Breaking the Fourth Wall/Film: Difference between revisions

* In both ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off|Ferris Buellers Day Off]]'' and ''[[Ladyhawke]]'', [[Matthew Broderick]] makes personal, aside comments to the audience.

* In a rare non-comedy example, there is a moment in ''[[Fight Club]]'' when Tyler Durden begins monologuing: "You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet..." By the end of the monologue ("You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.") he is looking directly into the camera, and the film shakes and appears to come loose (the sprocket holes are visible). Also an allusion to his job as a projectionist, and habit of tampering with the films. {{spoiler|As he does at the end of Fight Club}}.

* ''Anything Else'''s protagonist repeatedly explains to the camera his predicaments and thoughts.

* ''[[Undercover Brother]]''.

* In the original film ''[[The Producers]]'', Max sees some of Leo's eccentricities and says to the camera "This man should be in a straitjacket." In the musical adaptation and the later film based on it, Max says the line to a statue instead, though there is an outtake from the second film where Nathan Lane says it to the camera, then realizes it's supposed to be different in this film.

** Also in the remake: in a jail cell, Max answers his own question of "How did I get into this mess?" by ''re-enacting the entire movie'' with snatches of dialogue and song. Brilliant.

* This is, to some extent, the plot of the movie ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'', in which the main character discovers that he is a character in a book.

** However, the main character never becomes aware of or interacts with the audience. Since he exists in the same reality as the writer who's guiding the events of his life, it's more a case of internal meta-fiction.

** Kinda hard ''not'' to notice [[Audience Participation|a bunch of screaming and yelling fans in costume, throwing things at you.]]

*** It helps that Frank is [[Ax Crazy|completely and utterly insane]] as well. If his final song ''I'm Going Home'' is any indication, he's so out of touch with reality that he actually thinks he's singing to a crowded audience (though, somehow, we, the audience, see them too). [[Fan Wank|This would explain]] his possible [[Break the Fourth Wall]] abilities.

* An 'in-universe' example in [[Woody Allen]]'s ''Purple Rose of Cairo''. The lead character watches the eponymous movie so many times that the lead actor in the movie falls in love with her and breaks out through the cinema screen to join her. The rest of the characters in the movie have to wait around since the plot cannot continue without him.

* In another [[Woody Allen]] movie, Annie Hall, a puffed up character: Man-In-Theatre-Line, spouts nonsense about Marshall McLuhan's theories of media. Allen's character Alvy argues with him, and then pulls the real Marshall McLuhan into the shot to back up his argument. Once that is done, Alvy faces the audience and says something like "Don't you wish that happened in real life?"

''There'll be a movie.'' }}

* Near the end of ''A Shot in the Dark'', Clouseau gathers the suspects in the case together as part of a plot to catch the killer. It turns out that {{spoiler|''all'' the suspects have been having affairs with each other and, with one exception, have committed at least one murder}}, the admission of which leads to a massive row between all the suspects. Clouseau is unable to get a word in edgeways and ends up looking at the audience in exasperation.

** At another point, a monster died because the person animating it had a heart attack.

** During the closing credits of ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'', one of the crucifyees comments that the song ''[[Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life]]'' is available in the foyer.

** Also, in ''The Big Store'', Groucho parades some beautiful women. One of them is wearing a red dress and he tells the audience that 'This dress is really bright red, but Technicolor is ''sooo'' expensive'.

** And in ''Go West'', after the brothers hijack a train and tie up the engineer, after putting a sock in his mouth, Groucho turns to the camera and says "You know this is the best gag in the picture?"

* In the [[Ian McKellen]] version of [[Richard III]], Richard (McKellen) often turns to the audience to comment on the action, following Shakespeare's script.

* In the old [[Dean Martin]]/[[Frank Sinatra]] comedy Western ''Four For Texas'', Martin turns to the audience on several occasions and gives them wry/conspiratorial looks when something particularly odd happens.

* In ''[[Kick-Ass]]'' the main character narrates the whole thing, discussing superhero tropes with the audience as they come up and at one point telling the audience off for assuming he'll survive because he's narrating, mention other films where that's not the case.

* ''[[Rubber]]'' opens up with a cop talks directly to the camera about how things happen in films for "no reason," and dedicates the film to that tradition. It turns out he was addressing a crowd of spectators, though his statements apply to the actual film as much as the in-universe film.

** Further, in a [[Moment of Awesome]], is the fact that the original House of Wax was released in 3D, so not only is the crier speaking directly to the viewers, but his warnings that he might accidentally hit someone in the audience with one of the bouncing paddleballs becomes a very clever use of 3D.

* In a segment at the end of the spoof movie ''[[Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth]]'', blurbs start appearing informing you about bits of random trivia, and parts of the production. The film crew is even acknowledged in the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]].

** In an earlier scene, Clark and Lois are in danger of being mugged, but disaster is averted when the gun seemingly misses her and the crook dashes off. Clark collapses, but it soon turns out he only fainted in shock from the gunshot. When Lois turns away, annoyed, Clark opens his hand to reveal he caught the bullet before it hit her and gives the audience his classic "Just between you and me" sort of smile.

* In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' when several characters are escaping from the collapsing rebel base, the door closes on C-3PO, who turns to the camera and mutters "How typical." The door opens again and he's pulled out by Han. This is the only moment in the entire series to break the fourth wall.

** Threepio turns more ''past'' than ''towards'' the camera, and he has a habit of muttering to himself when annoyed, like the cantankerous old droid he is. He has an entire monologue about how R2-D2 tricked him while walking alone through the desert in ''[[A New Hope]]''.

* It's also worth noting that movie trailers have often broken the fourth wall, either in out of character contexts (such as the famous trailer for ''[[Psycho]]'' featuring Alfred Hitchcock giving a tour of the Bates House), or in character, such as [[Pierce Brosnan]] in ''[[Goldeneye]]'' addressing the audience, "You were expecting someone else?".

* [[Inspector Gadget (film)|Inspector Gadget]]: Uses this in a very unsubtle way. The nostalgia critic gets suitably annoyed when reviewing the film. (See [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IlbxUbR_us4#t=252s Here])