The Mandela Effect in popular culture

Here are a selection of quotes, facts and listings from various examples of film and TV, in an alternate timeline you may find oddly familiar...


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DARTH VADER: "No, Luke. I am your father."
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

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RICK BLAINE: "Play it again, Sam."
Casablanca (1942)

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SHERLOCK HOLMES: "Elementary, my dear Watson."
– Recurring line from various Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle published 1892-1927

"...Holmes's most famous enemy, Professor Moriarty, notably only appears in two tales: first in the villain's introduction in 'The Final Problem', and later in the prequel novel The Valley of Fear. This is in contrast with Conan Doyle's other recurring antagonist, Irene Adler, who appears in four short stories in total... ...the idea that Adler had fallen in love with Sherlock Holmes is never made explicit, but is strongly suggested in all her appearances after the first – a development that was picked up and ran with by many film and television adaptations..."

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CAPTAIN JAMES T KIRK: "Beam me up, Scotty!"
– Recurring line from various episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, originally aired 1966-1969.

...
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem For Methuselah
Joanna
The Cloud Minders
...

"...Star Trek: Voyager uses this trope a couple of times. Lieutenant Joe Carey (killed off in season 1) reappears in a trip to the past in the fifth-season episode 'Relativity'. Ensign Samantha Wildman (killed off in season 5) does likewise in the sixth-season episode 'Fury'..."

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MR FREEZE: "Ice to see you."
Batman & Robin (1997)

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Highlander (1986)
Highlander II: The Quickening (1989)
Highlander (1992-1998) [TV series]
Highlander: Endgame (2000)
Highlander: The Source (2007)

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DOCTOR #1: "She salvageable?"
DOCTOR #2: "It'd take a miracle. And even if she does heal, she's gonna end up braindead."
DOCTOR #1: "Relatives?"
DOCTOR #2: "The husband. ...They lost the kid, too. DOA."
DOCTOR #1: "Listen... Tell him, if he wants, I'll talk to him."
DOCTOR #2: "I don't think he wants to talk to anyone. He's been standing there like a zombie all day."
Mad Max (1979)

"...The original Mad Max is a very different type of film from its sequels, and does not appear to be regarded as fully canon by any of them. Most notably the movie does not take place after a nuclear exchange, and so features none of the preoccupation with effects of fallout shown in Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome or in the reboot Max Max: Fury Road..."

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Rambo (1982)
Rambo II (1985)
Rambo III (1989)
John Rambo (2008)

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"I am the eggman / We are the eggmen / I am the walrus / Koo-koo-ka-choo!"
– The Beatles, "I Am the Walrus"

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The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Terminator: The Future Begins (2009)
Terminator Genisys (2015)

"...Terminator: The Future Begins, set entirely in the post-apocalyptic future setting, is most notorious for the on-set rant by actor Christian Bale (who played John Connor)..."

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"...Although Clarke's novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey sticks with the basic plot of Kubrick's film in all major areas (something which resulted in much of the novel being rewritten at a late stage, so that the Discovery made its voyage to Jupiter rather than Saturn), it develops and elaborates on various aspects such that... ...This was built upon in the novel sequel 2010: Odyssey II, which followed on from the events of the first book quite scrupulously and..."

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You are forgetting one of the most famous examples,

I checked up on the late, great, J.B.
His death was said on national TV.
Now, memory, man, are you with that?
James Brown is dead.
 
"...Holmes's most famous enemy, Professor Moriarty, notably only appears in two tales: first in the villain's introduction in 'The Final Problem', and later in the prequel novel The Valley of Fear. This is in contrast with Conan Doyle's other recurring antagonist, Irene Adler, who appears in four short stories in total... ...the idea that Adler had fallen in love with Sherlock Holmes is never made explicit, but is strongly suggested in all her appearances after the first – a development that was picked up and ran with by many film and television adaptations..."


The Lights of Zetar
Requiem For Methuselah
Joanna
The Cloud Minders
...

"...Star Trek: Voyager uses this trope a couple of times. Lieutenant Joe Carey (killed off in season 1) reappears in a trip to the past in the fifth-season episode 'Relativity'. Ensign Samantha Wildman (killed off in season 5) does likewise in the sixth-season episode 'Fury'..."

Highlander (1986)
Highlander II: The Quickening (1989)
Highlander (1992-1998) [TV series]
Highlander: Endgame (2000)
Highlander: The Source (2007)

DOCTOR #1: "She salvageable?"
DOCTOR #2: "It'd take a miracle. And even if she does heal, she's gonna end up braindead."
DOCTOR #1: "Relatives?"
DOCTOR #2: "The husband. ...They lost the kid, too. DOA."
DOCTOR #1: "Listen... Tell him, if he wants, I'll talk to him."
DOCTOR #2: "I don't think he wants to talk to anyone. He's been standing there like a zombie all day."
Mad Max (1979)

"...The original Mad Max is a very different type of film from its sequels, and does not appear to be regarded as fully canon by any of them. Most notably the movie does not take place after a nuclear exchange, and so features none of the preoccupation with effects of fallout shown in Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome or in the reboot Max Max: Fury Road..."

