Movie 'in' jokes

Mon Apr 04 04:42PM by Martin Howden

Oh those Hollywood scamps! You would think overseeing multi-million dollar blockbusters is a busy enough job without spending half their time sprinkling some in-jokes throughout their movies as well. But filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, Wes Craven and those clever chaps from Pixar have made sure that their eagle-eyed fans always have a reason to watch their films.

Pixar
Pixar sometimes defy belief - not only have they consistently rolled out great movies one after another, but they spend a large amount of time on their in-jokes. There are too many to mention them all here, but keep your eyes peeled on the Pizza Planet truck first seen in 'Toy Story'. It has appeared in every Pixar film except 'The Incredibles', even making an appearance in robot sci-fi film 'Wall-E', in a brief scene featuring EVE scanning for plant life. Other in-jokes include John Ratzenberger, best known as Cliff from 'Cheers', playing characters in every Pixar film and the code A113 featuring in all of their big screen efforts. Incidentally A113 is the classroom at CalArts, which several Pixar animators were taught in, including chief executive John Lasseter.

Back to the Future Part II
If 'Back to the Future' has taught us anything, it's that 2015 is going to be a great place to live indeed – what with its hoverboards, flying cars and trainers that can lace themselves. But do we really need 'Jaws 19'?. The cheeky dig at Steven Spielberg (an executive producer on the series) comes when Marty McFly walks past a cinema showing the future epic. Taking the film wink a little further, the director is credited as Max Spielberg, Steven's real-life son.

Indiana Jones
Spielberg again. What a hoot he must be! This time the 'Indiana Jones' director, along with producer George Lucas made sure the films had plenty of nods at Lucas' popular 'Star Wars' series. The intro to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' sees Jones fleeing from trouble on an airplane that has the registration number OB-3PO – a subtle reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi and android C-3PO. Later on in the film, one of the hieroglyphics seen in the ‘Well of Souls’ resembles C-3PO and R2-D2 (the other bickering robot). The final, less subtle gesture is seen in 'Temple of Doom', when Indiana Jones visits 'Club Obi Wan'. 

Star Wars
George Lucas's first film was the fairly unknown sci-fi oddity, 'THX 1138'. While you may not have seen the film, the name may ring a few bells. In between counting his bottomless pile of money, Lucas has referenced the title in many other films including 'American Graffiti' and the 'Indiana Jones' series. It's a running gag with plenty of references in the 'Star Wars' films too, most notably one scene where Skywalker talks about cell block 1138.

Scream
It's impossible to write a feature about in-jokes without mentioning ‘Scream’, Wes Craven's post modern take on horror films. It's a movie that managed to do the pretty near impossible - blending constant winks with actual scares. Two of the big in-jokes are at Craven's expense, with one of the film's characters stating that the events in the movie are “starting to sound like a Wes Carpenter flick” - a mash-up of Craven's name and 'Halloween' director John Carpenter. Craven also plays a janitor in the film and is wearing a striped jumper very much like Freddy Krueger – a character created by Craven.

Hitchcock's cameos
Like a film version of 'Where's Wally', Alfred Hitchcock has made blink and miss ‘em cameos in 39 of his films. The playful appearances range from mingling in the crowd, a silhouette and an appearance in a newspaper in 1944’s 'Lifeboat'. So popular was his cameos that he began putting them early in the film as to not distract devout ‘Hitchcock Hunters’ from enjoying the movie.

Sam Raimi's car
The director of the 'Spider-Man' and 'Evil Dead' films has done a Hitchcock himself. But instead of acting in his movies, he includes his beloved first car – a 1973 yellow Oldsmobile Delta. The classic motor has featured in every one of his films, even featuring as the car that Peter Parker's Uncle Ben drives.

Land of the Dead
Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's zom-com-rom 'Shaun of the Dead' was an affectionate take on George Romero's classic zombie satire 'Dawn of the Dead'. Romero was so impressed by the movie that he gave them zombie cameos in 2005's 'Land of the Dead'. Another wink to fans came in the shape of celebrated special effects wizard Tom Savini who starred in 'Dawn of the Dead'. Although his character died, he is seen as a zombie in 'Land of the Dead' as well.