12 Shocking Implications Of 2016 Movies You Totally Missed
Magneto causes mass genocide... nobody cares.
Directors often like to infuse movies with a little subtext underneath the surface for discerning fans to pick up on. Sometimes it’s really obvious – Jurassic Park makes the case that messing with Mother Nature is a bad thing to do – while others are hidden beneath the surface, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit being a very colourful look at racism.
Movies can carry messages even when the director doesn’t intend them, which is how internet fan theories are born. 2016 was a good year overall for cinema, and while it had a fair few duds the good stuff outshined the bad.
Most of them also carried hidden – and not so hidden – subtext or implications that passed most viewers by on first viewing, and once they’re noticed they can completely alter the meaning of a scene, or the entire movie. Here are twelve examples of 2016 movies with shocking implications, and how they change the story.
12. Warren Was Probably Lying About Smithers Son - The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight is another classic from Tarantino, and while the runtime could have used some trimming, the fantastic dialogue and performances kept viewers hooked. A big plot element of the film involved Sam Jackson’s Major Warren – a bounty hunter – carrying around a fake letter from Abraham Lincoln to make white people feel at ease around him.
During the story, Warren meets an old nemesis in Confederate General Smithers, who is a notorious racist and killer. He can’t just shoot the unarmed old man dead, so instead he tells him the disturbing story of what he did to Smithers son; it isn't pleasant.
The story enrages Smithers so much he reaches for a gun, only to be shot down by Warren. In the scene before this Warren explained why he made the fake letter, and given that he knew Smithers son was missing it’s heavily implied he made up the story just to goad the General into action.