But first: There's a big joke, going back decades, that Batman and Robin are gay. This wonderful article is not about that. This is about things in the Batman and Robin relationship that everyone takes for granted, but are actually exceptionally strange, when you stop and think about them.

Also, we aren't here to scold fictional characters. If anything, the messiness of the Batman and Robin relationship makes it more fascinating, from a storytelling standpoint, because it muddles with the boring portrayal of Batman as perfect.

In fact, as we shall show, the man who dresses up as a bat every night is a total weirdo. Starting with...

No. 1 Robin's Costume

Batman, famously, dresses in dark colors as camouflage, allowing him to blend into the night, invisible to criminals. He's able to dodge their gunfire in part because he's so hard to see.

Robin, meanwhile, wears the brightest costume possible. While fighting alongside Batman. The Caped Crusader hides in the shadows, while his youthful ward... wears a garish red, yellow and green costume that attracts attention. And bullets, we assume.

We saw a Batman satire once where Robin was called "Target," and that satire was right on the money. We would link to it if we could find it, but unfortunately when we Google "Robin costume target" we just get pages of Robin costumes... from Target.

No. 2 Robin Is a Minor

There have been many Robins over the years, and while their origin stories have changed over the decades, all are presented as minors at the time they meet Batman. Remember he's called "The Boy Wonder."

Dick Grayson, the first Robin, first appeared in Detective Comics #38 (eleven issues after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) and was a junior member of the acrobatics troupe The Flying Graysons, led by his parents, John and Mary. When criminals kill them, Batman takes on Dick Grayson as his ward, training him to fight crime.

Yes, Dick Grayson was an acrobat, which is dangerous. But taking a minor out on the streets at night to fight criminals with guns — in a brightly colored costume, no less — is child endangerment.

While we don't know what state Gotham is in, we do know it resembles New York City, and that under New York Penal Law 260.10(1), "a person is guilty of endangering the welfare of a child when... he or she knowingly acts in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental or moral welfare of a child less than seventeen years old or directs or authorizes such child to engage in an occupation involving a substantial risk of danger to his or her life or health."

It's a Class A misdemeanor, which can result in up to a year in jail.

No. 3. Batman Calls Robin 'Chum'

To add to the endangerment thing... Batman often calls Robin "chum."

There are two meanings of the word chum. It can mean friend — or it can refer to the stuff you throw to sharks, as bait.

We wonder how Batman is using it.

Also Read: All 10 Batman Movies Ranked Worst to Best

The Mask

Again, inequality. Batman wears a cowl that covers his entire face, except for his mouth. Robin wears a masquerade-party style mask that covers only his eyes.

If the point of a mask is hiding your identity, so no enemies can harm you while you're in civilian mode, or by attacking your friends and family, Robin's mask is a real problem. Batman is endangering not just Robin, but also himself, Alfred, Batgirl, and... I guess that's their whole inner circle. But still.

Even the modernized Robin of the '90s, played by Chris O'Donnell, wore a little mask that concealed almost nothing. Ditto for Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone).

The Robin Hood Thing

Robin was modeled on Robin Hood. In 1940, when Robin was introduced, Robin Hood was a red-hot pop culture property thanks to the 1938 Errol Flynn hit The Adventures of Robin Hood (see publicity still, above).

But Robin Hood is famous for two things. One is stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, and the other is shooting arrows.

Robin, on the other hand, works for a billionaire, helping him beat up street criminals, and doesn't even get arrows, which might be helpful, given the criminals' guns. Especially considering his loud, gaudy, bullet-magnet costume,

Death

As we mentioned, there have been several Robins through the years. When Dick Grayson grew up and became Nightwing (finally donning a dark colored costume — smart!), he was replaced by another Boy Wonder, Jason Todd, in 1983.

But five years later, in part because fans didn't love Jason Todd, DC Comics introduced the groundbreaking Death in the Family storyline in which The Joker bombed a building with Jason inside — and fans got to call a 900 number to decide if Jason lived or died. Fans voted for him to die. (But don't blame 13-year-old me — I voted for him to live.)

What's even weirder than fans voting to blow up a teenager is that after Jason's death, no one from the state came to say, "Hey — what happened?" No one investigated Bruce Wayne for maybe, potentially, putting the poor boy in harm's way. It was just, "Hey, that kid who looks exactly like Robin never comes around anymore."

Ward

In the classic Batman TV show Adam West's Bruce Wayne would often refer to Dick Grayson as his "youthful ward."

Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute defines a "ward" as "a person who is under the protection, care , or guardianship of another individual, typically due to being a minor or legally incapacitated." It notes that "courts appoint guardians to oversee the well-being and decision-making of wards who are unable to care for themselves."

This means Bruce Wayne had to go to court and explain that he wanted to take on Dick Grayson as his "ward" — despite being, in the eyes of the court, a total stranger to Grayson.

Wouldn't it be more typical to make someone your foster child? Or adopt him? Maybe. But here's where things may get dark, from a legal standpoint.

A ward, unlike an adopted child, does not receive an inheritance — unless the guardian specifies it in the guardian's will. So it's possible that Batman is endangering Robin, night after night, with no assurance that he will receive any part of the vast Wayne fortune. Which is absolutely chilling.

Amusingly, the youthful ward of the Batman TV show was played by Burt Ward, so maybe the show was just having fun with that.

Aside: Did The People's Joker Get It Right?

While countless Batman stories have skimmed over the weirder parts of the Batman and Robin relationship, it took a low-budget satire to confront it head-on.

The People's Joker, in which filmmaker Vera Drew plays a trans joker trying to break into the Gotham comedy scene, features a satirized version of Carrie Kelley, the version of Robin who appears in Frank Miller's 1986 The Dark Knight Returns.

In The People's Joker, Carrie gender transitions to become Jason Todd, who then enters into a toxic, predatory relationship with Batman, in spite of their age difference and Jason being 17.

Obviously, a sexual relationship between Batman and Robin isn't canon, and Drew is making fun of the aforementioned gay jokes about the Batman and Robin relationship. But what the film gets right is that even in the most charitable interpretation, the Batman and Robin relationship involves a mature, wealthy man putting a much younger, orphaned partner in harm's way. We all them the Dynamic Duo, but one half of the duo holds all the power.

It's weird. And weirdly compelling.

Liked This List of 7 Weird Things About Batman's Relationship With Robin That No One Likes to Talk About?

You might also like this list of the Best Superhero Movies Before The MCU or this Brief History of Krypto,Superman's Dog.

Main image: Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin in the Batman TV show. ABC

But First, Yes, Of Course, We Know

Of course President Lincoln was far more advanced in his time than many of his white contemporaries. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 that Gordon Granger, a general in the Union Army, led thousands of Union troops into Galveston, Texas, to enforce Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ordering the end of slavery.

Context is important. Lincoln took a bold and courageous stand for his time.

But it's also important to understand our country's real history, and not just the most cheerful version of it. So here are some ugly truths about Lincoln, that go along with the laudable ones.

Lincoln Cared More About Preserving the Union Than Ending Slavery

Lincoln's main goal during his presidency, which began just before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, was to preserve the Union — not to free slaves.

Christopher Bonner, a historian at the University of Maryland, says in Netflix's historical documentary Amend: "Lincoln understands that slavery is bad, which is a good start. But he says that if I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do so."

"He has got to get the South back, and at this point, he'll do whatever it takes to win, even if it's at the expense of Black Americans," Smith says of Lincoln's thinking at the time.

You don't have to take the documentary's word for it. You can read Lincoln's August 22, 1862 letter here, in which he states: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."

He Didn't Always View People of Color as Equals

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln invited a group of African-American leaders to the White House, according to Columbia University historian Eric Foner. But instead of having a discussion about improving racial equality in America, he further underscored their inequality.

In Amend, Pedro Pascal reads the address that Lincoln delivered that day.

"Your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people," he said. "But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race."

Lincoln Blamed the Civil War on Black Americans

In his aforementioned address, Abraham Lincoln continued:

"Consider what we know to be the truth, but for your race among us, there could not be war."

Again, you don't have to rely on Netflix to research this. Here is a link to a primary source, "Lincoln's Address on Colonization to a Deputation of Colored Men."

Lincoln Wanted to Relocate Freed Black Americans to a Colony in Central America

"There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh at it may be, for you, free colored people, to remain with us," Lincoln added. "It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated. The place I am thinking about having for a colony is Central America."

Yes, at one point, Lincoln wanted to remove Black people from the U.S. altogether.

"Part of what Lincoln is doing here is trying to get at that gnawing uncertainty in Black people that maybe we can't actually belong in this country," Bonner notes. "He's saying, we all understand that equality is what this country's supposed to be about, but really, racial equality is not gonna happen, so get with the program."

More Detail

Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist who traveled the country speaking about his own experiences as a freed former slave, was furious at Lincoln, according to Bonner.

His solution? To convince Lincoln that he needed Black Americans to win the war, thus encouraging white Americans to view Black Americans as equals.

Douglass argued that Lincoln couldn't win the war without abolishing slavery and that Black men were essential to the war effort, saying that men "who would be freed themselves must strike the blow." His logic was that if Black men shed their blood to fight for their country, then they must be considered citizens. (The painting above depicts him urging Lincoln to let Black men fight for the Union Army.)

"Douglass is convinced they will prove they are citizens, that they're deserving of rights, and that they're deserving of legal equality," Bonner adds.

The Main Reason Abraham Lincoln Signed the Emancipation Proclamation? To Win the War

Douglass' plan worked: Although at the time Lincoln couldn't "conceive of the United States as a biracial society," as Foner points out, "his views will begin to move forward very dramatically."

Foner adds: "The Emancipation Proclamation is issued as a military order. It's to help win the war."

The painting above depicts the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first all-Black Union regiment, fighting for their country and freedom.

Disagree?

Feel free to share your objections in the comments and share sources. We love open debate about our country's history.

Thank You for Reading This List of Ugly Abraham Lincoln Facts No One Likes to Talk About

You might also like this list of Based on a True Story Movies That Are Mostly True, including Malcolm X, above.

Amend: The Fight for America is now streaming on Netflix. 

Main image: William Willard's 1864 portrait of Abraham Lincoln. National Portrait Gallery.

But First: What Is Voyeurism?

The word can be defined as gaining pleasure from watching others, or gaining enjoyment from seeing the pain or distress of others.

Some of the characters in this gallery have the first type, and some have the second.

Why are so many filmmakers fascinated by it? Perhaps because watching a film is so much like looking into a window of someone else's life.

Rear Window (1954)

Still the best of all voyeuristic movies, Rear Window is frequently referenced by other films because of its smart take on whether film itself is voyeurism.

The Alfred Hitchcock thriller stars Jimmy Stewart as L.B. Jeffries, an adventuring news photographer who finds himself sidelined by a cast and forced to stay home. He passes the hours watching his neighbors through their apartment windows while taking for granted his amazing girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly, pictured above).

Rear Window is about crime, sure, but also about a bachelor's fears of settling down. The different people L.B. watches represent different possibilities: Miss Torso is the attractive but beleaguered single, Miss Lonelyhearts never found the right partner, and The Salesman... well. He's the most intriguing of all.

Peeping Tom (1960)

When people talk about voyeuristic movies, or movies about voyeurism, this is the one they usually mention right after Rear Window.

Directed by Michael Powell, this British horror thriller — just added to the Criterion Collection — follows the very creepy Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm, pictured) as a seemingly shy man who secretly records and murders women.

“The movies make us into voyeurs,” critic Roger Ebert wrote in an evaluation of the film. “We sit in the dark, watching other people’s lives. It is the bargain the cinema strikes with us, although most films are too well-behaved to mention it.”

Martin Scorsese has said the film, paired with Federico Fellini’s 8½, says “everything that can be said about film-making, about the process of dealing with film, the objectivity and subjectivity of it and the confusion between the two.”

“8½ captures the glamour and enjoyment of film-making, while Peeping Tom shows the aggression of it, how the camera violates,” Scorsese has said. “From studying them you can discover everything about people who make films, or at least people who express themselves through films.”

Body Double (1984)

This very '80s take on voyeuristic movies, this Brian De Palma cult classic pays tribute not just to Hitchcock's Rear Window, but also to the master's Vertigo.

When struggling actor Jake Scully (Craig Wasson, pictured) gets the chance to housesit at a fancy home in the Hollywood Hills, he learns that the job comes with a creepy side benefit: through a telescope, he can watch a neighbor get undressed each night.

But soon, an act of violence leads Scully to start to question everything, and take a journey into L.A.'s adult underworld that brings him into contact with actress Holly Body, played by a magnetic and charismatic Melanie Griffith.

Fright Night (1985)

This '80s horror classic from Tom Holland (not the one who plays Spider-Man, he wasn't born yet), Fright Night stars William Ragsdale as Charley Brewster, a teenager obsessed with a TV horror show features who becomes convinced that his suave new neighbor (Chris Sarandon)... is a vampire.

He enlists the help of his favorite show's host, a former vampire hunter named Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). It turns out Charley has pretty good instincts.

This is a very fun watch not just for the terrific supernatural twist on Rear Window, but also for the very '80s — and very effective — practical effects, led by Richard Edlund, who was just coming off the success of his work on Ghostbusters.

The Burbs (1989)

The setup for The Burbs is similar to that of Fright Night, but The Burbs leans more into dark comedy.

The film, by Gremlins director Joe Dante, stars Tom Hanks (above) as Ray Peterson, a suburbanite who begins to suspect his new neighbors, the Klopeks, are involved in ritualistic killings. His wife Carol (Carrie Fischer) isn't convinced.

Of course things escalate as Ray becomes more convinced that he's on to something — and most of the people around him think he's losing it.

The Lives of Others (2006)

The winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, this unfussy masterpiece from director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck revisits the dark days of the Stasi in East Germany, when friends and neighbors were encouraged and incentivized to report disloyalty.

It follows Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe, pictured) as a Stasi officer ordered to spy on a playwright and his girlfriend. But he soon learns that the personal and political are difficult to separate.

The Girl Next Door (2004)

The rare voyeuristic movie where spying on a neighbor leads to fun and romance. When high school senior Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) spots his new neighbor Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert, above) undressing, she storms over.

But they end up hitting it off, and he discovers that she's a young veteran of the adult entertainment industry. Hijinks ensue, but through an unlikely series of wild events, everything ends up just fine.

The cast of The Girl Next Door is notably good: Supporting characters are played by Timothy Olyphant and Paul Dano.

Disturbia (2007)

A millennial-fronted homage to Rear Window, Disturbia stars Shia LaBeouf as a young man who — grieving the death of his father — punches out a teacher. He's sentenced to three months of house arrest, and spends that time, you guessed it, spying on his neighbors.

He hits it off with one of them, Ashley (Sarah Roemer), but begins to suspect that another, Turner (David Morse) just might be a serial killer.

Keeping Up With the Joneses (2016)

Keeping Up With the Joneses follows a suburban couple played by Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher as a suburban couple, the Gaffneys, who start to suspect their glamorous new neighbors the Joneses, played by Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot... are spies.

You thought we were going to say serial killers, didn't you? Nope. This one has a fun mutual-spying twist on the voyeuristic movies genre.

To wit: The Gaffneys begin to spy on the Joneses, who also seem to be spying on them, and things get complicated and messy.

Voyeur (2017)

Speaking of complicated and messy: This documentary tells the fascinating story of Gerald Foos, a man who bought a Colorado hotel in the 1960s, then spied on his guests' intimiate moments from an observation platform that allowed him to peep through their vents.

Foos kept detailed journals of his unwitting subjects' behavior, with the justification that it was valuable research into human behavior.

The film also chronicles his unlikely friendship with the brilliant New Yorker writer Gay Talese, author of the groundbreaking book Thy Neighbor’s Wife, about American sexual mores, as well as classic magazine features like "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold."

During the documentary, by directors Myles Kane and Josh Koury, Talese thoughtfully explains that as a journalist, "I’m a voyeur myself."

The Rental (2020)

A slow-boil horror about homesharing, the directorial debut of Dave Franco follows two couples who rent a hauntingly beautiful cliffside retreat and soon realize that things are not what they seem.

You guessed it: they're being watched. The top-notch cast includes Alison Brie (pictured), Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White and Toby Huss.

The film creeped out Franco's friend Barry Jenkins so much that the Oscar winner went back through his own history of home rentals to try to suss out any shady ones.

The Voyeurs (2020)

This modern take on movies about spying on neighbors is well aware of all the tropes of the genre, and has a lot of fun tweaking them.

Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) becomes fascinated by the couple whose apartment she and her boyfriend (Justice Smith) can see clearly from their own: The man (Ben Hardy) is a photographer, and the woman is his girlfriend and sometime model (Natasha Liu Bordizzo.)

Pippa becomes obsessed, especially when she sees the man having affairs. Then things get very, very strange. Michael Mohan, writer and director of the Amazon Prime original, says he was inspired by "steamy moral dilemmas" in films like Unfaithful and Indecent Proposal.

Liked This List of Voyeuristic Movies?

You might also like this list of 1950s films that are still a delight, including Rear Window (pictured), which is, as we mentioned, the gold standard of voyeuristic movies.

Grace Kelly (pictured), by the way, figures prominently in our list of Actors Who Quit When They Were on Top.

Also, About That Spying on Neighbors Trope

It's interesting to note that many movies — especially older movies — often treat spying on neighbors as natural, boys-being-boys behavior, ignoring the fact that it's non-consensual and a clear violation of privacy. Post #MeToo movies, like The Rental, tend to more accurately portray it as creepy.

For a fascinating study of voyeurs in cinema, and their portrayal, we recommend this provocative video essay by Pop Culture Detective.

Main image: The Girl Next Door, 20th Century Fox.

What's that you say? Why yes — we do believe there are 10 Quentin Tarantino movies, despite the director's assertion that his next film will be his 10th and last.

Why 10? Because we insist that Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 are two separate, wonderful films.

Here are all 10 Quentin Tarantino movies ranked.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

We love The Hateful Eight, as we love all Quentin Tarantino movies, but something had to be lowest ranked on our list, and this is it.

Tarantino became known early in his career for certain hallmarks — pop-culture references, impeccable left-field song choices, a very modern sense of cool — and after his initial success, went about proving he could make great films without any of them. The Hateful Eight, set in snowy Wyoming in the late 1800s after the Civil War, leaves Tarantino with no attention-grabbing gimmicks to rely on. But he does have his most reliable tools: a terrific, twisty script, and magnificent actors.

The Hateful Eight puts Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Walton Goggins, Channing Tatum, and other excellent actors under one roof and lets all hell slowly break loose. The stakes aren't as high as they feel in some of his other films, but the movie is still a warm cinematic fire.

Death Proof (2007)

Death Proof is one of the flashiest Tarantino movies, filled with car crashes, mayhem, dancing girls, and cool music. Designed as a parody/homage to exploitation films, as part of Tarantino's Grindhouse double feature with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, it pulls out all the stops to entertain — and it does, relentlessly.

Death Proof is Tarantino at his most unchained — it starts with a long shot of female feet, which feels like a jokey middle finger to everyone who ever accused him of a foot fetish — and inspired hand-wringing about whether Tarantino was objectifying or celebrating his heroines (played by Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Tracie Thoms, Sydney Poitier, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Zoe Bell).

Death Proof has it both ways: It's lascivious while making fun of the lasciviousness of 1970s grindhouse films. It works, and it's a nice breather between the epic scale of the Kill Bill films — which preceded Death Proof — and Inglorious Basterds, which followed it. It may be Tarantino's least important movie, and that's fine — sometimes you just want to have fun.

Also, it features two of the 15 Most Beautiful Cars in Movies.

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

The movie that started it all for Tarantino, a former video store clerk and struggling actor who made ends meet, while prepping the film, in part with residuals from a role on The Golden Girls as an Elvis impersonator.

Smaller in scale than any other Tarantino movie, Reservoir Dogs introduces many of his trademarks: pop culture dissertations dropped into scenes that, in the hands of other directors, would be ultra-serious; shocking violence; cool twists; and an out-of-nowhere soundtrack that — like so many things in a Tarantino movie — shouldn't work but absolutely does.

Reservoir Dogs also introduced Tarantino's phenomenal way with actors and skill at bringing out their best work. Harvey Keitel, Michael Madson, Steve Buscemi and many others shine with dialogue different than we'd previously heard in any crime movie... but then heard throughout the '90s, as countless other screenwriters tried to copy QT.

Jackie Brown (1997)

Even more than The Hateful Eight, Jackie Brown feels like Tarantino setting out to prove he can make a movie that doesn't rely on his most-familiar moves. It's a beautiful meditation on aging, and continuing to hustle as you age, with a little more wisdom and a lot of disappointment behind you.

After the back-to-back success of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino could have done anything — and chose to elevate his genre heroes. The film is the only one of his movies that isn't based on his own original story, and is instead adapted from the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch.

The director cast as his leads two actors who were not in especially high demand: Robert Forster, a new Hollywood star for 1969's Medium Cool who later appeared in films films Alligator and Delta Force, and Pam Grier, a Blaxploitation icon for roles in Coffy and Foxy Brown who had not yet gotten the respect she deserved from mainstream Hollywood.

