12 movies that expertly break the fourth wall

Every now and then a movie comes along and breaks that invisible fourth wall to address the audience, shattering the illusion of the film and pulling us into the plot.

Watching a character, living within the fictional world of television, look at the audience can be a shock. It’s like watching someone from a distance and panicking when they turn to look at you. You’re eyes meet and you think “Oh my God they see me!” I’m sure that’s what the audience who experienced the first fourth wall breakage felt. It’s not supposed to happen. It shatters the illusion that is a movie, breaking from their reality by acknowledging our reality.

The fourth wall is the imaginary wall separating the audience from the actors. It’s not all too popular in modern films, but was often used in Elizabethan and Restoration dramas. Actors in Shakespeare’s day would run towards the audience and tell jokes directly to them. There were even times when they’d sit on an audience members’ lap and ask them to hold a prop. As time went on, more and more theater productions tried putting a distance between the two worlds in order to make dramatic plays more realistic.

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Originally considered to be a cheap joke, directors avoided recognizing the fourth wall. Now, it’s turning into something creative. More and more films are finding ways to break that wall without overdoing it, or coming off too goofy. From Blazing Saddles (the extreme) to Hot Tub Time Machine (the mild), there are hundreds of films engaging with the audience on an elevated level.

Here are 12 movies that expertly break the fourth wall. Warning, there are spoilers ahead.

12. Wanted

Wanted doesn’t break anything but bones until the last second. A movie about a secret league of assassins who can distribute more adrenaline throughout their body than the average human to quicken their reflexes. Skinny Angelina Jolie, with arms like two string beans, somehow makes holding a gun and shooting people look like a Covergirl photo shoot.

Unique in appearance with stylized action and a fresh-faced James McAvoy making comical stressed out faces, Wanted is an individual standing in a world of franchises and overused plots. Star-Lord is also there if you look closely enough at the fat friend who is sleeping with McAvoy’s girlfriend at the beginning.

At the end, McAvoy, after the audience sees how he took control over his miserable life, turns to camera and demands to know, “what the fuck have you done lately?” The scene is the only moment that breaks the fourth wall but it completes the movie perfectly. The film looked at from afar, is about a guy taking control over the crappy life he thought was forced upon him. That last line asks the people watching the movie if they too are living a dull life and if they are brave enough to break away too.