Old Footage, New Movie

The Back to the Future trilogy comes to mind as clever uses of existing footage beyond that of flashbacks.

Phantasm 4 is filled with lots of great flashbacks to scenes cut from the original film featuring the same actors 20-odd years younger.

I agree that the Back To The Future trilogy and The Two Towers are great examples of using old footage the right way. BTTF sort of had to, because there's so much jumping around in the different time-lines, and it was necessary to revisit events that happened.

The Two Towers, on the other hand, is a great example of using old footage, but reestablishing it from a different perspective. There's something that's just right about faintly hearing Gandalf shouting over shots of the Misty Mountains, and then revealing him facing off against the Balrog, as the introduction to the film. It's not quite a flashback ("Previously, on Lord of the Rings..."), so much as filling in the gap of what happened to him after the Balrog pulled him down, and kicking the film off with a massive bang.

I love the quick cutaway to the slow-mo shot of Hans Gruber falling when McClane is told who Simon Gruber is in Die Hard With A Vengeance.

The opening credits sequence of OHMSS has that cool little montage of the previous Bonds that sets up the film with a big "THIS IS CANON".

Also, while not exactly "footage from a previous film in the series", I love that use of footage of Bill Bixby in "The Courtship Of Eddie's Father" in The Incredible Hulk. Just a really, really sweet nod.

Don't ask me why... but I watched The Spy Next Door on Netflix Instant.  The movie starts with a gold-tinted montage of Jackie Chan's previous spy-related action movies to establish his character's past.

FUCK YOU, The Spy Next Door!!!!!

Soderberg's The Limey had an interesting use of this, using footage from an unrelated 60's Terrence Stamp movie to serve as a flashback to the character's youth.

I've never been a big fan of this for sequels though, except when done for deliberately clever effect, and somehow it's even worse when they repeat an edited sequence rather than just a shot or two. The flashbacks at the beginning of Godfather 3 stuck out badly, not least because it emphasised the difference between that movie's early 90's sheen and the grainy technicolour film stock of the originals.

Conan the Destroyer wins for worst.

Not exactly what this thread had in mind, but the stock footage of battleships used in Windtalkers stuck out.  Sore thumb!

Half of Machete is that old trailer footage. And it shows.

SUCK uses old footage from Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 “O Lucky Man!” for Malcolm "Eddie Van Helsing" McDowel's youthful flashbacks. Done rather well.

The most ridiculous might be THE MUMMY'S HAND, which somehow manages to create an entirely different backstory using extensive footage from THE MUMMY, and acts as if Boris Karloff never existed.

MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE makes clever use of tinted shots from its predecessor, THE ONE-ARMED BOXER, to explain the villain's motivation.

I'm a sucker for CRANK 2 and its video game recap of the previous film's wild finale.

BEFORE SUNSET has some startling flashbacks, considering how much younger Hawke and Delpy looked in their 20s.

Damn you Bartleby Scriven, your thread title made me think there was finally a place for us to talk of our love of Kung Pow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malmordo 

BEFORE SUNSET has some startling flashbacks, considering how much younger Hawke and Delpy looked in their 20s.

 

I can't believe I forgot Before Sunset.  One of my most favorite films.

But then again, the flashbacks weren't used extensively at all... which was a very tasteful choice.

I don't see how Lord of the Rings really deserves to be on this list as the whole trilogy was shot all at once anyway.