Friday, July 12, 2013
When watching a movie, most filmmakers are content with shoving all the information we need to understand a story right into our stupid faces. Because film is a medium designed for telling stories, right? Writers and directors don’t need to be coy about what it is they’re trying to say.
Unless what they’re trying to say is completely at your expense, of course, as is the case with most of the hidden messages we’ve assembled here (none of which are Disney entries, by the way, ’cause they’ve been done death elsewhere). Ask yourself, this, though: why did the filmmakers associated with these flicks take the time out of their busy schedules to ensure that these subtle inclusions made it into theatres?
The logical answer? To reward viewers patient enough to search for hidden clues, you say? Probably not. More than likely, it was all done to either make them feel good about themselves, or to ridicule our growing obsession with analysing each and every frame or everything we happen to gaze upon…
8. Escupimos en su Alimento – Anchorman (2001)
Anchorman is packed with jokes on just about every subject, from milk to aftershave, most of them great because the characters are saying them in English (which certainly helps when it comes to, you know, understanding the punchlines).
But not every joke in Anchorman was deployed in the English language, because where’s the fun in that, right? I refer you to the scene prior to the one where Ron Burgundy (as played by the one and only Will Ferrell) is fired for his recent outbursts, in which Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) can be seen having dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
The name of the restaurant, we see, is the enigmatic “Escupimos en su Alimento.” Which, by the way, means “we spit in your food” in Spanish. Though this is just something of a throwaway gag in the confines of the movie, it really does have the power to make anybody who doesn’t speak a second language nervous about going out for dinner to any foreign joints
7. Tyler’s FBI Warning – Fight Club (1999)
Given the twisted, psychological nature of David Fincher’s movie, it’s no surprise that Fight Club is packed to the brim with a whole host of cool hidden messages, many of which are employed on a subliminal level. The most famous of these has Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) appearing in several of the movie’s scenes for a single frame at a time.
But here’s one that lots of people might have missed, though you’ll only catch this hidden message for the home DVD release. Once you’ve popped the disc into your player, you’ll be treated by an FBI warning (a general piracy warning if you’re in the UK). Business as usual. But wait a second, as the warning switches to something else.
A warning from… Tyler? And one instructing me to live my life to the full, ‘less I’m sitting here reading the text on an anti-piracy at home on my own, right? The reason most people will miss this is because we’re conditioned to just ignore that screen completely. Who knew? A hidden message that can make you feel like a real loser.
6. F*ck U – Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)
Quentin Tarantino is one filmmaker who takes an obvious joy (and serious attitude) towards layering his movies with more in-jokes, movie references and hidden messages than you can shake a Big Kahuna Burger at. His fourth film, Kill Bill, has Uma Thurman as a former assassin seeking revenge on the associates who betrayed her, which she does using mostly a samurai sword.
One such samurai battle takes her to Tokyo, where she faces off against something like 77 enemies in the House of Blue Leaves. In one shot, though, as the Bride walks over a glass floor, the camera is nicely positioned underneath, so we can glimpsed the bottom of her shoe. And look, a personal message from Tarantino himself, which says…
Oh. Ahem. Well, although we could probably surmise that this little insult is more to do with the Bride’s “take no prisoners” attitude than one that is aimed directly at the public, it’s certainly possible this is a note from Tarantino, making fun of the fans who like to search his work for hidden messages… messages exactly like this one
5. “Show Me The Monkey!” – King Kong (2005)
Here’s a hidden message that proves you should never listen to anything that a movie tells you, because it’s probably lying, and look at you, sitting there with your popcorn and soft drink, having a “good time” - shame on you! Inappropriate outbursts aside, the movie is King Kong, Peter Jackson’s epic love letter to his favourite movie ever.
And the scene in question, which takes liberty with your knowledge of morse code, by the way, comes at the very beginning, with the ship approaching the elusive Skull Island. A morse code message is suddenly received, which we are told is putting out a warrant from Carl Denham’s (Jack Black) arrest.
Nope. The real message translates to the hilarious “Show me the monkey!”, which will only not make sense if you don’t know what King Kong is. Anyway, this is why we should all brush out on dying languages, like morse code and, uh, Latin… in case Peter Jackson tries to trick us. Thankfully morse code machines don’t exist in The Hobbit
Here’s a hidden message that proves you should never listen to anything that a movie tells you, because it’s probably lying, and look at you, sitting there with your popcorn and soft drink, having a “good time” - shame on you! Inappropriate outbursts aside, the movie is King Kong, Peter Jackson’s epic love letter to his favourite movie ever.
