Breaking The Fourth Wall / Live-Action Films

"Fourth wall-break inside a fourth wall-break. That's like... sixteen walls..."

— Deadpool, Deadpool (2016)

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• Dates back to the Lumière brothers and the first films made for publich viewing in 1895—specifically, The Photographical Congress Arrives in Lyon, in which several of the photographers wave or doff their hats to the camera.
• The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. Albert Finney (playing an opera attendee) turns and says "Is this rotten or wonderfully brave?" to the camera.
• The Adventures of Buratino
  • Papa Carlo sings about his future son: "to help me in my old age (looking directly at the camera) and to bring joy to you".
  • The final chorus is performed at a theatre, where the child actors who star in the movie are sitting as themselves in the audience.
• In Airplane! after Elaine tells Ted she can't see him anymore, he turns to the camera and says, "What a pisser."
• Alexander Nevsky (1938) is a Russian historical drama about the defeat of an invading German army in the Middle Ages. At the end, Alexander makes a speech about how people who forget the victory are Judases. He looks at the audience several times.
• In Alice in Wonderland (1999) the white rabbit turns to face the camera after being hit time after time with pieces of slate from his roof and raises his eyebrows at the audience.
• It's rare to find one of Amicus Productions' portmanteau horror films that doesn't end with a character breaking the fourth wall, frequently directly addressing the audience. Noteworthy examples: Asylum, Tales from the Crypt, The House That Dripped Blood, and From Beyond the Grave.
• In another Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall, a puffed up character: Man-In-Theatre-Line, spouts nonsense about Marshall McLuhan's theories of media. Allen's character Alvy argues with him, and then pulls the real Marshall McLuhan into the shot to back up his argument. Once that is done, Alvy faces the audience and says, "Boy, if life were only like this!" He does this on many other occasions too.
• Anything Else's protagonist repeatedly explains to the camera his predicaments and thoughts.
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach," and in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me: "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach, and Mr. Elvis Costello."
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Basil tells Austin that he should stop worrying about Time Travel complexities and just enjoy himself, then turns to the audience and says “That goes for you all too!” and Austin says "Yes".
• Austin Powers in Goldmember. During a meeting with Mr. Robotto of Robotto industries, subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen, until it appears that Robotto has said “Please eat some shit.” to which Austin reacts to in shock, until Foxy moves a tray along the table which was the same colour as the subtitles, revealing it to read “Please eat some shitake mushrooms.” the joke is repeated a few more times, until Robotto says “Maybe I should just speak in English?” to which Austin comments “Now that would be a good idea wouldn't it, then I wouldn't be misread the subtitles and thinking you're saying dirty things.”
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Buster Scruggs speaks amiably to the audience throughout his chapter while ruthlessly gunning down various challengers.
• A minor example occurs at the end of The Beast with Five Fingers. The Commissario makes a joke that must be directed at the audience because a) he is alone at the time, and b) the joke only works if you cannot see what is happening below the level of the camera.
• In Bedtime Stories (2008) the narrator breaks the fourth wall near the end of the movie, asking the main character if this is really how he's gonna have the story end.
• In The Big Short, Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) breaks it frequently to address the audience, sometimes in the middle of a scene. Other characters do this as well, although not quite as much.
• In Big Shot Confessions Of A Campus Bookie, Benny Silman (David Krumholtz) in addition to narrating, also breaks the fourth wall when he discusses the film's events.
• The Big Store: In "Sing While You Sell", Flywheel introduces a number of girls showing off fashionable dresses. Flywheel informs the audience that the sequin dress is bright red and that "technicolor is expensive."
• In Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, towards the end, when Stefan is asking the controller for a sign, it is possible to reveal to him that you are controlling his decisions, through the 21st Century streaming platform, Netflix. This results to an ending in which he and his psychiatrist talk about how if someone really is controlling Stefan in a movie, that it must be a really boring movie. This leads to an over-the-top action fight between Stefan, his psychiatrist, and his father, which either ends with Stefan being dragged from the office, screaming about his friend from the future, or he tries to leap out a window, only to realize he can't, because the psychiatrist office is part of an actual movie set, and the window can't be opened. This latter ending results in Stefan's actor being entirely confused at the concept that everything up to this point was just a movie.
• Blazing Saddles has a pretty flimsy fourth wall to begin with, but by the end of the movie it completely collapses.
