Questions tagged [first-appearance]
Which was the first movie/show to use a certain characteristic or technique?
190
questions
5
votes
1answer
180 views
Pencils in the ceiling
I've just watched a Castle episode (S07E12) and this (pencils in the ceiling) scene (at 06:05) made me feel nostalgic, and smile.
I know another similar scene from The X-Files [1]. Mulder's office ...
4
votes
1answer
98 views
Origin of montages with incongruously happy music [closed]
I'm asking about montages of some criminal or depressing thing that have a happy song underneath them. The first show I remember seeing them on is Breaking Bad, but I've also seen them on Stranger ...
8
votes
1answer
192 views
What is the first movie to use a VCR (or recording device) to trick an adversary?
I was watching "Columbo: Playback", and the murderer uses a video security system to cover up a murder.
It got me thinking, what was the first movie to use video playback to trick another character? ...
4
votes
1answer
190 views
Has this “lyrics with song” style of scene ever been done?
In the movie Baby Driver, in the Coffee Run scene, some of the lyrics of the song are plastered in graffiti on the walls while the main character walks to the coffee shop.
...
5
votes
0answers
156 views
What was the first movie to be re-released with additional scenes?
Avengers: Endgame is being re-released in cinemas, with the additional of a deleted scene and a couple of newly-filmed scenes. There have been plenty of jokes on social media about it being "the first ...
1
vote
0answers
47 views
First depiction of a quadruped robot-vehicle?
Episode 2 of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990) shows the baddies pursuing the main characters in a convertible vehicle, a submarine/ship that becomes a quadruped robot at some point of the ...
6
votes
1answer
128 views
First film to feature a real news reader playing themselves reading the news?
Does anyone know the first film to use a real news reader or TV presenter playing 'themselves' and reading the news? eg Larry King in Ghostbusters.
3
votes
2answers
135 views
What was the first film to use the sliding down a building with one arm move?
In Captain America: Civil War and Deadpool 2, characters with metal arms both slide down a building by sticking their arm into the building's facade and letting the resistance from breaking the stone ...
2
votes
1answer
159 views
Cookie Monster's first appearance
I think to have heard that the Cookie Monster first appeared in a commercial rather than Sesame Street itself. Is this true? If not, where was Cookie Monster's first appearance if not in Sesame Street?...
4
votes
3answers
317 views
Was Arrival the first movie with this plot twist?
The movie Arrival has an unusual kind of plot twist where
This is, in my view, an interesting twist because it goes against the expectations of the viewer who is used to that plot device.
Was ...
6
votes
1answer
357 views
Origin of “red glowing eyes in the dark” trope?
I can't find/think of any examples off of the top of my head, but it is a common trope (especially in animated films) to show an area covered in shadow and have red eyes appear in the darkness. ...
8
votes
0answers
260 views
What was the first movie to show a crazy person's wall covered with photos & articles connected by colored yarn?
In movies such as A Beautiful Mind, a crazy / obsessed person will cover a wall with photographs and news articles, and connect them with colored yarn. (This is called link analysis). We've all seen ...
5
votes
0answers
200 views
When were animal masks first used in horror or espionage in cinema?
I have recently been watching the new Netflix TV series, The Umbrella Academy, based on the comic of the same name.
Two of its villainous characters are deadly assassins on the hunt for the ...
3
votes
0answers
73 views
Does David Lynch's eerie atmosphere (closer to german “Unheimlich”), have a definition and clear origin?
One aspect that all of lynch's films have is that eerie feeling that something is not quite right, but I find that atmosphere to be different from pure surrealism. Did Lynch start this? Or does it ...
6
votes
4answers
535 views
What is the first example of warning messages about special effects being shown to audiences before a film?
I have seen two instances of a message of caution or warning being shown before a film to explain to the audience that a particular moment in the film with a special effect is meant to be part of the ...
-3
votes
1answer
190 views
Damsel in Distress on Rail Road Tracks [duplicate]
Excluding the mustache villian, what was the first movie to have a person tied to a train track? Did the movie scene come from a book?
5
votes
0answers
222 views
First film with a stewardess landing a plane
In its article about 1956 film Julie, starring Doris Day, Wikipedia claims that it is “potentially the first film to feature the subplot of a stewardess piloting a plane to safety, later used in ...
