10 More Subtle Signs Movie Characters Weren't Telling The Truth
The telltale signs these characters were full of it.
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00:00Lies and deceit are often the cornerstone of dramatic tension in movies, with one character's
00:05dishonesty, typically the villain's, usually laid bare in the final act.
00:09However, sometimes filmmakers love to subtly hint at this deception much earlier on, which
00:13you're far more likely to pick up on after watching a few more times.
00:17So let's take a look at some more examples.
00:19I'm Adam, this is WhatCulture, and here are 10 more subtle signs movie characters
00:24weren't telling the truth.
00:27The Mandarin Talks About Fortune Cookies, Iron Man 3
00:31Iron Man 3 drops its huge, divisive twist at the end of Act 2, that the villainous Mandarin
00:36is actually an imposter, an actor called Trevor Slattery who has been used as a smokescreen
00:41to allow the real Mandarin to carry out his terrorist acts unpeded.
00:45Now love or hate the twist, Slattery actually slyly hints to his true nature much earlier
00:50in the film, in the first half hour in fact.
00:53After the Chinese theatre is blown up, we're shown a video where the Mandarin both takes
00:57credit for the attack, and offers a seemingly off-topic riff on the nature of fortune cookies
01:02of all things.
01:03He says, true story about fortune cookies, they look Chinese, they sound Chinese, but
01:09they're actually an American invention.
01:11Which is why they're hollow, full of lies, and leave a bad taste in the mouth.
01:15Though the Mandarin circles back and dismisses the now-destroyed Chinese theatre as an American
01:20knock-off, his statement about fortune cookies is also entirely indicative of his own deception.
01:25This Mandarin is a hollow, American-created imitation of the real Chinese one, who after
01:31much time later we finally meet in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
01:37Slugworth is the devil on the kid's shoulders, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
01:42When each of the five golden tickets is discovered in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
01:46the winning children are individually approached by a man purporting to be Mr. Slugworth, one
01:51of Willy Wonka's competitors.
01:53Slugworth offers each of the children a large cash reward if they can sneak a sample of
01:57the everlasting gobstopper out of Willy Wonka's factory, though it's revealed at the end
02:01of the film that Slugworth was actually an imposter the whole time.
02:05As it turns out, he's Mr. Wilkinson, an employee of Wonka's who presented the deal
02:09to the children to test their morality, with only Charlie passing the test.
02:13But there's a subtle nod that Wilkinson isn't who he says he is, indicating sorely
02:17by how his scenes as Slugworth are blocked.
02:20Note that he's shown standing on the left-hand side of the other four children as he whispers
02:24in their ears.
02:25Traditionally, a voice whispering from your left shoulder is associated with the devil
02:30and a Faustian bargain, that you're being offered a dishonest deal.
02:33Tellingly, however, when Wilkinson offers the deal to Charlie, he faces him head-on,
02:38rather foreshadowing that he will be the single one not to be seduced by the offer.
02:44The Double-Looped O, Coraline
02:46Coraline is one of those wonderful animated films absolutely jam-packed with slight visual
02:51details the vast majority of people will never, ever notice.
02:55Chief among them, when Coraline ventures to the Otherworld and meets the button-eyed doppelganger
03:00of her mother, the welcome home cake features a noticeable tell that everything isn't
03:04as idyllic as it seems.
03:06Namely, the word home has a double loop through the letter O, which handwriting experts typically
03:11earmark as an indication that somebody is lying.
03:14It's especially noteworthy given that the O in welcome isn't double-looped, suggesting
03:19that Coraline is most certainly welcome in the Otherworld, but she's not home, because
03:24of course, she isn't.
03:25Though graphology is largely dismissed as junk science in reality, it's nevertheless
03:30a neat indication that the Otherparents aren't being fully forthcoming, and that for as much
03:35as they want Coraline there, it isn't where she belongs, and they know it.
03:41THE JOKER'S EYE CONTACT, THE DARK KNIGHT From one sliver of pseudoscience to another
03:45now, with the Joker's indicative eye contact in The Dark Knight, you'll surely remember
03:50that the Joker tells two conflicting stories about how he got his iconic scars, and also
03:54attempted to tell a third to Batman at film's end, before the caped crusader hastily interrupted
04:00him.
04:01Yet when the Clown Prince of Crime is telling the first story to Criminal Gamble, that his
04:04drunk father cut his face with a knife, note that he looks up to the left several times,
04:09as is a commonly believed indicator that somebody is lying, though in reality has no scientific
04:15basis at all.
04:16But when the Joker tells the second story to Rachel Dawes a little later, that he self-harmed
04:21in a deluded attempt to make his scarred wife feel better, he maintains firm eye contact
04:25with her throughout, suggesting he's actually telling the truth this time.
04:29Now while in fairness it's entirely possible that the Joker made up both stories for kicks,
04:35many fans believe it to imply that his second tale was indeed true.
04:39Another film that categorically proves the kick is a lie now, with Alexander Payne's
04:47polarising social satire, Downsizing.
04:50The film is centred around a financially struggling man, Paul, who undergoes a shrinking procedure
04:54in an attempt to make his money stretch further as a small person.
04:58Once he's been downsized, Paul moves to Leisureland, New Mexico, an experimental community
05:03exclusive to small people.
05:05However, Paul soon discovers that the seemingly idyllic town isn't quite so utopian, especially
05:10with the service workers who keep Leisureland running made to live in the slums just outside
05:15its walls.
05:16But there's a very large clue that Leisureland is being operated as a big, fat capitalist
05:21lie.
05:22Once Paul decides to be downsized, he's thrown a going-away party complete with a
05:25cake.
05:26Now look closely, because the cake reads, Enjoy Leisureland, as in, lie.