  • Hedley Lamaar seems to be talking to himself, looking ahead at nothing in particular while musing about what his next step needs to be. Then he stops, focuses his eyes more clearly, and says "Why am I asking you?"
  • During a speech, Hedley Lamaar says "You will only be risking your lives, while I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor."
  • The big fight towards the end of the movie breaks out of the set and ruins a neighboring Busby Berkeley Number. This would be breaking the third wall.
  • Taggart: "Piss on you! I'm working for Mel Brooks!" (writer/director).
  • The end fight scene, where they break through the wall of the studio and continue the fight across several sets, culminating in Hedley Lamarr hailing a taxi and literally tells the driver to drive him out of the film! He then flees to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, has a final quick draw duel with Sheriff Bart, and ends up dying next to Douglas Fairbanks's footprints.
  • The movie ultimately gives up pretending there's a 4th Wall anymore by having Bart and Waco watch the end of their own movie together inside the theatre.
    Waco Kid: Ooh. I hope there's a Happy Ending.
  • The final scene has Waco leave his theater popcorn behind as he and Bart literally ride off into the sunset. As in, off the set in the back of a limousine!
• Buffaloed: Peg takes a moment to explain to the audience how the debt collection biz works, complete with presentation slides showing the people involved. Near the end of the movie, she also talks to the audience as she tries to think of what to do with the seed money she has just been gifted.
• Maurice Chevalier frequently addresses songs to the audience in his early musical films:
  • "Nobody's Using It Now" in The Love Parade (1929).
  • "Toujours l'Amour in the Army" in The Smiling Lieutenant (1931).
  • In One Hour with You (1932), both Chevalier and his co-star Jeanette MacDonald frequently talk and sing to the audience.
• The Cocoanuts, ends with the Marx Brothers looking directly into the camera and waving goodbye to the audience.
• The mockumentary The Compleat Al ends with "Weird Al" Yankovic addressing the audience directly and thanks them for their support... as only Al can.
• Conspiracy: When asked to vote endorsement of the Wannsee Conference's proceedings (i.e. agreeing to kill every Jew in Europe), Colin Firth's character looks straight at the camera:
  Stuckart: Oh yes, what can I say? My enthusiasm is boundless.
• Darby and the Dead: Darby talks directly with the audience to deliver both exposition and snark throughout the film. It's lampshaded at one point when Alex notices this and asks who she's talking to.
• The Dead Don't Die: Early on, the film's theme song is playing on the radio, with Cliff commenting on it sounding familiar and Ronnie explaining that "it's the theme song". And during the climax, Ronnie reveals that he's been so pessimistic throughout the movie because he read the script and knew it would have a Downer Ending.
• In Deranged, the reporter character Tom Simms occasionally interrupts the film and addresses the audience, usually to serve as Mr. Exposition.
• The beginning of Designing Woman has the main characters spell out their roles in the film, and they narrate throughout the film when necessary.
• In The Devil and Miss Jones, the film begins with a title card that goes like so: “Dear Richest Men in the World: We made up this character in this story, out of our own heads. It’s nobody, really. The whole thing is make-believe. We’d feel awful if anybody was offended. Thank you, The Author, Director, and Producer. P.S. Nobody Sue.” And then this appears: “P.P.S. PLEASE”.
• Do the Right Thing features a sequence of racial slur ranting directed at the audience.
• Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 has its titular heroine directly address the audience throughout the films.
• In Stephen Spielberg's The Fabelmans, Logan threatens aspiring filmmaker Sammy to never reveal to anyone how he saw him crying. “I won’t,” Sammy says. “Unless I make a movie about it someday,” before repeatedly insisting that he won't. In a semi-autobiographical movie covering said very event.
• In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, at many points (most specifically the beginning and the end) Ferris talks directly to the audience while setting up the stereo and moving model in his bed.
• Ferry Cross the Mersey has a silent film-style chase scene where the Pacemakers try to retrieve instruments that were accidentally sent to the airport while pursued by cops. One of the cops looks at the camera, says "A camera! Now's my chance!" and launches into a dance routine while the chase continues in the background.
• Fight Club
  • There is a moment when Tyler Durden begins monologuing: "You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet..." By the end of the monologue ("You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.") he is looking directly into the camera, and the film shakes and appears to come loose (the sprocket holes are visible). Also an allusion to his job as a projectionist, and habit of tampering with the films. As he does at the end of Fight Club.
