Many European arthouse films are made to be seen multiple times to really get what they are about. This is especially the case for the likes of Jean-Luc Godard:
What you see with Godard...is that ten years later, after the movie, you see that he was telling the story. But because of his modern mise-en-scène, the story wasn’t exposed. It appears over time. And in that way, he’s like Picasso or Einstein. Because he’s searching, he’s searching and he finds...People walk out of Godard movies because they say there’s no story, there’s no logic. But there is a story. It’s just exposed differently. For instance, in a classic film, you’ll have an actor who says, “I’m the President of the United States.” In a Godard film, you’ll have an actor saying nothing, and you’ll have a voice coming in from somewhere saying, “Mr. President, do you want a glass of water?” That’s his method of exposition. It’s hard to understand. And you need to understand that logic to be moved by the movie. But with time and maybe one sentence in the program, these movies can touch people. Slowly we’re catching up.
Airplane! is packed with throw-away visual, acoustic and scripted jokes - often in the background behind the main action - that it takes several viewings to discern them all.
When watching the third movie the first time, it's easy to wonder where Marty got the bullet-proof vest for his confrontation with Buford Tannen. On a second viewing? It's blatantly obvious.
In Part III, the audience is actually introduced to Clara in an earlier scene. As Doc and Marty discuss their plan at the Hill Valley train station, Clara is waiting for Doc to pick her up. Since he apparently hadn't shown up, she rents the carriage which loses control, thus needing to being rescued by Doc.
The first half of A Beautiful Mind makes a lot more sense after The Reveal that John is hallucinating due to schizophrenia. Particularly the scene where his roommate Charles pushes a desk out a stained glass window, which would presumably not fly at Princeton- but his roommate Charles didn't exist, so it never happened. When Marcie is running through the flock of pigeons, none of them fly away from her. Also, Marcie has never aged, which is how John realizes that she isn't real.
All the Mind Screws in Black Swan makes much more sense once you learn that Nina is suffering a mental breakdown.
The Blair Witch Project: Look into the tie-ins and backstory, and you’ll find that a lot of scenes have way creepier implications than they seem, even ones that were already scary. Most notably, one the very first things that happen when the group goes into the woods is them finding piles of stones randomly strewn in front of their tents. Read the story of Rustin Parr and note the detail at the end about him marking the graves of kids he killed with piles of stones. Heather, Mike, and Josh were doomed from the start.
The Book of Eli after you learn that Eli is blind, you'll realize all the subtle hints made towards it throughout the film.
1987 suspense film The Caller, starring Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith, definitely has rewatch value, due to its final genre-bending Mind Screw. A few subtle clues easily missed during the first viewing, point toward its bizarre reveal.
Clue famously has three endings. After watching, you can go back and see small details that can allow any of the three to be plausible, like certain characters being missing from the crowd of guests at key moments, and other quirks such as a a painting of Mr Boddy in a butler's uniform.
The scene with Alice and Dan at the park early on in Closer takes on a new meaning upon The Reveal that Alice's real name is Jane and she took the name from a plaque at that park. If one watches the scene with that in mind, the Alice Ayres plaque can be spotted pretty easily and when "Alice" stops to look at all the plaques, she's very clearly looking at that one in particular.
The first time you'll watch it struggling to get a basic idea of what the hell's going on. The next time, you can pick up the subtleties and foreshadowing, while already knowing the story.
Additionally, having watched the Creative Credits before, you will notice many more familiar faces among the actors in different roles.
If you watch Copycat all the way through, and then start the movie from the beginning and watch carefully a second time, you'll be amazed at how many times the serial killer in question is right there all along, watching the heroes try to find him.
Also, the fact the killer is revealed to work as a lab tech explains how he recreated a crime scene with the victim being raped by two different men, since presumably he'd accessed semen samples at his workplace.
There's a small one in The Dark Knight during the initial robbery sequence. Once you know which of the bank robbers is actually the Joker, it's clear that he was playing one of his characteristically-lethal jokes when he nodded "yes" to the accomplice who'd asked if the gun-toting manager was out of ammo. Presumably, he'd thought that setting the guy up to get shot was funnier than simply waiting for the bus driver to run him over.
