# Who's the Narrator? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183 "2008-08-25T12:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [August 25, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/1 "2008-08-25T12:01:36Z")
I was watching **10,000 B.C.** again last night, because Pepper Mill hadn’t seen it, and I wanted to show her what a magnificently awful thing it was, and it struck me that the film never tells you who the narrator is. If you go to the “deleted scenes” section you can se that the finally do tell you. It was Baku. Don’t you feel happy that I put this in a spoiler box? But that’s almost as odd – In that incarnation, this was that class of movie that doesn’t tell you the narrator until the very end. **The Road Warrior** did that, too. I find this kind of annoying. There is a slim justification to this – if they don’t tell you who narrated it, you don’t know which characters are going to die. But it really wouldn’t have made any difference to me. In The Road Warrior, there’s some mild shock value, since The Narrator is the Feral Child. Although no way can I buy him being that facile with language, even in his old age. Any other films that do this – don’t tell you the narrator, or leave it to the end? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/2 "2008-08-25T12:24:50Z")
Most documentaries. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/3 "2008-08-25T12:33:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Most documentaries. Har. Besides, isn’t it moot anymore? Morgan Freeman narrates all the documentaries. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/4 "2008-08-25T13:40:33Z")
300 does the narrator revealed at the end thing too. Although I think it worked out awesome in 300. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/5 "2008-08-25T14:54:23Z")
They never actually say who the narrator of _The Right Stuff_ is, but you’d have to be pretty tone-deaf not to get it. ---
**Author:** ![pingnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@pingnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pingnak)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/6 "2008-08-25T15:50:07Z")
The problem is, first you have to have a movie that HAS narration. _Conan the Barbarian_ had a narrator (the skinny old dude). _Plan 9 From Outer Space_ had a narrator (The Amazing Criswell). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/7 "2008-08-25T15:51:52Z")
Vicky Cristina Barcelona has a narrator who’s not part of the story, not identified, and not needed. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/8 "2008-08-25T17:22:39Z")
Not a movie, but a game. God of War doesn’t reveal who the narrator is until the sequel game, appropriately titled God of War 2. It’s Gaia. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/9 "2008-08-25T17:32:13Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] 300 does the narrator revealed at the end thing too. Although I think it worked out awesome in 300. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure this is necessarily a fair assessment. Yes, they don’t explicitly point out who the narrator is until the end of the movie, but he has a very distinct style of speaking, and it was fairly obvious when the character spoke during the movie that he must be the narrator. The only examples I can think of probably don’t really fit with the spirit of the OP, like with the Mike Myers version of The Cat in the Hat. Quite frankly, I just don’t think this works out to well on film because, with a case like 300, the voice is recognizable, and with a case like The Road Warrior, it’s a different actor. I haven’t seen 10,000 BC (from the looks of it, I should count myself fortunate), so I can’t comment on how they implemented it. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/10 "2008-08-25T17:45:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I haven’t seen 10,000 BC (from the looks of it, I should count myself fortunate), so I can’t comment on how they implemented it. > > * * * It’s a different actor there, too – They got Omar Sharif to narrate it. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/11 "2008-08-25T17:53:34Z")
Chariots of Fire has a sort of narrator twist. Though, there isn’t much narration. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/12 "2008-08-25T18:04:28Z")
Charles Grey. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/13 "2008-08-25T18:50:53Z")
It bugged the shit outa me all through the Royal Tenenbaums as to who was narrating; It’s Alec Baldwin, for no apparent reason ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/14 "2008-08-25T19:29:11Z")
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” had a narrator that wasn’t a character - it was just sort of the “Voice of God.” The cast simply lists Hugh Ross as “Narrator.” ---
**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:** [August 25, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/15 "2008-08-25T19:37:02Z")
Actually, The Narrator I like is **William Conrad**. He was the omnipresent and usually omniscient narrator on **Rocky and Bullwinkle**. Although even he was threatened by Boris Badenov. And one time they showed “him” all tied up. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/16 "2008-08-25T21:30:54Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Actually, The Narrator I like is **William Conrad**. [/QUOTE] Also the very excellent narrator in the classic series _The Fugitive_. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/17 "2008-08-25T21:34:17Z")
No love for **Arrested Development**? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/18 "2008-08-25T21:35:21Z")
If I recall correctly, the narrator of _The Name of the Rose_ isn’t revealed until the end. It’s Christian Slater, er, Adso. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/19 "2008-08-25T21:39:45Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] No love for **Arrested Development**? [/QUOTE] Really shoddy narrating. Just pure crap. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183/20 "2008-08-25T22:31:07Z")
[QUOTE=bubastis] Really shoddy narrating. Just pure crap. [/QUOTE] 😃 I’ll tell you what I always thought was strange - when they get actors to narrate commercials, then never acknowledge who it is. IIRC there was Michael Douglas for Infinity, Richard Dreyfus for Honda, Donald Sutherland for Volvo, Jeff Goldblum for Apple… Also when they use actors for the voice of animated characters in commercials with no acknowledgment: Chris Rock as Lil’ Penny, Antonio Banderas as the Nasonex Bee, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-narrator/461183.md?page=2)