50 Details From '00s And Early '10s Movies That Are As Smart As They Are Subtle
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1.Mean Girls (2004): Regina getting hit by the yellow school bus is foreshadowed. Cady almost gets hit as she’s walking towards the school for the first time, and she describes meeting Aaron as, "This one hit me like a big yellow school bus."
2.The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013): the country of Panem exists over North America, but a specific look at Panem's districts and what the land looks like in the future can be seen on a map on the train.
3.The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005): in one scene, Paul Rudd is wearing a shirt with his face on it. Rumor has it that the picture was taken when the cast shot their work badges, and the film's costumer decided to print Rudd's photo on a shirt.
4.Legally Blonde (2001): the "falling leaves" were actually simply dropped.
5.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007): as Umbridge gets more and more powerful, her outfits become a darker and darker shade of pink.
6.Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011): at just one minute into the movie, Hannah (Emma Stone) is visible in a family picture."
In case you don't remember, a big, big reveal later on in Crazy, Stupid, Love is that Hannah is the oldest daughter of Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore).
7.Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): the moon always has a crater because Todd Ingram punched the moon before the events of the movie, in an effort to express his love for Ramona Flowers.
8.13 Going on 30 (2004): Older Jenna's apartment has been furnished in the exact style of an article Young Jenna read called "30, Flirty & Thriving".
Kudos to the production design department for not making this furniture noticeably dated to either 1987 or 2004.
9.Iron Man 2 (2010): the language in War Machine's suit changes to Russian when his armor is compromised.
10.The Princess Diaries (2001): when Mia breaks her glass, a server sweetly tells her, "It happens all the time." That server is played by the same actor who plays the server in Pretty Woman (1990), a character who tells Vivian, "It happens all the time" in a very similar context. Garry Marshall directed both of the movies.
11.Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006): Ricky Bobby's heart rate monitor has his heart rate at 69 for the entirety of the scene in his hospital room.
12.Atonement (2007): Briony watches Robbie get arrested though a stained-glass window. This window depicts Matilda, who is a patron saint of the falsely accused. Robbie has been falsely accused of rape, in large part because of Briony.
13.Hot Fuzz (2007): the extremely amateur production of Romeo and Juliet is in the style of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 movie, and therefore the actors are copying a movie instead of actually performing Shakespeare.
My favorite part of this scene is the Blower adjusting himself after dying as Romeo.
14.Enchanted (2007): James Marsden was actually hit by cyclists.
In Enchanted (2007), in the scene where Edward is run over by the cyclists, James Marsden was actually hit by them for real. The cyclists were just meant to “bump” him and he would fake a fall. But Marsden didn’t think it looked good, so he insisted on filming the collision for real. from MovieDetails
15.The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006): one fisher who is unhappy with Sean's early attempts at drifting is played by "Drift King" Keiichi Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya helped popularize drifting (and Touge driving, which is in the movie pretty substantially as well).
16.Inception (2010): the ending of the movie takes place in reality, because Cobb is not wearing a wedding ring. It is consistent throughout the movie that when Cobb is in the real world, he does not wear a wedding ring, and when he is in dreams, he does.
Michael Caine, Inception star – and Miss Congeniality star, which is unrelated but it's not celebrated enough – knew Inception's ending was reality a different way. He once said, "When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it, and I said to [director Christophe Nolan], 'I don't understand where the dream is.' I said, 'When is it the dream and when is it reality?' He said, 'Well, when you're in the scene, it's reality.' So get that — if I'm in it, it's reality. If I'm not in it, it's a dream." Caine is in the movie's final scene.
17.The Devil Wears Prada (2006): Emily has a picture of Paris's Arc de Triomphe as her computer wallpaper, because she really, really wants to go to Paris for Fashion Week.
18.Pitch Perfect (2012): Ester Dean, the actor who plays Cynthia-Rose, was one of the writers of "S&M" by Rihanna — a song her character sings in the riff-off.
19.Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004): some characters go to a Mexican restaurant called "Escupimos en su Alimento," which translates to "We spit on your food" in English.
20.Juno (2007): After every interaction Juno and Mark have, he dresses more like her.
In case you forgot, Mark develops feelings for 16-year-old Juno and connects with her as a way to make himself feel better.
21.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011): Harry, Ron, and Hermione easily beat antagonists they faced during their first three years at Hogwarts.
22.Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): Pictures of Envy and Scott's breakup are in the background of the scene where they speak on the phone. These pictures being up proves that Scott cannot move on.
23.Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004): there is a treasure chest at the end of the movie, and it is called "Deus Ex Machina."
24.Love Actually (2003): the movie's opening montage was made up of real footage. There were hidden cameras set up at Heathrow Airport, and when a special moment of loved ones reuniting was caught on camera, the crew rushed over and asked for permission to use the footage.
25.Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Salim super glues a water bottle cap onto a bottle taken from the trash and then filled with tap water. There are scammers who do this as a way to make water bottles seem new and unopened.
