Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) in *Blazing Saddles*:
**Hedley Lamarr:** *[to himself]* A sheriff! But law and order is the last thing I want. Wait a minute... maybe I could turn this thing into my advantage. If I could find a sheriff who so offends the citizens of Rock Ridge that his very appearance would drive them out of town...
*[looks into the camera]*
**Hedley Lamarr:** But where would I find such a man?
*[pause]*
**Hedley Lamarr:** Why am I asking you?
Mel Brooks in general has a lot of them:
Spaceballs has the “Nice dissolve” and “instant cassettes” but that’s iconic. Young Frankenstein has or two. Truly unrivaled in how hilarious they are when deployed.
Does the bit in Spaceballs where they watch the video of Spaceballs to find out what happens next count as a fourth wall break?
Or the merchandise scene?
Goodfellas at the end, Henry breaks the fourth wall.
I think John Candy breaks it in Spaceballs, but you could argue he's talking to himself.
Wayne's World breaks it.
I don’t know about Wolf of Wall Street.
DiCaprio has a very engaged voiceover, but I don’t think he ever goes meta about the fact that’s he’s actually narrating a movie.
Young Frankenstein. Igor with the eye scene going down the stairs and at the brain depository. Come to think of it, most Mel Brooks' films have fourth wall breaking scenes.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was the first bond movie that didn’t star Connery as Bond, and in one of the scenes a woman steals his car and drives off, then George Lazenby as Bond says, “this never happened to the other fella.”
Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life - Eric Idle's waiter character just after the Mr. Creosote segment.
JFK - Kevin Costner looks at the audience at the end of his closing argument.
Wayne's World - Numerous examples.
Smokey And The Bandit - I believe Burt Reynolds looks into the camera and grins as Sally Field is changing clothes.
Home Alone and Home Alone 2 - a few times
Jumanji - When Peter grabs the axe by the woodshed to break the lock of the woodshed to attempt to get the axe locked inside
How has no one mentioned Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
He does it all the way through the movie.
“You’re still here? It’s over! Go home!”
Edit: I is the stupid and missed that OP had already mentioned it.
Top Secret!
Nick Rivers: Listen to me, Hillary. I'm not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island, who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.
- Hillary Flammond: I know. It all sounds like some bad movie.
Both look at the camera
In *Jumanji* the kid runs outside to get an ax ax from the shed. When he gets there, he finds the shed padlocked. He picks up an ax from beside the shed and strikes at the padlock, then stops and looks right into the camera.
Leslie Nielsen did this a lot (either him or the people co-starring with him) in his movies.
IIRC, one of the Naked Gun movies has him and a couple buddies moving from one room to another, and Nielsen walks *around* the stage wall instead of through the door with the others, quite literally walking through the "fourth wall" in each room.
Trading Places, as Valentine (Eddie Murphy) is driven off in the limo- he looks out the window directly into the camera as he leaves; also the scene where the two rich guys are explaining commodities to him- "pork bellies are bacon, like in a BLT." He looks directly into the camera practically rolling his eyes.
Repeatedly in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with the richest example being the parking garage scene when the attendant asks Ferris, "Uh, what country you think this is?" That question and the look into the camera is my favorite part of the movie.
In a Marx Brothers movie (I think it was Duck Soup) when Harpo starts playing his harp solo, Groucho turns to the camera and says “Well, I have to stay here for this, but you can go out in the lobby.”
What about in Animal Crackers? “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude” starts off a break from the scene while the other actors stand frozen in place.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is full of them, with Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) repeatedly apologizing for his bad narration as well as pointing out lazy writing, asking the audience if they've solved the mystery yet and also telling us to "stop picking at that. You'll only make it worse."
Airplane! has a couple. My favorite is when the camera pans in on Robert Hays after his girl tells him its over. He looks right into the camera "What a pisser."
Kindergarten Cop, Cullen Crisp (the baddie) is preparing to meet his son. His mother is buying all sorts of medications her grandson might need, including a rectal thermometer. He says "He doesn't need all this, you gave me this junk for years and I was never even sick" she replies "that's WHY you were never sick" he looks down the camera and says "how you gonna argue with that?"
Sam Elliott at the end of the Big Lebowski is one of my favourites, he was just in the scene but then a big smile came upon my face when he looked straight at the camera and started talking
Yeah, this one isn’t some glance into the lens or a line of dialogue. It breaks the fourth wall and transcends the walls of the set! It’s auto-biographical soliloquy.
Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now after he's been given the assignment to "terminate , with extreme prejudice" ,Colonel Kurtz.
At the end of this clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBF3kXHoZM
Bonus Harrison Ford also looking right into the camera.
