Actor Allusion / Live-Action Films

Examples of Actor Allusions in Live-Action Movies.

---

• 24-Hour Party People, which chronicles the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records (which featured Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, A Certain Ratio, and many others), makes frequent use of this. Several times throughout the film actual people who were involved with Factory make brief cameos as janitors, bartenders, etc, sometimes interacting with the actors portraying them. At one point in the movie Steve Coogan (narrating as Factory founder Tony Wilson) points out to the audience that there have been these cameos all along. Additionally, Howard Devoto of The Buzzcocks refutes the veracity of a scene in which he is portrayed (wherein he has sex with Tony's wife) saying "I definitely don't remember this happening."
• In The 6th Day, Arnold tells a man to "Get Out!" of his truck — just like he did in The Terminator with a tanker.
• Airplane II: The Sequel
  • An incredibly blatant one when Cdr. Buck Murdock looks into a periscope. The first shot shows the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, followed by a reaction shot, and then what the character was really seeing. Buck Murdock is played by William Shatner.
  • Earlier in the same film there's a scene where air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (played by Lloyd Bridges) is shown residing in a nursing home. A nurse explains that he's gone senile and "thinks he's Lloyd Bridges," and we see him donning a scuba mask (an allusion to Bridges' role on the '50s TV show Sea Hunt).
• The Art of the Steal: When Crunch tells Nicky that Francie is his apprentice, Nicky makes a comment about Crunch being a wizard. Jay Baruchel, who plays Francie, starred as a wizard's apprentice in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
• In Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival, The Agent asks The Publicist, played by Ted Neeley, "What's the buzz? Tell me what's happening," a question repeatedly asked of Neeley's character, Jesus, in a number from Jesus Christ Superstar. An angel introduces a performance by God with the odd phrase "mark it up!" the title and refrain of a song from Repo! The Genetic Opera, a film that shares many of the same cast and crew, including the actor playing God.
• In Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark (2005), a character falls to his death in a spiky pit trap. The actor portraying him was Ho Sung Pak, who portrayed Liu Kang in the first two Mortal Kombat games, where characters could also meet such a fate.
• In the intro for The Alphabet Killer, the protagonist (played by Eliza Dushku) laments how the people she most wants to talk to are dead. This could be an allusion to Tru Calling, in which one of Eliza's previous characters (the eponymous Tru), could indeed talk to the dead.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks
  • In The Squeakquel, Alvin, voiced by Justin Long, says he must "remember the five D's of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge." A line from his previous film, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.
• In An American Haunting, Sissy Spacek plays the mother of a teenaged girl named Betsy Bell who is constantly plagued by supernatural events... something Spacek should be quite familiar with, given that her most famous role was the eponymous telekinetic teen in Carrie. The comparison becomes even more apt when it's revealed that the source of the ghostly attacks was Betsy herself, manifesting the Bell Witch to protect herself from her sexually abusive father.
• Are You Being Served? cast Andrew Sachs as a Spanish hotel owner to capitalize on his fame as Spanish hotel worker Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
• Arsenic and Old Lace
  • The movie shows Cary Grant's character sitting by a tombstone that bears the name Archie Leach, Grant's real name.
  • In the original run of the play the part of Jonathan Brewster, who had had so many cosmetic surgeries he "look[ed] like Boris Karloff", was played by Boris Karloff. He was unavailable for the film however, because he was still in the play on Broadway, so the part was played by Raymond Massey.
• The first section of Ask a Policeman contains an in-joke about Will Hay's real-life career. In 1937 his radio show was "faded out" to make time for a broadcast by the Prime Minister. Hay was furious and vowed never to broadcast again. A popular outcry led by the Daily Express forced The BBC to apologize before Hay would go back on the air. When Dudfoot's broadcast ends the same way, he says, "The BBC always fade out the best items", and when threatened with dismissal he says, "If only we could get the Daily Express behind us..."
• In Austenland, based on Shannon Hale's book about the milieu of Jane Austen's books recreated at a present-day vacation resort, Rupert Vansittart plays a minor character, the husband of a more important character, and mostly lounges and eats and drinks. In Pride and Prejudice (1995), Vansittart plays the little-seen husband of one of Bingley's sisters, "an indolent man, who lived only to eat, drink, and play at cards". His facial hair is even styled similarly in the two movies.
• Presumably Stan Lee is credited As Himself in Avengers: Age of Ultron because he appears as a World War II veteran and drunkenly slurs "Excelsior!" (Lee was part of the Signal Corps and Training Film divisions and didn't storm Normandy as his character implies).
• In Back to the Future Part III, Mary Steenbergen stars as Clara Clayton, a woman who falls in love with a time-traveller (Doc Brown). Steenbergen had also starred as such a character in Time After Time.
• Big Daddy from Beach Party is revealed to be played by Vincent Price, who says, "Bring me my pendulum, kiddies. I feel like swinging."
• Be Cool: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's pro-wrestling persona is playfully referenced in a discussion about his character, a gay bodyguard who dreams of getting his big break as an actor.
  Linda Moon: He can raise just one eyebrow at a time... and that's all he thinks it takes to be an actor.
• The entire point of Jürgen Prochnow's character in Beerfest is basically to keep making references to Das Boot. Including, but not limited to, people drinking out of boots while chanting "Das Boot!", gratuitous submarine scenes and his character stating that he "had a bad experience" aboard a U-boat.
• Possible example in Best in Show: Fred Willard's character says of Catherine O'Hara's "That handler looks familiar to me." It works in the film itself as part of the Running Gag that O'Hara and her husband keep running into her old boyfriends, but also references that she and Willard played a couple in Waiting for Guffman.
• Bicentennial Man:
  • The humanoid head that Rupert shows Andrew when they meet is played by Adam Bryant, who usually plays as Robin Williams's body double.
  • After Rupert takes Andrew's face off to begin adding "skin", Andrew looks into the mirror and screams. When asked why, Andrew says "I've seen my inner me". This is a nod to "Come inside my mind" from Robin Williams's 1979 comedy album, Reality...What a Concept.
• Michael Biehn has been bitten on the arm in every James Cameron movie he's been in — The Abyss, Aliens, and Terminator.
• One of the older actresses from the Black Christmas (2006) remake starred in the original movie: Andrea Martin.
• Another Fisher example occurs in The Blues Brothers; when her character shoots off a bazooka, the sound effect is the same as the blasters in the Star Wars films.
• There's a delightful example in Bohemian Rhapsody where Mike Myers plays a record executive who hates the titular song. In Wayne's World Myers and his friends jam to that song during the opening sequence.
• In Booky Makes Her Mark, Booky has tea with Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery. Booky's mother is played by Megan Follows, perhaps best known for her role as Anne Shirley.
• Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva: Mohan Bhargav is named for his actor Shah Rukh Khan's previous role, Mohan Bhargava, in Swades.
• In Brewster McCloud, Margaret Hamilton plays Daphne Heap, who is murdered early on. When the camera pans down to show her, she is wearing ruby slippers, a reference to her role of the Wicked Witch.
• The Film of the Book Bridget Jones' Diary had Colin Firth cast as Mark Darcy, Bridget's Love Interest. The book was based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whose romantic lead is Fitzwilliam Darcy (this itself is referenced in a line about how Bridget finds it ridiculous of Mark to be named Darcy and stand by himself at a party). Colin Firth played a particularly memorable Mr. Darcy in a 1996 BBC television adaptation of P & P. The character of Bridget Jones started in a column in The Independent and the Daily Telegraph, and when the adaptation was being broadcast she would often mention how much she fancied him. His casting in Bridget Jones's Diary was a HUGE Actor Allusion. Also, the only male actors mentioned in the novel Bridget Jones's Diary are Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Firth is Darcy, and Grant played Daniel Cleaver, Bridget's other Love Interest. Grant also starred in another Jane Austen dramatization, Sense and Sensibility.
• In The Bridge on the River Kwai, which had the march "Colonel Bogey" as its theme music, Sessue Hayakawa played a Japanese colonel overseeing a bridge-building project. In The Geisha Boy, he was building a bridge in his backyard...with the help of men whistling "Colonel Bogey".
• In Brigada Explosiva: Mision Pirata, Emilio Disi's character asks a girl if she's heard of Brigada Z. When she says no, he asks: "What about Bañeros?". Disi and his co-star in the movie, Gino Renni, co-starred in the Bañeros trilogy.
• In Bring It On, when the Clovers cheerleaders confront Torrence and Missy about stealing their routines, one of the Clovers says, "Can we just beat these Buffys down so I can go home?" When they decide not to do so, another Clover tells them, "You just got touched by an Angel." Missy is played by Eliza Dushku, who plays Faith in both those shows.
• The Bucket List:
  • Carter talks about wanting to be the first black president in his youth. Morgan Freeman played the president in Deep Impact, though it is unclear if he was the first African-American one in the story.
  • Edward talks about missing a lunch meeting with Michelle Pfeiffer to attend a hearing. Nicholson starred with Pfeiffer in Wolf (Mike Nichols), and both played villains in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) movies. Not at the same time though.
  • Rob Morrow plays a doctor in the movie, similar to his role on Northern Exposure.
• Sarah Michelle Gellar is the titular Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the gang call themselves the 'Scoobies', a reference to Scooby-Doo. In the Live-Action Scooby-Doo film, Daphne is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who also drew heavily from her role as Buffy.
• Ellen Burstyn has played the elderly daughter of a parent who remained young in both Interstellar and The Age of Adaline.
• In Buster, Phil Collins mistakenly says, "Hey, Julie!" to Julie Walters, who is actually playing June.
• The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off are connected by a running gag around Nicolas Cage. In The Rock, Nicolas Cage explains to Sean Connery that he drives a beige Volvo. In Con Air, Nicholas Cage cuts Dave Chappelle's body loose from the plane, and it crashes onto a beige Volvo. In Face/Off, Nicolas Cage escapes from the oil rig prison and steals a beige Volvo.
  • In Con Air, Duncan Malloy has a Starfleet badge on his keychain. Colm Meaney, who plays Malloy, played Starfleet engineer Miles O'Brien on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• Cannonball: Look how Cannonball Buckman beats up the thug disguised as a motorcycle cop. Where have we seen David Carradine fight like this before?
• The Cannonball Run
  • Burt Reynolds' character considers driving a black Trans Am in the eponymous race, the same vehicle Reynolds famously drove in Smokey and the Bandit. He then comments "It's been done."
  • Victor (Dom De Luise) mentions his cousin Tessie who he implies is very large and at another point says that they have a licensed physician in case someone gets swamp fever. In the second Smokey and the Bandit film, DeLuise plays a doctor who's first seen treating a patient for swamp fever and mentions another patient they called "Two-Ton Tessie".
