Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rango Cheatsheet

Rango "Cheatsheet"! Impress your friends & family by identifying these film references in the film Rango!

Breaking the 4th wall: characters use forefinger to draw a square (the "fourth wall") no less than three times in the film. Also, lots of self-conscious screenwriting terms and phrases like "Every story needs a hero", "What our story needs is conflict", "It is metaphor", etc.

Here are the film references I spotted starting from the beginning:




Sergio Leone's "No Name" Trilogy:
Rattlesnake Jake = Lee van Cleef
Good, Bad & Ugly (Il buono il brutto il cattivo) = bird's cry used to bleep swear word

Django: the gattling gun in Rattlesnake Jake's tail

ALSO the fight in canyon is like final Death Star canyon sequence

True Grit: Rango calls little girl Priscilla "Little Sister"

Jurassic Park: dinosaur/bird uncovers someone on the toilet


The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: hero is a fraud

High Noon: hero discards badge/star


I have heard there are also references to Ghostbusters, Planet of the Apes & Deliverance. (But I didn't get those...)


  1. guitar/banjo playing in the airborne The Hills Have Eyes characters on bats - Deliverence, Appocolypse Now, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars in a single sequence.

  2. Chase sequence with Jake (Jake as in Chinatown) is Raising Arizona. What with the "We Ride" sequences - the long shots seem really familiar but I can't remember. Alice In Wonderland with the rolly-polly bugs instead of hedgehog golf.

  3. How about The Three Amiga suit Rango wears!

  4. lord of the rings with the sequence underground with the snake eye opening behind them

  5. I am pretty sure I heard a tune from the Bladerunner soundtrack in there.

  6. And what about a little nod to Dune as well?

    1. "he who controls the spice controls the universe"

  7. The half buried boat in the desert is right from the early Shia Lebouf film "Holes."

  8. These are all great! Thanks, pards!

  9. What about Klaus Kinsky playing the Hunchback in one of Leone's dollar trilogy film (maybe For a few dollars more, I don't remember)? It's one of the guys in the Mayor's crew.

  10. The Clock is from "The Quick and the Dead"