26.Hot Fuzz (2007): a whiteboard behind Sergeant Tony Fisher ascribes some adjectives to him.
If you can't see it, the board behind him says things like, "Inefficient," "Rude," "Disloyal," and "Late." The protagonist of Hot Fuzz believes he is all of these things.
As one of the Reddit commenters pointed out, "The only thing written in black is 'Lack of leadership skills.' During the shopping center assault at the end of the film, he's shown to be able to take charge."
27.Mean Girls (2004): Regina wears an 'R' necklace while she's queen bee, and Cady wears a 'C' necklace after she has usurped Regina.
28.Plus, Mean Girls (2004): Regina told Gretchen she couldn't wear hoop earrings because hoop earrings were Regina's thing. When Cady becomes the leader of the Plastics, she wears some hoops.
29.Also Mean Girls (2004): After the Plastics break up, Gretchen wears hoop earrings.
30.The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013): Beetee fashioned wire from his spoil to hold his glasses down during the games, in case he needs to do any sudden physical movements, like run or jump.
31.Jennifer's Body (2009): the school is doing a production of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the first ever example of the genre "psycho-biddy", which Jennifer Body falls into as well.
In general, "psycho biddy" films are horror movies centered around an older woman who has lost her previous glamour and elegance, developed a mental illness, and is now terrorizing others. While the villain of Jennifer's Body – "villain" is a strong term I don't necessarily agree with, but for clarity's sake, let's go with "villain" – is a high schooler who does not live with a mental illness, the movie uses the ethos of the "psycho biddy" genre.
It goes without saying that the phrase "psycho biddy" reeks of sexism.
32.Iron Man (2008): there is a subtle musical homage to the original 1966 Iron Man cartoon.
33.13 Going on 30 (2004): Older Jenna's sleep mask and party dress are made of the same material and are a similar pattern to the blindfold Younger Jenna wears in the closet during seven minutes.
34.Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): to give the film even more of a comic book feel, the characters basically never blink.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is based on a series of graphic novels.
35.I Am Legend (2007): Dr. Robert Neville has many famous paintings in his home. (He took them from New York galleries like the Museum of Modern Art). For example, Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night is above the television.
36.Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006): Initally, Wonder Bread sponsored Ricky Bobby, so when he loses his sponsor, Ricky uses the "W" and "E" from "Wonder" to spell "Me."
37.Little Miss Sunshine (2006): The scene where Dwayne realizes he can never be a pilot, his dream, wonderfully juxtaposes the huge blue sky he won't ever get to fly through with the harsh ground he will always be stuck on.
Dwayne has just learned he has colorblindness, which disqualifies him from becoming a pilot.
38.Shaun of the Dead (2004): Shaun tries to buy a Diet Coke from the convenience store owner/now-zombie, Nelson, but he's short 15p. Later in the film, Nelson still wants the money.
39.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011): Harry and and Neville are dressed like their fathers at the Battle of Hogwarts.
40.Superbad (2007): Seth and Evan tell Fogell not to "fuck it up and get sambuca again" when he's tasked with buying alcohol for the party. This makes sense, because we saw Fogell holding sambuca early on in the movie.
41.The Hunger Games (2012): all of the coal miners Katniss sees when she is hallucinating and remembering have her dad's face.
42.Fast Five (2011): Han's full name is a dumb little reference.
Okay, I don't think this is exactly a genius detail, but the level of amusement I get from the fact that this is canonically a thing is genius-level.
43.The Princess Diaries (2001): Mia's trip on the bleachers wasn't scripted.
Hathaway later said of the film and its director, Garry Marshall, "If it was good, it was in the movie. He didn't care where it came from; he didn't care what happened."
44.Enchanted (2007): Robert works for a law firm called "Churchill, Harline, and Smith," who were the songwriters of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Frank Churchill, Paul Smith, and Leigh Harline did the music for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
45.Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007): Dewey is still married to Edith when he marries Darlene, and he wears two wedding rings.
46.(500) Days Of Summer (2009): Summer nominated Tom for karaoke and says, "I nominate young Werther here!" "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is a novel by Goethe about an ill-fated romance.
47.A Cinderella Story (2004): the car's license plate says "2SAM," which is hinting at the fact that Sam's father left everything to her in his will. After this is revealed, Sam sells the car to help pay for her college.
This is totally unrelated, but let's take a moment to celebrate this line from A Cinderella Story, one of the best lines in anything ever: "Sweetheart, now that you're old enough, there's something I've always wanted to tell you, and I think you're ready to hear it: You're not very pretty, and you're not very bright. I'm so glad we had that talk."
48.Zombieland (2009): Tallahassee, who looks for Twinkies the whole movie, just misses some behind a door in the Hostess Truck.
49.The Pursuit of Happyness (2006): Chris Gardner, who the movie is based on, walks by in a scene.
50.And finally, Hot Fuzz (2007): the words on the police swear box are censored, except for the word "cunt."