In another unconventional casting choice, he placed A-listers like Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson in smaller roles, where they waited, like little bombs, to explode.

Tarantino also personalized the material by moving the setting from Florida to L.A.'s South Bay, and setting key moments at the Del Amo Mall, where he (and I) saw many a movie in the '80s.

Also Read: 10 Movie Sex Scenes Someone Should Have Stopped

Django Unchained (2012)

Tarantino hit on a brilliant formula with Inglorious Basterds and continued it in Django Unchained: Find a bad guy so repugnant that you'll be passionately invested in the hero's success. Inglorious Basterds let us delight in the killing of Nazis, and Django lets us thrill in a revenge story against American slavers, as Jamie Foxx's Django and Christoph Waltz's Dr. King Schultz take on the repugnant Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his aide Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) to rescue Django's wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).

Django does many audacious things, including holding back on the introduction of its biggest star, DiCaprio, and making Candie's enslaved servant, Stephen, a bad guy. All the risks pay off.

Django is also fascinating for Tarantino's exacting use of violence. The pain inflicted on slaves in the film is as real as the violence they suffered in real life. But the fantasy revenge carried out by Django on the slavers is fantastical, even comical.

The film makes us wish the slavers suffered violence as real as the violence they inflicted in real life, but there's a vast emotional chasm between reality and the wish fulfillment on screen. Tarantino thrives in that chasm.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pulp Fiction is a little like Shakespeare — you've seen it imitated so many times it's easy to forget that when it first appeared, it was completely groundbreaking and new.

Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary explicitly elevated inspirations once dismissed as trashy — like the pulpy novels of the title — and combined flashy dialogue and set pieces with grounded, troubled characters, hopeful strivers caught in the muck of violence.

It pulls off a barrage of cool narrative tricks that amuse on a surface level, then drill into and confuse our lizard brains — like having one character we love kill another, in a way that thrills and then horrifies us. And it manages an ambitious spirituality that, again, shouldn't work but does.

It also marks the first of many collaborations between Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson, and the start of his partnership with Uma Thurman, who will turn up again in our next entry.

Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004)

After three smaller-scale films, with very ground-level characters, Tarantino made epics with the Kill Bill films. They were originally intended as one movie, then were released in two parts, Kill Bill Vol. 1 in 2003 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 in 2004. We love them both.

Once again, Tarantino elevated his genre inspirations, this time martial arts films. Uma Thurman's heroine, The Bride, aka Beatrix Kiddo, even wears a yellow jumpsuit modeled on Bruce Lee's in Game of Death.

Vol. 2 has some of Tarantino's most showstopping moments, including The Bride's trailer fight with Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), her escape from being buried alive, and a final faceoff with Bill (David Carradine), whose speech about Superman is one of Tarantino's greatest pop-culture monologues.

But we still like Kill Bill Vol. 1 better, for reasons we'll soon explain.

Inglorious Basterds (2009)

This is the Tarantino film with the highest stakes: Brad Pitt's ragtag group of Nazi-killin' commandos, including Eli Roth's magnificent, bat-wielding "Bear Jew," are out to kill Adolf Hitler himself.

Inglorious Basterds has one of the best opening scenes of any movie, as Christoph Waltz's charming but evil Hans Landa builds up unbearable tension while persuading a French farmer to give up the Jewish family he's been protecting. But it gets even better from there, building to a climax absolutely no one would expect.

More than almost any other movie, Inglorious Basterds asks, "Why can't you do that?" and then does it. It thrives, once again, in the chasm between cinematic fantasy and reality — between what we wish would have happened, and what actually did.

And the cast, including Melanie Laurent (above), is perfect.

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)

Speaking of that chasm: Quentin Tarantino uses our knowledge of the Manson murders to keep us utterly rapt, terrified, on the edge of our seats, through three hours of relatively low-stakes drama involving rising star Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), washed-up actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), and Dalton's dangerous assistant, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).

We watch them over two fairly uneventful days — at one point joining Tate on an errand and a trip to the movies — as Dalton and Booth reckon with their faltering prospects in life. Everything is imbued with a sense of menace (wait — is that Charles Manson?) because we know the real Tate's fate.

But on the third day, Tarantino plunges us deep into his chasm — the place between what we know really happened, and what we wish could have happened. And he delivers cinematic wish fulfillment unmatched by any film, except perhaps his own Inglorious Basterds.

The film is also very fun for the chance to see early appearances by future stars Mikey Madison, Austin Butler, and Margaret Qualley.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)

I mentioned growing up in L.A.'s South Bay in the '80s. If you, like Quentin Tarantino and I, spent any amount of time watching TV in that place and time, you became very familiar with an ad that ran constantly on local TV for a two-record or two-cassette collection of songs by "Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute," available for $19.98 by credit card phone order and pointedly not sold in stores.

It was the embodiment of dull-day, depressing TV schlock, when no one had the internet and not everyone even had cable. The Zamfir ad, like the ad for a four-record or three-cassette collection called Freedom Rock, was a thing you would endure or openly mock during commercial breaks between replays of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly or reruns of Gimme a Break, hating yourself a little for not having something cooler to do.

It took Quentin Tarantino to recognize its power. With his knack for elevating the most seemingly disposable elements of our culture, he realized that Gheorghe Zamfir's version of "The Lonely Shepherd" was the perfect way to end Kill Bill, Vol. 1. In doing so, he created, for my money ($19.98), one of the best endings of any movie.

It comes after a stunning battle between The Bride and the Crazy 88s and Gogo Yubari, which leads into a cathartic faceoff in the falling snow between O-Ren Ishiii (Lucy Liu) and The Bride. The movie could have ended with O-Ren's defeat, but instead continues with a montage as The Bride flies home in a plane, against a blood-red sky, as the film's central characters take stock of her revenge mission, Zamfir playing softly behind them.

Bill delivers a final line that changes everything, as the drums and horns kicks in behind the pan flute. It's devastating and hopeful: The chasm opens wide.

Liked Our List of All 10 Quentin Tarantino Movies Ranked?

You might also like this list of every Christopher Nolan movie ranked.

Main image: Kill Bill Vol. 1. Miramax

Editor's Note: Corrects image credit.

The festival said in a statement that Boulder "offers small-town charm with an engaged community, distinctive natural beauty, and a vibrant arts scene, making it the ideal location for the festival to grow."

“I founded the Sundance Institute with a commitment to discovering and developing independent artists, with the Sundance Film Festival serving as the platform for stories to help expand audiences and broaden the landscape,” added Robert Redford, the Sundance Institute's president and founder, added in a statement.

“That mission remains even more critical today and will continue to be our core principle. Words cannot express the sincere gratitude I have for Park City, the state of Utah, and all those in the Utah community that have helped to build the organization."

Sundance has felt increasingly crowded in recent years in Park City, a town of less than 10,000 people that stretches at the seams when Hollywood arrives each January.

Though Sundance brings a welcome infusion of cash, as celebrities pack hotel rooms and ski chalets, the progressive-minded festival has felt like an odd cultural fit recently in conservative Utah: Sundance announced the move as Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was deciding whether to sign or veto a bill that would ban the Pride Flag from government buildings in the state.

The festival's statement, however, did not mention policy or politics factoring into its decision to leave Park City.

Envisioning the Sundance Film Festival in Boulder

Like Park City, where Sundance festival has been based since 1981, Boulder is a mountain-region town with a strong film scene.

Also Read: 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee

The Sundance Institute said the festival will be centered in downtown Boulder, relying on its array of theaters and venues and using spaces around the pedestrian-only Pearl Street Mall. It will also rely on select locations on the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder campus. All in sight of the snowcapped Rocky Mountains.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Sundance Film Festival to Colorado and work with our new partners at the Sundance Institute to ensure a smooth transition to Boulder in 2027,” said Colorado film commissioner Donald Zuckerman. “We can think of no better partner to elevate filmmaking and storytelling in Colorado and look forward to celebrating the many creative milestones that lie ahead.”

The other finalist for Sundance's move was Cincinnati, Ohio. Or it could have stated put, with screenings in Park City and nearby Salt Lake City, Utah.

“This decision was informed by a detailed evaluation of the key components essential to creating our Festival. During the process, it became clear that Boulder is the ideal location in which to build our Festival's future, marking a key strategic step in its natural evolution,” said Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute board chair.

“We have a profound appreciation for the finalist cities and their communities — including Boulder, Colorado, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Salt Lake City, Utah — who presented overwhelmingly strong proposals and dedicated their time, passion, and commitment every step of the way. We have deep respect and gratitude to these communities for their hard work and partnership throughout the past year. Additionally, we sincerely value the steadfast support from our staff and board as we have ventured on this exploration together.” 

The Sundance Film Festival is the largest artist program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, which will continue the work of "supporting artists and connecting their work with audiences," the festival said in its statement. "The Festival stands as the pre-eminent gathering of original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices, fresh perspectives, and a celebration of independent film and storytelling."

Main image: Boulder, Colorado. Courtesy of Sundance.

The new trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another finds Leonardo DiCaprio's anxious revolutionary character, Bob Ferguson, struggling through a series of passwords required to get help from fellow revolutionaries.

"Maybe you should have studied the rebellion text a little harder," he's told when he can't remember the answer to the coded question, "What time is it?"

The trailer, which follows a One Battle After Another teaser released last week, lays out a little more clearly who plays who in the film, which is Anderson's followup to 2021's Licorice Pizza. Teyana Taylor plays Ferguson's wife, who comes from generations of revolutionaries. Chase Infiniti plays the couple's daughter, who Ferguson tries desperately to save after an attack on the family's home by Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn).

Soon DiCaprio's Ferguson crosses paths with another, more confident revolutionary, played by Benicio Del Toro. Ferguson calls him "sensei," and at the conclusion of the trailer, howls at him, "Viva la revolucion!"

Also Read: All 10 — Yes 10 — Quentin Tarantino Movies Ranked

Background on the One Battle After Another Trailer, Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and Starring Leonardo DiCaprio

One Battle After Another pairs Anderson with DiCaprio for the first time, and reunites him with Penn, who had a notable appearance in Licorice Pizza.

The new film also stars Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, and Licorice Pizza star Alana Haim. It was filmed in locations including Sacramento, California and El Paso, Texas.

One Battle After Another arrives in theaters September 26.

Also Read: New Film From The Daniels Among Recipients of California Film and TV Tax Credits

It's the second Anderson film to be based on a Thomas Pynchon novel. The reclusive author also wrote the 2009 novel that inspired Inherent Vice, which starred Joaquin Phoenix as a stoner detective.

One Battle After Another is inspired by Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland, set in 1984, which follows 1960s rebels who are tracked down by a relentless federal prosecutor.

The new film seems to take considerable liberties with the source material — it's set in a different time, not the 1980s. Phone booths still exist, but things look a tad bit distopian.

The Wall Street Journal reported in August that the Warner Bros. film is budgeted at $140 million, with DiCaprio earning a $20 million salary.

That figure has earned some headlines, because Anderson's top-grossing film so far, There Will Be Blood, took in $76 million at the box office. 

But the higher budget for One Battle After Another has been justified by DiCaprio's involvement — he remains one of few truly bankable movie stars – and the prestige associated with directing a Paul Thomas Anderson film.

Main image: One Battle After Another, by Paul Thomas Anderson. Warner Bros.

“Family Affair” is a funny, warm-hearted short film about secrets, friendships and family. But it also feels like just the beginning of a longer story — a day in the life of characters we want to get to know more. And that’s exactly what writer Ernest Anemone intended.

Anemone is developing the short film, which is now available on YouTube after festival run that began at the Provincetown Film Festival in 2023, into a series of the same name.

It follows Tanner (Bear D'Angelo), a high school senior who seems to have everything going for him. It’s not your typical sitcom though: Tanner is up to something that involves a big duffle bag, his mom gets the best lines, and his science class has a skeleton named “Boner.” 

Also Read: Provincetown International Film Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary by Showing How to Do a Film Festival Right

As "Family Affair" progresses, Tanner interacts with a cast of characters in dependable, repeatable settings like his suburban home and high school – standard sitcom setups. The introduction of Tanner’s dad towards the end of the film sets up a dynamic that would help really set the series apart. 

The "Family Affair" team

Director Julio Dowansingh creates a warm tone with mostly queer, female and BIPOC creatives. Standouts include Donna Vivino as Tanner’s mom and Corey Barrow as his concerned best friend. The director of photography is Emily O’Leary, and the film was produced by Anemone, Kyle Burt, Amy DePaola and John de la Parra.

Anemone has a unique background that has given him a strong emphasis on ethical filmmaking.

“I started my career as a trial attorney, and after discovering my passion for acting and filmmaking, I started using theater education techniques to help individuals and organizations tell their own stories more effectively,” he says. 

The film was one of many films that stood out at a packed shorts bloc at the charming Waters Edge Cinema, one of the venues of the Provincetown International Film Festival. As we wrote after the festival, held June 14-18, Provincetown is a festival that seems to do everything right — and programming fun and thoughtful films like "A Family Affair" is just one of the ways it stands out.

You can learn more about the film at familyaffairfilm.com.

Main image: Bear D'Angelo as Tanner in "Family Affair."

Here is a top 10 list of movies we feel capture the experiences and emotions that a jackpot win could evoke. 

It Could Happen to You

We start with a heartwarming romantic comedy that stars Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda, It Could Happen to You came out in 1994 and tells the story of New York City cop Charlie Lang. The premise being that when a man finds he doesn’t have enough money to tip waitress Yvonne at a diner, he offers her half of his lottery ticket if he wins. The next day, he lands a $4 million share in a $64 million lottery jackpot and remains true to his word, splitting the money with Yvonne, against the wishes of his wife. The movie is a delightful exploration of generosity and the real value of money and relationships. 

Waking Ned Devine 

Another 90s comedy, Waking Ned Devine hit the movie theaters in 1998. Set in a picturesque village in Ireland, it revolves around the death of Ned Devine, who ironically passes away in shock when he realizes that he has won the lottery. Neighbors from his local village form a plan to claim the lottery prize by pretending that Ned is still alive. As the humor inevitably unfolds, it not only illustrates how far people are prepared to go for the chance to get their hands on a fortune, but it also underlines the importance of community and friendship. 

Lottery Ticket 

A comedy from 2010 that stars Bow Wow as Kevin Carson, Lottery Ticket is about a young man who lives in the projects and lands a massive $370 million lottery jackpot. The movie tells Kevin’s story as he attempts to navigate a long weekend during which all of his friends and neighbors discover that he has become a multimillionaire. The movie is a hilarious but in places poignant examination of the problems that can come with sudden wealth, and the importance of being true to yourself. 

Welcome to Me 

One of the most intriguing movies on this list, Welcome to Me (2014) tells the story of Alice Klieg, a woman with borderline personality disorder, played by Kristen Wiig. Alice wins an $86 million lottery jackpot but what she does with the money surprises people. Unlike how most people would spend a windfall, she uses the money to launch a talk show in which she discusses her life and experiences. The movie is an inspiring take on lottery winnings being used to launch a journey of self-discovery rather than a spending spree. 

Finder’s Fee 

The first all-out drama, this 2001 movie starring Ryan Reynolds in the early stages of his career, depicts a man who finds a wallet with a winning lottery ticket inside. He must then wrestle with the moral dilemma of whether to keep the ticket and claim the prize for himself or return it to the rightful owner.

29th Street 

Released in 1991, this movie is based around a true story and features Anthony LaPaglia as Frank Pesce, a character who has enjoyed amazing luck throughout his life. When he wins the first ever New York State Lottery, he has to wrestle with the pressures of his new wealth, which makes for a touching movie about family, luck and happiness.

Two Lottery Tickets 

A hilarious comedy from Romania, Two Lottery Tickets (2016) is about three friends in a provincial town who put their money together to buy a lottery ticket. After losing the ticket, they are forced to retrace their steps in an attempt to find the ticket, encountering a string of strange and eccentric characters along the way. A highlight of foreign cinema, this is an uplifting movie that underlines the value of determination and friendship. 

Uptown Saturday Night 

A classic comedy movie from 1974, Uptown Saturday Night stars Sidney Poitier as Steve Jackson, a  man who sneaks into an illegal lottery club and ends up winning a huge prize. Unfortunately, the winning lottery ticket is stolen. To get it back, he and his friend have to go on a wild and entertaining adventure that exemplifies the highs and lows of seeking a fortune. 

The Lottery Man 

Definitely the oldest pick on this list, The Lottery Man, a silent movie from 1919, is about Jack Wright, a young man who wins a big prize on the lottery and who is then inundated with marriage proposals. Jack has to navigate the changes that come with his new fame and fortune, and along the way, he learns what really matters in life. 

Lucky 

A thoroughly uplifting indie movie from 2017, Lucky is about a young couple, struggling for money, who win the lottery but then decide to maintain their modest lifestyle while they work out what to do with their fortune. While many lottery movies focus on the negative aspects of sudden wealth, Lucky shows some of the positives, including the ability to use money to bring about positive change. 

All of the movies on this list aren’t just great entertainment. They also go to the heart of the human condition, focusing on the way that sudden wealth can help people to find out what really matters in life, from friendship and love to community and generosity. They also encourage us to ask the question: how would I cope with a big lottery win?

Toni Williams in Secret Admirer (Played by Lori Loughlin)

When Michael Ryan (C. Thomas Howell) receives an anonymous love letter, he assumes its from his blonde crush Deborah (Kelly Preston).

But it's actually from his good friend Toni, who is, in a twist you will never see coming, a brunette.

Through a series of misunderstandings, things escalate, and Michael eventually realizes that Deb is a bit shallow and that he and Toni, of course, belong together. Of course.

Boof in Teen Wolf (Played by Susan Ursitti)

Lisa "Boof" Marconi and Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox) are obviously meant for each other. But Scott foolishly pines after blonde Pamela (Lorie Griffin) — even though Pamela is so shallow that she only likes Scott as a wolf.

Everything about Lisa screams cute brunette friend in an '80s movie, including her adorable nickname. It takes a closet party game for Scott and Boof to realize they have ferocious chemistry.

Duckie in Pretty in Pink (Played by Jon Cryer)

Phil "Ducky" Dale has impeccable '80s fashion sense and he's always there for Andie (Molly Ringwald), who of course pines for the blond, bland Blane (Andrew McCarthy). But Ducky is her true love — at least to Ducky.

Of course, there's something creepy and cowardly, in retrospect, about Ducky posing as a platonic friend to Andie while secretly hoping to hook up with her.

But it's not that rare a dynamic in '80s movies.

Also Read: 13 Stars of the '80s Who Are Still Going Strong

Rick Morehouse in Just One of the Guys (Played by Clayton Rohner)

Don't worry, not every film on this list follows the '80s movie formula of a hero or heroine who pines after someone yellow-haired while overlooking the brunette who's been there for them all along.

Take for example the delightfully insane Just One of the Guys, in which female high school journalist Terri Griffith (Joyce Hyser, above left) goes undercover as a boy, for the sake of journalistic investigation, then falls for awkward new student Rick (Clayton Rohner, above right).

Naturally, she poses as his new male best friend to teach him to be one of the guys, before her deception is revealed and many lessons are learned.

And before you impotently protest, "What? The title refers to Terri, not Rick!" please understand that it refers, in fact to both of them: Just One of the Guys is a fascinatingly complex film that works on a multitude of levels.

Allison Bradbury in The Sure Thing (Played by Daphne Zuniga)

Walter (John Cusack) and Allison (Daphne Zuniga) are obviously perfect for each other, but he of course pines for the blonde, mysterious "Sure Thing" of the title (Nicolette Sheridan).

Through a long series of road-trip misadventures, Walter and Allison develop a close affection for each other that finally turns into something more when Walter realizes that he doesn't feel true love for The Sure Thing.

It was released in 1985, the same year as the next film on our list.

Monique in Better Off Dead (Diane Franklin)

Lane Meyer (John Cusack again) and French exchange student Monique are obviously meant for each other, but he spends his days mooning after blonde ex-girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss) and she passes the hours plotting her escape from a semi-hostage situation with Lane's neighbor Ricky (Dan Schneider).

Monique is a notably fantastic female character for a high school '80s movie — she's the smartest, coolest and most capable character in the entire film, good at pitching, fixing cars, skiing, and much more. She's also the best-dressed person on this list, with the possibly exception of Ducky.

Also, we just realized while doing our intensive research for this gallery that Diane Franklin, the actress who played Monique, is not, in fact, French. She's just that good. The gold standard of cute brunette friends in '80s movies.

Cassandra in One Crazy Summer (Played by Demi Moore)

What is it about '80s John Cusack movies? In this one, our boy — playing a Lane Meyer-like character named Hoops McCann — forms a near-instant rapport with cool musician Cassandra (Demi Moore) but ends up going out with Cookie (Kimberly Foster), the blonde girlfriend of cocky blond guy Teddy Beckersted.

As we've noted before, 1986's One Crazy Summer kind of feels like a sequel to 1985's Better Off Dead — both are written and directed by the great "Savage" Steve Hollland — given that many actors returned from the first film and some of the One Crazy Summer characters feel like variations of the Better Off Dead ones.

And you know what? Kudos. Why mess with perfection?

