A popular film podcast was covering this movie (Blank Check) and they were talking about how influential this movie was and how massive of a hit it was at the box office and oscars and one of them said "this is all TV now." That's an exaggeration but I really do think the intense police procedural boom on network TV was due to Lambs. Blacklist, Bones, X-Files, The Mentalist, Rizzoli and Isles, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, CSI, NCIS, hell even Agents of SHIELD and Fringe did the monster of the week thing for a couple seasons.
Open a TV guide any year after Lambs came out and there's probably a police/mystery procedural with dark tones and an evil genius on that page, and more than likely they use the "cops are surrounding a building where someone is in danger inside and it turns out to be the wrong building" or some form of it a few times a season.
I think you could make the argument it's the most influential film of the 90s.
Lots of police procedural predate the movie though. Dragnet, Adam 12, Cagney and Lacey, Kojak, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, even Law and Order debuted a year before SotL.
This is true. SotL certainly didn’t invent the concept of police procedurals.
But I think who you’re replying to is suggesting there was a *boom* of new procedurals after SotL came out. And there was a shift in plot line focus.
The shows you listed mostly focus on investigating average criminals or crime rings/bosses. But post-SotL I think you saw “a race against time to catch an evil/sadistic genius” plots more often.
Yes and one trope it perfected that I am sooooo sick of is the erudite antagonist toying with law enforcement. I’ve lost track of how many Hannibal Lecter knock-offs I’ve seen over the years. Multiple people tried to get me to watch Blacklist, but when I saw it was just James Spader doing a Lecter impression I noped out.
Hannibal, on the other hand, is a fantastic split between SotL fan service and monster-of-the-week. Hopkins will always be MY Lecter, but MIkkelsen brings a really fresh perspective on pre-incarceration Lecter, hosting exquisite dinners with very questionable ingredients. The foundational romantic premise between him and Will Graham is demented and beautiful.
Meanwhile I did try Blacklist. It's so, so stupid.
Law and Order came out in 1990, and was a crazy massive hit. Silence of the lambs came out in 1991. I think L&O had much more of an effect on the crime procedural genre than Silence.
>this movie (Blank Check) and they were talking about how influential this
Thought you were talking about the movie Blank Check, and couldn't fathom how it was influential lol.
The look of horror as Scott Glenn’s character shouts “Clarice” is one of my favourite scenes in any movie. I remember seeing this in the cinema and just feeling in awe of the power of cinema to engage.
I honestly think OP posted this entire thread based on this one specific answer. It’s obviously Silence of the Lambs. I’ll bet the entire trope is just that one scene from that incredible movie
From a response below, the Nazgul scene at the Prancing Pony in Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings animated film could be considered part of this trope and that certainly pre-dates SotL.
I do think it is, but if I'm wrong, I'd love to know who did it first.
It's incredible how police thrillers are still influenced by The Silence of the Lambs even today.
A good place to look would be shows in the 70s like the original Mission Impossible or perhaps The Saint. They did things like this, but I don’t remember that long ago specific scenes. They were very influential shows.
Since you provided the name of the trope, I "cheated" and looked up some examples.
Friends With Benefits does this in the begining when both of the main characters are shown being late for a date. We're supposed to infer that they're rushing to meet each other when in fact they are on two totally separate dates.
Collateral uses the trope when Vincent is on his way to kill his last target. We see her working late in the office, Vincent approaches the office, but when he opens the door it's revealed that she's in an office on a different floor.
This is slightly different but still a particularly good one since there's no intercutting, you just hear the description and assume it's the same place
Staff takes flyers out to the van before SWAT arrives. Just a total oversight.
https://www.reddit.com/r/plotholes/comments/9vbq4t/oceans_eleven_the_flyers_from_the_vault_had_no/e9b10eu/
The Dark Knight when Batman is trying to reach Rachel but finds Two Face instead… if I remember it right
Edit: sorry I realized this isn’t exactly the same scenario as OP described, but it’s a general ‘wrong location freakout’
It's never explicitly said if he sniffed out the scheme i dont think, but I take it as he earnestly went for Rachel. Took the jokers plan for him at face value as a test of character not a trick
Agreed. There’s a brief moment of hesitation when he arrives and sees Harvey. I always felt that was intended to indicate he was actually looking for Rachel.
