Actor Allusion/Film: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* In the 1999 movie ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'', [[Liam Neeson]] played the role of Qui-Gon Jinn (a mentor who taught Obi-Wan to conquer fear, to be mindful of his surroundings, etc...) and in the 2005 movie ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'', [[Liam Neeson]] played the role of Henri Ducard, (a mentor who taught Bruce to conquer fear, to be mindful of his surroundings, etc...) and it's easy for those familiar enough with ''[[Star Wars]]'' to feel reminded of Qui-Gon when watching ''Batman Begins'' scenes involving Ducard. One cannot help but suspect this was on purpose. Furthermore, the ninja training Ducard offers Bruce is also noticeably similar to jedi training as well, in involving strong self-discipline, careful stealth, refined swordfighting skills, etc... {{spoiler|the difference between the two mentors becomes apparent later in ''Batman Begins'', when it's revealed that Ducard is in fact Ra's al Ghul and is shown to be a genocidal [[Knight Templar]], absolutely convinced that destroying all of Gotham was the right thing to to... contrast this with Qui-Gon, who (save for [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|making it his dying wish for Obi-Wan to train Anakin]]) was portrayed primarily as having sound moral judgement.}}

* A joke played once straight and once as its converse with Chow Yun-Fat; in ''[[Anna and the King]]'', plays King Mongkut of Siam, who spent twenty years in a monastery before becoming king, and has since becoming king been... let's say, guaranteeing his bloodline. He says himself, he's been "making up for lost time." But later, as the Nameless Monk in [[Bulletproof Monk]], this exchange occurs...

* ''[[Bend It Like Beckham]]'' has a very short instance of this, when Juliette's mother explaining it's harder for female jocks to get boyfriends, saying "This is why Sporty Spice is the only one without a boyfriend." Melanie C (aka Sporty Spice), rewrote her song "Independence Day" so it could be in the film.

* ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'' shows [[Cary Grant]]'s character sitting by a tombstone that bears the name Archie Leach, Grant's real name.

* [[The Film of the Book]] ''[[Bridget Jones Diary]]'' had Colin Firth cast as Mark Darcy, Bridget's [[Love Interest]]. The book was based on [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', whose romantic lead is Fitzwilliam Darcy (this itself is referenced in a line about how Bridget finds it ridiculous of Mark to be named Darcy and stand by himself at a party). Colin Firth played a particularly memorable Mr. Darcy in a 1996 [[BBC]] television adaptation of ''P & P''. The character of Bridget Jones started in a column in ''[[British Newspapers|The Independent]]'' and the ''[[British Newspapers|Daily Telegraph]]'', and when the adaptation was being broadcast she would often mention how much she fancied him. His casting in ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' was a HUGE [[Actor Allusion]].

** Also, the only male actors mentioned in the novel ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' are Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Firth is Darcy, and Grant played Daniel Cleaver, Bridget's other [[Love Interest]]. Grant also starred in another [[Jane Austen]] dramatization, ''[[Sense and Sensibility (film)|Sense and Sensibility]]''.

** In ''X-Men: First Class'' Michael Fassbender is [[Inglorious Basterds|a multi-lingual Nazi hunter]] while James MacAvoy [[Wanted|is rather reluctant to shoot someone in the head]]. This might also extend to January Jones being [[Mad Men|a beautiful ice queen]].

* The ''[[Spaceballs]]'' parody of the ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|chestburster scene]] comes complete with John Hurt, who [[Hangs a Lampshade]] on it with the line, "Oh no, not again!"

** And towards the end of ''Epic Movie'', they parody ''[[Superman Returns]]'' - which Kal Penn had a role in.

* One of many good thing(s) about ''[[Meet the Spartans]]'' was when [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|the Captain]], played by Kevin Sorbo, said "Don't make me go [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys|Hercules]] on your ass!"

* In the 2003 ''[[Hulk (film)|Hulk]]'' film, Lou Ferrigno played a security guard (alongside Hulk's creator [[Stan Lee]]), and in ''[[The Incredible Hulk (film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' (the 2008 movie starring Edward Norton), he voiced the Hulk (as well as playing another security guard). Ferrigno played the Hulk in the [[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|1978-'82 live-action TV series]].

