Breaking The Fourth Wall

Ferris Bueller is mentioned in the very first post.

I've already mentioned Mel Brooks too.

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Haven't seen this one mentioned,



Smokey and the Bandit

It's brief, but it's a classic!

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Gremlins 2: The New Batch does it more than once I think.

Here's something I want an opinion on. I feel these next two examples count, but some people may not be a liberal with the definition of breaking the fourth wall.

In Gremlins (the first one), at one point the gremlins are singing along with the score.

In a better example, from a film that I still consider to be a genius post-modern classic (if even an accidental one), Crank 2, Jason Statham's Chev sings the score as it's playing. I know that's loose and fast with the idea of breaking the fourth wall, but to me it's him acknowledging the film is a film. If that doesn't count, he at least flips the audience off at the end and that's undeniably breaking the wall. If anyone wants to challenge me on my undying love of Crank 2, feel free to start that thread or maybe take it to the thread hijacker thread.

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Nope, I don't see that as breaking the fourth wall.


The term makes most sense when viewed in its original context of theatre. When we're watching a play set in a kitchen, we know that in reality there are four walls but as we are spectators, they remove the fourth wall. However we accept this and that the action is really happening so obviously the characters aren't going to talk to us because for them, they have four walls.


When the fourth wall is broken, the actors drop the pretence that they are not being watched by an audience and so they acknowledge the presence of the audience. An in-joke wouldn't count because that's the writer acknowledging that the film is artificial; the character isn't aware of the meaning. It has to be the character acknowledging the audience, not the writer.

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Police Academy 3 is on telly and Steve Guttenberg has just done it.


When Proctor goes into the porta-loo, Guttenberg turns right around, looks straight into the camera, and smiles at the viewer with a cheeky grin.

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There are many examples where the main character looks into the camera while narrating, such as Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski, but that doesn't count to me.

In Into The Wild Emile Hirsh looks straight into the camera in an ackownledging way when he's sittin on the side of the road eating an apple.
But besides that I can't think of any more. Although I do remember having a conversation with my brother about the subject but can't recollect any of the films we talked about then.

I'm confused why addressing the audience directly doesn't count. I consider voice over, unless it's revealed there's another character in the film being addressed (like the stinger reveal in Iron Man 3), to pretty much always be breaking the fourth wall. Especially in The Big Lebowski because at the end of the film the stranger is obviously breaking the wall.

In Into the Wild it's revealed at the end of the film that the real person the film is based on took pictures of himself and the shots of Hirsch looking into the camera are representative of the character looking into his photo camera.

Somehow you've managed to pull up two examples that I disagree with.

If they are narrating into the camera, it's not necessarily at the audience. The character has to acknowledge that they are a creation and that their life is merely a show for the audience. Is the character talking to us or simply an abstract figure that we can't see?


Bertolt Brecht famously did this in theatre; he called it the verfremdungseffekt, or the 'alienation effect'. By distancing the audience from the action, Brecht believed that the audience would not be sweeped up by emotions and would be more open to the political ideas of the work.


Injokes and metafiction are sometimes lumped in with breaking the fourth wall but they are interventions of the writer. The characters aren't aware of the meaning of what they are saying.

A film isn't theater.

Annie Hall



Top Ten 4th Wall Breaks

Technically addressing audience directly is breaking the fourth wall but firstly the OP said that's not what he/she is looking for and secondly it's a storytelling choice that's sometimes needed to properly tell the story and to me isn't really what I consider breaking the fourth wall.

If it's only done in one scene then I'd consider it breaking the fourth wall but if it's done like Fight Club or The Wolf Of Wall Street it's not breaking the fourth wall.

In regards to Into The Wild I see your point but don't agree with it. He isn't taking a picture when he's sitting on that bridge. There's no camera in sight and he doesn't fake taking a selfie in any way.
If you say that he has set the camera on a timer I'd say that it sounds unlikely. He is sitting there eating an apple and then all of a sudden he turns to the camera. Doesn't really seem like he's preparing for a picture.

These are of course just the ramblings of a man with a mediocre inteligence and the memory of a gold fish so I might remember things differently then they actually are and if that's the case please point it out to me.

The pictures show up in the end credits.

Yes, I know that. That's not what I'm talking about though. It's part of a montage in the middle of the film where he sits on the side of the road eating an apple.

Similarly, looking at the camera is not the only way to break the fourth wall. There are other ways of acknowledging the audience.

Yes, and it's my understanding that those moments are supposed to be him taking pictures of himself since that's what the real guy did.

Holy sh*t nobody mentioned Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

I just rewatched that scene and it's even more different than I remember it.
He's sitting on the side of the road on a bridge an eating an apple. He's talking to the apple about how good it tastes, how fresh and organic it and so on.
The whole thing is 20 to 30 seconds long.
And at no point is there ever any reference at all to a camera or anything that can be interpreted as him taking pictures.
At the very end he leans towards the camera and gives the audience a cheeky look/stare.

Before seeing it again I was going to say that I could see your point but that I do not agree with it but after seeing it again there's no way he's taking a picture there.
That would be taking quite a lot of liberties when interpreting that scene.

I'd advice you to go back and look at that scene again because how you see that as him taking a picture is beyond me.
Plus you even said that there are moments, plural and not just that one which just isn't the case.

There's a shot of Hirsch looking into the camera toward the end of the film that mirrors this picture.



That's why I put together that the bridge scene is also him taking a picture. I haven't seen the film in years, but I thought there was at least one or two more moments like that where he looks into the camera. The picture of the real guy at the end of the film made me go "oh, I get it!" I always thought those breaking the fourth wall moments were him taking pictures of himself, which the real guy did.

Watched Pierrot Le Fou last night. Belmondo breaks the fourth wall in it.