• In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the top of Nick Fury's decoy tombstone reads, "The path of the righteous man...◊".
• In Captain Ron, the title character, played by Kurt Russell, wears an eyepatch to cover up an ill-fitting Glass Eye. Kurt Russell with an eyepatch? Sounds familiar...
• Carry On... Series:
  • Carry On Screaming!: Sergeant Bung's car registration is "HS 25", a play on Harry H. Corbett's character Harold Steptoe. The series' theme also plays as he drives his car.
  • Carry On Henry: While fitting King Henry's clothes, Moshe Montmorency tells him "Never mind the quality, feel the cloth". At the time, his actor (John Bluthal) was starring as Manny Cohen in Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width.
  • Carry On at Your Convenience:
    • In Bernie's first scene he mutters, "I only arsked", which was the Character Catchphrase of his actor Bernard Bresslaw on The Army Game.
    • The coach trip is aboard a "Jack Crump" coach, whereas Jacki Piper's (who portrayed Myrtle Plummer) real name was Jackie Crump.
  • Carry On Behind:
    • A jazz arrangement of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" plays when Fred is introduced, an in-joke to his actor, Windsor Davies.
    • At one point, Fred uses the phrase "Lovely boy", the Character Catchphrase of his actor's character on It Ain't Half Hot, Mum.
    • The final line of the film is Professor Crump telling Professor Vooshka to "Stop messin' about", an Author Catchphrase frequently used by his actor (Kenneth Williams).
• Cash on Demand: In the scene with the suitcases in front of the vault while they discuss packing and settling on one place, Peter Cushing comments to Andre Morrell "the air on Dartmoor is very bracing I believe". Two years earlier, Cushing and Morrell had starred as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the 1959 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is set on Dartmoor.
• In Casino Royale (2006) once in Monaco James Bond and Girl of the Week Vesper Lynd stay at the Hotel Splendid. Hotel Splendide is an indie film starring Daniel Craig as the chef at a failing island resort.
• In Casper, Dr. Harvey turns into the Crypt Keeper at one point. Cathy Moriarty (Carrigan) had starred in Tales from the Crypt.
• In Cedar Rapids, Isiah Whitlock Jr. quotes Omar from The Wire. "And I keeps one in the chamber in case you ponderin'." On The Wire itself, Isiah plays Senator Clay Davis.
• In A Carol Christmas, the ghost of Christmas Present is played by William Shatner and the way that he transports Carol to different places looks like teleportation in Star Trek.
• In Chúmbale, the dad is watching Enrique Pinti on TV and bursts out in laughter, saying "I Love this guy!". The dad is played by Enrique Pinti.
• In Cinderella, once again Richard Madden plays a royal highness who falls in love with a beautiful strong-willed commoner instead of settling for someone befitting his title. Let's hope that this time it will end better for the happy couple...
• At one point in City of Ember, the Mayor trips and smudges a painting of himself. The same thing happened to Bill Murray in Ghostbusters II.
• Cloud Atlas: Hugo Weaving in drag.
• In Coherence, Nicholas Brendon plays a washed-up actor whose claim to fame was being in all four seasons of Roswell. His character's wife states that it was an addiction to alcohol that ruined his career. Brendon played Xander in all but one episode of the seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and admitted in 2010, and in subsequent years, that he suffered from a recurring addiction to alcohol and sleeping pills.
• It could be accidental, but in The Colour of Magic, The Film of the Book, Sean Astin, who plays Twoflower, says "potatoes" to Rincewind in a way that sounds just like a certain scene from The Lord of the Rings, where he was Sam.
• There's a lot of this in the Mockumentary Comic Book The Movie due to its large cast of voice actors in live-action roles, as well as several actors, directors and comic creators as themselves. Leo Matuzik staring at a poster of Fry stands out as one of the funniest. Then there's Don Swan's short conversation with Ms. Q in the studio office. Swan is played by Mark Hamill, and Ms. Q is played by Arleen Sorkin. They portrayed Joker and Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series.
  • There is a short blink-it-and-you'll miss it scene where Don Swan (Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker) at Comic-Con ask three men sitting at a table, "Excuse me, do you mind if we share this table?" The first man replies, "No son, move along." The three men? David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, and Jeremy Bulloch or Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Boba Fett respectively. Bonus points for it being David Prowse that says "No son."
• Jennifer Connelly has done three movies where she solemnly stands at the end of a pier looking out to the ocean. First in Dark City, then Requiem for a Dream (both scenes involving a red dress too), and finally in The House of Sand & Fog. When filming the last one, she actually went "how many times have I done this already?"
• In The Contender, Jeff Bridges plays the President of the United States, and puts his feet up on the resolute desk just like the Dude does. He also goes bowling.
• During a Good Cop/Bad Cop sequence in the buddy cop film Cop Out (starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis), Tracy Morgan is interrogating the suspect by acting like a gun-waving maniac and spewing random movie lines. When Tracy says Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!, Bruce Willis's (who starred in the Die Hard films) character says "I've never seen that movie before."
• In David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, Robert Pattinson spends most of the movie inside a high-tech limousine. In Cronenberg's next film, Maps to the Stars, Pattinson is back in a limo - albeit this time as a lowly driver.
• In Crank: High Voltage, one of the characters mentions that Chev Chelios looks a lot like "that guy from The Transporter movies". Chev and "that guy" are both played by Jason Statham.
• In the Israeli film Cupcakes,Yael Ber Zohar, who was Israel number one it girl and sex symbol back in The '90s, portrays a former beauty queen — also named Yael, who is emberassed and scarred by her time as a local sex symbol.
• Dancing At The Blue Iguana (set in California) contains this exchange:
  Jasmine: Did you move the couch?
  Angel: Yeah, cause I'm working on the Feng Shui.
  Jasmine: What the fuck is Feng Shui?
  Angel: It's — aren't you from Asia?
  Jasmine: No, I'm from Seattle.
  • Jasmine is played by Sandra Oh, one of the stars of Grey's Anatomy, which is set in Seattle.
• In The Dark Knight Rises, Anne Hathaway's character, Selina Kyle, is instructed by Alfred to take a tray up to Bruce's quarters, and to put it down, then immediately leave and lock the door behind her. It clearly references something said to Hathaway's character in The Devil Wears Prada.
• In The Dead Don't Die, Ronnie Peterson (played by Adam Driver, who also played Kylo Ren in the Star Wars series) has a keychain shaped like Kylo Ren’s ship, which another character comments on.
• Deadpool 2:
  • Deadpool tells Cable "Zip it, Thanos!" Josh Brolin is the primary actor for Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. References are also made to The Goonies, where Brolin played the older brother.
  • The Stinger takes jabs at two of Ryan Reynolds' more infamous superhero film showings, specifically X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Green Lantern (2011).
  • Wade also gets pretty pissed when Weasel badmouths Canada, a nod to Reynolds' and Comic Deadpool's actual nationality.
  • Alan Tudyk has a cameo as a redneck, recalling his role in Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.
• Death Proof
  • Abby, Rosario Dawson's character, tells her friends that her boyfriend fucked Daryl Hannah's stand-in. Zoë Bell, one of the friends, was Uma Thurman's stand-in in Kill Bill, wherein Thurman at one point fights Hannah. The character Lanna Frank is played by Hannah's Kill Bill stand-in, Monica Staggs.
  • Earlier, in the bar where Stuntman Mike meets the first group of girls, Jack Burton's shirt is in a frame on the wall.
  • Stuntman Mike has a scar over one eye, on the same side as the eyepatch in Escape from New York.
• In Definitely, Maybe, there is a shot of "Two Guys" pizza. Ryan Reynolds was in Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.
• Averted with a vengeance in Déjà Vu (2006): In the test screening version, Doug said "Jesus" when seeing Oerstadt for the first time. His actor (Jim Caviezel) played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. Result: a roaring laughter from the public and the line being cut in the end version.
• In the final dance scene in Dirty Dancing, Baby's mother says proudly of her daughter's dancing abilities, "She gets it from me!" Baby's mother is played by Kelly Bishop, who was in the original production of A Chorus Line and is a pretty accomplished dancer.
• Divergent
  • Shailene Woodley telling her dying mother to Please Wake Up. She's done that before.
  • Jai Courtney has had experience with training warriors before.
• Doctor at Sea: When the crew is in jail, Chippie sings the Manchester Grammar School song. His actor, George Coulouris, attended the Manchester Grammar School.
• Don't Look Up features Mark Rylance playing an evil(er?) version of his "Anorak" character from Ready Player One: a socially awkward British billionaire tech geek speaking in a Creepy Monotone with a god complex, whose most famous invention is used all over the world.
• Dracula 2000. A famous television reporter turned vampire asks, pinning down the male lead, "Ever wanted to fuck a TV star?" The reporter was played by Jeri Ryan, famous for playing Ms. Fanservice Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager. In addition, she divorced her ex-husband after he tried to take her to a wife-swapping club... so someone else could do just that...
• Charles Dance as a vampire in Dracula Untold? Not the first time he played one. Also not the first time Charles Dance has thought about unleashing Dracula.
• In Dreamscape, George Wendt, who is most famous for his role of "Norm" from Cheers, plays an author who believes he's uncovered a government conspiracy. His character meets the protagonist in a bar.
• The Vincent Price vehicle Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine has more than one; when Goldfoot shows off his family portrait gallery, all of his ancestors are images of Price from previous movies. Soon after, Frankie Avalon's character discovers his fellow Beach Party stars Annette Funicello and Harvey Lembeck locked up in Goldfoot's dungeon.
• The well-known Jackie Chan movie Drunken Master has him playing a Drunken Boxing expert. He also plays a Drunken Boxing expert in his American film, The Forbidden Kingdom. Shanghai Noon was supposedly going to feature a Drunken Master fighting sequence too but Hollywood knows they're not good enough for cool fight scenes... Jackie does get drunk at one point, however, if that's good enough.
• Dune:
  • In Dune (2021) Dune: Part One]], Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) tells Paul that he always wanted to be a pilot.
  • In Dune: Part Two, Stilgar (Javier Bardem) tells Gurney (Josh Brolin) that if he was looking for something, he would have found it. Also, there's Brolin and Dave Bautista fighting because one is responsible for the death of the other's family, but this time it’s reversed.
• Dungeons & Dragons (2000): The head of the Thieves' Guild is played by Richard O'Brien, and his commentary when Ridley runs through the Guild Maze is based on O'Brien's time hosting The Crystal Maze.
  • The same film has Jeremy Irons, as Profion, saying: "As you wish, Your Majesty," exactly as his character Scar says the same line in The Lion King.
