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The Men in Black sequels have a secret sublot playing out in plain sight.
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00:00Telling a great story is one thing, but what about making a movie that unfurls added layers
00:04of storytelling and subtext on repeat viewings? It's a tough trick to pull off, concealing subtle
00:09unspoken plot points in plain sight for attentive viewers to uncover when re-watching in the future.
00:14But when it works, it really works. And so with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here
00:18with the 10 Greatest Unspoken Sci-Fi Movie Plot Points.
00:23Number 10. Doc Burned Down His Mansion to Fund His Time Travel Research in Back to the Future.
00:27In literally the first minute of Back to the Future, we see a newspaper headline which reads
00:32Brown Mansion Destroyed, referring to Doc Brown's family mansion, which was burned to the ground,
00:38leaving him to continue his experiments in his garage, which survived the fire.
00:41None of the Back to the Future movies ever bothered to expand upon this, though in the Blu-ray commentary
00:45for the film, writer Bob Gale stated that the shot of the newspaper was supposed to imply
00:49that Doc had deliberately burned down the mansion as part of an insurance scam.
00:54Basically, Doc torched his own mansion in order to collect the insurance money,
00:57which he could then use to fund his time travel research.
01:00Though the Back to the Future comics ultimately contradict this,
01:03it's worth pointing out that both Gale and director Robert Zemeckis only regard the movies as canon.
01:08As such, there's no reason to disbelieve that Doc committed arson to further his research.
01:12It fits both the story and the character perfectly.
01:16Number 9. Animals Are More Important to Humans Now in Children of Men
01:19Children of Men takes place in a dystopian near future,
01:23where 20 years of human infertility have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.
01:27In the film's opening scene, we see protagonist Theo watching a news report in London
01:31about the death of the world's youngest person, baby Diego, shortly before a bomb explodes.
01:35But if you pay attention to Theo's surroundings seconds before the explosion,
01:39there's a fascinating environmental cue which subtly hints at the changed nature of this babyless world.
01:44On a passing bus, we see an advert for a spring collection of expensive clothing for dogs,
01:49seeming to suggest that in the absence of children, humanity has elevated the place of animals significantly.
01:54In our present reality, the prospect of fanciful animal clothing being advertised on the side of a bus sounds ridiculous.
01:59But in a world where children don't exist and priorities have consequently shifted,
02:03it makes sense that animals would fill the void of importance.
02:06As world-building in sci-fi movie goes, this is low-key incredible,
02:10and actually adapted from P.D. James' original novel,
02:12which goes even further to have humans pushing newborn animals around in prams and dressing them in children's clothing.
02:19Number 8. John Hammond spared expense in his walking stick in Jurassic Park.
02:24The plot of Jurassic Park is set in motion by mosquitoes.
02:27That is, scientists were able to extract dinosaur DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes encased in amber,
02:32allowing them to ultimately produce their dinosaur clones.
02:35You'll also surely remember that industrialist John Hammond's walking stick
02:38is topped by a chunk of amber containing one of the aforementioned mosquitoes.
02:41But on the off chance you know your mosquitoes,
02:44you'll probably recognise that the mosquito trapped in the amber on Hammond's stick
02:47is actually an elephant mosquito, which are noted for not sucking blood.
02:52And so there's simply no way that it would be able to contain dinosaur DNA.
02:55While some have pawned this off as a mere movie mistake,
02:58that Spielberg simply chose to use a larger breed of mosquitoes so it would be visible on camera,
03:02there's a better explanation that slots quite perfectly into the overall narrative.
03:05It makes more sense that Hammond, a man who claims to have spared no expense on his park,
03:10and yet much evidence points to the contrary,
03:12wouldn't dare place one of his precious, ultra-valuable prehistoric mosquitoes
03:15inside his walking stick as an ornament.
03:17It's far more likely that Hammond indeed spared expense,
03:20instead intentionally using an elephant mosquito,
03:23which wouldn't be of any practical use to him,
03:25while knowing that the overwhelming majority of people who meet him
03:28wouldn't ever know the difference.
03:30Number 7. The T-1000's wardrobe fail,
03:32because it malfunctions, in Terminator 2 Judgment Day.
03:36The special edition of Terminator 2 introduces a plot point
03:39that's basically cut in its entirety from the more widely seen theatrical release.
