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Ever paused a movie frame-by-frame, convinced you'd cracked a hidden mystery? Join us as we count down the most misleading movie details that sent fans into a theorizing frenzy for absolutely nothing! Did you spend hours pausing your Blu-ray trying to solve a mystery that never existed? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00First, I'm going to deliver this case to Marcellus.
00:04Then, basically, I'm just going to walk the earth.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at those specific props, lines of dialogue,
00:11and visual cues that sent movie fans into a theorizing frenzy,
00:14only for it to turn out that they shouldn't have bothered.
00:17Just tell him he should ask me anything else.
00:19But this is one favor I can't give him.
00:21He never asks a second favor when he's been refused the first.
00:26John Blake's familiar first name, The Dark Knight Rises.
00:30Blake, John.
00:31Living here?
00:33I, um, try my legal name.
00:38You should use your phone name.
00:39I like that name.
00:41Robin.
00:42Thanks.
00:43In the closing moments of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy,
00:46Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, John Blake,
00:48is revealed to have a legal name that sent shockwaves through the theater, Robin.
00:52This reveal seemed like a setup for a spinoff,
00:54where Blake would take up the mantle of the boy wonder, or knight.
00:57Can I change your mind?
01:01About quitting the force?
01:04You know what you said about structures becoming shackles?
01:08You were right, and I can't take it to injustice.
01:12I mean, no one's ever gonna know who saved an entire city.
01:16In reality, it was a thematic mic drop meant to conclude the series, not start a new one.
01:21Nolan's goal was to show that Batman is a symbol that can be passed on to anyone,
01:25and the name Robin was a nod to the fans,
01:28to signify that the legacy of the sidekick was secure within the GCPD.
01:31If you're working alone, wear a mask.
01:34I'm not afraid to be seen standing up to these guys.
01:37The mask's not for you.
01:38It's to protect the people you care about.
01:41Count to five, then throw.
01:48Bob and Charlotte's parting words, lost in translation.
01:52At the end of Sofia Coppola's melancholic drama,
01:54Bill Murray whispers something into Scarlett Johansson's ear on a busy Tokyo street.
01:58Because the audio is muffled,
02:00the detail of that sentence became the most debated part of the movie.
02:03However, Coppola has since revealed that the line was improvised,
02:06and never intended to be heard by the audience.
02:08The importance wasn't in the content of the speech, but in the privacy of it.
02:12When are you leaving?
02:16Tomorrow.
02:22I'll miss you.
02:23By keeping the words a secret,
02:25the film emphasizes that their connection belonged only to them,
02:28and existed outside the reach of the viewer.
02:30The missing detail was actually a narrative tool,
02:32used to shut the audience out of a deeply personal moment,
02:35making the mystery the point.
02:40Magneto possibly being Quicksilver's dad,
02:42X-Men Days of Future Past,
02:44and X-Men Apocalypse.
02:45They told me you control metal.
02:47Hey.
02:51You know, my mom once knew a guy who could do that.
02:55Throughout the later X-Men films,
02:56Peter Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver,
02:59drops heavy hints that he knows Eric Lensher is his biological father.
03:02In Apocalypse,
03:03his entire motivation is to travel to Egypt,
03:05to confront Magneto,
03:07and reveal the truth during the world-ending climax.
03:09He's my father.
03:11What?
03:12Him and my mom, they did.
03:13No, I know.
03:14What?
03:14Are you sure?
03:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:17He left my mom before I was born.
03:19I met him 10 years back,
03:20but I didn't know it was him.
03:22By the time I figured it out,
03:23it was too late.
03:24Fans expected this detail to be the emotional pivot
03:27that would redeem Magneto,
03:28and change the course of the franchise forever.
03:31However,
03:31when the moment finally comes,
03:33Peter chooses not to say anything.
03:35And you?
03:45I'm your...
03:51I'm here for my family, too.
03:53By the time Dark Phoenix rolled around,
03:55the thread was essentially dropped entirely,
03:57leaving one of the most famous comic book relationships
03:59as a mere footnote in this specific cinematic universe,
04:02The Rabbit's Foot,
04:03Mission Impossible 3.
04:24Director J.J. Abrams is famous for his mystery box philosophy,
04:28and The Rabbit's Foot is the ultimate example.
04:30The entire film revolves around Ethan Hunt
04:32trying to recover this biohazard canister.
04:34Naturally,
04:35audiences expected a third-act reveal
04:37explaining exactly what The Rabbit's Foot was.
04:40A virus?
04:40A nuclear trigger?
04:41Instead,
04:42the movie ends without ever opening the container
04:44or explaining its contents.