  • In the opening of the film, the narrator character tells Tyler, "I don't know." After a full-movie flashback, the scene returns to the second bookend, where the narrator says, "I still don't know." Tyler notes, "Ah. Flashback humor."
• In the old Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra comedy Western Four For Texas, Martin turns to the audience on several occasions and gives them wry/conspiratorial looks when something particularly odd happens.
• In Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, the cemetery caretaker is standing at the empty grave of Jason. Assuming someone had taken his body as a prank, he looks directly at the audience and says, "Some people have a might strange idea of entertainment."
• Funny Games has No Fourth Wall, but only Paul can break it. He seems to be the only character aware that he's in a film. He first gives the camera a smug smirk just before the wife discovers her dead dog. He later starts addressing the audience and guesses at their feelings about the film. At one critical point, he even rewinds the film so that he can negate the death of his accomplice.
• In the George of the Jungle movie, the Narrator says that the characters react with awe at a mountain, at which they all go "Awwwww". He repeats himself, spelling out the word and they say "Ooooh". Later, the bad guys get into an argument with the narrator after he refuses to help them.
  • The sequel:
    Narrator: ...wait a minute! You're not George!
    George: Me new George! Studio too cheap to get Brendan Fraser.
• Get On Up seems to play around with this trope a bit. As his career progresses, James Brown will sometimes turn and speak directly to the camera, only occasionally interacting directly with his environment in order to further his explanations and theories. He never directly addresses the audience, or makes any sort of acknowledgement that he is in a movie (although, this IS a biographical drama, so such an idea would be in poor taste anyway), so it could be argued that this is simply his inner monologue, and not an example of this trope at all. Ultimately, it's up to you whether this is Brown talking to himself, or indirectly addressing the future generations who will pursue his history.
• Henry's direct-to-camera address in the courtroom scene near the end of Goodfellas - justified by, though still striking in spite of, his being the voice-over narrator throughout the film.
• Gozu: The actress playing the gas station attendant's wife spoke hardly any Japanese and had to speak her lines phonetically. After suffering through her terrible delivery, one of the other actors breaks character to criticize her hopeless acting.
• Perhaps the earliest film example is The Great Train Robbery (1903), which ends with a shot of a gunslinger shooting at the camera, causing many in the audience to duck for cover, as they actually thought they were going to get shot.
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch has Hulk Hogan threatening the Gremlins for screwing with the film. The film you're watching, in the theater. Right now. Hulk then apologizes to the audience for breaking the movie. The home release of the film has the Gremlins messing with your VCR instead.
• A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints has a sequence in the 1980s flashback where the supporting cast individually address the audience to announce their motivations. The entire film has a Framing Device of the story being told at a book reading, giving it a weird justification.
• During the title song of Guys and Dolls, while discussing guys doing things for their dolls, Nicely Nicely points at the camera and remarks at the men who are watching the movie for their significant others.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Hermione, when Fred and George try to put their names into the Goblet, she addresses the audience. Though it could be argued that it is the usual "I know this so well that I'm not going to turn around to talk to you" thing that mothers do all the time and girls start at an early age. The camera is aimed at the perfect angle to make both interpretations work, so this might have been planned.
• The 1941 classic Hellzapoppin' absolutely obliterates the fourth wall: the characters comment on other plots, they talk to the audience, they talk to the projectionist (and in fact, when the shot goes out of frame, they confront the projectionist, who it turned out was getting a little action in his booth), they deconstruct myths, they talk to still photographs (which come alive), they pause the phrase, mock the movie they're watching and the movie they're in (including muting the soundtrack and making jokes over it MST3K-style), criticize the writing, talk about their roles, use double-exposures deliberately, control the direction, and have a running joke with overlaid wording that "Stinky Miller" needs to go to the lobby because his mother is looking for him, and the characters stop in the middle of a musical number to yell at Stinky, who eventually (in silhouette), gets up and leaves. Whew.
• Help! - Ringo is trapped in a cellar; he hoists up a ladder but several rungs snap under his weight - he turns to the camera and deadpans "All of the rungs have been neatly sawed in the middle!" Earlier on, Eleanor Bron as Ahme thwarts one of her bad guy superior's traps and tells us "I am not what I seem."
• High Fidelity. John Cusack's character talks directly to the audience as he talks about his life, relationships and love of music.
