Live-Action Films / Double Meaning Title

Double-Meaning Title in live-action films.

Adaptation. is about how orchids are adapted to their environment, how a book is adapted into a screenplay, and how people adapt themselves to a new situation.
The Age of Adaline mainly refers to Adaline's true chronological age considering that she hasn't physically aged a day past 29 since her magical accident in 1937, but it may also vaguely allude to the 78-year period of her immortality.
Almost Famous is a reference to the rise to stardom of the band that the main character is following/scooping and the name of their tour during the film.
"Amores Perros" has a reference of the love of man for dogs (all three plot threads have dogs involved) but also for the relationships of the characters that pull them to do unexpected things because of how important was his/her love for their significant ones, being "perro" (dog) a Mexican slang for "outstanding".
Angel Heart: The title refers to the beating heart belonging to the original Harold Angel that Johnny Favourite stole, but the meaning is also more literal in that the movie deals with an actual angel—just not a very good one.
Anon: "Anon" refers to both the mysterious, nameless girl being pursued by the main character, as well as the broader concept of anonymity in an interconnected society and hacker groups by that name.
Antisocial: The title refers to both the anti-social behaviour exhibited by those affected by the Hate Plague and to the film's Social Media Is Bad angle.
Anyone but You: In addition to being taken from the song title, refers not only to how Bea and Ben are so frustrated and angry with each other that they each think they'd "rather be with anyone but you", but also how they actually share such a strong connection with each other to the point that they each think they "wouldn't want anyone but you".
Attachment: The title can refer to the attachment Leah's loved ones have with her, but also the dybbuk which has attached itself to her.
In AVP: Alien vs. Predator, the title refers both to the respective franchises of the two creatures engaged in a Monster Mash, and to the new backstories established for both of them. In this version, the Predators are portrayed as an advanced extraterrestrial civilization that guided the development of early humans (i.e. "aliens"), while the Aliens, rather than being extraterrestrials, are genetically engineered beasts programmed to hunt on instinct (i.e. "predators").
Barbarian:
- the film's title can allude to two things; the address, 476 Barbary, which sounds like the inhabitant of that home would be a "Barbarian," but can also reference the multiple characters that commit acts of barbarism in the film. The Mother is a violent, feral deformity of a human being, and Frank is a serial rapist who kidnapped and imprisoned women in his dungeon while taping his violent rapes of them. AJ can also count to a lesser extent, given the heavy implications that he raped a coworker on set.
- Could actually have another meaning: the origin of the word "Barbarian" pertains to someone who is a foreigner. The Greeks use this since anyone that doesn't speak Greek is heard as mindless babbling (or "bar bar") by them. This manner of speaking is all the Mother is mentally capable of, and her lack of being able to communicate properly, as well as her circumstances as a foreigner/outcast from society, are largely relevant to the movie's overall themes.
Becoming Jane, Verbing Nouny aka Gerund ProperNoun or adjective and noun. Young Jane Austen has yet to truly 'become Jane'. Or she as Jane is so very becoming.
The title of the novel The Big Clock was just a metaphor—until the creators of The Film of the Book, apparently thinking the metaphor was too subtle, decided to throw an actual giant clock into the story.
The Big Heat has more than one meaning: 1) The heat of the police putting pressure on the criminals. 2) The heat of the coffee (and its effects). 3) The heat of what happened to Bannion's car (and its effects). 4) Perhaps even the heat a relatively cool, easygoing guy like Bannion felt when pushed to his limits (the heat of the moment, the heat of passion).
Bombshell referring either to how the three main women — and just about every woman at Fox — look, or to the stunning revelations about Ailes.
Bride of Frankenstein refers both to Henry Frankenstein's wife Elizabeth and the artificial woman created to be the Monster's bride.
Camp is about a summer camp for ("campy") musical theatre performers. Most of the male ones are Camp Gay.
Casino Royale is both a reference to the story's main location (the Casino Royale, or "Royal Casino", in Montenegro), and to the "battle royal" (that is, a violent duel in which the last man standing is declared the winner) that takes place there.
Changing Lanes is about a Wall Street attorney who gets in a collision while literally changing lanes on a freeway and how he's metaphorically "changing lanes" for the worse when the guy he collided with enacts vengeance on him for being brushed off so unjustly after the accident by threatening to destroy an important court document the attorney needs for his case.
