so on) and the song that was playing in pulp fiction when bruce willis hits marcelis wallis with his car is the song that mentions captain kangaroo. (you know "countin flowers on the wall, that don’t bother me at all, playin solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty one, watchin captain kangaroo, now don’t tell me… ) well you get the idea, I hope.
Actually, the movie in question is Night of the Lepus. I had the dubious pleasure of seeing this movie on the big screen 3 yrs ago at a horror film festival. I had to go see Black Christmas immediately afterwards to cleanse the palate. Of course, rabbits are in keeping with the whole Alice in Wonderland theme of the The Matrix.
Cheers,
Hodge
In Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman orders a “Douglas Sirk Steak.” The joke is that it only comes “burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell.” Douglas Sirk was a director who was known for his over-the-top, no half-measures approach to film making.
Crap, you folks were right on with Night Of The Lepus.
Night of the Lepus = giant bunnies
Food of the Gods = giant rats
Jean Renoir’s great classic The River (1951):
A vignette of a girl dancer in India growing up into a woman dancer, Radha. The young girl is dancing, pirouetting around and around, and the next thing you know, there is the adult Radha pirouetting around and around. This scene recalls the metaphor in many languages of “turning” meaning “transformation.”
Fade out; fade in 35 years later . . .
Michael Chapman’s Clan of the Cave Bear (1986). The young girl Ayla is shown dancing, turning around and around, and the next thing you know, there is the adult Daryl Hannah turning around and around. A virtually exact copy of Renoir’s classic scene.
One good homage deserves another: Fade out; fade in 10 years later . . .
Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996). This time we see two young girls in India at a dancing lesson together. They start turning around and around . . . you can guess what happens next. We see the adult Indira Varma and Sarita Choudhury dancing around and around.
I guess you can tell I like films about women…