• In Enemy of the State, Gene Hackman plays a character who seems like an aged version of his character from The Conversation. When the baddies bring up a file photo of Hackman's character when he was younger, it is of Hackman as he appeared in The Conversation.
• Epic Movie
  • Kal Penn calling The White Bitch (Jennifer Coolidge) "Stifler's mom" (or "MILF" in the unrated version), then finding the White Castle she offers (insert shot of burger store) familiar: he was one of the eponymous characters in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (in Britain Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies) (later, a soldier yells at him, "Take that, Kumar!")
  • And towards the end of Epic Movie, they parody Superman Returns — which Kal Penn had a role in.
  • Early on, there's also a parody of Nacho Libre, where Héctor Jiménez (here playing Mr. Tumnus) played a major character.
• In Evan Almighty, the title character, while being carjacked by God, drives past a movie theater. It's showing The 40-Year-Old Virgin Mary. Minus the Mary, this was one of Steve Carell's movies.
• Everything Everywhere All at Once: Evelyn learns kung fu from an Alternate Self who became a celebrity by starring in action films...like Michelle Yeoh, her actress. Real-life footage of Yeoh at red carpets are even used to introduce that world.
• There's an interesting example of what looks like an Actor Allusion but apparently isn't in Evolution with David Duchovny. When an alien threat appears, Duchovny's character advises against calling in the government, saying, "I've worked with those guys, you can't trust them" or words to that effect. This would appear to be an obvious reference to The X-Files. According to interviews with Duchovny and the director of the film, however, this line was not an allusion to The X-Files; the director had never seen the show. That, however, did not stop the studio's marketing department from making it appear that way in the movie's TV commercials.
• Ex Machina:
  • Domhnall Gleeson has been in love with Alicia Vikander before: they played Levin and Kitty in the 2012 film version of Anna Karenina.
  • Domhnall Gleeson himself played an AI in Black Mirror's "Black Mirror: Be Right Back".
• Andy Griffith is forever remembered for the character he played on The Andy Griffith Show: an aw-shucks, small-town do-gooder with a heart of gold. But in the film A Face in the Crowd, Griffith plays Lonesome Rhodes: an immoral, power-hungry egomaniac who becomes one of the most popular personalities on television...by pretending to be an aw-shucks, small-town do-gooder with a heart of gold. Yikes. (Though his role in Face was in fact one of his earliest.)
• In Falling For Christmas, Sierra, played by Lindsay Lohan, hears "Jingle Bell Rock" on the radio, exclaims "I love this song!" and begins singing along - previously Mean Girls included a scene involving Lindsay's character Cady singing and dancing to the same song. As a further reference, the end credits include a full version sung by Lohan.
• Family Switch: At one point in the trailer, after switching bodies with his father, Wyatt claims to be "13 going on 30". Jennifer Garner (who plays Jess, his mother) starred in a film called 13 Going on 30.
• Fanboys has several, including, but not necessarily limited to; Ray "Darth Maul" Park doing some of the acrobatics from his Star Wars role, and Carrie Fisher responding with "I know" to "I love you".
• The Fault in Our Stars:
  • Posters for Nickelodeon are seen in the video game room. Natt Wolf had starred in The Naked Brothers Band, a Nickelodeon show. He's also singing lines from a song he and his brother Alex wrote during that scene.
  • Hazel is given a book to read called 'Counter Insurgence'. Shailene Woodley was due to star in The Divergent Series: Insurgent right after this film.
• Speaking of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris, who is played by Matthew Broderick, uses his computer to hack his school's grades. Something another Broderick character did in the film WarGames before accidentally almost kicking off World War III.
• Speaking of which, in Fierce Creatures, Rollo briefly calls Willa "Wanda" by accident. Makes sense for a Spiritual Successor.
• In the opening scene of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, Peter Sellers-as-Fu notes "Your face is familiar" to the servant bringing him (but ultimately spilling) his Elixir Vitae. This references the actors' roles in The Pink Panther films — Sellers was Inspector Clouseau while Burt Kwouk, the servant in question, played his sidekick Cato.
• The Fifth Element has Cornelius accidentally calling Korben "Mr. Willis".
• These lines in Fifty Shades of Grey:
  Anastasia: You're the complete serial killer.
  Christian: Not today.
  • Jamie Dornan who plays Christian also stared in The Fall (2013), in which he played a serial killer.
• A Fish Called Wanda
  • Otto secretly betrays George to the police, then visits him in jail. He asks if George knows who sent him up, mentioning "Kevin Delaney" as a possible suspect. Otto is played by Kevin Delaney Kline.
  • George's full name in that movie is George Thomason. He is played by Tom Georgeson.
• A Singer Allusion in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. Ann-Margret sings the theme song, a play on "Viva Las Vegas". Not only did she co-star in that film with Elvis Presley, she also voiced "Ann-Margrock" in the original The Flintstones.
• An odd case occurs in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Kristen Bell plays the title character, an actress, and at one point, other characters mock her for a bad movie she was in, in which she was attacked by a killer cell phone. The writers insist that they wrote the line not knowing that Kristen Bell actually was in a movie, Pulse, about a killer cell phone.
• Near the end of Fred Claus, the antagonist of the film, played by Kevin Spacey, is given a Superman cape by Santa Claus. Kevin Spacey recently played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns
• The Freshman (1990) is all about this trope. Marlon Brando plays a powerful, shadowy, charismatic crime boss whose resemblance to Don Vito Corleone is remarked on by all the other characters. Matthew Broderick's character tells Marlon Brando's, "You know, you look an awful lot like The Godfather." The problem was that Marlon Brando tripled his body mass between movies, so he didn't really look that much like he did in The Godfather.
• In From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter, Mexican vampire princess Santanico Pandemonium is played by Ara Celi, who had originally played a Incan mummy princess in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Season 2.
• From Paris with Love
  • Similarly, the trailers for this new John Travolta movie include Travolta's character singing the praises of Royale with cheese.
  • The same film has a writer allusion. Early on, Travolta's character uses the Bond One-Liner "Wax on, Wax off". Co-writer and producer Luc Besson often works with Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote The Karate Kid which originated that line.
• In The Further Adventures of Walt's Frozen Head, a film shot guerilla style in the Disney Theme Parks, Walt Disney's head (played by original Dreamfinder actor Ron Schneider) expresses a desire to go to Epcot and ride Journey into Imagination, only to get a "I have bad news..." response from Peter.
• Gamera vs. Guiron featured a scene near the end of the film that seemed strange to non-Japanese viewers where the comic relief cop Kondo's glasses fell down his face, which he explained happened whenever he smiled. This was apparently actor-comic Kon Omura's trademark joke and appeared in most of his works.
• In the latest Get Smart movie, Smart is almost run over by a man with a peculiar accent while trying to hitchhike. That man is Bernie Kopell, the villain Siegfried in the original series.
• Gintama:
  • Kagura is played by Kanna Hashimoto, an idol-turned-actress who shot to fame when a photo of her dancing with her idol group went viral. Both films show Kagura doing the specific dance pose at one point.
  • Gintoki is played by Shun Oguri, who's known for having played Rui in the Japanese drama adaptation of Boys over Flowers. In the first film, Gintoki calls out Kagura's name in the same way Rui calls out the name of the heroine of Boys Over Flowers. Both Kagura and Shinpachi call him out on it.
• The American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had a very James Bond inspired title sequence. Fitting, since Mikael Blomqvist was played by Daniel Craig.
• Glass Onion:
  • Andi lambasts Birdie for daring to compare herself to Harriet Tubman. Andi's actress Janelle Monáe and costar Leslie Odom Jr. had previously appeared in Tubman biopic Harriet.
  • Birdie founded a famous athleisure brand, Sweetiepants. So did her actress Kate Hudson, who co-founded Fabletics.
  • Jackie Hoffman has a small role as Duke's mother who acts very similar to Uma Heller, Hoffman's character from another comedic murder mystery.
• In The Great White Hype, Samuel L. Jackson's character of "The Sultan" greets a well-dressed white man with long black hair with "Vincent, Vincent, where's Jules, man?", referring to Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta) and Jackson's own character Jules Winnfield, from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
• In the B-movie, Gryphon, one of Jonathan LaPaglia's lines is "Seven Days," spoken in such a way that it must have been intentional.
• Danielle Harris, who played Laurie Strode's daughter Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, appears in the Halloween remake and its sequel as Annie Brackett, Laurie's best friend.
• Happy Gilmore managed the impressive feat of getting in at least three with Carl Weathers, who plays Happy's golfing mentor Chubbs, all during the course of a single scene. First, Happy, (who sneers at golf in the early sections of the film) asks Chubbs why a big guy like him isn't playing a "real" sport like football. (Weathers was once a pro football player.) Chubbs claims his mother wouldn't let him play any dangerous sports, and after thinking it over for a few seconds, Happy remarks that might be for the best. (Weathers played the boxer Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies, boxing is as macho and dangerous a sport as there is, and Apollo died in the ring during the 4th film). Lastly, Chubbs is missing a hand, and Weathers' character from Predator had his arm cut off and sent flying into the air shortly before he died. (At one point in the film, Happy will accidentally knock off Chubb's artificial hand and send it flying.)
• In A Hard Day's Night, the other Beatles comment that Paul's grandfather is "very clean. He's a clean old man." He's played by Wilfred Brambell, better known as Albert Steptoe in Steptoe and Son, whose son Harold is always calling him "You dirty old man!"
• Towards the beginning of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, an extreme sports punk who steals Harold's parking space shouts "Better luck tomorrow!" at Harold, in reference to John Cho's role as the antagonist in the eponymous film.
• Harry Potter
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, a promotional poster for Equus appears on the wall of a cafe that the Power Trio ends up in, referencing Daniel Radcliffe's controversial decision to take on more mature fare while the Potter series was still running. Apparently, it was his idea to put it there.
  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, John Hurt's character has a similar costume to The Storyteller.
• Hell Is for Heroes is for the most part a gritty World War II action film... except for a brief sequence in which comedian Bob Newhart, at the time best known for his one-sided telephone conversation comedy routines, appears as a G.I. After the Americans discover a German bug in their camp, Newhart's character is forced to improvise a one-sided telephone conversation making it seem like the Americans are in a better position than they actually are.
• In the Made-for-TV Movie, High School USA, the Jerk Jock (Jerk Prep, actually) gives the Eddie Haskell treatment to Eddie Haskell himself. Ken Osmond (the actor who played Eddie Haskell) played the father of the girl that that the Jerk Prep was dating.
• In the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday, Cary Grant delivers the line "Listen, the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." (Archie Leach was Grant's real name.)
