Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stunts

Movies where someone hangs onto the hood of a driving car?

asavage — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:21:35 -0800

MythbustersMovieStuntFilter: Movies where someone is hanging onto the hood (or roof) of a car, while the driver tries to shake them off. We've got Terminator, DeathProof, and Better off Dead, any others are greatly appreciated. (Guess which one of us gets to do this?)
Extra points for where I might look for that scene in the film.

Can you please suggest pranks, stunts, and tricks that fall under the category of "physical challenges"?

chr1sb0y — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:56:54 -0800

Can you please suggest simple pranks, stunts, and tricks that fall under the category of "physical challenges"? For example: Offer 2 kids a piece of newspaper, and challenge them to find a way for both to stand on the paper at the same time, without ripping it, such that neither kid is able to touch the other. Answer: Slide the paper under a door; they stand on either side of the door. I know there must be whole books/websites/etc. of these out there, but I'm not finding them.

These are for use at a birthday party of 7-9 year olds.

How dare you! ... we like it.

divabat — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:20:24 -0800

What are some audacious things that people have done to convince someone of their goal/cause/opinion or change their mind - and succeed? One of the sponsorship books I'm reading tells the story of a non-profit club member that, when given a rejection for his club's proposal, actually drove three hours to see the company's sponsorship manager and ask why they were rejected. Said sponsorship manager (who was also the author of this book) was blown away by the man's passion and dedication, and eventually agreed to the sponsorship.

Who else has managed to pull off something like this? Richard Branson's possibly the king of audacious gestures, though his are more publicity stunts than attempts to get someone on their side. There's also all the high school seniors who keep saying "oh, I'll go to College X That Rejected Me with all my awesomeness and show them what they're missing", but I've never heard of anyone that's actually done so, let alone succeed at it. And there's all the Idol auditionees that do crazy stuff to get in - though arguably no one's made it to the finals on a stunt.

I'm mainly interested in stories that involve getting a rejection overturned or have someone change their mind about the asker (for example, getting accepted for something you were once rejected for), but anything works really.

Narrative/fiction movies with unexpected moments of "reality" or fourth wall-breaking or other interesting metaness?

lorimer — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:08:01 -0800

Narrative/fiction movies with unexpected elements of "reality" or fourth wall breaking or other interesting metaness? Illustrative examples inside (without spoilers): Sling Blade, Bamboozled, Shortbus, Timecode, South Park, etc. I'm less interested here in pervasively-meta movies (like Adaptation or Being John Malkovich) and more interested in traditional narrative movies that have unexpected real/meta moments or elements. Some examples, of various kinds:

A) UNUSUALLY EXPLICIT INVOLVEMENT OF THE VIEWER
• in Sling Blade: Billy Bob Thornton's long look into the camera during his walk around town (which he's called a purposeful fourth wall break, meant to remind the viewer he's spinning a tale).
• in Bamboozled: the real reactions of shock and confusion we see from the studio audience during the filming of the TV pilot (apparently the extras playing the audience were told they'd be filmed as a studio audience, but were not told what they'd see onstage), which adds an interesting element to the end viewer's own reactions/shock.

B) REAL ACTS WHERE SUCH ACTS ARE USUALLY SIMULATED
• in Shortbus, Bound, Brown Bunny, Baise Moi and others: unsimulated sex, either obvious onscreen or reported by the actors involved.
[• all the movies in my actors who play their own instruments thread.]
[• all movies in which actors do either stunts or other acts you'd expect to see done by doubles (this is less interesting to me unless something about the situation overlaps other categories like A or C).]

C) INTERESTING SELF-REFERENCE
• in Timecode: film director character proposes shooting a movie using the multiscreen technique used to shoot Timecode, and other characters think this idea is pretentious.
• in South Park: four-letter words discovered to have direct, life-saving utility (movie is based on a show often criticized for "gratuitous"/useless explicit language).
• in Full Frontal: a few meta-twists for the standard "movie in a movie" idea (such as the scene from The Limey that fits into one of Full Frontal's existing scenes without any change of nesting level).
• in Dancer in the Dark, Lost in Translation and others: especially self-referential casting (famously childlike-whimsical-fanciful musician as character with same qualities; iconic aging actor as iconic aging actor; etc.).

... So which other examples should I check out? Please let me know why if possible, BUT PLEASE NO SPOILERS (no revealing plot developments/surprises). Thanks for your help!

Movies with crazy stunts and explosions?

Grod — Sun, 30 May 2004 20:36:33 -0800

What's your favorite movie where stuff blows up and people do outrageous stunts? Alternatively, what are the best martial arts films, I remember one trilogy I saw part of with some crazy ass stunts, fighting on ladders, some monk whose mother was a ninja, etc. Getting back to the first part of the question: preferably funny, stylish, and sexy. James Bond meets Batman. Fire away.