Summary
Moviesmade in the United States can never resist using foreign languages as an easy place to squeeze in some foreshadowing. Whilenon-English filmscan reach some of the same amazing heights as Hollywood productions, it’s no surprise that most American films are written for English. That being said,when another dialect does make its way into an American-made movie, filmmakers often can’t resist taking the opportunity to hint at the narrative to come, possibly even spoiling major twists.
Thebest movie twistsreally are impossible to see coming, but feel obvious in hindsight, playing on the audience’s perceptions of what they were actually seeing at various points in a given story. Yet for those who speak multiple languages, movie twists can sometimes be given away incredibly early on thanks to some foreign-language dialogue that the filmmakers don’t expect most viewers to understand. It’s within these tongue-in-cheek jokes and meta references to important events that are only revealed later that filmmakers can sometimes play their hand just a little too early.
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The Usual Suspects
Cast
Written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects is a Mystery film that features Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, and Benicio del Toro. The plot unfolds during an interrogation in which a con man speaks to investigators about what happened, being one of only two men that survived a massacre at the Port of Los Angeles.
When it comes to the best movie twists of all time,The Usual Suspectsis certainly a contender. The film uses the interrogation of the lone survivor of a vicious crime-related massacre as a framing device, slowly edging at the truth of the perpetrator over the course of a long story.In the end, it turns out that all along it was the unassuming Roger “Verbal” Kint that was responsible the entire time,actually the infamous Turkish crime lord Keyser Söze.
Kint’s true identity might actually come across as obvious from the start to those familiar with Turkish.His unusual nickname, “Verbal”, is a reference to the Turkish word “söz”, meaning “one who talks to much.“Not only is this an accurate description of Kint’s tall tales, but it has an obvious phonetic similarity to his true name, Keyser Söze.
Iron Man
Iron Man is the first film in the long-running Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark, who becomes Iron Man after he is kidnapped and discovers terrorists are using weapons developed by Stark Industries. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Tony’s love interest Pepper Potts alongside Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan and Jeff Bridges as the villainous Obadiah Stane.
2008’sIron Mannot only revitalized Robert Downey Jr.’s illustrious career, but changed cinema forever with the introduction of theMarvel Cinematic Universe. That being said, the superhero origin story was still a film like any other, and is well beholden to the same tropes as its peers. This can be seen early on in the film wherethe ultimate villain behind Tony Stark’s kidnapping by the Ten Rings terrorist organization is revealed much earlier for those who speak Urdu.
While the Ten Rings may be a fictional terrorist group, the language they speak is very real, though it isn’t given any subtitles to make audiences feel just as stranded as the captured Tony Stark.
While the Ten Rings may be a fictional terrorist group, the language they speak is very real, though it isn’t given any subtitles to make audiences feel just as stranded as the captured Tony Stark. One of the terrorists lets slip that it was, in fact, Obadiah Stane who hired them to assassinate Tony Stark.Stane might not be the most subtle twist villain, but it’s worth noting that, for Urdu speakers, his involvement is made apparent from shockingly early on.
8Cube 2: Hypercube
Slavic Speakers Discover Secret Identity
Compared to the moodiness of its predecessor,Cube 2: Hypercubesomewhat muddles the horror of the premise by focusing on the Hypercube’s creators and purpose with renewed vigor. In the sequel, many of the cube’s victims are searching for an infamous hacker named Alex Trusk, who is only known by name, not appearance.Trusk only reveals themself well over halfway into the film, but is essentially hidden in plain sight for Russian or Slavic speakers.
Alex Trusk is revealed to be Sasha, who had willingly gone into the Hypercube.Those familiar with Slavic cultures can note that Sasha is usually used as the diminutive form of “Alexander” or “Alexandra”,making the supposed shocking twist obvious to those from any Slavic countries. For everyone else, the twist does manage to still catch first-time-viewers off-guard, if not dramatically so.
7Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
German Joke Reveals Twist Villain
The early reveal of shocking twist identities via a tongue-in-cheek reference in another language is a shockingly common phenomenon. Not only do prestige drama crime films likeThe Usual Suspectsand blockbuster hits likeIron Manpartake, but even baser comedies such astheAce Ventureseriesget in on the fun. In the first film,Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,Ace is endlessly harassed by Lieutenant Lois Eisenhorn, a female police officer who sees Ace’s quirky methods as inferior.
Towards the end of the film, the shocking discovery is uncovered that Eisenhorn is actually criminal animal kidnapper Ray Finkle, who completely altered his appearance in order to infiltrate the police. Eisenhorn’s change in presented gender might be obvious to any German speakers who see the film right away, considering"Eisenhorn” means “unicorn” in German. It’s not hard to guess what the unicorn horn implied by Finkle’s alternate identity could be referring to.
6Inglorious Basterds
Hans' Fluent French Gives Him Away
The opening scene ofInglorious Basterdsis one of the most vile and nerve-wracking introductions to a villainous character ever created, especially in the context of a Quentin Tarantino movie. A Nazi officer tasked with finding Jewish families hidden across Europe, Colonel Hans Landa is an evil man who conceals his deeds with a cheerful smile and an altogether pleasant demeanor.While talking with a French dairy farmer who is secretly harboring Jews underneath his floor, Hans asks to switch their conversation to English,citing his inadequacy with French.
Native French speakers will note that Hans' French is actually quite good,and that he clearly must be fluent enough to hold entire conversations in it. This is a subtle indication of the real reason Hans wants to change what language he’s speaking to the farmer in – He knows of the Jews underneath them, and wants to speak without them being able to understand. This essentially confirms that the farmer is indeed harboring fugitives from the Nazis far earlier than the scene itself does.
Inglorious Basterds' title card is in Quentin Tarantino’s authentic handwriting. It was extracted directly from the cover of his final script draft in July 2008.
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The Thing
In this prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror film, a group of researchers in Antarctica discovers an alien buried in the ice. Upon bringing it back to their site to study it, the creature breaks free and starts killing the team members one by one before shapeshifting into them. Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Kate Lloyd, alongside Joel Edgerton (Carter), and Ulrich Thomsen (Dr. Sander Halvorson).
The Thingis one of the best classic horror movies to watch with no background knowledge going in, if possible, with the elusive titular beast being full of surprises. One of these surprises comes in quite early in the film, in whicha team of Norwegian researchers in Antarctica chase a poor dog into the American base the film takes place in, shooting it with rifles from a helicopter. This dog later turns out to beThe Thing, a horrific shape-shifting alien, but the American scientists are none the wiser.
For those fluent in Norwegian, the dog’s true identity is made clear from the get-go. The Norwegian researcher attempts to plead with the Americans in his native language while chasing the dog, stating"That’s not a dog, it’s some sort of thing! It’s imitating a dog, it isn’t real! Get away, you idiots!“Unfortunately for the American base, this warning isn’t understood, and the “dog” is saved from the seemingly maniacal Norwegians. The2011The Thingprequelactually explains how the Norwegians got to this point in the first place.
Iron Man 2
The third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man 2, is an action-superhero film that occurs six months after the original film’s events. After outing himself as the heavy metal superhero known as Iron Man, Tony Stark goes to great lengths to avoid demands from the government for his tech. But, unfortunately, the technology Tony used to save his life is beginning to impact his health inversely - just in time for a man named Ivan Vanko to arrive, who creates his version of the Iron Man tech to settle a decades-long score with Howard Stark’s son.
Of all theIron Mantrilogy’s villains, Ivan Vanko, a.k.a.Whiplash, is by far the least talkative, seeming to not have an especially strong grasp of English.This is played up in his interactions with secondary villain and weapons manufacturing rival to Tony Stark, Justin Hammer, who abuses Vanko’s brilliant engineering skills in order to field a drone army to sell to the U.S. armed forces. Concerned about the drones' optics, Hammer pesters Vanko about the humanoid robots' ability to salute like a real soldier.
