Word of God in Film.
Examples with sources cited:
Who said it, and when or where they said it is included in these examples. If you don't know when or where, even in general, please add your examples to the section below, not here.
- Ridley Scott has been very clear in interviews in stating that, in his film Blade Runner, Deckard himself was a replicant. The only clues that this might be true in the movie, though, are the fact that Deckard's eyes briefly luminesce in one shot (and he's out of focus and in the background, at that) and the origami unicorn left by Gaff (Edward James Olmos) after Deckard dreamed of a unicorn. Unfortunately for anyone who saw the film in theaters and was trying to add up the clues, the unicorn dream was one of the victims of the Executive Meddling that the film underwent after leaving Scott's hands. The final half of a line by Gaff at the end of the film ("You've done a man's job sir... but are you a man?"), which raises the issue even if it fails to resolve it, was also cut. (It appears in its entirety in "Dangerous Days," the documentary about the making of the film in the 5-disc Final Cut collector's edition.)
- This is also a very good example of a deeply conflicted idea among the core creative team, as nearly everybody else involved with the making of the film believed that Deckard is a human, albeit one whose humanity has been ground down by the nature of his job. From Philip K. Dick (who wrote the original novel), to Hampton Fancher and David Peoples (who wrote the screenplay), to Harrison Ford (who played Deckard), the list of people who thought Scott was wrong is extensive, and powerful enough in creative terms to give Auteur Theory advocates a headache. It was hardly the only case of duelling Word of God during the filming; the scene where Deckard essentially forces Rachael to kiss him (with all its squicky undertones) was another case where the screenwriters (and Rutger Hauer, who played Roy Batty) deeply disagreed with Scott's take on the material. It's very possible that the conflicts are what make the film such a cult hit: whatever your take on the film, it's likely there was someone involved in making it who shared that view, simultaneously vindicating your reading and providing lots and lots to debate about with other fans.
- Ridley Scott again; is Hannibal Lecter a madman? While most, including Anthony Hopkins, would not deny it, Scott does not think so. In Scott's own words in his audio commentary on Hannibal, "There is something very moral about Lecter in this film. The behavior of Hannibal is never insane – [I] didn't want to use that excuse. Is he insane? No, I think he's as sane as you or I. He just likes it." Having said that, Scott went on to say that he did think that Verger's objective in the film, wanting to capture Hannibal and subject him to a horrible death by torture, likely made him replace Hannibal as the true antagonist.
- In the introductory documentary from the VHS Special Edition of Star Wars: A New Hope (as well as an interview for The Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas and Bill Moyers) George Lucas stomped on the idea that "bringing balance to the Force" involved equalising the Light and Dark sides — apparently, the Dark Side is inherently an imbalance. Wookieepedia has the relevant quotes in their article on the Chosen One
.- Any throwaway comment by George Lucas pertaining to the original two trilogies is accepted as canon, regardless of how ridiculous it is. See: Admiral Motti's first name and the true home world of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
- Toho has stated that King Kong won in both the American and Japanese versions of King Kong vs. Godzilla.
- Pan's Labyrinth left it ambiguous whether the fairy tale stuff was real or all in Ophelia's head, as if it was intentionally open to interpretation and left for the viewer to decide. However in the DVD commentary, the director Guilermo Del Toro says that it was real, or at least that he believes it is.
- The original Total Recall (1990) leaves it ambiguous whether Arnold Schwarzenegger's character actually is having the adventure, or he is hallucinating as his brain is being fried by a memory-implantation malfunction. The fact that the film ends with a fade to white instead of black suggests it's a hallucination, and Paul Verhoeven confirms this in the commentary; Arnold Schwarzenegger played the part using the assumption that it was real.
- In Mr. Brooks, it's implied that Mr. Brooks' daughter killed a man and hid it from him, but it was off screen and never shown. We never find out definitively whether she did it or not, and some viewers don't accept that she did. However, the DVD commentary says definitively that she did.
- In The Dark Knight, though it's not actually explicitly stated, Harvey Dent/Two Face is, according to Christopher Nolan, dead. Additionally, the screenplay explicitly states that Harvey/Two Face "dies from a broken neck". Even if it’s a case of two separate personalities, that still doesn’t allow Harvey to die and Two-Face to live.
- Aaron Eckhart has also mentioned in interviews that he asked Nolan if Harvey Dent/Two Face was dead. Nolan confirmed it to Eckhart.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The director of the 2008 The Incredible Hulk had a rare chance on the DVD commentary to fully explain a cliffhanger ending, as he himself doesn't know whether Bruce has turned evil: if his next appearance is in the Avengers film he has, and if it's another Hulk film he hasn't. Since The Avengers has hit the theaters this situation can be solved: Although there is a lot of tension in the beginning and everybody treads very carefully around the Hulk, he is part of the team and drives into the sunset with Tony Stark.note
- Black Panther director Ryan Coogler revealed on the commentary that Killmonger's mother was in prison and in fact, died there, hence why he was an orphan. Furthermore, the plan N'Jobu and Zuri were going over before T'Chaka's visit at the beginning of the film was a plan to spring Killmonger's mom out of prison.