Once you know who The Mole is in The Dark Knight Rises, every time you rewatch it, you'll want to scream "Don't do it!" every time The Mole eagerly volunteers to help everyone. Talia snaked her way into Wayne Enterprise's board 3 years ago (which means she's been in their circle even longer) and pioneered the creation of the energy reactor so that by the time the movie starts, she's a well-trusted and well-received professional. She wanted to distract Bruce while Selina stole his prints, but Alfred wouldn't let her up. She called a board meeting for no particular reason so that Bane could kidnap them. She easily relented to Bane's demands to activate the energy reactor. She comes out of nowhere when Gordon wanted Foley to follow him to volunteer to scout for the bomb, which means all she had to do was lie and they tracked the wrong trunk. You will SCREAM at how well-trusted she is. Not without reason. The slow knife cuts the deepest.
Deep Blue Sea: There's a moment about 2/3 of the way into the film where the Gen 2 "big girl" shark attacks Carter as he tries to get a door open but she swerves out of the way at the last moment. This initially seems like a case of Plot Armor, but after The Reveal that she was trying to make him flood more parts of the facility, it's clear that she intentionally spared him.
In Deep Red, when Marc enters Helga's apartment after seeing her brutally murdered through her window, he muses afterwards that he's sure he saw a painting in her hallway that has since disappeared. The first time you watch the film, you'll probably be paying more attention to Marc rushing toward Helga's body than the apparent location of the painting; the second time you watch it, you'll know to look for it, armed with Marc's relevation late in the film: the painting is really a mirror, and since the killer is hiding in the hallway before slipping out, her face is reflected in it.
In Die Hard 2, the clues that Grant and Stuart are working together are more obvious when rewatching the film:
In an early scene, Stuart is told that there's been a sudden change to their "Beta Squad." When McClane talks to a member of Grant's team, he explains he's a last minute replacement for a team member who got sick.
The terrorists swapping out their machine gun magazines from ones of red tape to blue becomes obvious as the blue ones are blanks used to fake a firefight.
When Grant is threatening Stuart, Stuart and his men are shown all grinning. At first, it seems they're just amused by the threats but the second time, it's clear they're all getting a kick out of Grant hamming it up for the cops listening in.
Zig-Zagged by Donnie Darko. The first time one watches it, it's just a Mind Screw. The second time, almost everything seems to make sense, but a few questions remain. On the third watching, the fact that some of those questions are rather large (Who or what is Frank, and why does he/it take the form of a kid who dies? Who or what is manipulating Donnie to resolve the Temporal Paradox?) and remain near-totally unaddressed sticks out a lot more.
He's normally very calm and collected but gets fidgety when the Wizarding United Nations starts talking about what to do about Grindelwald.
When he arrests Newt the first thing he does is ask why Dumbledore is so fond of him and comes off as oddly jealous and bitter in the way that he talks about him. This jealousy and bitterness seems odd on first viewing but in reality, he probably thinks Newt and Dumbledore are a couple and is jealous that he's found someone else. The second question is what he knows about obscurials. On first glance this would seem like he's asking the second question because one is wrecking havoc on New York City but he's actually testing to see if Dumbledore sent Newt to New York to stop the obscurial because they can't fight each other. That's actually the truth but Newt doesn't know it at that point.
An abundance of "clues" that hint at Tyler Durden not being real, and "Jack" suffering from a split personality.
The payphone from which Jack calls Tyler has No Incoming Calls allowed.
Tyler appears for a few frames before he is introduced.
Jack and Tyler having the same briefcase, which on first viewing just seems to be a fortuitous conversation starter.
While dating Marla, Tyler and Jack never share the same room.
Jack (while beating himself up): "I had to think of my first fight with Tyler."
The way your entire perception of certain characters will change once you know what's happening - most notably, the viewer's perception of Marla changes from being frustratingly inconsistent to having the patience of a saint.
Also the irritating behavior of the Project Mayhem goons after Rob's death - them seeing "Tyler" break down over the demise of the man and behaving uncharacteristically empathetic throws them off balance, until someone makes an attempt to reconciliate his contradictory directions and everybody rolls with it.
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Emma's plan and Madison being on board with it was neatly hinted at in the opening act, with Madison nervously asking if her father was going to be safe. When Mothra first hatches, Emma seemingly nonchalantly tells one of her coworkers if he wanted to take the morning off, as she knew Jonah Alan and his terrorists would be arriving soon and would kill all the Monarch staff.