• In The Film of the Book of Hogfather, Death, voiced by Ian Richardson, says at one point, "You may very well think I've already thought of that, but I couldn't possibly comment," Richardson's character Francis Urqhart's catchphrase in the original Houseof Cards UK.
• The nurse played by Kate Williams in Holiday on the Buses is called "Joan", the same name as the role she was best known for playing in Love Thy Neighbour.
• Édith Scob (Chauffeur Céline) in Holy Motors starred in the French horror classic Eyes Without a Face (1960). The mask that Céline puts on by the end of the film is a direct reference to this.
• In Hot Fuzz, Edward Woodward is one of the villagers in the Town with a Dark Secret. Woodward investigated such a town in The Wicker Man (1973).
• Hot Shots! Part Deux
  • The film features a particularly tangled Actor Allusion. Charlie Sheen, as Topper Harley, rides a boat through a swamp and in voice-over makes an entry in his journal, reciting dialogue that is almost identical to one of his monologues from Platoon. But he's distracted by another voice-over — he looks up to see Martin Sheen, his real-life father, heading towards him in another boat while re-enacting one of his monologues from Apocalypse Now. To cap it off, the two notice each other, stand up, and as the boats speed past, give each other a thumb's-up and reference yet another movie, in which both Sheens appeared: "I loved you in Wall Street!"
  • President Benson dons a wet suit and joins a Navy Seal team of scuba divers. He also provides voice-over narration, describing the underwater action. Lloyd Bridges first became famous for the television series Sea Hunt.
• Hot Tub Time Machine:
  • One scene features the line: "I want my two dollars!" which is a reference to Better Off Dead, one of John Cusack's earliest films (which also took place at a ski resort).
  • On seeing all the drugs in Adam's suitcase, Jacob says "What are you, Hunter S. Thompson?" to which Adam replies, "I thought I was." John Cusack was close friends with Thompson, and attended his funeral. On a more meta note, Cusack had also campaigned for the role of the Thompson equivalent in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a role that eventually went to Johnny Depp.
• In French movie HOUBA! On the Trail of the Marsupilami, Jamel Debbouze's character, Pablito, riding a reluctant llama, utters at one point, "You're not moving at all, Ganja." Just like his character in Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cleopatra, another Alain Chabat movie, who had the same problem but with a donkey, said: "You're not moving at all, Cannabis."
• The House That Dripped Blood: Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee) is describing the old horror films he loves, and mentions Dracula, but quickly adds "the one with Bela Lugosi of course, not the new guy". The new guy he is referring to is Christopher Lee, who also stars in the film.
• In How to Marry a Millionaire, Lauren Bacall's character is talking about men who married younger women: "Look at Roosevelt, look at Churchill, look at that old fella what's his name in The African Queen."
• Hulk
  • In the 2003 film, Lou Ferrigno played a security guard (alongside Hulk's creator Stan Lee), and in The Incredible Hulk, he voiced the Hulk (as well as playing another security guard). Ferrigno played the Hulk in the 1978-'82 live-action TV series.
  • In the 2008 movie, Edward Norton watches the Brazilian version of The Courtship of Eddie's Father, which starred Bill Bixby, who played David Bruce Banner in the Hulk live action TV series. The kindly owner of the pizza parlor is played by Paul Soles, who voiced the Hulk in the '60s cartoon.
• In If I Stay, you would think Mia would be used to the supernatural after being a vampire, a werewolf and a psychic.
• I Heart Shakey starring Steve Lemme makes several references to Super Troopers, Lemme's more well-known film. For example, his German boss is played by Philippe Brennikmeyer, who portrayed Germans in Super Troopers and Beerfest. After the boss lends Steve's character his Lamborghini, he rides through the city while blasting "Bidibodi bidibù" by Bubbles, which prominently featured in Super Troopers.
• In Immortals, John Hurt plays Zeus in human form — exactly what his character Caligula thought he was way back in I, Claudius.
• Inception
  • The song that is played to wake everyone up is Édith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien". Marion Cotillard (Mal) played Piaf in the biopic La Vie en rose and won an Oscar for it. Also, the song title translates to "I have no regrets." This was apparently coincidental, the song was chosen before Cotillard was cast, and the director didn't realize the connection until it was too late to change the score.
  • She also beat Elliot Page for the Oscar that year. In the film, the two don't get along.
  • Crossing over with Wrestler in All of Us and Fridge Brilliance. At one point, Arthur locks a hostile projection in a hold known as the Cobra Clutch. The move was used (and named after) Sgt. Slaughter, a wrestler who was also a character in G.I. Joe. Levitt portrayed Cobra Commander in the G.I. Joe movie.
• In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy at one point declares, "I have a bad feeling about this," a line he previously uttered as Han Solo in Star Wars (and which would be a sort of Once per Episode occurrence in that film series; Solo was the second character to say it, in the trash compactor). Yoda Stories for the Game Boy Color has an appearance by Indy too. Luke just says he looks familiar.
• Into the Woods:
  • Chris Pine has played a prince before. He's also putting a whole lot of William Shatner into his performance... which makes sense since he's Kirk in Star Trek (2009).
  • Lucy Punch is once again one of Cinderella's stepsisters. As well as two obscure British films, this is the fourth time she has played an incarnation of Cinderella's stepsister.
  • It's not the first time Meryl Streep's character has a hand in screwing Emily Blunt's character over, either.
  • Frances de la Tour plays a giantess after having played a half-one.
  • Only twice in her career, Meryl Streep has played a character looking to regain her youth and beauty.
  • When Cinderella and her Prince are driven through the city in a horse-drawn carriage after their wedding, the people love it. Rose petals are bring thrown, Cinderella and the Prince are waving to their admirers — and it's blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but Chris Pine is doing the "thank you for being here today" Genovian wave. This has led to many Shout-Out jokes of "Are you sassing your grandmother-in-law?"
• The remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has a couple:
  • At the start of the film, protagonist Donald Sutherland is startled by an old lunatic (played by Kevin McCarthy) running through traffic and screaming that they're coming. Kevin McCarthy had been the protagonist in the original film, who'd last been seen running through traffic screaming that they were coming at the end of that film.
  • Leonard Nimoy's character is replaced by an emotionless Podling.
• Iron Man:
  • Iron Man: When Pepper is at Obadiah's computer, and there are folders marked "Lebowski".
  • Iron Man 2: Natasha Romanoff modeled in Tokyo.
  • Iron Man 3: Tony has a Wing Chun dummy in his workshop and gives it a few strikes in passing. Robert Downey Jr. is a practitioner of Wing Chun in real life, and it's the fighting style of choice for his Sherlock Holmes (2009) character.
• Beulah Bondi played Ma Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. This was the fourth time she played Jimmy Stewart's mother on screen. Previously she played his mom in Vivacious Lady, Of Human Hearts, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
• Ian McShane plays the king in Jack the Giant Slayer as he did in Kings.
• James Bond:
  • In Tomorrow Never Dies, Ricky Jay's character was to have used throwing cards as weapons, but the scenes were ultimately cut from the film. Ricky Jay is an expert card thrower and was consulted by the MythBusters on the subject too.
  • In No Time to Die, Bond tells Rami Malek's Safin that history is not kind to men who play God. One of the first monologues in Mr. Robot has Elliot Alderson, Rami Malek's character, rant about men playing God. Bonus points for the fact that both this and Mr. Robot have tragic scenes in the climax related to fatherhood and both Bond and Elliot sacrificing themselves to save the world, only difference is that while Elliot survived due to Karmic Jackpot, Bond unfortunately didn't.
• Mark Hamill's appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is immediately followed by the message "Hey Kids it's Mark Hamill! (Applause!)" referring to his role as the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. Also when Jay cuts off his hand during a "bongsaber" fight, he looked at the camera and moaned "Not again."
  • "Don't fuck with the Jedi Master, son." Which became "Don't mess with the Mandos, mate." The way Star Wars fandom interacts with the EU is a very complicated dance.
• A rather odd example in the film version of Jersey Boys, which is to be expected as it's the story of how the Four Seasons came together. A young Joe Pesci is instrumental in introducing songwriter Bob Gaudio to the group. When Pesci eagerly turns up Gaudio's doorstep to tell him that he's arranged a meeting between him and the "Variety Trio" (the group consisting of the other three future Seasons), Gaudio, thinking it's a joke, says "very funny." A confused Pesci replies "Funny how?" That question, and its delivery, are identical to the real Pesci's infinitely quotable monologue from Goodfellas.
• In Judgment at Nuremberg, Marlene Dietrich's appearances are often accompanied by the tune "Lili Marleen" in the background. Dietrich recorded one of the most well known renditions of the song.
• Jupiter Ascending:
  • Channing Tatum is used to having his blood mopped up with unconventional methods.
  • Terry Gilliam being very unsubtly introduced at the end of a scene full of immense, complex, idiosyncratic and ineffective bureaucracy.
  • One shot shows a kid playing a Game of Thrones video game. Sean Bean, who plays Stinger, starred in the first season of the TV show. Likely doubles as a Celebrity Paradox.
  • Director allusion — this is the second movie by the Wachowskis that ends with a character flying at the camera.
• In the "blinkandyoullmissit" category, Jeff Goldblum's performances in Jurassic Park and Independence Day both use the line "Must go faster" during chase scenes.
• In Justice League and Aquaman, Aquaman, the heir to the throne of Atlantis, is played by Jason Momoa. Except this isn't the first time Momoa visited a place called Atlantis.
• Just One of the Guys: Terry Griffith (Joyce Hyser) tries to pass as a male in high school. Her male persona is compared with Ralph Macchio in-universe. The high school bully in the movie is played by the same actor as the villain from The Karate Kid, William Zabka.
  • And she shares her names with Terry Silver, the villain from The Karate Kid Part III, and Thomas Ian Griffith, the actor who played him.
• When Kevin Tighe's Big Bad is holding a female character at gunpoint in K-9, he has a line that goes "After after I shoot her I'm going to call Rampart and ask to start a IV of Ringers". Obvious Emergency! reference.
• In Kelly's Heroes, Clint Eastwood has a standoff against a tank. The scene is shot like a Spaghetti Western, and has the theme from one of the Clint Eastwood Westerns.
• Kill Bill
  • Elle Driver's fate is left ambiguous as the last we see of her is her trashing around wildly on the floor and screaming after getting her other eye ripped out. As "Pris," Daryl Hannah reacts the same way to getting shot in Blade Runner.
  • Also, Bill tells The Bride the legend of Pai Mei before he sends her to train with him. The story is a word-for-word recounting of the backstory of David Carradine's character from the Kung Fu (1972) TV series.
