And it occurred to me that symbols like this have come to represent a new kind of emotional currency in Hollywood.

The currency of inter textual Itty the garbage will do inter textual Itty is something in a text in this case a movie that is shaped by another text that could be a film or a book or a play or a song.

Inter sexuality is something that you can't escape.

It's as old as storytelling is, it's how language works.

All language reaches back and is informed by how it was used in the past, but today there seems to be a new kind of inter textual Itty born out of the endless series of Sequels, remakes and reboots, adaptations and shared universes and it's perfectly captured in that force awakens, clip when the Millennium Falcon is revealed or later, when Han solo and Chewbacca board their ship or later still when BB eight pulls the cover off an old friend, what do we feel in these moments?

It's a bit hard to pinpoint but personally I feel a kind of frisson, a chill everything I know about the inter textual object in question.

Unloads onto my mind like the vision ray gets when she first touches luke's lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi Knight, not as clumsy or random as a blaster.

Inter textual references can point to genre conventions.

They can point to the texts influences or cultural and historical contexts.

But in this new generation of films, more and more, the inter textual manifests itself as objects, people or situations specifically meant to trigger an emotional response in the viewer.

It's weaponized inter textual it.

What's a bit troubling about this trend is that increasingly I'm seeing films use this kind of inter textual reference as a dramatic substitute.

I mean, why else include Sarah in the Hobbit trilogy, For example, when he appears nowhere in the book, it seems to me that Saruman galadriel Ceron, that whole plotline was included purely for inter textual pay off so you could cash out that feeling of oh this is what these people were doing, decades old series are right for this kind of thing.

And if you want a couple examples of just how cheap these moments can be, just take a look at two big inter textual reveals, my name is calm.

The man you're talking to now.

The man inside your head this and stuff up Blofeld, surprise, motherfucker scenes like this are a kind of unicorns blood, they'll keep your story alive, but only with half a soul.

One of my favorite tv shows when I was a teenager was small film by its very nature, that show was built around inter textual cues.

What made the show great in the early seasons was how it took those cues and deconstructed them in unexpected ways, namely in the friendship of clark Kent and lex luthor its strength was that fan service payoffs played second fiddle to deeply drawn relationships.

But in the later seasons the show began to lean a little too heavily on inter textual objects and moments from the superman canon really, dc comics has always had this problem because its heroes are mythological batman and superman are the quintessential inter textual characters just seeing them at all is exciting.

But the recent batman V Superman movie directed by Zack Snyder proved that the frisson of having these characters on screen together of having them fight each other was just no substitute for strong, intelligent drama.

Snyder had a similar issue with his film Watchman.

Almost every shot in that film is a compositional match to the comic.

It's trying to adapt now for those who read and love that comic, there certainly is a thrill in seeing those frames and experiencing those inter textual moments come beautifully to life.

But when that's all there is The final feeling is an empty one.

My God, I think when cinematic storytelling is confined by an economic situation like this one where $300 million bets have to be safe ones weaponized.

Inter textual Itty is going to be an inevitable byproduct.

I mean this year alone we have coming up, Finding Dory Independence Day resurgence, Ghostbusters, the Angry Birds movie adjacent born sequel, Rogue One Star Trek Beyond and Warcraft expect to be flooded with weaponized inter textual Itty at every turn.

As I said before, I don't think franchises and shared universes are bad by default, quite the opposite at their best.

They build interpretive communities and foster social bonds and increasingly alienated world.

The kind of inter textual Itty that we're talking about can reflect these good qualities and when it's done right, when it's not a substitute for strong characters and a good story, it can be funny.

Excuse me, I'm eric lynch Xavier, don't suck yourself.

It can be amusingly subversive and of course it can add to the drama while still being exciting as hell.

Hey everybody welcome to the nerd writer and screen.

Thank you so much for watching that.

That was so much fun to make and I love thinking about stuff like this.

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Oh and thank you so much for watching my video on taxes.

I didn't think I would get a lot of views but people really seem to like it.