on August 6, 2018
something about tortoises, man
Ready Player One (2018)
Synopsis. In the future, the creation of new pop culture has been outlawed. One man, Wade Wild Watts, must prove to a dystopian government that all art is appropriated art.
Tagline. Ghostbusters.
Denny’s Tie-In Menu Item. The Ready Player One Grand Slam®Grand Slam®, a Grand Slam that contains all other Denny’s menu items, including the Grand Slam®Grand Slam® itself, leading to a recursive stack overflow error in the Denny’s parser.
Production Trivia.
- Author Ernest Cline unsuccessfully sued director Steven Spielberg for intellectual property theft in 2016, as Spielberg never obtained permission to adapt Cline’s book. Said Spielberg, “Ernie’s story remixes beloved pop culture icons into an original work. Now I’m remixing that story with a movie, thus making this into an original work.”
- Due to irreconcilable copyright issues, all Ready Player One character action figures are anthropomorphized versions of the movie’s logo.
- To prevent spoilers from leaking, Spielberg demanded a global injunction, halting the sale of all known toys, books, movies and songs until Ready Player One‘s opening weekend.
- The hyperlinks that appear during theatrical screenings can be clicked.
- Production halted for a brutal 15 months, at a cost of $64 million, as likeness rights were negotiated with the ALF estate.
- Will Smith passed on the role of Anorak, primarily because he was never offered it.
- An anagram of the title is “A Leery Dope Yarn.” This meets the criteria for trivia, but only barely.
- The screenplay was written in MLA bibliography format.
Mistakes.
- In the movie’s title sequence, the egg in the “O” of the word “One” hatches to reveal Baby Sinclair from the sitcom Dinosaurs, who tells the audience to “enjoy the show.” He was supposed to say “Not the mama.”
- In both the book and the movie, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) lives in an Optimus Prime head inside an EVA unit’s head inside a giant Neo head (Keanu Reeves). In the movie, Watts calls this his “apartment,” while in the book he is infuriated by that term and exclusively refers to it as his “popculturducken.”
- Director’s trademark. Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) wordlessly removing her glasses, jaw slack with awe, as she rises from seated to standing up in a Jeep, transfixed by the silent majesty of a towering brachiosaur.
- Continuity mixup. After the Iron Giant shoots the gun out of Batman’s hand, the angle changes to show Smurfette’s reaction. However, when we see Batman again, he is still holding Megatron.
- At one point, Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) mentions a 2016 Ghostbusters with Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, but this movie does not exist.
- Director’s trademark. The term “goonies,” especially when referring to The Goonies (1985).
- Lara Croft’s boobs are big, but not big enough.
- In the scene where Parzival holds the Mirror of Erised up to deflect the eye beams of a zombie Cyclops, in the reflection we can clearly see the DeLorean that E.T. stole from Snidely Whiplash is the T-1000 Silverhawks Breakfast Club Endor Ark of the Covenant Beetlejuice
- Incorrectly regarded as error. When Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) speaks the phrase “Just like in Doctor Who,” he does not say the show’s name with the appropriate level of reverence. However, Sorrento is the villain, and audiences were meant to be enraged at his disrespect.
- Director’s trademark. Actors speaking lines that they memorized from a script, in order to be believable as the movie’s characters.
- If Watts using his feet to roll a pebble to Art3mis as a sign of romantic intent was a reference to the 1995 animated feature The Pebble and the Penguin starring Martin Short and Jim Belushi, the pebble was the wrong color.
- Credits Kerfuffle. The presence of credits rolling implies that the events that took place are fictional, but they’re not. They just can’t be.
- The ASPCA notice “No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture” should read “A statistically insignificant number of animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture, and even fewer died.”
- The “The” in “The End” is in scare quotes.
Memorable Quotes
Wade Watts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One_(film)
Comment
Suicide Squad (2016)
Tagline. This time, “the joke’s” on everyone.
Poster design. Planet Earth, being teabagged by what is assumed to be the Joker’s pale genitalia, with a smile drawn onto it, emerging from a pair of purple leather trousers. Tattooed on the side of the penis are the words “THE JOKE.” There is also an arrow, bearing the legend “This is you,” pointing at the Earth.