An early scene in The Grand Budapest Hotel has the Writer speaking to the camera for a while until he suddenly breaks off to yell at his son, who is revealed to be aiming a toy gun at him. On a rewatch, you can see the Writer's expression very subtly change a few moments before he breaks off, presumably when the kid entered the room with the gun.
In A History of Violence, a small town diner owner named Tom saves his restaurant, patrons, and employees from a pair of murderous thieves. After Tom's actions hit the news, a group of gangsters from Philadelphia come to town, saying that Tom is actually named Joey Cusack, that he was also a gangster from Philadelphia for The Irish Mob, and was the sort of criminal that scared even the other hardcore criminals. For the first two thirds or so of the film, the audience is being teased with the question of whether Tom really is Joey. After watching for the first time and learning that Tom and Joey really are the same person, (even if there's a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde thing going on) nearly every action, ambiguous expression, or choice made by Tom is open to being reinterpreted, and tiny details or camera shots that last for just a few seconds become clues to the truth.
The film Inception has you Mind Screwed the first time, heavily confused the second time because you start looking for signs of dream and reality, and finally by the third time, you might get it.
Jungle Cruise: A lot of Frank's reactions take on whole new meaning if you watch the movie again after seeing The Reveal that Frank is one of the cursed conquistadors, and in fact made the map Lily is using.
The funeral scene at the opening of Lawrence of Arabia (the final scene chronologically, as the rest of the movie takes place years earlier) is a lot more interesting when you know who all the people are:
Colonel Brighton, who had a complicated relationship with Lawrence not quite being able to explain the nature of that relationship.
Allenby, the man who twice convinced Lawrence to not only go back but want to, when Lawrence had been ready to quit, saying he "didn't know him well, you know". No one knew Lawrence better than Allenby.
It's not hard to figure out what Jackson Bentley is likely picturing when he calls Lawrence a shameless exhibitionist.
And, finally, the unnamed man who calls Bentley out for his offhand comment and mentions having shaken Lawrence's hand a. had previously slapped Lawrence (dressed as an Arab) in the face and never realized who it was, and b. specifically approached Lawrence for the handshake he brags about in this scene specifically for bragging rights. (His first line is also the first use of the phrase "who are you", which appears a significant number of times over the course of the film.)
Looper has tons of this; the sheer extent of the Stable Time Loop and Timey-Wimey Ball really doesn’t hit you until repeated viewings. Amongst other things:
At the start, Joe mentions to Abe that he’s learning to speak French and plans to move to France after retiring. Abe is perturbed and weirdly insistent that Joe should go to China instead. That’s because Abe, being from the future, knows Joe is supposed to retire to China since that’s where he’s retrieved from when his loop is closed. He thinks the future has been altered and is trying to nudge it back on track by telling Joe to go to China.
The Rainmaker’s henchmen in the future scenes are wearing distinctive black costumes with wide-brimmed cowboy hats. Later in the movie, Cid is shown to have posters, drawings, and toys depicting a superhero who wears that exact outfit. He’s the Rainmaker’s younger self and got the idea for the costumes from that superhero.
Old Joe off-handedly mentions a few rumors about the Rainmaker’s Mysterious Past; that he has a synthetic jaw, that he watched his mom get shot, and that he has a personal grudge against Loopers. Each one of those happens in the climax, or comes very close to happening. Cid’s jaw is grazed by a gunshot (hence why he’ll get a synthetic replacement), Sara is nearly shot by Old Joe for protecting him, and Cid would’ve had his life ruined by Loopers.
Thor has an example that spans across movies. In the first Thor, Odin has every reason to be upset with Thor's poor judgment in attacking Jötunheim. If you watch the scene again after watching Thor: RagnarokOdin is thinking back on his mistake with his firstborn, Hela. Odin felt like he was making the same mistakes and took drastic action to save his son from such a fate. People have noted that, similar to Alec Guinness's performance as Obi-Wan reflecting on his relation with Luke's father, the performance by a Shakespearean actor allows enough nuance to their verbal pauses to apply this retroactively, without the actor knowing anything about that particular character motivation at the time.
The Red Skull, in Captain America: The First Avenger, reveals his eponymous Red Skull by ripping his rubber normal-face mask. However, eagle-eyed viewers rewatching his first scene can see the edges of the mask in some close-up shots of the side of his face.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: When Quill questions why Ego never went back for Meredith, Ego comments that he made a lot of mistakes, but Quill isn't one of them. After The Reveal, it becomes clear that Ego wasn't talking about Meredith at all. The "mistakes" were all of his children that didn't inherit Celestial powers.