• At the end of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, the main characters run across a field at the end of their graduation ceremony, jump out of the "screen" and onto a theater stage complete with red drapes and then grin for five minutes straight as the camera zooms up on each one of their faces.
• Hitchcock opens and closes with Hitch talking directly to the audience, in a Shout-Out to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
• The Gainax Ending of The Holy Mountain has this trope playing a heavy role in it.
• Hot Tub Time Machine has the scene where the characters realize that the hot tub has taken them back in time. When this dawns upon Nick, he says, "It must be some sort of... hot tub time machine," and then turns to stare at the audience.
• Korean film The Housemaid, a dark story about obsession and murder centering around a married man who has an affair with his maid, has a bizarre ending in which the husband addresses the audience directly, saying that men shouldn't chase younger women, wagging his finger, and laughing.
• House of Wax (1953):
  • There is a hawker playing with paddleballs ushering people in to see the titular building. As he interacts with the crowd, he eventually turns to directly interact with the camera and addresses people in the movie theater as well ("...Well there's someone with a bag of popcorn!").
  • The original House of Wax was released in 3D, so not only is the crier speaking directly to the viewers, but his warnings that he might accidentally hit someone in the audience with one of the bouncing paddleballs becomes a very clever use of 3D.
• In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, the propaganda ad shot right after the hospital bombing looks very similar to the trailers.
• Inspector Gadget (1999) uses this in a very unsubtle way. The Nostalgia Critic gets suitably annoyed when reviewing the film (see here).
• In a rare horror version, In the Mouth of Madness has the premise that breaking the fourth wall lets the Eldritch Abominations hiding behind it.
  "Yes, but what about people who don't read books?"
  "There'll be a movie."
• Into the Wild has a scene in which the protagonist stares at the camera and gesticulates.
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back:
  • One of Ben Affleck's characters says to the eponymous duo, "A Jay and Silent Bob movie? Who'd pay to see that?" At which point all three of them turn and glare at the audience.
  • Another scene with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, reprising their roles in Good Will Hunting for a sequel, are arguing about their motivations for accepting certain roles, with Affleck finishing with "...you gotta do the payback picture because your friend says you owe him." With a pause to look at the camera... just for good measure.
• Played seriously, and not exactly discreetly, in Oliver Stone's JFK - Near the end, when Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) is wrapping up his speech as to why he believes there is a conspiracy, and how the documents supporting that might one day be available to the public if the demand for the truth is loud enough, his gaze shifts to the viewer; "It's up to you."
• In Josie and the Pussycats, Alexandra Cabot is asked why she's tagging along on the Pussycats tour. She answers that it's because she was in the comic book.
• The main character of Kick-Ass narrates the whole thing, discussing superhero tropes with the audience as they come up and at one point telling the audience off for assuming that he'll survive because he's narrating, mentioning other films where that's not the case.
• Charlie Chaplin's very first appearance as the Tramp, in the 1914 short Kid Auto Races at Venice, features this as the Running Gag. Most of the short is supposedly news footage of the race, but the Tramp wants to appear on film and keeps wandering into the shot. The director continually yells at him to move out of the way (as suggested by the Tramp's reactions and gestures off-camera) and comes out from behind the camera to shove him aside. The point of view occasionally shifts to a third party perspective so that the viewer can see the camera and the director standing beside it.
• In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Robert Downey Jr.'s character (and later on, Val Kilmer) speak directly to the audience about the storytelling conventions the film is using.
• In the 1914 film The Knockout, Fatty Arbuckle is going to change clothes but stops, looks at the audience, then motions to the cameraman to raise the focus of the camera while he changes.
• The eponymous character in Kuffs talks to the audience throughout the movie, sometimes in the presence of other characters who fail to notice.
• In Ladyhawke, Matthew Broderick does the same thing again, talking to the audience. Some of those lines are his conversations with God, but most are just blatant addressing the audience.
• Burns And Allen end a dance-and-patter number in Lamb Chops (1929) with George Burns quipping: "That's funny, we're supposed to be off the screen now."
• Laurel and Hardy: Oliver Hardy wouldn't talk to the camera, but he often gave it pessimistic or exasperated looks when things were going wrong.
• In Lord of War the Book Ends feature Yuri talking directly to the audience.
• Frank in Maniac! (1980) addresses the viewer during one of his insane ramblings.