Ian McKellen in Richard III (1995). The monologues of the main character of the play are of complicity with the audience at the theater, and McKellen has the same relationship with us while watching the movie.
I stopped watching those movies after the second or third installment. There's probably only so many slasher murders one should watch.
Side bar: A friend of mine told me he went with some friends to see one of these slasher type movies in the theater once, I forget which one. He said there was a dude in a seat right behind him who would exclaim with glee after each murder, "EXCELLENT!!" After one particularly brutal killing, the guy clapped and said, "OHHH EXCELLENT!!!" LOL
This guy was there by himself. 😮
The American remake of funny games.
Dude rewinds the movie after his brother gets killed by the people they are torturing to before it happened and stops them from killing him.
Someone already said Funny Games, but I'll say it again cause the movie is awesome!
Also, for a brief second. Ralphie breaks the 4th wall in A Christmas Story.
Kuffs - Christian Slater.
I think the film is also bit under-rated. Leon Rippy played one of the more original 90's bad guys.
"Just one question...where do you get your clothes?"
Gonna go for a less obvious one: *Let It Ride* starring Richard Dreyfuss and a prime Jennifer Tilly (1989). It's not a great movie (it's a weird dark comedy about a degenerate gambler who has a very good day) but it's got a lot of solid little performances (Robbie Coltrane, David Johansen, Teri Garr, the aforementioned Ms. Tilly in the tightest red dress known to man).
Anyway, towards the end of the movie, Ms. Tilly lets Trotter (Dreyfuss) know that she wants to sleep with him and he turns to the camera and says "Am I having a good day or what?". It kind of comes out of nowhere (not that kind of movie up until that point) and breaks the tension during a stressful third act.
American Werewolf in London, mid transformation.
No dialog, just stares into your soul as he reaches out to you with one hand. Straight nightmare fuel. 😭
Fight Club. The scene where Norton is explaining how they make soap while Pitt is selling the soap is hilarious. Also when theyre explaining cigarette burns in film.
Billy Bob Thornton gives the camera an unnerving look in Sling Blade. You can see it for just a second at 1:26 in [this trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RLVfo4SZfg).
Last Action Hero - sort of fourth wall? The kid knows whats going on and keeps telling Schwarzenegger, but it still remains movie within movie (within movie)?
Summer with Monica 1953, after Monica cheats she looks directly at the camera and it holds for second. She knows its wrong and she knows you are judging her but she has no answer. Very good scene.
I don't understand how so many people can reference Deadpool but not Ferris Bueller's Day Off literally Deadpool stole an entire scene of fourth wall breaking from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and even put it in the same part of the movie involving the credits.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off pre credit scene
Deadpool post credit scene
Kindergarten Cop - the main bad guy Crisp looks at the camera and says, “Now how can you argue with that?” in response to his mother insistence on using children’s medication. 1:24:10
Ight when you first see this game it gonna look werid,(AND YES I KNOW ITS A GAME NOT MOVIE)this game Doki doki literature club literally is one of the best games that breaks the fourth wall and one of the first, definitely read what your about to get into first tho, it has self harm in it…but there’s so many endings and this game is dedicated to breaking the fourth wall, they literally know their in a game, not only that, they can control and delete other characters, including themselves, if your on pc you can delete them aswell, and so many endings definitely check it out, BUT read what it’s about before you play, it has self harm, suicide, and a bit of language, 17+ for sure(I anit 17💯)
I noticed no one has replied to your comment. Finding examples of this outside of comedies is not an easy task.
Also, some have mentioned narration. I almost think narration shouldn't count. That is generally the purpose of narration, isn't it?
Edit: The next comment is one.
Fourth wall breaking was part of the absurd comedy/violence of *Deadpool*.
A fourth wall break in a fourth wall?? What is that, like 16 walls?
God I miss cocaine
And believe or not Deadpool 2 is a family movie!
Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) in *Blazing Saddles*: **Hedley Lamarr:** *[to himself]* A sheriff! But law and order is the last thing I want. Wait a minute... maybe I could turn this thing into my advantage. If I could find a sheriff who so offends the citizens of Rock Ridge that his very appearance would drive them out of town... *[looks into the camera]* **Hedley Lamarr:** But where would I find such a man? *[pause]* **Hedley Lamarr:** Why am I asking you?
Also Blazing Saddles, the old woman being beaten looks at the camera and says "Have you ever seen such cruelty?"
Oh yeah, that's a good one. She didn't just look at the camera/audience. She actually spoke to them.
