I was thinking about the Sandy Hook Promise: Gun violence warning signs video where a stereotypical teen romance story plays out and in the background someone gives off warning signs that they’re going to go on a shooting spree and it’s made me wonder if there are movies that follow a similar setup of building something up in the background just to have it completely overtake the main story line.
Like an average city girl following in love with a prince but you see protests and other signs of civil unrest in the background and the prince gets assassinated at the wedding. Maybe some kind of story that ends in 9/11 or the Cold War turning hot. Some kind of discount M. Night Shyamalan-style twist.
There’s a season of Community where Ahbed befriends a woman who becomes pregnant and in the end helps her deliver a baby in the back of a car.
Hot Fuzz. One of my favourites. The twist is so dumb it’s awesome.
It’s for the greater good!
Cabin in the Woods, definitely
I implore anyone NOT to watch the trailer or read anything about it.
This movie works best when you go about in blind.
It’s one of my all time favorites, it’s so fucking good.
Tap for spoiler
I really wish they would make a prequel which focuses on the operators, a TV series would be so great.
I went in blind (I never watch trailers) and I FULLY AGREE. Do not watch the trailer, go in blind. It’s the second most important movie to watch going in blind (under One Cut of the Dead)
If you don’t watch the trailer or read the name of the movie, Shaun of the Dead sorta plays out that way.
Maybe some kind of story that ends in 9/11
For exactly that, there’s 2010’s “Remember Me” with Robert Pattinson. Haven’t personally seen it, but for most of it it’s apparently a mid level romance/drama, then bam, date is revealed in on the blackboard of the main character’s sister’s school and the main character is looking out the window of his dad’s office which turns out to be in the North Tower. Idea behind it may be something like “each of the victims had their own ongoing story that was suddenly cut short” or something, but a lot of people felt that was shoehorned in for shock value or something
Somewhat similar, in A Christmas Story, there’s breadcrumbs around the movie that it takes place just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor
Arrival had Alien contact plot subverted by the main character can see into the future plot.
I feel like a lot of Anime’s have that kind of twist, where all is revealed, with plenty of background clues on first watch.
Mirai Nikki springs to mind
Attack on Titan
Not a movie, but the webcomic Homestuck is chalk full of this stuff
Not a movie but would The OA fit this description? I admittedly haven’t seen it since season 1 originally came out and never watched the show past that S01 finale episode.
Devs.
Perfect Blue.
Story and editing like it should the indie darling classic it is.
Suburbia, or whatever that Matt Damon movie was, was kind of like that. I don’t know how subtle the background plot was, though.
I vaguely remember some cop or cop adjacent tv show where a character thought that his neighbors were terrorists. They event went so far as to have him knock on the door and apologize, only to have the door close and show the inside of a bomb making setup.
Not exactly what you are asking for but you reminded me of Searching (2018).