Cleanskin is a term for both an undercover operative unknown to his or her targets, like Ewan, and an extremist with no previous convictions, so therefore unknown to national security's services, like Ash.
Coda: A "coda" is the end of a musical piece, which fits the protagonist's pianist occupation. It's also meaningful since he's in the twilight of his career; this upcoming concert tour is his coda.
In Code Unknown, the reason for the whole chain of events surrounding the humiliation of Maria only occurs because Jean does not know the code for Anne and Georges' door. Besides that primary meaning, Code Unknown also seems to point to the lack of a key for the proper communication between different characters and ethnicities.
Conviction is a legal drama made in 2010 about a woman who spends eighteen years tirelessly working to free her wrongfully convicted brother from prison, refusing to believe that he is guilty. The title refers to both "conviction" in the legal sense (finding someone guilty of a crime) and to "conviction" in the psychological sense (strong, unshakeable belief in something).
Cool Runnings is the name of the sled the Jamaican bobsled team rides in, meaning "peace be the journey". It also kind of refers to how the team members were formally sprinters, only now the "runnings" they have are riding a bobsled down a cool, icy chute.
Dear John: The majority John and Savannah's relationship is experienced by letters the two write to each other, and each of her letters beginning with "Dear John". But then she goes and writes him an actual "Dear John" Letter.
Daddy Daycare was translated into Hebrew as "Aba Ba Lagan", which literally means "Daddy came to kindergarten". However, "Balagan" is also a slang word for a mess, making the title "Messy Daddy".
In The Dark Knight Rises the title can be seen as Batman's metaphorical rise to being more than just a man... or maybe it's about him literally rising from the pit he was thrown in. Or maybe how he needs to rise above his physical and emotional pain.
The segment "The Gorge" in the Anthology Film Deadtime Stories: Volume 2. Gorge can mean a ravine, like the one where the spelunkers were trapped, or to glut oneself with food, like Donna does after developing an insatiable craving for human flesh.
Deck the Halls is a Christmas movie Titled after the Carol of the same name. However, its mainly about the head of the Finch family trying to one-up (or "deck") his new neighbor on who's the town's "Christmas guy" whose family's last name is Hall. Also, to "deck the halls" means to adorn and decorate your home for Christmas which is Buddy Hall's main goal to pack his house with so much lights that it can be seen from space.
Deep Impact touches on the physical impact of the asteroid's collision with the Earth as well as how humanity's impending extinction is affecting everybody.
The Descent is a British horror film about a group of women who go on a spelunking expedition in the mountains. They are trapped in a cave-in and forced to descend down into the cave to find another way out. Things go From Bad to Worse when they discover that the cave is home to pale, predatory degenerates and the women descend into paranoia and savagery.
The Devil's Advocate: A successful Amoral Attorney provides reasonable doubt towards the charges against obviously guilty clientele, thus he's figuratively playing "Devil's Advocate". This grabs the attention of the world's most prestigious law firm run by Satan who hires him to literally become his advocate.
Easy A is a pun on the common school slang term for a course that doesn't require much studying, a Shout-Out to The Scarlet Letter, and a reference to Olive's supposedly loose morals.
Enemy Mine refers both to the Enemy Mine situation the main characters find themselves in, as well an actual mine owned by the villains. This is, however, a case of a forced double meaning — the mine did not exist in the original story that became the film, but was added at the insistence of studio executives who felt that audiences would not understand that "enemy mine" means "my enemy".
Event Horizon is the name of the recovered starship a team of astronauts investigate that was designed to create black holes to travel through space. An event horizon is the region of a black hole where the gravitational pull becomes so infinitely compact that virtually nothing, not even light, can escape. That might also be a dark metaphor of what the team experiences when they learn the ship returned from "a dimension of pure chaos and evil" and won't be able to escape it's supernatural horror.
Face/Off highlights the intense rivalry between a cop and a terrorist who are longtime blood enemies constantly facing off one-another as well as that, in this case, their faces have been surgically removed (literally come off) and switched with each other.
The protagonists of The Fall fall both literally and metaphorically.
