Top 20 Fourth Wall Breaks

Breaking the fourth wall: when a character becomes aware of their fictional nature. That’s the definition given on Urban Dictionary, and despite the source, it is an entirely accurate one. Usually fourth wall breaks are executed with the character looking directly into the camera and talking to the audience. Sometimes, they’re far more subtle.

However, a character looking into the camera because the lens is doubling as a mirror or another character is not a fourth wall break. Tyler Durden looking into the camera as he tells a police commissioner, “Do not fuck with us,” is not a fourth wall break, because Tyler isn’t looking at us, he’s looking at the police commissioner. The Narrator telling us about Tyler’s job as a projectionist is a fourth wall break because The Narrator is talking to us.

So, with that distinction, I offer my favorite fourth wall breaks in film. There are hundreds of scenes to choose from for a list like this, so do feel free to share some of your favorites as well!

Please note that this post contains spoilers. I will be describing and embedding key, and sometimes conclusive, sequences to a handful of films.

Comedy

10. Schizopolis (1996)

“This is the most important motion picture you will ever attend.”

Steven Soderbergh begins his nonsensical, avant-garde headtrip, Schizopolis, by climbing onto a stage in an empty theater, and telling the (absent) crowd that they are about to watch the most important movie ever made. Soderbergh isn’t looking into the camera, but rather, to the empty faces of the people who aren’t in the audience. Get it? Exactly.

9. Man on the Moon (1999)

“I did that to get rid of those folks who just wouldn’t understand me.”

The opening credits of Man on the Moon really tripped me out. I had seen characters talk to the audience before, but this was the first one that really made me “get” what the filmmaker was intending. By starting the film with the slow crawl closing credits, director Miloš Forman set a great precedent for what was to follow. Expect the unexpected, the unique, and the downright weird.

8. High Fidelity (2000)

“Top five things I miss about Laura.”

“And five: she does this thing in bed when she can’t get to sleep, she kind of half moans and then rubs her feet together an equal number of times... it just kills me.”

7. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

“You’re still here? It’s over. Go home.”

Matthew Broderick spends much of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off mugging to the camera, the best instance occurring after the closing credits. “You’re still here?” Ferris asks. His stunned and somewhat offended delivery always cracks me up.

6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

“All right, sonny, that’s enough.”

How do you end a King Arthur-esque film that is seemingly unendable? Easy, you have the modern-day police show up, start arresting people, and break the camera. Problem solved.

5. Blazing Saddles (1974)

“I’m workin’ for Mel Brooks!”

Again, this isn’t a fourth wall break in the traditional sense. Instead, as we watch Dom DeLuise attempt to direct a large musical, the cast of Blazing Saddles literally breaks through a stage wall and announces that they are in the middle of a Mel Brooks movie. Hilarious chaos ensues.

4. Spaceballs (1987)

“When does this happen in the movie?!”

The Spaceballs fourth wall break gets extra credit for its inventiveness. At one point in the film, the bad guys put on a VHS copy of Spaceballs in order to track down Lone Starr (Bill Pullman). They fast forward through the part of the movie we’ve already seen, and stop on the exact scene that they are currently in. It’s a trippy little moment that proves Mel Brooks can’t be swayed by convention.

3. Death Proof (2007)

“You’re gonna have to start gettin’ scared, immediately.”

This is so goddamn priceless. Poor innocent Pam climbs into Stuntman Mike’s death proof 1971 Chevrolet Nova SS, Mike slams her door shut and walks over to the driver’s side door as Pam’s friends drive off in a separate car. Mike pauses, looks directly into the camera, and gives us a perfect little smirk. He knows we know what’s coming, and he couldn’t be happier.

2. Wayne’s World (1992)

“It’s like… people only do things because they get paid.”

Much like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the main shtick of Wayne’s World is that the characters in the movie often speak to the audience. But the product placement scene transcends a normal fourth wall break. In a single sequence, the film pokes fun at product placement and advertising in general, all while actually getting paid by the brands they’re making fun if. Easily one of my favorite moments from any comedy ever made.

1. Annie Hall (1977)

“Boy, if life were only like this.”

