in The Force Awakens (2015), pilot Ello Asty has some alien text on his helmet resembling BORN TO ILL, a reference to Full Metal Jacket's Born to Kill, and to the Beastie Boys album License to Ill. His name is a reference to their album Hello Nasty. (confirmed by costume designer)

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in Bender's Big Score (2007), Al Gore loses the 2000 election because of (time-traveling) Bender. Years later, we find Gore driving a cab, with call number 543895... i.e. Gore's lead in the popular vote.

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in Rope (1948), Hitchcock almost gave up his long tradition of cameos, since the whole film takes place in one apartment, with only 9 people, in real time. So he put himself in the skyline, as a neon sign advertising Reduco (the same weight loss company from his newspaper cameo in Lifeboat)

1yr ⋅

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in Scream (1996), Billy says he was watching the TV version of The Exorcist, where all the good stuff was cut out. Later, there's a cameo by Linda Blair (star of the Exorcist), playing a pushy reporter asking what it feels like to be almost brutally butchered. Also, she's wearing cross earrings.

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the portrait used in Dungeons & Dragons (2023) is of Volothamp Geddarm, aka Volo, one of the longest-lasting characters in the game. He has appeared in modules since 1993, most famously as the author of Volo's Guide to Monsters and other official rulebooks

1yr ⋅

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in Nope (2022), the unnamed motorcyclist is credited as Ryder Muybridge, a cute reference to the ancestor of OJ & Em — he was the uncredited *rider* in the famous Muybridge photos

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in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), the head thug of the Foot Clan (played by a young Sam Rockwell!) says their hideout is in the *east* warehouse of *Lairdman* Island... TMNT was originally created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.

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Near Dark (1987) shares three main cast members with Aliens (1986): Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein. Director Kathryn Bigelow made sure James Cameron didn't mind, and even put Aliens on a movie marquee in one scene. A couple years later, she and Cameron were married.

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Marlon Brando was an ally to the Blank Panther Party, paying their legal fees, visiting them in prison... all done quietly, without fanfare. This photo (1968) was at the funeral for Bobby Hutton, a 17yo BPP member killed by police. Brando gave a brief eulogy, calling for white people to step up.

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Is there a limit to how big a cave can be? I've been exploring this system for literally months and it just keeps going (yellow banners are all the entrances I've made... so far)

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in both the original Scarface (1932) and the remake (1983), Tony admires a travel company's message: The World Is Yours. And both films end by panning up from Tony's corpse to the same message. (the remake then shows a dedication to the original film's director & writer)

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in Nope (2022), the Haywoods have posters for Duel at Diablo (1966) & Buck and the Preacher (1972) - both are westerns starring Sidney Poitier. Jordan Peele says Nope shares their spirit: highlighting Black cowboys, whose existence was whitewashed from history (thanks, in large part, to Hollywood)

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Garth Algar was based on Dana Carvey's nerdy brother Brad, who co-created Video Toaster, a 90s video production & editing machine. (it made all the CGI on Babylon 5 and SeaQuest DSV). In Brad's honor, Garth wears a Video Toaster shirt in Wayne's World 2 (1993)

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a calypso band appears throughout Paddington (2014), inspired by the Caribbean immigrant community that settled in Notting Hill (where Paddington lives) in the 1950s (when the story was first written). The director says this mirrors Paddington himself: an outsider, looking for a new home.

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in Reservation Dogs S2E7, Uncle Charley says his TikTok is blowing up. He's played by Nathan Apodaca, AKA Doggface208, the guy behind the massively-viral Fleetwood Mac / Ocean Spray / Skateboarding video, which has over 85 million views TikTok. This is his acting debut.

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In Futurama s7e10, the title card says What Happens in Cygnus X-1 Stays in Cygnus X-1 .... that's because Cygnus X-1 is a real-life black hole, from which nothing can escape.

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in Futurama s3e1, the number 0101100101 appears in blood on the wall of a haunted house. In binary, it's 357 (nothing special). But then Bender sees it in a mirror, and freaks out, running away in fear. That's because in reverse, it's 1010011010... which equals 666 😈

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Futurama has a few references to 1729, a very famous number among mathematicians. It's called a Taxicab Number, from a story involving math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan and a taxi with #1729. Futurama even has a cab with #87539319, ie the next-level Taxicab Number (story/explanation in comments)

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in Arrested Development, the band photo for Motherboy (not to be confused with the mother-son pageant) is mostly just actors from the main cast. From left to right: Tony Hale (Buster), Jeffrey Tambor (George/Oscar), Will Arnett (GOB), Robert Smigel (famous comedy writer), and Jason Bateman (Michael)

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Picard s01e03, funny workplace sign on the Borg Cube...

1yr ⋅

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Leonard Nimoy joining the picket line at the 1981 WGA strike. Writers were demanding a cut of the profits from the fast-growing Home Video and Pay TV markets — and won!

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in What We Do in the Shadows (2019), Paul Reubens is on the Vampiric Council. His look is modeled after another vampire role of his, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie, 1992). He even brought in the exact same wig!

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Velvet Underground playing for the American Society of Clinical Psychiatrists [1966]. During Heroin they showed footage of a man being tortured, & a friend grilled the doctors about their sex lives. Lou Reed said it was revenge for the shock treatment he got as a teen to cure his homosexuality

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in the climax of Nope (2022), Em says Time to wake up the family & plays the Bahamian artist Exuma (seen behind her). He's singing about Obeah, the local spiritual tradition of ancestral guidance. Em's ancestor was a Bahamian jockey, so she's waking him up for any help they can get

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the very first lines of 30 Rock are: There's a line, buddy and There's *two* lines. (Liz Lemon is chiding a man cutting in front of her for a hot dog)

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Akira Kurosawa visits Arnold Schwarzenegger on the set of Kindergarten Cop [1990]

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after playing Dracula, Bela Lugosi was typecast as a monster/villain for the rest of his career. He pleaded with casting agents to give him other roles; he was a well-trained actor, appearing in ~180 stage/screen productions before Dracula. Here he is in 1920, looking dapper AF

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a baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio (23 years old), at the Titanic premiere in 1997

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Throughout 30 Rock, it's implied that Kenneth is decades older than he looks. We even see him during this brief flashback to a 1950s dance show (s04e02)

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Can you help translate this old marriage certificate into English? I think it's from the 1920s (or 50s?)

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