Rona in Oxford Blues (Played by Ally Sheedy)

Oxford rower Nick Di Angelo (Rob Lowe) longs to be with Lady Victoria Wingate (Amanda Pays), but ends up becoming close with coxswain Rona (Ally Sheedy), a fellow American. You can guess what happens next.

In a progressive twist on a formula you're by now familiar with, both Lady Victoria and Rona are brunettes.

Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club (Played by Ally Sheedy)

One year after Oxford Blues, Ally Sheedy played another cute brunette friend/hiding in plain sight love interest in this 1985 John Hughes classic.

Allison and Andrew (Emilio Estevez) quickly find common ground during their all-day detention, and after she gets a makeover from Claire (Molly Ringwald), he recognizes her as — yes — cute.

At the end of the day, they part ways with a kiss.

Dez in Desparately Seeking Susan (Played by Aidan Quinn)

When Dez first meets Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) he assumes she's off-limits because he thinks she's Susan (Madonna) his best friend's girl. Roberta, meanwhile, is married to philandering hot-tub king Gary (Mark Blum).

Dez and Roberta pal around New York for a bit as she tries to sort out a case of amnesia, but soon she gives in to the raw chemistry between them, because just look at the guy.

Linda in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Played by Phoebe Cates)

We know: Many people remember Fast Times for either Sean Penn's role as Jeff Spicoli or Phoebe Cates and the pool fantasy sequence. But in fact Jennifer Jason Leigh as Stacy (above left), was billed above Cates' brunette Linda (above right) and had the more complex character arc.

The light-haired Stacy looked up to her friend Linda and admired her greater experience, but Stacey is the one we're most rooting for throughout the movie.

Also, we like how this movie departs from the familiar formula of a regular guy torn between an out-of-his league blonde crush and an extremely available brunette whose inner and outer beauty he has totally failed to recognize.

Liked This List of the Best Brunette Friends in '80s Movies

Maybe the only character more common than the cute brunette friend in a '80s movie is the cocky blond guy. Here are 11 of the Best Cocky Blond Guys in '80s Movies, three of whom appear in movies in this very gallery.

Also, here are 12 Rad '80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember.

Main image: Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Universal Pictures.

Editor's Note: Corrects main image.

Rounders may not have been a smash hit at the box office in 1998, but it's cemented itself as a cult classic over the years. Critics may have given it mixed reviews, but among the poker elite, it's a classic must-watch. Many regard it as the best poker movie ever made, and some credit it as the reason they started dabbling in the professional landscape. Rounders helped lay the foundation for the poker boom in the early 2000s, but so much has changed since then with the growth of technology and shifting regulations. Should a sequel be in the works, it may look much different than the underground club scene depicted in the original. 

The impact of Rounders

Poker in film hasn't always had the best reputation in the eyes of poker players. Dramatic depictions often trump realistic gameplay, which some may see as a poor representation of the game that affects the viewing experience. Rounders was one of the first films to accurately portray high-stakes poker's tension and energy. 

It balanced the right amount of cinematic flair without sacrificing the grounded details. It also helped that writer Brian Koppelman had much experience in the underground poker scene and often played in clubs, which helped create the setting for the movie. As such, the film became a hit with many professional poker players. It also inspired many to take up the game professionally, with many of those players reaching success. Hevad Khan, Gavin Griffin, and Dutch Boyd were drawn to the game thanks to the film's impact. It also came out when online poker was just beginning to gain traction, allowing aspiring pros to test their skills after watching the movie. 

Parallels with reality

To ensure a realistic depiction of poker for Rounders, Matt Damon spent some time playing the game and sharpening his skills. He watched and learned from poker pros like Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan; the latter even makes a cameo in the movie. He and co-star Edward Norton even entered the 1998 World Series of Poker (WSOP), where Damon got to play against poker legend Doyle Brunson. 

Even after Rounders, he still played some poker, mostly to raise money for charity. In 2020, he participated in an online poker tournament for Feeding America, hosted by leading US poker site ACR Poker. The platform is known for its fair and secure features, exciting tourneys, numerous promos, and prolific roster of Team Pros. He was one of the many celebrities who joined, facing off against top players in the game. 

Damon isn't the only one in Hollywood who has poker experience. Actor Ben Affleck, his longtime friend and collaborator, was another player in the charity tournament, and he's known for being a skilled poker player, having participated in various WSOP tournaments. Tobey Maguire also frequently shows up for poker events and is a top name among the stars who can play poker. Other names, such as Byan Cranston, Sarah Silverman, and even athlete Tom Brady, were part of the Feeding America tournament. Seeing many famous figures playing poker showcased how the game has significantly evolved and gained visibility, something Rounders helped contribute to with its lasting impact over the years.

What would a sequel look like?

While there are no official plans to make a Rounders sequel yet, there are many intriguing angles the film can take. Technology has evolved rapidly over the years since it came out, potentially setting the stage for a more modern take on the game. A look at how the characters are doing in the present day can showcase how poker has shifted from underground clubs to becoming a massive cultural phenomenon aided by the rise of TV, the internet, social media, streaming, and more. It can also focus on the drama and extravagance of poker as a game for elites, similar to another cult-classic poker movie like Molly''s Game , which centered on the real-life poker empire that involved celebrities, athletes, and business tycoons. There's a lot of material for the writers to work with, but only time will tell if the sequel will be green-lit.

Check out MovieMaker for more updates and insights on film and moviemaking.

Disagree with our rankings? That's fine. Let us know why in the comments.

By the Way

There are, in our careful judgement, no bad Christopher Nolan movies. Some are good, and some are better.

So if you're looking for someone to complain about Nolan, this isn't the place. We're sorry.

Now on with our list, starting with No. 12...

Following (1999)

Following is a relatively small movie about an aspiring writer (Jeremy Theobald, above) who follows people for fun, and ends up aligned with a daylight burglar named Cobb (Alex Haw) — the only named character.

Now on the Criterion Channel, it's a fascinating watch because of how many of its elements end up in later Nolan films. The Blonde (Lucy Russell) feels like an early influence on Tenet's Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), though both recall Hitchcock's icy blondes. The black and white of Following will return in Oppenheimer, and the time-manipulating elements appear in almost every Nolan film that isn't about Batman.

Most amusingly, the main character has a Batman sticker on his door — six years before Nolan's Batman Begins.

Also Read: All 10 Batman Movies Ranked, Worst to Best

Insomnia

The major flaw of Insomnia is that it's the only Christopher Nolan movie not written by Christopher Nolan. It's a remake of the 1997 Norwegian thriller Insomnia, and it unravels in the midnight sun of Alaska (the inverse setup of 2024's True Detective: Night Country). It's an examination of guilt cloaked as a daylight noir, and while Nolan films can be too complicated, we wish this one were a little more complicated.

It's atmospheric and cool, but not Nolan's best. Still, it did demonstrate his propensity for working with A-list actors: The stacked cast includes Robin Williams, Al Pacino, and Hilary Swank (above).

Nolan has called it the most underrated of his films.

Interstellar

We love Nolan for the density of his plots, and how he constantly raises the stakes and tension while asking moral and metaphysical questions.

But as beautiful as Interstellar looks, we felt like the simple story of a father (Matthew McConaughey) and daughter (Jessica Chastain) got overwhelmed in all the hard science.

Still, we love the ambition. And it's interesting how the physics in the film arise again in Oppenheimer.

The Prestige

The Prestige is undeniably cool, especially as the rivarly ramps up between Victorian magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). And yes, in addition to Wolverine and Batman, we also have the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in the uniformly stellar cast.

It's an awe-inspiring movie, but the reveals maybe get a little excessive, starting when we find out what Nicholas Tesla's machine does.

Still: Are we really complaining about a movie that features David Bowie as Tesla? Honestly, no. Just explaining why this one isn't higher on our list of Christopher Nolan movies ranked.

Tenet

This is without a doubt the most dense and messy of all Nolan movies, and it's thundering soundtrack — which makes much of the dialogue tough to decipher — doesn't help. And that's before Nolan starts all the head-spinning games with time.

But you know what? Tenet is so unabashedly ambitious and filled with spectacle that we're willing to ignore the incoherent elements and just go along with the ride. When it works it just soars, and it seems pedantic to get tripped up on the confusing parts when the purely emotional elements work so well.

It was also incredibly cathartic to be welcome back to theaters by Tenet after the long pandemic lockdowns, and that factors into our affection for the film.

Memento

A murder mystery noir thriller about a man with no short term memory (Guy Pearce) that unfolds backwards.

Could anyone but Christopher Nolan make a movie like Memento? It was a perfect calling card anticipating the brilliance to come.

The Dark Knight Rises

Like all Nolan movies, this one gets better on repeat viewings. Yes, it's a little hard to follow at times. But it all makes sense when you pay close attention. And it does much cooler Nolanesque reveals than 99 percent of superhero movies.

In fact, Nolan doesn't treat his Dark Knight trilogy as a superhero saga — which makes it feel all the more grounded and resonant. And Tom Hardy turns in a masterful performance as Bane, whether you can hear him through the mask or not. We also love Nolan's collaborations with Marion Cotillard, whose mystique pairs perfectly with Nolan's tight sense of control.

Also, Anne Hathaway is the best Catwoman, and the plane-hijack opening may be the most assured of all Nolan action sequences — and there are a lot of incredible Nolan action sequences.

Batman Begins

A Batman movie that wonders how to justify every single aspect of the Batman legend, no matter how cartoonish they might once have seemed.

Memory cloth? The Batmobile? Watching this movie as an adult felt like having all our childhood fantasies and suspicions justified.

Christian Bale is the best Batman by far, Cillian Murphy is outstanding as Jonathan Crane, and the atmosphere is exactly right.

The Dark Knight

A Christopher Nolan movie posing as a Batman movie, The Dark Knight becomes more fascinating the moment you realize — and it may take several viewings — that Alfred is completely wrong when he tries to explain the Joker's behavior by saying "some men just like to watch the world burn." And the Joker is simply feeding the myth when he asks Harvey Dent: "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?"

No, he doesn't, but that's just misdirection. He makes everyone think he's a mad clown, but in truth, he's the best planner in Gotham, able to orchestrate a bank heist, a prison escape, or a ferryboat morality test with equally devastating aplomb.

Unlike the countless lesser actors who play up the Joker's clownish qualities, Heath Ledger played him with amused distance. Just like the unnamed master criminal playing him in the movie.

Inception

The top three Christopher Nolan movies on our list are here because they best combine Nolan's astonishing gift for complexity with an underrated power to harness emotion. Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb (yes, the same name as the thief in Following) is a captivatingly tragic figure caught in the mad love of his lost love Mal (Cotillard).

Many of the great Nolan players are here — Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt — and the set pieces are in every sense a dream.

You can also watch the film again and again and come away with a different answer to the question of whether that top will ever stop spinning.

Finally, Hans Zimmer's "Time" may be our single favorite piece of movie music.

Dunkirk

Nolan seems to play against type in this tight hour-and-forty-seven minute that eschews all the cliches of World War II epics and plays it small.

The most powerful moment is a surrender. The greatest heroes are completely ordinary people. The big speech — one of the most famous speeches in history — isn't presented as a speech.

And one could make the case, that for all that, the events depicted in Dunkirk saved humankind from hell.

Oppenheimer

How do you raise the stakes from Dunkirk? Oppenheimer may well be the story of the beginning of the end of the world. It is incredibly dense, but everything is rooted in simple human emotion — love, passion, embarrassment, fear. All the things that drive us toward irreversible mistakes.

Oppenheimer is a story of science gone mad, but also a story about the importance of tolerating unpopular views — from political thought to arguing against the bomb you helped build. The cast, led by Cillian Murphy, is extraordinary, with Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr. especially standing out. (Murphy, Downey, and Nolan all won well-deserved Oscars, and Oppenheimer won Best Picture.)

Someone once told us Oppenheimer is the movie we'll still be talking about in a hundred years, and I couldn't agree more.

And if we pay attention to the film, we may even still be here in a hundred years.

Liked This List of Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked?

You might also like this list of the 10 Gen X Film Stars Gone to Soon, including The Dark Knight star Heath Ledger.

Or this answer to a big question about Oppenheimer.

Main image: The Prestige. Warner Bros.

Here are 12 exceptions.

The Exorcist (1973)

Profoundly chilling even before Linda Blair's head starts spinning, The Exorcist did for unearthing ancient demons what Jaws did for going in the water.

The franchise returned last year with David Gordon Green's Exorcist: Believer, in which Ellen Burstyn reprised the role of Chris MacNeil for the first time in 50 years.

Jaws (1975)

A perfect movie that deploys its doll-eyed villain with impeccable skill, Jaws made everyone who has ever seen it think about sharks at least a little bit every single time we went to the beach for the rest of our lives.

It's still every bit as scary now as it was nearly 50 years ago.

It also inspired a slew of other scary animal movies — a few of which used real animals.

Carrie (1976)

The newest film on this list, based on the first Stephen King novel, remains anxiety-inducing not because of the literal bucket of blood, but because of the high-school cruelty that still rings in the souls of anyone who experienced it.

The casual bullying, from a time when it was much more tolerated than it is today, is as upsetting to watch as it ever was.

Also Read: 10 Movie Sex Scenes Someone Should Have Stopped

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

This low-budget George Romero masterpiece retains an eerie, simple power that makes it more frightening than The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, or any of the other countless zombie stories and other scary movies it inspired.

It's also one of the most profitable movies ever made, racking in more than 100 times its budget.

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Everyone today talks about gaslighting all the time, but Rosemary's Baby takes us inside a Manhattan apartment building that has perfected it to terrifying extremes.

When Rosemary (Mia Farrow) becomes pregnant, everyone around her attributes her well-founded fears to hormones and paranoia. But just because you're paranoid, as the saying goes, doesn't mean they're not after you. Or your baby.

Psycho (1960)

The Alfred Hitchcock classic implied more than it showed, but implied it quite effectively.

Psycho spawned the slasher genre, made horror respectable, and made lots of people feel a lot less safe in the shower.

It also contains, for all money, at least one of the all-time greatest movie twists.

Suspiria (1977)

A giallo masterpiece worth watching for the lurid colors alone, Dario Argento's beautiful, haunting and terrifying story follows an American (Jessica Harper, above) at an elite German ballet academy who realizes, via some very creatively presented murders, that the school is hotbed of witchcraft.

The very confusing sequel, Inferno, released in 1980, is also very worth a watch. Don't try to sort out the plot. Just let yourself be hypnotized in a wash of blood, color and fire.

Like them or not, Argento makes the most visually stunning horror movies.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

You're creeped out just reading that title. The film's relentlessly menacing atmospherics — buzzing flies, animal sounds — make it one of the creepiest things ever committed to film. The chainsaw stuff pushes it far over the top. But Tobe Hooper's very smart direction also lifts it far above its many imitators.

Despite the ominous title, the film implies more than it shows — like all the best horror movies.

Also: Grainy '70s film stock makes everything scarier.

What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

This giallo thriller has a straightforward premise: a private school teacher becomes a murder suspect when he can't provide an alibi for a killing — because he was in the arms of one of his students. The manner of death remains gasp-inducing, all these years later.

Please note that all the other scary movies on this list are quite tame compared to the next two scary movies.

Last House on the Left (1972)

The directorial debut of future Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street icon Wes Craven, Last House on the Left is a difficult-to-watch story of two young women who are terrorized by escaped convicts.

Eventually, parents seek vengeance. But before that you have to sit though a deeply unpleasant scene where the convicts treat the women horribly, and one walks hopelessly into water to die, rather than let it go on any longer.

It's loosely based on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, and carried the infamous tagline, "To avoid fainting, keep repeating, ‘It’s only a movie … Only a movie … Only a movie …'"

Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

Based on a 1939 Dalton Trumbo novel, and adapted into a film by Trumbo during the Vietnam War, this powerful and deeply affecting anti-war story follows a young man named Joe who suffers battlefield injuries that cost him his arms, legs, sight and ability to see and hear. He's left trapped in his own mind.

Long after Vietnam, the movie managed to terrify Gen X audiences thanks to Metallica, who featured clips of it prominently in their 1988 video for "One."

Its entire ambiance is unsettling, even before we get to the scenes of Joe in his hospital bed. It's not even technically a horror movie, but it's one of the most resonant scary movies we've ever seen.

Like Old Scary Movies?

You might also like this list of scary movies that didn't need to be remade.

Main image: Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Bryanston Distributing Company

If you haven't seen the 1991 masterpiece, please do. The film, by director Jonathan Demme, follows young FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) as she is dispatched to charm imprisoned serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to seek insights into a string of killings by Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). It is based on the book by Thomas Harris, and written by Ted Tally.

And now... the 12 Silence of the Lambs details you may have missed.

The 'Bill Skins Fifth' Article Isn't About Buffalo Bill, It's About Hannibal Lecter

When Clarice is waiting for Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) in his office at Quantico in the first minutes of Silence of the Lambs, she scans the grisly photographs and newspaper clippings on the wall. One headline from the National Inquisitor stands out: BILL SKINS FIFTH.

But hit pause and look closer at the article, and you'll see that the article isn't about Bill at all, but rather about Lecter: It describes Lecter's arrest and background, and includes comments from Lecter and Crawford.

Whoever created the news article for Silence of the Lambs either never anticipated anyone squinting at the text of the article, or is having a bit of fun with us. We'll get into more depth about the specifics of the article soon, because it's very weird.

Clarice's Politics

Silence of the Lambs doesn't wear any politics on its sleeve — its message of empathy and resilience in the face of hideous opposition should be universal. But we learn a little bit about Clarice Starling's beliefs in a very brief exchange when she's first summoned to Crawford's office.

"I remember you from my seminar at UVA," he says, referring to her university. "You grilled me pretty hard, as I recall, on the bureau's Civil Rights record in the Hoover years."

We can't know for sure, but the reference to Civil Rights suggests she's referring to Hoover's surveillance of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's one of many ways the film tips us off to Clarice's empathy and support for underdogs.

Also Read: The 12 Best Serial Killer Movies Ever Made

Lecter Gives Clarice a Massive Clue When They First Meet

Barely two minutes into their first conversation, Clarice asks Lecter about one of the skillful pencil drawings he displays in his cell. "That is the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere," he says. As Lecter already knows, Jame Gumb — aka Buffalo Bill — lives in Belvedere, Ohio.

A belvedere is an architectural structure designed to take advantage of another view, in this case the duomo, or cathedral, in Florence, Italy. "Do you know Florence?" asks Lecter.

He's not only giving Clarice a clue about Jame Gumb, but perhaps about his own plans, should he manage to escape Dr. Chilton's little box: At the beginning of the Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal, Lecter is living in Florence, working as a museum curator.

Museum Curator

Speaking of museum curators? We promised earlier we'd explain more about the text of the "BILL SKINS FIFTH" article — the one that is actually about Lecter, despite the headline about Buffalo Bill.

The first sentence of the article reads: "Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a medical and society figure of Baltimore for many years has been charged in the brutal slaying of a museum curator at his home..."

This is interesting because Hannibal does kill a museum curator, and take his job... but that doesn't happen until the movie Hannibal, which of course takes place after Silence of the Lambs.

The TV series Hannibal also has Lecter pulling the ol' kill-the-curator-and-take-his-job routine. Hey, maybe the guy just kills a lot of museum curators.

Hello Again, 'Goodbye Horses'

The beautiful song that Buffalo Bill plays while dancing around in his robe, "Goodbye Horses," also appears in Married to the Mob, the film Jonathan Demme made prior to Silence of the Lambs.

It appears in a scene in which Michelle Pfeiffer's character is wearing a robe. Perhaps Buffalo Bill has seen Married to the Mob, and Pfeiffer is the kind of woman he would like to become? That feels too self-referential for Demme, but who knows.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Clarice Starling? Meg Ryan? Laura Dern? 

Jonathan Demme initially didn't want to cast Jodie Foster.

He told Paul Thomas Anderson in an Austin Film Festival conversation that he was initially talking to Michelle Pfeiffer about playing Clarice Starling, but that Foster asked for a chance, telling him, "I love this book so much and I love this part so much." He said she loved that it was "about one young woman trying desperately to save the life of another young woman" — with men as obstacles.

He remembered thinking, "Hm, that is rather a great theme. I think I'm gonna take that theme and claim it but I'm not gonna cast her."

He then wanted Meg Ryan to play the part, but he said Ryan seemed almost offended by the script. Then Laura Dern won him over with a great audition.

More on Casting Jodie Foster

Finally, Orion Pictures asked him to take another meeting with Foster, rather than signing Dern. He said they argued that Foster had just won an Oscar for The Accused, and that Dern was much less well-known.

He agreed to meet Foster, but was still determined not to hire her — until he watched her exit down the hallway.

"And I thought about how much she loved that part, and how much my partners at Orion wanted her in that part, and I was like, "ehhhh, I'll go with her."

He added: "Look what happened. I fell madly in love with her," Demme told Anderson.

That Article Though

Back to the "BILL SKINS FIFTH" story. I assume this newspaper article is just something someone on the Silence of the Lambs set had to write very quickly, and that the article is not canonical.

But there's a quote attributed to Lecter in the story that is insane — like, exactly the kind of thing a serial killer would say before being committed to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, which is where Hannibal Lecter lives at the start of Silence of the Lambs.