This one speaks for itself. The fourth wall break to end all fourth wall breaks. Yeah, if life were only this easy.

Drama

10. The 400 Blows (1959)

This one’s a bit of a cheat, as I’m not entirely sure if Jean-Pierre Léaud meant to look into the camera at the very end of The 400 Blows. But I do feel that it counts here, because while the character may not be aware of his fictional nature, the writer/director, François Truffaut, certainly intends for the film to be aware of itself.

9. JFK (1991)

“It’s up to you.”

Perhaps a little too on the nose for some, I remain utterly moved by Jim Garrison’s final, tearful plea to the jury hearing the Clay Shaw case in the end of JFK. As Garrison gives his lengthy closing argument, the camera is positioned high and to his left, so that his eye line is down at the jury. Suddenly, the camera cuts to a gliding shot gently swaying toward Garrison. As he finishes his argument, he looks into the lens and tells us: “It’s up to you.”

8. Fight Club (1999)

“You are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”

My favorite moment in Fight Club is a brief scene of Tyler Durden standing in his home, talking to himself. He’s giving one of his infamous “You’re nothing,” speeches, but to who? Suddenly, he looks into the lens and reminds us who we really are. The camera shakes violently and the physical film threatens to break apart (reminiscent of a key scene in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona). Anarchic bliss.

7. Psycho (1960)

“‘Why she wouldn’t even harm a fly.’”

Many of the entries on this list are fourth wall breaks that occur at the very end of the movie. Alfred Hitchcock waits until the final seven seconds of his masterpiece, Psycho, to let us know that Norman Bates is not only all the way gone, but happy that we know he’s never coming back.

6. Goodfellas (1990)

“I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.”

Ray Liotta’s courtroom speech to the audience is a nice little treat, but I love the final smile he gives us right at the end of Goodfellas. It’s a look that says so much, with Liotta having to say so little. We cut to Joe Pesci firing a gun at the camera (a nod to The Great Train Robbery) as Sid Vicious blares away on the soundtrack. Heaven.

5. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

“Wanna dance?”

Maribel Verdú drunkenly, perfectly dancing in a bar while looking at the camera is arguably the sexiest thing that happens in Y Tu Mamá También. And that, my friends, is saying quite a lot.

4. Persona (1966)

Entire essays have been written about the first six minutes of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona. It’s such an appropriate, unexplainable way to begin such an unexplainable film. The highlight for me comes when the little boy looks into the camera, and slowly waves his hand in front of the lens, the same way you would do it in front a person’s face to see if they’re paying attention. This one is a bit of a cheat, as it’s made clear in the next shot that the boy may not have actually been looking at us. Or was he? The point is: you have our attention, Mr. Bergman.

3. Funny Games (1997/2007)

“I mean, what do you think? You think they stand a chance?”

There are many confounding fourth wall breaks in both versions of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. My favorite is when Paul straight out asks the audience if we think the family will make it (which I could not locate to embed here), but the rewinding scene, the hot-cold clip embedded above, and many others are all worthy of praise. What a sick twisted genius Haneke is.

2. Magnolia (1999)

“Why don’t you save me?”

I don’t know what to say about Claudia Gator’s final smile to the camera except to say that this smile is everything.

1. School Daze (1988)

“Please. Wake up.”

The first time I watched Spike Lee’s School Daze, I found it to be unpolished and underwritten, yet somehow also overproduced. The story, about racism within the black community at an all-black college, didn’t grab me, and the acting was far inferior to what I expected from the cast. Then its final scene happened. A scene in which Laurence Fishburne screams at the top of his lungs for people to “Wake up.” He yells over and over, as students get out of bed and meet him outside. Everyone convenes in a courtyard, and Fishburne’s character stands face to face with his enemy, Julian. They share a look at acceptance; a truce. And then they both slowly look into the camera as Fishburne gently tells us to “Please. Wake up.”

It’s a scene that redefines everything that has come before. It’s delicate, poignant, and so beautifully expresses Lee’s overall intention with the movie. Certainly one of the finest conclusions to a film that I’ve ever seen.

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