Over on Reddit, people in r/moviedetails have been calling out the most clever foreshadowing in film history. Here are their most “OMG” submissions:
1.
“In Forrest Gump (1994), Lieutenant Dan mocks Forrest, saying, ‘If you’re ever a shrimp boat captain, that’s the day I’m an astronaut!’ Later, when he shows Forrest the new legs lifting him off the ground, he taps them with his cane and says, ‘Titanium alloy. It’s what they use on the space shuttle.'”
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 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), when Dr. Trask warns the President about Mystique, he says, ‘She can transform into anyone: a general, a Secret Service man, even you, Mr. President.’ Throughout the movie, Mystique turns into each one, in that order.”
4.
“In Donnie Darko (2001), the Life Line Exercise Card that Donnie was given to mark is about a girl finding a lost wallet. Later, Donnie finds Jim Cunningham’s wallet on the sidewalk outside his mansion.”
5.
“In Psycho (1960), shortly after Norman is introduced, we see him speaking to Marion Crane. He has a prominent reflection in the window throughout most of the conversation, symbolizing and revealing his hidden dual personality.”
6.
“In The Monster Squad (1987), the mom comforts Phoebe by placing a lit candle next to her bed, telling her nothing bad can happen as long as it’s there. Later in the movie, a candle blows out just before Dracula crashes into their house like a bolt of lightning.”
7.
“In Animal House (1978), Larry’s name tag is written so that everyone at the snobby Omega house calls him Lonny at the rush party. But when he gets to the Delta house, Katie immediately calls him by his correct name, indicating that he belongs at Delta.”
8.
“In Mr. Mom (1983), early on, there is a discussion between Jack and factory workers about the movie Rocky where Jack says, ‘When you’re down, you’re not necessarily out.’ A worker then imitates the Rocky theme song. Jack later heeds his own advice, and his turnaround montage uses the Rocky theme song.”
9.
“In The Mask (1994), Stanley gets tickets to the Royal Crown Revue and gives them away. He gets to hear them later at the CocoBongo Club.”
10.
“In Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), when Bill and Ted meet their future selves, you can see that the future selves’ phone booth has the repaired antenna. The event in which they repair the antenna has not happened at this point in the film yet.”
11.
“In The Social Network (2010), Zuckerberg states that he doesn’t want to ‘install pop-ups for Mountain Dew’ because he’d be selling out. Throughout the deposition scenes, he’s seen with a can of Mountain Dew.”
12.
“In Dawn of the Dead (2004), the Televangelist who delivers the iconic ‘the dead will walk the Earth’ line blames the dead rising on specific sins, each of which happens during the film. Sex out of wedlock (Monica and Steve), killing unborn children (the zombie baby), and man-on-man relations (Glen).”
13.
“In Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Eddie Valiant is able to save Roger and Jessica by acting like a clown for the weasels. Near the start of the movie, the camera moves past a photo in Eddie’s office of him and his brother performing as clowns in their youth, explaining how he learned to do that.”
14.
“In Iron Man 3 (2013), Tony unknowingly foreshadows the battle at his house when having a conversation with Pepper.”
15.
“In Cabin Fever (2002), Marcy and Paul have a playful exchange during the campfire scene about how trauma bonds people. This foreshadows how they grow closer during the traumatic events of the film, and ultimately become lovers.”
16.
“In Big Fish (2003), during Edward’s deployment in the Korean War, the language switches between Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Tagalog. This further establishes Edward as an unreliable narrator. You can even see Edward reading an ‘Asian to English’ dictionary before his jump.”
17.
“In Coraline (2009), Miss Spink and Forcible’s apartment resembled a theatre with the furnace and curtains resembling the stage, the shelves resembling the balconies, and the sofa resembling the seashell from their other versions’ performance later in the film.”
18.
“In Up (2009), this movie foreshadows the bird Kevin and the dog Dug as a poster drawing on the right of the little girl’s room.”
19.
“In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), the background animations in the opening credits are related to the characters of the actors, and for the evil exes, their number appears in the last frame.”
20.
“In Deep Impact (1998), while Jenny is searching the internet for E.L.E, an ad is seen saying, ‘You’ve got some ocean coming.’ This foreshadows her fate at the end of the movie.”
21.
