10 Greatest Unspoken Sci-Fi Movie Plot Points
The Men in Black sequels have a secret sublot playing out in plain sight.
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00:00 Telling a great story is one thing, but what about making a movie that unfurls added layers
00:04 of storytelling and subtext on repeat viewings?
00:06 It's a tough trick to pull off, concealing subtle, unspoken plot points in plain sight
00:11 for attentive viewers to uncover when rewatching in the future.
00:14 But when it works, it really works.
00:16 And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with the 10 greatest unspoken
00:20 sci-fi movie plot points.
00:22 10.
00:23 Doc burned down his mansion to fund his time travel research in Back to the Future
00:28 In literally the first minute of Back to the Future, we see a newspaper headline which
00:32 reads "Brown Mansion Destroyed," referring to Doc Brown's family mansion which was burned
00:37 to the ground, leaving him to continue his experiments in his garage, which survived
00:41 the fire.
00:42 None of the Back to the Future movies ever bothered to expand upon this, though in the
00:44 Blu-ray commentary for the film, writer Bob Gale stated that the shot of the newspaper
00:48 was supposed to imply that Doc had deliberately burned down the mansion as part of an insurance
00:53 scam.
00:54 Basically, Doc torched his own mansion in order to collect the insurance money, which
00:57 he could then use to fund his time travel research.
00:59 Though the Back to the Future comics ultimately contradicted this, it's worth pointing out
01:03 that both Gale and director Robert Zemeckis only regard the movies as canon.
01:08 As such, there's no reason to disbelieve that Doc committed arson to further his research.
01:12 It fits both the story and the character perfectly.
01:15 9.
01:16 Animals are more important to humans now in Children of Men
01:20 Children of Men takes place in a dystopian near future, where 20 years of human infertility
01:24 have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.
01:27 In the film's opening scene, we see protagonist Theo watching a news report in London about
01:31 the death of the world's youngest person, baby Diego, shortly before a bomb explodes.
01:35 But if you pay attention to Theo's surroundings seconds before the explosion, there's a fascinating
01:40 environmental cue which subtly hints at the changed nature of this baby-less world.
01:44 On a passing bus, we see an advert for a spring collection of expensive clothing for Docs,
01:49 seeming to suggest that in the absence of children, humanity has elevated the place
01:52 of animals significantly.
01:53 In our present reality, the prospect of fanciful animal clothing being advertised on the side
01:58 of a bus sounds ridiculous, but in a world where children don't exist and priorities
02:02 have consequently shifted, it makes sense that animals would fill the void of importance.
02:06 As worldbuilding in sci-fi movie goes, this is low-key incredible, and actually adapted
02:10 from P.D.
02:11 James' original novel, which goes even further to have humans pushing newborn animals around
02:16 in prams and dressing them in children's clothing.
02:18 8.
02:19 John Hammond spared expense in his walking stick in Jurassic Park
02:24 The plot of Jurassic Park is set in motion by mosquitoes.
02:27 That is, scientists were able to extract dinosaur DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes encased in
02:31 amber, allowing them to ultimately produce their dinosaur clones.
02:35 You'll also surely remember that industrialist John Hammond's walking stick is topped by
02:38 a chunk of amber containing one of the aforementioned mosquitoes.
02:42 But on the off chance you know your mosquitoes, you'll probably recognize that the mosquito
02:45 trapped in the amber on Hammond's stick is actually an elephant mosquito, which are noted
02:50 for not sucking blood, and so there's simply no way that it would be able to contain dinosaur
02:54 DNA.
02:55 While some have pawned this off as a mere movie mistake, that Spielberg simply chose
02:59 to use a larger breed of mosquito so it would be visible on camera, there's a better explanation
03:03 that slots quite perfectly into the overall narrative.
03:06 It makes more sense that Hammond, a man who claims to have spared no expense on his park
03:10 and yet much evidence points to the contrary, wouldn't dare place one of his precious, ultra-valuable
03:14 prehistoric mosquitoes inside his walking stick as an ornament.
03:17 It's far more likely that Hammond indeed spared expense, instead intentionally using an elephant
03:22 mosquito, which wouldn't be of any practical use to him, while knowing that the overwhelming
03:26 majority of people who meet him wouldn't ever know the difference.
03:29 7.
03:30 The T-1000's wardrobe fail - because it malfunctions - in Terminator 2 Judgment Day
03:36 The special edition of Terminator 2 introduces a plot point that's basically cut in its entirety
03:40 from the more widely seen theatrical release.
