Hollywood has a long, long history of putting its coolest characters from one movie smack
dab in the middle of another movie's plot, and these days, every little film property
wants to be a big, tough expanded universe.
But what about the more obscure crossovers, the ones that took years for fans to discover?
Here are the coolest crossovers in film that you may have missed.
Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, & Casper
When Harold Ramis co-wrote the original Ghostbusters movie, he managed to sneak one pretty amazing
crossover cameo from one of his earlier movies: 1980's Caddyshack.
We all remember crazy greenskeeper Carl Spackler from Caddyshack, played to perfection by Bill
Murray.
In a deleted scene from Ghostbusters, the now-homeless Spackler can be seen walking
through Central Park with another bum, played by Dan Aykroyd, debating politics and martial
arts.
"I think that a good karate guy is ALWAYS going to top a heavyweight boxer."
Eleven years later, director Brad Silberling got in on the crossover action, adding a brief
scene into Casper which features Dan Aykroyd's Ghostbusters character running away in terror
from the haunted Whipstaff Manor.
"Who you gonna call?
Someone else."
Alien, Blade Runner, Firefly and beyond
Did you know that some of the most beloved science fiction franchises in existence are
all related?
While it's long been speculated that there's a connection between the Alien and Blade Runner
worlds, the idea was essentially confirmed with the DVD release of Prometheus.
In one of the bonus features on the disc, you can read a letter from Peter Weyland in
which he talks about his mentor in robotics, and how it eventually all "blew up in his
face."
For those who know their Blade Runner history, it's pretty clear that Weyland is referring
to Eldon Tyrell, who got killed by one of the replicants he created.
Those movies also have a link to the 1998 sci-fi film Soldier, which is considered an
unofficial sequel to the original Blade Runner.
For example, in one scene you can see a Blade Runner spinner in a trash heap.
Additionally, die-hard fans of Joss Whedon's series Firefly can tell you that the logo
on Mal's turret gun in the pilot episode belongs to none other than the Weyland-Yutani corporation
from the Alien franchise.
Finally, there's the whole Predator connection, which was explored in two completely unnecessary
Alien vs. Predator movies, but hinted at much earlier in Predator 2, when a xenomorph skull
is seen in a trophy case.
Every Pixar movie
Pixar has produced a whole lot of great movies.
But did you know that all of those films are at least interconnected, if not set within
the same universe?
According to movie critic Jon Negroni's ridiculously in-depth theory, it goes deeper than that.
He says the world of Pixar movies is run by mega-corporation Buy n Large, or BnL, which
shows up in multiple movies, and all the movies exist on the same timeline.
Beyond Negroni's theory, the connections can be traced through an impressive number of
Easter eggs the Pixar animators have left sprinkled through their films, including the
ever-popular "Pizza Planet" truck, which appears in almost every Pixar movie.
Rango & Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
While we're on the topic of animated movies, let's talk about Rango.
This 2011 children's feature film from Gore Verbinski has much more in common with Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas than you might realize.
Both movies feature Johnny Depp in the main role, and Rango wears a flowered shirt much
like Hunter S. Thompson's alter-ego "Raoul Duke" from Fear and Loathing.
At one point, Rango gets plastered to the windshield of a passing vehicle, driven by
Thompson and his lawyer "Dr. Gonzo" in the same convertible from Fear and Loathing.
Additionally, there's a scene in Fear and Loathing where Thompson sees a bunch of clothed,
humanoid lizards.
Given the themes of existentialism throughout Rango, it makes you wonder if maybe the entire
movie may have taken place in the hallucinations of Thompson as he drove through the desert.
"Suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us.
And the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving
around the car."
Split & Unbreakable
Director M. Night Shyamalan's career seems to be taking an upswing.
His 2015 found footage horror movie The Visit was a huge success, and Shyamalan followed
that up with another hit, the 2016 psychological thriller Split.
For fans of Shyamalan's earlier work, the way that Split ended was explosive.
"This is like that crazy guy in the wheelchair that they put away 15 years ago."
"They gave him a funny name, too."
"Mr. Glass."
Yup, that's a reference to Samuel L. Jackson's wheelchair-bound villain from Unbreakable.
This appearance by Willis was more than just a quick bit of fanservice.
The cameo was cut from test screenings in order to keep it a secret, and Shyamalan revealed
that the character of Kevin actually appeared in early versions of the script for Unbreakable.
That makes Split a sequel to Unbreakable, set some fifteen years later.
If that weren't exciting enough on it's own, Shyamalan is hard at work on a third movie,
Glass, which will feature the characters from both Split and Unbreakable.
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