00:00Ambiguity can be a wonderful thing in cinema.
00:03It allows people to bring their own experiences to movies and draw their own conclusions as a result,
00:08often inviting spirited, healthy debate in the process.
00:11But you know what? Sometimes people are just flat out wrong about a movie scene,
00:15and they misinterpret the author's true intent in a way which might even end up altering their opinion on the
00:20entire movie.
00:21Now don't feel bad though, because misinterpretations like this are very, very common indeed,
00:25but ultimately, they weren't actually what was intended by those in charge.
00:29So let's take a look at them, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:32and these are 10 movie scenes everyone always gets wrong.
00:36Number 10. Andrew wasn't really rushing or dragging. Whiplash.
00:40The most famous scene in the tenacious Oscar-winning Whiplash
00:44sees ruthless jazz instructor Terence Fletcher become increasingly frustrated with student Andrew
00:49as he seemingly fails to match his tempo.
00:52Throughout this gut-wrenching scene, Fletcher calls Andrew out for either rushing or dragging to his beat,
00:58and to the layperson, it seems that while Fletcher may be an absolute asshole,
01:02he's also a strident perfectionist above all else.
01:05But one curious fan actually decided to take a deep dive into the scene and analyse Andrew's timing for themselves,
01:10and as it turns out, he's actually pretty much spot on,
01:13and Fletcher is just calling him out as a rusher or a dragger willy-nilly,
01:17presumably in order to get a rise out of him.
01:19While the film makes no secret of Fletcher's near psychopathic desire to push his students to greatness,
01:24many nevertheless assumed his critique of Andrew's drumming was in fact correct.
01:29Ultimately, Fletcher's method of testing Andrew's patience and commitment to perfection
01:34is defined by one line late into the movie.
01:36There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job.
01:419. Jango Fett's Head Flies Out of the Helmet
01:44Star Wars Episode 2 Attack of the Clones
01:46Ever since the release of Star Wars Attack of the Clones,
01:50fans have speculated about the scene where Mace Windu parts Jango Fett's head from his body
01:55with a swift slash of his purple lightsaber.
01:57Moments later, we see a young Boba Fett pick up his father's helmet,
02:01causing many to note an apparent mistake,
02:03given that Jango's head should have still been within the helmet, right?
02:06Though this gaffe resulted in a hilarious R-rated fan edit,
02:10it's also easily resolved if you actually just pay attention to the scene in question.
02:13Because when Windu delivers the killing blow,
02:16there's a fleeting shot where the shadow of the helmet can be seen as it flies through the air.
02:20You might also notice here that there's a second shadow,
02:23which is clearly Jango's decapitated head flying out of the helmet,
02:27ensuring that Boba doesn't get an added grisly surprise when he picks it up.
02:31It's still a disturbing scene, mind you,
02:33but not quite as unsettling nor as mistake-laden as fans seem to think it is.
02:378. Two-Face's Coin Flip Isn't What You Think
02:40Batman Forever
02:42Comic book fans have plenty of issues with Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever,
02:47not least its treatment of iconic villain Two-Face.
02:49And one scene in question that really riles up the fans involves Two-Face and the Riddler invading Wayne Manor,
02:55where they blow up the Batcave, shoot Bruce and take Dr. Chase Meridian with them.
03:00In the comics, Two-Face is noted for flipping a coin to decide a victim's fate and accepting the outcome
03:05no matter what.
03:06But in this scene we see him flip a coin three times until he gets the outcome that he desires,
03:11allowing him to fire a shot at Bruce.
03:13But there's actually an alternate explanation for this scene,
03:16that Harvey Dent is actually flipping the coin each time for a different person currently inside Wayne Manor.
03:21Alfred, Chase and finally Bruce.
03:24Now if that sounds far-fetched, remember that Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face did the exact same thing in the climax
03:29of The Dark Knight,
03:31flipping his coin three times in quick succession to determine the fates of Batman, himself and Jim Gordon's son.
