10 Subtle Movie Homages You Definitely Missed
You missed them at first, but they’ll be impossible to ignore now.
Most directors grow up obsessed with movies, so it’s no wonder that when they snag their dream career they tend to pay homage to classic movies which came before. While some of these references can be a little on the nose, others are quite subtle, or have more detail than you might have realised at first.
Either through the cast or the director, some movies share links naturally, and sometimes these are used to reference scenes earlier in their career. Other times, a classic movie homage might help build the tone or themes of the scene with a subtle wink to something else. Sometimes it just seems like directors enjoy making little tributes to movies they love.
Whatever the reason, these homages will completely change your viewing experience next time you watch these movies.
Importantly, general homages to genres haven’t been included here, as they aren’t subtle or specific enough. This means no Star Wars winking at the Western genre or Tarantino paying tribute to Asian cinema in Kill Bill, although both Star Wars and Tarantino might make a few appearances on either side of this list...
10. Nick Fury’s Grave - The Winter Soldier (Homage To Pulp Fiction)
Pulp Fiction is one of the quintessential movies of modern cinema, frequently topping lists of movies you must see before you die. Many movies have riffed off it since, drawing either dramatic inspiration or using Pulp Fiction’s darkest moments for comic effect.
However, Captain America: The Winter Soldier has possibly the subtlest homage of the lot, so it gets the nod here.
Samuel L. Jackson frequently gives iconic performances, as several entries on this list will attest to. Of these though, his biblical speech near the beginning of Pulp Fiction is perhaps his best known. Christoph Waltz is the only actor to get an Oscar from Tarantino’s direction, but Jackson surely deserved one here.
He quotes Ezekiel 25:17, a verse about ‘the path of the righteous man...’, but the rest of his speech was written by Tarantino himself rather than any biblical figure. Nevertheless, the opening is a direct quote from the Bible, and these words mark Nick Fury’s grave in The Winter Soldier as a nod to Samuel L. Jackson playing both parts.
As well as being paid homage to here, the next entry takes a look at a tribute to another movie in Quentin Tarantino’s classic itself.