25 Movie Moments You Didn't See Coming Because Let's Face It: Foreshadowing Is A Tricky Little Tactic
1."In Scream (1996), this scene in the beginning of the movie hinted at the killer's true identity. If you looked at the shoes of the characters, you could see that Billy and Stu were wearing black boots (the very same black boots Ghostface was seen wearing throughout the movie)."
2."In 500 Days of Summer (2009), when asked who was going to sing karaoke next, Summer nominated Tom by saying, 'I nominate young Werther here!' This was a reference to German poet and novelist Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is about a doomed romantic relationship."
3."In Batman Returns (1992), you could see Selina Kyle's eyeglasses project the Catwoman mask on her face."
4."In The Godfather (1972), I noticed for the first time the visual foreshadowing to the famous 'sleeps with the fishes' line on the bar's glass window."
5."In Love and Leashes (2022), after the dog collar meant for Ji-hoo was discovered by Ji-woo, he used the excuse that it was for his poodle. Later on in the movie, his profile picture on his phone was a poodle."
6."In Encanto (2021), every member of the Madrigal family (except Antonio) could be seen when they were getting ready for the gifting celebration — even Bruno! You could spot Bruno on the top right balcony as Mirabel walked in, foreshadowing that Bruno was living in Casita the whole time."
7."In Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Howard Stark told Steve that Hydra 'won’t attack you with pocket knives.' Then, at the end of the movie, a Hydra agent attacked Captain America with a pocket knife."
8."In The Ring (2002), Aidan's teacher was wearing a blouse with horse figures on it, suggesting the same hint could be found on the tape."
9."In Palm Springs (2020), Nana Schlieffen's dialogue hinted that she was actually an important character. She had 'seen more weddings in [her] life than you can imagine,' and said to Sarah 'I suppose you'll be going soon' on the day that she and Nyles attempted to leave the loop. It suggested that Nana was also part of the time loop and had not attempted to leave the loop (she instead opted to revisit her family’s wedding every day)."
10."In Fight Club (1999), I noticed this scene's significance today for the first time. The Narrator was talking about his father going to a different city every six years and starting a new family. Tyler Durden replied with a comment mentioning 'franchises,' and we eventually found out Tyler had been setting up franchises of fight clubs in different cities."
11."In Blade Runner 2049 (2017), K was framed as a shadow of Dr. Stelline. In this scene, K was attempting to determine the origin of one of his memories. They cleverly framed him as a shadow of Dr. Stelline, who was actually the person who experienced the memory. His memory was only a donated shadow of hers."
12."In Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Venom discarded all the red M&M's before Carnage was seen by Eddy or himself. This was because Venom was scared of 'the red ones' (he used this term when referring to red Aliens such as Carnage). His fear led him to retreat when seeing Carnage for the first time."
13."In A Beautiful Mind (2001), Marcee ran through a group of birds, but it wasn't real. Marcee was a hallucination, which was part of John's schizophrenia — that's why the birds didn't react to her presence and scatter away."
14."In The Princess and the Frog (2009), Prince Naveen's fortune card had him on a lily pad on the front with frogs on the back, foreshadowing his fate of turning into a frog."
15."In Corpse Bride (2005), when Victor accidentally married Emily, there was a flock of crows where he found her. A flock of crows is called 'a murder.'"
16."In The Visit (2015), you could see Pop Pop's shirt was very baggy, and the suit was large on him as well. This foreshadowed the plot twist: The grandparents seen in the film weren't the children's actual grandparents. They were escaped patients from the mental hospital where the grandparents worked as counselors. They murdered the real grandparents and masqueraded as them for the grandchildren, occupying their home while the real grandparents were corpses in the basement. The shirt and suit didn't fit Pop Pop because they weren't his clothes, cleverly foreshadowing that the 'grandparents' weren't who they seemed to be."
17."In The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Miranda Tate said, 'You have to invest if you wish to restore balance to the world.' This foreshadowed that Talia al Ghul was actually the daughter of Ra's al Ghul."
18."In The Voyeurs (2021), Pippa mentioned author Emma Straub when describing one of Julia's options for new glasses. Julia was later seen reading an Emma Straub novel."
19."In Clue (1985), just as the cook turned to look out the kitchen hatch at the guests, Wadsworth stepped in front of Mrs. Peacock as she turned, blocking the cook from her view. Wadsworth was preventing Mrs. Peacock from realizing that her old cook was at the house."
20."In Megamind (2010), Hal read a book called Best Comic Book Villains Ever, which showed that Hal wasn't ever interested in being a hero. He always wanted to be a supervillain (this was also before he turned into Tighten)."
21."In Your Name (2016), the wristband on Taki's hand acted as a subtle indication of who Taki was, as he only wore it when he was himself."
22."In Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the forensics officer said the yellow paint at the crime scene was from Roger’s gloves. We saw later on that the real killer’s toon weapons were all yellow."
23."In Coco (2017), the guitar lick Miguel copied from the Ernesto de la Cruz video he was watching was the same guitar lick that Hector played while tuning Cheech’s guitar on the tram. This foreshadowed that Hector wrote all of de la Cruz’s songs."
24."In the beginning of Game Night (2018), there was a sign on the subway that read, 'DON'T TRUST GARY.' This foreshadowed Jesse Plemons' character, whose name was Gary."
25.And last: "In Knives Out (2019), 'Sundown' by Gordon Lightfoot played at the bar where Ransom convinced Marta to share her inheritance. When Chris Evans appeared onscreen, the lyrics 'Sundown, you better take care, if I find you been creepin' 'round my back stairs' played, providing two foreshadows. The first foreshadow was Ransom creeping up the back stairs to tamper with Harlan's medicine, and the second was Lightfoot writing 'Sundown' about Cathy Smith (the woman who injected John Belushi with heroin and cocaine, which led to his death)."
Note: Some posts have been edited for length and/or clarity.