Captain Marvel: After the reveal that the Skrulls are mostly benevolent and are simply refugees who didn't submit to Kree rule, the scenes where they are beaten by Carol and Starforce become a bit more horrific to watch now that it's clear they're just people desperate to find a home for their families.
Avengers: Endgame: Knowing that Steve Rogers stays in the past with Peggy after returning the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir to their proper timelines gives a different tone to the scene, with a strong implication that Bucky already knows that he isn't coming back (except via The Slow Path).
Masquerade (2021): On repeat viewings, it seems obvious that Rose and the burglars never cross paths and Rose's conversations with her accomplice are one-sided cellphone calls. That's because there are two home invasion plots and not one as first seemed.
Memento, due to the Anachronic Order. The film is interspersed with Black-and-White scenes (which are played in chronological order) and Color scenes (which appear in reverse chronological order); interpreting what happens in what order may require multiple views.
Ms. Hubbard following Poirot and chatting with him endlessly when he first boards the train comes off as a flirty woman who may also be a bit drunk. She is actually Linda Arden and is the mastermind for the murder. She is trying to figure out this new arrival that she did not plan to be on the train.
Watching the scene on a second viewing when Poirot and Ms. Hubbard are walking through the train shows many of the conspirators nervously watching Poirot as he walks past them.
When Mary sees Poirot on the station, she asks if he will be joining them on the train. Watch her reaction when Poirot indicates he may. She is taken back because they did not plan for an additional passenger, let alone a detective like Poirot.
MacQueen is disappointed and a bit annoyed when he finds out Poirot will be his roommate instead of Mr. Harris. It's because he knows "Mr. Harris" is fictional and the conspirators faked a reservation so they could have the whole train to themselves.
Later, Michel relocates MacQueen so Poirot could have the cabin to himself. Michel did so MacQueen could be bunked with someone who is on the plan.
The conversation between Ms. Hubbard and Ratchett take on a different meaning once you know that she knows she is talking to the man who murdered her granddaughter and indirectly caused the deaths of her daughter and her son in law.
After the murder occurs, everyone is suspicious of everyone else, shooting nervous looks at each other. It's not because they think someone is a murder (because they all conspired and committed the murder), but because they were worried one of them may crack and expose their crime to Poirot.
When finding out the train is delayed, many start complaining of the inconvenience until Estravados gives a rather intense speech about God and how they are not necessarily entitled to reach their destination on time. Everyone looks a bit uncomfortable afterwards, seemingly unsettled by her religious devotion. With The Reveal that all of them were in on the murder, Estravados's words is actually hitting them that they killed a man with the possibility that they may not be as justified as they think and there is a good chance they will get caught or answer for their crime in some way.
Some lines from Estravados actually hint at her past. She talks about how she no longer drink, how drinking is a sin and she is now a light sleeper because she was "surprised" once. She was Daisy's nanny and she had been drinking and had fallen asleep the night Casetti kidnapped Daisy and couldn't stop him when she tried.
Nine Dead: Before killing a person, the captor will usually whisper the reason why (one of them figures it out before his death and doesn't stop ranting about it, and another isn't able to hear it because he jumps ahead of the line in a Heroic Sacrifice). We don't get to hear what he says, but after the mystery is revealed, it's easy to decipher from the context.
Christian: My son went to prison for a crime you committed.
Coogan: You raped my son and gave him AIDS.
Leon: You profited off the crime my son was blamed for.
Chan: You gave a false statement and condemned my son to prison.
Tim and Detective Pikachu's relationship takes on a significant and more heartwarming meaning on the second viewing because it's revealed that Tim's father is Detective Pikachu all along.
The Prestige the film is very interesting to watch once you know Christian Bale is playing two characters. It takes some careful analysis of the plot and close attention to the performance, but the two twins have very distinct personalities, and Christian Bale plays them differently, in a subtle way. Even their accents are slightly different, especially when angry or drunk (when the façade is weakest). This is particularly impressive since it is a subtlety of acting performance that not only an audience won't likely get the first time through, they're NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO.
Pulp Fiction: The prologue is made even more awesome when you know that it's foreshadowing the climax of the movie, and stuff like Pumpkin asking for a refill of coffee will show up later on.