03:43After the T-1000 is frozen with liquid nitrogen and shot,
03:46it reforms into its typical human disguise,
03:49albeit with some glitching side effects,
03:51where it struggles to maintain its desired form
03:52due to the damage it took from being frozen.
03:55In the special edition, we see the T-1000's hands and boots
03:57unintentionally mimicking the surrounding environment.
04:00But effectively, every indication of this is cut from the theatrical version,
04:04ensuring the vast majority of people who've seen T2 have no idea about it.
04:08But there is one single clever hint to the T-1000 malfunctioning in the theatrical version.
04:12When the T-1000 first arrives at the steel mill at the end of the movie,
04:16keep your eyes on its clothes.
04:17For the most part, the T-1000 is wearing the same cop get-up it wore
04:21for the vast majority of the movie,
04:23except that it's wearing the boots of the traffic cop it assimilated
04:25shortly before being frozen.
04:27Basically, the T-1000 has glitched out and combined two cop outfits
04:30into one slightly ill-fitting ensemble.
04:33It's far from obvious, but a brilliantly subtle indication
04:35that the T-1000 is having some serious trouble keeping things together.
04:39Number 6.
04:40The Blind Man is the Oracle's Guardian in The Matrix
04:43When Neo and Morpheus pay a fateful visit to the Oracle in The Matrix,
04:47you might recall that there's a blind man situated outside of her apartment.
04:51More to the point, despite being blind,
04:53Morpheus nods at the man who then inexplicably nods back.
04:55It's a minor moment, albeit one that certainly stoked its fair share of debate among fans.
05:00While this technically qualifies as more of a fan theory than a confirmed sliver of plotting,
05:04it's so brilliantly straightforward that it merits inclusion on this list.
05:07Though we never learn a single extra thing about this blind man,
05:10it's a reasonable assumption that he's probably a bodyguard for the Oracle,
05:13pretending to be blind to ensure he can catch any unwanted guests unawares.
05:17The man is absent from the immediate sequels,
05:19having seemingly been replaced by Seraph,
05:21who is undebatably the Oracle's Guardian.
05:23Number 5. The Soviet Union still exists in Blade Runner 2049.
05:28Both Blade Runner movies are absolutely cramp-packed full of fascinating world-building,
05:32and Blade Runner 2049 offers up an especially fascinating morsel that's never engaged with verbally.
05:38The Soviet Union never collapsed.
05:39Throughout the film, adverts for various products are visible,
05:42with mention of the being produced by the CCCP,
05:45which is the Russian abbreviation for the Soviet Union.
05:48It suggests that the USSR is still very much an entity more than 50 years after it fell in reality,
05:53though the circumstances which allowed it to thrive remain completely ambiguous.
05:57By director Denis Villeneuve's own admission,
05:59this was a carryover from Philip K. Dick's original Blade Runner novel,
06:02Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
06:04Published as it was in 1968, almost 25 years before the Soviet Union fell,
06:09Dick could have never anticipated anything other than the USSR continuing to exist,
06:13as makes for a rather fascinating slice of alt-universe futurism.
06:16In an interview with Time about the subject, Villeneuve said,
06:19I went back to the Philip K. Dick novel and explored the geopolitics of the book.
06:23In the book, the USSR was still present.
06:26I thought that it would be interesting to think,
06:27what if the USSR was still alive?
06:29What if it was as strong a cultural and economic force as the US,
06:32but with different political laws?
06:34What if you saw Russian products in the streets of Los Angeles?
06:36I thought that would create an interesting distorted reality
06:39that would tell my audience right from the start that they're in a different world,
06:42with different laws from a geopolitical point of view.
06:45Well, there it is.
06:45Number 4. R2-D2 disobeys Luke because of Anakin in Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back.
06:52In The Empire Strikes Back, you'll surely recall that R2-D2 isn't one for obedience.
06:57When Luke Skywalker insists that he remain with the ship,
06:59R2 refuses and follows his charge.
07:01At the time of Empire's release,
07:03this simply seemed like R2 being an adorably loyal bot
07:06who knew when Luke needed help but perhaps couldn't ask for it.
07:09But in light of the prequels,
07:10R2's defiance is viewed within an entirely different, more tragic context.
07:14The catalyzing incident seemed to occur in Revenge of the Sith,
07:17when Anakin lands on Mustafar with R2 and insists the droids stay with their ship.
07:22R2 obeys, but of course, Anakin subsequently fights Obi-Wan,
07:25gets horrifically injured,
07:26and is transformed into Darth Vader,
07:28ensuring he never returns to R2.