“In Fukushima 50 (2020), during the earthquake, a sign in the control room reads: ‘Three Safety Rules: Stop, Cool, Contain’ in Japanese. This foreshadows the disaster that unfolds later in the film.”
22.
“In Renfield (2023), there are posters behind Rebecca and Renfield, both describing their personalities. Renfield wants to be free from Dracula, and Rebecca is dedicated to bringing down the Lobos.”
23.
“In The Prince & Me (2004), they give Morgan a ‘going away danish’ at the end of her summer job. She ends up falling in love with the Danish prince later in the movie.”
24.
“In The Town (2010), when the note is left on Agent Frawley’s car, it’s tucked beneath the FBI antenna. Earlier in the film, Doug explicitly tells him the details on how to identify an FBI car by the rear antenna.”
25.
“In Batman Returns (1992), you could see Selina Kyle’s eyeglasses project the Catwoman mask on her face.”
26.
“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.”
27.
“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.”
28.
“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.”
29.
“In Major League (1989), Harry Doyle says you can tell how the season is gonna go based on the first batter of the season. Hays leads off with an infield single in the first game. Jake Taylor ends the last game of the movie (ALCS) with an infield single.”
30.
“In Hot Fuzz (2007), Met Sergeant is reading Angel’s file. He mentions that Angel does extracurricular activities, and we see briefly two of these in a quick montage, which comes back in the final fight at the end.”
31.
“In Rocky II (1979), in the beginning, when Rocky is playing stickball with the neighborhood kids, he is holding his left eye to judge distance. This foreshadows why Mickey makes him switch to right-handed boxing to protect the eye.”
32.
“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.”
33.
“In Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Venom discarded all the rest M&M’s before Carnage was seen by Eddie 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.”
34.
“In Paprika (2006), there’s a painting of a Sphynx and a Warrior holding a spear that appears in the background. Later in the dream, Paprika and Osanai turn into the same figures.”
35.
“In Late Night with the Devil (2023), you see a cover of a magazine. At the bottom, you see the name Abraxas, the name of the demon who is worshipped in the film by a cult and also The Grove, a secret men-only society that the protagonist Jack Delroy belongs to.”
36.
“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.'”
37.
“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).”
38.
“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.”
39.
“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).”
40.
“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.”
41.
“In the first ending of Clue (1985), Wadsworth claims that two bullets hit the chandelier, when it was actually only one. When Wadsworth accidentally fires the gun later, it hits the chandelier. So by the end of the film, two bullets did indeed hit the chandelier.”
42.
“In Total Recall (1990), every event that Bob McClane lists as a reason real holidays are a ‘pain in the butt’ happens to Doug Quaid on his trip to Mars.”
43.
“In Curse of Chucky (2013), there’s an early hint towards a big reveal when Nica is doing research about the Chucky doll.”
44.
“In Boogie Nights (1997), when Jack sees Eddie/Dirk for the first time, there are neon stars in the background, foreshadowing Dirk becoming ‘a big bright shining star’ in the porn industry.”
45.
“In Spider-Man 2 (2004), one of the titles on the first page of The Daily Bugle just before Spider-Man swings to fight Doc Ock says, ‘MTA insider concerned over aging Al-train.’ The subsequent fight with Doc Ock does involve a train that is about to crash.”
46.
“In Free Guy (2021), Guy wakes up next to a fishbowl every day. This is a reference to Keys talking about Life Itself as a ‘fishbowl game’ later on.”
47.
“In The Stupids (1996), Floyd’s Delicatessen tells the family, ‘We’ll have you taken care of in less than an hour.’ He shows up and unknowingly saves the day 53 minutes later in the runtime.”
48.
“In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Rick Dalton sings ‘Green Door’ on Hullabaloo. The song was referenced as a ‘portal to hell’ by late-’60s Manson-like cult leader David Berg. Rick Dalton also happens to have a green front door to his home.”
49.
“In Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Lazar Wolf gives Tzeitel extra meat, indicating his interest in her as a bride.”
50.
And finally, “In The Princess Bride (1987), Inigo laments to Westley that he only works for Vizzini to pay the bills, as there’s ‘not a lot of money in revenge.’ At the end of the film, Westley suggests Inigo become the new Dread Pirate Roberts, captain of the pirate ship Revenge.”