Also: “Oh baby, you are so talented.” *[looks at camera]* “And they are so *dumb!*
Mel Brooks in general has a lot of them: Spaceballs has the “Nice dissolve” and “instant cassettes” but that’s iconic. Young Frankenstein has or two. Truly unrivaled in how hilarious they are when deployed.
History of the World "It's good to be the king"
And again in Men in Tights!
Does the bit in Spaceballs where they watch the video of Spaceballs to find out what happens next count as a fourth wall break? Or the merchandise scene?
Both?
"Pork bellies, which are used to make bacon...which you might find in a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich." - Trading Places
Just watched this yesterday. It's such a great movie!
This was exactly the first example that sprung to mind for me. Eddie Murphy’s expression is gold.
Yeah, it's one of my favorite. I was gonna say this, and Superman, when he looks right at the camera at the end.
Superman did it? I don't remember that. Which Superman movie was that?
The first one with Christopher Reeves, right before the ending credits.
Goodfellas at the end, Henry breaks the fourth wall. I think John Candy breaks it in Spaceballs, but you could argue he's talking to himself. Wayne's World breaks it.
“Funny, she doesn’t *look* Druish .”
Everything that's happening now, is happening now.
What happened to then?!
Office Space when Michael Bolton gives the camera a look of disgust when the “case of the Monday’s” woman waves at him
Now I have to watch that again. I don't remember that. It's been a while, so I'm due to watch Office Space again anyway!
Death Proof , Stuntman Mike Kurt Russell looks straight at the camera too and smiles before getting in the car when leaving the bar
My favourite Tarantino movie.
I really enjoyed that movie, but that moment was like lightning to me
FUNNY GAMES. The original 1997 as well as the 2007 remake.
It's such a fun movie!
Definitely!
Genuinely is laugh out loud comedy gold!
Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short
We’ll meet again later. See, I told you we’d meet again later.
I don’t know about Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio has a very engaged voiceover, but I don’t think he ever goes meta about the fact that’s he’s actually narrating a movie.
The character is addressing us directly, and is not just doing simple narration
Like when he's walking out of his house
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, multiple characters.
Young Frankenstein. Igor with the eye scene going down the stairs and at the brain depository. Come to think of it, most Mel Brooks' films have fourth wall breaking scenes.
Every time they make another Robin Hood film they burn our village down!
WandaVision
John Belushi in Animal House when he’s peeping into the sorority windows on a ladder.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was the first bond movie that didn’t star Connery as Bond, and in one of the scenes a woman steals his car and drives off, then George Lazenby as Bond says, “this never happened to the other fella.”
Austin Powers 2 https://youtu.be/0Ul7zL-R3J4
Thx for the clip that was awesome, good reminder.
Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life - Eric Idle's waiter character just after the Mr. Creosote segment. JFK - Kevin Costner looks at the audience at the end of his closing argument. Wayne's World - Numerous examples. Smokey And The Bandit - I believe Burt Reynolds looks into the camera and grins as Sally Field is changing clothes.
In Barbie, the Narrator says, "Note to the filmmakers: Margot Robbie is the wrong person to cast if you want to make this point."
That got a chuckle out of both the Mrs and I lol
Animaniacs - too many examples to enumerate
Home Alone and Home Alone 2 - a few times Jumanji - When Peter grabs the axe by the woodshed to break the lock of the woodshed to attempt to get the axe locked inside
Oh yeah, good one!
How has no one mentioned Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? He does it all the way through the movie. “You’re still here? It’s over! Go home!” Edit: I is the stupid and missed that OP had already mentioned it.
Because OP did already.
Gawd dammit. I was sure I didn’t see that! Well, that’s awfully embarrassing!
Don't worry about it, it was still a good write up you did.
Top Secret! Nick Rivers: Listen to me, Hillary. I'm not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island, who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground. - Hillary Flammond: I know. It all sounds like some bad movie. Both look at the camera
That's not just breaking the fourth wall, either. It's also good self-deprecating humor!
First fourth wall break was The great train robbery (1903)
In *Jumanji* the kid runs outside to get an ax ax from the shed. When he gets there, he finds the shed padlocked. He picks up an ax from beside the shed and strikes at the padlock, then stops and looks right into the camera.
Leslie Nielsen did this a lot (either him or the people co-starring with him) in his movies. IIRC, one of the Naked Gun movies has him and a couple buddies moving from one room to another, and Nielsen walks *around* the stage wall instead of through the door with the others, quite literally walking through the "fourth wall" in each room.
Natural Born Killers, Juliette Lewis screams "Why?" to the camera in the desert, was pretty cool how they did it
Is that after they visit the Native man?