03:43 After the T-1000 is frozen with liquid nitrogen and shot, it reforms into its typical human
03:48 disguise, albeit with some glitching side effects, where it struggles to maintain its
03:52 desired form due to the damage it took from being frozen.
03:54 In the special edition, we see the T-1000's hands and boots unintentionally mimicking
03:58 the surrounding environment, but effectively every indication of this is cut from the theatrical
04:03 version, ensuring the vast majority of people who've seen T2 have no idea about it.
04:08 But there is one single clever hint to the T-1000 malfunctioning in the theatrical version.
04:12 When the T-1000 first arrives at the steel mill at the end of the movie, keep your eyes
04:16 on its clothes.
04:17 For the most part, the T-1000 is wearing the same cop getup it wore for the vast majority
04:21 of the movie, except that it's wearing the boots of the traffic cop it assimilated shortly
04:26 before being frozen.
04:27 Basically, the T-1000 has glitched out and combined two cop outfits into one slightly
04:31 ill-fitting ensemble.
04:32 It's far from obvious, but a brilliantly subtle indication that the T-1000 is having
04:36 some serious trouble keeping things together.
04:39 6.
04:40 The Blind Man is the Oracle's Guardian in The Matrix
04:43 When Neo and Morpheus pay a fateful visit to the Oracle in the Matrix, you might recall
04:48 that there's a blind man situated outside of her apartment.
04:51 More to the point, despite being blind, Morpheus nods at the man who then inexplicably nods
04:55 back.
04:56 It's a minor moment, albeit one that certainly stoked its fair share of debate among fans.
05:00 While this technically qualifies as more of a fan theory than a confirmed sliver of plotting,
05:04 it's so brilliantly straightforward that it merits inclusion on this list, though we
05:07 never learn a single extra thing about this blind man.
05:10 It's a reasonable assumption that he's probably a bodyguard for the Oracle, pretending to
05:13 be blind to ensure he can catch any unwanted guests unawares.
05:17 The man is absent from the immediate sequels, having seemingly been replaced by Seraph,
05:20 who is undebatably the Oracle's Guardian.
05:23 5.
05:24 The Soviet Union still exists in Blade Runner 2049
05:28 Both Blade Runner movies are absolutely crampacked full of fascinating worldbuilding, and Blade
05:32 Runner 2049 offers up an especially fascinating morsel that's never engaged with verbally
05:37 - the Soviet Union never collapsed.
05:40 Throughout the film, adverts for various products are visible, with mention of them being produced
05:43 by the CCCP, which is the Russian abbreviation for the Soviet Union.
05:48 It suggests that the USSR is still very much an entity more than 50 years after it fell
05:52 in reality, though the circumstances which allowed it to thrive remain completely ambiguous.
05:57 By director Denis Villeneuve's own admission, this was a carryover from Philip K. Dick's
06:01 original Blade Runner novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
06:04 Published as it was in 1968, almost 25 years before the Soviet Union fell, Dick could have
06:09 never anticipated anything other than the USSR continuing to exist, as makes for a rather
06:14 fascinating slice of alt-universe futurism.
06:16 In an interview with Time about the subject, Villeneuve said, "I went back to the Philip
06:20 K. Dick novel and explored the geopolitics of the book.
06:23 In the book, the USSR was still present.
06:25 I thought that it would be interesting to think, 'What if the USSR was still alive?
06:29 What if it was as strong a cultural and economic force as the US, but with different political
06:33 laws?
06:34 What if you saw Russian products in the streets of Los Angeles?
06:36 I thought that would create an interesting, distorted reality that would tell my audience
06:40 right from the start that they're in a different world, with different laws from a geopolitical
06:44 point of view."
06:45 Well, there it is.
06:46 4.
06:47 R2-D2 Disobeys Luke Because of Anakin in Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
06:52 In The Empire Strikes Back, you'll surely recall that R2-D2 isn't one for obedience.
06:57 When Luke Skywalker insists that he remain with the ship, R2 refuses and follows his
07:01 charge.
07:02 At the time of Empire's release, this simply seemed like R2 being an adorably loyal bot
07:06 who knew when Luke needed help but perhaps couldn't ask for it.
07:08 But in light of the prequels, R2's defiance is viewed within an entirely different, more
07:13 tragic context.