"I believe in truth and honesty, and what you see here is neither," Lecter says after his arrest for murder. "This is a pitiful world of liars and cheaters, and one day, you will see things my way. Bon Appetite."

How Awful Is Buffalo Bill? Swastika-Quilt Awful

"This guy, he can sew!" Clarice tells Crawford, as she realizes that Jame Gumb has dreams of making himself a "women's suit."

Another repugnant way he puts his sewing skills to use? By making a quilt festooned with orange swastikas. He keeps this quilt next to another, very nice quilt, with a butterfly (we know how much he adores his transformative, winged insects).

He uses his Nazi quilt to hide his very big gun, a kiiinda phallic Colt Python. Buffalo Bill is nuts, is what I'm saying.

Liver, Fava Beans, Nice Chianti Make for a Bad Drug Interaction

People who are taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which treat various psychiatric ailments, are given a list of foods they should avoid that include liver, fava beans and red wine.

Ardelia Mapp Solves the Whole Thing?

Clarice's friend (played by Kasi Lemmons) has the highest ratio of lines-to-clues-figured-out ratio in the history of film. For example, she helps Clarice realize that Buffalo Bill is from Belvedere, Ohio when they note that his first victim is from Belveredere.

"We covet what we see..." begins Ardelia.

"....everyday," says Clarice.

The Ol' Naked-Bodies-Turned-Into-a-Skull Detail

This one's second-to-last because there's kind of a generational divide about whether this is a little-known detail or not. Let me explain.

The movie poster for Silence of the Lambs famously features Clarice's face, with her mouth covered by a moth. It is a death's head moth, so named because it has what appears to be a skull on its back. It's the kind of moth that obsesses Buffalo Bill, because, again: total nutcase.

What you may not notice, if you've only seen the Silence of the Lambs poster online, is that the skull is made up of naked female bodies. (It's a nod to the portrait “In Voluptas Mors” by Salvador Dali and Philippe Halsman.)

Here Is a Close-Up of the Silence of the Lambs Skull Bodies

People old enough to have seen the poster for Silence of the Lambs hanging in theaters can remember their grim fascination with the skull bodies, and are probably annoyed to even see this included on this list.

But people who have only seen the poster in grainy internet form, before seeing the image above, may have just gotten their minds blown.

Also, About Clarice's Eyes

In the novel Silence of the Lambs, the basis for the film, author Thomas Harris says Lecter's eyes are maroon, and reflect light in "pinpoints of red." Sounds like Clarice's eyes in the poster, right?

In the movie, both Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter have blue eyes.

Thank You for Reading This List of Silence of the Lambs Details Most People Missed

You might also like this list of Stars of the 1970s Who Are Still Going Strong, including both Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.

Tour Buffalo Bill's House

You may also be interested to know that the real-life Buffalo Bill house from The Silence of the Lambs was sold not too long ago. Here's a tour.

Main image: A 1991 promotional image from Silence of the Lambs. Orion.

But First

What made Lost so successful? It became a beloved water-cooler show during its first season in 2004 due to its highly complex storyline and interwoven characters. It's easy to spend hours debating the meaning of various easter eggs, and the show is chock full of head-scratching riddles like, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?"

Created by J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber, Lost is known for its fluid timeline, with flashbacks and flash-fowards that explain how characters' backstories are interconnected. Its huge ensemble cast featured Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Terry O'Quinn, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Naveen Andrews, Emilie de Ravin, Harold Perrineau, Dominic Monaghan, Ian Somerhalder, Maggie Grace, Henry Ian Cusick, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Michael Emerson.

Though the plot became more convoluted as the seasons went on — and many have criticized the series finale — Lost expertly weaves supernatural and science fiction elements in with its compelling commentary on human nature.

Here are the 12 best Lost episodes, starting with the twelfth best and building to the best. We'll consider two-parter episodes as one episode for these purposes.

Number 12: 'Ab Aeterno' (Season 6, Episode 8)

After seeing so much of Richard throughout the series, we finally got an explanation for why he never ages in Season 6, and it's quite satisfying. We love it when Lost transports us to another world.

With a flashback to the 1800s, we learn that Richard is really Ricardo, a poor working man from the Canary Islands who is jailed after killing a man who refused to give him the medicine he needed to save his dying wife. He ends up aboard the Black Rock, which crashes on the island. There, he meets the Man in Black and becomes immortal, which is why he hasn't seemed to age a day, nearly 200 years later.

Also Read: 10 Sex Scenes Somebody Should Have Stopped

Number 11: 'What Kate Did' (Season 2, Episode 9)

Kate's backstory episode finally explains what she did to end up in handcuffs being escorted by a U.S. Marshall on Oceanic 815. It's so dramatic that it's burned in our minds (sorry, sorry).

Spoiler alert: She killed her father, Wayne, who was abusing her mother. How did she do it? By blowing up his house while he was sleeping. The kicker is that her mom is the one who turns her in.

It's also one of many times we hear Patsy Cline during Kate's scenes, specifically "Walkin' After Midnight."

Number 10: 'Across the Sea' (Season 6, Episode 15)

Though Season 6 as a whole left a lot to be desired, this episode finally gave us the answers we spent years waiting for regarding the origins of good and evil on the island — Jacob and his brother, the Man in Black.

We learn how the two brothers ended up on the island back in ancient times, and that their adopted mother drove a wedge between them. It also explains the well of light that serves as the source of electromagnetism on the Island.

Part of what makes this episode so satisfying is that the show had been building up to it since Locke and Walt played a very metaphorical game of backgammon early on in Season 1. It was also foreshadowed by the discovery of a skeleton in the cave in that first season, which was buried with a little bag holding two stones: one black and one white.

Number 9: 'La Fleur' (Season 5, Episode 13)

Season 5 gave us a delicious deep dive into the history of the Dharma Initiative, one of the coolest and most compelling elements of the show. This episode walks us through how Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles ended up living in the barracks during the 1970s. Because, y'know, time travel. If you're a Lostie, you're already desensitized to a certain level of suspended disbelief.

Watching the next episode, "Namaste," gives a fuller, more colorful picture of life on the Dharma compound, but this episode really set things in motion and gave us a much more humanized view of the Dharma folks than we'd had previously. It also set up the epic love story between Sawyer and Juliet.

Also Read: 12 Shameless '80s Comedies That Don't Care If You're Offended

Number 8: 'Orientation' (Season 2, Episode 3)

We just can't get enough of the Dharma Initiative. This episode was pretty much our first introduction to it, with Locke watching the orientation reels inside the hatch that explained the button experiment.

But of course, in classic Lost fashion, some essential information was missing from the film.

The whole button-pressing stuff is endlessly fascinating and psychologically interesting. Is the button real? Is it a just an experiment to see how much people will do if they're told by some authority figure? Perhaps it's a little bit of both.

Number 7: 'Man of Science, Man of Faith' (Season 2, Episode 1).

Excusing Jack's very unconvincing wig (see above), this episode is a really great Jack flashback. It explained a lot of his neuroses around fixing people, specifically in the case of his future ex-wife, who he met during spinal surgery — so romantic.

It's also when we met Desmond for the first time, getting the backstory of how he lived in the hatch pressing the button for years. There's an unforgettable needle-drop moment when Desmond plays "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Cass Elliott. Plus, when its revealed that Jack and Desmond met once, pre-Island, we heard Desmond's famous line for the first time: "See you in another life."

Number 6: 'Walkabout' (Season 1, Episode 3)

This is the episode that first gave us a glimpse into the multi-layered backstory of one of the show's strongest and most important characters: John Locke. Here, we learned what Locke was up to before the Island — that he was paralyzed in a wheelchair, and that he had been turned away for that reason from a walkabout in Australia.

It's also the first time we heard the iconic line: "Don't tell me what I can't do!"

Also Read: 13 Very Profitable Movies That Made 100 Times Their Budget at the Box Office

Number 5: 'The 23rd Psalm' (Season 2, Episode 10)

This episode gave us not only Mr. Eko's backstory, but an explanation as to how the small plane that Boone and Locke found in the jungle ended up on the island.

Leave it to Lost to provide an entire, complete character arc for Eko's brother, Yemi the priest, in a single episode through one heart-wrenching flashback — and then to wrap it up with a devastating bow as we watched Eko lay Yemi's body to rest.

Number 4: 'Exodus' (Season 1, Episodes 23, 24 and 25)

One of the most jarring scenes in the series is in the three-parter Season 1 finale. Believing for one brief, shining moment that they've been saved, we watched the smiles melt away from Michael, Jin, Sawyer, and Walt's faces as they realize they've been captured by the Others.

It's a powerful finale to one of the most iconic first seasons in television history.

Number 3: 'Through the Looking Glass' (Season 3, Episodes 22 and 23)

This two-part episode, the Season 3 finale, was another heavy hitter.

Killing off one of the most beloved characters of the first three seasons — Drive Shaft bassist Charlie of "You All Everybody" fame — was one of the saddest and most dramatic deaths on the show. In his final moments, he gave Desmond a warning: "Not Penny's boat."

But what really set this episode over the edge was that it left us with that shocking final scene explaining that what we previous assumed were flashbacks of a bearded, alcoholic, Jeep-driving Jack were actually flash forwards — to after a successfully escape from the Island. He famously pleaded with Kate to return to the Island, giving us one of the show's most iconic lines: "We have to go back!"

Number 2: 'Numbers' (Season 1, Episode 18)

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. This episode is what hooked many fans on Lost back in Season 1. It's one of the show's most compelling riddles. The show never fully explains the meaning behind the numbers, other than that they corresponded to each of Jacob's potential "candidates" to inherit the Island.

In this episode, we learned that the reason Hurley was in Australia was because he was looking for the origin of the numbers. After using them to win the lottery, he came to believe that they were cursed, and that he's the reason that Ocean flight 815 crashed on the Island.

Number 1: 'The Constant' (Season 4, Episode 5)

If this episode didn't make you cry, I don't know what will. The love story between Desmond and Penny was one of the purest and most powerful of the entire series.

It was also a great showcase of Lost's fascinating approach to time. When Desmond and other characters came "unstuck" in time as a result of the island's strange electromagnetic properties, he had to find his "constant" — a person who exists in both his past and present timelines — or die.

Lucky for him, he got ahold of his long-lost love, Penelope Widmore. In a show that poses a lot more questions than answers, this episode offered at least a little very welcome resolution.

Honorable mentions: The Man Behind the Curtain (Season 3, Episode 20), Solitary (Season 1, Episode 8), Exposé (Season 3, Episode 14)

Liked This List of the 12 Best Lost Episodes?

Let us know in the comments if you agree or disagree.

You might also like these: 12 Best Seinfeld Episodes or these: 12 Behind the Scenes Stories From Blazing Saddles.

Main Image: A promotional image of Evangeline Lilly in Lost. ABC

Roy Stalin (played by Aaron Dozier in Better Off Dead)

The cocky blond guy in an '80s movie is the too handsome, too perfect preppie, jock, bully or fighter pilot who offers himself up as a seemingly unbeatable rival for the protagonist.

The quintessential cocky blond guy in an '80s movie may be Roy Stalin, the ski-team captain in the 1985 masterpiece Better of Dead who is introduced skiing the deadly K12, then smoothly stealing Beth (Amanda Wyss), the girlfriend of Lane Meyer (John Cusack).

You know Stalin is going to be a great villain from his name alone, but Aaron Dozier nails every single line, especially his opener to Beth: "You'll make a fine little helper — what's your name?"

He's also as good at insults as he is at skiing, which almost makes you root for him. And he's just the first cocky blond guy on this list to appear in a movie written and directed by the great "Savage" Steve Holland.

Johnny (played by William Zabka in The Karate Kid)

Johnny Lawrence is a bully so ruthless that he doesn't even flinch when one of his Cobra Kai toadies calls for him to "get him a body bag!" during his All-Valley karate battle with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) at the end of 1984's Karate Kid.

Of course, as his arc in the Karate Kid TV spinoff Cobra Kai proved, even cocky blond guys in '80s movies are more complex than they seem — Cobra Kai has shown us the softer side of Johnny as he embraces fatherhood and the far less frequent use of body bags.

Iceman (played by Val Kilmer in Top Gun)

Much has been written about a thing that everyone notices on a second or third viewing of Top Gun: Pete "Maverick" Mitchell's arch nemesis, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, is a good guy. And not just at the end, when he and Maverick have their "you can be my wingman any time" moment — Iceman is a great dude from the start.

He's a by-the-book, excellent pilot who is rightly concerned about Maverick endangering fellow pilots, and he deserves all of his success. He's cocky, yes, but a lot less cocky than Maverick.

The Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick seems to acknowledge all this, showing that Iceman has earned a promotion to admiral and commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Also Read: The 11 Best Cute Brunette Friends in '80s Movies,

Scotty (Played by Grant Kramer in Hardbodies)

Through a series of unlikely events, cool-guy surfer Scotty (Grant Kramer) agrees to teach three down-on-their luck guys how to pick up young women on the beach through the art of "dialoguing" (aka "talking with them.)" His specific M.O. is to promise is the BBD — "the bigger and better deal" — providing hope that you'll promise them a brighter future somewhere far away.

In real life, of course, the BBD usually works better if you're promising to move someone to rather than from an idyllic beach town. But OK.

Teddy Beckersted (Played by Matt Mulhern in One Crazy Summer)

One Crazy Summer is an interesting movie. Released one year after Better Off Dead, in 1986, it plays almost like the further adventures of John Cusack's Lane Meyer. Writer-director "Savage" Steve Holland is back, as are Better Off Dead cast members Cusack, Curtis Armstrong, and Laura Waterbury.

But for some reason, the names have changed, and there's a new cocky blond guy — one who is even less likable than the last cocky blond guy. Matt Mulhern skillfully plays Ferrari-driving rich kid Teddy Beckersted as a spoiled brat who can't even stand to hear the word work.

He could never ski the K12.

Ivan Drago (played by Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV)

You have to hand it to Ivan Drago, the spiky-haired killer Soviet boxer of Rocky IV: He has a right to be cocky. After mercilessly dispatching Apollo Creed with an ice-cold "if he dies, he dies," he plots world domination by crushing Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone).

He nearly has his way, but Rocky's heart wins out over Drago's intense discipline (and USSR-provided steroids). Eventually a respect forms between Rocky and Drago, and maybe between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

By Creed II, in which Drago returns, we kind of feel for the guy.

Also Read: 10 Movie Sex Scenes Somebody Should Have Stopped

Biff Tannen (played by Thomas Wilson in the Back to the Future trilogy)

Even as we've learned to begrudgingly respect some of the cocky blond guys on this list, we still hate this guy. With his unlikely but oh-so-common mix of stupidity and condescension, he terrorizes the lovable McFly family across the decades. We wish he'd make like a tree... and get outta here.

Even when Marty (Michael J. Fox) changed history in the first movie, so that Biff becomes a supplicant to his now-cool dad (Crispin Glover), Biff is so spineless that we still don't like him.

Kudos to Thomas F. Wilson for his commitment to making Biff so transcendently awful.

Steff McKee (played by James Spader in Pretty in Pink)

Feather-haired rich kid Steff is the epitome of blond cocky '80s entitlement. Spader makes him sound drugged-up and miserable most of the time, even as he pretends to have best friend Blane's interests at heart.

Blane (Andrew McCarthy) eventually sees the light and chooses his new romance with the plucky Andie (Molly Ringwald) over his toxic friendship with Steff. Pretty in Pink was just one of many films that showed Spader's acuity at playing detached, snobbish characters whose parents gave them more money than hugs.

Tad Allagash (played by Kiefer Sutherland in Bright Lights, Big City)

KIefer Sutherland has a big job in Bright Lights, Big City: to make Michael J. Fox's Jamie Conway seem soulful and human by comparison to his nightclubbing lothario, Tad, who spends his nights seeking out "dances to be danced, drugs to be hoovered, women to be Allagashed."

He's the kind of guy who encourages his buddy to say his wife is dead because it will make ladies more likely to sleep with him. Kiefer Sutherland is great at cocky blond guy roles, but stresses that he is not his characters. As he once told GQ, "I run into people who won't shake my hand because of a characters that I've played."

Of course, he probably doesn't mean Tad Allagash. But he might mean the next character on our list.

David (played by Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys)

The sadistic leader of a vampire gang as understandable faith in his own superhuman abilities and seems unimpressed by just about everyone else. With the black leather and spiky blond hair combination so popular in the '80s, he has undying swagger, modeled on Billy Idol.

"David is a character who at least on paper is supposed to be cool and sexy, and has a girlfriend," Sutherland explained to GQ. He's charismatic, for sure, but uses his powers for evil.

Stan Gable (played by Ted McGinley in Revenge of the Nerds)

The powerful and charismatic Stan Gable (Ted McGinley), a two-time All American quarterback who is also handy with a javelin and president of the Greek Council, is a perfect foil for the nerds — especially because of his maddening above-it-all attitude and surface politeness.

Of course, none of this justifies the absolutely insane scene in which lead nerd Lewis (Robert Carradine) impersonates Stan to seduce his girlfriend, Betty Childs (Julie Montgomery) — a low point in '80s movies.

Nick Rivers (Played by Val Kilmer in Top Secret)

Yes, Val Kilmer appears twice on our list of the Best Cocky Blond Guys in '80s Movies, making him perhaps the all-time best of the best. (We could have easily added his character in Real Genius, as well). Kilmer specialized in playing cocky blond guys who could back up their cockiness with genuine wit and skill.

Nick Rivers — or as he's sometimes described in Top Secret, "the American singer Nick Rivers" — is not only a talented Elvis-like dreamboat vocalist, but also a quite competent member of the French Resistance and extremely adept underwater drawler. We love this guy.

Honorable Mention for Feyd Rautha (played by Sting in Dune)

As cool as David's look is, Sting kind of got there first with his 1984 portrayal of the preening, cackling nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. His sinister portrayal is one of the few unmitigated successes of David Lynch's troubled attempt to adapt the 1965 Frank Herbert novel.

Elvis star Austin Butler understandable went in a very different direction to play the cruel Feyd-Rautha in Dune 2: He's bald.

We initially counted Feyd Rautha as blond, because Sting is blond, but we've heard the complaints that Feyd's hair is actually red or orange, so we're relegating him to an honorable mention.

Honorable Mention for Russ Wheeler (Cary Elwes in Days of Thunder)

The only reason we can't officially included Russ Wheeler on this list is that Days of Thunder came out in 1990, which some people consider the last year of the '80s, and others consider the first year of the '90s.

After playing an eminently charming and lovable hero in The Princess Bride, Elwes played way against type as Russ Wheeler, a lowdown, dirty racer and a perfect antagonist to Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise).

Some critics referred to Days of Thunder as "Top Car" because of its supposed similarities to Top Gun, but it's very much its own quite enjoyable movie. And Wheeler is much less sympathetic than Iceman.

Also

Much respect to the 2001 teen-comedy epic Not Another Teen Movie for identifying the cocky blond guy phenomenon with a character named Austin – aka The Cocky Blond Guy — perfectly played by Eric Christian Olsen (above).

Liked Our List of Cocky Blond Guys in '80s Movies?

If so, we bet you'll also enjoy this list of 12 Rad '80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember, featuring, of course, Better Off Dead.

Main image: One Crazy Summer.

James Caan as Sonny in The Godfather

There are a lot of deaths in Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster classic The Godfather, and most of them are foreshadowed in one way or another. But Sonny’s death comes out of the blue.

Sure, on your tenth or eleventh rewatch of The Godfather, it may seem obvious to you that Carlo had a motive for selling out Sonny, and that Barzini would have stood to gain something by eliminating the hot-headed, short-lived Don as well. But we’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wasn’t surprised by Sonny’s ambush on the causeway the first time they watched this legendary film.

Rest in peace, Santino — even though you were a bad Don (Vito’s words, not ours), you sure had a lot of spirit. We wish you hadn’t been among those movie deaths we never saw coming.

Steve Coogan as Damien Cockburn in Tropic Thunder

This most comedically shocking of movie deaths made audiences jump out of their seats.

Traipsing through the jungle, movie director Damien Cockburn is so comically excited about making what he hopes will be the greatest war movie of all time — until he steps on a landmine and gets blown to smithereens.

Watch where you’re walking, fellas!

Kate Winslet as Mears in Contagion

In this pandemic disaster movie, Kate Winslet plays Dr. Erin Mears, an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer who is tasked with tracking everyone down who came in contact with an infected woman who died of this horrible illness.

The way she’s set up, you’d think Mears was going to be a main character in this movie — until she gets sick and suddenly dies somewhat early on.

One minute, she’s suffering in a hospital bed, and the next, she’s in a body bag. Sometimes, that’s just how life goes in the movies.

Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski

Steve Buscemi plays Theodore Donald “Donny” Kerabatsos in The Big Lebowski, an avid bowler and friend of Jeff Bridges’ The Dude.

But one of the most memorable things that happens to Donny in the movie — besides being repeatedly told to “shut the f— up, Donny” — is his death.

He suddenly croaks from a heart attack during a fight with the nihilists outside of the bowling alley. In an effort to honor his love of surfing, Walter (John Goodman) and The Dude try to scatter Donny’s ashes at the beach, but it famously ends up getting blown back in their faces.