• In Man of the House a short, unexpected, brilliant one after the new air conditioning unit is installed.
• The Marx Brothers:
  • In Horse Feathers, Groucho's putting the moves on Thelma Todd is interrupted by Chico's barging in. He launches into one of his piano numbers; Groucho steps up to the screen and tells us "You know, I've gotta stay here, but there's no reason you shouldn't go out to the lobby 'til this whole thing blows over!"
  • Also, in The Big Store, Groucho parades some beautiful women. One of them is wearing a red dress and he tells the audience that 'This dress is really bright red, but Technicolor is sooo expensive'.
  • And in Go West, after the brothers hijack a train and tie up the engineer, after putting a sock in his mouth, Groucho turns to the camera and says "You know this is the best gag in the picture?"
• At the start of Mary Poppins, Burt greets the audience and leads them to the Banks home.
• In-universe aversion: near the end of M*A*S*H, Hawkeye is in Seoul to try to rescue Ho-Jon from the South Korean draft board. A news crew is taking interviews on the street of American servicemen, and the interviewer keeps saying "Don't look at the camera" (which would have broken the fourth wall for the viewers of the newsreel footage).
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  • In the extended cut, Dingo turns to the camera partway through her scene and starts talking to the audience about how she didn't think the scene was funny, but now that she's had the chance to perform it has changed her mind. This results in various other characters from the film appearing and telling her to shut up and GET ON WITH IT!
  • At another point, a monster died because the person animating it had a heart attack.
  • When King Arthur and his knights arrive at Camelot, Patsy says, "It's only a model."
• Monty Python's Life of Brian: one of the crucifyees comments that the song Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life is available in the foyer.
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
  • A man comes out of a gorilla suit to announce to us, "Hello, good evening, and welcome to The Middle of the Film."
  • Eric Idle closes the film with a sketch revealing The REAL Meaning of Life, greeting the viewer by saying

    Well, that's the end of the film. Now, here's the meaning of life.

• At the end of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, the three main characters invite the audience to come and visit them some time.
• Most movies starring The Muppets involve some degree of fourth wall breaking.
  • In The Muppet Movie, Kermit tells Fozzie not to explain the story so far to Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, for fear of boring the audience. Fozzie then gives the other characters a copy of the script to read, and later Dr. Teeth uses the screenplay to locate Kermit and his friends at a key plot point.
    Floyd Pepper: Well if this were the movies...
    Dr. Teeth: And it is...
    Floyd Pepper: Then we'd think of a clever plot device!
  • The Great Muppet Caper:
    • One scene suddenly stops as Kermit scolds Miss Piggy for over-acting.
    • When Lady Holiday meets Miss Piggy, she tells her in detail about her good-for-nothing brother, and her most prized possession, the famed Baseball Diamond.
      Miss Piggy: Why are you telling me this?
      Lady Holiday: It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere.
  • Muppet Treasure Island:
    • Long John Silver (Tim Curry) cuts off other cast members from singing. "Upstage lads, this is my ONLY number!"
    • "He died? But this is supposed to be a kid's movie!"
    • It also features Rizzo directing a tour group around "the set where they filmed Muppet Treasure Island."
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol:
    • Gonzo (as Dickens) and Rizzo narrates the movie. During the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come sequence, they decide that the scene is too scary for them, with Gonzo telling the audience, "You're on your own. See you at the finale!"
    • When Scrooge lights the lamp to search his house, it turns out to be an electric light.
    • During the special memorial program for Jim Henson, one of the Muppets asks about including "those other people" in the memorial. "What other people?" is asked, and the first replies, "Them, down there", while gesturing toward the unseen puppeteers below the lower edge of the screen. After a few moments, he then adds, "On second thought, don't look. It's too weird" to general agreement.
• At the end of My Favorite Martian, Zoot settles into the washing machine with a copy of Victoria's Secret magazine. He then looks to the audience and says, "You people know how to live!"
• In The Neverending Story, near the end, the Childlike Empress tells Atreyu that as he was adventuring through Fantasia, the Earth-child Bastian was sharing his adventures by reading the story, then mentions that others are sharing Bastian's adventure, referencing the viewers.
• In the middle of Justin Bieber's documentary-concert film Never Say Never, the singer and Jaden Smith break the fourth wall by telling the audience to pay attention to the film, and to stop making out in the back row of the cinema.
