6 Secret Movie Crossovers (Revealed Through Props)

Both films take place in the same neo-trash, dark cities. And by same, we do mean the literal same.

See, what Hollywood likes more than anything is not having to pay for more crew than needed; why hire someone to make a set when you've got a perfectly good one lying around in storage? So when the Wachowski Sisters were looking to make their sci-fi rip-off of a crazy Scot's comic, they went ahead and reused some of the Dark City sets..

Now, unfortunately, both Dark City and The Matrix, in addition to being set in the same city, have similar themes -- a man in a city alone searching for answers, discovering the truth is darker and more horrible than he could possibly have believed. In one, it's aliens; in the other, his body is in a jar being fed liquefied dead people, while giant robots try and eat his energy (because the original concept was supposedly worse).

Is the alien stuff all a cover for the dark truth behind the city? Are the aliens just what Agent Smith does on his days off? Is this another one of the Machine cities, but with a built-in backup story for why shit's all messed up, so no one realizes? Are both films secretly set within the Thirteenth Floor?

Either way, when you see Trinity running over rooftops, spare a glance for Rufus Sewell hunting down aliens below. God, The Matrix would've been so much better if after Neo said he knew Kung Fu, Morpheus went "Now for telekinesis."

See, Star Wars was a relatively small, almost indie project by a guy most famous for having teenagers hang out at a carhop. It wasn't a movie by James Cameron or Marvel -- it was small, but it had huge eyes and a budget it could not burn through. So it went thrifting and, in the process, created a mini star-universe.

For instance, the Cantina scene -- well, you've definitely forgotten what happens, so give it a watch.

Ah, cinema history. Can we take a moment and just remember how wild it is that a blockbuster juggernaut that changed how cinema works forever had, in one of its earliest scenes, a bunch of weird prolapsed vagina mouthed monsters playing jizz music?

Featured in that scene are dozens of props from across the sci-fi universe. You can see an alien in the back wearing a spacesuit from Escape from Planet of the Apes.

An outfit featured in that scene but later given to one of the bounty hunters of Empire Strikes Back is straight from Doctor Who:

You know the man whose hand Obi-Wan cuts off? Well, before that he's talking to a human astronaut.

The box that Skywalker's saber is from would later provide the means to defeat another alien -- Kryptonians.

But even ground-locked heroes get in on it too. The Speeder scene from A New Hope? Well, Alec Guinness wasn't there for that, so instead, we got the Six Million Dollar Man ... toys. Yeah, that thing in the vehicle is just a Lee Majors doll with a brown robe thrown on top.

Long before the Avengers circled up, every star in the universe assembled in the Cantina. 

Well, except for the Starship Troopers. They were busy. 

It turns out that while Starship Troopers' story and message might've gotten a bit muddled, the armor itself was a clear shining victory. You can see it everywhere. It turns out that the Alliance Armor in Firefly is the same as Starship Troopers' armor -- fittingly enough, as both are about totalitarian, originally Earth-based fascists groups spreading out amongst the stars and killing everyone they find. Maybe the reason there are no aliens in Firefly is that the Federation killed all of them first. 

It's also in Power Rangers. Yes, turns out that while the Federation is supplying the Alliance with armor, it's also helping with the TVA-esque Time Force in Power Rangers. 

But Earth isn't safe from the Trooper's armor either. In an alternate universe, it's the armor that the Apes wear after Cornelius takes over the entire planet and reinstates himself as the man who ended slavery which, honestly, does track). 

Imposter, a film that absolutely no one has ever seen, also features them. Minority Report even uses them, which does seem to hint that it's a prequel to Imposter, which makes it worse, so let's forget that too.

The Federation's helmets and armor appear across the cosmos.

Perhaps most surprisingly the armor appears in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. An Adam Sandler film isn't where you'd expect to find the prequel to Starship Troopers, but shortly after their gay marriage, a giant space bug launches an asteroid at Earth (probably?). 

For a fascist organization, it does make sense that everything eventually solidifies and becomes theirs -- although it is a bit depressing to think that the group that the Power Rangers belong to also is responsible for the extinction of an entire planet. 

Does this mean that the never-seen sequel to Super Mario Bros. occurred? Did King Koopa come out victorious and take over the private prison system, recreating it in his own dark designs? Well, it'd be better than what we have now.

It would also explain the ease with which they do the Face/Off procedure. The film isn't very heavily sci-fi, but the transplant operation is done perfectly. Just like the shifting that Koopa can do from form to form. Is this Mushroom Kingdom tech allowing Nicolas Cage to perfectly become John Travolta? Is there a third film waiting to be made where Bob Hoskins and Johnny T team up to kill serial killers, criminals, and Koopas?