05:32Nope, that's not a typo, but a tricky indication that Leisureland as a concept is built on
05:37a foundation of deceit.
05:40Now while I've got you here, I just want to ask you one question that you can leave
05:42the answer to in the comments down below.
05:45What is one movie twist that really blew your mind?
05:48I'll give you one of mine.
05:49In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, when Joel writes in his diary and the pages
05:53are torn out, it really gets you thinking about just how many times Joel and Clementine
05:57have been round and round again.
05:58Ugh, I love that movie.
06:00Alright, now back to the list.
06:02Number 5.
06:03Hans sings out of sync with Anna, Frozen
06:05Frozen's iconic song, Love is an Open Door, is a duet performed in the film by Anna and
06:10Prince Hans after their first meeting.
06:13At fierce value on first viewing, it's simply a goofy romantic tune in which Anna and Hans
06:18begin by singing wildly out of sync with each other, but gradually become sympathetical
06:23over the course of the track as their love blooms, culminating in Hans proposing to Anna,
06:28who accepts.
06:29But once we know that Hans is in fact the film's villain, who is plotting to kill Anna
06:33and Elsa in order to rule Arendelle, it's clear that the song is really an indication
06:37of Hans' true nature.
06:39That Hans and Anna aren't synced up in the early going makes it clear that Hans is duplicitous
06:43and basically just figuring out, through the song, how to tell Anna what she wants to hear.
06:48Hence when he says, that's what I was gonna say, to Anna's iconic sandwiches line, he's
06:52absolutely talking a load of bull.
06:55But it's totally effective in making Anna believe that they're intensely compatible.
06:59You sneaky dog, Hans!
07:01Number 4.
07:02Mick's telltale tree carving, Crocodile Dundee 2
07:05Now here's something of a more light-hearted example and a blast from the past, with Crocodile
07:10Dundee 2.
07:11Roughly halfway through the film, Mick brings his lover Sue to his weekender home, at which
07:15point Mick insists that she's the only woman he's ever brought there.
07:19However, if you look closely at the tree between the pair while they're talking, a romantic
07:23carving referring to Mick and an unknown woman named Mary can be seen, complete with a heart
07:28and arrowhead drawing.
07:30This obviously heavily implies, if not downright confirms, that Mick has brought a lady friend
07:35to his weekender sometime before and is lying to Sue, something he's acutely aware of
07:40given that he promptly covers the carving with a rag a few seconds later.
07:45And yet, the carving is just subtle enough that it's easily missed, and you might just
07:49assume that Mick is hanging up a rag for tidiness' sake.
07:52Number 3.
07:53Dr. Nickel's Freudian slip, The Fugitive
07:56In The Fugitive's climax, Dr. Richard Kimble has finally figured out that the man responsible
08:01for him being framed for his wife's murder is his colleague, Dr. Charles Nichols.
08:06By the time Kimble shows up at a hotel conference to confront Nichols, though, it's very clear
08:10that Nichols has been lying the entire time.
08:13Yet there's also a more sly indication of his duplicity while he's delivering his
08:16speech about contentious new drug, Provacic.
08:19A second or two before Nichols notices Kimble arriving at the hotel, he briefly trips over
08:24his words.
08:25He intends to say, the model for a continued honest open joint venture, but he accidentally
08:30says dishonest before quickly correcting himself.
08:33Despite clearly being a master manipulator, Nichols fleetingly showed his true self on
08:38stage, outing himself as a liar, even if he managed to briefly smooth it over with the
08:43conference's attendees as a mere slip of the tongue.
08:46But as we and Kimble know of course, his mind was betraying him.
08:50Number 2.
08:51Mother Gothel Looks at Rapunzel's Hair, Tangled
08:54While the film is entirely upfront about Mother Gothel being a villain from the very beginning,
08:59Rapunzel herself doesn't realise that, though there is one brilliantly snide indication
09:03throughout the whole movie.
09:05Note that basically any time Gothel is affectionate towards Rapunzel, she looks not at her eyes
09:09or face, but her hair.
09:11Most notably, after Gothel performs the song Mother Knows Best, she tells Rapunzel, I love
09:16you most, but as she says it, she moves Rapunzel's head downwards and kisses her head, or more
09:21accurately, her magical locks which keep Gothel youthful.
09:24Rapunzel of course thinks her mother is talking to and kissing her, but not quite.
09:30She's referring to the gorgeous locks flowing from her head, the removal of which ends up
09:34being Gothel's satisfying downfall at film's end.
09:37Number 1.
09:38Leonard Asami Memento
09:40Christopher Nolan's superb memento is a unique example here, because the character
09:45in question isn't lying to other people, but in fact himself.
09:49Early in the film, amnesiac protagonist Leonard recounts the story of Sammy Jankus, a fellow
09:54amnesiac who accidentally administered an insulin overdose to his wife due to having
09:58no memory of giving her a shot.
10:00Leonard returns to the Sammy story throughout the film, and deep into the third act, we
10:04cut back to Sammy once again, yet in the final shot of the flashback, Sammy is replaced by
10:09Leonard for maybe a half second before the scene abruptly cuts away.
10:13Now, this visual is certainly noticeable on a first viewing, unless you blink at the wrong
10:18time or are watching while on your phone, and please don't be that person, not with
10:22this movie, though the significance of it isn't immediately apparent.
10:26It's subsequently revealed that Sammy Jankus' story is actually Leonard's own, that he
10:30accidentally killed his wife with insulin injections while suffering from amnesia, and
10:35he repressed this memory, in turn constructing a murder mystery narrative for himself to
10:39solve in order to escape his guilt.
10:42At first you might assume the fleeting visual of Leonard Asami is nothing more than a flourish
10:46nodding towards the film's generally tricky cerebral nature, but it's straight up telling
10:50you that Leonard isn't being honest with himself or the audience.