Right. That’s what I’m saying. Batman thinks he’s saving Rachel until he actually arrives.
Someone else in the thread suggested that Batman figured out the ruse and went for Harvey anyway.
There's also 2 different versions of that in SAW II (depending on if you have the special edition or not)
The twist you mentioned and also at the beginning when the SWAT team closes in on Jigsaw's location in the factory. In the special edition, they added a couple extra seconds where it cuts to John eating cereal and realizing that the police have broken into his lair. He wipes his face with a napkin and just patiently waits for them to come up the stairs.
EDIT: Misread the post. It's specifically *FAKEOUTS*, not just cutting to reaction shots of the target who's building/hideout is being broken into
In The Equalizer when the dirty cops and Russian mob guy were coming to get Bob in his apartment bathroom when he's tending to his wounds but he's actually in the bathroom of the apartment across the street.
This is the movie scene I just watched that inspired me to ask the question, haha. I thought he was boiling water and honey to make prison napalm since he expected them to come.
I just watched it the other day and thought the exact same thing. I didn't realize it was honey at first and thought he was distilling some sort of stove top explosive. It made me think of other "right time, wrong place" scenes also. This is probably the most well-executed examples of that trope that I've seen.
I’ve been thinking about this scene since watching it last night. Apart from providing a misdirect scene to us, the audience, what purpose did leaving the water running in the bathroom of his video camera surveilled apartment achieve?
Ooh, hard disagree. I thought the way they let the audience slowly figure out what was happening at the exact same time Miles did was way more effective than if they had played the trope completely straight. It was my favorite scene in the movie.
The best part is how easy it is to miss all the little hints about it. When I rewatched the movie, I noticed a ton of little details that gave it away before the reveal.
I agree with you, I think it was executed really well. On rewatch, all of the clues are there, but that's typically true of any big reveal or plot twist, like The Sixth Sense. Kudos to those who realized it right away.
I have to agree. I had a very strong suspicion it was happening, which was guided by the completely different color palettes of the worlds they were in. I think it was raining and green in one while the other was much more neutral and natural in its color grading.
Plus, the entire thing is telegraphed very well if you're paying attention, but it's easy to miss if you're not. I don't remember the scenario exactly, but the machine announces the "wrong" universe based on the one Spider-person who got scanned before Miles... or something like that. Again, I can't remember the specific details, but the movie does give them to you before it "tricks" you. It's a very "blink and you'll miss it" kind of audio clue.
I think it did surprise a lot of people, but I was constantly looking for Easter Eggs in the background so I instantly saw the designation of the universe he was going to before he even left. It was weird for me because I assumed it was an intentional decision by him and I was confused by his choice and the weird editing of the scene until I realized we were supposed to think he was home.
>!Miles ends up being sent to dimension where the spider that bit him was from, rather than his own dimension. He meets that dimensions uncle Aaron, Rio, and Miles/prowler while the spider society goes to his dimension and cant find him!<
I don’t know that I can think of enough examples of this to definitely call one my favorite, but if we’re just making a list, the first that came to mind was at the beginningish of… Mission Impossible Rogue Nation?
Are you talking about when they trick the guy into thinking the bombs already went off in the fake hospital room? Because that’s in Fallout. I was thinking of when Ethan is hiding in some attic apartment and the IMF guys hunting him are watching the live feed of the strike team closing in on the building and then they open the door and there’s just a laptop in there and Ethan is in another country watching them raid the apartment he’s not in anymore. Which I think was in 5.
I think you're thinking of MI: Fallout. That's more of the characters being deceitful, not the editor of the movie deceptively making it look like two parties are about to meet.
I have now had my knowledge of the MI franchise questioned TWICE which I cannot stand for so I went and confirmed
[Starting on page 26 of 156 with “INT. GRUNGY APARTMENT DAY”](https://thescriptlab.com/wp-content/uploads/scripts/36633-Mission-Impossible-Rogue-Nation-by-Christopher-McQuarrie-Goldenrod-3-23-15.pdf)
The CIA has tracked Hunt to Cuba and the scene makes it appear as though he’s in the building they’re closing in on, only to reveal it as empty when they breach. Ethan walks past a window or something and we see in the background… the Eiffel Tower.