Phil LaMarr as Marvin in Pulp Fiction

In this iconically jarring scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, John Travolta’s character Vincent asks Phil LaMarr’s character Marvin if he has an opinion about what he and Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules are discussing in the front seat of the car.

But Vincent accidentally points his gun directly at Marvin’s face, and in the heat of the discussion, he pulls the trigger. It’s truly one of the most shocking movie deaths we never saw coming.

Cue the famous line, “Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face.” With Marvin’s blood spattered all over him and the rest of the car, Travolta says it about as nonchalantly as one might say, “Oh no, I spilled my beer.”

Drew Barrymore as Casey in Scream

This one is one of the most iconic death scenes of the horror movie genre.

When Casey is introduced as Ghost Face’s victim in the first 1996 Scream movie, naturally, you want to root for her and assume that she’ll get away. But she dies in the first 12 minutes of the movie.

Her death is quite gruesome actually — after being stabbed to death with Ghost Face’s knife, she’s hung from a tree. But even though her character is so short-lived, Drew Barrymore really wanted the role.

“In the horror film genre, my biggest pet peeve was that I always knew the main character was going to be slugging through at the end, but was going to creak by and make it,” the actress said on Sean Evans’ YouTube show Hot Ones. “What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away… I asked if I could be Casey Becker so we would establish this rule does not apply in this film.”

Brad Pitt as Chad Feldheimer in Burn After Reading

Brad Pitt’s death as the bumbling personal trainer Chad Feldheimer in Burn After Reading should be a lesson in gun safety.

Sneaking around in George Clooney’s character Harry Pfarrer’s house, Chad is caught off guard when Harry comes home early — so, naturally, Chad hides in the closet. As Harry gets dressed after taking a shower, he grabs his gun on the way to open up the closet, coming face to face with Chad.

Shockingly, Harry shoots Chad in the face out of sheer surprise, and it’s goodnight for that lovable gym rat, resulting in one of the most jarring movie deaths we never saw coming.

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas

Joe Pesci’s Tommy getting whacked in Goodfellas is a surprise not just to the audience, but to Robert De Niro’s character James and Ray Liotta’s Henry.

James is so surprised when he’s informed that Tommy’s been whacked that he actually starts crying — a rare thing to see from men of his stature in mafia movies. But, more in line with that particular brand of masculinity, his sadness then turns to rage as he kicks in the telephone booth while Henry looks on with concern.

“It was revenge for Billy Batts,” Hill says in the voiceover, referencing the loud-mouth guy (Sopranos alum Frank Vincent) that Tommy, James and Henry beaten to death in a bar after Batts insults Tommy over his former occupation as a shoe shiner.

That’s what you get for telling Tommy to “go home and get your shinebox.”

Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan in The Departed

Billy Costigan’s death in The Departed is such a shocker.

In this iconic scene, Costigan — an undercover cop assigned with infiltrating the mob in order to ensare Jack Nicholson’s Irish mob boss character Frank Costello — is pretending to capture and hold up Matt Damon’s Staff Sergeant Colin Sullivan in an elevator.

But Sullivan’s backup officers don’t know that Costigan is an undercover cop, and he gets shot as soon as the elevator doors open, stunning everyone including Matt Damon.

Haley Joel Osment as Trevor McKinney in Pay It Forward

This is such a sad scene, and it comes out of nowhere.

Haley Joel Osment plays a sweet little boy named Trevor who gets stabbed to death by his school bullies in the school parking lot. It all goes down as his poor mother, played by Helen Hunt, and his teacher/mom’s boyfriend, Eugene (Kevin Spacey) look on in horror, unable to save him in time.

It’s an absolutely devastating moment when little Trevor dramatically falls to his knees and collapses.

Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men

The death of Josh Brolin’s Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men happens so quickly and with so little fanfare that you’d be forgiven for questioning whether he actually died or if your eyes are just playing tricks on you.

Poor Llewelyn is a Vietnam War vet who stumbles on $2 million in the desert, and his efforts to keep it despite being pursued by Javier Bardem’s deranged serial killer hitman character Anton Chiguhr ultimately gets him killed in another example of these movie deaths we never saw coming.

He dies unceremoniously in a motel room, breaking the heart of his sweet wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), who ends up paying the same price.

Josh Brolin as Thanos in Avengers: End Game

A tough two films for Josh Brolin! The actor also voices Thanos, the evil supervillain in Avengers: End Game, who is yet another one of the movie deaths we never saw coming.

But to most everyone’s surprise when this movie first came out, Thanos dies in the first 15 minutes of the movie.

Satisfyingly, he is beheaded by Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Honestly, good riddance, Thanos! No more infinity stones for you.

Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems

Honestly, Howard had it coming to him, what with all his gambling debts and poor decisions, but man — we didn’t expect him to die like that.

Adam Sandler plays the jeweler in pursuit of a highly valuable opal in Uncut Gems. His death is such a hard pill to swallow. After risking everything on yet another gamble, Howard is ecstatic when he realizes he’s won $1.2 million in a sports bet — only to be spontaneously shot in the face.

It’s an iconic shot by the Safdie Brothers, seeing Howard fall to the floor through the reflection of the mirror above. Another one of those movie deaths we never saw coming.

Milly Shaprio as Charlie in Hereditary

Ari Aster’s feature directorial debut Hereditary is full of gruesome moments that will haunt your dreams for years. But Charlie’s (Milly Shapiro) death isn’t so much gory as it is shocking and unexpected — another example of those movie deaths we never saw coming that will make you clap your hand over your mouth in silent horror.

Charlie’s brother Peter (Alex Wolff) frantically drives her to the hospital as she struggles to breathe after going into anaphylactic shock from triggering her walnut allergy. But when he comes across a deer in the road, he swerves — causing Charlie to be beheaded when she’s struck by a telephone pole while leaning her head out the window.

Not to be too graphic, but her decapitation is so dramatic that her head ends up in the street while her body stays in the car. That’s one of those movie deaths we never saw coming.

Samuel L. Jackson as Russell Franklin in Deep Blue Sea

This is the gold stanadard of surprise movie deaths.

Sure, some bloody movie deaths we never saw coming are inevitable in a movie about a killer shark. But no one expected Samuel L. Jackson to be spontaneously chomped right in the middle of his speech rallying his fellow scientists together in 1999’s Deep Blue Sea. They’re all there to harvest shark brain tissue that they hope could cure Alzheimer’s, but they end up getting hunted instead.

Jackson’s character’s death such a shocker that it’s almost funny. The CGI looks pretty dated today, but it still deserves the top spot on our list of 15 movie deaths we never saw coming.

Also, About the Main Image

We used the image of Saffron Burrows (above) in Deep Blue Sea to indicate that Deep Blue Sea is on the list without saying who's death in the movie is the death nobody saw coming.

Burrows' character, Dr. Susan McAllister, has a somewhat predictable death, given that she is one of the people most responsible for the rise of super-smart sharks, and thus, under Movie Law, must be punished for her hubris.

Like This List of 15 Movie Deaths Nobody Saw Coming?

You might also like this list of Gen X Icons Gone Too Soon or this list of 12 TV Characters Who Deserved to Die.

Main image: Deep Blue Sea. Warner Bros.

Source: Pexels

The Popularity of Irish Entertainment

Ireland is home to some of the biggest names in cinema, including Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy, and Saoirse Ronan. Ireland is also becoming a hotspot for production teams, due to the favorable tax incentives and reliefs for TV shows or films that fit certain criteria. 2025 is set to be a positive year for Irish entertainment too, with the media market growing by 7.7% last year. It’s not just Amazon and Netflix TV shows and movies that are helping to bolster the Irish economy, either.

The Xavatar Show has recently announced that Colin O’Donoghue is going to appear as a CGI-animated host within the metaverse, with the content set to be available to millions of people in the US. 

In other verticals, games have also helped to draw attention to Ireland, with titles including Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. In this game, Nancy goes to Ireland as a bridesmaid, but quickly finds that the groom is missing, sparking a sudden and mysterious investigation. Other popular titles including Rainbow Riches have an Irish theme, with leprechauns and pots of gold. You will also see symbols that include wishing wells, with rainbow graphics that help to reflect Irish folklore. Games like Broken Sword: Circle of Blood also take you to Ireland, with numerous nods to the history and rich culture of the country, as players try to solve puzzles and complete milestones.

Source: Pexels

Popular TV Shows and Movies set in Ireland

If you want a catalogue of content that you can watch, then Bodkin is worth exploring as it was filmed in Dublin. Podcasters investigate mysterious disappearances that happened nearly 30 years ago, with journalist Dove, played by Dublin’s own Siobhán Cullen, being the first to see what’s lurking beneath the surface. The series is largely set in Ireland, too, which helps the theme while covering several visually-stunning locations.

There’s also Irish Wish, featuring Lindsay Lohan. She takes a trip to the Emerald Isle for a wedding, but it turns out she’s madly in love with the bride’s fiancé. She makes a wish and then wakes up as the bride herself. Filmed in the eastern town of Wicklow, it does a great job of transporting the viewer to the heart of Ireland.

Lastly, you have Rebellion. Rebellion shows the story of the struggle for Irish independence, with the drama filmed at numerous locations across Dublin. With Charlie Murphy, Ruth Bradley and Brian Gleeson starring, there’ll be a lot of familiar faces for those who are a fan of Peaky Blinders. This is a great watch for those who want to learn more about the history of Ireland as a whole, and it’s also packed full of interesting twists and turns, making it a great watch for those who want to delve into some of the best content Ireland has to offer. 

1970

This was the No. 2 top-grossing movie of 1970, with an all-star cast that included Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Jean Seberg and Jacqueline Bisset. It earned more than $106 million at the box office.

Want a hint? Note the background of the shot, and where our stars are.

Ready for the answer? OK. It is... scroll down...

1970 Answer: Airport

Coming in just behind the top-grossing film of 1970s, Love Story, Airport followed a formula that The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and other 1970s disaster movies would follow:

Take a bunch of A-list stars, put them in peril, and watch the sparks fly.

Burt Lancaster once dismissed Airport as "the biggest piece of junk ever made," but it inspired three sequels and was later satirized, of course, by 1980's Airplane.

1971

This story of a Vietnam veteran, part-Navajo hapkido master was one of the biggest hits to come out in 1971 — especially after its re-release — and even beat Dirty Harry, the first of Clint Eastwood's five films about San Francisco cop Harry Callahan.

Okay, one more huge hint: It starred Tom Laughlin in the title role, and was known for the song "One Tin Soldier."

Ready? Scroll down for the answer...

1971 Answer: Billy Jack

Warner Bros.

Yes, we know it's crazy, but Billy Jack really did beat Dirty Harry. Of course, Billy Jack had the advantage of being based on a character audiences already knew: Billy Jack had made his debut in the 1967 outlaw biker hit The Born Losers (above).

Billy Jack remains one of the cult favorite movies of the 1970s.

1972

Marlon Brando starred in two of the Top 10 movies at the box office in 1972. The first, as you probably guessed, was The Godfather.

Can you guess the second one, in which he starred with Maria Schneider (above)?

Hint: It has a city in its title.

And the film is...

1972 Answer: Last Tango in Paris

United Artists

Yep, it's Last Tango in Paris, a film that has been castigated in recent years because of Schneider's allegations that she was mistreated by Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci during a crucial scene involving butter.

It's one of the movies of the 1970s that also made our list of Sex Scenes Someone Should Have Stopped.

1973

This one looks like a classic film from the 1940s, not one of the hit movies of the 1970s, and that's very much by design.

If you've seen this absolute charmer, featuring the star of the biggest hit of 1970 and his real-life daughter, you certainly remember it.

It's sad, but also an absolute charmer.

Scroll down for its title...

1973 Answer: Paper Moon

Paramount Pictures

Paper Moon starred Ryan O'Neal, who also topped the box office opposite Ali MacGraw in 1970's Love Story. For Paper Moon, a Depression-era story of a con man on a road trip with a cantankerous child who just might be his daughter.

Director Peter Bogdanovich wisely paired O'Neal with his real-life daughter, Tatum, who deservedly won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

1974

1974 was a very good year for Mel Brooks: He released not only the Western satire Blazing Saddles, the top film of the year, but also another comedy, satirizing another genre.

We know, for comedy fans, this is an easy one.

By the way, here are some Behind the Scenes Stories of Blazing Saddles.

And now, scroll down for the answer.

1974 Answer: Young Frankenstein

The comedy classic Young Frankenstein was still playing in theaters through 1975, when members of Aerosmith saw it and borrowed one of the best jokes in the film for the title of their hit "Walk This Way," as we detail in this list of Classic Rock Songs Inspired by Movies We Love.

So it isn't just one of the hit movies of the 1970s — it also helped inspire one of the biggest hit songs of the 1970s.

1975

This one is a cult hit that still plays in theaters all over the country today.

If you don't know what it is, please go see it immediately. Preferably at midnight.

And scroll down for the title...

1975 Answer: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

20th Century Fox

Yep, it's The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, and many more.

Rocky Horror isn't just a cult hit, but also a legit hit: It was solidly in the Top 10 movies of 1975, behind hits like Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Shampoo.

All of those movies are terrific, but they don't inspire midnight singalongs across America.

1976

We can't stress enough what a red-hot star Gene Wilder was in the 1970s.

This was the first of his four pairings with one of the greatest comics of all time, Richard Pryor.

Scroll down for the name of the film.

1976 Answer: Silver Streak

20th Century Fox

Silver Streak casts Gene Wilder as harried book editor George, who teams up with car thief Grover (Richard Pryor) after George is falsely accused of murder.

Wilder and Pryor would pair up again in 1980's Stir Crazy, 1989's See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and 1991's Another You.

1977

1977 is of course a crucial year because it was the year of the original Star Wars, a movie that changed forever what type of movies get the green light in Hollywood and was perhaps had the greatest cultural impact of all the hit movies of the 1970s.

The movie above, while less popular, got a lot of attention in 1977, thanks in large part to its female lead.

We'll give you another hint: It was co-written by Peter Benchley, the writer of the novel Jaws and co-writer of the film.

Scroll down for its title...

1977 Answer: The Deep

The Deep, starring Jaqueline Bissett and Nick Nolte, is about a pair of divers who uncover treasure and then have to defend it.

The marketing focused heavily on underwater shots of Bissett.

It earned $47.3 million, making it No. 6 on the list of the 10 top movies of 1977, by domestic box office, not adjusted for inflation.

1978

This is a very easy one if you were around in 1978. It's one of the biggest hit movies of the 1970s.

It starred a the Not Ready for Prime Time Player above, who is also one of the subjects of the recent Jason Reitman film Saturday Night.

Scroll down for this very easy answer.

1978 Answer: Animal House

This John Landis-directed National Lampoon film was a breakout hit for John Belushi, the Saturday Night Live star who became an instant movie star for his portrayal of the hard-partying Bluto.

In the same year he appeared in Animal House, Belushi also appeared in Goin' South, which Jack Nicholson starred in and directed.

Belushi felt like he didn't have enough to do in Goin' South, which Animal House trounced at the box office.

1979

Margot Kidder starred in both the No. 1 and No. 2 movies at the 1979 box office.

The No. 1 movie was Superman.

Can you guess the No. 2 movie, above?

Scroll down for its name...

1979 Answer: The Amityville Horror

Margot Kidder starred with James Brolin in the Stuart Rosenberg-directed Amityville Horror, based on Jay Anson's 1979 book of the same name about the Lutz family, who said they endured paranormal activity while living in a home where Ronald DeFeo murdered his family in 1974.

It was one of many films about the Amityville story, which remains haunting today — whether or not you believe the house is haunted.

And that ends the movies of the 1970s. Or does it?

Bonus: 1980

We're adding this one for those of you who contend that a decade ends in its 10th year. And because we're having fun and don't want this list of hit movies of the 1970s to end.

Though Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was easily the No. 1 movie, the film above, directed by Robert Redford, won Best Picture at the Oscars. Can you remember its title?

Scroll down if you like...

1980 Answer: Ordinary People

Ordinary People earned a very respectable $55 million in domestic box office in 1980, and cleaned up at the Oscars.

Besides winning Best Picture, it earned Best Director for Robert Redford, a Best Supporting Actor for Timothy Hutton, and Best Screenplay for Allen Sargent.

It has aged very well.

How'd You Score?

How many of these hits of the 1970s did you recognize? Here's how you score:

9 or more correct... The Godfather

7 or more correct... Cleopatra Jones

5 or more correct... Dirty Harry

3 or more correct... Fozzie Bear

Fewer than 3 correct... The Jerk

Liked Guessing These Hit Movies of the 1970s?

You might also like this video of 10 Gen X Movie Stars Gone Too Soon or this list of the 15 Best SNL Characters — several of whom are from the 1970s.

Main image: A promotional image of Jaqueline Bisset for The Deep. Columbia Pictures.

Source: Unsplash

Fraser’s Hollywood Comeback

Let's start with the comeback. An inspiring real-life Hollywood story, Fraser restarted his career with supporting roles in series like Doom Patrol and The Affair.  This reminded audiences of his talent, but it was his performance in The Whale that catapulted him back into the public consciousness. Playing Charlie, a reclusive, obese English teacher, Fraser's character attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter in a role that explored loneliness, love, and family. An upcoming role in Pressure about the D-Day landings promises even more from Fraser's career. 

Back to Start

His career began in the early 90s when Fraser solidified his position in Hollywood as a versatile actor with a talent in comedic timing. Having studied the arts at Cornish College, he landed his breakout role in Encino Man, in which he plays a frozen caveman who awakens in modern-day California. His career flourished from there. He starred alongside Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in School Ties as well as Wild Honors and Airheads, with Adam Sandler. It was then, in 1999, when he took on his most iconic roles in the massive successes as part of The Mummy trilogy.

The Mummy Takes Over

Hollywood has always had a fascination with Ancient Egypt, and this goes beyond The Mummy franchise. Hollywood has long drawn inspiration from Egypt; from Cleopatra (1963) to Gods of Egypt (2016), it has provided the backdrop to countless films. In fact, this influence can be seen across entertainment, making its way into the digital world of iGaming. For example, slots like Book of Dead are inspired by Egyptian mythology, intertwining the world of Egypt and gaming and continuing the tradition of bringing the magic of Ancient Egypt to modern entertainment, much like The Mummy did for cinema.

Released in 1999, The Mummy retains its popularity as an adventure movie that has an undeniable charm and excellent storytelling. Mixing humor with adventure, it not only was a box office hit but also spawned a spin-off series in The Scorpion King. Fraser's performance was a key ingredient in this, playing the action hero perfectly in a genre that was crowded at that time.

Source: Unsplash

A 2017 remake didn't really capture the public imagination like the original, which speaks to Fraser's charm and attraction. This makes it even more pleasing to see his renaissance on the big screen and continued success, which is sure to continue with his next releases.

All About Eve (1950)

Bette Davis plays a Broadway star who won't give up the spotlight, and Anne Baxter is Eve Harrington, a shrewd manipulator ready to take her place. It's a dynamic we've seen a million times since, from The Devil Wears Prada to Showgirls, but no one's done it better than All About Eve.

It also features an early appearance by Marilyn Monroe. And consider for a second how cool it is that the line, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" came just a few years into commercial air travel becoming a thing.

It won Best Picture at the Oscars, but it isn't one of those exhausting Best Picture winners that takes itself too seriously — it's a charmer from the first frames and one of the most beloved movies of the 1950s and of all time.

Singing in the Rain (1952)

Another perfect vehicle for Gene Kelly's immense talents — and those of Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds (above, from left to right, are O'Connor, Reynolds and Kelly saying "Good Mornin'").

If you just remember a bunch of plucky songs and perfect dance numbers, that's fine. But Singing in the Rain is also a timeless sendup of Hollywood trend-chasing and vapidity. Lina Lamont's clueless declaration, "I gave an exclusive to every newspaper in town!" is arguably even funnier in 2023, when seemingly every news story is both "breaking" and "exclusive."

It's great to stay up late watching a movie this delightful. Maybe our favorite of all the movies of the 1950s, and that's saying something.

High Noon (1952)

In a tight 85 minutes, High Noon delivers a perfectly paced, utterly engrossing story of courage.

Gary Cooper plays lawman Will Kane (above left), newly married to the pacifistic Quaker Amy Fowler (above right).

When he learns that a vicious outlaw he once put away will soon return to town, looking for revenge, he'd be well within his rights to ride off into the sunset with his beautiful new bride.

But that's not what he does.

The Quiet Man (1952)

The Quiet Man is a very old-fashioned movie — the plot revolves largely around a dowry — but just turn off your brain and enjoy the Technicolor beauty of the unspoiled Irish countryside as John Wayne's Sean Thornton and Maureen O'Hara's Mary Kate Danaher fall madly in love.

It was filmed around the charming village of Cong, which still has a statue of Wayne. It's fun to see him a straight romantic lead instead of a grizzled cowboy, but don't worry manly men: His character's still plenty tough.

Roman Holiday (1953)

Another 1950s travelogue, Roman Holiday stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess who wants to see the world and Gregory Peck as a reporter who wants to show it to her. This is a movie fueled by happy accidents, cheerful deceptions and boundless charm.