Rambo (1982)
Rambo II (1985)
Rambo III (1989)
John Rambo (2008)
_

I dont get these examples.
 
I dont get these examples.

  • Irene Adler actually only appeared once and there was nothing romantic between her and Holmes, but adaptations always seem to treat her like she was a recurring villain and play up some sexual tension between them.
  • The planned episode "Joanna" became "The Way to Eden". "Joanna" would've been about McCoy's eponymous daughter, who otherwise isn't actually a canon character in Star Trek even though most fans seem to think she is.
  • Neither Carey not Wildman were actually killed off (well, Carey eventually was in season 7), but – no joke – the writers thought they had, which is why they were brought back for the flashback bits.
  • Highlander III seems to be the one that everyone forgets existed. Highlander II is infamously bad, and Endgame and The Source are remembered badly by fans of the TV show... but Highlander III just doesn't seem to be remembered at all. Same with Terminator 3 – because Terminator Salvation (with a different title in the ATL – the movie's original title actually was "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins") is polarising but it is still remembered and discussed, while the attitude to #3 is more like "Oh, yeah, that thing."
  • Max's wife Jessie doesn't actually die in Mad Max. Doctor #2's first line there in OTL is "Oh, yeah, we got her vitals back last night." But then, by the sequel she's dead. Additionally, Mad Max 2 doesn't actually indicate that there's been any nuclear exchange apart from a brief oblique mention in its prologue, even though most people think that it is post-nuclear-holocaust. People are mostly simply ignorant of what happens in the original Mad Max, but in the ATL this has extended to the point where it's regarded as only partly canon – removing the "2" from the sequel's title emphasises that, and it also makes Fury Road much more clearly a reboot.
  • The Rambo movies are actually titled First Blood, then Rambo: First Blood Part II, then Rambo III, then Rambo. The fact that they are referred to as "the Rambo movies" makes it pretty clear what people are misremembering. (And yes, it was fairly common when the movie was released for people to mistakenly call the fourth one "John Rambo", after Rocky Balboa had come out two years before.)
 
(Guy Haines starts walking away from Bruno Anthony's body, crushed under the crashed carousel)
Boatman: "Wait, who was that man?"
(Guy Haines slowly turns around to face him)
Haines: "Just some stranger on a train."
 
  • Irene Adler actually only appeared once and there was nothing romantic between her and Holmes, but adaptations always seem to treat her like she was a recurring villain and play up some sexual tension between them.
  • The planned episode "Joanna" became "The Way to Eden". "Joanna" would've been about McCoy's eponymous daughter, who otherwise isn't actually a canon character in Star Trek even though most fans seem to think she is.
  • Neither Carey not Wildman were actually killed off (well, Carey eventually was in season 7), but – no joke – the writers thought they had, which is why they were brought back for the flashback bits.
  • Highlander III seems to be the one that everyone forgets existed. Highlander II is infamously bad, and Endgame and The Source are remembered badly by fans of the TV show... but Highlander III just doesn't seem to be remembered at all. Same with Terminator 3 – because Terminator Salvation (with a different title in the ATL – the movie's original title actually was "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins") is polarising but it is still remembered and discussed, while the attitude to #3 is more like "Oh, yeah, that thing."
  • Max's wife Jessie doesn't actually die in Mad Max. Doctor #2's first line there in OTL is "Oh, yeah, we got her vitals back last night." But then, by the sequel she's dead. Additionally, Mad Max 2 doesn't actually indicate that there's been any nuclear exchange apart from a brief oblique mention in its prologue, even though most people think that it is post-nuclear-holocaust. People are mostly simply ignorant of what happens in the original Mad Max, but in the ATL this has extended to the point where it's regarded as only partly canon – removing the "2" from the sequel's title emphasises that, and it also makes Fury Road much more clearly a reboot.
  • The Rambo movies are actually titled First Blood, then Rambo: First Blood Part II, then Rambo III, then Rambo. The fact that they are referred to as "the Rambo movies" makes it pretty clear what people are misremembering. (And yes, it was fairly common when the movie was released for people to mistakenly call the fourth one "John Rambo", after Rocky Balboa had come out two years before.)

oh wow. i'm guilty of a few of these.

I thought there was an episode Joanna about Mccoy's daughter, I thought Rambo IV was titled John Rambo, and I thought Irene Adler appeared more than once.

I do remember Highlander 3 though , if only becuase of the Dr Feelgood riff in final sword fight but I thought it was called "The Source".
 
I do remember Highlander 3 though , if only becuase of the Dr Feelgood riff in final sword fight but I thought it was called "The Source".

That's the fifth movie, reputed to be even worse than the second. It follows the TV show's continuity. The third movie is subtitled The Sorcerer.
 
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