Questions tagged [first-appearance]
Which was the first movie/show to use a certain characteristic or technique?
204
questions
7
votes
3answers
319 views
First movie set in a world with COVID-19?
In the middle of The Paramedic (2020), the radio news announced:
"Friday, January 3, 2020... According to information from Chinese media, the cause could be a virus that originated in a live ...
4
votes
0answers
58 views
Earliest version of a freelance assassin getting an assignment from a handler
Following a John Wick binge, I've realized how used to the idea of freelance assassins getting sent assignments or bounties from some sort of guild and/or personal agent. We saw that in Hitman (2007) ...
2
votes
0answers
133 views
What was the first TV series to show a toilet?
So over the weekend I was listening to my local NPR station to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and they were playing a true or false game about characters in the TV series, The Brady Bunch.
Anyways, one ...
6
votes
0answers
90 views
First use of super-slow zoom in horror films to create tension
Here I'm not talking specifically about a "dolly zoom", first introduced by cinematographer Irmin Roberts in Hitchcock's Vertigo, but about the agonizingly slow zoom that you see not ...
7
votes
0answers
117 views
Who pioneered the use of Laughing Kookaburra birds to create the impression of a jungle setting?
I was sent a link to the first video below and it immediately sent me back to my childhood watching reruns of what were already old films on Sunday afternoon television.
I'm sure I've heard this bird'...
6
votes
1answer
226 views
What was the first movie to show “Google” on-screen?
Google was founded in 1998. So what was the first movie to show "Google" on-screen?
1
vote
0answers
85 views
Is Psycho really the very first film to show a flushing toilet?
A lot of people always claim this about the film, but I haven't found anything to 100% confirm it yet. Anyone know for sure?
3
votes
3answers
214 views
What was the first movie to use viruses as the basis for zombies?
So when you watch old zombie movies, like Night of the Living Dead, zombies tend to be a mysterious thing, they are just an unnatural event with no explanation.
Fast forward 50 years into the future ...
5
votes
0answers
128 views
Origin of the side-view surprise car crash shot?
The most common form of the surprise car crash shot has the camera inside a moving car, with the frame showing the driver or a passenger in profile and (past them) a side window framing the world ...
2
votes
1answer
92 views
When was the first action sequence involving a parachuteless jump out of a plane filmed?
The 1991 movie Point Break features a sequence where Special Agent Johnny Utah jumps out of a plane without a parachute and catches up to another person with a chute while in mid-air.
I believe I've ...
3
votes
4answers
288 views
What is the earliest example of a 'gag reel'?
Having just watched a string of gag reels on youtube, I would like to know what the earliest examples of this extra material would be. I found one from 1946 on youtube but it would be interesting to ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
What was the first Zombie movie?
It is widely accepted that the first modern zombie movie is George A Romero's brilliant, low budget, Night Of The Living Dead.
But I'm sure zombies featured in Hammer Movies much earlier so Romero ...
8
votes
1answer
130 views
Which show was the first to use concept art as the ending credits?
In Disney+'s The Mandalorian, each episode ends with concept arts during the ending song. I don't know if this is a new film technique or not, but I've seen in first in RWBY and now in The Mandalorian....
2
votes
1answer
1k views
When was the first adult film ever made?
I was curious if anyone happens to maybe know when the first adult porno video was made on record? I was wondering how that might come about and what was the idea backing it versus how it is now?
5
votes
1answer
450 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
106 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
207 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
231 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
269 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
52 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
138 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
156 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
176 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
380 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
807 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
541 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
450 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
78 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
1k 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
253 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
365 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 ...
8
votes
3answers
2k 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
1k 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
579 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
93 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
113 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
447 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
773 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 ...
14
votes
1answer
739 views
Has there ever been a live-action movie that takes place entirely underwater?
Have there been any movies that take place entirely underwater?
It looks like it is a rare kind of film that takes place entirely underwater because all the water/underwater-themed movies I've seen ...
7
votes
3answers
2k 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
88 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
114 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
336 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
94 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
254 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 Wizard is Ear For You
4,8503 gold badges29 silver badges62 bronze badges
10
votes
1answer
335 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
219 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
253 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
209 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 ...
