That film becomes the biggest hit of the summer, as moviegoers flock to go see the crowd-pleasing heroics of a faceless government bureaucracy with zero accountability or transparency, preventing humanity from making vast breakthroughs in our understanding of science and the universe. Geez, where's Wikileaks when you need it?
Adaptation Displacement: It was originally an indie comic book. One that didn't focus exclusively on aliens, either. Originally, the MIB's job was to snuff anything too weird for the American public. The first issue was all about a New Mexico death cult, for example. Additionally, MIB was not nearly as benevolent in the comics. Instead of having a neuralyzer, agents would outright murder a witness to cover-up or complete a mission, as well as executing and torturing innocent aliens. The organization also had an ulterior agenda that involved manipulating Earth as opposed to simply protecting it.
Alternative Character Interpretation: The tests Jay participated in to qualify for MIB. Were Zed and Kay giving the candidates a Secret Test of Character that Jay passed by thinking differently and deviating from what they expected, or were they straight tests and Jay passed due to his impressive physical showing against the alien earlier in the film that Kay was impressed by? Another interpretation is that, while shooting Tiffany wasn't necessarily the right answer, Jay did make up a pretty convincing justification on-the-spot, which is a very important skill for a Man in Black. The novel sides with the former interpretation, even saying Jay's choice to shoot little Tiffany on the firing range was right.
Frank the Pug. He proved to be so popular, he became an Ascended Extra in the animated series and also had a major role in the second movie, where he officially decides to join the titular organization. He was sadly absent from the third movie, but got a cameo in International.
Laurel/Agent L, thanks to her sassy, snarky attitude, enjoyable chemistry with J and a fairly good acting from Linda Fiorentino. She's also the very first non-background Woman in Black seen in the films, and as such has a larger role in the animated series. Her being Put on a Bus for the sequel didn't sit well with many fans.
The excuse given by the guy in the van for being in Mexico is "fishing in Cuernavaca?", which the border guard doesn't buy for one second. Cuernavaca is a touristy city, but it is inland and has no fishing scene. Seems he misremembered and mixed different prepared excuses for being in Mexico (like fishing in Cabo, visiting Cuernavaca).
The border guard speaks grammatically correct Spanish, but so poorly accented that a native speaker would have trouble following. In contrast Crazy-Prepared Agent K speaks almost pitch-perfect Mexican Spanish, slang included.
The "practical joke by the Great Attractor". In Real Life, the Great Attractor is the name for a strange gravitational anomaly with an apparent mass equal to tens of thousands of Milky Way galaxies.
J, still a police officer, shooting a "little girl" during the firing range test can be more uncomfortable to many viewers nowadays, since there have been multiple police shootings of children that got significant attention.
This exchange, referring to the fact that J had been memory wiped earlier in the movie, takes on a different meaning after it's revealed that K did wipe J's memory when he was little after his father was killed in Men in Black 3:
J: Did you ever flashy-thing me? K: No. J: I ain't playing with you, K. Did you ever flashy-thing me? K: No.
The entire dynamic between K and J in the previous two movies has to be re-imagined thanks to the revelation in 3 that K feels extreme guilt over getting J's father killed.
This line also becomes much harsher:
K: I've just gone down the gullet of an interstellar cockroach. That's one of a hundred memories I don't want.
Jay asks Kay not to call him names like "son" or "kid" or "junior". In the third movie, we learn K got J's original dad killed, and has been secretly watching over him as a sort of self-appointed godfather ever since.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: The reason why K so quickly recruits J into the MIB as well as acting like a surrogate father makes more sense when it's revealed that K does consider himself J's surrogate father to make up for accidentally getting J's real father killed.
The first film (released in 1997) includes a scene where K talks about a "fascinating little gadget" confiscated from aliens that's "going to replace CDs soon". To anyone watching the movie after 2001, he sounds like a time traveler describing the iPod to someone in The '90s. For added irony, K also offhandedly remarks that "I'll have to buy The White Album again". In the early years of iTunes, the store's failure to carry music by The Beatles was one of the biggest complaints against it. The device itself looks remarkably similar to a DataPlay disc, one of many failed attempts at introducing a new optical disc-based music format, right down to it being the size of a coin. The DataPlay format, by sheer coincidence, was first introduced in 2002, the same year that the second film came out.