• Not Okay: After Danni watches the vile lambasting on her laptop as a result of her fake sob story, the miserable girl looks directly at the camera and tells the viewer to "Be careful what you fucking wish for."
• One Week has one of the first examples in cinema: Buster's wife is taking a bath when she drops the soap out of the bathtub. As she gets ready to step out of the tub to retrieve it, she suddenly glances up, straight into the camera. A hand then covers the camera while she retrieves the soap. After she's back in the tub, the hand goes away, and she gives the camera a grin and a nod.
• Twice in the 2003 live-action adaptation of Peter Pan, Smee addresses the audience, in both cases to remark on the story ("It's all a bit tragic, isn't it?" and "How exciting, two dead so far!") in progress.
• Very briefly in The Stinger to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. After re-cursing itself, Jack the Monkey whips around, looks directly at the audience, and Eats The Camera.
• In Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Pikachu sings the theme to the Pokémon anime in sadness.
• In Prelude to a Kiss, Peter does this when he acts as the narrator.
• The Producers:
  • In the original film, Max sees some of Leo's eccentricities and says to the camera "This man should be in a straitjacket." In the musical adaptation and the later film based on it, Max says the line to a statue instead, though there is an outtake from the second film where Nathan Lane says it to the camera, then realizes it's supposed to be different in this film.
  • Also in the remake: in a jail cell, Max answers his own question of "How did I get into this mess?" by re-enacting the entire movie with snatches of dialogue and song. Brilliant.
  • Intermission! * Pulls out the program book, reads it* ... * Continues*
• One of the victims in Psycho Ape quotes an entire monologue from Ratatouille - a while later the actor breaks character to ask the director if this scene is now going to have be cut for copyright infringement, with the resulting conversation left in the movie.
• An 'in-universe' example in The Purple Rose of Cairo. The lead character watches the eponymous movie so many times that the lead actor in the movie falls in love with her and breaks out through the cinema screen to join her. The rest of the characters in the movie have to wait around since the plot cannot continue without him.
• R100: Starting at about the halfway mark, the film will occasionally cut to a focus group walking out of a movie theater to sit and discuss the film's plot so far. They obviously hate the film and point out many of the film's plot holes.
• Near the end of Ready Player One (2018), Halliday thanks Wade for playing his game, then pauses and nods to the audience, as if to thank them as well.
• Return of the Scarecrow: In the second stinger, Travis and the female camper he was with are shown to still be sitting in their campsite in the woods. The woman goes off to get a "surprise", and comes back in BDSM gear. Travis then looks to the audience and states that he wasn't killed in the movie, and is now about to get laid.
• In the Ian McKellen version of Richard III, Richard (McKellen) often turns to the audience to comment on the action, following Shakespeare's script.
• In many of Bob Hope's comedies including the Road to ... movies with Bing Crosby, Bob and others break the fourth wall. The end of The Princess and the Pirate features a particularly fine rant to the camera from Hope when Crosby's character appears just long enough to claim the film's heroine as his beloved.
• Happens a couple of times in Robin Hood: Men in Tights
  • When the view is zooming in on outside of Maid Marian's room, the shot switches to inside her room. A couple of minutes later, the camera (which had been doing the outside view) smashes through the window, before retreating rather awkwardly. The fourth wall is then again broken later, when the Abbot is walking up the aisle of Maid Marian and the Sherrif of Rottingham's wedding, and his staff hits the camera, causing the Abbot to loudly say "Sorry!".
  • Wouldn't the incident with the camera breaking the window technically be the Inverted Trope
  • The big archery tournament, where everyone pulls out a copy of the script to confirm that Robin gets another shot.
  • And during Robin and the Sheriff's fight scene, one of them accidentally skewers a set worker's bagel on their sword, who had been leaning through a 'window', showing the rest of the studio.
  • The very first scene in the movie when, as the village is being burned to the ground, one of the villagers says, "There must be a better way of doing the credits," to which another responds, "That's right! Every time they make a Robin Hood movie they burn our village down." They soon have all the villagers exclaim in one harrassed voice: "Leave us alone, Mel Brooks!"
  • And then there's the wonderful line at the end where Robin names Achoo Sheriff of Rottingham. Everyone yells "A black sheriff?!?!?!" Achoo looks right into the camera and says, "Why not? It worked in Blazing Saddles."