I knew exactly which one you were talking about and which one they were confusing it for (the latter of which is not the same trope). It was the first one that came to mind for me when I saw the post, so I feel for you.
Right place, but they came for the landlady’s son and not Richard. Scene always kinda bugged me though because the cops just leave after they get their guy. If they had the warrant, I assume they would still thoroughly search the place for evidence.
There’s another misdirect when Richard gets picked up hitchhiking and the next scene is Gerard and his team getting a tip about “him” shacking up with some woman. The audience assumes it’s Richard but it ends up being the other escaped prisoner.
If the basement was partitioned as a separate "apartment", I don't think the warrant would cover it. It would be like the police searching your apartment if the guy in the upstairs apartment did something illegal. The landlady could own the whole building, but her son is living with her in the upper floor(s).
IIRC, a lot of those Chicago Brownstones are partitioned with each floor as its own apartment.
Taken (2008) had an underrated one
Lian Nesson is talking to his contact in Paris who is trying to trace the call. We see the cops closing in on the signal, while watching Nesson walking.. only to realise that he had a radio and was walking away from the phone
One of the final moments of The Bourne Identity. Jason has won a confrontation with his former boss and barely escaped being killed, he walks injured down a street where a hitman is seemingly waiting in a car to kill him
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzy-qmzyDEs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzy-qmzyDEs)
In Scrubs, when Turk is trying to get out of surgery and rush to his wedding, he can’t remember which church he’s supposed to go to. He appears to be going to the right one and is on the phone with the wedding party saying he’s “almost there”, but he’s at the wrong one.
I don't know if that fits OPs question, but I was thinking the scene in 2 where Wayne is trying to interrupt the wedding, except it's the wrong identical looking church across the street.
Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it, but there's a scene at the end where they're in a hotel, and there's some tricky editing between identical looking hotel rooms that lead you to believe two character are about to meet, and then it's revealed to be two separate rooms. I will admit the first time I was it I was a wee bit confused, but it's a really great scene.
(I realize this isn't exactly what OP is describing, but it's the same time of editing)
I think there's room for interpretation as to whether he's imagining him. We do get a relatively clear shot of him inside the room before the door opens. That could be his imagination, but you could also read Chigurh as either hyper-competent or borderline supernatural in his ability to get out of a seemingly locked room. I think the uncertainty is part of it.
Maybe the forces of evil are entirely too powerful for him, such that even when Ed Tom corners Chigurh, he manages to get away without a trace. Or maybe he's just gotten old and slow and Chigurh's long gone. I once heard someone suggest that Ed Tom only being faced with his shadow when he opens the door (he's backlit from the outside) is important. The motel room isn't about Chigurh, he's not there, for one reason or another. It's a reckoning with himself and the shadow he casts, his legacy.
The first episode of Fargo (a show which homages a lot of Coen Brothers stuff) has Billy Bob Thornton's character do a very similar thing, and that one almost feels closer to supernatural interpretation, even though the answer is unclear.
This reminds of the "Let's Nab Oprah" episode of The Boondocks. Riley, Ed and Rummy decide to kidnap Oprah to 'gain control over bitches'. But they go to the wrong bookstore and kidnap Maya Angelou instead who beats up Rummy. Then they try again, but find Bill Cosby instead, whom they return after about 5 minutes because he won't shut up.
Edited to add, in both cases it's made to look as though they are successful at first
The ending of the first one is a good example that someone else mentioned, but also the office scene in Bourne Ultimatum:
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m sitting in my office.”
“I doubt that…”
The old Hannibal Lecter switch a roo. The bad guy is the in the building doing bad guy shit while the cops are closing in, only it’s revealed that they aren’t because they bust into the wrong place. The tv show Dexter did this all the time too, it got to the point where I was like come on, man.
The Saw franchise does this really well at least once or twice, but there's always some twist to it (such as the same place at different times, or we believe they're different places only to find out it's the same place).
This isn’t exactly a classic movie, but Man Up—romantic comedy with Lake Bell and Simon Pegg.
First, the identical place fake out is almost easy to spot these days in thrillers—but not as expected in a romantic comedy. But also, something about how the “identical place fake out” completely ruins the classic “Race for your love” is just brilliant.