6
votes
3answers
887 views
Explaining wormholes using a sheet of paper
When explaining how wormholes work in movies its pretty common to see someone taking a piece of paper, folding it, and sticking a pen (or any other object) through it to show the folding of space-time
...
16
votes
0answers
2k views
What was the first film to include a post-credits scene? [duplicate]
We can see post-credits scenes in almost every Marvel movie - Avengers, Iron Man, and so on. Marvel make the post-credits scenes so interesting that we wait until after the movie ends just to see the ...
6
votes
3answers
688 views
When did transparent data screens become a thing?
Sometimes sciFi movies don't do a good job of predicting the future. The majority, for example, had CRT-based displays more or less until flat screen displays became common in the real world (Alien, ...
8
votes
1answer
390 views
The path-on-the-map scenes in Casablanca and Raiders of the Lost Ark
Early in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, we watch a path appear on a map to represent the movement of characters across the earth.
This scene reminded me of the animation at the beginning of ...
1
vote
0answers
77 views
When did the term wrangler start applying to things other than animals?
In movie credits, you will see wranglers of animals, such as horse wrangler, ant wrangler (Pi), tiger wrangler, etc.
However, you will notice other things are wrangled, including children, ...
3
votes
0answers
109 views
What is the first occurrence of the helicopter(s)-chasing-a-car trope?
The helicopter(s)-chasing-a-car (or chasing a motorbike or other ground vehicle) trope is by now fairly well established in both live-action and animated television series and movies. See, for example:...
3
votes
0answers
334 views
First appearance of the realistic mask effect
What was the first movie to use the realistic mask effect - which appears to show a mask being removed that is indistinguishable from the actors face. Was it before the Mission Impossible series?
...
7
votes
1answer
652 views
When was “teal and orange” first used for night scenes?
Now we’ve all seen the trend for high contrast blue orange grading of movies. But when was the lightning scheme first brought in for shooting general night time scenes rather than using blue filters ...
5
votes
0answers
342 views
A movie that takes place entirely underwater [closed]
Preamble: This is not a recommendation question. It is a cinema history question.
Have there been any movies that take place entirely underwater?
Criteria:
a feature film
no above-the-surface scene
...
7
votes
3answers
873 views
What is the origin of the “double entendre” stock footage trope?
In Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different, there is a “romantic interlude” sketch (I think it was in the TV series too) where two people start to get passionate, then various stock ...
2
votes
0answers
85 views
Addressing characters by [LastName-FirstName-LastName]
There is a trope in American visual media (movies, television) in which a main character meets aliens or indigenous peoples unfamiliar with the name conventions of the character's culture.
Very ...
0
votes
0answers
106 views
First color movie to use flickering and slamming door trope?
Horror movies often show flickering of lights and slamming doors to signify presence of supernatural, ghosts and etc.
Which was the first color movie to use this trope?
8
votes
2answers
314 views
First tv show or film to feature mainstream/consumer computers?
Computers have been around for a long time but when did mainstream digital computers really begin to appear in TV shows or films? I believe this is inline and similar with this question.
3
votes
0answers
85 views
Which was the first movie to conceal objects in a book?
Concealing objects in book is a popular trope among crime thriller and mystery genre.
To mention a few:
Neo hides cash and disks in a book in The Matrix
Andy hides hammer in bible.The Shawshank ...
2
votes
0answers
199 views
First appearance of stopping an elevator to have a private discussion (Elevator Conference)
I watch NCIS for years, and was always sure the "elevator trick" (aka Elevator Conference) Gibbs is doing sometimes (stopping the elevator in the middle of its ride without actually ringing any bells ...
asked Oct 8 '17 at 18:10
Shadow The Princess Wizard
4,6592 gold badges25 silver badges60 bronze badges
11
votes
1answer
237 views
First occurrence of a house built on a graveyard?
I was doing some research on an unrelated topic, and the movie Poltergeist (1982 version) appeared to be the first occurrence of a residence being haunted because it was built over a cemetery.
I am ...
6
votes
0answers
165 views
What was the first movie depicting a bat wielding educational professional?
