Welcome to film legends where the most renowned films of our age battle to be crowned the greatest of all time
We'll be analyzing an awarding points for every single thing a movie does right.
Many will compete but in the end only the strongest will have what it takes to become
film legend
Today's Challenger: Deadpool
Juice Newton soft pop hit "Angel of the Morning" plays over Deadpool's opening carnage, an ironic
juxtaposition of image and sound.
Announcer voice: MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT
[a] reference to Deadpool's co-creator Rob Liefeld
the opening credits mock the standard celebratory roll call, reducing the cast to base descriptions
Announcer voice: TROPE K.O.
our first Meta Ryan Reynolds reference
Yet another Ryan Reynolds reference
please don't make the supersuit green, the actor previously starring in the far less legendary The Green Lantern.
A nice callback to Deadpool's social media profile. I'll give you one guess as to what's the only Twitter account Deadpool follows.
Announcer voice: RETWEET
Completely undercutting the traditional superhero intro our first image of Deadpool is, well, with the dude in his crotch.
Really nice use of the freeze-frame aesthetics, overpaid tool!
Announcer voice: Sweet Viz!
Announcer voice: First fourth wall breaks!
Somehow I get the feeling there's going to be quite a few more of these.
"You've got to hold on to love
tight
And never let go." Come on, Deadpool. You can come up with something more profound than a Hallmark Card
Announcer voice: Combo Lost!
An ironic reference to the R-rated Deadpool's obsession with PG-rated pop culture insignia
The film's actually filled to the brim with these pop culture references
Deadpool defines himself through the merc he collects, reflective of 19th century economist Thorstein Veblen.
In his book "The Theory of the Leisure Class,"
Veblen stated that people show off the goods they buy to signal their superiority
Much as Deadpool constantly does.
Announcer voice: Deep thoughts!
However for the 19th Century Veblen this merch was Fancy silverware and bespoke clothing. Now, in Deadpool
It's Hello Kitty lip balm and a Voltron ring, signifying today's obsession with pop culture as a means of social status.
This opening freeway fight is actually an almost shot-for-shot recreation
of the leaked Deadpool footage that led FOX to green-light the feature in the first place.
Announcer voice: Self-Annotation Win!
A musical allusion to the 1960 Batman theme, a far less violent Superhero adaptation
The exit signs of the highway are all named after famous comic book artists and writers
Fort McGinnis refers to Deadpool comic artist Ed McGinnis and Ditko Avenue, of course, refers to Legendary artist and writer Steve Ditko.
Announcer voice: Sweet Viz!
"Let's count them down." The bullets are marked by the remaining number deadpool has left, adding suspense as the count ticks down.
"Someone's not counting."
Announcer voice: Doubly Sweet Viz!
Deadpool Satirizes conventional Superhero norms, replacing the typical good-natured
Self-sacrificing hero with a cynical jackass who wantonly murders others.
Announcer voice: Trope K.O.
"I'm touching myself tonight."
Yet, narratively the film's still the exact same origin story as all the films it mocks.
Announcer voice: Not as edgy as you think
Nice use of the comic caption.
This pizza boy interrogation is pulled directly from the Deadpool comics.
Announcer voice: Adaptation win!
A reference to former X-men producer and now Marvel head honcho, Kevin Feige
Announcer voice: Meta Shout-out!
Yep, that's Deadpool's co-creator himself, Rob Liefeld.
I think it's about time we retired this whole hooker with a heart of gold trope.
I mean, it's not even the first time Morena Baccarin has played this role.
Announcer voice: Please no hate mail, Browncoats.
I bet Eisenstein never thought the montage would end up here
"Nope. No."
A nice reference to frequent Deadpool comic accomplice Peter Parker aka
Spider-Man
Announcer voice: Ref-a-win!
"Yeah, like I got bit by a radioactive shar-pei." Taken directly from the comic where Deadpool remarks he looks just like Ryan Reynolds crossed with
a Shar-Pei.
A figurine of Deadpool from Wolverine origins, where the character wasn't quite as accurately portrayed.
Wade Wilson wears a red shirt, a broadway musical about people coping with terminal disease, reflective of Wilson's own sickly state.
"I swear to God I will find you in the next life, and I'm gonna Boombox Careless Whisper outside your window."
"Wham!" A reference to the rom-com classic Say Anything, where John Cusack holds up a boombox outside Ione Skye's house.
"I don't know, it might further the plot."
It will.
Announcer voice: Meta-shoutout!
"Let's Pro/Con this superhero thing."
"Ow."
Deadpool constantly struggles with what it means to be a superhero. Is he a murderous Frankenstein-esque monster or a romantic hero?
This central dilemma plays out throughout the film.
Announcer voice: Narrative through-line!
"Let us go talk to the Professor."
"McAvoy or Stewart?" A reference to the X-men franchise where Professor X is played by both Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy as a young man.
Announcer voice: Ref-a-win!
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
A line from Paul Verhoven's Robocop,
also about a horrificly disfigured man seeking revenge against the people who scarred him.
Announcer voice: Di-Ref-a-win!
"Are you there God? It's me Margaret."
Yet another reference, this time to Judy Blume's novel, "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret,"
in which a prepubescent girl anxiously awaits her first period.
Yep, Deadpool's making a menstrual blood joke here.
"Just promise you'll do right by me,
so I can do right by someone else."
Deadpool statement here echoes the Aristotelian philosophy of self-love, wherein a man can only truly help others and have a meaningful relationship
after his first bettered himself.