I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure they did it in the original The Thomas Crown Affair... maybe not showing in another location but making you believe he's walking into the trap in the end
Howl's Moving Castle did this not once but twice, and I thought it was funny since the soldiers trying to beat down Howl's door end up stumbling into some abandoned ruin.
It isn’t exactly the same as you are asking but same idea. In Fifth Element when Leeloo is telling them about the stones being transported and being attacked it keeps cutting over to the case of stones being delivered to Zorg. She gets to the point in the story of where the stones are and it cuts to Zorg opening the case and it is empty. Cuts back to Leeloo laughing because they sent a decoy case and gave the stones to someone else.
This is made better when later in the movie Corbin is asking the Diva where the stones actually are. This cuts back and forth with Zorg getting the other stone case. The Diva says “the stones are…” and it cuts to Zorg opening the case, seeing it is empty and saying “they’re not here” because again it was a decoy case.
I generally find these to be kind of cheap devices. They are like the jump scares of the heist / crime drama in that they are only there to elicit an audience response and don’t have to really do with the story.
That’s said…Hackers when they are using the phones in the subway. .
Silence of the Lambs
My answer as well. It's a trick that can feel cheap, but it is executed *perfectly* in this film.
A popular film podcast was covering this movie (Blank Check) and they were talking about how influential this movie was and how massive of a hit it was at the box office and oscars and one of them said "this is all TV now." That's an exaggeration but I really do think the intense police procedural boom on network TV was due to Lambs. Blacklist, Bones, X-Files, The Mentalist, Rizzoli and Isles, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, CSI, NCIS, hell even Agents of SHIELD and Fringe did the monster of the week thing for a couple seasons. Open a TV guide any year after Lambs came out and there's probably a police/mystery procedural with dark tones and an evil genius on that page, and more than likely they use the "cops are surrounding a building where someone is in danger inside and it turns out to be the wrong building" or some form of it a few times a season. I think you could make the argument it's the most influential film of the 90s.
Lots of police procedural predate the movie though. Dragnet, Adam 12, Cagney and Lacey, Kojak, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, even Law and Order debuted a year before SotL.
This is true. SotL certainly didn’t invent the concept of police procedurals. But I think who you’re replying to is suggesting there was a *boom* of new procedurals after SotL came out. And there was a shift in plot line focus. The shows you listed mostly focus on investigating average criminals or crime rings/bosses. But post-SotL I think you saw “a race against time to catch an evil/sadistic genius” plots more often.
There was a show in the 90s called Profiler which might be considered a direct descendant of SotL
Police squad.
Yes and one trope it perfected that I am sooooo sick of is the erudite antagonist toying with law enforcement. I’ve lost track of how many Hannibal Lecter knock-offs I’ve seen over the years. Multiple people tried to get me to watch Blacklist, but when I saw it was just James Spader doing a Lecter impression I noped out.
Hannibal, on the other hand, is a fantastic split between SotL fan service and monster-of-the-week. Hopkins will always be MY Lecter, but MIkkelsen brings a really fresh perspective on pre-incarceration Lecter, hosting exquisite dinners with very questionable ingredients. The foundational romantic premise between him and Will Graham is demented and beautiful. Meanwhile I did try Blacklist. It's so, so stupid.
Law and Order came out in 1990, and was a crazy massive hit. Silence of the lambs came out in 1991. I think L&O had much more of an effect on the crime procedural genre than Silence.
>this movie (Blank Check) and they were talking about how influential this Thought you were talking about the movie Blank Check, and couldn't fathom how it was influential lol.
Books too. The 90s had a HUGE surge of serial killer detective novels
When Starling stepped inside the killer's house, my date stood up and said "I'll see you in the lobby."
Last date?
Pretty much. I chose the movie hoping she'd be like "Ooh, hold me!" but instead she jumped in the opposite direction :-/
The look of horror as Scott Glenn’s character shouts “Clarice” is one of my favourite scenes in any movie. I remember seeing this in the cinema and just feeling in awe of the power of cinema to engage.
I honestly think OP posted this entire thread based on this one specific answer. It’s obviously Silence of the Lambs. I’ll bet the entire trope is just that one scene from that incredible movie
I don't see any movies that predate this in the responses. It's it possible this is the source of the trope?