The tough education professional who wields a baseball bat to bring order to a troubled school has become something of a trope. I'm wondering what the first appearance was.
Morgan Freeman depicted ...
8
votes
2answers
217 views
First example of “super-wealthy steal younger bodies for immortality” plot?
What is the earliest film or show whose plot incorporated some process by which super-wealthy/powerful people achieve immortality by continually transferring their mind (and then wealth) into the ...
7
votes
1answer
195 views
What is the earliest instance of a film where none of the protagonists survive?
I was having a discussion about this with a colleague, who claimed that Evil Dead (1981) was the first film he knew of that had all the main characters die off. However he forgot that Mia survives ...
9
votes
1answer
2k views
When was the phrase “It's quiet, a little too quiet” first used?
"It's quiet, a little too quiet."
We have all heard this famous line being used in many movies.
What was the first movie to use this popular phrase?
2
votes
0answers
100 views
What was the earliest movie with a “conspiracy theorist's pegboard”?
This is about movies that include a character that has a wall or pegboard full of photos and notes, and strings connecting these.
Sometimes the character with this setup might at first seem a bit ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
First in-helmet shots (like Iron Man)
(I am aware of this question, but the question didn't word its request properly and as a result didn't get the desired answer)
In Iron Man (2008), a common shot is used to let Robert Downey Jr. act ...
4
votes
1answer
134 views
First appearance of going to past (time-travel) to change the present
There have been quite a few movies where people go back in time to change the past so that the present is altered. On top of my head are Back to the future (2), Men in Black (2), one of the recent X-...
4
votes
5answers
573 views
What is the first science fiction movie or TV show mentioning autonomous car?
With the autonomous car idea making huge leaps towards being part of our life, I wonder: where was it first mentioned in movies or a TV show? What is the earliest movie or TV show where the idea was ...
asked Jul 17 '17 at 8:33
Shadow The Princess Wizard
4,6592 gold badges25 silver badges60 bronze badges
63
votes
2answers
11k views
Where and when does the “idea” light bulb appear for the first time?
In many movies and animated cartoons, the light bulb represents an idea that occurs inside a character's mind. But where does this metaphor come from and what is the first movie/cartoon/show that used ...
17
votes
1answer
6k views
What's the first movie with a plot twist? [closed]
The first narrative movie ever was Trip to the moon of Georges Mélièrs.
It's about men going to the moon and fighting aliens, so a classical sci-fi movie but without any plot twists.
What was the ...
6
votes
1answer
212 views
Which is the first movie to show movie right after production logo without cuts?
While I was watching Sunshine (2007), Rings (2017) & Beauty and the Beast (2017). I noticed that the movie starts right after intro of production logo without any cuts.
For example: Beauty and ...
3
votes
0answers
80 views
What was the first movie to have someone with a screen, guiding an agent on the field?
The whole "agent on the ground talking to a person back in the office who has the map and control of things" is a bit of a trope these days.
I just looked at Max Headroom again today and remembered ...
3
votes
1answer
339 views
Which is the oldest non-fantasy movie to design unique weapon for the character?
When we think of a fantasy movie, along with the hero, their weapon comes to our minds too.
Captain America - Shield
Green Lantern - Power ring
Bat Man - Batarangs
Thor - Mjolnir
We can add many ...
2
votes
1answer
166 views
What was the first US TV-series in which the main cast were mostly african american? [duplicate]
What was the first US television series in which the main cast were mostly african american?
4
votes
1answer
366 views
Breaking the 4th wall during introduction
What was the earliest TV show that had the actor look at the camera / "break the fourth wall" during the introduction while the character / actors name was being spoken? I remember quite a few from ...
3
votes
0answers
166 views
What was the first movie to introduce J Cut in opening credits?
In Money Monster (2016), audio/dialogue is audible before the picture comes in.
What was the first movie to introduce a J-Cut in the opening credits?
2
votes
1answer
136 views
What is the first movie to introduce changing future by travelling into future?
In 13 Going On 30, Jenna Rink (30 year old) missed Matt as husband in first time travel.
Then she came back to past (13 year old), then she understand her mistake.
Finally she marries him in present (...