03:37Number seven, Upham isn't a coward, he's the viewer, saving Private Ryan.
03:42One of the many, many disturbing sequences in Saving Private Ryan sees Corporal Upham paralyzed with fear while his comrade
03:49Private Mellish is overpowered and slowly stabbed to death by a German soldier.
03:54Now the common audience response to this scene, sadly, is that they find Upham's actions inexplicable,
03:59that his failure to save his teammate is an act of abject cowardice, and that we, the audience, would never
04:04behave in such a way.
04:05Except, we most certainly probably would.
04:08The entire point of this scene, as is missed by so many, is that the average human being thrust into
04:13war would likely freeze up just as Upham did.
04:17Our knee-jerk revulsion to his inaction only underlines the part of ourselves that we prefer not to actually confront,
04:22that, in a traumatic situation, heroism would actually be the last thing on our minds.
04:27To say that Upham picks up the idiot ball in this scene is to bafflingly gloss over the effects of
04:32trauma on the human psyche.
04:346. Tom has probably learned nothing at the end.
04:39500 Days of Summer
04:40Though 500 Days of Summer announces not to be a love story at its very beginning,
04:45it's also fair to say that most viewers seem to misinterpret the movie's emotional through-line,
04:50blaming Summer for her and Tom's breakup despite Tom clearly having unrealistic expectations from the outset.
04:56Even Gordon Levitt himself called Tom selfish in a recent interview, agreeing that he is effectively the villain of this
05:02movie.
05:03But the end of the film goes one step further by having Tom move on from Summer and meet a
05:07new romantic interest named Autumn.
05:09While a superficial reading would say that this is a mere cute wink to the audience that Tom has moved
05:14on to somebody new,
05:15an altogether darker interpretation is that Tom actually hasn't grown as much as he thinks he has.
05:20The fact that the film's ongoing day counter resets from 500 to 1 seems to suggest that he's going to
05:25repeat a similar cycle with Autumn.
05:28And this isn't to say that Tom didn't learn anything from his time with Summer,
05:31but that he may well fall into a similar pattern of unhealthy, obsessive romantic behaviour with this new prospect.
05:37Again, as stated before, it isn't a love story.
05:415. Superman didn't make the Earth spin backwards.
05:44Superman.
05:45Few who've seen Richard Donner's original 1978 Superman will forget the iconic scene where an enraged Superman turns back time
05:53in order to undo Lois Lane's death.
05:55Superman is seen flying around the Earth to reverse time,
05:58and because we're shown Earth spinning backwards on its axis,
06:01many chose to believe that the Man of Steel literally exerted enough force on the planet itself to reverse the
06:05flow of time.
06:06But you know what, the real answer is a lot simpler and less silly than that.
06:10Superman is actually flying around the Earth in order to reach the speed of light,
06:14allowing him to travel back through time, not to pull the Earth back through time.
06:18It's still relatively ridiculous, of course, but it actually makes far more sense.
06:22Showing the Earth rotating backwards is just an easy visual shorthand to explain to the audience what's going to happen,
06:28though it's at least easy to appreciate why so many people have gotten the scene wrong over the decades.
06:334.
06:33The ending doesn't glorify Jordan, it criticizes the audience, the Wolf of Wall Street.
06:39The Wolf of Wall Street was another expertly crafted winner for Martin Scorsese,
06:44though invited spirited discussions about the tone and intent of the entire piece,
06:48which some criticized as overtly glorifying Wall Street fraudster Jordan Belfort.
06:52Especially polarizing was the film's final scene, where Jordan is released from prison
06:57and embarks on a new career hosting seminars on sales techniques to regular people.
07:01Many have interpreted the scene, in which he asks the gawking audience to try and sell him a pen,
07:06as effectively deifying him as a one-in-a-million talent with a peerlessly unique knack for salesmanship.
07:11But you know what, the scene isn't actually doing that at all.
