10 Movie Scenes Everyone Always Gets Wrong
No, Black Widow wasn't talking about being infertile.
Ambiguity can be a wonderful thing in cinema - it allows people to bring their own experiences to movies and draw their own conclusions as a result, often inviting spirited, healthy debate in the process.
But sometimes people are just flat-out wrong about a movie scene, misinterpreting the author's true intent in a way which might even end up altering their opinion of the entire movie.
These 10 movie scenes, whether from mega-budget blockbusters or tiny dramas, have all been interpreted a very particular way by audiences at large despite strong proof to the contrary, if not confirmation from the filmmakers themselves.
You're of course free to engage with a film however you like - and invoke the Death of the Author principle if you so wish - but if you do cling to your long-held readings of these movie scenes, you're willfully keeping yourself in the dark.
Don't feel bad, though, because the common interpretations are more often than not relatively reasonable, and have largely endured in pop-culture as the dominant read. But ultimately, they weren't what was actually intended by those in charge...
10. Andrew Wasn't Really Rushing OR Dragging - Whiplash
The most famous scene in tenacious Oscar-winner Whiplash sees ruthless jazz instructor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) becoming increasingly frustrated with student Andrew (Miles Teller) as he seemingly fails to match his tempo.
Throughout the gut-wrenching scene, Fletcher calls Andrew out for either "rushing" or "dragging" to his beat, and to the layperson, it seems that while Fletcher may be an a**hole, he's also a strident perfectionist above all else.
But one curious fan actually decided to take a deep dive into the scene and analyse Andrew's timing for themselves. As it turns out, he's pretty much spot on, and Fletcher is just calling him a rusher or a dragger willy-nilly, presumably in order to get a rise out of him.
While the film makes no secret of Fletcher's near-psychopathic desire to push his students to greatness, many nevertheless assumed his critique of Andrew's drumming was in fact correct.
Ultimately Fletcher's method, of testing Andrew's patience and commitment to perfection, is defined by one line late in the movie: "There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job.'"