Reservoir Dogs, due to the Anachronic Order. Orange's plea for White to take him to a hospital comes off less self-sacrificing and more desperate when you find out he's the cop, for example. The opening scene in particular is loaded and loaded with foreshadowing that you won't pick up on the first couple of times.
In Searching, a lot of things that Detective Vick does actually foreshadows their role in Margot's disappearance in a second viewing. They seemed very eager, a little too eager, in assisting with the case. When David calls Vick in the middle of the night to inform Vick he had followed Margot's trail to Barbosa Lake, they rushed out the door, specifically telling their son Robert, Margot's attacker, that Vick would take care of everything. After David assaults Derek in the theater, they told David to stay put and to not be involved in the investigation anymore, because Vick realizes that David would stop at nothing to find out what really happened to his daughter.
The Shawshank Redemption manages to make the surprise inspection scene so much tenser. The first time, all you get is a sense of awkwardness and a vague feeling that Andy is hiding something. The second time around, you cringe at exactly how close the Warden came to walking off with Andy's hammer, or discovering the hole behind his poster.
Watching it again you can pick up how the supporting characters behave around Teddy Daniels knowing he's actually a delusional patient at Shutter Island and not a marshal investigating a disappearance.
When first arriving on the film, there is a gag where Teddy's partner Chuck has great difficulty getting his gun out of the holster, eventually taking the entire holster off, to Teddy's confusion and the Deputy Warden's annoyance. On second viewings it's clear that Chuck can't get it out because he's a Doctor on the island, not a lawman, which is also why the Deputy Warden acts like this is annoying, but doesn't see it as unexpected.
Late in the film, when Teddy believes there is a conspiracy happening on the island, the Warden gives Teddy a lift back to the main buildings on the island. During the lift, the Warden gives a very odd speech about violence, and how it's God's gift. It makes it seem as though the Warden isn't quite right in the head, but he's actually just taunting Teddy because Teddy's is a dangerous patient on the island who the Warden thinks should be lobotimized. More specifically, the Warden's line "I know you - we've known each other for centuries" sounds like a metaphor, but the first part, at least is true. The Warden's known Teddy for two years. The most blatant line, however, is "Cawley thinks you're harmless, that you can be controlled, but I know different". Teddy interprets this as Cawley believing Teddy can't truly interfere with the conspiracy on the island. The Warden is actually referring to Cawley's belief that he can cure Teddy.
Rewatching after knowing the twist really does give the film an entirely different experience. You can see that just about every single interaction Teddy has with the staff is intentionally designed to trigger him and dredge up memories associated with his real life that are buried under the delusions and denial he has created. Furthermore there are multiple big hints that the facility simply isn't the sort of shady, inhuman conspiracy Teddy imagines, as there are multiple signs that at least Cawley and his faction among the staff genuinely care about the well being of the patients.
The Silent Hill movie is full of this. The plot may not make that much sense upon first viewing, but in subsequent viewings, you'll realize all sorts of things, like the fact that someone else hijacked the daughter's body and was the one that allowed the mother to leave Silent Hill — geographically, that is...
In Silence of the Lambs, the scene where the police squad rescues Officer Pembry take on a different tone when you realize they are actually “rescuing” Hannibal Lecter.
The color red isn't present in the majority of the film. The times when the color is present are generally things that are touched by the "other world" inhabited by the dead and things that are especially emotionally charged for Dr. Malcolm Crowe or Cole, the boy, making them more present to them.
All of the clothing Dr. Crowe wears throughout the film is something he had on or interacted with the night he was killed.
This is half of the fun of The Skeleton Key. Even the most seemingly innocent comments, like Violet being disappointed that she wasn't sent a black nurse or asking if Caroline had tattoos make much more sense after the reveal that she was planning to steal Caroline's body.
The reveal that Vader is Luke's father is so acclaimed because it caused this. Uncle Owen's comments about worrying that Luke will end up like his father, the vague ways Obi-Wan describes Anakin Skywalker and how Obi-Wan hesitates to respond when Luke asks how his father died, Vader being able to sense Luke's presence so well, Yoda lamenting how how Luke has too much anger in him like his father did, etc. It's even more impressive given that this was decided on midway through writing The Empire Strikes Back, making the aforementioned fortuitous details come across as intentional foreshadowing.
