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30 Times Clever Foreshadowing In Movies Made People Feel Silly And Shocked After Mistaking It For Poor Filmmaking
Sometimes, what you see on the screen isn’t a mistake—it’s a subtle detail, foreshadowing the future of the story. A keen eye for details can help a perceptive viewer spot some very unusual filmmaking and scriptwriting decisions. While some might write these off as weird errors or bloopers, others, with a more detective-like inclination, might put the entire plot together and see some major twists coming a mile away.
The silver screen-loving crowd at the popular r/movies online community had a lot of fun sharing their experiences with clues sprinkled throughout movies—both subtle and overt—that gave away the plot twists to come… only they wrote them off due to poor filmmaking.
If you’re a fan of films or have an unusually good eye for details, then you’re going to enjoy reading what they wrote, Pandas. Scroll down for the most interesting responses that we’ve collected to share with you. Got any similar experiences with writing off movie hints? Tell us all about it in the comments.
Warning: keep in mind, Pandas, there are going to be a bunch of spoilers below, so be careful if you haven't seen some of these movies before.
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#1
In Star Wars episode VIII, The Last Jedi, there is a scene where Luke is fighting on a powdery surface. He didn’t leave footprints! I remember clearly thinking “wow, someone is going to get fired for that cr*ppy CGI!”
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#2
I didn't notice until it was pointed out but it's one of my favorite stories. In Fight Club Tyler is driving and the Narrator is in the front passenger seat. After the crash the car is upside down so it's easy to miss it, but Tyler gets out of the passenger side and the Narrator gets out of the driver side.
The story is that the continuity checkers on the movie did notice and called out the mistake only to be told to keep watching.
#3
In A Beautiful Mind, the little girl is trying to get a bunch of pigeons to fly. She's running around them, but none of them fly away. It's a short scene, which TOTALLY gives away that she's not real, but it's so easy to not notice what's happening.
The thread, started up by u/PillsburyDohMeeple, quickly went viral, netting over 27k upvotes. Redditors began sharing their own experiences, having faced moments of brilliant foreshadowing that went over their head. Meanwhile, others actually revealed that they spotted the very same clues and realized what was going on.
Honestly, a very genuine ‘well done’ to the latter! Yours truly has a coin-flip relationship with subtle story details: I miss half the hints but manage to pick up on some random clues. So I’m very impressed by someone who’s able to piece together the entire mystery before everyone else.
#4
The Arrival scenes being flash forwards instead of flashbacks.
#5
So in the Bond film Goldfinger, Mr. Goldfinger plans to poison the army base by dusting it with gas from a plane.
When the scene in the movie happens, the planes fly overhead and release their gas onto the crowds below, and soldiers keel over dead. Like immediately, some of them are hitting the ground before the plane even reaches them, and it's such obviously bad acting.
>!Then you discover that the henchwoman alerted the government and replaced the gas, the soldiers really *were* acting and it was all a counter-plan to trap Auric and his associates when they show up to the "defenseless" base!<.
#6
The Good Place, hands down. I viewed it as a light comedy so when things in the first season seemed off to me or characters weren’t consistent I tossed it up to a simple writing process that prioritized a quick laugh. I could not have been more wrong.
Onion Cutting Ninja 2 years ago
What an amazing show. The season 3 ending had me in tears. That final episode of season 1 is probably my favorite episode of anything ever.
This also speaks to the quality of writing, as well as the ingenuity of the director and other members of the filmmaking team. If they’re able to pepper the plot with subtle and overt clues for the audience to find, they’re doing an amazing job telling the story.
If, on the other hand, there’s absolutely no way to figure out the twists to come (well, apart from some lucky guesswork), then that might be a sign of a poor writing team or an inexperienced director. The clues should always be there. When you finish the story, whether that’s a movie, TV show, or a book, you ought to be able to pick up on the hints when you rewatch/reread things. It’s a humbling but exciting feeling to know that everything was right under your nose the entire time. Hindsight is 20/20, after all.
#7
Knives Out. In the very beginning, I thought it was strange that Harlan never exhibited any of the symptoms of the poisoning that Marta was describing, right up to and including his death, but wrote it off as “I guess that wouldn’t be fun to watch.”
#8
In The Village, early on there’s a guy wearing jeans, and I was so proud of my sharp eye catching an error in costume accuracy.