• John Lithgow in Kinsey played a minister at least as strict as the one in Footloose.
• Kung Pow! Enter the Fist has Mushufasa (a reference to Mufasa from The Lion King (1994), played by James Earl Jones), signing off with one of Jones' taglines: "This is CNN".
• Lady in Cement:
  • There are a few to Frank Sinatra:
    • Rome says that he knew a girl that used to date bullfighters, a reference to Sinatra's ex-wife Ava Gardner's affair with matador Luis Miguel Dominguín when filming The Barefoot Contessa (1954) in Spain.
    • As Rome is running from the police on the beach, a band playing Sinatra's song "You Make Me Feel So Young" can be heard.
  • When Rome walks into the room in the massage parlor where Gronski is, Gronski is watching Bonanza, where Gronski's actor Dan Blocker starred as Hoss Cartwright.
• In Last Action Hero, Daniel points out that F. Murray Abraham is playing Jack's old buddy, but he was the traitor Salieri in Amadeus so he shouldn't be trusted. He's correct, and the character later makes a Face–Heel Turn.
• In a way in The Last Witch Hunter — Vin Diesel's character, Kaulder, is based on a character created by the actor for a Dungeons & Dragons game.
• Christopher Lee
  • In the Star Wars prequels (specifically the second movie, and a bit of the third), Christopher Lee plays an evil count whose name starts with a D. with unnatural dark powers. (Lee has played Dracula in no fewer than ten movies, according to his IMDB profile. Plus one "Count Drago.")
  • In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lee's character Saruman (another villainous magic-user, not a count though) dies by being impaled on a wooden pole. This did not happen in the book. Lee jokes about this during one of the rare Lord of the Rings behind-the-scenes montages.
• In Liar Liar, the actor playing Jim Carrey's son makes a funny face and asks if his face will get stuck like that. Carrey replies with something like "No; in fact, some people make good money that way," poking fun at his own distinctive style of acting.
• In Living in Oblivion, Steve Buscemi plays Nick Reve, an independent film director. At one point in the movie his lead actor storms off, shouting that he'd only wanted to work with Nick because he'd "heard he was tight with Quentin Tarantino!"
• In The Lone Ranger Tonto is dressed similarly to Jack Sparrow. He has a similar headband and beads in his hair. He is even wearing the eye shadow.◊
• In the newer The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds plays the protagonist's mentor in prison. Reynolds played Sandler's role in the original installment. Burt Reynolds' character asks Adam Sandler, "How'd they get you to go to Florida State?" Burt Reynolds attended Florida State University on a football scholarship.
  • Rob Schneider plays one of the good behavior inmates who watch the game from the stands. At one point he encourages the players by saying "You can do it!" exactly like his character in The Waterboy.
• Look Who's Back: Katja Riemann as Hitler's new ladyfriend. She played Eva Braun twice before, in 2001's Goebbels and Geduldig and 2007's Mein Führer.
• In one of the Look Who's Talking movies, Kirstie Alley's character is reduced to working as an elf in a mall Santa display, sporting a gigantic pair of pointed ears. When some kids ask what she's supposed to be, she snarls "I'm a Vulcan! Wanna see my death grip?" Alley's first movie role was playing the Vulcan Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Natalie Portman plays the stepmom of a precocious eight-year-old, as he considers his future education options. When he brings up Harvard, Portman's character Emilia blurts "Harvard sucks!" No prizes for guessing which university is Natalie's alma mater.
• Madhouse (1974): Having Vincent Price play an actor well known for playing the villain in horror films is sort of an actor allusion in and of itself, but then there's the fact that the clips we see of his character's old films are actually doctored scenes from other American International Pictures films starring Price. Also, after his character suddenly disappears during a talk show appearance, the host notes that he once played the invisible man: Vincent Price starred in The Invisible Man Returns. Robert Quarry also gets an AIP-related Actor Allusion - During a costume party, his character is dressed as a vampire, and costume is the exact one he wore in Count Yorga, Vampire.
• In Czech horror short Mala Smrt (Little Death), Eva Horka plays the protagonist. Any Czech guy will still know her from Perinbaba where she played...the maiden incarnation of Death.
• During the restaurant scene in Major League, Vaughn (played by Charlie Sheen) comments that the tie he's wearing makes him "feel like a banker". This was two years after Sheen had starred in Wall Street, where he played a stockbroker.
• There are at least two Shannen Doherty in-jokes in Mallrats: in one scene, Doherty's character Rene is called "Brenda" by mistake (her character in 90210). Ben Affleck's character's name, Shannon Hamilton, is a veiled reference to Doherty's previous marriage to Ashley Hamilton.
• In Mamma Mia! there is a quick one. When the three suspected dads are introducing themselves, Colin Firth calls himself "Bright, Harry Bright" while standing next to Pierce Brosnan, who played Bond, James Bond.
• The Man Who Came to Dinner: When Banjo finds out Lorraine is in the house with Sherry, he exclaims, "The Oomph Girl here?!" Ann Sheridan, who played Lorraine, was known as "The Oomph Girl", a nickname she detested.
• Near the end of The Man Who Fell to Earth, Rip Torn's character buys an LP entitled "The Visitor", which he later tracks to the title character, played by David Bowie. On his way to find the album, he walks in front of a large display for Bowie's then-current "Young Americans" album.
• In the film The Marine, John Cena's relentless pursuit of the bad guys prompts one underling to remark that "This guy's like the Terminator!" The head bad guy, played by Robert "T-1000" Patrick, glances in the rear view mirror at the comment.
• At one point in The Mask, there is a photo of police lieutenant Kellaway's wife. The woman is actress Verna Bloom, as she appeared in Animal House, in which Kellaway's actor Peter Riegert starred. It's inaccurate, though, because Riegert portrayed "Boone" Schoenstein, and it was actually Boone's buddy Eric "Otter" Stratton (played by Tim Matheson) who bedded Marion Wormer (Bloom).
• One of the most famous Keanu Reeves lines comes from The Matrix, when he's asked what he needs in a long-shot effort to save Morpheus. His reply? "Guns. Lots of guns." Twenty years later, on the set of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Keanu gets to say it again in a nearly identical context - a long-shot effort to defend a place instead of attack it.
• Maverick
  • The title character (played by Mel Gibson) is in a bank as it is held up by an unnamed bankrobber played by Danny Glover who starred alongside Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series of movies. Maverick acts as though he recognises the voice of the bank robber and pulls down his mask, leading the two of them to share a moment (as a portion of Lethal Weapon's main theme plays) before shaking their heads and walking away. As he makes his getaway, the unnamed bankrobber also mentions that he's "getting too old for this".
  • Further, the film features the father of Bret Maverick — who, just coincidentally, happens to be played by none other than James Garner, who originated the role of Maverick on TV (and who in fact played Bret and Bart's "Pappy" in the Maverick episode of that same — he was often referenced on the show, but that was the only episode in which he was ever seen).
• In The Maze Runner, when Thomas (played by Dylan O'Brien) is carving his name into the wall, you can see the names Scott & Aiden on there.
• Meet the Spartans has the Captain, played by Kevin Sorbo, say, "Don't make me go Hercules on your ass!"
• Will Smith played a Younger and Hipper alien-busting rookie agent in Men in Black, but that wasn't his first run-in with extraterrestrial life.
• The Men Who Stare at Goats
  • The story revolves around a secret US military program called the "Jedi Program" that attempted to train soldiers with superpowers. The main character? Played by Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels. One critic described the movie as "the best Star Wars movie Ewan McGregor has ever starred in."
  • There's also one for Jeff Bridges, as "I Just Dropped In" is also used prominently in The Big Lebowski.
• Japanese musician Miyavi was personally sought out by Angelina Jolie to star as the villain and real-life war criminal Mutsuhiro Watanabe ("The Bird"), a Japanese Imperial Army Sergeant in charge of the Omori POW camp, in the 2014 film Unbroken. His next film role was as Gunpei Ikari in Kong: Skull Island, A Japanese Imperial Army Zero pilot during WWII.
• In the 1995 horror film Mosquito, the character played by Gunnar Hansen finds a chainsaw and notes that he hasn't used one in 20 years, an obvious nod to Hansen's most famous role.
• Mousehunt is filled with references to Nathan Lane's role on The Lion King (1994) including Lane's character Ernie Smuntz saying "Hakuna Matata" and a cameo from Ernie Sabella, the voice of Pumbaa.
• In Mr. Skeffington Bette Davis play an older woman, complete with make-up and all, who believes she is still young and acts accordingly. When a doctor implies that she is indeed not young anymore she asks if he thinks she is old and ugly. He answers something to the effect of: "Well, you're no Greta Garbo". The two of them had sort of a friendly rivalry going, not unlike Schwarzenegger/Stallone.
• Mrs. Doubtfire: In one scene, when Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is playing Mrs. Doubtfire, his false teeth slip out of his mouth, so he says "Carpe dentum: seize the tooth", a nod to Dead Poets Society, in which John Keating (Williams) teaches his students "Carpe Diem: seize the day".
• Much Ado About Nothing (2012) had an accidental one — Joss Whedon, known for reusing actors in his various works, didn't even realize that he had cast Wesley and Fred as one of the main couples until reviewers pointed it out.
• In Mulholland Dr., the transition from dream world to the real world is marked by the Cowboy telling Naomi Watts' character, "Come on now, pretty girl, time to wake up". In I ♡ Huckabees, her character is replaced in her spokesmodel job by Isla Fisher after having a philosophical revelation. Trying to make Fisher aware of what she's seen, Watts puts her in a headlock and says, "Wake up, pretty girl!"
• In The Muppet Movie, Mel Brooks' character wears a lab coat with "PROF" on the back — a nod to his role as Governor Le Petomane ("GOV") in Blazing Saddles.
• In The Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine's Scrooge has been reformed and can be seen dancing in front of a shop called 'Mickelwhites' — Caine's real name.
• In Mystery Men, Ricky Jay says, "I'm not a magician!" — which the actor is in real life. He also played a magician in The Prestige.
• A somewhat strange example; In My Week with Marilyn, Colin Clark went to Eton and sang in the choir. Colin Clark did go to Eton, but it was his actor, Eddie Redmayne, who sang in the Eton College Choir.
• The Naked Gun
  • In The Naked Gun 2½, actor Lloyd Bochner has a small role as a member of a consortium of villains. Towards the end of the film, there's a hysterical crowd scene which features a split-second shot of him holding a large book entitled "To Serve Man", yelling "It's a cookbook!!" This is a reference to a famous episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) in which Bochner starred.