Vanko assures Hammer that the drones can “make salute,” which is actually something of an ominous pun in Russian hinting at the drones' eventual enactment of Vanko’s personal revenge.“Salyut” is Russian for “fireworks”, something the drones certainly make a lot of when they lead an explosive assault on Tony Stark following their stage debut.This tongue-in-cheek pun helps prep Russian speakers for Vanko’s true intentions with the Hammertech drones.
Godzilla Minus One
In Godzilla Minus One, set in postwar Japan, an unyielding Godzilla emerges in a landscape already ravaged, leaving survivors to unite against the monstrous threat. With no aid from military forces or government, the community must confront their fears to fend off the escalating peril.
Interestingly, despite not being an American-made film,Godzilla Minus Onegives away a powerful emotional beat to any audience members who happen to speak Germanin addition to Japanese or English. Though the English subtitles of the most recent Japanese-made Godzilla movie do a great job by and large translating the spoken Japanese of the film, they don’t bother to translate a few lines of German text, preserving a powerful moment.As protagonist Koichi prepares the experimental J7W Shinden for use against Godzilla, a few lines of German text can be seen on the plane’s cockpit.
Despite not being an American-made film,Godzilla Minus Onegives away a powerful emotional beat to any audience members who happen to speak German in addition to Japanese or English.
This text is actually instructions for using the plane’s experimental ejection seat, spoiling the sudden reveal that Koichi isn’t planning on dying in the kamikaze attack, hoping to save himself with the technology at the last second. It’s certainly not clear that Koichi still values his life at this point in the film, with the sigh of relief felt when he does eject a moment of emotional reprieve that gave German speakers an early heads-up. This small bit of foreshadowing is just one ofGodzilla Minus One’s many Easter eggs.
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu as they unravel a murder mystery in the Louvre Museum. Guided by clues hidden in Leonardo da Vinci’s art, they uncover revelations guarded by a secret society, with potential implications for religious history.
It’s always a good time when a given movie, even one that takes itself as relatively seriously asThe Da Vinci Code, is able to poke fun at itself for the tropes it uses.The adaptation of the hit Dan Brown mystery novel gets away with a fun plot development that is signaled obviously to anyone who speaks Italian. Throughout the film, Alfred Molina’s Bishop Aringarosa can be assumed to be the film’s ultimate big bad, being the one behind the mysterious Opus Dei organization calling the shots.
In reality, it’s Ian McKellan’s Sir Teabing that serves as the final antagonist, with the Bishop being a mere red herring.This would be made obvious to any Italian speakers right away, as “Aringarosa” can literally be translated into “red herring” in Italian. A “red herring” refers to a clue or character that appears to be the obvious answer to a question only to serve as a distraction from the truth.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
As Bilbo Baggins celebrates his 111th birthday, he recounts the extraordinary journey that changed his life. Guided by the enigmatic wizard Gandalf, Bilbo joins a band of Dwarves on a perilous quest to reclaim their homeland from the fearsome dragon, Smaug. Along the way, they face treacherous foes, unearth long-buried secrets, and discover unexpected courage within themselves. With danger lurking at every turn, Bilbo’s adventure unfolds in a tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the enduring power of hope.
It’s rare for fans to be fluent in a completely fictional language, but by the time ofthe Peter JacksonThe Hobbittrilogy, it wouldn’t be unfair to assume that some Tolkien-heads went in fully fluent in one of the series' many Elvish dialects. Tolkien famously created many very comprehensible fictional languages, chief among them being the Elvish tongue of Quenya.InThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Elvish lyrics in this dialect are used in the chorus that plays when the Elf king Thranduil pays homage to Thrór.
Thranduil appears to solicit a rare set of gems from Thrór, and the lyrics of the ethereal choir behind his actions hint as to why.The song implies the gems had a connection to his late wife, the fallen Elvish queen. Not only that, but the lyrics also seem to indicate the White Gems of Lasgalen as being made of pure starlight. This only sets up Thranduil’s rage when Thrór refuses the request, resulting in his presence at the Battle of the Five Armies later in themovie.
