10 Movie Inside Jokes You Didn't Get Sometimes in the weird and wonderful world
of Hollywood, there are things included in movies that seem a little bit out of place
or forced – certain lines of dialogue, props, pieces of music or celebrity cameos, for example.
Often this can be put down to poor filmmaking or desperation, but these things can also
be included simply for the fun of it.
Writers and directors love to make movies their own and this can sometimes come in the
form of the aforementioned inclusions.
When watching a movie for the first time, viewers might completely miss them or wonder
what on Earth is going on, but these inclusions are generally clever in-jokes that make reference
to something else in a subtle way – things like a director’s past projects, or a movie
a director liked in their childhood, for instance.
In this video, we’re going to run through a list of some of the best in-jokes in movie
history.
Here are 10 movie inside jokes you didn’t get.
Spider-Man 2 The Spider-Man trilogy that starred Tobey
Maguire as the web-slinging superhero was, of course, directed by Sam Raimi.
Raimi was previously best-known for creating and directing the Evil Dead series of movies
– and in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, there was an entire scene that quite hilariously took
its visual cues from those cult horror movies.
When the presumed-dead Otto Octavius was being prepared for post-mortem surgery, his mechanical
arms developed sentience and attacked the doctors who were present.
In the most blatant callback to the Evil Dead movies, one of those doctors reached for a
chainsaw – as wielded by Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams – and used it in a failed attempt
to escape the clutches of the mechanical arm that had a hold of him.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom When movie franchises have writers and actors
in common with each other, they will often make fun references to each other, and the
first example of that in this particular list comes from 1984’s Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom.
With George Lucas having written the movie’s story and Harrison Ford AKA Han Solo starring
in the titular role, Star Wars references were guaranteed to happen.
The movie’s opening took place in a Japanese nightclub called “Club Obi Wan” – a
reference to the Jedi first played by Sir Alec Guinness in 1977’s A New Hope.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day saw the
return of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg – only this time around he was a
good guy.
Whilst trying to prevent Robert Patrick’s T-1000 from killing Edward Furlong’s John
Connor, Arnie’s character stalked the liquid metal robot through a shopping mall.
Carrying a box of roses to disguise his intentions – presumably to avoid upsetting the mall’s
customers – Arnie ultimately pulled a huge gun from the box and used it to attack Patrick’s
character.
A gun… in a box of roses?
Get it?
This was actually a very subtle and clever nod to the legendary American rock band that
performed the movie’s theme song “You Could Be Mine”.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York Home Alone 2 was the New York-based sequel
to 1991’s Home Alone.
This time around, Macauley Culkin’s Kevin McCallister was left to survive on his own
in the Big Apple, as opposed to in his own Chicago home.
Kevin uses his father’s credit card to take up residency in the Plaza Hotel – which
was then owned by current U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
As Kevin arrives at the hotel, he asks a fellow visitor for directions to the lobby.
Who was that fellow visitor?
It was none other than Mr. Trump himself.
How could you possibly miss that awful trademark hair?
Scream It could be argued that 1996’s Scream is
one big long in-joke, but this one is just so great that we couldn’t not include it
here.
In a scene in Woodsboro High School, the janitor is wearing clothes reminiscent of an iconic
character from another Wes Craven movie – Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame.
It was a fairly blatant reference, but what wasn’t so blatant was that the character
– who was credited as “Fred” – was actually played by a heavily-disguised Craven
himself.
Shaun of the Dead 2004’s Shaun of the Dead is a brilliant
British horror comedy that pays tribute to the zombie movies of old.
The movie’s writer and star, Simon Pegg, is a huge fan of the zombie genre and that
was clearly evident.
A clever reference to George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead came in the form
of a quote by Nick Frost’s character Ed.
When Pegg’s character Shaun was speaking to his mother in the movie, amid the zombie
apocalypse, Ed shouted “we’re coming to get you, Barbara” down the phone – this
line was paraphrased from the famous “they’re coming to get you, Barbara” quote, which
Russell Streiner’s Johnny Blair used to scare his sister in the aforementioned 1968
classic.
Thor Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are always
full of in-jokes, Easter eggs and fun references – to the point that we could saturate a
list like this with such examples – and one of the best came in 2011’s Thor.
The movie saw the blossoming of the perennially reviled relationship between Chris Hemsworth’s
titular character and Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster.
At one point, Foster lends Thor a shirt that she says belonged to an ex-boyfriend called
Donald Blake.
Eagle-eared fans of the Thor comic books will have realized that this was a reference to
the human alter-ego of the Asgardian in the character’s early years.
Hot Fuzz Hot Fuzz is the second movie in Edgar Wright
and Simon Pegg’s Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy – the first being the previously
mentioned Shaun of the Dead.
Coming two years after the brilliant horror comedy in 2006, Hot Fuzz made a fun blink-and-you’ll-miss
it reference to it.
When Nick Frost’s PC Danny Butterman was browsing a DVD bargain bin at the local supermarket,
a copy of a movie called “Zombies Party” could be seen lying at the bottom of it.
In reality, Zombies Party was actually the name by which Shaun of the Dead was released
in some countries.
I Am Legend Back in 2007, when I Am Legend was released,
a Batman v Superman movie was still nothing more than a dream.
The idea had been conceived – I Am Legend producer Akiva Goldsman had in fact been working
on the project - but putting it into practice was a long way off.
Goldsman’s involvement in the failed project resulted in the inclusion of a fun in-joke
in the Will Smith movie.
A Times Square movie poster showing Batman and Superman’s respective logos overlapping
each other could be seen in the background.
Of course, the movie has finally become a reality here in 2016, but back then it was
almost as if Warner Brothers were saying “the only chance of this movie happening is in
a fictional post-apocalyptic world”.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie was
genuinely teaming with in-jokes and fun references – even more so than the average comic book
movie, which is really saying something.
One of the more subtle examples was the name of the ship owned by Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord
in the movie.
It was called “the Milano”, which was a cute nod to the fact that director James
Gunn used to have a huge childhood crush on actress Alyssa Milano, the gorgeous star of
shows like Melrose Place and Charmed.
Thanks for watching our list of 10 movie inside jokes you didn’t get.
Did you spot these on your first viewing?
Did we leave any major examples out?
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more great videos like this one!