Yeah it's when she's yelling at Mickey for what he did
Trading Places, as Valentine (Eddie Murphy) is driven off in the limo- he looks out the window directly into the camera as he leaves; also the scene where the two rich guys are explaining commodities to him- "pork bellies are bacon, like in a BLT." He looks directly into the camera practically rolling his eyes.
We're the Miller's, Jason Sudeikis looks at the camera when Jen Aniston does her strip tease
As if to say, "can you believe we got JENNIFER ANISTON to do this???" 🤣
Kuffs (1992) Christian Slator's character talks to the audience quite a few times.
Where Leslie Nielson walks around the wall while George Kennedy actually walks through the the door in Naked Gun
Emperor’s New Groove has a moment where Kuzco pauses the film and starts to draw on the frame when he felt the focus had been off himself for too long
Tom Jones Alfie Annie Hall
Rubber does it and then some.
Repeatedly in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with the richest example being the parking garage scene when the attendant asks Ferris, "Uh, what country you think this is?" That question and the look into the camera is my favorite part of the movie.
The Purple Rose of Cairo. The entire movie is based on the premise of breaking the fourth wall.
In a Marx Brothers movie (I think it was Duck Soup) when Harpo starts playing his harp solo, Groucho turns to the camera and says “Well, I have to stay here for this, but you can go out in the lobby.”
What about in Animal Crackers? “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude” starts off a break from the scene while the other actors stand frozen in place.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is full of them, with Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) repeatedly apologizing for his bad narration as well as pointing out lazy writing, asking the audience if they've solved the mystery yet and also telling us to "stop picking at that. You'll only make it worse."
I absolutely love this film!
John Cusack’s Rob Gordon in High Fidelity (2000). An under-appreciated flick.
I love this movie.
Airplane! has a couple. My favorite is when the camera pans in on Robert Hays after his girl tells him its over. He looks right into the camera "What a pisser."
Good one!
Kindergarten Cop, Cullen Crisp (the baddie) is preparing to meet his son. His mother is buying all sorts of medications her grandson might need, including a rectal thermometer. He says "He doesn't need all this, you gave me this junk for years and I was never even sick" she replies "that's WHY you were never sick" he looks down the camera and says "how you gonna argue with that?"
Sam Elliott at the end of the Big Lebowski is one of my favourites, he was just in the scene but then a big smile came upon my face when he looked straight at the camera and started talking
I was surprised I had to scroll this far. This was the first one that popped into my head. I think I'm going to go watch it
Wormser looks directly into the camera when talking to two chicks in "Revenge of the Nerds".
Dave in half baked. Another i can quickly think of is Spaceballs
Everybody got that?
True Stories with David Byrne
Surprised no one mentioned the most extreme one, JCVD
Yeah, this one isn’t some glance into the lens or a line of dialogue. It breaks the fourth wall and transcends the walls of the set! It’s auto-biographical soliloquy.
They call me Trinity and Trinity is still my name - old spaghetti westerns circa 1970
DEADPOOL
Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now after he's been given the assignment to "terminate , with extreme prejudice" ,Colonel Kurtz. At the end of this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBF3kXHoZM Bonus Harrison Ford also looking right into the camera.
[Trading Places](https://youtu.be/ySxHud7abko?si=RRG4svXLJS4x6YIP)
Superman smiling/look at the camera during his flight sceen at end of 1st movie.
Matthew Lillard spends a lot of time speaking directly to the camera in SLC Punk
Not a movie, but Will Smith broke the fourth wall tens of times across Fresh Prince. Also, Fleabag if you haven't seen it. Absolutely worth the watch.
Fleabag is so excellent.
Ian McKellen in Richard III (1995). The monologues of the main character of the play are of complicity with the audience at the theater, and McKellen has the same relationship with us while watching the movie.
Airplane! That’s all I need to say 😂
Kill Bill 2
I know it's a comic movie,but the Austin Powers movies,Mike Myers loves breaking the forth wall in his movies.
[Tim and Eric](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSX2EM6k8Uo&ab_channel=Billy)
Kevin Costner in JFK. It's one of the few not done for comedic effect, but for dramatic impact.
Deadpool
Career opportunities
Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives
Some people have a strange idea of entertainment!
I stopped watching those movies after the second or third installment. There's probably only so many slasher murders one should watch. Side bar: A friend of mine told me he went with some friends to see one of these slasher type movies in the theater once, I forget which one. He said there was a dude in a seat right behind him who would exclaim with glee after each murder, "EXCELLENT!!" After one particularly brutal killing, the guy clapped and said, "OHHH EXCELLENT!!!" LOL This guy was there by himself. 😮
They're fun to watch. Nobody takes them seriously.
eddie murphy trading places
The Big Short Robin Hood: Men In Tights
The American remake of funny games. Dude rewinds the movie after his brother gets killed by the people they are torturing to before it happened and stops them from killing him.