04:46Your Mr. Davian is going to arrive in Rome
04:48the day after tomorrow
04:49and attend a function at one Vatican City.
04:52What the hell was Davian doing at the Vatican?
04:55It's all got to do with The Rabbit's Foot.
04:57Rabbit's Foot?
04:58Yeah, well,
04:58I'm assuming it's like a code word
05:00for something he's about to sell
05:01to an unspecified buyer
05:02for $850 million,
05:04by the way.
05:04Or maybe it's not a code word,
05:06maybe it's just a really,
05:07really expensive bunny appendage.
05:08The detail of its function
05:10was completely irrelevant to the story.
05:11It was a pure MacGuffin,
05:13an object that exists solely
05:15to give the characters a reason to run,
05:16jump,
05:17and blow things up.
05:18While 2025's Mission Impossible
05:19The Final Reckoning
05:20finally pulled the curtain back
05:22in a massive retcon,
05:23we can almost guarantee
05:24that this wasn't Abram's initial intention.
05:27Davian called it The Rabbit's Foot,
05:29but it had another name.
05:32The Antigod?
05:34They never told you
05:35what was in that canister, did they?
05:37But you always wondered.
05:40Stealing The Rabbit's Foot
05:41was just one event
05:42in a lifelong pattern,
05:45repeating itself over and over.
05:47The Blue Box, Mulholland Drive.
05:49David Lynch is the king of surrealism,
05:52and the blue box in Mulholland Drive
05:53might be his most infamous puzzle piece.
05:55When Rita and Betty find the box,
05:57and eventually the triangular key
05:58that opens it,
05:59the audience is primed
06:00for a classic noir revelation.
06:02But when Rita finally unlocks
06:03the box at Club Silencio,
06:05it doesn't contain a plot point.
06:06It swallows the camera
06:08and resets the entire reality
06:09of the movie.
06:10Hey, pretty girl.
06:13Time to wake up.
06:14Fans have spent decades
06:15trying to assign a literal meaning
06:17to the box.
06:18Is it a diary?
06:19A hitman's signal?
06:20In truth,
06:20the box is a psychological,
06:22unfired gun.
06:23It represents the collapse
06:24of a fantasy
06:25and the transition
06:26into Diane's grim reality.
06:27It's 6980 Mulholland Drive.
06:33Mulholland Drive.
06:35Breath in the Cold,
06:36The Thing.
06:36It's not the only one.
06:40Did you kill it?
06:43Where were you, Childs?
06:45As MacCready and Childs
06:47sit in the ruins of their base,
06:48fans noticed a specific detail.
06:50You can clearly see
06:51MacCready's frozen breath,
06:52but you supposedly
06:53can't see Childs' breath.
06:54For decades,
06:55this was touted
06:56as the definitive smoking gun
06:58that Childs was the alien,
06:59as a monster wouldn't have
07:00warm human breath.
07:13This theory was so popular
07:15that it became movie gospel
07:16and was used to solve the ending.
07:18However,
07:19it's since been pointed out
07:20that you can indeed
07:21see both men's breath.
07:22The evidence fans found
07:23was just a technical limitation
07:25of the lighting rig
07:26on a very cold set,
07:27proving our eyes
07:27can play tricks on us.
07:32What do we do?
07:34Why don't we just
07:37wait here for a little while
07:39and see what happens?
07:44The Joker's origin story,
07:45The Dark Knight.
07:46You want to know
07:47how I got these scars?
07:51My father was
07:54a drinker
07:55and a fiend.
07:58And one night,
07:59he goes off crazy
08:01easier than usual.
08:02Throughout Heath Ledger's
08:03legendary performance,
08:05The Joker gives multiple
08:06conflicting accounts
08:07of his traumatic past.
08:08Audiences spent the entire movie
08:10waiting for the real detail,
08:11the definitive flashback
08:13that would explain
08:13who The Joker truly was
08:14before he put on the makeup.
08:16We thought his origin
08:17was a mystery to be solved.
08:18He turns to me
08:20and he says,
08:22Why so serious?
08:25He comes at me
08:27with the knife.
08:28Why so serious?
08:32He sticks the blade
08:33in my mouth.
08:35Let's put a smile
08:37on that face.
08:39In reality,
08:40the detail of his past
08:41was a complete red herring.
08:43Christopher Nolan
08:43used the conflicting stories
08:45to prove that The Joker
08:46has no origin.
08:47He is a force of nature
08:48with no identity
08:49and no reason
08:50for his chaos.