Dalton Trumbo, often known for darker fare, was one of the writers, though the Blacklist — a scourge of the movies of the 1950s — cost him his rightful credit at the time.

Rear Window (1954)

A Hitchcock classic, and the second film on our list to star future princess Grace Kelly.

Rear Window is a fascinating, fast-moving film is about our natural inclination to pry — whether online, or, back in the day, into our neighbor's windows. Jimmy Stewart plays a news photographer sidelined by a broken leg who doesn't appreciate what a seemingly perfect thing he has going with Lisa (Kelly, above).

He ponders single life, represented by the ballet dancer Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy) and the sometimes grim compromises of co-habitation. There's a point in the film when it's absolutely impossible to guess what will happen next. And then things get really good.

It's now available on the Criterion Channel.

Vertigo (1958)

Another pairing of Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart, Vertigo is among the best films ever made: In 2012, in fact, it topped the Sight and Sound list of the greatest films of all time, before it was bumped in 2022 by Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, in a major upset. (Nothing against Jeanne Dielman — it's on our list of 10 Excellent Films Where Not Much Happens.

But back to Vertigo: Well worth watching just to see San Francisco in the 1950s, its the story of a former detective who has to retire early due to, well, vertigo. He falls for a captivating woman named Madeleine (Kim Novak), but she takes a fall, too — to her death.

Or so it seems. Soon he meets a woman named Judy... who looks an awful lot like Madeline. Then things get very interesting.

Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla has a very heavy, powerful messages that probably resonated more with Japanese audiences than American ones — it's about the evils of the atomic bomb, and how some weapons are too powerful to ever be used.

But even if you ignore that message, this is a crackerjack monster movie, beautifully crafted. If you associate Godzilla with a guy in a cheap-looking lizard suit, you aren't thinking of the original Godzilla.

In black and white, with ominous sound design and terrific effects (by 1954 standards), Godzilla is a 70 year-old thriller that lands harder than many of the kitschy and CGI-marred versions that followed. Of all the movies of the 1950s, it may be the most scarily resonant.

It might even be a good double feature with Oppenheimer.

Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Look, if you aren't charmed by dogs eating spaghetti, we're not sure you can be charmed. Lady and the Tramp tells a simple, always delightful story of a proper lady falling for a dog from the wrong side of the tracks who becomes a better man — um, we mean dog — in the process.

It's painterly animation is far superior to most of the cheap-looking computer animation of today — this is a true feast for the eyes.

And it inspired our favorite bit of film criticism within a movie, the roundtable debate of the meaning of Lady and the Tramp that serves as the unlikely climax of Whit Stillman's 1998 Last Days of Disco, another film that is a total delight. It's from four decades after these movies of the 1950s, but don't hold that against it.

This is our favorite of all the Disney movies of the 1950s.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

We know, war movies aren't typically delightful, but most aren't as deft and transfixing as The Bridge on the River Kwai, a movie that never follows the course you expect.

The war of wills between captured British P.O.W. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness) and his honorable captor, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) is fascinating enough — both men are masterfully written and acted characters, and director David Lean shows stellar show-don't-tell restraint that is, well, captivating.

But then the film layers on the story of the charming Shears, William Holden, and you have one of the most layered yet elegant war movies of all, with a theme you'll be whistling for weeks. For our money this is the best of the war movies of the 1950s.

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

This story of powerful columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) and ruthless press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis, above right) is as juicy as a gossip column — because it revolves around one.

Hunsecker is a powerful columnist covering nightlife around Broadway, who can make or break careers with a few words. But he's also a controlling older brother who tries to break up little sister Susan (Susan Harrison, above left) and a jazz guitarist, without leaving any fingerprints. Sidney Falco sees a sleazy opportunity and seizes it. He's a creep, sure, but a smart one, who shows us the ins and outs of a 24-7 media landscape that seems to move even faster than the one today.

This is a completely intoxicating movie, beautifully shot and magnificently acted. It's one of the greatest movies of the 1950s, but it's also timeless.

An American in Paris (1951)

Another charmer from the very start — thanks to the George Gershwin score and Gene Kelly's winning voiceover — an American in Paris, directed by directed by Vincente Minelli and written by Alan Jay Lerner — won Best Picture the year after All About Eve. But again, it's anything but pompous.

You realize how light on its feet the film will be even before you even see Kelly and Leslie Caron dance (above).

Just watching Kelly get ready in the morning — by switching his miniscule studio apartment from evening to morning mode — you know you're in incredibly good hands.

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The American Film Institute named Some Like It Hot the funniest American movie of all time, and who are we to argue with AFI?

One of the most imitated movies of the 1950s, it stars Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis, making their second appearances on this list, as well as the always great Jack Lemmon, who will certainly turn up when we make our list of delightful films of the 1960s.

And yes, we're pretty sure the Tom Hanks sitcom Bosom Buddies borrowed a few jokes from Some Like It Hot, starting with the wordplay on the poster. Plenty of other TV shows and movies have taken lessons from the Billy Wilder classic, too.

Liked This List of Old Movies of the 1950s That Are Still an Absolute Pleasure to Watch?

You might also like this list of some of our favorite films of the 1960s, this list of Rad '80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember, or this list of Stars of Movies of the 1950s Who Are Still Going Strong.

Main image: Leslie Caron in a publicity still for An American in Paris. MGM.

But First, Let's Talk About Box Office vs Return on Investment

Among the highest-grossing films of all time you’ll find megahits like Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. They movies made billions of dollars worldwide.

But those numbers are less impressive when you consider the costs to make them. Endgame, for example, reportedly cost somewhere between $350 and $400 million to make.

These very profitable movies that made more than 100 times their budget at the box office started by thinking small.

Mad Max (1979)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is currently struggling at the box office despite high marks from people who've actually gone to see it. (It has earned $32 million in the worst Memorial Day Weekend box office in decades — not counting in 2020, when theaters were mostly closed.)

But the first film in the series, 1979's Mad Max, was a clear box-office triumph. Made on the cheap, for the equivalent of $250,000 in U.S. currency, the Australian dystopian action drama earned $100 million — 400 times its budget.

It not only introduced a young Mel Gibson to a mass audience, but spawned one of the most enduring of all film franchises.

Halloween (1978)

We could have done a list just of horror films that qualified for this list. Halloween is already the second, and there will be a couple more we felt we should include, but we aimed for variety. That being said, Halloween had to be included, because John Carpenter helped change horror movies. Also, it still rips as far as horror movies go.

The idea that Halloween invented the slasher film has been bandied about by some in the past, which isn’t true. Bob Clark’s Black Christmas predates it, as do some Italian horror films. Halloween did popularize the genre in America, though, and did help codify some of the elements.

Also, it made a ton of money. Carpenter’s film cost something around $300,000 to make, but it would end up making $70 million worldwide, easily making our list of movies that made 100 times their budget at the box office. In fact, it made more than 200 times its budget. That's a profitable movie.

Super Size Me (2004)

Many hit documentaries could make this list of list of movies that made 100 times their budget, as documentaries don’t tend to cost a lot of money. To represent the genre, we’re going with one of the most-famous docs, and also one that provided particular bang for the buck. That would be Super Size Me, by Morgan Spurlock, who tragically died of cancer last year at just 53.

Helping to popularize the “stunt documentary” subgenre, Spurlock ate only McDonald’s for a month to see what it did to his health. It got a lot of people talking, changed some minds about fast food, and basically ended the Super Size option at McDonald’s, and similar options elsewhere. Oh, and it made a ton of money.

Off of a budget of $65,000, it earned $22 million.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is both a proto-slasher and a proto-found footage horror movie. It was positioned as being based on a true story, though it wasn’t, as a criticism of sensationalistic “if it bleeds, it leads” news of the era. On top of that, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is arguably a top-10 movie title of all-time, and the tagline, “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” is also an all-timer.

Tobe Hooper’s film was made on the cheap, which you can do when your biggest special effect is, you know, a chainsaw. The movie was made for less than $140,000, with some estimates as low as $80,000.

It would make $30.9 million, a huge return on that investment, and influence generations of horror directors to come. A very profitable movie that would inspire a wide range of films, from Pearl to Alien.

And it's on our list of the Scariest Horror Movies of the 1970s.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

These days, a phenomenon like The Blair Witch Project would be almost impossible, and the social media chatter around such a movie would be largely unbearable. It’s not the first found-footage horror film, but it helped take the concept to new heights commercially and bolstered a doubling down on the style going forward.

All the marketing posited that The Blair Witch Project was a documentary, not a work of fiction. The actors, all unknown, were posited as real missing/presumed dead. It helped that the internet was starting to grow significantly in 1999, helping to market the movie as well. In time, it would become clear that it was a work of fiction, though in truth the whole “witch” part should have been a giveaway.

Nevertheless, the phenomenon brought in $248.6 million worldwide off of a budget that came in under $1 million.

Friday the 13th (1980)

What if you took the lessons of Halloween, but turned them into something nastier and more prurient? Well, you don’t get a stone-cold classic, but you do get a bit hit — and another of those horror movies that made 100 times their budget.

Friday the 13th became the foremost slasher series in the United States, never artistically minded, but always delivering what it promised.

Kudos to director Sean S. Cunningham, who bought an ad in Variety in 1979 basically telling studios, “Hey, did you like Halloween? Then check out what I’ve got cooking!” You probably know by now that Jason Vorhees isn’t the killer in the first movie, and that a young Kevin Bacon had a role. What you may not know is that Friday the 13th was made for $550,000 and made $59.8 million.

American Graffiti (1973)

Star Wars made George Lucas an icon. That movie birthed an empire (in multiple ways) and made $775.4 million on a budget of $11 million. How did Lucas help earn the chance to bring his space opera to life, though? Because, a few years earlier, he had another big success in American Graffiti.

Laying the groundwork for Happy Days, American Graffiti is a coming-of-age tale set in 1962. It’s built upon driving around in cars, trying to get some sexual action going, and listening to Wolfman Jack. In the cast you will find, among others, Ron Howard and Richard Dreyfuss, plus a small role for a carpenter named Harrison Ford. American Graffiti struck a chord with audiences. Made for only $770,000 it made $140 million, and also earned five Oscar nominations.

So yeah, that’s how Lucas got to make Star Wars — by breaking out by making one of the rare movies that made 100 times their budget at the box office.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

The title Napoleon Dynamite could have turned people off. You could say that about the unusual aesthetic as well, or the cast of largely unknowns, or… a lot of data points seemed to point to Napoleon Dynamite being a total shrug.

Instead, it became one of the foremost cult classics of the 2000s — and one of the comedy movies that made 100 times their budget.

Jared Hess shot the film in his native Idaho, and cast his college buddy Jon Heder in the lead role. It made $46.1 million worldwide — astonishing for a quirky film that cost $400,000 to make.

Paranormal Activity (2009)

Alright, one last horror film. We wanted to include Paranormal Activity because it basically built the career of producer Jason Blum, and also kicked off a series of imitators trying to make a ton of money off of basically no budget. It’s with Paranormal Activity that studios seemed to really recognize that horror fans are less picky than fans of other genres, and that the movies tend to be fairly cheap to make.

It’s a found footage movie shot with a stationary home video camera. Seriously, it could not be more lo-fi. Oren Peli’s initial production cost a mere $15,000, though once Paramount signed on they asked for a bit of a glow up, and a new ending, that cost $215,000.

Even so, Paranormal Activity was a horror hit, making $194.2 million and generating several sequels. It’s like the scary poster child for movies that made 100 times their budget.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

This George Romero zombie classic is the gold standard model for other low-budget horror movies. Shot in black and white for less than $125,000 with an unknown cast — but an incredible concept, and still captivating atmospherics — it went on to earn more than $30 million.

It's one of the most-imitated of all films, both in its setup and its financial model. It's easily one of the most profitable movies. It's not just on our list of movies that made more than 100 times its budget at the box office — it could be on a list of movies that nearly 250 times its budget.

Once (2007)

The power of a song. Once became an unexpected hit thanks to the soundtrack, specifically the song “Falling Slowly.” The movie, set in Ireland, follows two unnamed musicians who meet, make music, and seemingly fall in unrequited love. Among the songs they write in the film is “Falling Slowly.”

That song would go on to win Best Original Song at the Oscars. It would rise to 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. Once only cost $150,000 to make, as it is quite a small story (with big emotions). The film made $23.3 million, but will also always have that Academy Award.

It’s falling slowly…. onto our list of profitable movies that made 100 times their budget.

Rocky (1976)

Speaking of the Academy Awards, we end with, fittingly, an underdog story. That is true of Rocky Balboa, but also the movie Rocky. Sylvester Stallone would go on to be one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and the Rocky sequels would get so over-the-top Rocky basically ends the Cold War in the fourth one. Back in the mid-1970s, though, Stallone was a struggling actor. He wrote Rocky, hoping to earn a nice role for himself, the journey there was as notable as the Italian Stallion’s.

First, ABC bought it to turn it into a made-for-TV movie, but they wanted to hire writers for rewrites, so Stallone’s Lords of Flatbush co-star Henry Winkler used his Happy Days cache to manage to get them to sell him the rights back. Stallone took it to United Artists, which wanted to make it, but as a vehicle for an established star. Stallone and his agents said he would star or nobody would.

The studio said fine, but in turn only gave the film a budget of about $1 million. Cut to Rocky winning Best Picture for 1976 while making $225 million at the box office.

Yo, Adrian: He made one of the most profitable movies of all time, and one of the most beloved. It also launched two very successful franchises: Not just the Rocky franchise, but the spinoff Creed franchise.

Liked This List of Very Profitable Movies That Made 100 Times Their Budget at the Box Office?

You might also like this list of the Funniest Movies We've Ever Seen or this list of 12 '80s Rad Movies Only Cool Kids Remember.

They may not be the most profitable movies, and they not have made 100 times their budget at the box office, but they're well worth watching.

Main image: Friday the 13th. Paramount.

Bill Murray vs Chevy Chase

As recounted by Nick De Semlyen in his terrific book Wild and Crazy Guys, Bill Murray punched Chevy Chase when Chase returned to host the eleventh episode of Season 3 on Feb. 18, 1978.

Murray had replaced Chase after the latter left the show in the middle of Season 2, and the SNL team felt that Chase "had deserted them," Semlyen writes. His return, the author adds, "was leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth."

Murray and Chase talked smack at each other prior to the taping, and finally Murray slugged the host. That escalated into "a huge altercation," according to John Landis, an eyewitness quoted in the book. "They were big guys and really going at it." Murray, however, described it as "really a Hollywood fight; a don't-touch-my-face kinda thing."

The show went on. And Chase and Murray reunited, amicably enough, for 1980's Caddyshack (above).

Also Read: The 13 Best Sketches in 13 Years of Saturday Night Live

The Mask of Jeff Daniels

Before Jeff Daniels hosted the Oct. 5, 1991 episode, he did something many hosts do: went into the makeup department to get a face mask made.

As SNL star David Spade explained in his terrific memoir, Almost Interesting, "if the makeup department wants to make a dummy that looks like you, or there needs to be a shot of your head blowing up, a plaster-like substance is poured on your face to create a mold that can be used to sculpt a replica."

The process involves placing a stocking cap over the person's head, and inserting two straws so they can breathe through the nose as the substance hardens over the face. It usually takes 15 minutes.

But Daniels' mask had hardened so much it wouldn't come off, Spade explained. He added that Lorne Michaels had a plastic surgeon hurry to 30 Rock, and that the plaster was peeled off Daniels' face. At one point the surgeon needed to use an X-Acto knife, cutting Daniels' eyebrows and eyelashes. But the mask finally came off, and Daniels went through with the episode the next night.

"If you watch that old show, you can see his eyebrows were painted on," Spade wrote.

That's Daniels with Dana Carvey, left, at the start of the episode. We honestly wouldn't have noticed.

Chris Farley Showers With Mike Myers

The late, great Chris Farley was one of the funniest people ever to be on SNL, and a bona fide movie star for films like Tommy Boy. Backstage, he was a relentless prankster who loved crossing lines.

Mike Myers recalled on the Fly on the Wall podcast recalled a long, very weird running joke, in which Farley would regularly join him, uninvited, in the shower, pressing his body into Myers' and declaring his love for him.

"I’d beat on him. I’d go ‘Farley, get the f— out of here! Get the f— out!’ I couldn’t hit him very hard because it was so funny,” Myers recalled.

But Farley did it week after week, and Myers was so distracted by the demands of the show that he never expected it.

“Every week I forgot — you’d think you’d remember every week,” Myers added. The reason he didn’t remember, Myers explained, was that he was so distracted by the work involved in the show.

Richard Pryor Hosts

Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels went to pretty ridiculous lengths to convince NBC executives to let Richard Pryor host the show's seventh episode on Dec. 13, 1975.

Because the network feared Pryor was too profane and unpredictable, Michaels agreed to a five-second delay so that any curse words could be beeped — marking the first time that Saturday Night Live wasn't live when it first aired.

It turned out the delay came in handy. Pryor avoided any four-letter words, but did use a three-letter word that rhymes with sass, twice.

According to Saturday Night, A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingard, the censor who was running the delay device let both uses of the word slip by. But both were edited out of the taped version broadcast on the West Coast.

The Fight to Save Charles Rocket

Charles Rocket was in the cast of the very rough 1980-81 season that followed the exit of all the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, as well as SNL creator Lorne Michaels (who returned to the show in the middle of the '80s.)

As SNL fans know, Rocket is best known on the show for a flub during a February 21, 1981 segment inspired by the famed Dallas storyline "Who Shot J.R.?." Rocket used a curse word on air: "It's the first time I've ever been shot in my life. I'd like to know who the f--- did it." (Note the reactions the instant after he said it, above.)

According to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad, SNL producer Jean Doumanian, who had been hired to replace Lorne, went on a long campaign to save Rocket's job.

She and Rocket went to a series of meetings with NBC executives, in which they apologized again and again — sometimes laughing about it afterwards. At one point, according to the book, Doumanian told an executive, "If you're going to fire him, you can fire me."

Soon after, NBC fired them both — not just because of the incident, but because of a general sense that the show wasn't doing well.

Also

Ironically, Rocket made his flub after a monologue in which host Charlene Tilton, a star of Dallas, joked about how many people on the show had "tried to take advantage of me."

"The only one I trust is Charlie Rocket!" she announced.

John Belushi Stole Chevy Chase's Cocaine

Chevy Chase, who was on the show from 1975-76, recalled last year that John Belushi once stole his drugs.

"Back then, the big drug was cocaine," Chase said on the Club Random With Bill Maher podcast. "Obviously John turned out to be a cokehead but I had a little jar of cocaine with a little spoon that hung from it. Anyway, I had it on the piano of the stage. So I'm just playing the piano, the crowd isn't in yet, and it's just sitting. After I played just a little bit, it's gone. I had no idea how. Obviously I was looking at my hands at the moment that John swooped in and took it. So I immediately said, 'Belushi, did you take my coke?' 'No, what are you talking about?'"

A month later, Chase was invited to dinner at the home of Belushi and his wife — "and I see my little vial empty and washed, just sitting on a shelf by the books."

Belushi died of a heroin and cocaine overdose in 1982.

Protest Singer

When Andrew Dice Clay (right, with Jon Lovitz), known for his misogynist in-character routine, was brought in to host the May 12, 1990 episode, cast member Nora Dunn protested by opting not to perform.

So did the scheduled musical guest, Irish singer Sinead O'Connor.

Ironically, it wasn't Clay who turned out to be responsible for one of the wildest moments in the history of Saturday Night Live — it was one of the women who protested him.

Picking Up the Pieces

Even casual SNL or music fans know what happened two years later, when O'Connor finally appeared on SNL as the musical guest of the October 3, 1992 episode: After a stunning a capella performance of Bob Marley's "War," O'Connor declared "fight the real enemy!" and tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in a protest of abuse in the Catholic Church.

The backlash was immediate and widespread. Less known is a silly anecdote about David Spade, who had witnessed the moment from the side of the stage.

He recalled in his aforementioned entertaining memoir, Almost Interesting, that he had "sort of flirted" with O'Conner when she was in Studio 8H that week, but decided after the incident, "I wouldn't try to sleep with her since she was now a worldwide pariah."

Sinead O'Connor, Continued

But that isn't the ridiculous part of the story. The ridiculous part is that Spade had up a piece of the torn photo as a souvenir, and that Sunday night, while doing laundry, saw an Inside Edition report about the incident, with the entire photo reassembled... except for his piece.

Spade said SNL producer Kenny Aymong, joined by two security guards, told Spade: "You might have something that belongs to us." Spade handed over his piece of the photo.

"I learned soon after that a member of the crew had stolen the ripped-up photo off the floor and sold it to Inside Edition for ten thousand dollars," Spade wrote. "He was fired, but security thought that I might be in on it." He wasn't.

Chris Kattan vs Norm MacDonald

Pranks abounded behind the scenes on SNL in the '90s — and not all were appreciated.

Chris Kattan (above) told Howard Stern that Norm MacDonald would sometimes belittle him for playing so many effeminate characters, which he didn't appreciate. Things came to an odd crescendo on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City. Neither realized they would both end up on the flight.