** In the 2008 movie, Edward Norton watches the Brazilian version of ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'', which starred Bill Bixby, who played David Bruce Banner in the Hulk live action TV series. The kindly owner of the pizza parlor is played by Paul Soles, who voiced the Hulk in the '60s cartoon.

* In the 2004 ''[[The Punisher|Punisher]]'' movie, Frank's old cop buddies are trying to calm him down by saying they understand that he's upset. He responds, in part, "I used to get ''upset'' when the Yankees won the Series." This is both a [[Shout-Out]] to the original Punisher, where Frank Castle was always depicted as a New Yorker. And its an [[Actor Allusion]] about the actor, Thomas Jane, whose biggest role prior was playing Mickey Mantle of the Yankees in ''61* ''

* ''[[Kung Pow]]'' has Mufasa from ''[[The Lion King]]'', played by [[James Earl Jones]], signing off with one of James's taglines: "This is CNN".

* In ''[[The Naked Gun]] 2½'', actor Lloyd Bochner has a small role as a member of a consortium of villains. Towards the end of the film, there's a hysterical crowd scene which features a split-second shot of him holding a large book entitled "[[To Serve Man]]", yelling "It's a cookbook!!" This is a reference to a [[wikipedia:To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone)|famous episode]] of the original ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' TV series which Bochner starred in.

** The climax of ''Naked Gun 33 1/3'' occurs at the Academy Awards, complete with a number of celebrities showing up as usual. Two of them are [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] and [[Wheel of Fortune|Vanna White]]. Frank and Jane tie them up with lights and drag them into the bushes, leaving a small but notable number of viewers wondering why they weren't [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/stuckinaclosetwithvannawhite.html stuffed into a closet] instead.

* ''Fanboys'' has several, including, but not necessarily limited to; Ray "Darth Maul" Park doing some of the acrobatics from his ''Star Wars'' role, and Carrie "Princess Leia" Fisher responding with "I know" to "I love you".

* [[Mark Hamill]]'s appearance in ''[[Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back]]'' is immediately followed by the message "Hey Kids it's Mark Hamill! (Applause!)" referring to his role as the voice of the Joker in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]''. Also when Jay cuts off his hand during a "bongsaber" fight, he [[Fourth Wall|looked at the camera]] and moaned "Not again."

* Danny Trejo almost constantly plays a character whose name is a type of knife (or the Spanish word for one), in particular, he is well known for his part in one of the 'trailers' shown during ''[[Grindhouse]]'', in which he plays a character named Machete ([[Machete|now a real movie]]). Interestingly enough, Trejo played a character by the same name in another one of Robert Rodriguez's movies: ''[[Spy Kids]]''. There is much debate over whether they are the same character.

** According to IMDB, his surname is Cortez.

* In ''Chúmbale'', the dad is watching Enrique Pinti on TV and bursts out in laughter, saying "I Love this guy!". The dad is played by Enrique Pinti.

* In the remake of ''[[Shaft]]'', John Shaft's uncle is none other than the original John Shaft, Richard Roundtree.

** Craven has a [[Creator Cameo]] as a janitor named "Fred", who is wearing a fedora and a red & green sweater.

* The 2001 ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' features cameos from the stars of the original, Charlton Heston (protagonist Taylor), becomes... the "damned dirty" ape father of the villain, with the added bonus of his [[Famous Last Words|last words]] being "[[Planet of the Apes Ending|Damn them! God damn them all to hell!]]") and Linda Harrison (the [[Nubile Savage]] Nova), turned into an unnamed human captive).

** In addition, she divorced her ex-husband after he tried to take her to a wife swapping club...so someone else could do just that...

* In the [[Made for TV Movie]], ''High School USA'', the [[Jerk Jock]] (Jerk Prep, actually) gives the Eddie Haskell treatment to Eddie Haskell himself. Ken Osmond (the actor who played Eddie Haskell) played the father of the girl that that the Jerk Prep was dating.

* In ''Sex and the Single Girl'' (1964), Tony Curtis's character has to wear a woman's robe, because his clothes are wet. He says he looks like "Jack Lemmon did, in [[Some Like It Hot|that movie]], where he dressed up like a girl." Later, he's several times said to be looking like Lemmon.

* In [[Billy Wilder]]'s ''[[One, Two, Three]]'', Red Buttons appears as an MP who does a "You dirty rat" impression to the face of CR MacNamara ... played by James Cagney.