Announcer voice: Deep thoughts!
A blink and you'll miss it cameo by the X-Men character Morrow.
"Or I'll sew your pretty mouth shut."
"Ohhh, I wouldn't do that."
Another reference to Wolverine Origins, where for some inexplicable reason they do just that.
"Fourth wall break inside a fourth-wall break..."
"...that's like, 16 walls."
I'm not sure, let's count them down
"Did I leave the stove on?"
"Oh, hello."
"I was talking to them."
"And we all know how this turns out."
"You ever see 127 hours?"
"You might want to look away for this."
"The wrong guy!"
"Just turned the other guy into a fucking kebab."
"Is the mask muffling my voice?"
"I'm touching myself tonight."
"In the most colossal way."
"This superhero thing."
"There, all caught up."
"16 walls."
Oh my God, it actually is 16 fourth wall breaks.
Announcer voice: Meta-token, unlocked!
Blind Al is a subversion of the kindly blind old man most famously depicted in Bride of Frankenstein
In Bride, Frankenstein's monster seeks refuge with the only person that would take in something so hideous, a blind man.
Just as Deadpool does with Blind Al. Yet unlike the caring blind man, Al's a foul-mouthed, mean-spirited woman.
"God I've missed cocaine."
Announcer voice: Trope K.O.!
Think Ryan Reynolds got this far on his superior acting method?
Oh, come on Ryan you carried an entire movie in a coffin. You're not that bad of an actor.
Announcer voice: Don't beat yourself up, Ry!
"Love is blind, Wade." A reference to Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales."
Announcer voice: For love is blind all day and may not see."
"No, you're blind."
"Give it up for Chastity."
Good ole obligatory Stan Lee cameo, like chicken soup on a cold winter day.
Announcer voice: He's the best!
Just how meta can this movie get? Oh, I'm sorry I even asked.
Announcer voice: Meta-shoutout!
"Big house. It's funny that I only ever see two of you. It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another X-man."
Deadpool makes the most of its limited budget, a mere third of the cost of X-Men apocalypse, proof that frugality breeds creativity.
Deadpool's Romantic advice to Dopinder parodies romantic courtly love, a medieval concept in which a chivalrous knight would elicitly
woo a spoken for noblewoman. Except in Deadpool's warped mind, the knight should kill the husband and kidnap the noble woman.
"Time to make the Chimi *bleep* changas"
A deep cut reference to the 1980s Dunkin donuts ad.
"Time to make the donuts."
Announcer voice: Fred the Baker is my favorite baker.
Wait a second? Is that the same heli-carrier from Captain America?
Announcer voice: Sweet Viz!
"Superhero landing. She's going to do a superhero landing. Wait for it!"
Deadpool's constant wink and nods to other superhero films perfectly encapsulates
Postmodernism, a movement defined by Cynicism toward traditional narratives.
Announcer voice: Deep thoughts!
"Bob?" "Wade?" "Oh my god, I haven't seen you since -" "Jacksonville." "TGI Fridays."
Bob's actually a character straight from the Deadpool comic.
"In these moments..."
"Everything else holds falls away. The way the world sees us, the way we..."
*Gunshot*
Deadpool reject's Colossus's impassioned moral plea, subverting the traditional superhero moral code.
"You finally learned to do what is necessary." "I won't kil you."
Yep, Deadpool sure ain't no Batman.
Announcer voice: Trope K.O.!
"I'm just a boy,"
"About to stand in front of a girl."
A reference to the classic rom-com Notting Hill
"I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."
What? I really love rom-coms.
Announcer voice: Romantic comedy bias.
Another meta-reference to everybody's favorite X-man, Wolverine.
Announcer voice: Meta-shoutout
*Careless Whisper plays* "You don't need to be a superhero to get the girl."
"The right girl will bring out the hero in you."
Deadpool's summation of love parallels the classical Aristotelian
relationship of shared virtue, wherein Aristotle advocated the highest form of love was a partner who
challenges and inspires you to grow into your highest potential.
Of course, Deadpool couldn't end without one last film reference, here citing the post-credits scene in Ferris Bueller's day off.
"You're still here."
"You're still here?"
"It's over."
"Go home."
Go home
*Chika chik ah*
Alright, Deadpool. Let's see how you did. Sure, you may be hideous underneath all that tight Spandex,
But his style ain't nothing to scoff at. And that context score, over 8 million.
Wow, Deadpool really is today's pop culture king, and he completely decimated that fourth wall, earning him the Meta Token of Metaness
Good enough for extra
Five hundred thousand points or one hundred and forty seven thousand bags of chimichangas,
but how that treat him on the leaderboard? Wow, Deadpool easily beating his fellow Marvel hero and cute talking fish
Deadpool is number two. The deuce. Seems awfully appropriate.
Well, that's it for this week
and come back real soon as another superhero takes a shot at the Matrix's top spot
We'll see soon enough...if it bleeds.
Announcer voice: Is the next challenger ready?
Hey if you haven't seen wisecracks video on the philosophy of Deadpool
you're missing out big time. We dive into how Deadpool is one of the smartest movies out there.
It's meta, it's cynical, and brilliant.
So take a bite out of this
chimichanga to learn more about the Merc with the Mouth
by watching
The Philosophy of Deadpool now
and make sure to catch up on the latest episodes of Film Legends by clicking on any of the thumbnails here.
Until next time, peace.