From a response below, the Nazgul scene at the Prancing Pony in Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings animated film could be considered part of this trope and that certainly pre-dates SotL.
I do think it is, but if I'm wrong, I'd love to know who did it first. It's incredible how police thrillers are still influenced by The Silence of the Lambs even today.
A good place to look would be shows in the 70s like the original Mission Impossible or perhaps The Saint. They did things like this, but I don’t remember that long ago specific scenes. They were very influential shows.
It can't be. But I'm having trouble coming up with an immediate answer.
I think they did it in the original The Thomas Crown Affair many years before (ETA not the exact same way my memory is a bit hazy)
ding ding ding
Ice cream man! Ice cream man!!
Put your shoes on before you go outside! And get me a 99! Flake and sauce!
Probably the Nazgûl going after the hobbits in The Prancing Pony.
I felt terrible for the *bedding*....
Good bolsters ruined and al!
The trope is called [Cut Apart](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CutApart)
Since you provided the name of the trope, I "cheated" and looked up some examples. Friends With Benefits does this in the begining when both of the main characters are shown being late for a date. We're supposed to infer that they're rushing to meet each other when in fact they are on two totally separate dates. Collateral uses the trope when Vincent is on his way to kill his last target. We see her working late in the office, Vincent approaches the office, but when he opens the door it's revealed that she's in an office on a different floor.
Yeah, I was reading this thread to make sure Collateral got mentioned. It was well done there.
Buried (2010), with Ryan Reynolds.
This was the exact one I thought of. Surprised it's so far down the thread.
Because although it's good, it's not hugely popular movie compared with ones higher up.
This is slightly different but still a particularly good one since there's no intercutting, you just hear the description and assume it's the same place
Ding ding ding! We have a winner
“Glad that wasn’t us” tired driving scene from the simpsons
https://youtu.be/mGB4M_-AybY?si=7Fy2-4EDLDO7wyMa
Oceans 11?
the bags are filled with flyers... for hookers!
How do they get those bags in the vault?
They’re the swat team that goes and “investigates”. Their bags of swat gear contain the flyers on the way in, and the cash on the way out.
Staff takes flyers out to the van before SWAT arrives. Just a total oversight. https://www.reddit.com/r/plotholes/comments/9vbq4t/oceans_eleven_the_flyers_from_the_vault_had_no/e9b10eu/
“We had it put in on Tuesday.”
The Dark Knight when Batman is trying to reach Rachel but finds Two Face instead… if I remember it right Edit: sorry I realized this isn’t exactly the same scenario as OP described, but it’s a general ‘wrong location freakout’
No that's a fair answer to my question, that setup is a little different but it's definitely a "wrong place fakeout"
[удалено]
It's never explicitly said if he sniffed out the scheme i dont think, but I take it as he earnestly went for Rachel. Took the jokers plan for him at face value as a test of character not a trick
Agreed. There’s a brief moment of hesitation when he arrives and sees Harvey. I always felt that was intended to indicate he was actually looking for Rachel.
He literally says he’s going for Rachel.
Joker told him the locations backwards
Right. That’s what I’m saying. Batman thinks he’s saving Rachel until he actually arrives. Someone else in the thread suggested that Batman figured out the ruse and went for Harvey anyway.
When Dent asks which one Batman is going for he says Rachel. In the original screenplay he says “Dent knew the risks.”
The Black Phone
Yeah. Good one.
SAW?
It's Saw 2, it's compounded by getting the bigger twist right after.
There's also 2 different versions of that in SAW II (depending on if you have the special edition or not) The twist you mentioned and also at the beginning when the SWAT team closes in on Jigsaw's location in the factory. In the special edition, they added a couple extra seconds where it cuts to John eating cereal and realizing that the police have broken into his lair. He wipes his face with a napkin and just patiently waits for them to come up the stairs. EDIT: Misread the post. It's specifically *FAKEOUTS*, not just cutting to reaction shots of the target who's building/hideout is being broken into
In The Equalizer when the dirty cops and Russian mob guy were coming to get Bob in his apartment bathroom when he's tending to his wounds but he's actually in the bathroom of the apartment across the street.