"It was a red eye. He was behind me and we were getting along, whatever," said Kattan, adding that MacDonald was making very loud, crude jokes. "I'm laughing because he's a funny guy."

Kattan fell asleep, and when he woke up, realized his shoe was missing.

"He stole my shoe," Kattan recalled.

Later, he responded by stealing MacDonald's jacket on an especially cold night.

Norm McDonald Fired

This one is about the ridiculousness of certain 1990s NBC executives.

Standup comedian Norm MacDonald was a fearless anchor of "Weekend Update" who delighted in crossing lines. But he went to far for NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer by delivering years of jokes calling Ohlmeyer's friend, O.J. Simpson, a murderer.

Both MacDonald and SNL writer Jim Downey feuded with Ohlmeyer, who insisted MacDonald just wasn't funny. Both MacDonald and Downey were fired in 1998, and it's been a longstanding SNL story that MacDonald was fired over the jokes.

Norm MacDonald, Continued

But Downey revealed on the Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast that MacDonald could have saved his own job — if he had agreed to throw Downey under the bus. MacDonald refused.

Downey told O'Brien: "The network went to Norm and said, 'We want to get rid of Jim Downeyand we just want you to know. You're cool with that, right?' And he said, 'No. No. You can't fire him. If you fire him, I quit.' ... He said, 'I'm not doing it without him.'"

Talk about a standup guy.

Downey said MacDonald, who died in 2021, never told Downey how he'd stood up for him — Downey says he only learned about it, years later, from NBC executives.

More Norm MacDonald

Less than two years after his exit, Norm MacDonald was invited back to Saturday Night Live to host the October 23, 1999 episode. He noted how strange it was that he would be invited back.

"They fired me because they said that I wasn’t funny," he noted. "It’s only a year and a half later, and now, they ask me to host the show. So I wondered, how did I go from being not funny enough to be even allowed in the building, to being so funny that I’m now hosting the show?"

He added: "Then it occurred to me, I haven’t gotten funnier — the show has gotten really bad! ... So let’s recap. The bad news is: I’m still not funny. The good news is: The show blows!"

Money Doesn't Talk

When Will Ferrell was called in for a meeting with Lorne Michaels after a successful audition, he decided he'd try to seal the deal with a comic bit in Michaels' office. He arrived at the meeting with "a briefcase full of counterfeit money that I’d bought at a toy store," Ferrell told The New York Times.

"And in the middle of whatever Lorne was going to say, I was going to start stacking the equivalent of $25,000 on his desk: 'Listen, Lorne, you and I can say whatever we want to say. But we really know what talks, and that’s money. I’m going to walk out of this room, and you can either take this money or not. And I can be on the show.'”

But Ferrell never found a moment to make the joke, he said, because "it was just not a joking atmosphere. It was just tense. And I never get to do my gag."

He did get hired, though.

Shane Gillis Fired Before Appearing on the Show

Many people have been fired from SNL, but Shane Gillis may be the only performer to be fired before his first show.

SNL announced that comedian Shane Gillis would join the show for its 45th season in 2019 — but internet sleuths quickly surfaced audio from Gillis' podcast.

On an episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, which Gillis co-hosted with comedian Matt McCusker — Gillis used a racial slur and made fun of Chinese accents during a discussion about Chinatown. SNL acted swiftly.

"After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL," a spokesperson said on behalf of SNL producer Lorne Michaels. "We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show ... The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard."

More on Shane Gillis

Gillis said at the time of his firing (or is it un-hiring?):

"I'm a comedian who was funny enough to get on SNL. That can't be taken away. Of course, I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL but it would be too much of a distraction. I respect the decision they made. I am honestly grateful for the opportunity."

He later explained on Dana Carvey and David Spade's Fly on the Wall podcast that he had been trying to make fun of racist attitudes, not encourage them.

Gillis has landed on his feet. He's a very successful comedian and the star of Netflix's Tires — and last year hosted SNL.

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Main image: Charlene Tilton hosts SNL. NBC.

If you were wondering how far the creators of Screamboat would take their "Steamboat Willie" horror satire, the answer is: Pretty far.

A new trailer for Screamboat finds a maniacal mouse played by David Howard Thornton — Art the Clown in the Terrifier films — stalking "five feareless friends." The trailer takes care to share their names in a whimsical font reminiscent of Disney's, and Cindi, Bella, Jazzy, Arianna and Rory just might remind you of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast's Belle, Aladdin's Jasmine, the Little Mermaid's Ariel and the titular character of Rapunzel.

The film seems carefully designed to set off as many alarms as possible, without drawing the wrath of Disney's crack legal team. It even features an announcer whose voice sounds suspiciously like that of the announcer for Disney's '90s releases.

"A scream is a wish your heart makes!," goes the tagline, parodying "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes," a song from 1950's Cinderella.

Its official description reads, “Be our guest on a New York City ferry ride that turns into a hilarious nightmare when a mischievous mouse named Steamboat Willie becomes a monstrous reality. As passengers set sail, their trip turns deadly when the tiny terror unleashes murder and mayhem. Packed with big kills, big laughs, and a miniature menace, Screamboat is a cinematic thrill ride that reimagines ‘Steamboat Willie’ like never before!”

Background on Screamboat

Screamboat exists because "Steamboat Willie," which introduced the world to Mickey Mouse, entered the public domain this year, alongside other works first released in 1928. Directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, it was is one of the first cartoons to use synchronized sound, and was a major hit in its time that has endured in the near century since: You can still watch it on Disney+.

Though "Steamboat Willie" marked the public debut of Mickey Mouse — and Minnie Mouse — both had appeared a few months before in a test screening if the cartoon "Plane Crazy."

Screamboat follows in the proud public domain tradition of 2023's Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a slasher film inspired by the gentle children's stories of A.A. Milne. The original Pooh stories entered the public domain in 2022.

Screamboat is written and directed by Steven LaMorte, who previously made the Grinch Who Stole Christmas-inspired horror film The Mean One, released in 2022.

The new film stars, in addition to Thornton, Allison Pittel, Amy Schumacher, Jesse Posey, Tyler Posey, Jesse Kove, Jarlath Conroy, Brian "Q" Quinn, Kailey Hyman and Michael Leavy.

Executive producers include Kali Pictures, Sleight of Hand Productions, Reckless Content and Julien Didon. Iconic Events Releasing is the distributor of the film, which will enjoy an April 2 theatrical release, followed by its release for digital and home video.

Main image: Screamboat. Sleigh of Hand.

Editor's Note: Corrects typos.

Like with so many dreams, I only half remember making my latest short, “The Perfect Place to Cry”. It went by so fast that it felt less like a film production, and more like a midnight romp through the woods.

In late June of 2022, an image came to me while I was lying awake in bed around 4 a.m.: a man staggering out of the dark forest, into the headlight beams of a car. A little odd, a little dark. The perfect spark of inspiration for a short film. I jumped out of bed and started to write. It took me about fifteen minutes to finish the two-page screenplay. The next morning, I showed it to my roommates (and closest collaborators), Celina Bernstein and Matt Kleppner. The three of us have been working together since college, and at this point they are the first readers for everything I write. They immediately clicked with the story, and we started brainstorming how to bring my insomniatic fever dream to life.

Writer/Director Shane Bannon talks with Actor Jesse Howland while Actor Kevin Owyang gets into character - Photo by Celina Bernstein

Celina joined the film as our Producer and Lead Actor, and Matt came on as the Director of Photography. They were my first and only choices for those roles. But there was a catch: Celina was going to be out of the country for all of August, and Matt was set to start his second year at AFI right after that. This meant that if we wanted to make “The Perfect Place to Cry”, it had to happen fast. We quickly pulled together the rest of our crew, and prepped to shoot three weeks later, over one short summer night. Everything came together so fast that I didn’t have time to question or expand on the initial two pages. I just tried to hold onto that fleeting sense of dream logic. And, despite the typical stress involved in putting together a production, the whole process somehow felt easy.

Everybody knows that making a film takes time, money, and more than a little logistical Tetris. Some of my own projects have seen post-production stretch on for years. With all the work that a production entails, it can be easy to lose sight of your initial vision for a project. Budgets, actors, and locations can change on a dime. Your favorite ideas for a story can slam head on into the hard immovable wall of reality.

But sometimes, you get lucky. Sometimes, you write a script in one night, throw together a production team on a whim, and shoot it as fast as you can. Without enough time to second guess ourselves, we had to rely on our intuition. 

It’s a great feeling, having everything go right. In filmmaking, people often say that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But in my experience, if you know what you want, if you trust your collaborators, and if you take pleasure in the bumps that come up along the way, a whole lot of luck can find its way to you. 

Left to right: Matt Kleppner (Cinematographer), Mon Castro (Line Producer), Celina Bernstein (Actor/Producer), Shane Bannon (Writer/Director), Sofie Somoroff (1st Assistant Director)

Production itself was its own logistical puzzle. As a filmmaker, I’m a bit of a minimalist. I try to shoot for the edit, getting only the coverage I need for each moment. But this time, the stakes were higher than ever: we had one night to shoot “The Perfect Place to Cry”, and in mid-July, that’s only nine hours of darkness. There was no time in our shooting schedule for shots that might not work. Knowing this, a week before the shoot, I summoned Celina, Matt, and Sofie Somoroff, our 1st AD, to shoot a video storyboard of the entire film on the dirt road behind our house in Los Angeles. Editing together this footage provided a test run for the story we were trying to tell. In the end, we only filmed one shot that didn’t make it into the final cut of the short. Everything else was just as we had planned it.

My favorite moment of the shoot perfectly encapsulated what it felt like to make “The Perfect Place to Cry”. While most of the crew began packing up for the night, Celina, Matt, and I piled into our picture car to capture the opening shot of the movie: an interior of the car driving along a dirt road. I felt giddy, sleep deprived, and incredibly grateful for my friends and collaborators that came out to make the film happen. The sun was just about to come up, and in our haphazard rush to get that last shot in, I felt all the excitement of the process that had gotten me into making films in the first place. We might as well have been high schoolers shooting some no-budget horror movie on a camcorder. It’s moments like these that make filmmaking worth it. When you surround yourself with the right people, they just might make your dreams come true.

"A Perfect Place to Cry" is available to watch now on Alter.

Main photo: Celina Bernstein in a still from “The Perfect Place to Cry” - Shot by Matt Kleppner

Notorious (1947)

Alfred Hitchcock's crackling thriller stars Cary Grant as T.R. Devlin, a U.S. agent with a very cool name who recruits the notorious Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman, magnetic) to do his dirty work. Then people start falling in love and things get spectacularly messy.

It's notable for a complicated heroine whose virtue is in question by almost everyone in the movie, until the very end.

The coolest thing about her? She doesn't care.

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

This story of powerful columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) and ruthless press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is a joy for the setting alone — the scenes in and around Broadway in the 1950s.

Add to that a crackling, unpredictable plot involving Hunsecker's little sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and a jazz guitarist and you have one of the most captivating showbiz stories ever made.

It makes today's awful media landscape look almost civilized.

The Apartment (1960)

You'll find yourself saying again and again through this wise, eyes-wide-open comedy: They made this in 1960? Its setup — a young clerk has to loan out his apartment to executives who use it for secret trysts with vulnerable women — is grim even by modern standards.

But you find yourself quickly rooting hard for the irresistible Shirley MacLaine and begrudgingly heroic Jack Lemmon. You don't have to look hard to find a very modern metaphor here about refusing to take it from the man.

MacLaine, Lemmon, director Billy Wilder and screenwriter IAL Diamond reunited three years later for Irma la Douce, which revisited some of the themes of The Apartment.

Psycho (1960)

Psycho will rid you of any ideas that old movies are stodgy and dull. From the beginning, Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is a good girl gone bad, stealing from her boozy boss to flee across the Arizona desert to the arms of her deadbeat boyfriend. It's juicy as hell even before she meets the psycho of the title.

Yes, the expository ending is a letdown, but consider that Psycho came out when most people didn't know what a psycho was. Psycho made sure they didn't forget.

Singing in the Rain (1952)

This one's in color, but don't hold that against it.

If you just remember a bunch of plucky songs and perfect dance numbers, that's fine. But Singing in the Rain is also a timeless sendup of Hollywood trend-chasing and vapidity. Lina Lamont's clueless declaration, "I gave an exclusive to every newspaper in town!" is arguably even funnier in 2023, when seemingly every news story is both "breaking" and "exclusive."

All About Eve (1950)

Bette Davis plays a Broadway star who won't give up the spotlight, and Anne Baxter is Eve Harrington, a shrewd manipulator ready to take her place. It's a dynamic we've seen a million times since, from The Devil Wears Prada to Showgirls, but no one's done it better than All About Eve.

It also features an early appearance by Marilyn Monroe. And consider for a second how cool it is that the line, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" came just a few years into commercial air travel becoming a thing.

The General (1926)

Buster Keaton's character helping the Confederate Army hasn't aged well. Everything else has. This outstanding silent film, a bit of a bomb in its time, still holds up because of its clockwork slapstick and endlessly ingenious mousetrap machinations. We promise you'll laugh, in joy and relief.

Keaton, "the great stone face" throws his body into impossible violent yet comedic hazards without changing his expression — a skill he developed while being kicked and thrown across vaudeville stages by his father. (Okay, maybe that didn't age so well, either.)

Casablanca (1942)

Casablanca is so propulsive, smart and funny that kids in 2023 are still making memes about it.

"I'm shocked, shocked" remains as funny as it was in 1942, and the dynamic between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman is one of the most captivating we've ever seen.

When people say they love old movies, this is the old movie they're picturing. It's perfect from beginning to end.

Double Indemnity (1944)

Easily the most fun movie ever made about insurance, this noir extravaganza sizzles off the screen in moments like the anklet scene — aka the "how fast was I going" scene — between Fred McMurray as an insurance man and Barbara Stanwyck as a scheming client.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1944)

If you ever long for the more innocent days of the past, watch this one to remind yourself they weren't so innocent.

John Garfield makes being a drifter look like a good life choice when his character, Frank, wanders into a service station operated by the drop-dead beautiful Cora (Lana Turner). Sadly — there's always a complication, isn't there? — she runs it with her husband.

Frank and Cora work out a scheme that goes great... until it doesn't.

Rear Window (1954)

Another Hitchcock classic.

This fascinating, fast-moving film is about our natural inclination to pry — whether online, or, back in the day, into our neighbor's windows. Jimmy Stewart plays a news photographer sidelined by a broken leg who doesn't appreciate what a seemingly perfect thing he has going with Lisa (a luminous Grace Kelly, above).

He ponders single life, represented by the ballet dancer Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy) and the sometimes grim compromises of co-habitation. It's now available on the Criterion Channel.

Contempt (1963)

Something about the unhurried pacing of Jean-Luc Godard's 1960s films — with just a hint of menace below the surface — makes them feel timeless.

So does the theme of this one — a man trying to hold on to his wife, even as he realizes she's drifting away. Michel Piccoli plays a screenwriter working on an adaptation whose wife, played by Brigitte Bardot, draws the attention of an arrogant Hollywood producer played by Jack Palance.

And how's this for timelessness? The script the screenwriter is working on is for The Odyssey — the same Greek epic that Christopher Nolan is presently adapting for the screen.

Liked This List of Old Movies That Are Still a Pleasure to Watch?

You might also be interested in trying to identify these hit 1970s movies from a single image...

... or like this list of Rad '80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember.

Main image: Brigitte Bardot in Contempt. Embassy Pictures.

And if you think Hollywood will respond to Donald Trump's re-election by being less sensitive, you probably didn't live through the last Trump Administration.

But First, Caveats and Clarifications

We aren't here to gripe about "cancel culture" or "wokeism," or to hold the past accountable to the standards of the present. But we see movies as time capsules of their eras, and love learning more about the past — and present — by paying attention to how stories play differently at different times.

Lots of Best Picture winners are movies that would never be made today because their directors have come to be regarded as problematic, and we aren't including those. And we aren't including brilliant movies like Casablanca that include some dicey moments that could be easily ignored without derailing the message of the movie.

For this list we're focusing on movies that have innate plot elements egregious enough to give risk-averse studio executives pause. (They're a cautious lot, not fond of social media backlash.) These plot elements are integral enough that removing them would make for a totally different movie.

So with that, here are seven movies that would never be made today despite winning Best Picture Oscars in their time.

Gigi (1958)

Our modern culture, very conscious of the threat of groomers, would quickly reject the concept of Gigi, a film about a 16-year-old being literally groomed to become a courtesan. Its main song is "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," which we can't really imagine would get a big studio sign-off today.

Yes, Gigi is set at the turn of the 20th Century, when the behavior depicted onscreen wasn't shocking, and it was released in the 1950s, when teenage weddings were far more common. But today? Non-starter.

Though it won Best Picture and eight other Oscars — and for many years held the record for the highest clean sweep of nominations — Gigi easily leads the list of movies that would never be made today, by today's Hollywood executives.

Crash (2004)

Sometimes the movies that age the most poorly are those that pat themselves on the back for seemingly topical or progressive statements that quickly feel obvious — especially as common sense evolves. Among the most eye-rolling are those with a "racism is bad" message, because of course it is. No one wants to spend two hours hearing Hollywood types teach a lesson every human being should have learned as a small child.

Modern critics have it in for Crash — the AV Club and Film Comment are among those who have named it the worst best picture winner, and IndieWire ranked it dead last among the Best Picture winners of this century.

More on Crash

Why are modern critics so anti-Crash? It's hard to generalize, but the main problem seems to be a ham-fisted redemption arc in which a white cop (Matt Dillon) saves the life of a Black driver (Thandiwe Newton) he has previously sexually assaulted during a traffic stop. That's just one of the glaring issues in a movie full of cartoonish twists.

Modern executives would be wise enough to know that critics — both professional and self-appointed on social media — would have their knives out for a movie like Crash, and that it would doom the film's dreams of awards show glory.

Another Caveat

Also, sure: Technically, any of these movies could be made today by some friends with an iPhone. But they wouldn't be the same movies without the resources of a major studio.

And now, back to our list.

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Even if you can get past the broad, stereotypical Black characters (we can't — parts of this movie play like a bad cartoon), Gone With the Wind asks us to spend nearly four hours lamenting the fortunes of Scarlett O'Hara, a woman who holds other people as property.

There's just no way to make her sympathetic to modern audiences. Yes, she gets her comeuppance in the end.

But those are four very long hours to spend with someone so unpleasant.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Lots of things about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest have aged well. It's anti-authoritarian streak is universal.

But one thing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest would never fly in the post #MeToo era: Protagonist Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is the statutory rapist of a 15-year-old victim. (He pretends to be insane because he thinks it will be easier to serve his time in a mental hospital.)

When you consider McMurphy's criminally bad judgment when it comes to sexual boundaries, the fact that the movie's main antagonist is a strong woman — Nurse Ratched — takes on a strange subtext.

It's notable that when Hollywood returned to the Cuckooverse a few years ago with the Netflix series Ratched, she was the protagonist (or at least antihero) rather than the villain.

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

When rap group Public Enemy took aim at stereotypical, servile Black roles in 1990's "Burn Hollywood Burn," one of their main targets was Driving Miss Daisy, the 1989 Best Picture winner starring Jessica Tandy as a wealthy white woman and Morgan Freeman as her chauffeur, Hoke.

When he endures her surliness, they become best friends and she teaches him to read.

Alfred Uhry, who wrote the stage and screen versions of Driving Miss Daisy, based it on his own grandmother and her driver. But however well-intentioned the movie is, few Hollywood producers in this era are excited about yet another film about Black servants and the white people who help them. (Yes, Miss Daisy learns from Hoke, too, and Morgan Freeman brings dignity to the role, but modern-day social media that doesn't have time for that kind of nuance.)

More on Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

As Big Daddy Kane explained in "Burn Hollywood Burn":

"As I walk the streets of Hollywood Boulevard/
Thinking how hard it was to those that starred/In the movies portraying the roles/Of butlers and maids, slaves and h--s/Many intelligent Black men seemed/To look uncivilized when on the screen...And Black women in this profession/As for playing a lawyer, out of the question/For what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term/Even if now she got a perm."

Thirty-four years later, Hollywood seems to at least understand the complaint.

Dances With Wolves (1990)

Look, we like Dances With Wolves. Kevin Costner's film is a gorgeous, sweeping epic, and is a genuinely affecting story of transformation and coming to respect a different way of life. It was advanced for its time, flipping the old Hollywood Cowboys-and-Indians stereotypes. All good!

But it's also a perfect example of the kind of movie modern-day Hollywood claims it doesn't want to make any more: Films ostensibly about Native Americans that feature white people front and center. And it plays into white savior criticisms as well.

But: You have to crawl before you walk, and Dances With Wolves had its heart in the right place.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Full disclosure: This is your humble correspondent's favorite movie. It is often criticized today for allegedly featuring a transgender serial killer, Buffalo Bill. The realization that Buffalo Bill is "making a women's suit" is a key and crucial reveal in the film. But Buffalo Bill is not transgender, as the movie clearly explains.

In fact, Buffalo Bill is a misogynist who wants to become a mockery of a woman — note his cruel impersonation of one of his victims, in which he tugs at his shirt to mimic breasts and screams in a grotesque voice.