07:14Really, the ending is a critique of the audience, both those there at the seminar and those watching the movie,
07:19who hang on his every word and find his story of crooked greed aspirational.
07:24Scorsese's final pan to a sea of blank, clueless faces is a pitch-perfect reflection of the movie's audience themselves,
07:31and that if we found Jordan's personality charming or his chaotic lifestyle appealing,
07:36his sale pitch clearly worked on us too.
07:383. Bonnie discarding Woody doesn't sour Toy Story 3
07:42Toy Story 4
07:43Though fans were pleasantly surprised by the wildly unnecessary Toy Story 4,
07:48there were nevertheless those who expressed frustrations at the actions of young Bonnie,
07:52who, despite inheriting Woody from Andy at the end of the third film,
07:56ends up neglecting him in the follow-up.
07:57Some went as far as to call Bonnie the real villain of Toy Story 4, which is incredibly cruel.
08:03That in discarding Woody and moving on to the other toys, she not only broke her promise to Andy,
08:07but actively soured the perfect ending of Toy Story 3 in the process.
08:11But neither of these claims are actually true at all,
08:13beyond the fact that it's ridiculous to hold a small child to account for such a benign promise.
08:18It's important to remember that while it was a huge passing of the torch moment for Andy and the audience,
08:23it was actually likely a minor footnote for Bonnie.
08:25It's unreasonable to expect a young child to remain attached to one toy indefinitely.
08:30And in the end, Bonnie's abandonment of Woody only allowed him to realise his own sense of agency outside of
08:36ownership,
08:36becoming a lost toy capable of charting his own path.
08:40As wonderfully bittersweet as Toy Story 3's ending was,
08:43expecting Bonnie to be Andy 2.0 was obscenely optimistic, if not flat-out unfair.
08:492. Black Widow calls herself a monster for being an assassin.
08:54Avengers Age of Ultron
08:55Avengers Age of Ultron received a ton of blowback upon its release,
09:00as many fans took issue with the scene where Black Widow tells Bruce Banner
09:03that she was sterilised as part of the Black Widow programme,
09:06only to follow up by calling herself a monster.
09:09While you can't really blame people for not giving Joss Whedon the benefit of the doubt here,
09:13and the scene absolutely should have been handled more tactfully,
09:17the intent isn't at all to imply that she's an abomination because she can't bear children.
09:21To quote her exact dialogue,
09:23they sterilise you.
09:24It's efficient.
09:25One less thing to worry about.
09:26The one thing that might matter more than a mission.
09:28Makes everything easier.
09:30Even killing.
09:30You still think you're the only monster on the team?
09:33If you actually break down the exchange,
09:35it's clear that Natasha is referring to herself as a monster
09:38only in the context of being a blunt object,
09:41a hired assassin shaped to murder people above everything else.
09:45If she's a monster at all, it's because of the countless people that she's killed,
09:49and obviously all of the red in her ledger.
09:51Not about being unable to bear children.
09:541. Jimmy Doesn't Commit Suicide
09:56Quadrophenia
09:57Cult classic drama Quadrophenia concludes with an ending which,
10:01depending on your viewpoint, is either ambiguous or absolutely cut and dried.
10:06In the final scene,
10:07protagonist Jimmy is seen riding a scooter to the edge of Beachy Head,
10:10before we cut to the scooter flying over the cliff,
10:12albeit without any sign of what happens to Jimmy.
10:15Many, regardless, believe that Jimmy committed suicide
10:18by riding his scooter off the cliff edge,
10:20while forgetting the ever important fact that Jimmy can be seen standing by the cliff at sunset
10:24right at the start of the movie,
10:26a scene which clearly takes place chronologically after this scooter ride.
10:30Jimmy's survival is backed up not only by the director and the lead actor,
10:34but numerous other cast members.
10:36The future is still a likely bleak one for him,
10:38but immediately less so than hurtling himself into oblivion.
10:41on the other side of the stair.
10:41Amen.
10:41To be continued...
10:41To be continued...
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