And the scene in question, which takes liberty with your knowledge of morse code, by the way, comes at the very beginning, with the ship approaching the elusive Skull Island. A morse code message is suddenly received, which we are told is putting out a warrant from Carl Denham’s (Jack Black) arrest.
Nope. The real message translates to the hilarious “Show me the monkey!”, which will only not make sense if you don’t know what King Kong is. Anyway, this is why we should all brush out on dying languages, like morse code and, uh, Latin… in case Peter Jackson tries to trick us. Thankfully morse code machines don’t exist in The Hobbit
4. “It’s Still Alive…” – Cloverfield (2008)
When it comes to huge, Godzilla-like monsters, the last thing you ever want to hear is: “It’s still alive…” Despite the fact that there’s never been any Cloverfield sequel of any kind put into the works, there’s a hidden message included at the end of the original flick that plainly allows us to understand that “Clover” is still breathing.
No need to feel bad if you missed this one, though, because the filmmakers decided to be super subtle about it: not only will you find it at the very end of the movie’s credits, its meaning can only be derived if you play it backwards. I don’t know who decided to do that first, but, uh, good work?
That’s to say, there’s a somewhat invincible ocean beast still trampling around New York, and I for one would like to know how the army went on to deal with something like that. I’m not saying we have to have a Cloverfield sequel or anything
3. IS 5416 – The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The world of the Matrix is both complex and complicated, something that the Wachowskis seemed to take a cruel kind of pleasure in when it came to writing the plots for the two somewhat ill-judged sequels to their original sci-fi classic. All Matrix movies are dense with references of both a philosophical and biblical nature, but perhaps one of the most interesting inclusions is this one.
Which you’ll be able to spot towards the beginning of The Matrix Reloaded, as Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) steps out of his sleek Audi A8. Take a look at the license plate, which reads IS 5416. In any other movie, that’d probably just be a series of random letters and numbers, wouldn’t it? But this is The Matrix, people, where license plates are shorthand for deep theological implications…
“IS 5416″ is actually a neat reference to a Bible passage, Isaiah 54:16: “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work…” So whereas some directors just use cars as tools to ship their characters from place to place, the Wachowskis are using them to to get, like, seriously deep
2. See You Next Wednesday – John Landis’ Filmography
You know John Landis as the man who made An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson’s infamous Thriller video. He’s also a man who likes to repeat the same joke over and over again, as witnessed by the (fictional) movie “See You Next Wednesday,” which has been scattered throughout his filmography in various incarnations.
Seriously. See You Next Wednesday came to John Landis when he heard the line during a phone conversation in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Since then, he’s included it somewhere in at least 12 of his movies and TV show ventures. Sometimes it’s a movie poster, at other times the words are referenced in unsubtle dialogue cues.
Will we ever see a full-length version of See You Next Wednesday? I surely hope so, because going by the poster above (as glimpsed in the comedy/musical the Blues Brothers), it’s about a giant gorilla going berserk downtown. Which is what all movies should be about, fundamentally.
1. Superman/Batman Crossover – I Am Legend (2007)
Here’s an inclusion that was actually intended to be something of a real message back when it was drawn up, although – like most things in life – it eventually turned out to mean absolutely nothing, ’cause the world hates us, and some unspecified cosmic force just never wants that Superman/Batman crossover to happen.
The movie in question here is I Am Legend, which starred Will Smith as “the last man on Earth,” who wanders a post-apocalyptic New York with his dog and drives fast cars and stuff. Look hard enough and – during one scene – you can see a poster for what looks to be a Superman/Batman crossover over, with a release date of 15 May 2010.
When this got out (and as you’ll imagine it would have), the world went crazy, only for the collective dreams of comic fans everywhere to be later shattered. Why was it included, then, you ask? Because I Am Legend producer, Akiva Goldsman, had once apparently been involved in such a project, only for it never have realised. This was included as a sort of semi-reference to such a memory. We hate you, Akiva.
0. “Kennedy” – Gladiator (2000)
This “hidden message” is kind of bizarre, and the reason it doesn’t make the main list is because I can’t find any hard evidence for it anywhere online, despite the fact that it’s plastered all over the internet on various lists – regarding “hidden messages” – as being completely legitimate.
That’s to say, according to various sources, you can glimpse the word “Kennedy” popping up in a couple of key scenes over the course of Ridley Scott’s movie Gladiator, in reference to JFK. I attempted to track these moments down on the DVD, but with no real clue as to where or what I was really looking for, nothing came of the search.
According to these sources, though, there’s something about the end of Gladiator that mirrors the real Kennedy assassination. I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, nor can I really imagine anybody slipping the entire word into the frame of a Ridley Scott movie without the man noticing. What do you think? Have you heard this before?