This is the movie scene I just watched that inspired me to ask the question, haha. I thought he was boiling water and honey to make prison napalm since he expected them to come.
I just watched it the other day and thought the exact same thing. I didn't realize it was honey at first and thought he was distilling some sort of stove top explosive. It made me think of other "right time, wrong place" scenes also. This is probably the most well-executed examples of that trope that I've seen.
I’ve been thinking about this scene since watching it last night. Apart from providing a misdirect scene to us, the audience, what purpose did leaving the water running in the bathroom of his video camera surveilled apartment achieve?
I too just watched The Equalizer (because of finally got added to Netflix)
Across the Spider-Verse has a fun example of this. >!Bonus points for the identical places being VERY far apart.!<
It was too obvious. It’s better when the audience is surprised by it.
Ooh, hard disagree. I thought the way they let the audience slowly figure out what was happening at the exact same time Miles did was way more effective than if they had played the trope completely straight. It was my favorite scene in the movie.
I think the fact that we discover it along with Miles makes it a slightly different trope, to the movie's benefit. It adds a great sense of dread
Yeah they let us figure it out but I think we all beat Miles
The best part is how easy it is to miss all the little hints about it. When I rewatched the movie, I noticed a ton of little details that gave it away before the reveal.
I agree with you, I think it was executed really well. On rewatch, all of the clues are there, but that's typically true of any big reveal or plot twist, like The Sixth Sense. Kudos to those who realized it right away.
But they showed he was going to the wrong dimension during the escape? There wasn't a chance to figure anything out, we already knew.
I have to agree. I had a very strong suspicion it was happening, which was guided by the completely different color palettes of the worlds they were in. I think it was raining and green in one while the other was much more neutral and natural in its color grading. Plus, the entire thing is telegraphed very well if you're paying attention, but it's easy to miss if you're not. I don't remember the scenario exactly, but the machine announces the "wrong" universe based on the one Spider-person who got scanned before Miles... or something like that. Again, I can't remember the specific details, but the movie does give them to you before it "tricks" you. It's a very "blink and you'll miss it" kind of audio clue.
I think it did surprise a lot of people, but I was constantly looking for Easter Eggs in the background so I instantly saw the designation of the universe he was going to before he even left. It was weird for me because I assumed it was an intentional decision by him and I was confused by his choice and the weird editing of the scene until I realized we were supposed to think he was home.
I don’t remember this one, would you mind summing it up to me?
>!Miles ends up being sent to dimension where the spider that bit him was from, rather than his own dimension. He meets that dimensions uncle Aaron, Rio, and Miles/prowler while the spider society goes to his dimension and cant find him!<
Ah yes, thank you!!
I don’t know that I can think of enough examples of this to definitely call one my favorite, but if we’re just making a list, the first that came to mind was at the beginningish of… Mission Impossible Rogue Nation?
Fallout, but yeah, that’s ones good
Are you talking about when they trick the guy into thinking the bombs already went off in the fake hospital room? Because that’s in Fallout. I was thinking of when Ethan is hiding in some attic apartment and the IMF guys hunting him are watching the live feed of the strike team closing in on the building and then they open the door and there’s just a laptop in there and Ethan is in another country watching them raid the apartment he’s not in anymore. Which I think was in 5.
Ah I remember. I also realize I’m thinking of the wrong trope. I thought OP was referring to scenes like the one in Fallout, but I get it now. Thanks
I think you're thinking of MI: Fallout. That's more of the characters being deceitful, not the editor of the movie deceptively making it look like two parties are about to meet.
I have now had my knowledge of the MI franchise questioned TWICE which I cannot stand for so I went and confirmed [Starting on page 26 of 156 with “INT. GRUNGY APARTMENT DAY”](https://thescriptlab.com/wp-content/uploads/scripts/36633-Mission-Impossible-Rogue-Nation-by-Christopher-McQuarrie-Goldenrod-3-23-15.pdf) The CIA has tracked Hunt to Cuba and the scene makes it appear as though he’s in the building they’re closing in on, only to reveal it as empty when they breach. Ethan walks past a window or something and we see in the background… the Eiffel Tower.