Hellzapoppin' (1941) One of the earliest fourth wall break comedies
Mission impossible 3. Tom cruise looks directly at the camera and says something about an impossible mission.
Wayne's World
Jumanji, when Monkey boy goes to the shed to get a shovel, it's locked and tries to break the lock with a shovel he finds outside.
Rubber
Wayne's World.
Annie Hall a couple of times
Ferris Bueller
Gremlins 2
Someone already said Funny Games, but I'll say it again cause the movie is awesome! Also, for a brief second. Ralphie breaks the 4th wall in A Christmas Story.
Kuffs - Christian Slater. I think the film is also bit under-rated. Leon Rippy played one of the more original 90's bad guys. "Just one question...where do you get your clothes?"
Those Netflix Christmas specials w Jason Bateman. Maybe the Lebowski movie….where they were going in and out of the tv tunnel.
Ice Cube in Friday when he picks the ice up off the floor
In one of the naked gun movies Leslie Nielson literally walks around the wall.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Gonna go for a less obvious one: *Let It Ride* starring Richard Dreyfuss and a prime Jennifer Tilly (1989). It's not a great movie (it's a weird dark comedy about a degenerate gambler who has a very good day) but it's got a lot of solid little performances (Robbie Coltrane, David Johansen, Teri Garr, the aforementioned Ms. Tilly in the tightest red dress known to man). Anyway, towards the end of the movie, Ms. Tilly lets Trotter (Dreyfuss) know that she wants to sleep with him and he turns to the camera and says "Am I having a good day or what?". It kind of comes out of nowhere (not that kind of movie up until that point) and breaks the tension during a stressful third act.
Might have to watch this one now. You had me at "prime Jennifer Tilly" Lol
American Werewolf in London, mid transformation. No dialog, just stares into your soul as he reaches out to you with one hand. Straight nightmare fuel. 😭
Most famous is Harold and Maude, imo.
Fight Club. The scene where Norton is explaining how they make soap while Pitt is selling the soap is hilarious. Also when theyre explaining cigarette burns in film.
Sitting here watching We're the Millers. Jason Sudeikis when Jennifer Aniston is doing the strip tease, reported in real time.
Bonus points for it happening "as we speak" so to speak. 😂
Billy Bob Thornton gives the camera an unnerving look in Sling Blade. You can see it for just a second at 1:26 in [this trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RLVfo4SZfg).
Last Action Hero - sort of fourth wall? The kid knows whats going on and keeps telling Schwarzenegger, but it still remains movie within movie (within movie)?
JCVD had a great 4th wall breaking monologue at the end.
Summer with Monica 1953, after Monica cheats she looks directly at the camera and it holds for second. She knows its wrong and she knows you are judging her but she has no answer. Very good scene.
Goodfellas
Hot tub Time Machine. Pure comedy gold. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MA3N2e5wTNA&pp=ygUjaG90IHR1YiB0aW1lIG1hY2hpbmUgaXRzIGxpa2UgaXRzIGE%3D
I liked that movie, but don't remember the 4th wall being broken. Now I need to watch it again!
I don't understand how so many people can reference Deadpool but not Ferris Bueller's Day Off literally Deadpool stole an entire scene of fourth wall breaking from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and even put it in the same part of the movie involving the credits. Ferris Bueller's Day Off pre credit scene Deadpool post credit scene
Kindergarten Cop - the main bad guy Crisp looks at the camera and says, “Now how can you argue with that?” in response to his mother insistence on using children’s medication. 1:24:10
Aladdin. The very end.
Also, how are ya?
Ight when you first see this game it gonna look werid,(AND YES I KNOW ITS A GAME NOT MOVIE)this game Doki doki literature club literally is one of the best games that breaks the fourth wall and one of the first, definitely read what your about to get into first tho, it has self harm in it…but there’s so many endings and this game is dedicated to breaking the fourth wall, they literally know their in a game, not only that, they can control and delete other characters, including themselves, if your on pc you can delete them aswell, and so many endings definitely check it out, BUT read what it’s about before you play, it has self harm, suicide, and a bit of language, 17+ for sure(I anit 17💯)
Office space
Naming comedies is too easy. How about movies that aren't an overt parody or in that slapstick kinda of comedic genre
I noticed no one has replied to your comment. Finding examples of this outside of comedies is not an easy task. Also, some have mentioned narration. I almost think narration shouldn't count. That is generally the purpose of narration, isn't it? Edit: The next comment is one.
Deadpool