100 Greatest Simpsons Movie References
Reservoir Dogs
The Episode: Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious .
What's Happening In Springfield? In Itchy And Scratchy's 'Reservoir Cats', guest director Quentin Tarantino gets his head chopped off while giving a lecture on movie violence.
Looks Familiar: Before QT's interruption, Itchy is doing his best Mr Blonde by tying Scratchy up and lopping off his ear.
Casablanca
The Episode: Natural Born Kissers .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart and Lisa find the reel of the lost alternative ending to Casablanca, in which Ilse parachutes back to earth to stop Hitler from shooting Rick.
Looks Familiar: Please, don't give the remake squad any ideas!
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror XII .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lord Montymort and pet snake Slithers attempt to take over Springwart's School of Magickry.
Looks Familiar: An odd one, as this premiered the same month as the film. However, one of the Simpsons' classmates is Harry himself, and could be modelled on Daniel Radcliffe if you squint hard enough.
Home Alone
The Episode: Homer Alone .
What's Happening In Springfield? With Marge relaxing at a spa, Homer is in charge of the kids… but has lost Maggie.
Looks Familiar: The shocked face that Homer pulls can only be called 'doing a Macauley Culkin.'
The Ten Commandments
The Episode: Homer Vs Lisa And The Eight Commandment .
What's Happening In Springfield? Moses appears to read out the Ten Commandments, "in no particular order." Bad news for Homer the thief, Azran the carver of craven images and Zoar the adulterer.
Looks Familiar: The lighting, camera angles and epic scale of Moses' appearance are straight out of the Cecil B. DeMille playbook.
Cabaret
The Episode: A Star Is Burns .
What's Happening In Springfield? Moe dons make-up to perform in his musical film, 'Moe Better Booze'.
Looks Familiar: Moe's look resembles that of Joel Grey's MC.
Catch Me If You Can
The Episode: Catch 'Em If You Can .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge and Homer try to enjoy a holiday on their own, but Bart and Lisa are in hot pursuit in a montage sequence.
Looks Familiar: Never mind the episode's title. This sequence is animated in the same style as the credits of Spielberg's film.
Wall-E
The Episode: The Burns And The Bees .
What's Happening In Springfield? Imagining a world without honey, a green robot turns Homer into a garbage cube.
Looks Familiar: Well, Wall-E's behaviour is consistent. Not sure why he's green, though.
The Fugitive
The Episode: Lisa's Rival .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Feds hunt Milhouse into a waterpipe after Bart mischievously adds his picture to America's Most Wanted list.
Looks Familiar: Milhouse's pursuer looks and sounds just like Tommy Lee Jones' Samuel Gerard.
Batman Begins
The Episode: Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Three Times .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart avenges his parents' death "in flamboyant, impractical fashion" by becoming Bartman.
Looks Familiar: OK, it's more of a general parody of the Batman universe, but the fact it's an origins story links it most closely to Nolan's film.
Rain Man
The Episode: $pringfield .
What's Happening In Springfield? Blackjack dealer Homer upsets an autistic man by forcing him to do his card-counting trick over and over.
Looks Familiar: That's blatantly Babbit brothers Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
The Seven Year Itch
The Episode: Rosebud .
What's Happening In Springfield? Smithers has a (presumably doctored) photo in which Mr Burns is wearing a billowing dress a la Marilyn.
Looks Familiar: Smithers has got a whole Marilyn thing going on, as he also imagines Burns popping out of a cake and singing 'Happy Birthday', like Monroe did for JFK.
Un Chien Andalou
The Episode: Yokel Chords .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lisa is tutoring Cletus' kids, so takes them to see Un Chien Andalou for a lesson in surrealist art.
Looks Familiar: Amazingly, The Simpsons got eyeball-slicing into primetime.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
The Episode: Eternal Moonshine Of The Simpson Mind .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer drinks a 'Forget-Me-Shot' and has to piece together the events of the past 24-hours with the help of Professor Frink.
Looks Familiar: Michel Gondry's film would have been a lot shorter if Lacuna's memory-erasing techniques were as instant as Moe's Forget-Me-Shot.
Full Metal Jacket
The Episode: Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadassss Song .
What's Happening In Springfield? Skinner becomes a drill instructor, but is scandalised by his troops' smutty jogging chants.
Looks Familiar: Except in Kubrick's film it's Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann (R. Lee Ermey) who provides the filthy lyrics.
The Gold Rush
The Episode: Lady Bouvier's Lover .
What's Happening In Springfield? Abe attempts to seduce Marge's mom by doing a dance with two potatoes on forks.
Looks Familiar: Charlie Chaplin does something similar with bread rolls. No wonder a lawyer turns up telling Abe to cease and desist.
A Chorus Line
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror V .
What's Happening In Springfield? A killer fog turns the Simpsons inside-out, and they proceed to do a musical number with their innards slopping about.