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line from the first film, K is about to say "I guess you weren't even alive in 1968" right as the Bug's surviving half almost eats him before Laurel blows Edgar to smithereens with J's gun. The third film shows he clearly knew this isn't the case.
In the first film, J is very worried about the effects of multiple neuralyzations. In the second film, he neuralyzes a group of New Yorkers in the subway twice in the same scene.
The alien baby in the first film bears some resemblance to Kit Fisto.
Ho Yay: J constantly referring to K as his partner, which is fine because they are both federal government agents and Space Cops. Unfortunately for them it was enough to cause them to be Mistaken for Gay at one point. He also mentions in one occasion that K is all he has in the future. By the third film they're practically bickering like an old married couple.
I Am Not Shazam: The Bug Alien's name is NOT "Edgar". Edgar is the name of the farmer the Bug Alien kills and disguises himself as in the first movie. The animated series seems to forget this. Even his action figure is called Edgar. In the first movie, J calls it "the bug in the Edgar suit". Though they probably just call him that to differentiate him from his identical brothers in the animated series, like Edwin.
Wearing shades, followed by the use of The Neuralyzer, are a must in any MIB parody.
"You know what's the difference between you and me? I make this look good."
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."
Whenever a Men In Black actor passes away, expect fans to pay tribute by saying "[actor] is not dead, he just went home".
The exchange "Hey, is it worth it?" "Oh, yeah, it's worth it... if you're strong enough." frequently turns up to talk about any unusual or daunting task.
Jeebs, Frank the Pug and the Worms in the first movie (though they show up briefly in three different scenes). Positive response led to them all returning for the animated series and the sequel.
In the first film, Laurel as Agent L, since the character was Put on a Bus by the second film unlike the cartoon.
Signature Scene: The recruitment scene due to it being a moment that brings a lot of discussion amongst the viewers as to how smart it is at showing off why J was picked over the other candidates.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Agent L, played by Linda Fiorentino, never came back in the sequels. Her absence is explained by J claiming she wanted to go back to work at the morgue, and thus was neuralyzed by himnote A terribly weak excuse after joining the MIB being stressed as a permanent life-changing decision which involves your entire life being erased until you're old enough to be forced into retirement- the idea that L just "decided to leave" heavily undermines the speech Z gave J during his "suiting up" montage; still, the earlier scene with T already gave a Hand Wave with J just neuralyzing the other agent and trying to hook him up with a waitress. It could instead have been easily explained that she wanted to return to the morgue and MIB decided stationing an agent directly at the morgue under a new identity, in order to track potential cases was beneficial. There was no need for her to reappear but it would keep the supposed stakes of enlisting as MIB for life. Still, in the animated series she's still an agent, and her lack of presence in the live-action movies hasn't stopped fanfic writers from doing stories where she returns to MIB and becomes an agent once again.
The gunk-spitting alien squid baby that J helps deliver. He even remarks that it does look kinda cute.
Frank the pug is this as well seeing that pugs are known to be ugly cute in real life (a pug is also the trope's main image).
Values Dissonance: While paranoia towards those with unchecked power was certainly present during the 90s, it seems unlikely that the first film would have been made in the 2010s without making the MIB far more morally ambiguous, especially with real-world border patrol and law enforcement coming under greater and greater scrutiny.
Values Resonance: On the other hand, during the combat portion of the enlistment, Jay is the only one who doesn't go in guns blazing, taking time to assess the situation before taking appropriate action. This scene is frequently brought up in talking about how law enforcement should behave in real life.
Edward's line about NYPD meaning he will "kNock Yo Punkass Down" was rather brilliantly rendered in the Danish translation as: "Nu Ydmyger Politimanden Dig" (Now the Policeman Humiliates You).
Polish voiceover translation, rather than go for Fun with Acronyms, replaces the line with James going "Po-li-cja! Po-li-czę ci kości!", meaning "The Police", followed by an idiom meaning, roughly, "I'll thoroughly kick your ass."
The Latin American dub had to change a small line in the movie's intro, given that Agent K had originally told Mikey "You don't speak a word of Spanish" after realizing he was in disguise. This became "¡Y parece que eres mudo además!" ("And further, you're apparently mute!").
, based on the first movie.