  • The climax of Naked Gun 33 1/3 occurs at the Academy Awards, complete with a number of celebrities showing up as usual. Two of them are "Weird Al" Yankovic and Vanna White. Frank and Jane tie them up with lights and drag them into the bushes, leaving a small but notable number of viewers wondering why they weren't stuffed into a closet instead.
  • The two also starred in a third Norwegian war movie, Surrounded, and they once again played a couple.
• In The New Mutants, Anya Taylor-Joy plays a witch and Maisie Williams as a girl who can turn into a wolf.
• The Norwegian war movie Nine Lives (1957), directed by Arne Skouen, has a married couple helping the hero in a critical phase — played by actors Alf Malland and Henny Moan. At some point in the movie, the two have to fight their way through a blizzard, with the wife (Moan) almost collapsing in the snow. Five years after Nine Lives producer Arne Skouen made Cold Tracks, once again with Malland and Moan in central roles, and once again, Moan collapses during a blizzard (in Cold Tracks, she does it twice). This movie also retold events from World War II.
• In Oblivion
  • One of the more prominently featured artifacts that Jack collects is a set of aviator shades — perhaps previously owned by a certain naval aviator?
  • Jack is at one point covered in ash, after witnessing an alien device vaporize someone in front of him.
• The Ocean's Trilogy has several:
  • In Ocean's Thirteen, as Rusty (Brad Pitt) bids goodbye to Danny (George Clooney), he tells him not to gain so much weight in between gigs next time — an allusion to Clooney packing on extra pounds for his role in Syriana. Danny responds by telling Rusty to settle down and have a couple of kids — a reference to Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie and their many adopted/biological children "acquired" in the short period of time between the films 2 and 3 (or Twelve and Thirteen depending on semantics).
  • Tess Ocean pretends to be Julia Roberts as a part of a heist, because she looks a bit like her. She is played by Julia Roberts.
    • In the same scenes when Tess is pretending to be the actress playing her, she encounters Bruce Willis playing himself. During the scene involving Bruce and her interacting, Matt Damon's character interjects with a line that includes "You know, that little statue on the mantle starts smirking at you after a while, know what I mean?" Bruce replies with a very dry and seemingly annoyed "No.". The reference is to the fact both Matt Damon and Julia Roberts have won Oscars. Bruce Willis has not.
    • It could further be an allusion to Bruce Willis originally being cast as Danny Ocean before being recast due to schedule conflicts.
  • In the first film, there's a scene in which Brad Pitt's character is teaching poker to a group of real-life actors, including Topher Grace. Danny (George Clooney) joins in, and says something to Grace about how hard it must be to cross over from TV to film (to which Grace replies, "Not for me!"). This is obviously supposed to be a reference to Grace's crossover from That '70s Show to feature films, but it also serves as a more subtle nod to Clooney's own start on ER and subsequent Hollywood success.
  • All three films make references to Frank Sinatra either through dialogue or through his music. Frank Sinatra originated the role of Danny Ocean in the original Ocean's Eleven.
• On the subject of Frank Sinatra, in the original Ocean's Eleven, he played a guy who runs a floating crap game. Sound familiar?
• In Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three, Red Buttons appears as an MP who does a "You dirty rat" impression to the face of CR MacNamara... played by James Cagney.
• At one point in Pain & Gain Paul (played by Dwayne Johnson) threatens a man with a bat, saying something along the lines of, "I used to use an aluminum one, but then I upgraded to wood." In Be Cool, Johnson's character Elliot is ridiculed for selecting an aluminum bat instead of a wooden one.
• The theatrical poster for The Parole Officer featured quotes — both glowing and condemnatory — from Steve Coogan's other comedic personas.
• Two students in Paterson were played by the actors who had been young lovers Sam and Suzy in Moonrise Kingdom.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Sea Of Monsters Hermes (Nathan Fillion) gives Percy powerful winds in a thermos from a Hercules-themed TV show that he describes as being "the best show ever...which means it's canceled". A good number of people may say the same regarding a show that Fillion became well known for.
• Speaking of Phantom of the Opera, the 1989 film starring Robert Englund as the Phantom has several Adaptational Villainy traits given to him that make it seem more like it's Freddy Krueger playing the role of Phantom. This is even lampshaded by the movie poster, which features the Phantom taking off his mask to reveal Freddy's face underneath.
• Edward Hardwicke as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Photographing Fairies. By the time the film came out, Hardwicke was by far best known as the second Dr. Watson in the Granada Sherlock Holmes adaptations.
• From John Waters' Pink Flamingos: Cookie is reading a tabloid that reports that "Harris Glenn Milstead" had been released from jail and Divine says that she hadn't heard that name in years. Harris Glenn Milstead was Divine's own real name.
• The Pink Panther Strikes Again features Dreyfus mocking the Phantom of the Opera, playing a huge pipe organ in a similar matter. In truth, Herbert Lom played both roles — he was the Phantom in the Hammer Films version from 1962.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Jack Sparrow's father is played by Keith Richards, which is a Shout-Out to Johnny Depp's quote about using him as inspiration for Jack's famous mannerisms. Even better, Keith's scene features him playing guitar.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides:
  • The film features Gemma Ward as a character named Tamara. Out of the only four films Gemma has starred in thus far, one has been The Strangers, in which her character is introduced enigmatically asking if an unknown "Tamara" is in the house.
  • Barbossa asks "aren't we all kings' men?". Geoffrey Rush was fresh off his Oscar-nominated role as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has another rock star as a relative of Jack, Paul McCartney as Uncle Jackie. And he's introduced singing "Maggie Mae", an old folk song he and The Beatles recorded on Let It Be.
• Pitch Perfect has several. Anna Kendrick's (who was in Twilight) character is a member of a group called The Bellas (probably inadvertent). She also while in Bellas uniform gets asked if she's in flight attendant school.
  • Ester Dean who plays Cynthia Rose sings lead on S&M, a song recorded and made famous by Rihanna, but was in fact written by Ester Dean.
  • "So you know German. Well, now I know why you don't like fun things," is a funny line given that Skylar Astin acted in a musical all about Germans and fun.
  • Also Irish actress Saoirse Ronan plays the young Briony while Romola Garai plays her as an adult. Garai had previously played a Fake Irish in Rory O'Shea Was Here who was also a caregiver and in a position of unrequited love towards James McAvoy. Although in the latter, McAvoy was the one with the unrequited love while it was the other way around in Atonement.
• The 2001 Planet of the Apes features cameos from the stars of the original, Charlton Heston (protagonist Taylor), becomes... the "damned dirty" ape father of the villain, with the added bonus of his last words being "Damn them! God damn them all to hell!") and Linda Harrison (the Nubile Savage Nova), turned into an unnamed human captive).
• John Amos plays Officer Freeman in The Players Club. L'il Man, a guy he arrests, asks him, "You — have anybody ever told you you look just like the father from Good Times?"
• In The Princess Diaries 2, at the sleepover, Queen Clarisse says to Mia, "I've done quite a lot of flying in my time." This is referring to her part in Mary Poppins.
• In The Punisher (2004), Frank's old cop buddies are trying to calm him down by saying they understand that he's upset. He responds, in part, "I used to get upset when the Yankees won the Series." This is both a Shout-Out to the original Punisher, where Frank Castle was always depicted as a New Yorker. And its an Actor Allusion about the actor, Thomas Jane, whose biggest role prior was playing Mickey Mantle of the Yankees in 61*
• In Race to Witch Mountain, Meredith Salenger plays a news reporter named Natalie Gann. This is a nod to her role as the title character in Disney's The Journey of Natty Gann nearly 25 years before.
• Near the end of Rachel Getting Married, Kym (Anne Hathaway) is interrupted when her father comes up to her with one of the wedding guests. He tells his daughter that the woman "just lost an office assistant" and she'd be perfect for the job — a job Hathaway's character had in The Devil Wears Prada.
• Ramona and Beezus has several shout outs at Selena Gomez's expense. As Ramona is getting ready for her pictures, Beezus is styling Ramona's hair with a curling iron. Beezus points out to her that "That's a curling iron, not a magic wand." Earlier in the scene, the father states that, "TV kids make millions" as Beezus is shown to be smiling in the background. A later scene has Beezus telling Ramona "Every princess needs a little sparkle," which could be a reference to either Princess Protection Program or Another Cinderella Story.
• In Ransom, Tom Mullen's son asks him if he can enter a project into the science competition under a different name, since his mother is mother is judging and there would be a conflict of interest. Tom suggests "John Smith" — Tom was played by Mel Gibson, who also provided the voice of John Smith in Pocahontas.
• At the end of The Real Howard Spitz, the eponymous protagonist (played by Kelsey Grammer) considers becoming a sitcom writer. When his friend points out he knows nothing about it, Spitz replies, "Writing a sitcom's not hard. You just have a married couple, a bar in Boston or a psychiatrist on the radio."
• In A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die!, Col. Pembroke first appears with his hat tipped forward over his eys—seemingly asleep—and ignoring someone trying to talk this. This is almost identical to how the character Britt is introduced in The Magnificent Seven (1960). Both characters were played by James Coburn.
• In Red (2010), John Malkovich's character remarks "I remember when the Secret Service used to be tougher", referencing his role in In the Line of Fire.
• Return of the Living Dead Part II gets bonus points for having a couple of characters say things their actors said as different characters in the previous film. For example, when Joey assumes that Ed wishes to be burned after he dies because he's worried some grave robber's going to steal his head:
  Ed: Watch your tongue, boy, if you like this job!
  Joey: Like this job!?
• Roy from R.I.P.D. basically looks and acts like Rooster Cogburn, even speaking with the same drawl he does in that movie. All that's missing is the Eyepatch of Power.
• Andy Serkis gets two of these in Rise of the Planet of the Apes; one where he once again portrays an Ape (smaller, this time), and another where, like Gollum, he chomps on someone's finger, only this time that person somewhat had it coming.
• Sean Connery replies "But of course you do!" to a mook who claims he has a black belt in Rising Sun, alluding to a line in Diamonds Are Forever.
• River's Edge, Dennis Hopper's character talks about how he was a biker years previously.
• The Rock
  • Sean Connery's character explains his abilities by saying he was "trained by the best: British Intelligence". One reviewer called this "an in-joke the entire world gets".
  • Furthermore, when Nicolas Cage's character introduces himself, Connery responds with "But of course you are!" This is a line used by his Bond in Diamonds Are Forever.
• Counts as Self-Deprecation: during the credits of Rock Star, Mark Wahlberg's character says he'll leave rock and move into rap... while "Good Vibrations", by Marky Mark, is playing in the background.
• The Rundown: At the beginning of the movie, The Rock is destroying the football players in the night club. One of them receives a Rock Bottom, his finisher in WWE.
