Whether you are watching an old VHS tape or streaming on Netflix, you probably often use the pause button for different reasons, whether to catch up on missed plot points or for other more questionable reasons.
Here are 27 movie moments that have been paused the most:
1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) – On any list of paused moments, you have to include Fast Times. Phoebe Cates, playing Linda Barrett, and Jennifer Jason Lee, playing Stacy Hamilton, are going for an afternoon swim as Stacy’s older brother Brad is watching over them. When Phoebe Cates exits the pool in her skimpy red bikini, only to remove it completely, every single tape stops.
2. Wild Things (1998) – Take Phoebe Cates’ pool scene, turn it up to 11, and add in a second woman, and you have Wild Things, a movie basically plucked from a teenager's head. The moment Neve Campbell and Denise Richards kiss is one of the only reasons this movie was successful.
3. Basic Instinct (1992) – A decade later, Sharon Stone proved it wasn’t just topless scenes that got paused. When her character crossed her legs during an interrogation and revealed more than just an underwear line, the movie made history.
4. Scanners (1981) – David Cronenberg started off his legendary decade with this mystery horror film surrounding psychic powers. At one very infamous moment, a young Michael Ironside makes a man’s head explode with his powers. It happened so quickly and gruesomely that people had to watch it again.
5. Cabin in the Woods (2012) – While the scientists are betting on the outcome of the protagonists, a whiteboard is filled with lists of monsters and bad guys behind them. Viewers stopped it time and again to read what other kinds of weird creatures the lab had planned.
6. Wizard of Oz (1939) – The background of one scene in the timeless classic has caused much controversy over the years. It appears as if one of the munchkins has hung himself, but the official story is that it’s just a bird. (A little morbid or just a misplaced bird?)
7. Teen Wolf (1985) – Somehow, a frame of a background actor with his pants pulled down made it into the family-friendly movie right before the credits started to roll. In the scene, a group of spectators were standing up and cheering. In the background, you can make out a gentleman with his zipper down.
8. The Little Mermaid (1989) – When Ariel and her Prince are finally getting married, something about the priest causes a few double-takes. Let’s just say he was pretty excited that they finally got together.
9. Fight Club (1999) – It’s not just the spliced-in pornographic material that made views stop the David Fincher film; it’s also the brief appearances of Brad Pitt in places he shouldn’t have been before we even met him.
10. Psycho (1960) – In the classic horror film, Alfred Hitchcock gives us plenty of pause-able moments, but one in particular sticks out. When Norman Bates is eventually arrested, he looks directly into the camera, and a human skull is superimposed over his face for just a moment.
11. Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – Following in Cates’ and Stone’s footsteps, Margot Robbie had a turn as the sex icon of a generation in the Martin Scorsese film. She has a handful of heart-stopping moments, including showing off to the mansion security team.
12. The Lion King (1994) – Among a few odd frames in the Disney classic, there is one that fans will swear spells “SEX” in the dust. According to a statement, it’s actually “SFX,” but we still have our doubts.
13. Boogie Nights (1997) – Yes, it’s a prosthetic. When Mark Wahlberg drops his drawers for the camera in the adult-film-inspired Paul Thomas Anderson film, audiences gasped at the size of his equipment and quickly stopped the tape to have a look.
14. Tron (1982) – A movie filled with Easter eggs for the arcade culture of the ’80s; if you pause it at a certain point, you can even see Pac-Man on the computer with Jeff Bridges. (Everyone knows of Pac-Man, but where was Mrs. Pac-Man in that scene?)
15. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) – The Star Wars franchise has given us a ton of pau–wait, did a stormtrooper just smash his head while coming through the door? I guess that’s why they wear helmets. And the subsequent lightheadedness and blurred vision must be the reason why they can never hit the Jedi.
16. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) – George Lucas decided to throw a reference to his good friend Steven Spielberg into the first of the prequels when he added E.T. and his family into the Galactic Senate.
17. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – At the very end of the film, when Rey hands Luke Skywalker his old lightsaber, there is a small stone to his right that looks like it may be a gravestone. Fans everywhere have come up with a million reasons why Luke was standing up there alone, but none of them have much evidence.
18. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) – As one of the most sexualized cartoons in history, Jessica Rabbit was thought to go commando in a certain scene. In the movie, it was during a scene where Jessica Rabbit had to perform a variety of dance moves. Remember everyone; someone drew her.
19. Three Men and a Baby (1987) – Other than the moment that Leonard Nimoy’s name comes up as the director (Spock, really?), there is a scene that had people clicking pause over and over. That’s when it looks like a boy is standing behind the characters, watching from another dimension. Turns out it’s just a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson. Bummer.
20. Jurassic World (2015) – While the Pterodactyls attack and terrorize the park, one man is seen saving two giant margaritas. That’s none other than Jimmy Buffett himself, still searching for that lost shaker of salt.
21. Iron Man (2008) – Before Marvel would fill up their movies with references to one another, they slipped in a few that went relatively unnoticed. In this scene, a prototype of Captain America’s shield sits unfinished. Chris Evans wouldn’t debut as the character for another three years.
22. Man of Steel (2013) – Not to be outdone, DC also slipped a moment into their reboot of the Superman franchise that told fans to expect a Batman crossover in the future. The satellite that Supes grabs while fighting in outer space has a Wayne Enterprises logo on it.
23. The Rescuers (1977) – Disney animators slipped in something a little naughty again when the window of a building the characters are flying by has a couple of frames of a naked woman.
24. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – The first Indy film had a ton of memorable moments, but none were stopped more than a shot of Belloq delivering a line while a fly crawls into his mouth. Never break character.
25. Signs (2002) – Your first glimpse of the aliens in M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi horror is as quick as it could be, and it makes us all rush for the rewind button. Guess we all have an innate urge to see some foreign life forms.
26. Burn After Reading (2008) – The Coen Brothers aren’t one of the best at shocking us with violence because of how quickly and unexpectedly it occurs. When Brad Pitt gets shot in the closet, you may have blinked and missed the whole thing.
27. She’s The Man (2006) – The 2006 comedy flick starred Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum, who play Viola Johnson and Duke Orsino, respectively. Amanda pretends to be her twin brother Sebastian and attends his boarding school, where she is roommates with Channing Tatum. As she goes through college life, soccer practice, and much much more, her imitation slowly begins to falter. Eventually, the two main characters, along with the popular and pretty girl, Olivia, get entangled in a love triangle. When 19-year-old Amanda Bynes lifts her shirt to show the boys that she is, in fact, a girl, teenagers across the country were smashing their pause button to find out if they could see anything. You can’t, by the way. Since then, Amanda, who is now 31, has appeared in movies such as Hairspray, Sydney White, and Easy A. And then, in 2012, she announced that she was retiring from acting. Since then, Amanda has been concentrating on her drawings and her artistic side, as well as her fashion designs.
