20 Not-So-Obvious Movie Details With Big Implications

1.

Sometimes even the smallest character detail, when done right, can tell us more about a protagonist than minutes of exposition. Leave it to these eagle-eyed viewers for breaking down how the small details you probably missed, have so much to say about the some of our favorite movies.

2.

R. Lee Ermey, who plays Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket (1987), came up with 150 pages worth of insults for his role. Originally a technical advisor for the film, he took over after the original actor tired himself out after yelling for 30 minutes.

3.

In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), John Williams gave Short Round his own hero theme music. Anytime he is in action, the theme plays, just like Indy’s.

4.

The Terminator (1984) During the scene where Terminator is removing his eye with an x-acto, there is no blade visible when he brings the knife to his eye

5.

Arnold did his own stunts in Conan the Barbarian (1982) because no one could be found that was big enough to resemble him.

6.

The Predator (1987), the character of Predator was never meant to make the distinctive clicking sound. Peter Cullen had finished 11 reels of King Kong and was coughing up blood. He chose this vocalization because it was easy on his voice and his face remembered him of a dying crab.

7.

In Batman (1989) the Joker puts on a pair of glasses and says “You wouldn’t hit a man with glasses would you?”. This is a call back to the 1966 Batman TV Show where Batman said “Never hit a man with glasses.”

8.

In The Terminator (1984), the T-800 is actually searching the phonebook with both fingers. A closeup shot shows his right finger hovering down to Sarah, but in the wide shot its revealed he’s already found John Conner with his left.

9.

In The Terminator (1984), the T-800 has human teeth, likely since this would be the only part of the endoskeleton visible.

10.

In Alien (1979) a picture of Jonesy, the ship’s cat, as a kitten is seen on a computer terminal in the Nostromo.

11.

In the 1983 movie Scarface. The character Tony Montana can be seen eating a lemon which is for washing your hands after dinner. This shows how poor he was growing up never being exposed to things of the rich.

12.

In Die Hard (1988) John McClane can be seen holding down the slide release on the side of his Beretta before handing it to Clay, who he knows is Hans Gruber. Because he is loading an empty magazine if he didn’t hold the slide release it would have locked in the open/empty position.

13.

In Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) Jabba the Hutt has a tattoo on his right forearm.

14.

In Top Gun (1988), the term “bogey” is misused throughout the movie. A bogey is an unidentified aircraft. Once identified it is referred to as “friendly”, “bandit” (for non-friendly aircraft) or as “hostile” (for non-friendly aircraft that may be fired at ie. engaged).

15.

In Die Hard (1988) when John is talking to Hans in disguise as “Bill Clay,” this is the only scene that takes place at a Dutch angle in the whole movie. Dutch angles convey suspicion and unease, but actually comes from “Deutsch” angle which means German.

16.

In order to prevent the twist of Vader being Luke’s father being spoiled in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the line written in the script and spoken during filming was “Obi-Wan killed your father”, with it later dubbed over. Of the main cast, only Mark Hamill was informed before release

17.

In 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, anyone with a lapel flower tries to kill Indy. Indy even signals Elsa is bad by giving her a flower when they meet.

18.

In Die Hard (1988), Alan Rickman’s Petrified Expression While Falling Was Completely Genuine. The Stunt Team Instructed Him That They Would Drop Him On The Count Of 3 But Instead Dropped Him At 1

19.

In Terminator 2, the man taking the photos of the T-800 was the cop that the T-800 assaulted in Terminator 1. That’s why he was (speechlessly) taking photos.

20.

In The Terminator (1984), James Cameron directed Schwarzenegger to move his eyes independently from his head while searching for his target, because it would conserve energy — a reasonable priority for a machine.

21.

In Die Hard (1988), during the scene where John McClane (Bruce Willis) falls down a ventilator shaft, his stuntman (Keii Johnston) was supposed to grab onto the first vent. He missed. The footage was so good that editor Frank J. Urioste left it in the movie.