* ''Hell is for Heroes'' is for the most part a gritty [[World War II]] action film ... except for a brief sequence in which comedian Bob Newhart, at the time best known for his one-sided telephone conversation comedy routines, appears as a GI. After the Americans discover a German bug in their camp, Newhart's character is forced to improvise a one-sided telephone conversation making it seem like the Americans are in a better position than they actually are.

* A rather painful one in ''[[Steel (film)|Steel]]'', where Richard Roundtree's character says of the hero's trademark giant hammer "I especially like the [[Shaft]]!" apropos of absolutely nothing.

* In the "blinkandyoullmissit" category, Jeff Goldblum's performances in ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' and ''[[Independence Day]]'' both use the line "Must go faster" during chase scenes.

* In ''Living in Oblivion'' Steve Buscemi plays Nick Reve, an independent film director. At one point in the movie his lead actor storms off, shouting that he'd only wanted to work with Nick because he'd "heard he was tight with Quentin Tarentino!"

** Earlier in the same film there's a scene where air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (played by Lloyd Bridges) is shown residing in a nursing home. A nurse explains that he's gone senile and "thinks he's Lloyd Bridges," and we see him donning a scuba mask (an allusion to Bridges' role on the '50s TV show ''Sea Hunt'').

* Coy example: in ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'', [[Jack Nicholson]]'s plastic surgeon uses an assortment of crude, rusty tools to reconstruct his wounded face as the Joker. At least one of these implements closely resembles one used by the evil dentist in the remake of ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]''. Who'd appeared in the original ''[[The Little Shop of Horrors]]'', as a masochistic client of this evil dentist? Jack Nicholson.

* An odd case occurs in ''[[Forgetting Sarah Marshall]]''. Kristen Bell plays the title character, an actress, and at one point, other characters mock her for a bad movie she was in, in which she was attacked by a killer cell phone. The writers insist that they wrote the line not knowing that Kristen Bell actually was in a movie, ''Pulse'', about a killer cell phone.

* Combined with a [[Parental Bonus]] in ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'', when the character voiced by [[Steve Buscemi]] threatens to put another character [[Fargo|through the shredder]].

* The well known [[Jackie Chan]] movie ''[[Drunken Master]]'' has him playing a Drunken Boxing expert. He also plays a Drunken Boxing expert in his American film, ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]''. ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'' was supposedly going to feature a Drunken Master fighting sequence too but Hollywood knows they're not good enough for cool fight scenes...Jackie does get drunk at one point, however, if that's good enough.

* In ''[[Inception]]'', the song that is played to wake everyone up is Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien". Marion Cotillard (Mal) played Piaf in the biopic La Vie En Rose and won an Oscar for it. Also, the song title translates to "I have no regrets." This was apparently coincidental, the song was chosen before Cotillard was cast, and the director didn't realize the connection until it was too late to change the score.

** Crossing over with [[Wrestler in All of Us]] and [[Fridge Brilliance]]. At one point, Arthur locks a hostile projection in a hold known as the Cobra Clutch. The move was used (and named after) Sgt. Slaughter, a wrestler who was also a character in GI Joe. Levitt portrayed Cobra Commander in the GI Joe movie.

* In ''[[The Princess Diaries]] 2'', at the sleepover, Queen Clarisse says to Mia, "I've done quite a lot of flying in my time." This is referring to her part in [[Mary Poppins]].

* In the ''[[Apocalypse]]'' film series movie ''Revelation'', Jeff Fahey's character Thorold Stone enters an ultra-realistic virtual reality simulation of a beach...[[The Lawnmower Man|guess which movie he starred in where he also entered a virtual reality program?]].

** Interesting contrast is that one of Fahey's characters claims to be God and the other is claiming that he isn't looking for God.

* In ''Love and Other Impossible Pursuits'', [[Natalie Portman]] plays the stepmom of a precocious eight-year-old, as he considers his future education options. When he brings up Harvard, Portman's character Emilia blurts "Harvard sucks!" No prizes for guessing which university is Natalie's alma mater.

* Antonio Banderas is well known for his role as the masked caped crusader Zorro as well as the cheesy line "you are the love of my life" which Puss in Boots (who Banderas voices) repeats to a female cat just before getting on the boat in Shrek the Third.

