# When was the last big-budget Hollywood movie to include stock footage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419 "2017-06-08T03:48:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/1 "2017-06-08T03:48:33Z")
In days gone by, a standard trick, even in pretty big budget movies, was to edit in generic stock footage to pad out scenes where they could get away with it. Has the practice gone by the wayside in recent times? I can’t think of any examples of it recently. What was the last big-budget Hollywood movie to use stock footage in the movie itself (rather than some secondary purpose likes TV footage in the movie, or a backdrop to the credits) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/2 "2017-06-08T12:09:37Z")
There are whole YouTube channels devoted to showing re-used clips in today’s big budget pics. Just type “reused footage” or some such into the search. It is extremely common. This is an industry that still revels in re-using the Wilhelm Scream. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/3 "2017-06-08T12:22:05Z")
Yes, though reused footage is not the same thing as stock footage. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/4 "2017-06-08T12:43:13Z")
More reused, but Blade Runner used leftover footage from The Shining for the happy-crappy theatrical ending (the green hills). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/5 "2017-06-08T13:06:52Z")
I’m sure they’re not the most recent uses, but **Star Trek II** made re-use of many effects scenes from **Star Trek: The Motion Picture** , presumably to keep costs down. They didn’t even try to hide it. **Airplane** used stock footage in some shots, and as background in the driving scene. But, of course, that was a comedy, and the use was pretty obviously intentional. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/6 "2017-06-08T13:11:19Z")
Open to correction but didn’t Micheal Bay famously reuse a scene from “The Island” in one of his transformers movies, a scene on a highway with a car getting destroyed, with various details changed through CGI. So it certainly still happens. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/7 "2017-06-08T14:11:05Z")
News footage of then-President Bill Clinton was used in both _Contact_ and _The Siege_ in such a way as to make it seem that he was reacting to the fictional events of the films. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/8 "2017-06-08T21:29:55Z")
Not the most recent, I’m sure, but I know _Apollo 13_ (1995) used stock footage. There’s a featurette where they talk about editing together stock footage with new footage they made for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/9 "2017-06-08T22:26:20Z")
Not stock footage per se, but scenes from the 1967 film _Poor Cow_ with a young Terrence Stamp were used for flashbacks in the 1999 film _The Limey_ with a much older Terrence Stamp. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/10 "2017-06-08T23:21:05Z")
I know this isn’t entirely what you meant, bu the 2005 film _Good Night, and Good Luck_ used archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in order to depict him. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/11 "2017-06-08T23:42:15Z")
Forrest Gump anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Marci\_Al](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Marci\_Al](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marci_Al)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/12 "2017-06-09T00:35:05Z")
Slightly related, relatives of sailors who died aboard HMS Barham complain the crew has to die over and over, without credit even, as the video is often used to depict the sinking of some other warship. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9hGc1k3UcxQ/maxresdefault.jpg "HMS Barham Explosion Slo-Mo") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hGc1k3UcxQ) ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/13 "2017-06-09T00:40:39Z")
The 2014 _Godzilla_ used a lot of stock footage in the opening credits. My favourite is _The Hunt For Red October_ when an F-14 Tomcat turned into an F9F Panther just before crashing. [Wave off! Wave Off!!!!!! - YouTube](https://youtu.be/vXgJdrYss1k?t=8s) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/14 "2017-06-09T13:05:32Z")
Eh, it’s not like an F-14 is a particularly distinctive-looking plane. I’m sure nobody will notice. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/15 "2017-06-09T13:19:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m sure they’re not the most recent uses, but **Star Trek II** made re-use of many effects scenes from **Star Trek: The Motion Picture** , presumably to keep costs down. They didn’t even try to hide it. More recently, Star Trek: Generations reused the same footage of the exploding Klingon bird-of-prey as Star Trek VI. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/16 "2017-06-09T13:36:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Eh, it’s not like an F-14 is a particularly distinctive-looking plane. I’m sure nobody will notice. Years ago I was watching a friend editing a film. The bits he was putting together featured a plane taking off and being destroyed by a bomb. Although I was watching closely for a long time, he had to point out to me that the two planes had different livery and were from two other movies. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/17 "2017-06-09T14:10:42Z")
We are specifically looking for movies that used stock footage in a kind of subtle sneaky way, right? Ones that slipped it in hoping no one would notice. Not movies that used old footage like Forest Gump, which incorporated it in. Transformers 2 used stock footage from the Island, another recent Michael Bay movie. And they tried to slip it by, too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/18 "2017-06-09T14:27:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Eh, it’s not like an F-14 is a particularly distinctive-looking plane. I’m sure nobody will notice. Or an F9F, for that matter. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/19 "2017-06-09T16:11:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Airplane** used stock footage in some shots, and as background in the driving scene. But, of course, that was a comedy, and the use was pretty obviously intentional. There was stock footage of a bicyclist getting flipped over the top of a car? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419/20 "2017-06-09T16:23:40Z")
Didn’t a recent trailer also use old footage? I think it’s the Spider-man Homecoming movie and they used old footage of a crowd reacting in…Spider-man 2 or 3. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-big-budget-hollywood-movie-to-include-stock-footage/788419.md?page=2)