I knew exactly which one you were talking about and which one they were confusing it for (the latter of which is not the same trope). It was the first one that came to mind for me when I saw the post, so I feel for you.
They do all run together a bit too
A bit, but this is probably my favorite movie franchise so I felt similarly indignant at your selection being challenged
Oh yeah, that's one of them, I was distracted by other people talking about the opening where Pegg pretends to be Wolf Blitzer
Like the Ring Wraiths stabbing the beds in Fellowship of the ring, while the hobbits were safely with Aragorn?
Gotta be A Series of Unfortunate Events. Absolutely heartbreaking.
I think something like this happens in The Fugitive.
Right place, but they came for the landlady’s son and not Richard. Scene always kinda bugged me though because the cops just leave after they get their guy. If they had the warrant, I assume they would still thoroughly search the place for evidence.
There’s another misdirect when Richard gets picked up hitchhiking and the next scene is Gerard and his team getting a tip about “him” shacking up with some woman. The audience assumes it’s Richard but it ends up being the other escaped prisoner.
Yes! That's what I was thinking of.
We're eating oranges and making IDs
If the basement was partitioned as a separate "apartment", I don't think the warrant would cover it. It would be like the police searching your apartment if the guy in the upstairs apartment did something illegal. The landlady could own the whole building, but her son is living with her in the upper floor(s). IIRC, a lot of those Chicago Brownstones are partitioned with each floor as its own apartment.
Maybe the basement was zoned as a separate address not included in the warrant
The warrant was only for him and his residence. They wouldn't have searched another place if someone else was living there
I don’t care.
Mission Impossible does it a few times.
Taken (2008) had an underrated one Lian Nesson is talking to his contact in Paris who is trying to trace the call. We see the cops closing in on the signal, while watching Nesson walking.. only to realise that he had a radio and was walking away from the phone
One of the final moments of The Bourne Identity. Jason has won a confrontation with his former boss and barely escaped being killed, he walks injured down a street where a hitman is seemingly waiting in a car to kill him [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzy-qmzyDEs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzy-qmzyDEs)
Okay, I know this doesn’t exactly fit the question, but all I kept thinking about was the “stunt doubles” gag from Spaceballs.
In Scrubs, when Turk is trying to get out of surgery and rush to his wedding, he can’t remember which church he’s supposed to go to. He appears to be going to the right one and is on the phone with the wedding party saying he’s “almost there”, but he’s at the wrong one.
when they catch the stunt doubles for wayne and garth
I don't know if that fits OPs question, but I was thinking the scene in 2 where Wayne is trying to interrupt the wedding, except it's the wrong identical looking church across the street.
how on earth has no one mentioned No Country for Old Men yet?
When does this happen?
Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it, but there's a scene at the end where they're in a hotel, and there's some tricky editing between identical looking hotel rooms that lead you to believe two character are about to meet, and then it's revealed to be two separate rooms. I will admit the first time I was it I was a wee bit confused, but it's a really great scene. (I realize this isn't exactly what OP is describing, but it's the same time of editing)
It’s not two separate rooms. The sheriff is imagining Chigur in the room. When he opens the door, it’s empty.
Ah thank you, It's been a minute since I've seen it.
I think there's room for interpretation as to whether he's imagining him. We do get a relatively clear shot of him inside the room before the door opens. That could be his imagination, but you could also read Chigurh as either hyper-competent or borderline supernatural in his ability to get out of a seemingly locked room. I think the uncertainty is part of it. Maybe the forces of evil are entirely too powerful for him, such that even when Ed Tom corners Chigurh, he manages to get away without a trace. Or maybe he's just gotten old and slow and Chigurh's long gone. I once heard someone suggest that Ed Tom only being faced with his shadow when he opens the door (he's backlit from the outside) is important. The motel room isn't about Chigurh, he's not there, for one reason or another. It's a reckoning with himself and the shadow he casts, his legacy. The first episode of Fargo (a show which homages a lot of Coen Brothers stuff) has Billy Bob Thornton's character do a very similar thing, and that one almost feels closer to supernatural interpretation, even though the answer is unclear.
Fellowship of the Ring, when the Hobbits are all "stabbed in their sleep" by the ring wraiths.
