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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 of storytelling and
00:05subtext on repeat viewings?
00:07It's a tough trick to pull off, concealing subtle, unspoken plot points in plain sight for attentive viewers to uncover
00:12when re-watching in the future.
00:14But when it works, it really works.
00:16And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with the 10 Greatest Unspoken Sci-Fi Movie Plot
00:21Points.
00:22Number 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,
00:33Brown 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,
00:46writer Bob Gale stated that the shot of the newspaper was supposed to imply that Doc had deliberately burned down
00:51the mansion as part of an insurance scam.
00:53Basically, Doc torched his own mansion in order to collect the insurance money, which he could then use to fund
00:58his time travel research.
01:00Though the Back to the Future comics ultimately contradict this, it's worth pointing out that both Gale and director Robert
01:05Zemeckis 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 where 20 years of human infertility have brought humanity to
01:26the brink of extinction.
01:27In the film's opening scene, we see protagonist Theo watching a news report in London about the death of the
01:31world's youngest person, baby Diego, shortly before a bomb explodes.
01:35But if you pay attention to Theo's surroundings seconds before the explosion, there's a fascinating environmental cue which subtly hints
01:42at 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, seeming to suggest
01:49that 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, it makes sense that animals would fill
02:05the void of importance.
02:06As world-building in sci-fi movie goes, this is low-key incredible and actually adapted from P.D. James'
02:12original novel, which goes even further to have humans pushing newborn animals around in prams and dressing them in children's
02:18clothing.
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, allowing them to ultimately produce
02:33their dinosaur clones.
02:35You'll also surely remember that industrialist John Hammond's walking stick is topped by a chunk of amber containing one of
02:40the aforementioned mosquitoes.
02:42But on the off chance you know your mosquitoes, you'll probably recognise that the mosquito trapped in the amber on
02:47Hammond's stick is actually an elephant mosquito, which are noted for not sucking blood.
02:51And 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, that Spielberg simply chose to use a larger breed
03:00of mosquitoes so it would be visible on camera,
03:02there's a better explanation that slots quite perfectly into the overall narrative.
03:06It makes more sense that Hammond, a man who claims to have spared no expense on his park, and yet
03:10much evidence points to the contrary,
03:12wouldn't dare place one of his precious, ultra-valuable prehistoric mosquitoes inside his walking stick as an ornament.
03:17It's far more likely that Hammond indeed spared expense, instead intentionally using an elephant mosquito, which wouldn't be of any
03:24practical use to him,
03:25while knowing that the overwhelming majority of people who meet him wouldn't ever know the difference.
03:30Number 7. The T-1000's wardrobe fail, because it malfunctions, in Terminator 2 Judgment Day.
03:36The special edition of Terminator 2 introduces a plot point that's basically cut in its entirety from the more widely
03:41seen theatrical release.
03:43After the T-1000 is frozen with liquid nitrogen and shot, it reforms into its typical human disguise,
03:49albeit with some glitching side effects, where it struggles to maintain its desired form due to the damage it took
03:53from being frozen.
03:54In the special edition, we see the T-1000's hands and boots unintentionally 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 T-2 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, keep your eyes on
04:17its clothes.
04:17For the most part, the T-1000 is wearing the same cop get-up it wore for the vast majority
04:22of the movie,
04:23except that it's wearing the boots of the traffic cop it assimilated shortly before being frozen.
04:27Basically, the T-1000 has glitched out and combined two cop outfits into one slightly ill-fitting ensemble.
04:32It's far from obvious, but a brilliantly subtle indication that the T-1000 is having some serious trouble keeping things
04:38together.
04:396. The 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, Morpheus nods at the man who then inexplicably nods back.
04:56It'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, having seemingly been replaced by Seraph,
05:21who is undebatably the Oracle's guardian.
05:235. The Soviet Union still exists in Blade Runner 2049
05:27Both 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.
05:37The Soviet Union never collapsed.
05:39Throughout the film, adverts for various products are visible,
05:42with mention of it 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.
05:56By 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.
06:17In 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.
06:25I 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, this 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, R2'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, and 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, but it still slides together quite perfectly.
07:47Number 3. Australia has renounced its colonial history in Event Horizon
07:51Event Horizon may ultimately be a film best remembered for its atmosphere and periodically
07:56insane gore, but it's also a smartly written movie with some fantastically detailed production
08:00design.
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 and the British Union Jack in the
08:12top left corner. But the flag on Weir's jacket is something else.
08:15It's actually the Australian Aboriginal flag, implying that in the film's setting of 2047,
08:20Australia ended up rescinding its colonial ties and status as a British constitutional monarchy.
08:25It's an attentive and unexpected detail, and one which Sam Neill himself apparently insisted
08:29upon in an attempt to pay tribute to Australia's Aboriginal population.
08:33When this was recently brought to the internet's attention,
08:35Neill tweeted that he wouldn't do it any differently today, an especially interesting
08:39remark given that there have been recent calls for Australia to indeed change their flag and
08:43ditch the Union Jack. If it happens within the next 25 years, then Event Horizon wasn't just
08:47clever, it was damn prophetic.
08:49Number 2. Agent T's wife and kids in Men in Black 3.
08:53Men in Black 2 is far from a great movie, but it does tee up an amusingly long-gestating
08:57secret subplot which 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, who played that waitress in the diner.
09:27The obvious wink-wink implication is that in this timeline, Agent T did indeed marry the waitress
09:32and start a family. Even though the man seen in the back of the woman's apartment clearly isn't
09:36played by Patrick Warburton, who presumably wasn't available, it's still an ingenious slice of fun
09:40quasi-continuity between sequels.
09:43Number 1. Lambert was trans in Alien.
09:46Ridley Scott's Alien is a masterclass of subtlety and restraint, despite fundamentally being a movie
09:51about a ship full of space truckers who get picked off one by one by a phallus-shaped monster.
09:55Though the film itself feeds us only morsels of information about the Nostromo's crew members,
10:00James Cameron's 1986 sequel, Aliens, added some sneaky context to one departed individual in
10:05particular. During Ripley's debriefing after being woken from stasis at the start of the sequel,
10:10the personnel files of her dead crewmates are projected on a screen behind her.
10:13This includes a file on Nostromo navigator Joan Lambert, which states that she was born male but
10:18given sexual reassignment surgery to female at birth, and that she had no indication of
10:23suppressed trauma related to gender alteration. In the film's original theatrical run and on
10:27earlier home video releases, it wasn't possible to read any of the texts behind Ripley, but the
10:31DVD and Blu-rays of Aliens have included the crew's bios in their full HD glory, allowing fans to
10:37pore over them ad nauseam. It's certainly a fascinating revelation, albeit also a troubling
10:41one given the lack of exact context for why society would give a child sex reassignment surgery
10:45at birth, evidently without their consent. And that concludes our list, if you think we missed
10:49anything then do let us know in the comments below and while you're there don't forget to like and
10:53subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also head over to Twitter and follow us there and I can be
10:57found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with
11:01WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real soon.
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