Gender is a very important part of Silence of the Lambs — Clarice ultimately catches Bill by empathizing with one of his female victims in a way that none of her male colleagues can. But take out Bill — a man who hates women — and the movie loses much of this theme.

Still, just the accusation of transphobia would be enough to keep Silence of the Lambs out of the Best Picture race today, given the lack of nuance in many social media protests.

More on The Silence of the Lambs

How does The Silence of the Lambs make clear that Bill is not transgender? In a quick exchange between Clarice Starling and the criminal genius Hannibal Lecter. Both characters use the outdated (but not offensive at the time) phrase "transsexual" instead of the modern "transgender."

"There's no correlation in the literature between transsexualism and violence. Transsexuals are very passive," Clarice explains.

Seconds later, Lecter comes right out and says: "Billy is not a real transsexual. But he thinks he is. He tries to be. He's tried to be a lot of things, I expect." Lecter also surmises that Buffalo Bill likely sought out sexual reassignment surgery — and was rejected.

Why would a transphobic movie bother to include such an exchange? It wouldn't. It actually slows things down. But director Jonathan Demme was sensitive enough to take care to ensure that audience not see Buffalo Bill as representative of transgender people. And he obviously isn't.

Liked This List of 7 Best Picture Winners That Would Never Be Made in Today's Hollywood?

Let us know if you agree or disagreee in the comments — and if you think we missed any. You may also like this list of 13 Shameless Comedies That Just Don't Care If You're Offended. Some are movies that would never be made today, and none won Best Picture.

Main image: Gone With the Wind. Loew's Inc.

The new teaser for Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another starts with an arresting visual, and noise: a long-haired Leonardo DiCaprio, nursing a beer, is jolted by a pregnant woman firing round after round from an automatic weapon.

Later, her child is born. "What are you gonna do about this baby?" someone asks.

We soon see another woman — the grown-up baby? — firing a similar weapon. She's played by Chase Infiniti, and before long she's in the clutches of the film's villain, played by Sean Penn. And we hear some typically jarring music from Anderson's longtime collaborator, Jonny Greenwood.

The rest is up to you to decipher. But don't worry — this is just the teaser for One Battle After Another, kind of a trailer for a trailer. The real trailer will come next week.

Background on One Battle After Another, Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

One Battle After Another pairs Anderson with DiCaprio for the first time, and reunites him with Penn, who had a notable appearance in Anderson's last film, 2021's Licorice Pizza.

Besides DiCaprio, Penn, and Infiniti, the new film stars Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, as well as Benicio Del Toro, a veteran of Anderson's 2014 Infinite Vice, and Licorice Pizza star Alana Haim. It was filmed in locations including Sacramento, California and El Paso, Texas.

One Battle After Another arrives in theaters September 26.

Also Read: New Film From The Daniels Among Recipients of California Film and TV Tax Credits

It's the second Anderson film to be based on a Thomas Pynchon novel. The reclusive author also wrote the 2009 novel that inspired Inherent Vice, which starred Joaquin Phoenix as a stoner detective.

One Battle After Another is inspired by Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland, set in 1984, which follows 1960s rebels who are tracked down by a relentless federal prosecutor.

The new film seems to take considerable liberties with the source material — it's set in the modern day, not the 1980s.

The Wall Street Journal reported in August that the Warner Bros. film is budgeted at $140 million, with DiCaprio earning a $20 million salary.

That figure has earned some headlines, because Anderson's top-grossing film so far, There Will Be Blood, took in $76 million at the box office. 

But the higher budget for One Battle After Another has been justified by DiCaprio's involvement — he remains one of few truly bankable movie stars – and the prestige associated with directing a PT Anderson film.

You can't put a price, the logic goes, on releasing a new film from the director of Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread.

Main image: One Battle After Another, by Paul Thomas Anderson. Warner Bros.

But First

It's easy (and hackneyed) to say SNL characters have gone soft. Comedy is always changing, getting both more and less sensitive: Some things that were once edgy, like making fun of the president, no longer raise an eyebrow. And some jokes, like broad stereotypes, get less funny when you meet more of the people being mocked, instead of seeing them as some distant, foreign "other."

But SNL characters have also changed in part because the ways of complaining about them have changed. For the first three or four decades of Saturday Night Live, viewer complaints about SNL characters or sketches were mostly relegated to NBC switchboards and letters that the general public didn’t read.

Now, complaints fly across social media, people tag advertisers, and there’s a snowball effect that many comedians — especially those on large corporate shows — would just as soon avoid. That’s why the following SNL characters probably wouldn’t fly today. Even if some of them are funny.

Chico Escuela

“Weekend Update” is an oft-used avenue for cast members to portray SNL characters who don’t work as well within the parameters of sketches. It’s one of the places Gilda Radner most thrived.

Like Radner, Garrett Morris was an original SNL cast member. One of his biggest SNL characters was Chico Escuela, a Dominican baseball player spoke with a broad Latin accent and had a limited grasp of English.

And… that was the joke. He’s one of the most beloved SNL characters for early fans of the show, but we can’t imagine him popping up now.

Uncle Roy

Before Christopher Walken or Alec Baldwin, there was Buck Henry. Though he was best known as a writer (an Oscar-winning one at that), Henry did a bit of acting, and between 1976 and 1980 he hosted Saturday Night Live a whopping 10 times. Henry was around so much, he even had some recurring SNL characters.

One of them was Uncle Roy. He definitely feels born out of the National Lampoon style of anything-goes comedy, and indeed one of the writers who contributed to Uncle Roy was Anne Beatts, a graduate of the magazine. The Lampoon ethos was that nothing was too dark.

All that is to say that the entire “game” of the Uncle Roy sketches is that he is a pedophile babysitter. The sketches were on the line even then, but today’s more sensitive audiences likely wouldn’t go for the Uncle Roy jokes. Nor would the safer SNL writers of today.

Garrett Morris, Headmaster of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing

Garrett Morris would deliver "News for the Hard of Hearing" by simply repeating what Weekend Update anchor Chevy Chase said, but really loud.

You can make the case that he isn't really a "character," since, obviously, he shares a name with SNL cast member Garrett Morris. But Chase would introduce him as the "headmaster of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing," which Morris was not, so we're calling him a character.

Also Read: SNL Gone Wild: 12 Behind the Scenes Stories of Saturday Night Live

The Samurai

Modern-day SNL is far more likely to mock cultural appropriation than to engage in it, and the joke of John Belushi's Samurai was how closely he mimicked Toshiro Mifune's character in Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo — while putting him in ridiculous situations like working as a hotel clerk, at a deli, or at a dry cleaner.

Interestingly, the Samurai is never mocked — he's extremely serious and competent, and the humor is in the juxtaposition between his skill and the very normal jobs he performs. Our personal favorite is the utterly surreal Samurai Night Fever, in which Belushi somehow does the Samurai and John Travolta at the same time, and O.J. Simpson plays his brother.

Is there any way this once-beloved character could still be on SNL? No, according to none other than SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels.

"There's almost nothing we did in the seventies that we would do now," Michaels is quoted as saying in Susan Morrison's excellent new biography, Lorne. "We couldn't do 'News for the Hard of Hearing, the Samurai, Uncle Roy."

The Bel-Airabs

“The Bel-Airabs” only recurred once, in part because all the cast members involved left after the 1979-80 season, which is when both sketches aired. It was a parody of The Beverly Hillbillies, which the core audience for SNL had likely either watched as kids or seen in reruns. There’s a reason why all those old sitcoms were turned into arch, meta movies in the 1990s.

The premise of “The Bel-Airabs” is that the fish-out-of-water California transplants are Arabic — they’re described as “paranoid” Arabs. And they’re broadly played by non-Arabs Don Novello, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner.

After many movies that portrayed Arabic people are terrorists, people are much more thoughtful today in their portrayals. Which would make “The Bel-Airabs” a tough sell today as SNL characters go.

Also Read: The 15 Best SNL Characters of All Time

Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer

Havnagootiim may not be distinctively remembered, but he actually appeared nine times total. They just happened to be spread across only the eighth and ninth seasons of the show. The name is some sweaty “Indian-ified” version of the phrase “Having a good time, wish you were here” and his look was something in the vein of Gandhi, or a Hare Krishna perhaps. That is to say, a broad caricature.

The SNL character would appear as an “enlightened master” of Hindu philosophy and would answer questions about life, the universe, and everything. It was just a “first thought, best thought” sketch with some nod to Indian mysticism. And, yes, Havnagootiim was played by a white guy, specifically Tim Kazurinsky.

Ching Chang

If we were putting together an all-time SNL cast, Dana Carvey would be in the mix. He excelled at the form. Wayne wouldn’t be half as good of a character without Garth. The Church Lady is an iconic SNL character. His Bush is perhaps the best (by which we mean funniest, not most accurate) presidential impression the show has ever had. No cast member bats 1.000, though, and that brings us to Ching Chang.

If you are not familiar with Ching Chang, but that name has you worried, yeah, it’s what you think. Ching Chang is one of the worst characters in SNL history. Carvey plays an Asian man in cringe-inducing makeup with a brutal accent as well. The sketches are mostly about Ching Chang’s love for his chickens, and how he wants them on Broadway.

You could have extracted some of the absurdist meat out of these sketches and turned them into something. But… we don’t see this one flying today.

Tonto

Credit where it is due: The comedic conceit of the Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein sketches is funny. Tonto and Tarzan are two characters who speak succinctly and infrequently, whereas Frankenstein can barely speak at all, and mostly just growls and yells.

Bringing these three laconic characters, with idiosyncratic speech patterns together, and having them appear as a singing group or on a soap opera, was funny.

Phil Hartman was fun as Frankenstein, and there are no issues there. Kevin Nealon would play Tarzan, who is a wild man raised in the jungle by apes. He’s, you know, fully fictional in concept. Tonto, though, is an American Indian character. Saturday Night Live was accurately depicting how Tonto was depicted on The Lone Ranger, so maybe that could fly. But Jon Lovitz playing Tonto probably wouldn’t.

The Sensitive Naked Man

In two 1990s sketches, Rob Schneider plays a clothes-averse gentleman who doesn’t see the problem, whether at home or at the ballpark. It’s kind of whatever, but the way the sketches were filmed would almost assuredly not be replicated. Schneider was, purportedly, actually undressed while filming these sketches.

Maybe he had something covering him, but his backside was clearly visible a couple of times. Plus, in these days of intimacy coordinators, it would be awkward to ask cast members or hosts to do a live sketch with someone not wearing anything.

Vinny Vedecci

The premise of the Vinny Vedecci sketches is very funny: Bill Hader plays an old-school Italian talk show host whose team perpetually books guests — like Robert De Niro — whom they erroneously assume can speak Italian. Chaos ensues.

So what’s the problem? Look, we’re not saying Vinny Vedecci is an SNL character who wouldn’t fly today — Bill Hader is saying that.

He has said an Italian woman told him that she disliked the character because he sounded like a gibberish version of her father, which made him lose his taste for playing him.

Gay Hitler

Many are squeamish about comedic portrayals of Adolf Hitler — it’s hard to find anything funny about a genocidal maniac who killed millions, and who many misguided souls still praise.

Though many greats, like Mel Brooks, a Jewish American who fought in World War II, have made great Hitler jokes, Chris Kattan’s take may not justify the shock value. He playsed Hitler as a Paul Lynde-esque gay man, and it’s mostly just broad mugging.

The modern SNL would like not consider the potential laughs worth the potential backlash.

Merv the Perv

Chris Parnell is an underrated Saturday Night Live cast member — in some ways an understated heir apparent to Phil Hartman. He was a utility player who didn’t do a ton of broad, one-note characters, and often would play deadpan to everybody else’s chaos.

But Parnell did get a couple recurring sketches, though. One of those is Merv the Perv. The Merv sketches were basically a clearing house for any raunchy, bad puns the writers could think of. Merv the Perv would show up to some place with a lot of women, deliver a series of puns to no avail, and then in the end rip his pants off to a chorus of “Oh, Merv!” from the ladies.

Merv debuted in 2002, over 20 years ago. It feels like, these days, a pitch for a character called “Merv the Perv” who says lewd things to women and then takes his pants off would probably be nixed the first time it was pitched.

Pat

Why Pat wouldn’t get the green light now is probably obvious. In a New York Times interview, Julia Sweeney recounted that her own daughter has told her, “It really feels like that character is just about making fun of someone where you can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman.”

Sweeney has wrestled with the portrayal of her most popular SNL character, including in her 2019 one-woman show Julia Sweeney: Older and Wider.

“I didn’t do that character to make anyone feel bad,” Sweeney told the Times. “On the other hand, I created a character and then people happened to look like that character. I’m not responsible if they take it negatively, either. So that’s a complicated situation.”

Liked This List of SNL Characters They Wouldn’t Try Today?

You may also enjoy this list of the 13 Best SNL Sketches of All Time or this list of Rad '80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember.

Think we missed any SNL characters that wouldn’t fly today? Or disagree with us? Let us know in the comments.

Main image: SNL. NBC

Esther Williams (Million Dollar Mermaid, 1952)

Esther Williams was a competitive swimmer and actress beloved for a run of films, starting in the mid-1940s, that highlighted her ability to perform gorgeously choreographed routines — often underwater — in films like Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and Dangerous When Wet (1953).

We don't know exactly how long she could hold her breath underwater, but she clearly pushed herself to the limit: She repeatedly ruptured an eardrum from the hours she spent in studio tanks.

She died in 2013 at the age of 91.

Ricou Browning (Creature From the Black Lagoon, 1954)

The director, actor, producer, screenwriter, underwater cinematographer and stuntman started out performing in water shows, then in underwater newsreels, and was offered the role of Gill-man, aka The Creature From the Black Lagoon, after a film crew asked him to show them around a location — and then to swim for the camera. He ended up starring in the film's sequels, as well.

Browning told Florida's Ocala StarBanner newspaper in 2013 that he could hold his breath underwater for up to four minutes, but only in optimal conditions: "If you're swimming fast or fighting, you use up a lot of oxygen, and it cuts it down to, at the most, two minutes."

Browning died in February at the age of 93.

Shelly Winters (The Poseidon Adventure, 1972)

Shelly Winters reportedly learned to hold her breath for up to four minutes while making the ensemble-cast disaster epic The Poseidon Adventure, about an aging luxury liner overturned by a tsunami. She was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Winters died in 2006 at the age of 85.

Val Kilmer (Top Secret, 1984)

Top Secret is an absurdist cross between a war movie and an Elvis movie, starring Val Kilmer as American singer Nick Rivers, who goes behind enemy lines and falls in love with a German woman fighting fascists. Its many brilliant set pieces — including a scene shot backwards and a scene where a station pulls away from a train — build up to an underwater Western-style fistfight.

Directors David Zucker and Jim Abrahams told ScreenCrush in 2014 that the actors in the scene held their breath underwater while they shot in 10 or 15 second increments, then returned to the surface.

"The hardest part was not laughing and running out of oxygen," added Kilmer. "I got my [diving] certificate for that sequence and still enjoy diving today!"

Kurt Russell (Poseidon, 2006)

How long did Kurt Russell hold his breath for this Poseidon Adventure remake? Long enough that he almost fell unconscious.

"There's a scene where I'm underwater a long time, which means I had to entrust myself to someone to come in and give me air at exactly the right moment. That's spooky stuff," he told The Los Angeles Daily News.

"I wanted to see what the experience was like, but, psychologically, that's hard to do . . . letting go and trusting that you won't drown."

Russell added: "The third time, when the guy swam out and put the regulator in my mouth, I don't remember it. I was that close to the edge."

Jessica Alba (Into the Blue, 2005)

Jessica Alba took up free diving when she worked on the late '90s TV show The New Adventures of Flipper, and carried her experience over to Into the Blue, a heist thriller in which she co-starred with the late Paul Walker.

"Free diving is like an extreme sports version of snorkeling," she told CBS News in 2005. "That's about 50 feet deep. And basically what you do is you hold your breath and you wear a weight belt and go down as fast as possible and hold your breath for minutes at a time. "

Alba said she and her fellow actors would compete at it: "I think I had the longest breath-hold. It was like one minute, 20 seconds," she said.

Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, 2015)

Tom Cruise explained in an Access Hollywood video when Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation was released that "normally in underwater sequences, people hold their breath for 10 seconds, 15 seconds max.”

But he says he of course learned to hold his breath for six minutes for a sequence in which his super-spy Ethan Hunt has to infiltrate a place to get a thing and of course can't wear any scuba gear, because.

Long story short, there's nothing Maverick won't do to show up Iceman. (Kilmer, of course, played Iceman opposite Cruise's Maverick in Top Gun, released in 1986.)

Sigourney Weaver (Avatar: The Way of Water, 2022)

Sigourney Weaver explained on Live With Kelly and Ryan (above) that she learned to hold her breath underwater for a six-and-a-half minute "static breath hold," while making the massive hit Avatar: The Way of Water.

Kate Winslet (Avatar: The Way of Water, 2022)

Hollywood's champion of actors who can hold their breath for a long time, Kate Winslet clocked 7 minutes and 14 seconds while making Avatar: The Way of Water, using the same techniques as Sigourney Weaver.

We all have the same question, right? Which is...

Wait, Why Did Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver Need to Hold Their Breath for Avatar: The Way of Water?

The whole movie is CGI, right? Did they even need to go in the water?

The film's director of photography, Peter Zuccarini, says yes — the actors needed to appear underwater in order to make their CGI images look good, but air bubbles from scuba gear got in the way of the small markers on the actors' faces and bodies that allow James Cameron to add CGI later in post-production.

Okay, back to No. 10 on our list...

Mabel Cadena (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, 2022)

Cadena, who plays Namora in the Black Panther sequel, said in an interview with Screen Rant that she almost broke Kate Winslet's record for holding one's breath underwater.

"My first immersion was around 30 seconds, and the same day I [was able to do] six minutes and thirty-five seconds," Cadena said. "The training was amazing, because in the same day I can have a big difference [from] my first immersion to my second immersion. I'm very competitive, so Chris, my coach, told me, 'Kate Winslet has the record, so if you want to be the winner, you need to learn a lot of things.'"

What Is the Record for Holding Your Breath Underwater?

It isn't held by Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver or Tom Cruise, but rather by a professional diver: Budimir Šobat's holds the improbable world record of 24 minutes and 37 seconds.

Liked This List of Actors Who've Held Their Breath Underwater for an Absurdly Long Time?

If so, we suspect you'll love this gallery about another film by the guys who made Top Secret — a behind the scenes stories of the jive talk jokes in Airplane.

Main image: Jessica Alba in Into the Blue. Sony.

Forty-six of the 51 approved projects are for independent features. In all, the 51 projects are expected to generate nearly $580 million in economic activity and employ more than 6,490 people as cast and crew, the California Film Commission announced. They are also expected to fuel the hiring of 37,000 background performers, measured by days worked.

The Daniels project, from NBCUniversal, is expected to have $106,776,000 in qualified expenditures and receive a credit allocation of $20,784,000, making it one of the biggest projects on the list. The biggest is an unnamed Warner Bros. film that is expected to have $107,782,000 in qualified expenditures and to receive $20,096,000 in credits. Details were scarce on the nature of the two biggest projects.

The Daniels on the Benefits of California Film and TV Tax Credits

The Daniels, aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, are making their new project will producer Jonathan Wang, and it is expected in theaters next year.

“We are LA filmmakers, with very dear LA friends, who happen to be some of the greatest creative talents we’ve worked with,” said The Daniels and Wang in a joint statement. “On Everything Everywhere All At Once, we received the California tax credit, and had we not, it would have been utterly impossible to make that film.

"We were also deeply moved by the CFC’s commitment to supporting local filmmakers and the broader community. We're thrilled to have the opportunity to film our next project in Los Angeles, creating jobs and opportunities for countless Californians.”

Added Colleen Bell, director of the California Film Commission: “The devastating wildfires in Southern California have presented unprecedented challenges for our film and television community, disrupting more than a dozen productions within our Film & Television Tax Credit Program alone and impacting countless more.

“These disruptions have impacted employment for thousands of cast and crew members, affecting everything from production schedules and financing to housing and location access. Now more than ever, this program is a critical tool to help productions recover, keeping jobs and investment here in our state, all while ensuring that California remains the heart of the entertainment industry.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, said the projects would benefit people across the state, in all walks of life.

“While other states try to chase California’s on-screen success, everyone knows the Golden State is the entertainment capital of the world – built through decades of innovation and hard work," he said. "Today’s awards are vital to keeping production where it belongs – generating thousands of good-paying jobs ‘below the line,’ and supporting the local businesses that rely on a thriving film and television industry."

Another notable project to receive the tax credits is an untiled drag queen movie from World of Wonder Productions and producer RuPaul Charles. It secured $1.7 million in tax credits and will have estimated wages of $4.4 million and total qualified spending of $6.6 million.

"Category is: there's no place like home!" Charles said. "As someone who's produced a TV series in Los Angeles for 17 years, I'm thrilled that our feature film, 'Untitled Drag Queen Movie,' is receiving tax credits from the California Film Commission. These incentives have been instrumental in supporting our financing. And best of all, we're getting people back to work in Hollywood."

Main image: The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once. A24.