08:51The search for a true backstory
08:52was a trap
08:53set by the character himself
08:54to show how much
08:55we crave order and logic
08:56in the face of pure,
08:58unadulterated madness.
08:59produce a little anarchy.
09:03Upset the established order
09:05and everything becomes chaos.
09:11I'm an agent of chaos.
09:15Oh, and you know the thing
09:16about chaos.
09:19It's fear.
09:21The Spinning Top, Inception.
09:23Okay.
09:31The Spinning Top
09:32is perhaps the most obsessed
09:34over detail
09:34in modern cinema history.
09:36Does it wobble?
09:37Does it fall?
09:37Does it stay perfectly upright?
09:39We thought the detail
09:40of the spin
09:40was the only way to know
09:41if Cobb was in reality
09:43or a dream.
09:44So you're learning, huh?
09:45An elegant solution
09:46for keeping track of reality.
09:49Was it your idea?
09:50No, it was, uh,
09:52it was Maul's actually.
09:53This, this one was hers.
09:56She'd spin it in the dream
09:57and it would never topple.
09:58Just, uh,
10:00spin and spin.
10:01Christopher Nolan
10:02later pointed out
10:03that the most important detail
10:04on that scene
10:05isn't the top.
10:06It's the fact that
10:06Cobb walks away from it.
10:08He doesn't wait
10:08to see if it falls
10:09because he no longer cares
10:10if he's dreaming.
10:11He just wants to be
10:12with his children.
10:13Cobb's reality
10:13is wherever his family is,
10:15whether that's a dream
10:16or the real world.
10:23Contents of the briefcase,
10:25Pulp Fiction.
10:26What's in the case?
10:26My boss's dirty laundry.
10:28Your boss makes you
10:29do his laundry?
10:30When he wants it clean.
10:31Sounds like a shit job.
10:32Funny, I was thinking
10:33the same thing.
10:34Open it.
10:35Prater can't do that.
10:39I didn't hear you.
10:40Yes, you did.
10:41What was in the briefcase?
10:42The orange glow
10:43reflecting on Vincent Vega's face
10:45sparked one of the biggest
10:46pop culture debates
10:47of the 90s.
10:48Was it Marcellus Wallace's soul?
10:49The diamonds from Reservoir Dogs?
10:51An Elvis suit?
10:52Fans treated the detail
10:53of the glow
10:53as a riddle that required
10:55a supernatural
10:56or interconnected answer.
10:57We happy?
10:59Vincent?
11:02We happy?
11:03Yeah, we happy.
11:05Quentin Tarantino, however,
11:06has consistently stated
11:07that there is no official answer.
11:09The glow was achieved
11:10by putting a simple lightbulb
11:11in the case,
11:12and the contents
11:13are whatever the viewer
11:14wants them to be.
11:15It doesn't really matter
11:15what's inside.
11:16What matters
11:17is how much the characters
11:18are willing to kill
11:19and die to possess it?
11:21Open it.
11:26Wait, what is it?
11:29What is it?
11:32Is that what I think it is?
11:34Mm-hmm.
11:38It's beautiful.
11:40Oranges, The Godfather.
11:42Eh, I spent the freedom.
11:43I'm gonna buy some fruit.
11:45Okay, buddy.
11:46The Round France
11:46is for Coppola's masterpiece.
11:48Oranges appear shortly
11:49before a character is killed
11:50or a tragedy strikes.
11:52Vito buys oranges
11:53before he's shot in the street.
11:54Oranges are on the table
11:55at the meeting
11:56of the five families,
11:56and Vito dies
11:57with an orange peel
11:58in his mouth.
11:59Times have changed.
12:01It's not like the old days
12:04where we can do
12:05anything we want.
12:06A refusal is not
12:08the act of a friend.
12:10If Don Corleone
12:10had all the judges
12:11and the politicians
12:12in New York,
12:13then he must share them.
12:15All it others use them.
12:16Fans spent decades
12:18treating this
12:18as a brilliant,
12:19scripted symbol
12:20of impending doom.
12:21However,
12:22the reality is much more practical.
12:23Production designer
12:24Dean Tavalaris
12:25admitted that the oranges
12:26were simply used
12:27to add a vibrant splash
12:28of color
12:28to the otherwise dark,
12:30somber sets.
12:30The fact that they coincided
12:32with deaths
12:32became a happy accident
12:34that turned into
12:34one of cinema's
12:35most famous
12:36unintentional motifs.
12:58Did you spend hours
12:59pausing your Blu-ray
13:00to solve a mystery
13:01that didn't exist?
13:02Let us know
13:02in the comments.
13:07What Will
13:08is Edencia
13:08to The
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