Final Destination: While it may refer to the main group of teens initially going on a plane trip with Paris being their "final destination", it's solely a blunt metaphor for death, the ultimate destination every living thing has.
Fired Up!: Refers to both the excitement the cheerleaders feel at the camp in getting to perform and to the excitement the two leads feel in being around them in the hopes of peaking romantic interest from any number of them too.
Free Guy is both a colloquial term for a 1-Up and describing the protagonist Guy as being a free-thinking artificial intelligence, no longer bound by his NPC routines. It can also be read in the same way as "an NYC guy" or "a Chicago guy" (Free City being the in-game location where Guy lives), or as an imperative sentence.
Friends with Benefits refers to the two main characters not only entering into a friendship in which they just have sex with each other without actually being romantically involved, but also how the "benefits" of being "friends" is what makes them establish a more personal and intimate connection with each other as a result too.
The Fritz Lang film Fury can refer to either the destructive dangers of mob rule and public outrage, or the main character's desire for revenge after barely escaping a lynch mob.
Garden State refers to the nickname of New Jersey and the emotionless, static state of Andrew Largeman's life since he went on medication after the death of his mother.
Girls Lik We Magic: "Magic" is the nickname Jamie gives Maggie and she does like her very much. A number of other lesbians also like her. Jamie called her this because she brought her new happiness.
The Gleaners and I: Multiple meanings, the various definitions of gleaning (that is, taking the excess that is unwanted, as in gleaning the land), or at least different interpretations of gleaning as they are embodied by people.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters features an epic showdown between Godzilla and his ancient archenemy King Ghidorah. As Ghidorah defeats Godzilla in their second battle and takes the role as the Alpha, the titular "King of the Monsters" becomes Ghidorah for a while until Godzilla reclaims his crown.
The Good Son is mainly a Sarcastic Title referring to the sadistic Enfant Terrible Henry played by Macaulay Culkin, however it could also refer to his Good Counterpart cousin and the protagonist, Mark played by Elijah Wood.
A Good Year: The title could possibly be a nod to the maturity of wine as the main character inherited a vineyard. It could also be referring to the time he was falling for his Love Interest.
Gramps Is in the Resistance: A double meaning that is lost with the English title; at face value the French title Papy fait de la résistance can be indeed what it's translated to, but a colloquial meaning would be closer to "Gramps is being difficult".
Gravity could at first seem somewhat ironic since astronauts typically work in zero-gravity, but it mainly notes how Earth's gravity is causing a large amount of space debris to kill anybody in its path along the planet's orbit or how Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is trying to return to Earth (i.e. gravity) as she's left stranded and running out of oxygen from the fallout of the debris, as well as the figurative severity or "gravity" of her situation.
Half Baked: Apart from the usual meaning of something that isn't very well thought out, "baked" is also common slang for being heavily under the influence of marijuana. The film's main quartet of friends are extreme potheads.
The Spanish film Heroína (meaning both "Heroine" and "Heroin") follows the mother of a heroin addict campaigning against drug dealing.
Hidden Figures, based on the nonfiction book of the same name, is about three black female mathematicians working for NASA at a time when segregation and prejudice were still common. The title can refer both to figures in the mathematical equations the protagonists are trying to solve, and to the fact that they themselves are historical figures who for a long time were not given the credit they deserved.
High School: The movie is set in a High School where, to avoid getting expelled for testing positive for drugs in his system Henry and his friend Travis give everyone in it pot brownies, making everyone in the school high.
La Historia Oficial, the title of a film about Argentina's "Dirty War", can mean both "The Official Story" and "The Official History".
Holding the Man is a form of infringement in Australian football. It was made into a title of the memoir by its author Tim in honor of his lover John, who was the captain of their high school football team and an avid supporter of Essendon Football Club. The movie then adds a scene where said infringement happens in one football game scene.
Hollow Man features Kevin Bacon as a scientist given Invisibility by an experiment (making him appear hollow)^note who gradually becomes a sociopathic monster as he starts to abuse his invisibility (thus making him soulless/hollow inside).
Home Alone:
- Title refers to young Kevin McAllister accidentally being left at the house by himself by his family when they go to Paris and refers to him being the outcast of the family.