- This is the reason that the Wachowskis refuse to talk about their own interpretation of the Matrix trilogy; in the introduction they wrote for the Ultimate Matrix Collection, they state that they don't want their own opinions to be cited as definitive, since the blind acceptance of dogma flies in the face of the trilogy's themes.
- Misled in Halloween II (1981). It was initially stated by the creators that Michael burned to death. However, they were forced to retcon this in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers due to poor reception of Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
- Hot Fuzz includes a special feature called the Fuzz-o-Meter, which pops up bits of trivia about the film. Much of the trivia includes bits and pieces about the story or characters that had been written into the script, but never made it to film. One of the 'facts' claims that the film was inspired by true events, only they involved zombies.
- Another 'fact' states that director Edgar Wright's eyeballs exploded during post-production.
- Saw: According to the writers' commentary track on the Saw 3D DVD, the two men with Dr. Gordon when he captures Hoffman at the end of the film are Brad and Ryan, the surviving victims of the film's opening trap.
- For the Friday the 13th series, there has been a bit of debate (particularly by a stubborn wikipedia admin) as to whether Jason is dead after being completely incinerated in Earth 2's atmosphere (except for his mask) at the end of Jason X. Though a comic and a novel series retcons this, most Jason comics fit into Canon Discontinuity, and it's Word of God that Jason is listed under the Jump to Death menu on the official DVD, with "Atmosphere" even listed as cause of death.
- During the dubbing process of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen Soundwave's English voice actor (Frank Welker) was brought on to dub the character for the French and Italian versions (amongst others, sans Japanese and German *Considered to be sub-standard*), he described the process as very hard and that "Soundwave in French is not to be believed".
- On the DVD commentary of Sideways, the actors mention that according to the writer/director Maya does not live there any more when Miles knocks on her door.
- During the filming of The Lord of the Rings, Ian McKellen had the costumers sew a pocket into his robe in which he carried a copy of Tolkien's book, for use in settling debates about the author's intent.
- Writer Parker Bennett of the Super Mario Bros. (1993) film clarified many details about the universe's backstory in a 2010 interview with The Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive website.
- For years, viewers of Back to the Future have wondered how the heck Marty McFly and Doc Brown know each other and became Heterosexual Life-Partners. Bob Gale, the co-creator of the movies, FINALLY gave a admittedly rather heartwarming explanation over on Mental Floss (later confirming with a photograph that yes, he IS the real deal!).
- Enemy: The director says that the spiders seen from the beginning to the end symbolize femininity. What that in turn means, however...
- For Into the Woods, Sondheim tried to convince Disney executives to have Rapunzel killed off in the movie and follow the musical's continuity. However, the executives refused, so original stage writer and film screenwriter James Lapine then rewrote the fate of Rapunzel and toned down darker aspects of her character, and a new song "She'll Be Back" was written for the Witch to sing after Rapunzel leaves with her Prince (it was later cut and was put on the Blu-ray release).
Examples that need identification of the source:
If you know when or where this was said, please add that information and move the example to the section above.
- Transformers left plenty of questions unanswered and a few Sequel Hooks, and with Transformers fans being who they are have asked a lot of questions. One in particular was whether or not Starscream took part in the F-22 assault on Megatron hiding in his alternate form. It would certainly be in tradition with the character, and the writers have said Sure Why Not so far. Another question was the unexplained absence of Barricade from the final battle. The comic book depicted him being killed by Optimus Prime, but the writers said they did it deliberately to bring him back in the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Despite this, Barricade makes no appearance. He did, however, appear in the climatic battle of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
- Richard O'Brien has stated that it was actually Riff Raff, and not Dr. Frank N. Furter, who did most of the work on Rocky in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Richard has also stated that the reason "Riff" killed Frank is because Riff was jealous.
- Jon Favreau, the director of Iron Man, has stated that The Ten Rings, the terrorist organization that kidnaps Tony at the beginning of the film, in fact, works for The Mandarin, one of Iron Man's enemies from the comics.
- Stephen Sondheim has gone on record saying that Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DID have sex, disappointing or disgusting many fans. This appears to be averted in the movie version, where Sweeney balks from kissing her in her own fantasy sequence. It's also averted in several theatre productions, including the 2012 London one with Michael Ball. As she sings By The Sea, he ignores her completely in favour of reading the newspaper.
