Movie Titles That Lied Straight To Your Face
A good movie title should be memorable, but they don't always have to make sense. On occasion, whether they're bowing to marketing concerns, playing up drama, or simply lost sight of the big picture, filmmakers end up with titles that are wildly—and sometimes hilariously—inaccurate. Here are some movies that don't have a lot to do with their own titles.
The Lone Ranger (2013)
In no iteration of The Lone Ranger—radio, old movie serials, TV, or the 2013 big-screen version—is the heroic cowboy actually lonesome; his sidekick, Tonto, is always by his side. As a character, Tonto is almost as famous as the Lone Ranger—in fact, in the 2013 movie adaptation, the guy playing Tonto (Johnny Depp) even earned top billing over the guy playing the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer).
88 Minutes (2007)
This is one of those movies in which the characters must race against a specific chunk of time to save the day. It didn't have to actually be 88 minutes long—the filmmakers could've just made it however long they wanted and then named it whatever the running time ended up being. But no. In spite of what its title wants you to believe, this 2007 Al Pacino thriller will actually take up 108 minutes of your life (including the credits).
Fargo (1996)
The only scene in this Coen Brothers classic that's actually set in Fargo, North Dakota, is the one during which Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) meets with the two hitmen to set up the kidnapping of his wife. The rest of the movie takes place in Minnesota—particularly Minneapolis and Brainerd (home of Babe the Blue Ox).
The Last Exorcism (2010)
Unlike some of the other movies on our list, this 2010 movie actually did have a perfectly fine title...until three years later when The Last Exorcism Part II came out, rendering the entire premise of the original a lie.
This Film is Not Yet Rated (2006)
Of course This Film is Not Yet Rated is rated. Filmmaker Kirby Dick's deep look at the political and somewhat arbitrary nature of how movies are labeled with a PG-13, R, or NC-17 rating itself earned an NC-17, because it included clips of NC-17 movies. Dick appealed the rating, so the movie was first released without a rating at all. But when it aired on TV, it earned a TV-MA.
Happiness (1998)
What's a good title for an ensemble dark comedy whose characters include an unrepentant sexual predator (Dylan Baker), an author who hates herself (Lara Flynn Boyle), an obscene phone caller (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and an old man (Ben Gazzara) who cheats on his wife only to realize he's stuck in a severe depression? Pretty much anything but Happiness.
Batman Forever (1995)
Not quite forever. The third big-screen Batman movie obviously couldn't have an infinite running time—although at 121 minutes, it's a little long for a goofy summer comic book movie with about 15 villains. But it did well enough at the box office to generate a sequel, Batman & Robin. That one was so poorly received that it prevented the Batman franchise from going on forever. Another Batman movie wouldn't be made until a decade later, with Christopher Nolan's franchise reboot Batman Begins.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Yes, the fourth movie in the Friday the 13th franchise is indeed the final installment in the saga of drowning victim-turned hockey mask-wearing mass murderer Jason Vorhees...if you don't count his resurrection in 1986's Friday the 13th: Jason Lives, four more appearances in the initial series, the 2003 crossover Freddy vs. Jason, the 2009 remake of the original Friday the 13th, and the 1987-1990 TV horror anthology Friday the 13th: The Series.
John Dies at the End (2012)
The movie is not told chronologically and actually discusses whether or not time is truly linear. Nevertheless, in John Dies at the End, John (Rob Mayes) dies in the middle.
The Karate Kid (2010)
Everything about the 1984 original The Karate Kid is unassailable, including its title (although 23-year-old Ralph Macchio stretched the definition of "kid"). But the 2010 remake, starring Jaden Smith, isn't about karate at all. In this version, Jackie Chan takes on the Mr. Miyagi role and teaches his young charge kung fu, not karate.
Man on Fire (2004)
Man on Fire is just about a guy with a lot of intensity on the inside as he protects little Dakota Fanning. Not once is Denzel Washington ever literally on fire. To see a major movie star burst into flames, better check out Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider or Michael B. Jordan in Fantastic Four.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
All of those top secret spy missions that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is sent on throughout the blockbuster film franchise turn out to be possible after all, even if they are pretty difficult. Viewers can tell Hunt's missions aren't impossible thanks to the existence of multiple sequels—if any of them really were impossible, he'd be dead.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Yeah, it takes place at Jurassic Park (or at the very least, the ultimately doomed experiment of a dinosaur theme park that was going to be called Jurassic Park). "Jurassic" is a cool-sounding word, though, which probably explains why the source novel's author, Michael Crichton used it instead of the more mumbly "Cretaceous." Nearly all of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park date to the Cretaceous period, which ended about 65 million years ago. The Jurassic era came before the Cretaceous—by about 80 million years.
Goodfellas (1990)
Goodfellas? No, no, no. This is a movie about Mafia guys and murderers. They are not good fellas at all. They are bad fellas. Very, very bad fellas. They're Badfellas, these fellas.
Krakatoa, East of Java (1969)
It's a classic disaster movie about the violent eruption of a volcano in the South Seas, based on an actual volcanic event on Krakaota in 1883. But these days the movie is probably best known for its catchy title...which is unfortunately utterly inaccurate. The island of Krakatoa is actually west of Java, not east.
Troll 2 (1990)
This low-budget comedy-horror film (which includes a character named Harry Potter years before that other Harry Potter arrived on the pop culture landscape) was produced under the title Goblins, because it's a movie about goblins. But when film distributor Empire Pictures acquired the rights, it wanted to market it as a sequel to another of its films, the marginally successful Troll. So they just up and called it Troll 2, despite the fact that it isn't about trolls and it isn't actually a sequel.