• When the stalker Fireball first enters the combat zone in the movie The Running Man, Killian announces his arrival to the TV audience by declaring, "There he goes, the number one rusher!" Fireball is played by football player-turned-actor Jim Brown, who is widely considered the greatest running back in NFL history.
• At the end of The Saint (1997), The newscaster on the radio in Simon Templar's car is voiced by Roger Moore, who played Simon Templar in the TV series. Also counts as Remake Cameo.
• In The Santa Clause 2 Santa (Tim Allen) encountered a plastic duplicate of Santa who believes himself to be the real thing. While combating one another the plastic Santa calls him a "Sad, strange little man."
• Santa's Slay doesn't even try to hide that Santa is played by Bill Goldberg. Hell, at one point they even play his theme song! And he sets one of his kills by using his trademark Spear. And after the credits, he looks at the camera (looking up from a Naughty/Nice list) and uses his 'Who's Next?' catchphrase.
• Robert Downey Jr.'s character in A Scanner Darkly tried to make a homemade silencer only to make the gun louder. In Sherlock Holmes (2009), his character, while bored and drunk, tried to make the first silencer with the same results.
• In Scary Movie, Shawn Wayans' Ray Wilkins goes on an angry diatribe on how The Wayans Bros. was a good show that didn't get a proper final episode.
• One scene in Scotland, PA sees police Lt. McDuff pick up some maracas and spontaneously dance a few steps, explaining, "You know, I used to be a dancer." Said character is played by dancer-turned-actor Christopher Walken.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World:
  • Todd Ingram, a Vegan Psychic with Telepathic powers and also plays electric bass is played by Brandon Routh, the same actor who played Superman in Superman Returns. The Vegan Police come in and zap him when he drinks half-and-half with a green beam that removes his powers. The Trivia Subtitles even say that this was done deliberately because Routh was Superman.
  • Roxy is played by Mae Whitman, who played Ann Veal, George's girlfriend in Arrested Development. This knowledge makes Scott's "You and... her?" line all the more priceless.
• A director one, which doubles as a Take That!: the opening scene of Scream (1996) features Drew Barrymore saying of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series "The first one was good, the rest sucked." Scream director Wes Craven had directed the horror classic, with the studio later making lots of sequels without his involvement. Although he also co-wrote Dream Warriors and directed Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
  • Also, Henry Winkler (Fonzie in Happy Days) plays a high school principal who keeps a black leather jacket in his closet.
• The Seven Year Itch has the protagonist at a certain point discussing The Girl: "She might be Marilyn Monroe!"
• In Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Tony Curtis' character has to wear a woman's robe, because his clothes are wet. He says he looks like "Jack Lemmon did, in that movie, where he dressed up like a girl." Later, he's several times said to be looking like Lemmon.
• The Tim "Buzz Lightyear" Allen remake of The Shaggy Dog has the eponymous dog jump off a bridge on to a bus, with Allen saying "To infinity and beyond!"
• In Shooter, Rhona Mitra's character apparently sleeps in her old Lara Croft outfit.
• In Sin City, a cop attacking John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) advises his colleague to kill without hesitation: John quickly dispatches them both and quips "Good advice". In Die Hard, John McClane (Bruce Willis) took down a terrorist who had told him to kill without hesitation... then snarked "Thanks for the advice". Bruce's also lying on his back, shooting upwards, on both occasions.
  • Gail says to Dwight "us girls are as safe as we can be, Lancelot". Clive Owen had previously starred in King Arthur, though playing Arthur not Lancelot.
• Lynda Carter's line in the movie Sky High (2005), "I'm not Wonder Woman, you know." Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman in the TV series.
• In The Sky's the Limit, the second chorus of "A Lot In Common With You" has Fred Astaire sing "Where's Cagney?", which Joan Leslie answers with "Where's Hayworth?" Rita Hayworth had been Astaire's co-star in You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier, while Leslie had been recently featured in Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney.
• During a tense scene in the remake of Sleuth Jude Law (playing opposite Michael Caine in the role Caine played in the original) asks "What's it all about?" Caine and Law had assailed the eponymous roles in Alfie and its remake.
• Small Town Santa: Sheriff Rick Langston, who's played by Dean Cain, has a sticker on his computer monitor saying "Heroes Don't Wear Capes". This is ironic, since Dean Cain played Superman in Lois & Clark.
• Smoke Signals: In a flashback, Arnold Joseph asks his son Victor who his favorite Native American is. Victor replies "Nobody," as in he has no favorite Native American, which gets his father upset. Gary Farmer played Nobody in Dead Man.
• In The Smurfs, there's a scene where the gang suggests phrases which include the word "smurf" to Patrick. Smurfette, voiced by Katy Perry in the live action Smurfs films, pipes up with "I kissed a Smurf and I liked it," a thinly veiled reference to Perry's main occupation as a singer.
• In Social Suicide, a Setting Update of Romeo and Juliet, main character Julia's parents are played by Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, the stars of Franco Zeffirelli's famous 1968 film version of the play.
• In Some Like It Hot, gangster Spats Columbo (played by George Raft) asks a coin-flipping hoodlum, "Where'd you pick up that cheap trick?" Raft became famous playing coin-flipping gangsters in movies like Scarface (1932) and If I Had a Million.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022):
  • While looking for a movie to watch, Sonic tells the dog Ozzy that he refuses to watch Snow Dogs because "that movie is the wOOOOOooooOOOOOOOrst!"
    • Also, after crashing through the temple at super speed, the first thing Sonic says is "Nailed it!"
  • Shemar Moore plays a government agent once again.
  • Robotnik absorbing the power of the Master Emerald marks the fourth time that Jim Carrey has played a character associated with the color green, and the second time he's played a character who temporarily gets omnipotent/godlike power.
  • Sonic compares Robotnik's new look to the Monopoly guy.
• The Spaceballs parody of the Alien chestburster scene comes complete with John Hurt, who hangs a lampshade on it with the line, "Oh no, not again!"
  • Earlier in the movie, "Dot Matrix" uses her voice actor's catchphrase ("Can we talk?").
• In the film version of Spawn, Martin Sheen says, "Let's start the Apocalypse now!"
• In Speed Racer, the oldest race announcer is played by Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed Racer and Racer X in the English dubbed version of the original Japanese cartoon series.
• Peter David's novelizations of the Spider-Man Trilogy have a few examples of this:
  • In the novelization of the first film, Harry and MJ chat about Interview with the Vampire, which Harry is reading. Harry asks MJ if she ever read it. Mary Jane replies that she saw the movie and the little girl (played by her actress Kirsten Dunst) creeped her out.
  • The novelization for Spider-Man 2 adds a subplot of Peter being suspicious of Octavius based on comments by a mercenary who he'd stopped from kidnapping Octavius for his arm harness. After meeting Otto however, Peter's internal monologue notes that Otto Octavius is no Snidely Whiplash, a role played by Alfred Molina in the film adaptation.
• The Spirit of '76: When Adam-11, played by David Cassidy, complains about being stuck in The '70s, he stares sadly at a The Partridge Family lunchbox.
• In the third Spy Kids movie, Grandpa Cortez (Ricardo Montalbán) tells some technicians to be careful with his wheelchair because it features "rich, Corinthian leather". Montalban touted this very feature in ads for the Chrysler Cordoba.
• Stakeout: To pass the time while on stakeout, Emilio Estevez and Richard Dreyfuss's characters are playing a guessing game where they cite memorable lines of dialogue and quiz the other as to what movie it's from. Emilio Estevez's character, in an over-the-top way, recounts the line: "This was not a boating accident!" Dreyfuss, after a moment's pause, replies "I don't know." The line is from the film Jaws, spoken by Matt Hooper — a character played by Richard Dreyfuss.
• Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have had a friendly rivalry for years, and many of their movies have in-jokes about the other:
  • In True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis comments "I married Rambo", in reference to Arnold's spy character. The novel suggests he craps higher than Rambo.
  • In Demolition Man, Stallone is horrified to discover that LA now contains the "Schwarzenegger Presidential Library".
  • In Last Action Hero, Schwarzenegger and the kid come across an ad for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, with Stallone as the Terminator. "The man is an artist. It's his best performance ever!"
  • In Twins (1988), Schwarzenegger sees a poster with Rambo and laughs at the size of Stallone's biceps compared to his own.
  • In Tango & Cash, Tango makes fun of a random prisoner by saying, "I loved you in Conan the Barbarian!"
  • And when they finally have a scene together in The Expendables, Arnie turns down the mercenary job on offer, telling Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to give it to Stallone's character as he "loves playing in the jungle". As Arnie walks away, Stallone asks Willis what his problem is, to which Willis replies, "He wants to be President."
  • The Expendables 2 also ropes in Willis for into their Actor Allusion:
  Arnold: I'll be back!
  Willis: No! You've come back enough! I'll be back!
  Arnold: Yipee-ki-yay.
  (Chuck Norris joins in the brawl)
  Arnold: Who's next, Rambo?
  • The Expendables 3 has Wesley Snipes make a joke about being in jail for tax evasion and has Schwarzenegger yell "Get to da choppah!" Harrison Ford, a helicopter pilot in real life, spends most of his screen time flying a helicopter.
• In Stardust, Ricky Gervais's character Ferdy the Fence tells Robert De Niro's character, Captain Shakespeare, that "You're havin' a laugh." On Extras, Gervais plays an actor who plays a character on the Show Within a Show, and this character's catchphrase is "Are you havin' a laugh?" In one episode, he even wonders what DeNiro would think of his career.
• In Star Trek: Generations, we see a wet-behind-the-ears Captain Harriman, played by Alan Ruck. According to the Memory Alpha wiki, Harriman's personnel file from one of the video games says he has "a wife named Sloane and a son named Ferris who both live in Chicago, as well as interests in 20th century Italian sports automobiles."
• Star Trek (2009):
  • Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock, pins down Kirk by the neck, eerily Sylar-like.
  • Spock Prime introduces himself to Kirk saying "I am Spock", which was the title of Leonard Nimoy's second autobiography (so named to counter the notions that his previous autobiography I Am Not Spock created, namely how he supposedly hated both Star Trek and the Spock character).
• In Star Trek Into Darkness Peter Weller, who starred in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, gets a line tipping a hat to that film.
  Admiral Marcus: It's evil. Pure and simple.
• In Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, a drug dealer tries to sell Obi Wan deathsticks (which is likely an analogy to heroine or cocaine) who he refuses and tells to go home and rethink his life. Ewan McGregor played the role of Mark Renton in the film adaptation of Trainspotting, a drug addict who was forced to rethink his life after a drug addiction and went cold turkey in his own home. It comes full circle in T2 Trainspotting when he returns back to his home and there was a kid playing with a blue lightsaber toy.
