5 Secret Plots In Famous Movies Audiences Didn't Notice

5

Spider-Man: Far From Home Is About Replacing Robert Downey Jr.

Spider-Man has been in the news a lot recently since Marvel and Sony's deal to share custody of the character fell through. Marvel doesn't even get the webslinger on weekends to cook him Hot Pockets for dinner in a bachelor apartment. It's too bad that Spidey won't be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe anymore, especially since his latest solo film, Far From Home, is all about how he was supposed to figure into its future.

While on the surface the movie finds Peter Parker struggling with the prospect of filling Tony Stark's (occasionally urine-soaked) shoes, the subtext is that Marvel is grooming its replacement for Robert Downey Jr. For starters, Tony leaves Peter a crazy drone defense system (for some reason). Pointedly, the system is controlled with a pair of high-tech sunglasses that make Tom Holland look like Downey -- not just in the movies, but in real life too. Seriously, try to find a photo where Downey isn't wearing giant tinted shades.

Sony Pictures ReleasingWe're surprised they didn't shoehorn in some reason for his new suit to have a goatee.

Then Mysterio shows up. Right from the get-go, it feels as if he's auditioning to be part of the MCU. He gives himself a tragic origin which incorporates elements of various MCU characters -- a bearded flying genius in the mold of Iron Man, a soldier similar to Captain America, and "a grieving family man like Hawkeye," albeit with a less stupid haircut. It's like Beck is "aware of the tropes of the story he's in." If that wasn't enough, Beck literally creates CG monsters to fight, calling them "worthy of the Avengers" -- which could be read as referring to the team or the movie.

Sony Pictures Releasing"They could make a bunch of movies about my adventures! A Mysterio Cinematic Universe, if you will."

What's Mysterio's plan? To get those glasses, of course. Which is right on theme, because they're the symbolic embodiment of Downey Jr.-ness. And when we see behind Beck's digital curtain, it turns out he's wearing not a fishbowl and cyber-magic armor, but a mo-cap suit -- those ridiculous pajamas Downey had to wear on set.

Walt Disney PicturesJust once, could we have a superhero who doesn't look like a complete doofus behind the scenes?

And since the movie is secretly about vying for Marvel stardom, casting Jake Gyllenhal as Beck is a sly inside joke, because this isn't the first time he's almost usurped a Spider-Man. Back in 2004, Gyllenhaal nearly replaced Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man 2, because the studio was allegedly "irritated" by Maguire's behavior.

4

Ready Player One Is About Steven Spielberg And Stanley Kubrick

Ready Player One feels like a ThinkGeek store came to life and wrote a screenplay while drunk. The reference-crammed adventure was directed by legendary filmmaker / cranky old man Steven Spielberg. And while the script was based on a popular book, a lot of elements were changed, making it more personal to the director. Case in point, the main character, Wade, straight up looks like a young Spielberg.

Warner Bros. Pictures, Cinema PapersHopefully, if there are any sequels, they'll omit his weird cabby hat phase.

Like Wade, Spielberg came practically out of nowhere and had crazy success right off the bat. Spielberg's first theatrical feature, Jaws, was a smash hit, and he's continued to both direct and produce hit movies in the decades since. Movies like Back To The Future. Wade's first step in an elaborate virtual treasure hunt is to win an insane car race, which he does with his virtual replica of the DeLorean from BTTF. The car was in the book, but the race wasn't. The fact that Wade takes off on his quest using an icon from one of Spielberg's own projects feels significant.

Warner Bros. PicturesOf course, it's possible this was more about making a movie out of props they already owned.

3

Toy Story 4 -- Forky Is The Movie

The Toy Story series has been running for almost a quarter-century now. The original was made back when people thought giving Tim Allen a lucrative movie gig was a solid idea. Toy Story 3 offered a perfect ending for the lovable gang of sentient playthings, and the series formed a solid trilogy. So there's really no reason for Toy Story 4 to exist ... and it's precisely that sense of purposelessness which drives its entire story.

The movie is represented in the (somewhat existentially terrifying) character of Forky, a Spork who gains consciousness thanks to whatever fickle gods rule the Pixar-verse. Forky feels like he shouldn't exist. He even spends the entire first act trying to hurl himself into the garbage. Incidentally, the writers of Toy Story 4 reportedly threw out "75% of the script" at one point, which the director later claimed was something that happened "every day." So both the story and Forky kept finding their way into the trash.

Walt Disney PicturesThe part where Tom Hanks has to step up and save the day doesn't seem like an accident either.

2

Dark Phoenix Accidentally Parallels The Fox Buyout

Not a lot of people went to go see the latest X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix. This was possibly due to the fact we'd already seen a crappy version of the same story written by the same guy, or maybe because by the time the movie hit theaters, Disney had bought Fox and we all knew they would likely be rebooting the characters within the MCU, sending the original X-Men continuity to live on a nice farm upstate. In what seemed like a subtle nod to the real-life developments in the superhero movie game, at one point, the X-Men get captured by the "Mutant Containment Unit."

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney PicturesWhen asked about the reference, MCU producers responded "There was an X-Men movie this year?"

1

It Really Seems Like The New Dumbo Is A Middle Finger To Disney

"The story of a social outcast surrounded by circus folk" could describe almost any Tim Burton movie, so it's perhaps not surprising that he was hired to direct Disney's live-action remake of Dumbo. Despite the fact that he keeps making blockbuster Disney movies (some more insane than others), he still seemingly has some problems with the Mouse House. We've mentioned before how A Nightmare Before Christmas was Burton working through his issues with the studio that fired him in the '80s, and Dumbo seems to be doing something similar.

The villain of the movie is V.A. Vandevere, a conspicuously Disney-like entrepreneur known as the "architect of dreams." Vandevere runs an amusement park called "Dreamland" that couldn't look more like an off-brand Disneyland, right down to its main street and Tomorrowland-like rocket ship ride.

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney ParksAs residents of the world of tomorrow, we feel cheated that it doesn't look like this.