07:14 The catalyzing incident seemed to occur in Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin lands on
07:18 Mustafar with R2 and insists the droids stay with their ship.
07:22 R2 obeys, but of course, Anakin subsequently fights Obi-Wan, gets horrifically injured,
07:26 and is transformed into Darth Vader, ensuring he never returns to R2.
07:30 As such, we can firmly deduce that R2 developed some understandable attachment issues, and
07:34 by the time Luke tells him to sit tight decades later, he's not going to be left to his own
07:38 devices once again.
07:39 Obviously, in reality, this was really a case of George Lucas reverse-engineering the plot
07:43 in non-chronological order, but it still slides together quite perfectly.
07:47 3.
07:48 Australia Has Renounced Its Colonial History In Event Horizon
07:52 Event Horizon may ultimately be a film best remembered for its atmosphere and periodically
07:56 insane gore, but it's also a smartly written movie with some fantastically detailed production
08:00 design.
08:01 For instance, keep your eyes peeled at Dr. William Weir's uniform, and you might notice
08:05 the Australian flag looking a little different than expected.
08:08 The real-life flag is currently a blue field with six stars and the British Union Jack
08:12 in the top left corner, but the flag on Weir's jacket is something else.
08:16 It's actually the Australian Aboriginal flag, implying that in the film's setting of 2047,
08:20 Australia ended up rescinding its colonial ties and status as a British constitutional
08:24 monarchy.
08:25 It's an attentive and unexpected detail, and one which Sam Neill himself apparently
08:29 insisted upon in an attempt to pay tribute to Australia's Aboriginal population.
08:33 When this was recently brought to the internet's attention, Neill tweeted that he "wouldn't
08:36 do it any differently today," an especially interesting remark given that there have been
08:40 recent calls for Australia to indeed change their flag and ditch the Union Jack.
08:43 If it happens within the next 25 years, then Event Horizon wasn't just clever, it was
08:47 damn prophetic.
08:49 2.
08:50 Agent T's Wife and Kids in Men in Black 3
08:53 Men in Black 2 is far from a great movie, but it does tee up an amusingly long-gestating
08:57 secret subplot which pays off quite incredibly in the third film released an entire decade
09:02 later.
09:03 In Men in Black 2, Agent J is paired with the well-meaning but incompetent Agent T,
09:07 resulting in J eventually kicking him out of the Men in Black, neuralising him, and
09:11 setting him up with a cute waitress at the diner.
09:14 J suggests that T should get married and have a couple of kids, and lo and behold, in Men
09:17 in Black 3's altered timeline, J encounters a woman in K's apartment with a husband and
09:22 a few kids, the woman also being played by Alexandra O'Hara, who played that waitress
09:26 in the diner.
09:27 The obvious wink-wink implication is that in this timeline, Agent T did indeed marry
09:31 the waitress and start a family.
09:33 Even though the man seen in the back of the woman's apartment clearly isn't played by
09:36 Patrick Warburton, who presumably wasn't available, it's still an ingenious slice of fun quasi-continuity
09:41 between sequels.
09:43 1.
09:44 Lambert was trans in Alien
09:46 Ridley Scott's Alien is a masterclass of subtlety and restraint, despite fundamentally being
09:51 a movie about a shitful of space truckers who get picked off one by one by a phallus-shaped
09:54 monster.
09:55 Though the film itself feeds us only morsels of information about the Nostromo's crew
09:59 members, James Cameron's 1986 sequel Aliens added some sneaky context to one departed
10:04 individual in particular.
10:06 During Ripley's debriefing after being woken from stasis at the start of the sequel, the
10:10 personnel files of her dead crewmates are projected on a screen behind her.
10:13 This includes a file on Nostromo navigator Joan Lambert, which states that she was born
10:17 male but given sexual reassignment surgery to female at birth, and that she had no indication
10:22 of suppressed trauma related to gender alteration.
10:25 In the film's original theatrical run and on earlier home video releases, it wasn't
10:28 possible to read any of the text behind Ripley, but the DVD and Blu-rays of Aliens have included
10:33 the crew's bios in their full HD glory, allowing fans to pore over them ad nauseam.
10:38 It's certainly a fascinating revelation, albeit also a troubling one given the lack of exact
10:42 context for why society would give a child sexual reassignment surgery at birth, evidently
10:46 without their consent.
10:48 And that concludes our list.
10:49 If you think we missed anything, then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're
10:52 there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
10:55 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
10:58 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:00 I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real