- The sequel Lost in New York refers to Kevin accidentally ending up in New York instead of Florida with his family and also to him being misguided and stranded there in a psychological sense too (i.e. "lost").
The Hunt can stand for either the annual hunt taken by all men of the community, which Bookends the film, as well as the Pædo Hunt on Lucas.
The Imitation Game: This is the title of Alan Turing's essay on artificial intelligence, but it also refers to his attempt to imitate acceptable behavior (i.e. being sociable and appearing to be heterosexual).
Inside Man is a heist thriller and the title refers to both, the staged involvement of the bank's owner to throw off police as well as the plot twist that Russell is hiding behind a false wall the robbers built inside the bank's vault, making him the literal "Inside Man".
Joker: Folie à Deux: "Folie à Deux" ("Madness for Two" / "Folly of Two" in French) doesn't only concern the madness of Arthur and Harley but it is also the name of a rare psychiatric syndrome in Real Life.
A Jolly Bad Fellow refers to Professor Bowles-Ottery as a bad person, but also a 'fellow' of the college. This may explain why the film was released in the US as The All Died Laughing as the academic position of fellow does not exist in America.
According to Colin Trevorrow, the title of Jurassic World refers to the park, how bringing back dinosaurs and making them easily accessible to the public has made them a mundane part of the world, and the idea that the technology and resulting creatures once confined to InGen's Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna facilities could proliferate in an "open source" manner, as evidenced by the Sequel Hook of Henry Wu escaping the island with his embryos as well as excised dialogue between Wu and Masrani anticipating that others would soon be able to clone dinosaurs.
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom:
  - The sequel puts a completely new spin on the title as well while once again referring to all the above, it also refers to the ending when the dinosaurs are released and freed onto the world and thus, it's now indeed a physical "Jurassic World" too.
  - The second half refers to Isla Nublar's volcanic disaster making both the location of the park and the world the dinosaurs previously existed in a "Fallen Kingdom", but also refers to them being released out to total freedom making the world of man one as well.
- Jurassic World Dominion:
  - While the "Jurassic World" part of the title keeps the same double-meaning as before, the subtitle refers to both the control (i.e. "Dominion") that dinosaurs begin to exhibit over the world and humans through their presence and also to the world itself being the dominion itself for the dinosaurs as well.
  - Biosyn is also the dominion where humans such as Dodgson assert dominion over the dinosaurs only for the tables to eventually be turned as well.
The King's Speech could refer to the publicly important speech that King George delivers at the end (to which the whole story has been building up) or his speech as in his way of speaking.
Knockout refers not only to the boxing term (several of which occur in the film), but also applies to the protagonist ("knockout" being slang for an attractive woman).
La La Land has at least three meanings. "La La Land" is a nickname for Los Angeles, or "L.A.", where the story takes place. The film is also a musical, so there's a lot of "la la" or singing going on. Lastly, "living in la la land" is an idiom for a person being out of touch with reality.
The Last Detail could mean "every little thing" or "final assignment." The assignment is the final trip Meadows will take before entering prison, while his escorts must see to every detail to ensure his delivery.
The Last Sharknado: It's About Time: Time Travel is an actual major plot point, but also it's a self-aware jab noting that this schlockfest of a franchise is finally going to end...or so they say.
A Late Quartet references Beethoven's Opus 131, which was part of his late string quartets, but also refers to the string quartet that the main characters are a part of being in its late stages as one of its members plans to retire.
Law Abiding Citizen refers to most characters in that movie, including the protagonist's false claim. It's also a Pun-Based Title since the dash is missing from "Law-Abiding" to show that it's the law abiding the citizen, not the other way around.
Lean on Pete: Lean on Pete is the name of the horse that main character Charley forms a bond with. At the same time, the horse is a friend that the troubled Charley can "lean on" for comfort.
The Leopard Man has both a Secondary Character Title based on Charlie How-Come's showman nickname and an Antagonist Title describing the M.O. of the killer.
The title of Little Miss Sunshine is both a reference to the Cheerful Child main character and the beauty pageant she'll participate in.
Looker refers to both the commercial actresses being "lookers" (as in physically attractive or "pretty") and the device being used to kill them.
Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Ant-Man somehow manages to be completely literal and layered. It's about both men who have taken the name "Ant-Man", and the meaning of the title.