Trivia
- Will Smith agreed to star in Suicide Squad as long as he remained “aggressively unaware” of the movie. He was paid $35 million for the use of his likeness as the full-CGI character “Deadshot.” A Will Smith impersonator provided the voice.
- Although the Joker (Jared Leto) has only four lines of dialogue, he is on screen for the full duration of the movie thanks to a small graphic overlay where a news station logo might normally be.
- Suicide Squad is the first movie to give a clothing store (Hot Topic) a screenwriting credit.
- There was talk of changing the Joker’s origin to show that he was an unwitting pawn of a hyper-intelligent anus which sang all of its dialogue operatically, but Jared Leto’s idea was shot down.
- Cast and crew alike complained that they all had difficulty working with — even reading — the shooting script. The 230-page script was written in red thread on red leather jeans. It was worn by executive producer Zach Snyder.
- Director David Ayer demanded that the 600-gallon tank in which the Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) drowns her victims to be filled with real blood. Negotiators were able to talk Ayer down to urine.
- Following fan backlash, producers changed Margot Robbie’s character’s name back to “Harley Quinn.” The cast was called into post-production to dub over all instances of the name “Disco Titties.”
- In response to Ghostbusters (2016), DC’s early marketing sought to position Suicide Squad as a feminist movie, putting special emphasis on scenes where female characters chose to be murdered by the Joker.
- To soften the tone of the film, “Killer Croc” was renamed “Alleged Killer Croc.”
- Due to pressure on the MPAA, Suicide Squad is the first G-rated film to portray a decapitation at the moment of orgasm.
Mistakes
- The United Nations Headquarters does not have an “emergency roller coaster.”
- Continuity. The Joker’s lower back tattoo occasionally reads “BIGEST FART” instead of “BIGGEST FART.”
- Katana (Karen Fukuhara) wields a Scottish claymore for the entirety of Suicide Squad, repeatedly claiming that it is an “authentic Japanese weapon.” In the after-credits scene, as a nod to the audience, the claymore splits open to reveal it had always contained a katana. However, a Scottish claymore with a katana inside continues to not be an authentic Japanese weapon.
- Incorrectly regarded as mistake. Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) only appears in crocodile monster form briefly in his first scene, right before a government agent shoots him with a “decrocodilizing ray.” While this seems like it could have been a cost-saving measure to avoid doing makeup for the character, the government agent does say “this decrocodilizing ray will let you blend in, Croc.” Killer Croc is then absent for the rest of the movie.
- Equipment error. All characters load their firearms by pouring bullets into the muzzle.
- An object with the word “boomerang” written on it will not then act like a boomerang.
- A boomerang with the words “[character name]’s boomerang” written on it would not “return” to that character with lethal precision.
- A boomerang would not be eligible for the Purple Heart, not even “the biggest one ever made.”
- Credit confusion. The climactic signature line the Joker delivers before assassinating the President — “The Joker’s here to see ya, I’ll give ya diarrhea!” — was not ad-libbed, but in fact written by long-time Ayer collaborator Wesley Strick (Cape Fear).
- Harley Quinn invites the Joker into her cell for sex despite it being impossible to be aroused by Jared Leto’s Joker.
- It would take more bullets than were ever manufactured for Deadshot to “shoot the Earth back onto its axis.”
- Suicide Squad has no ending. The movie is still playing in the theater; audiences just all tend to leave around the same part.
Memorable Quotes
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). What we need is some kind of squad that answers to us, is completely expendable, and gives us full deniability.
Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). A squad prepared to kill themselves… to complete the mission.
Amanda Waller. Exactly. Exactly that, in a squad.
Rick Flag. Kill themselves… squad. We could call them the Suic —
MTV’s Are You The One’s Gio in an uncredited cameo. Hey, are you the ones making all that noise? Keep it down!
Deadshot. I made my daughter a promise. I promised never to commit suicide. If I join your squad, what does that say about me?
Harley Quinn. It’s not literally about suicide. It’s just called that because of how dangerous it is.
Deadshot. Whew, that makes me feel a lot better.
