5 Tiny Movie Details That Explain Everything
It can be fun to ask questions raised by a movie’s plot; some websites even make a living from it. Sometimes, though, if you just squint at the background long enough, all your questions will be answered. Other times, you just give yourself a headache and an existential crisis. If it’s a really good movie, you get all three.
Kevin’s Boarding Pass in ‘Home Alone’
We know it was pre-9/11 and all, but you’d think there would be multiple steps of the international air travel process that would prompt you to realize you’d left a child, you know, home alone. For example, the distribution of boarding passes, at which point you’d notice you have an extra. Keep an eye out during the Pepsi-sponsored pizza dinner eaten by the family the night before, however, and you’ll spot Kevin’s boarding pass being thrown into the garbage with a bunch of similarly colored napkins used to mop up a beverage flood. That’s why you should always drink Coke.
Ant-Man Survived Thanos’ ‘Endgame’ Attack By Shrinking
When Thanos attacks the Avengers Compound at the climax of Endgame, Ant-Man is seen apparently getting blasted into a fine entomological dust, but just a few minutes later, he emerges from the rubble, pocket-size but unharmed. How? And when? It’s hard to tell on the big screen, but if you slow it down, you can see that he shrinks down at the last possible nanosecond, allowing him to withstand the force of the blast for reasons that probably make a lot more sense than the rest of the science behind Ant-Man.
Star-Lord Understands All the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Because He Has a Translator Implant
If you’ve ever found yourself abroad and in need of more than a sandwich or the bathroom, you know the pain of monolingualism, but now imagine that no one in sight even shares your vocal anatomy. How could you possibly understand them, let alone communicate with them? In the case of Peter Quill, a human outlawing in space, it’s thanks to the “translator implant in neck” detected and listed on screen after he’s arrested in Guardians of the Galaxy. You could be forgiven for not noticing because he’s doing that hilariously clever “cranking up my middle finger” gag at the same time.
‘Kill Bill: Volume 1’ Revealed The Bride’s Name
Initially, Uma Thurman’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s video essay on kung-fu cinema is officially known as The Bride. She’s usually addressed as her code name or, in Bill’s case, “Kiddo,” and every time her name is mentioned, it’s censored. Well, every time except one. When she flies to Japan to kill Lucy Liu in the somewhat misnamed first installment, her plane ticket reveals that her real name is Beatrix Kiddo and Tarantino thinks he’s much more clever than he is.
Private Pyle Was Hoarding ‘Spent’ Rounds in ‘Full Metal Jacket’
Private Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence’s murderous-suicidal breakdown in Full Metal Jacket is one of the most haunting sequences committed to film, which is why people don’t tend to ask until way later, “Hey, where did he get that ammo? Don’t they, uh, tightly control that kind of thing?” The answer can be found in an earlier target practice sequence. If you look reeeeally closely, you’ll notice that there are still bullets left in the “spent” rounds Pyle discards, which he’d apparently been pocketing. You might dismiss it as a mistake, but this is Kubrick. If there was so much as an insect in that shot he didn’t want there, he would have scared it away. Not chased. Scared.