  • Robin: "Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent!"
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
  • Dr. Frank N. Furter seems to be aware of the audience, throwing a drink at the camera during Sweet Transvestite and meeting the audience's gaze at other times. He even addresses them directly at least once, when he says, "It's not easy having a good time! Even smiling makes my face ache!" None of the other characters seem to share his knowledge.
  • And the Criminologist, who appears to exist in a reality distinct both from the film itself and the viewers, and aware of both.
  • During the dinner scene, Dr. Scott turns to the camera and speaks directly to the audience.
• Rubber opens up with a cop talks directly to the camera about how things happen in films for "no reason," and dedicates the film to that tradition. It turns out he was addressing a crowd of spectators, though his statements apply to the actual film as much as the in-universe film.
• At the end of Secretary, Maggie Gyllenhaal's character looks directly at the camera and practically smirks as her new husband drives away. Considering her unorthodox behavior and decisions, it comes off as a direct challenge.
• See How They Run ends with Stoppard addressing the audience as "co-conspirators" and requesting they not spoil the ending. This echoes the warning given to audience members of The Mousetrap at the conclusion of each performance.
• In Shirley Valentine, adapted from a one-woman stage show, Shirley frequently addresses the audience directly, commenting on the action (and sometimes on the presentation — at one point, while being seduced on a boat with nobody but the two of them for miles, she gets distracted wondering where the romantic music is coming from).
• Near the end of A Shot in the Dark, Clouseau gathers the suspects in the case together as part of a plot to catch the killer. It turns out that all the suspects have been having affairs with each other and, with one exception, have committed at least one murder, the admission of which leads to a massive row between all the suspects. Clouseau is unable to get a word in edgeways and ends up looking at the audience in exasperation.
• In a segment at the end of the spoof movie Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th, blurbs start appearing informing you about bits of random trivia, and parts of the production. The film crew is even acknowledged in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
• In Smokey and the Bandit there is a scene early on where Bandit (Burt Reynolds) is being pursued by a city cop. He escapes by pulling his Firebird into a used car lot, then pulls away, slowly, as he checks to make sure the police car is gone. Just for a moment, he stops the car, then turns and looks directly at the camera. He flashes this most WONDERFUL "Ain't I Something?" grin, and then turns away and proceeds with the movie.
• In Some Like It Hot, Joe manages to hatch a plan to escape from the gangsters. As he arranges everything by phone, Jerry turns to the camera and says "Isn't he a bit terrific?"
• Spaceballs:
  • A cameraman bites it during the climactic battle sequence between Lone Starr and Dark Helmet. Earlier, Yogurt promises that the whole crew will meet again in Spaceballs II: The Search for More Money. (Promising sequels that never happened also occurred in Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I.)
  • The scene where they located the hero Lone Star by popping in a copy of Spaceballs on VHS, explaining that through the advancement of technology movies could now come out on VHS before they were even finished filming them. If only that poor camera guy knew about that.....
    • Meta version: Dark Helmet also turns and looks out of the screen when they accidentally fast forward to the present moment in the movie, so the scene they're watching shows them watching the scene they're watching, in which it can be seen that they are watching the scene they're watching. Then all the iterations of the VHS scene feature Dark Helmet turning to look at Dark Helmet watching Dark Helmet except, presumably, the one that you're watching now ("You're looking at "now," sir. Everything that happens now is happening now").
  • After having his own dastardly plan explained to him by his first officer, Dark Helmet turns to the camera and asks, "Everybody got that?" (Which has been shown to bleed into the animated series as well.)
  • The stunt doubles getting captured instead of our real heroes
  • Dark Helmet is knocked over by the camera as it moves in for a close-up.
  • All that Spaceballs merchandise in Yogurt's hut and all throughout the movie, including "Spaceballs the Toilet Paper" and "Spaceballs the Bedsheets". "Spaceballs the FLAMETHROWER! the kids love this one."
• Spy Hard: When Agent Steele goes to visit a female agent in a hotel room, he does an internal monologue the entire time, but she can somehow hear his voiceover.
• Stroker Ace. After Burt Reynolds has spent a few minutes undressing the female lead, he comments that he could ravish her and no one would know. He then glances at the audience as if to say the exact same thing!
• In This Girls Life, the main character, Moon, breaks the fourth wall throughout the film, but this becomes a little confusing because her character is a webcam star who also talks to the camera from time to time. At times, it's not immediately obvious whether she's talking to the real audience or the webcam audience.
