10 Movies That Used Your Imagination Against You

Here’s a real Mandela effect test for you - Ask anyone who has seen Tarantino’s explosive crime thriller debut about the scene in which unhinged robber/psycho Michael Madsen severs the ear of a cop he’s taken hostage. What exactly does the audience see?

If they answer anything other than “the before and after, but not the act itself”, then like almost every audience of the last thirty years, they’ve fallen victim to the director’s trademark trickery.

In a move co-opted by his many imitators (hey there, Eli Roth), the infamous auteur never actually depicts the violent moment, knowing that even a hyper-realistic portrayal would end up looking unexpectedly goofy and ruin the scene’s flow.

Instead, the scene lingers on both build up and aftermath, and this subtle elision is the reason you remember Tarantino’s debut better than the many imitators that came in its aftermath. Sorry, Two Days in the Valley, Killing Zoe, and Thursday.