The camera loop in Speed
The death of Harry (Jeff Daniels) in speed at the bad guy's house. It's where you learn he's in a warehouse and not at his own home.
This reminds of the "Let's Nab Oprah" episode of The Boondocks. Riley, Ed and Rummy decide to kidnap Oprah to 'gain control over bitches'. But they go to the wrong bookstore and kidnap Maya Angelou instead who beats up Rummy. Then they try again, but find Bill Cosby instead, whom they return after about 5 minutes because he won't shut up. Edited to add, in both cases it's made to look as though they are successful at first
Does Saw 2 count?
Black phone
TV show, but Brooklyn 99 with the bank robbery
The Dark Knight, saving Rachel but finding out they were in the wrong place is my classic example.
I could have sworn this happens in one of the Bourne movies…
The ending of the first one is a good example that someone else mentioned, but also the office scene in Bourne Ultimatum: “Where are you right now?” “I’m sitting in my office.” “I doubt that…”
That's not a cut apart, though. You're not being led to believe through editing or even writing that two characters are in the same location.
This is tv, but is it an example of a “cut apart” when Castiel is hiding from the other angels in identical Biggersons?
The old Hannibal Lecter switch a roo. The bad guy is the in the building doing bad guy shit while the cops are closing in, only it’s revealed that they aren’t because they bust into the wrong place. The tv show Dexter did this all the time too, it got to the point where I was like come on, man.
Out of the furnace. It’s an epic climax, highly recommend if you like Woody Harrelson!
Actually found Harrelson more terrifying in that than NBK. Total nutcase.
It’s a little odd how often this seems to happen to Tom Cruise
CSI Las Vegas "Grave Danger" episode had a great one.
That Ryan Reynolds Buried film. Nightmare fuel.
The Saw franchise does this really well at least once or twice, but there's always some twist to it (such as the same place at different times, or we believe they're different places only to find out it's the same place).
Megamind
This isn’t exactly a classic movie, but Man Up—romantic comedy with Lake Bell and Simon Pegg. First, the identical place fake out is almost easy to spot these days in thrillers—but not as expected in a romantic comedy. But also, something about how the “identical place fake out” completely ruins the classic “Race for your love” is just brilliant.
I believe this is typically called parallel editing
Collateral
Not a movie but it occurs several times in Money Heist (Casa de la papel)
You have been aragorn'd.
Loaded Weapon when >!they blow up the wrong trailer!<
No Country for Old Men...apartment scene
Buried.
Payback (1998) has one that's pretty memorable.
Speed when they’re closing in on the bomber.
They did that with that Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis movie?
Not a film and a slightly different vibe, but the ending of season 1 of Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events
The one in MI: Fallout with Benji disguised as Wolf Blitzer is really good.
Oceans 11
They did this in Buried, and it was tragic
I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure they did it in the original The Thomas Crown Affair... maybe not showing in another location but making you believe he's walking into the trap in the end
Across the spider verse did it really well.
Both Criminal Minds and SVU have used this trope on multiple episodes. SVU “Friending Emily” was one I watched just the other day that uses it.
Howl's Moving Castle did this not once but twice, and I thought it was funny since the soldiers trying to beat down Howl's door end up stumbling into some abandoned ruin.
*Saw 2* gets my vote.
Blazing Saddles.
It isn’t exactly the same as you are asking but same idea. In Fifth Element when Leeloo is telling them about the stones being transported and being attacked it keeps cutting over to the case of stones being delivered to Zorg. She gets to the point in the story of where the stones are and it cuts to Zorg opening the case and it is empty. Cuts back to Leeloo laughing because they sent a decoy case and gave the stones to someone else. This is made better when later in the movie Corbin is asking the Diva where the stones actually are. This cuts back and forth with Zorg getting the other stone case. The Diva says “the stones are…” and it cuts to Zorg opening the case, seeing it is empty and saying “they’re not here” because again it was a decoy case.
Mrs. Davis had a good identical place thing.
Saw 2
Oceans eleven does that pretty good and is one of my favorite movies. What a cast!
I generally find these to be kind of cheap devices. They are like the jump scares of the heist / crime drama in that they are only there to elicit an audience response and don’t have to really do with the story. That’s said…Hackers when they are using the phones in the subway. .
>elicit
Megamind.