Saint Thomas 2 years ago (edited)
(Spoiler in my comment, but the film is 18 years old anyway...) I guessed the twist 10 minutes or so into the movie. Nothing really gave it away, just a general impression. And the fact that at this point in his filmography, everybody knew Shyamalan used big plot twists in his movies. In the context of the movie, the one that came to my mind was : "the story happens in present time".
#9
In Van Helsing (2004), Dracula shows off that he doesn't appear in mirrors and I noticed none of the guests had a reflection either. I figured it was a mistake because the focus was on Dracula. It's later revealed all the guests are vampires too.
Ranger Kanootsen 2 years ago
Incredibly obvious, now that you say it. But I honestly didn't see that either!
#10
Shutter Island. So many giveaways right from the jump specifically for Mark Ruffalo's character. Right when they get to the island he's fumbling with his gun like he's never seen it before.
#11
Watching the Doctor Who Season 4 episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp", which has a bunch of twists for each of the characters (some revealed almost immediately, others kept back until the big reveal scene near the end).
One of the many posh characters gets asked where they were at a certain time, and they say "I went to the toilet." My mum looked annoyed and corrected them, because a posh person at that time would have said lavatory.
Turns out that was supposed to be a clue that this character wasn't who she said she was, and we missed it because my mum thought she was being clever.
Ranger Kanootsen 2 years ago
Doctor Who is one of the best Sci-Fi series I've ever seen, I highly recommend it to those who haven't watched!
#12
Hmm. I seem to recall thinking that they nerfed Nick Fury in Spider Man Far from Home, personality-wise. Like, he was still crabby and mean, but not as all-knowing and clever as in every other movie. I wrote it off as lazy writing to make room for Mysterio to fool everyone. I can't remember exactly what moments in the movie made me think that, but I definitely remember his decisions seeming "off" in a way that seemed like inconsistent writing or directing. The post-credits twist >!that it was Talos (the Skrull from Captain Marvel)!< was a bit of a relief.
#13
This is one my dad caught.
In The Usual Suspects it shows a close-up of Verbal walking with his characteristic limp, but the side of his shoe isn't scuffed up and worn down like it would if he walked like that all the time.
#14
The first Saw movie. I kept complaining to my dad that it was “so obvious” the villain was Zip, the janitor at the hospital, why were they still trying so hard to cover up the villain’s identity?
Like the big reveal is already done, what else is left to say?
Then Adam played Zip’s message and then John Kramer got up from the bathroom floor, I was SCREAMING.
Kitty 🇺🇦 2 years ago (edited)
How is this foreshadowing? I never saw the movie, but I remember hearing *SPOILER ALERT* that the villain was the other random dead guy on the floor faking it. If so, then how could that above stuff be foreshadowing disguised as poor filmmaking? It’s just a red herring, right?
#15
The Prestige!
I distinctly remember thinking it was weird that the movie seemingly wanted me to care so much about Christian Bale's friend despite how underdeveloped he was. Ending hit me like a train and I was furious that I didn't catch it.
#16
The Book of Eli. In the very beginning of the film Denzel trips walking up the steps to a house he's looting or squatting in (can't remember specifically). It wasn't like a full 'trip and fall' but like a stutter step where he kicks the first step and catches himself. I saw that and remember thinking, 'huh I'm surprised they didn't redo that take', then the twist happens and I sat there just blown away, like in disbelief. As soon as the credits started, I immediately started the film over again and was like, 'this is so f*****g obvious, how did I miss all this?' There are clues to the twist *all over* the film, he's constantly touching and bumping into things. They really got me good with this one.
#17
Also not a movie, but Invincible. I was baffled by JK Simmons ' completely flat line reading for the first several episodes. I was thinking, "He could even bring life to a yellow, peanut M&M. Jesus, did he just not care? This is really disheartening." But no, I was so wrong. It wasn't a detached actor not giving a s**t about the script. It was a detached alien wilfully not giving a s**t about the world around him, since he never considered it home and it was just another target to him.
I'm so sorry for doubting you Mr. Simmons.
#18
Not a movie - Squid Game
I disregarded the old man was not [taken out] in red light green light. I figured it was continuity error or actor couldn't accurately stop that quick due to age or something like that.
