Subliminal messaging isn't always about advertising. Some filmmakers use it to try and create a certain emotional effect in their audience, without them consciously knowing why they felt that way. The first thirty minutes of Gaspar Noé’s film Irreversible contains an extremely low frequency background noise that is virtually inaudible to humans, but capable of causing uneasiness and nausea. Noé deliberately inserted the noise into his soundtrack to make people feel sensations of disgust while watching his movie. But trust us - it's far from the only disturbing part of the mo
Total Recall is a simple enough story: an everyday Earthling in the not-too-distant future, Douglas Quaid, dreams of a passionate affair with a beautiful woman on the surface of Mars. So when a business offers to implant false memories for a price, Quaid decides to make his dream a reality – at least as far as his mind is concerned. The procedure goes awry, and Quaid’s false memories disappear, revealing that he really WAS a secret agent working on Mars, and the woman from his dreams wasn’t imaginary. At least, that’s what he thinks. The movie never states whether Quaid’s return to Mars really happened, and whether he succeeded in releasing air into its atmosphere, and saving its poor population. But taking a quick glance at just how closely the film’s final scene resembles Quaid’s dream, those suspecting it was simply a fantasy have even more evidence to back up their cl
Director Martin Scorsese wasn’t exactly subtle with the tension and terror of Cape Fear , the story of a convicted criminal who seeks revenge on the lawyer who put him there, terrorizing him and his family, particularly his teenage daughter. Beginning the movie with chilling music and a blood red close-up on the daughter’s eyes warns audiences that the story she’s about to recount is a violent and truly unsettling one, due in large part to Robert De Niro’s acclaimed performance as the film’s villain. The family survives in the end, with the lawyer successfully killing his former client - but the damage has been done. To remind viewers that Cape Fear is as much about the loss of innocence as it is about revenge or protecting your family, the film returns to the "spared" daughter, this time fading from innocent white to red – and keeping audiences from feeling too good about its happy end
In the world of Star Wars , even an opera or ballet is unrecognizable, shown as a variety of liquid spheres in Revenge of the Sith . It's during a performance of "Squid Lake" ( really ) that Anakin first learns the power of the Dark Side from Chancellor Palpatine, taking his first step towards becoming Darth Vader. His temptation should have been obvious, too: when Darth Plagueis is first mentioned, the shot cuts to the large sphere of liquid in front of the men. Look closely at the water's reflections, and you'll notice a ghostly image of Darth Vader's famous helmet (look for the eyes first). We give the effects team bonus points for keeping it subtle, but a cool case of foreshadowing all the s
No other actor embodies the age of American Westerns like John Wayne, with his role as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers considered one of his finest roles. The film opens inside a West Texas homestead, revealing a stunning landscape as Ethan first returns home after leaving years earlier to fight in the Civil War. When his brother’s family is killed not long after, and their two daughters kidnapped, Ethan sets off to find them no matter how long it may take. The youngest daughter Debbie is finally tracked down years later, and Ethan personally delivers brings her back home. Although it’s technically a different home, she is welcomed with open arms, and the future, for once, looks bright. With no place for an aging soldier inside, Ethan is left to walk into the wild all by himself. The shot is a perfect mirror of the one which started the film, and director John Ford’s iconic closing image is just one of the reasons The Searchers would go on to be seen by many as a masterpiece, and one of the greatest films ever m
Most of the hidden easter eggs inside Disney movies only manage to reference one movie at a time, but one shot in Tangled features nods to three other princess films. When Rapunzel and Flynn Rider are poring over an atlas while at the festival of lights in Corona, books referencing other films can be seen. One open book displays the story from the opening sequence of Sleeping Beauty , and two others are the storybooks containing the tales of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid . It's unclear if Rapunzel has read the fairytales of her fellow Disney princesses, but it's a nicely hidden references to their fi
David Fincher had an incredible challenge adapting the novel Gone Girl to film, but the opening shot is a hard one to forget. Showing what should be a loving scene between a husband and wife, star Rosamund Pike’s sudden stare into the camera and Ben Affleck’s narration put audiences on edge, warning them that the story about to unfold was anything but simple. A kidnapping, lies, and murder all led the estranged couple back to eachother, forced to decide just how willing they were to keep lying for the sake of a marriage – and public perception. Having the couple end up right back where they started from may have been a hard pill for Game Crafting guide|https://movietriviafocus.com/ viewers to swallow, but Fincher makes the message loud and clear, ending the movie with the exact same shot he opened on – but the audience’s opinion of the woman in frame has completely chan