  - Similarly, Ant-Man and the Wasp is about both Ant-Men and both women who have been "The Wasp". Strictly speaking it should be "Ant-Men and the Wasps".
  - The third film is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, about our heroes and heroines battling a villain with time powers (quantum), who has been depicted as insane and obsessed with time (mania), and also about the Quantum Realm, which has been lightly featured in previous films.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the name of the mysterious assassin antagonist as well as a reference to a Thomas Paine quote about "the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot" who gives up when the fight gets too tough. Captain America sticks things out until the end of the line, making him a figurative winter soldier.
- MCU Spider-Man Trilogy
  - Spider-Man: Homecoming references both Spider-Man being a teenager in high school with the homecoming dance coming up shortly and the character finally appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after years of separate film continuities.
  - Spider-Man: Far From Home references Peter being far from home in both a literal sense (he's in Europe) and metaphorical (he's five years in the future). The same can be said for Mysterio, who says that he's from Another Dimension. The same goes for Talos and Soren, who are posing as Fury and Hill after we last saw them warp-jump to a different galaxy entirely at the end of Captain Marvel, while Fury is on a Skrull spaceship for an unknown purpose.
  - Spider-Man: No Way Home refers to both the multiversal characters who do not have a way to return to their own worlds, and in the case of the villains their lives, and Peter himself. At the end of the movie, he literally has no home to go back to at all.
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings refers to both the backstory of the terrorist organization, the Ten Rings, that had existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Iron Man, and the Ten powered rings that the organization's leader, Wenwu / the Mandarin, wears on his arms.
- The title for Thor: Love and Thunder initially teases Thor's power of Thunder and his relationship with Jane. By the end of the movie, we realize that the title actually refers to the nicknames for Thor and Gorr's daughter, whom Thor adopts after Gorr dies.
The French film Metisse (derived from mixticius, meaning mixed) was called Café au Lait in the US as a reference to the mixed race characters, mix of the characters races and the french style coffees they all drank.
Misery refers to the misery that novelist Paul Sheldon experiences, but also to the "Misery" series of novels that he wrote... which in turn actually refer to their improbably-named protagonist Misery Chastain, making this a recursive example.
Terrence Malick's The New World is a historical drama about the settlement of Jamestown in the 17th century, focusing heavily on the folkloric romance between John Smith and Pocahontas. The title most obviously refers to the English colonists' journey to North America, but also hints at Pocahontas' journey to England in the third act.
North By Northwest, according to The Other Wiki:
The title North by Northwest is a subject of debate. Many have seen it as having been taken from a line ("I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw") in Hamlet, a work also concerned with the shifty nature of reality. Hitchcock noted, in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich in 1963, "It's a fantasy. The whole film is epitomized in the title—there is no such thing as north-by-northwest on the compass." ("Northwest by north", however, is one of 32 points of the compass.) Lehman states that he used a working title for the film of "In a Northwesterly Direction," because the film's action was to begin in New York and climax in Alaska. Then the head of the story department at MGM suggested "North by Northwest," but this was still to be a working title. [...] The Northwest Airlines reference in the film plays on the title.
Laurel and Hardy's first feature film Pardon Us reflects the duo's exceedingly polite nature — and it's a prison picture.
The titular Poison refers not just to the threat of dying via snake bite, but also to the bigotry and toxicity Harry possesses towards Indians.
PCU could stand for "Port Chester University" or "Politically Correct University".
The title of Howard Stern's biopic Private Parts (which Stern himself wrote and starred in) refers to Stern's controversial use of crude sexual humor in his radio show, and to the parts of his life that he ordinarily doesn't share with the public.
A Perfect Getaway refers to the honeymoon vacation of one couple and the post-double-homicide escape from the law of another couple.
Predators: The title not only refers to the iconic monsters but also to their prey who were dangerous killers on planet Earth.
Primer has time machines which, because of the way they work, must be "primed" for several hours before they can be used. Later in the movie, it's revealed that the first part of the movie happens after Aaron will have traveled back to the beginning of the movie, bringing a recording of everything he did up to that point. He uses this information as a primer/self-prompter, to make sure he does all the right things to keep the timeline consistent until he reaches the part he wants to change.