In the opening scene, Lor San Tekka gives a brief, desperate speech to Kylo Ren about the Light Side of the Force and his heritage. This speech takes on a whole new meaning when it's revealed Kylo is Han and Leia's son and Luke's former protégé gone bad. There's also a lot of subtle foreshadowing towards what happens in the film's climax, such as Han and Chewbacca arguing about whether Han can talk his way out of trouble or not and Kylo Ren wondering if he's really willing to cross the line as Darth Vader did.
When Kylo Ren is interrogating Rey, he probes her mind and says that she dreams of an island and an ocean, which the audience likely ignored or dismissed after a moment of thinking about how this is a little strange for someone who grew up in a desert to dream about. At the end of the film, after the heroes complete the map to Luke Skywalker's location, Rey travels to meet him... and it turns out he's been hiding on an island.
Sucker Punch: The subtle camera angling doesn't make sense till you actually focus on it — focusing on what it's focusing on over what it's not.
There's Something About Mary: The movie drops a lot of subtle hints about everyone's real agenda that doesn't get picked up until the second time around. Regarding the identity of "Brett", you can catch a few early clues, with one friend calling him "Pack Man" (although most will audibly interpret it as "Pac-Man" the first time before they know The Reveal) and Mary also talking about how he lived "up north". Also, Dom mentioning Ted's zipper incident — even though he wasn't there and Ted never told him about it — is a big tip-off about his hidden agenda that's seemingly dismissed with a random Hand Wave the first time.
The interview scenes are like this on the second viewing once you know that Verbal Kint was free-associating while making up parts of his story on the spot. At various points you can see him looking around the room, which after a first watching we'll know is to use small details from his surroundings to flesh out his lies. For example just before he mentions the lawyer Kobayashi you can see him glancing up at the underside of the detective's coffee mug, and at the end of the film Kobayashi is revealed to be the brand name printed on the bottom.
Early in the film, the five "Suspects" are brought into custody by police investigating the hijacking of a truck carrying black market guns. Later, on a totally unrelated subject, Kujan tells Verbal one of his tricks for spotting a guilty party; if you bring in a group of pro criminals, the guilty one will be the one who says the least and is trying to rest and make sure he doesn't give anything away to the cops. On a second viewing, you'll notice that this is playing out with the suspects when they're held by the NYPD, because when they're all in a holding cell most of the suspects are fretting or angry or wondering why they were brought in, but Todd Hockney is laying down in a corner trying to rest. Hockney even starts getting irritated at just how much Fenster is freaking out. Later on in the movie, Hockney is revealed to be behind the hijacking.
A lot of dialogue in Vertigo takes on a whole new meaning after The Reveal.
You'll notice that Scottie gets all the information about Madeleine from Elster. There is a turn-of-the-century painting of San Francisco that Elster hangs in the office because he associates the image with total "freedom", his probable motive for killing his wife. As pointed out in this video, half of Elster's office is on an elevated level which Elster steps into as he talks about Madeleine's supernatural possession, while Scottie sits in the lower half of the room, as if he is watching a performance on stage.
Madeleine seems to flirt with Scottie rather a lot for a married woman.
Madeleine's words to Scottie before her apparent death can now be read as Judy saying goodbye to a man she loved.
Right before she runs into the church, you hear Madeleine's posh voice slip a little. Judy slips up and can't keep her accent up because she's so distressed at what she's about to take part in.
In addition to the heading into the church, Madeleine asks him to let her go into the church alone. This could be seen also as Judy trying to keep Scottie from falling into the trap of making him witness the "suicide" and trying to stop Gavin's plan from being complete. When she tells him in the last scene that she wanted to stop it, what she was telling him may have been the truth.
Judy's reaction when Scottie knocks on her door. Sure, she seems suspicious and annoyed, but she easily could've just said "get lost!" and slammed the door on him, rather than let him in. And her sassy attitude toward an obviously troubled man seems insensitive until you know that she's secretly overjoyed that he found her again and she's trying maybe a bit too hard not to show it, since she's not sure if he's figured out the truth yet—her mean act is a Secret Test of Character to make sure that Scottie's really interested in her and not suspicious; once she's satisfied that he's being genuine, she warms to up him.
Judy's tearful resistance to Scotty making her over isn't just because it's abnormal in the first place, it's because it's what Elster made her do.
, a Leitmotif for Merlin, which is his favourite childhood song that he even sings when performing his Heroic Sacrifice (backed by a harmonic orchestra).