• In The Force Awakens, Daniel Craig has a cameo as a Stormtrooper. According to the credits, his number is JB-007.
  • Max von Sydow faces down a mysterious figure cloaked in black, much as he did in The Seventh Seal. It ends badly for him both times.
• In The Last Jedi, there's a deleted scene where after Luke tricks Rey into believing the natives are being attacked by raiders, but it turns out it was actually a party which Luke uses to prove Rey her implusiveness to help people is what the galaxy needs. When Rey confronts him about it, Mark Hamill (Luke) pulls a distinct laugh similar to his other most iconic character.
• In Stay Tuned, Roy (played by John Ritter) lands in the living room of an apartment that looks like the one from Three's Company. Two women (lookalikes of Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt) enter and ask in unison "WHERE have you been?". He does a pratfall over the sofa, as Ritter frequently did on the series. This scene solely exists to be an Actor Allusion, since Roy screams and immediately hits his remote control to go elsewhere.
• A rather painful one in Steel, where Richard Roundtree's character says of the hero's trademark giant hammer "I especially like the Shaft!" apropos of absolutely nothing.
  • Another one is the title character's inability to make basketball free throws. The title character is played by Shaquille O'Neal, a basketball player who was well-known for his inability to make free throws.
• It's probably easier to list the scenes in the 2007 adaptation of St Trinians which don't nod to Colin Firth's previous career in some way. The dog is called Mr. Darcy. (In one scene, it starts humping his leg, and he later kicks it into a lawnmower.) The MacGuffin of the film is the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. (At one point, a couple of Chavs remark, "Wow! I can see why Colin Firth wanted to shag her!") It all culminates in a scene where, after being thrown out of a window into a fountain after being caught in a girls' dorm room, he walks across a field with his shirt sopping wet and romantic piano music being played in the background in a spectacular Homage Shot of the famous scene with Sexy Soaked Shirt from the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
• In Suck (2009), after Joey and Jennifer have given up vampirism and rock stardom for a mundane suburban life, they run into the bartender from earlier in the movie, a vampire played by Alice Cooper. When he unfurls his wings, Jennifer says "Tell me I'm dreaming", to which he replies, in reference to their boring life, "Welcome to my nightmare". In another scene, when the band is crossing the border into America, the border guard is suspicious and hostile until they mention they're in a band, and he says he used to be in a band too. The guard is played by Alex Lifeson of Rush.
• In both Sucker Punch and Contact, Jena Malone is involved in a shot that crosses through a mirror and comes out on the other side.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was not Helena Bonham Carter's first time playing an insane, corset-wearing, mentally unstable yandere with a crush on a ruthless serial killer.
• The first scene of Tango & Cash has Tango saying "Rambo is a pussy." Guess who plays Tango.
• In Tapeheads, the FBI agent who says "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" as he arrests Tim Robbins and John Cusack is Jello Biafra, who less than two years earlier had been prosecuted for obscenity based on complaints from the PMRC.
• In Terminator Salvation, the bodybuilder playing the T-800 (physically, that is), Roland Kickinger, had previously played Arnold in the made-for-TV biopic See Arnold Run.
• In Think Like a Man, the male characters are discussing the film For Colored Girls. One of the men mentions that he hates the movie — "That's the movie where Janet Jackson got AIDS and some crazy guy threw his kids out the window!" Sure enough, the man saying this is played by the same man who played the role of said "crazy guy" — Micheal Ealy.
• In the original 13 Ghosts, the house comes complete with a creepy old maid who happens to be played by Margaret Hamilton, at the very end of the film she picks up a broom to resume her house work, but instead gives the camera a devious look while she holds it, reflecting her best known role as the Wicked Witch of the West.
• In ¡Three Amigos!, Steve Martin's character (Lucky Day), has to recite a magic phrase consisting of gibberish. The last two syllables are "Hoff-HARR", which is how you pronounce the last name of Steve Martin's character in The Man with Two Brains.
• Torture Garden: In his showman persona, Dr. Diabolo wears a top hat and smokes cigarettes in a long holder, just as actor Burgess Meredith had done when playing the Penguin in Batman (1966).
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon:
  • The film has an especially clumsy one: Sentinel Prime, voiced by Leonard Nimoy, says the line "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.". At the climax of the same film Megatron shouts "This is MY planet!", his voice actor uttered a very similar line at the climax of The Matrix Revolutions, screaming "This is my world! My world!".
  • There's also an ironic bit of foreshadowing concerning Sentinel with a scene at the beginning of the movie. The two smallest Autobots are watching the original Star Trek television series when one of them remarks that he's seen this episode before, it's the one where Spock goes crazy.
• Danny Trejo almost constantly plays a character whose name is a type of knife (or the Spanish word for one). He plays Navajas ("knives") in Desperado, Machete in Machete/Grindhouse and Spy Kids, and Razor Charlie in From Dusk Till Dawn.
• Again with His Dudeness in TRON: Legacy. Mellowed-out old Kevin Flynn is very reminiscent of The Dude in that he's all about zen, man.
• In The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Humphrey Bogart's character tells his wife, in anticipation of meeting her ex-boyfriend, "I have the feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful hatred." This is a nod to Bogart's famous closing line as Rick in Casablanca ("Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.")
• In Ultraman Geed The Movie: Connect The Wishes!, Jean-Bot persuaded Riku Asakura, Geed's human form, to shout "Jean Fight!" Tatsuomi Hamada, Riku's actor, previously played Nao in Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial, and shouted the phrase at the film's climax to let Jean-Bot access his robot mode.
• In Under Siege, the crew of USS Missouri eagerly waits the special guest for the captain's birthday party, namely Jordan Tate, a.k.a. "Miss July 1989". Jordan Tate is played by Erika Eleniak, who indeed was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in July 1989.
• David Boreanaz' character in Valentine is a drunk who breaks his sobriety. One of the characters even say that "he's no Angel".
• Valentine's Day
  • Taylor Lautner's character says he's uncomfortable taking his shirt off, a swipe at Lautner's Shirtless Scene-prone role in the Twilight films.
  • Julia Roberts' character is asked if she's ever been to El Rodeo Drive. She smirks and says yes.
• In A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Harold is referred to as "Sulu". John Cho played Sulu in Star Trek. Also, when the arrive at the party, Kumar's friend admits he told the girl that Kumar worked at the White House. Kal Penn worked in the Obama White House.
• The mockumentary Waiting for Guffman includes an in-character Actor Allusion. Fred Willard plays the town travel agent, and one of his roles in the Show Within a Show is President McKinley.
  McKinley: I was headed for Wichita, but somehow I ended up here in Blaine. Guess I need a new travel agent! (turns to the crowd and winks)
• The War Lord: Chrysagon de la Cruex (Charlton Heston) is skilled at spear-throwing, fights while wearing just a loincloth and blinds an enemy with a torch. Sounds familiar.
• The Waterboy and The Animal share a particular line, by Rob Schneider to Adam Sandler in the former, and by Adam Sandler to Rob Schneider in the latter: "You can do it! You can do it... ALL NIGHT LONG!" In the latter case it's not only an obvious shout-out to the former, but also intended to mock the former as it's said even more ham-handed and over the top than the original, likely due to a mutual agreement.
• In both Paul and The Cabin in the Woods, Sigourney Weaver plays the part of the mysterious chief of a top secret organization who appears only late in the film and dies a quick and painful death.
• The Wedding Ringer ends with Jorge Garcia saying "I've got a bad feeling about this flight."
• In Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Dr. Demento introduces himself to Al (played by Daniel Radcliffe) by saying that he wants to be Al's "De-mentor". Al reacts with a look of cringe, both as a Lame Pun Reaction and an allusion to Radcliffe's work on the Harry Potter series.
• In We're the Millers, one take that didn't make the final cut involved a prank on Jennifer Aniston where they replaced "Waterfalls" with the theme from Friends.
• Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Craven has a Creator Cameo as a janitor named "Fred", who is wearing a fedora and a red & green sweater.
• In Crispin Glover's film What Is It? he has a role and asks the people around him what they address him as. One man answers "McFly".
• In What's Up, Doc?, Judy makes a reference to Love Story, which Ryan O'Neal also starred in.
  Judy: Love means never having to say you're sorry. [bats eyes]
  Howard: ... That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Eddy Valiant (played by Bob Hoskins) is skeptical about Judge Doom's scheme to raze Toon Town to make room for a freeway. Hoskins was also in the 1974 movie Inserts, which involved an attempt to get a washed-up director's home torn down to make way for a freeway.
• In 1988's Working Girl, corporate executive Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) steps off a helicopter carrying a giant stuffed gorilla. Earlier in 1988, Weaver starred in Gorillas in the Mist.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men:
    • Toad whirls a pipe in a menacing manner, a reference to how his actor Ray Park played Darth Maul.
    • May or may not be intentional, but Professor Xavier's wheelchair sure looks a lot like Captain Picard's command chair onboard the Enterprise.
    • The trucker in the movie is played by George Buza, who voiced Beast in the '90s cartoon.
  • X-Men: The Last Stand: For the FBI agent who interrogates Mystique, it should have been a cakewalk compared to Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
  • The Wolverine: In The Stinger, Magneto warns of "dark forces approaching," which is from The Lord of the Rings.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse:
    • Charles' opening narration about powers, including prophecy, and being worshipped as a god because of them (with a desert scene, no less) alludes to James McAvoy's role as Leto Atreides II in Children of Dune. Moreover, Xavier and Jean Grey have a very close surrogate father-daughter relationship because of their telepathy, which mirrors the emotionally intimate sibling bond between Leto and his twin sister Ghanima, who are both pre-born, and therefore are plagued by the "voices" of their genetic ancestors. Like Professor X, Leto is also kidnapped, forcibly placed on a slab, and undergoes an agonizing mental assault which causes him to nearly lose his identity. Both characters survive and become tougher because of it.
    • Mystique has now become an inspiration to mutants around the world for rebelling against authority, much in the same way that Katniss Everdeen has.
• Mavis Gary of Young Adult drives the same car as Stella Bridger of The Italian Job. Both are played by Charlize Theron.
• Youth in Revolt: Trent is played by the same actor who played the Beefy Guy in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Nick's father's girlfriend is the actress who played Caroline. And his friend Lefty is played by the guy who was Crash of Crash and the Boys (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
• In his first appearance onscreen in Zardoz, Sean Connery aims his gun at the camera and shoots it.
• Zoolander
  • Jon Voight as Derek's father says the following:
    "Damn it Derek, I'm a coal miner, not a professional film or television actor."
  • David Duchovny as a conspiracy theorist.

---