07:30As such, we can firmly deduce that R2 develops some understandable attachment issues.
07:34And by the time Luke tells him to sit tight decades later,
07:37he's not going to be left to his own devices once again.
07:39Obviously, in reality, this was really a case of George Lucas reverse-engineering the plot
07:43in non-chronological order,
07:45but it still slides together quite perfectly.
07:47Number 3.
07:48Australia has renounced its colonial history in Event Horizon.
07:52Event Horizon may ultimately be a film best remembered for its atmosphere
07:55and periodically insane gore,
07:57but it's also a smartly written movie
07:59with some fantastically detailed production design.
08:01For instance, keep your eyes peeled at Dr. William Weir's uniform,
08:04and you might notice the Australian flag looking a little different than expected.
08:08The real-life flag is currently a blue field with six stars
08:11and the British Union Jack in the top left corner.
08:13But the flag on Weir's jacket is something else.
08:16It's actually the Australian Aboriginal flag,
08:18implying that in the film's setting of 2047,
08:20Australia ended up rescinding its colonial ties
08:23and status as a British constitutional monarchy.
08:25It's an attentive and unexpected detail,
08:27and one which Sam Neill himself apparently insisted upon
08:30in an attempt to pay tribute to Australia's Aboriginal population.
08:33When this was recently brought to the internet's attention,
08:35Neil tweeted that he wouldn't do it any differently today,
08:38an especially interesting remark given that there have been recent calls
08:41for Australia to indeed change their flag and ditch the Union Jack.
08:44If it happens within the next 25 years,
08:46then Event Horizon wasn't just clever, it was damn prophetic.
08:492. Agent T's Wife and Kids in Men in Black 3
08:53Men in Black 2 is far from a great movie,
08:55but it does tee up an amusingly long-gestating secret subplot
08:58which pays off quite incredibly in the third film released an entire decade later.
09:02In Men in Black 2, Agent J is paired with the well-meaning but incompetent Agent T,
09:07resulting in J eventually kicking him out of the Men in Black,
09:10neuralising him and setting him up with a cute waitress at the diner.
09:14J suggests that T should get married and have a couple of kids,
09:16and lo and behold, in Men in Black 3's altered timeline,
09:19J encounters a woman in K's apartment with a husband and a few kids,
09:23the woman also being played by Alexandra O'Hara,
09:26who played that waitress in the diner.
09:27The obvious wink-wink implication is that in this timeline,
09:30Agent T did indeed marry the waitress and start a family.
09:33Even though the man seen in the back of the woman's apartment
09:35clearly isn't played by Patrick Warburton,
09:37who presumably wasn't available,
09:39it's still an ingenious slice of fun quasi-continuity between sequels.
09:431. Lambert was trans in Alien
09:46Ridley Scott's Alien is a masterclass of subtlety and restraint,
09:50despite fundamentally being a movie about a shitful of space truckers
09:53who get picked off one by one by a phallus-shaped monster.
09:55Though the film itself feeds us only morsels of information
09:58about the Nostromo's crew members,
10:00James Cameron's 1986 sequel, Aliens,
10:02added some sneaky context to one departed individual in particular.
10:06During Ripley's debriefing,
10:07after being woken from stasis at the start of the sequel,
10:10the personnel files of her dead crewmates
10:11are projected on a screen behind her.
10:13This includes a file on Nostromo navigator Joan Lambert,
10:16which states that she was born male,
10:18but given sexual reassignment surgery to female at birth,
10:21and that she had no indication of suppressed trauma
10:23related to gender alteration.
10:25In the film's original theatrical run
10:26and on earlier home video releases,
10:28it wasn't possible to read any of the texts behind Ripley,
10:31but the DVD and Blu-rays of Aliens
10:33have included the crew's bios in their full HD glory,
10:36allowing fans to pore over them ad nauseam.
10:38It's certainly a fascinating revelation,
10:40albeit also a troubling one,
10:41given the lack of exact context
10:43for why society would give a child sex reassignment surgery at birth,
10:46evidently without their consent.
10:48And that concludes our list.
10:49If you think we missed anything,
10:50then do let us know in the comments below,
10:51and while you're there,
10:52don't forget to like and subscribe
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10:55Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there,
10:57and I can be found across various social medias
10:58just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:00I've been Ellie with WhatCulture.
11:01I hope you have a magical day,
11:03and I'll see you real soon.
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