Misremembering movies

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"How tall is King Kong ?"
Oh I hate that. I just re-watched the short The Screw (La Vis, 1995) and, once more, it ended differently from what I remembered. I say once more, because I think I had already been surprised by that once. Or maybe I misremember having already misremembered it.

The plasticity of our memories freak me out (that, or the fact that our consciousness keeps pinballing through parallel universes, but more probably the former, although it can be two things of course). I for one don't think I ever "remembered" seeing the baby in Rosemary's Baby (which allegedly many people do - but maybe I forgot falsely remembering it), but I know that I've occasionally looked forward to a movie scene that played better in my -very wrong and very precise- memory. Better pace, framing or sometimes even lines.

Do you have examples of this happening to you ?
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One of the reasons I remember liking Beautiful Girls (1996) was this particular drinking scene where this broad played by Uma Thurman told some graphic dirty joke. Went looking for it and couldn't for the life of me find it. Ended up rewatching the whole movie and the scene still wasn't there. Turned out it wasn't Uma and the joke was from another movie, and coincidentally I can't remember now what movie that was.

Memory is weird stuff. Just ask the police. People remember all kinds of things all the time that turn out to have been completely different. Even things that didn't happen at all.


EDIT: Found it





For years I'd assumed I'd seen Weird Science. Watching it on Netflix this year I realized I'd only seen Kelly LeBrock's intro and the "malaka" scene, and had made up a completely different movie in my head with Bill Paxton as a pimp (with his suit from Predator 2) and a lot of nudity.


The real movie was good too.



While talking to my mom once, we realised that we both misremembered Glenn Close as the editor in chief in Devil Wears Prada instead of Meryl Streep.



I misremember lots of films. For example, I remember 2001 being really boring and, literally, sleep inducing, but apparently it's the best film ever made.
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For example, I remember 2001 being really boring and, literally, sleep inducing, but apparently it's the best film ever made.
You can't be misremembering that, because I remember it that way too.



"How tall is King Kong ?"
I've also witnessed two striking examples. I had a disagreement with a friend about a scene from Game of Thrones, where we were blaming different characters. Turned out that, during the discussion, her brain had rewritten the sequence of events in a different order. Luckily we still had the episode at disposal.

The other, more interesting example, was a kid reminiscing about the end of a sci-fi movie (I won't name it to avoid spoilers), where an apparent safe escape is presented as doomed right before the end credits, when an innocent-looking toy that is brought along reveals itself as an evil sentient robot. In her re-telling, its eyes were said to glow red, which they didn't in the movie - the toy simply ominously turns its head, which is a bit less cheesy. But it's very interesting that this cliché (evil red eyes of doom) is so entrenched that it finds its way into unconscious memory re-writings.



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I think it's a really interesting topic. And I think it becomes more relevant the older you get as you're basically relying on your memory of films you saw years and years ago and how much you remember liking them, if they aren't films you've watched a lot.

I found I had misremembered Reservoir Dogs when I rewatched it. I remembered the start and everything in the warehouse quite clearly, but there were lots of flashback scenes that I had completely forgotten. And I didn't like it as much as I remembered liking it.



I could have sworn Huey Lewis was in Die Hard.

But seriously, for the longest time, I thought this actor, who was in Mission: Impossible, was Daniel Craig and that he made his acting debut in it. I mean, look at him!



However, it's actually Andreas Wisniewski, who was also in - you guessed it - Die Hard.



I for one don't think I ever "remembered" seeing the baby in Rosemary's Baby (which allegedly many people do - but maybe I forgot falsely remembering it)
The baby is heard, but never seen. We see Rosemary rocking his crib.
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"How tall is King Kong ?"
The baby is heard, but never seen. We see Rosemary rocking his crib.
There's also a flash of the eyes that Rosemary saw in her nightmare, which, along with "what have you done to its eyes", left many viewers with the impression of having seen the baby. It's a notorious moment of subliminal trickery.



I could have sworn Huey Lewis was in Die Hard.

But seriously, for the longest time, I thought this actor, who was in Mission: Impossible, was Daniel Craig and that he made his acting debut in it. I mean, look at him!



However, it's actually Andreas Wisniewski, who was also in - you guessed it - Die Hard.
Heh! I think it was the crook who manned the reception area.
I remember thinking that was Huey Lewis when I first saw it too.



This may take some explaining - while preparing to make a post on my new "Perfect Song Chosen for a Movie Scene" thread, I was going to post the transformation scene from American Werewolf in London (1981).

The song, of course, was going to be "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence Clearwater Revival. I found a few movie clip compilations set to the song, but when I found the actual scene I was stunned to find that the music playing was a version of "Blue Moon" performed by Sam Cooke!

I could have sworn that scene was set to Bad Moon Rising as that's how I'd always remembered it - but apparently my memory was wrong!




This may take some explaining - while preparing to make a post on my new "Perfect Song Chosen for a Movie Scene" thread, I was going to post the transformation scene from American Werewolf in London (1981).

The song, of course, was going to be "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence Clearwater Revival. I found a few movie clip compilations set to the song, but when I found the actual scene I was stunned to find that the music playing was a version of "Blue Moon" performed by Sam Cooke!

I could have sworn that scene was set to Bad Moon Rising as that's how I'd always remembered it - but apparently my memory was wrong!


I believe Bad Moon plays shortly before the transformation.



I believe Bad Moon plays shortly before the transformation.
Thank you. I was sure the song appeared somewhere in the movie, but always thought it was the back-music for this particular scene.



I think we've all been victims of the Mugabe Effect.



I remember seeing The Room for the first time and extremely enjoying it. I thought people were just being dorks ganging up on the director but now that i watched it again i realize i must have misremembered it.