#19
A minor one, but last season on What We Do In The Shadows it seemed like Matt Berry(plays Laszlo) might be getting sick of the character since he wasn't being played as enthusiastically, but it turns out Laszlo knew bad news from the 2nd episode on! And, exactly opposite of any suspicions, Matt Berry is an excellent actor.
Dirk Daring 2 years ago
I remember thinking, Laszlo doesn't give a f*** about anything, why is he suddenly being such good chums with Colin Robinson? Then I remembered what a silly show it is, and to just enjoy it. The reveal by the end of the season shook me.
#20
Not a movie, but can feel like it at times...
In Stranger Things Season 4, I thought it was just a case of bad acting when >!Henry Creel, son of Victor Creel, seems completely unfazed by his dying family members, maybe a little uncomfortable at best.!<
It turns out it wasn't a case of a child actor not knowing how to act properly with proper emotions -- >!it turned out he was the one who caused their deaths!!<
Lord Mysticlaw 2 years ago
Tbh I didn't even realise it the first time because I wasn't focusing on him at all. Good catch!
#21
Psycho
When Norman brings mother downstairs to the fruit cellar, she’s screaming “put me down”, yet her entire body is still. Should’ve been an indicator that she wasn’t alive. Confused me at first as we saw “mother” moving well during the shower scene.
#22
It was barely five second foreshadowing, but in Spider-verse, when the Prowler was able to find Uncle Aaron's house, my first impression was that it was very convenient that he was able to catch up to Miles so quickly.
Then the twist occurred and I realised it wasn't convenient at all.
Henry Russell 2 years ago
this is the first one about a movie i watched and all the way down here
#23
I'll keep this a little vague in case there's someone out there who's got a VHS of the original Scream on their shelf and has been telling themselves for the past 25 years plus that they'll get round to watching it some day.
Towards the end there's a scene where a major character is stabbed multiple times in the gut, only it's really obvious their clothing hasn't actually been penetrated by the blade. I remember thinking "man, that's just really shoddy work from the costume dept." Moments later, there's that famous 'reveal'.
#24
“Us” when Lupita has no rhythm snapping along in the car
Ranger Kanootsen 2 years ago
? I've seen this movie, but I don't get what this means and what relevance it has. Could someone explain it to me??
#25
The Usual Suspects - I was working in a coffee shop when it came out and we roasted our own beans. Maybe once or twice a month the boss would fire up the roaster and roast hundreds of pounds. I also knew that before we ever recieved the raw beans, they'd been dried out for quite a while
Kevin Spacey talks about drinking coffee right off the tree and I thought "well, that doesn't seem right". Never occurred to me that it was a small clue that his story wasn't entirely on the up and up.
#26
Funny one but when Moon Knight first showed, a LOT of people had bad things to say about Oscaar's sh**ty British accent. Turns out there was a reason behind it...
#27
Vanilla Sky. I totally noticed the sky in one scene but wrote it off to just being stylistic
RafCo (he/him) 2 years ago
Ugg. So I had previously seen the movie "Abre los Ojos" (Open Your Eyes), the original Spanish movie (Vanilla Sky was an American adaptation of this movie). It was SO much better than Vanilla Sky.
#28
Ward in Agents of Shield. I thought he was just a terrible actor for most of season one. I thought it was weird that among all these interesting characters, they would add in the stereotypical agent man. Then the reveal after Winter Soldier f*****g blew my mind.
#29
Mulholland Drive.
The level of cheese and bad acting when Niomi Watts’ character is leaving the airport at the start.
Won’t say more.
#30
Memento. Thought it was pretty unrealistic that anyone in his condition would come anywhere close to tracking down a [criminal].
What do you think ?
Solidhog 2 years ago
Sixth Sense. I noticed when he walked into the resturant that his wife never actually looked at him or spoke to him. I said then that he was dead and a ghost. Spoilt the whole rest of the movies really.
Rachel Reynolds 2 years ago
My husband, a doctor, pointed out that based on where he was shot and the color of the blood, there was no way he would be able to survive. Turns out he was right.
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Solidhog 2 years ago
Sixth Sense. I noticed when he walked into the resturant that his wife never actually looked at him or spoke to him. I said then that he was dead and a ghost. Spoilt the whole rest of the movies really.
Rachel Reynolds 2 years ago
My husband, a doctor, pointed out that based on where he was shot and the color of the blood, there was no way he would be able to survive. Turns out he was right.
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