7 Films That Eerily Predicted Future Roles

By Padraig Cotter / February 3, 2017

Even the biggest stars in the world have to pay their dues and often start out at the bottom of the ladder. They’ll do embarrassing commercials or become background extras, just to get some experience. Hell, Bruce Willis started his career as an extra in Paul Newman’s The Verdict, and Jackie Chan played a henchman killed by Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon.

These roles often lead to bigger things, but strangely enough, some of the smaller roles or movies they act in contain strange predictions for their futures. It could be a passing reference to a character they’ll end up playing, or a book they’ll end up adapting for the big screen.

These references can either be really subtle or incredibly overt and seem to act like in-jokes aimed at fans; which isn't possible unless the director was psychic.

Here are some of the roles that forecast bigger things for their actors, and how they link together.

7. Daniel Craig - Layer Cake/James Bond

Daniel Craig had to weather a tidal wave of hatred when he was cast as Bond in Casino Royale. Newspapers had a field day, decrying him as too blond and “ugly” for the character, and that he wasn’t manly enough. He soon proved them wrong, but it can’t have been a pleasant experience.

The movie that brought him to the attention of producers for the part was Layer Cake, a gangster film where he plays a drug dealer who gets in over his head. During one scene he’s given a gun by a friend for protection, and he does a few Bond-like poses while getting used to it. In fact, Matthew Vaughn’s direction to Craig during the scene was basically “copy Bond.”

This accidental screen-test led to meetings with producers, and the rest is history.

Future DVD covers of Layer Cake played up the connection too, with Craig doing his best Bond face.

Hell, his character is even fatally wounded in Layer Cake's final scene by Ben Whishaw, who would later play Q in Skyfall.