Race tells the story of legendary American track star Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics referring to the literal race he runs against competitors as well as the subject of his "race" being a black man outshining white athletes. Especially notable since this was during the Third Reich.
Reality is both its heroine's name and a statement on the dire political circumstances and the consequences of her actions.
Raising the Wind refers to the woodwind section of an orchestra but can also be seen as Double Entendre for belching.
Remote (1993): Refers to the remote controls used by the protagonist in every facet of his life and the fact that they're used to control the models that he uses against the bumbling crooks, but in a subtler way, it refers to the Model Home's deserted and isolated status (a "remote" location) which acts as the setting for most of the action.
RoboCop 2, technically as it's your standard Numbered Sequel fare and is also an Antagonist Title, since Cain's brain is put into a cyborg that was created to replace RoboCop and is called "RoboCop 2".
Sappho: The title is the protagonist's name. However, it also references the love between women which the film is based around too, as her namesake Sappho of Lesbos is the source for the term "lesbian" and "sapphic" (any same-sex female sexuality).
The 1998 comedy Senseless is kind of an ironic title as it's about a man (Marlon Wayans) who volunteers to take an experimental Super-Senses drug. When he accidentally exceeds the recommended dose, 4 of his 5 senses are heightened while one of them is suppressed. And because of that, Hilarity Ensues.
Serendipity: The films title is both a restaurant that is the site of Jonathan and Sarah's first date and the premise of the film (luck; good fortune; fate.)
Severance, a post-Hostel horror film set on a corporate retreat. "Severance" is 'termination of employment' (the threat of which drives the conflict), and 'dismemberment'. The fact that the DVD cover shows a disembodied leg is a subtle indicator of which of these elements gets the most focus.
Sex Drive is one's libido (particularly, that of the adolescent male in this case) as well as the protagonist along with his friends driving across state lines to meet his would-be lover.
Shredder Orpheus refers to Orpheus's band, the Shredders, skateboard shredding, which he and other boarders do for fun, and the EBN using a paper shredder to erase the memories of the dead.
Sky High: "Sky High" can refer to the Superhero School itself or the immense expectations and pressure the adults place on the students.
The Silent Alarm refers to both to one of the characters selling an alarm system to a woman before moving in with her and her son and the silent feeling the boy has about him, as he doesn't know how to feel about the man.
Slash refers to both the band the protagonists play in and the fact that it's a Slasher Movie.
The Social Network refers to the social networking website, Facebook, itself, as well as the circle of friends Mark Zuckerberg tries to make with the website's launch (key word: tries).
Though the title of Some Like It Hot obviously refers to the sexual tension between Sugar and the two male leads, the film still feels the need to shoehorn the phrase "some like it hot" into a dialogue about musical taste.
Son of Frankenstein refers to Dr. Frankenstein's biological son and the constructed one.
Soul Surfer in surfing parlance is someone who does it purely for love of the experience rather than fame and prestige, while the title also refers to how Bethany's religious faith was challenged but she ended up holding on to it.
Species was translated into Hebrew as "Min Mesukan" (literally "Dangerous Species"). The word "Min" also means "Sex", making the title "Dangerous Sex".
Spree refers to the name of the Uber-like app the film's protagonist is using, and the killing spree he is responsible of, by murdering the occupants of his car.
The title of Spy Kids refers both to the fact that the Kid Heroes are spies and to the name given to the evil robotic children created by the villains. The OSS gets a Spy Kids Division, so it's also justified in the sequels.
Star Wars:
- Return of the Jedi could refer to Luke, who just became a Jedi Knight and is returning for the sequel; Anakin, who returns to being a Jedi when he redeems himself; or the return of the Jedi Order.
- Rogue One, while named after the Rebel strike force that steals the Death Star plans, is the first movie that's not part of a trilogy, isn't composed by John Williams, and doesn't have an Opening Scroll. In other words, it's the "rogue one" of the franchise.
- Similarly, Solo — which is about the backstory of Han Solo — isn't part of a trilogy, making it a "solo" story.
- The Rise of Skywalker refers to both Rey, who takes the name Skywalker after defeating Palpatine and coming fully into her Jedi abilities, and the Heel–Face Turn of Ben Solo, the last of the Skywalker bloodline, who rises from the dark side and returns to the light before becoming one with the Force.