• The 1959 horror film The Tingler featured a creature that attached itself to people and fed on their adrenaline; screaming changed the quality of the adrenaline and left it unable to feed. Late in the movie, it escapes into a theater, and either Vincent Price (in regular theaters) or William Castle (in drive-in theaters screening the film) warns the real-life audience that it's loose in their theater and the only way to stop it is to scream for their lives (and to make things even better, these theaters had "Percepto", a vibrating device, installed in some of the chairs which activated with the onscreen action and made it seem like the Tingler really was loose there). After a bit, the film resumes with the voice-over saying the Tingler has been neutralized, and the film's epilogue follows.
• At the end of the Three Stooges short "So Long Mr. Chumps", Moe and Larry are chipping stones on Curly's head. Larry starts to place another when Curly cries out, "Hey, wait a minute - that's a real one! I'm no fool!"
• Another early example is the 1963 film Tom Jones, starring Albert Finney. In one scene, he finds that all his money had been stolen while he slept, and he shouts at the chambermaid, demanding to know if it was her who robbed him. Unsatisfied with her answers, he turns to the camera and shouts "DID YOU SEE HER?! DID YOU?!"
• Top Secret!
  • Hillary tells Nick about how she grew up on a tropical island a la The Blue Lagoon, with accompanying parody flashbacks. She ends by saying, "I know. It all sounds like some bad movie." at which point both characters stop and slowly turn to face the audience.
  • After Nick performs in the Malt Shop, Albert Potato turns to the camera and says "This is not Mel Tormé!"
• Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places turns to look directly at the camera after being told that you might find bacon in a "bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich". This is a recurring element in John Landis' films - it's also seen in Coming to America and Spies Like Us.
• Trance: Simon Newton directly addresses the audience at the beginning of the film, serving as our narrator.
• In The Treasure of the Sierra Madre the old prospector Howard (Walter Huston) is being wined and dined by indians for saving a child. He's swinging in a hammock, being fed meat and fruit and Tequila. Then a beautiful woman lights a cigarette for him and rubs his beard. He looks directly into the camera and shudders with amazement at his good fortune.
• Up Pompeii films:
  • In Up Pompeii, Lurcio frequently turns to the audience to make witty remarks and Double Entendres:
    Lurcio: Oh, what a time to go. Halfway through the picture. Now I shall never know 'ow it ends.
  • In Up the Chastity Belt, Lurkalot is constantly turning to the camera to make asides directly to the audience.
  • In Up the Front, Lurk does too, as is tradition for Frankie Howerd in the series, but at one point, Zsa Zsa Gabor does too:
    Lurk: Surely, she won't pull that old gag?
    Mata Hari: Of course I vill.
    Lurk: In that case, so will I.
• In the Wayne's World movies, Wayne frequently addresses the audience to provide exposition or commentary on the action. At one point in the first film, he goes on a lengthy tirade about his problems, to the point where the camera tries to get away from him and has to be coaxed back. At another point, the server at the donut shop (Played by an extra-insane Ed O'Neill) starts to address the audience with a creepy tirade about murder, only for Wayne to interrupt and remind him that only he and Garth are allowed to address the audience.
• At the beginning and ending of Whatever Works, Boris turns his friend's attentions to the audience watching them. Some people don't believe him, others wave.
• In The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy is locked in the Witch's castle, she sees Auntie Em's image in the crystal ball, looking for her. Auntie Em's image is then replaced by the Wicked Witch's image, who mocks Dorothy and then turns to cackle directly at the audience, possibly to secretly taunt/scare the audience as well.
• In The Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort talks to the audience.
• ''The Wonder: The movie begins with a look literally behind the scenes of the studio sets as the narrator discusses the importance of stories. Later, the narrator is revealed to be a character in the film, Kitty O'Donnel. She greets the viewer again in voice-over as, on screen, she gives the camera an Aside Glance. In the end, the film breaks back out of the set and settles on the actress of Kitty, Niamh Algar, dressed in modern clothing and smiling at the camera.
• In Zombie Strippers!, a man is pulled into the champagne room by the zombified stripper played by Jenna Jameson. When the man says "Baby, I've been dying to get to a lap dance with you!", Jameson smiles and shoots the camera a look that positively shatters the fourth wall.

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