* In ''Hot Shots! Part Deux'' President Benson dons a wet suit and joins a Navy Seal team of scuba divers. He also provides voice-over narration, describing the underwater action. The actor is most famous for the television series ''Sea Hunt.''

* In ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'', we see a wet-behind-the-ears Captain Harriman, played by Alan Ruck. According to the ''Memory Alpha'' wiki, Harriman's personnel file from one of the video games says he has "[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off|a wife named Sloane and a son named Ferris who both live in Chicago, as well as interests in 20th century Italian sports automobiles.]]"

* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' was not [[Helena Bonham Carter]]'s [[Harry Potter (film)|first time playing an insane, corset-wearing, mentally unstable yandere with a crush on a ruthless serial killer]].

** Even more bizarre is that [[Johnny Depp]] seems to have copied her hairstyle from that role.

* The third ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' film has an especially clumsy one: Sentinel Prime, voiced by Leonard Nimoy, says the line [[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."]]

** This is also not the first time that Leonard Nimoy has played {{spoiler|a major villain}} in a Transformers movie. He voiced Galvatron in [[The Movie]] of the original cartoon series.

* In his first appearance onscreen in ''[[Zardoz]]'', [[Sean Connery]] [[James Bond|aims his gun at the camera]] [[Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You|and shoots it]].

* Cuba Gooding Jr will be playing a Tuskegee pilot in the upcoming 2012 WWII movie, ''Red Tails''. This isn't the first time Cuba played a Tuskegee pilot since the first one he did was in the 1995 HBO movie, ''The Tuskegee Airmen''.

* In the film version of ''Spawn'', Martin Sheen says, "Let's start the [[Apocalypse Now]]!"

* In ''[[A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas]]'', Harold is referred to as "Sulu". [[John Cho]] played Sulu in Star Trek. Also, when the arrive at the party, Kumar's friend admits he told the girl that Kumar worked at the White House. [[Kal Penn]] worked in the Obama White House.

* ''[[Happy Gilmore]]'' managed the impressive feat of getting in at least three with Carl Weathers, who plays Happy's golfing mentor Chubbs. First, Happy, (who sneers at golf in the early sections of the film) asks Chubbs why a big guy like him isn't playing a real sport like football. (Weathers was once a pro football player). Chubbs claims his mother wouldn't let him play any dangerous sports, which Happy remarks might be a good thing. (Weathers played Apollo Creed from the ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'' movies, [[Casualty in the Ring|who died in the ring]]). Lastly, Chubbs is missing a hand, and Weathers' character from ''[[Predator]]'' had his arm cut off just before dying.

** David Duchovny as [[The X-Files|a conspiracy theorist]].

** Ben Stiller's character's manager is played by his father, and his love interest is played by his wife.

* In ''[[Some Like It Hot]]'', gangster Spats Columbo (played by George Raft) asks a coin-flipping hoodlum, "Where'd you pick up ''that'' cheap trick?" Raft became famous playing coin-flipping gangsters in movies like ''Scarface'' and ''If I Had a Million''.

* In ''[[Tapeheads]]'', the FBI agent who says "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" as he arrests [[Tim Robbins]] and [[John Cusack]] ''is'' [[Jello Biafra]], who less than two years earlier had been prosecuted for obscenity based on complaints from the [[Moral Guardians|PMRC]].

* In ''[[The Contender]]'', [[Jeff Bridges]] plays the President of the United States, and puts his feet up on the resolute desk just like [[The Big Lebowski|the Dude]] does. He also goes bowling.

* Mavis Gary of ''[[Young Adult (film)|Young Adult]]'' drives the same car as Stella Bridger of ''[[The Italian Job (2003 film)|The Italian Job]]''. Both are played by Charlize Theron.

* ''[[Return of the Living Dead]] Part II'' gets bonus points for having a couple of characters say things their actors said as different characters in the previous film. For example, when Joey assumes that Ed wishes to be burned after he dies because he's worried some grave robber's going to steal his head:

{{quote|'''Ed''': Watch your tongue, boy, if you like this job!

* A somewhat strange example; In ''My Week With Marilyn'', Colin Clark went to Eton and sang in the choir. Colin Clark did go to Eton, but it was his actor, Eddie Redmayne, who sang in the Eton College Choir.