20 Secret Movie Sub-Plots You Didn't Notice

7. Scars - Harold & Maude (1971)

Hal Ashby's tender and difficult romantic drama Harold and Maude concerns the budding relationship of its title characters, a cynical young man (Bud Cort) and the older woman (Ruth Gordon) who shows him life is worth living. 

A darkly humorous tale of human connection across age and life experience, Harold and Maude is never entirely concerned with the characters' pasts, only who they are in the moment to each other. 

Still, Ashby was always a delicate storyteller, and within the film he implies many secrets about who the pair were and where they came from, especially Maude, who is seen at various times - blink and it'll pass you by - sporting worn Nazi concentration camp tattoos on her wrists. 

This small but devastating detail reveals so much about Maude's past, one so full of terror and pain, and helps hammer home just how strong and wise she is for looking at the beauty life has to offer, despite how awful things can be.