The Straight Story is about a man named Alvin Straight, taking a journey on his lawn mower straight to his dying brother, and it's presented as a simple, unvarnished tale, which is particularly relevant for the fact that it's made by David Lynch.
Swingers: The title refers both to the swing revival social scene that the characters are a part of as well as their promiscuous lifestyle.
Sucker Punch can be seen in three or four ways:
- A cynical look at Male Gaze (a sucker punch to the audience) and its effects on women in real life.
- The sucker punch which comes to Baby Doll as the catalyst and finale of the movie.
- The sucker punch Baby Doll applies to the asylum.
- In the director's cut, the sucker punch is that the High Roller is quite careful and does care about these women's welfare.
Sunset Boulevard mostly takes place at The Place, the location of Norma's home. Sunset Boulevard is also a notable Hollywood street, which emphasizes the protagonists' movie backgrounds and the film's criticism of Hollywood. Not only that but Norma, an actress who is no longer in her prime, is metaphorically in the sunset of her years.
Superman Returns both in-universe, following a 5-year absence on a deep space round trip to remnants of Krypton, and out, with it being the the first Superman movie in 19 years since Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (or 26 years if you go with this movie's continuity and forget everything after Superman II).
There Goes The Neighborhood: Refers to the phrase in which a notable change comes about in circumstances (in this case, the mad dash for the money buried under the house) and also to the fact that all the people in the neighborhood are completely thrown into disorder and chaos (over the circumstances related to said money).
They/Them: The title (pronounced "They slash Them") refers to both nonbinary pronouns (as one of the main characters, Jordan, uses) and also the actions of a killer whose gender at first is unknown slashing a group of people.
Tickled is a documentary by man who is tickled by curiosity about a mysterious tickling competition.
Tourist Trap references the film's kitschy tourist attraction setting, and the fact that the tourists are trapped with the killer.
Trading Places refers to how Louis Winthorpe and Billy Ray Valentine are switched around in terms of social status, but also to the financial trading they both deal with.
In Twin Sitters, the title can be either about the twins that are being babysit, or the twins that are babysitting them.
United 93 is about United Airlines Flight 93, one the four hijacked planes in the September 11th Attacks, and how the passengers united against their aggressors to keep them from reaching their target.^note
Up in the Air: The main character is a frequent flyer, so he's constantly in the air. When he falls for another person who also travels constantly, he begins to question his life philosophies; leaving them "up in the air".
Upgrade means two things:
- Grey, once he receives the STEM implant, gains practically superhuman capabilities.
- STEM itself considers fusing with Grey and getting his body as the next step in its "evolution".
Vice is a biopic about former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. It was also President George W. Bush's nickname for him. A vice can also mean any action that is considered immoral.
Whiplash refers to more than one thing:
- The first complex jazz piece Andrew learned and performed with Fletcher's band.
- The beating of a drum similar to the cracking or lashing of a whip.
- The abuse Andrew suffers under Fletcher.
Two-Faced Woman is a reference to Karin accusing her husband of being two-faced, but is also a reference to Karin doing a Fake Twin Gambit on her husband's friends because she is being two completely different people.
The film adaptation of Watchmen makes it into one. In the comic it refers to the nature of superheroes in general, and quotes from "Who watches the Watchmen?" (Lat. Quis custodiet ipso custodes?), but in the film the abortive team formed by Ozymandias is called the "Watchmen" instead of the "Crimebusters".
Wish You Were Here: The title refers to both a greeting that typically appears on postcards, and to the protagonist of the film missing her late mother.
The World's End refers to both the eponymous pub at the end of the Golden Mile and the actual end of civilization as we know it through the complete destruction of modern technology.
The Wrestler refers to both protagonist Randy Robinson's job as a professional wrestler and the struggles in his personal life, since "wrestle" is also a formal word for "struggle".
X-Men: First Class: The subtitle specifically refers to Professor X's first group of students, but it can also mean that the young mutants excel at using their powers (as in "first in their class").
Young Adult refers to the genre/demographic of the books protagonist Mavis Gary writes, but also a description of Mavis herself and her level of maturity.

Double Meaning Title / Live-Action Films

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