The Joker. Let old Joker put a smile on that sad face! A smile… of blood! (he holds up a dead raccoon with Christmas lights on it that spell the word “AIDS”) Aw… did the bad man scare you? What if I… go pee-pee on the Bible!
Government agent. You’ve gone too far, Joker! Stop!
The Joker. Uh oh! This clown needs to wipe up this mess… and this should do nicely… (he reaches for an American flag)
Government agent. I’m questioning everything!
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Synopsis. When Batman and Superman first meet, they don’t like each other so much that they have a fight.
Tagline. When Batman and Superman first meet, they don’t like each other so much that they have a fight.
Trivia
- Ben Affleck wanted the role of Batman so badly that he asked director Zack Snyder to kill his parents. “I knew then that I had my Batman,” said Snyder, who had killed Affleck’s parents hours before for reasons unrelated to the movie.
- To prepare for the project, Snyder had an elective lobotomy which removed all memories of the characters Superman and Batman, then had them described to him by a 12-year-old diehard Marvel fan.
- While promoting the movie, Henry Cavill walked around Times Square wearing a Superman t-shirt. When no one seemed to recognize him, he offered this as proof that Clark Kent’s glasses would be enough of a disguise, even though the simpler explanation is that no one cares about Cavill as Superman.
- Director’s trademark: A woman spitting into a man’s mouth to indicate intimacy or trust.
- Six scale models of the Batmobile were built for practical effects shots. The models were 10:1, weighing 50,000 pounds each. A team of tractors was used to open the Batmobile’s 48-foot-tall door. A CGI Ben Affleck was then added to the shot.
- Director’s trademark: A character’s fist angrily striking a tabletop, crushing the fully dressed hot dog they were holding.
- BvS:DoJ marks the first time in DC Comics history that Superman uses the c-word. It is the first line of dialogue.
Mistakes
- Lois Lane does not have a HUD.
- The names “Perry White,” “J. Jonah Jameson,” “Daily Bugle” and “Daily Planet” are used interchangeably.
- In the scene where Superman searches the waterfront, Metropolis is visible across the bay from Metropolis.
- Perhaps in an attempt to update the characters for a modern audience, Batman mentions the “utility apps on [his] dashboard,” which is clearly just his utility belt.
- Superman is often referred to as a boat, apparent in the scene where Batman throws radioactive shards, and Superman “sustains minor hull damage.”
- Characters continually deliver lines and follow them with “and I’m talking to you, not them,” pointing at the character they are addressing. However, it is already commonly accepted that the audience is not being directly addressed by the people in a movie.
- Though the light from Krypton exploding would eventually reach Earth, Batman would not be able to see the death of Superman’s parents on the planet’s surface with the naked eye.
- It seems too convenient that Superman knew he could distract Batman during the climactic fight by pointing at Krypton and shouting “Look, more parents dying.”
- Wonder Woman’s “WW” chest symbol is upside-down.
Memorable Quotes
Clark Kent. So this is Metropolis, the city I just moved to. And this must be the Daily Planet, where I’ll be working with Lois Lane.
Lois Lane. Say, you’re handsome for a new reporter. I’ll be giving you a handjob in the break room.
Clark Kent. (classic Christopher Reeve wink to camera, as a respectful nod to his legacy)
Batman. As long as vigilantes with abilities beyond those of normal people are allowed to operate in secrecy, there can never be a dawn of justice.
Lex Luthor. Poo poo coo coo. Bobo mo mo mo mo.
Superman. An extraordinary foe.
Bruce Wayne. So you must be the new reporter for the Metropolis newspaper. I’m from Gotham City but I had a building here that fell down.
Clark Kent. So that’s why you’re here and not there.
Bruce Wayne. I don’t like your attitude, Kent.
Clark Kent. Prepare to be murdered by Superman.
Wonder Woman. I’m here.
Superman. I kill for fun but think we should make some kind of a, you know. A league of adjudicators.
Batman. For justice. A league, you say?
Superman. Yeah, I like the sound of that… a Justice L —
Wonder Woman. (interrupting, looking into camera) To be continued.