Looks Familiar: The tune is the musical's show-stopping number 'One'. However, the lyrics have been much improved: "Vital organs, they are what we're dressed in / The family dog is eyeing Bart's intestine."
The Lord Of The Rings
The Episode: Rome-old and Juli-eh .
What's Happening In Springfield? Delivery men attack the cardboard box fort in the Simpsons' garden where Bart and Lisa have made their home.
Looks Familiar: A compendium of various Middle Earth battles, although the score and the appearance of a fell beast links the scene most closely to The Return Of The King .
JFK
The Episode: Grandpa Vs Sexual Inadequacy .
What's Happening In Springfield? The ultimate conspiracy theory, courtesy of Milhouse: "The Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner."
Sounds Familiar: Milhouse's sign-off is the same as Garrison's (Kevin Costner) in the film: "We're through the looking glass, people."
Spider-man
The Episode: Simple Simpson .
What's Happening In Springfield? Masked superhero Pie Man (aka Homer) rescues Marge and they kiss.
Looks Familiar: The kiss' unique selling point - the fella is hanging upside-down.
Goodfellas
The Episode: Bart The Murderer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Having been adopted by the Springfield Mafia, Bart shocks Marge by rocking up in a custom-tailored suit.
Looks Familiar: Henry Hill is better at hiding his new career from his parents, largely because the postman has been ordered not to deliver any more letters from Henry's school.
A Nightmare On Elm Street
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror VI .
What's Happening In Springfield? Groundskeeper Willie returns from the dead as, amongst other things, a giant bagpipe spider, in order to kill Springfield's children in their dreams.
Looks Familiar: Everything's right except the backstory, as Freddy Krueger wasn't burned alive because of Homer's stupidity.
Total Recall
The Episode: Deep Space Homer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Employees are scanned via x-ray as they arrive at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. The guards recognise Homer from his Neanderthal appearance.
Looks Familiar: Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is caught wielding a weapon in the x-ray scanner, and has to smash his way out.
No Country For Old Men
The Episode: Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Simpsons have rented out an apartment to pretend the kids are in the catchment area for a posh school. The schools inspector hopes to catch them out by firing out the lock with a captive bolt pistol.
Looks Familiar: The inspector is a dead ringer for Anton Chigurh.
The Fly
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror VIII .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer buys a matter transmitter from Professor Frink, only for Bart to get spliced with a housefly.
Looks Familiar: This Treehouse segment is called 'Fly Vs Fly' for good reason, as it's a composite of the 1958 original (Bart-fly's appearance) and the 1986 remake (the design of the teleport pod).
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Episode: Realty Bites .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge gets a job as a realtor, where she meets nervy, inept estate agent Gil Gunderson.
Looks Familiar: Gil's mannerisms and appearance are based on Jack Lemmon's character, Shelley Levene. In a running gag, Gil became a regular character who turns out to be awful at every job he does.
Trainspotting
The Episode: The Regina Monologues .
What's Happening In Springfield? High on sugar, Bart and Lisa hallucinate Maggie crawling across the ceiling towards them.
Looks Familiar: Replace sugar with heroin, and you're pretty much there.
Speed
The Episode: The Springfield Files .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer plans to bunk off work early by rigging a looped video camera, a trick he learnt from a movie.
Sounds Familiar: "I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty. And if its speed dropped, the bus would explode! I think it was called... The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down."
The Lost Boys
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror IV .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lisa is disturbed when a vampiric Bart flies up to her bedroom window.
Looks Familiar: Exactly the same thing happens when Michael (Jason Patric) appears at his brother Sam's (Corey Haim) window.
All The President's Men
The Episode: Sideshow Bob Roberts .
What's Happening In Springfield? A shadowy whistleblower (actually Smithers) gives Lisa the lowdown on how Sideshow Bob rigged Springfield's mayoral election.
Looks Familiar: Deep Throat similarly met Woodward and Bernstein in a car park, albeit without Homer revealing his identity by switching on car headlamps.
The 400 Blows
The Episode: Any Given Sundance .
What's Happening In Springfield? Nelson Muntz shows his documentary, 'Life Blows Chunks', at Sundance. The film ends with an ambiguous freeze-frame on Nelson's face.
Looks Familiar: No American film would really include the caption, "Fin" at the end unless it was a deliberate nod to Truffaut.
Taxi Driver
The Episode: Burns' Heir .
What's Happening In Springfield? Burns shows Bart that he has all of Springfield under surveillance, and shows Moe talking to himself in the mirror and practising his holster action, badly.
Looks Familiar: Moe's no Travis Bickle, is he? Incidentally, the whole surveillance angle is itself a nod to Sliver , which Burns calls "a delightful romp."
Night Of The Living Dead
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror III .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart uses black magic to resurrect dead cat Snowball, but accidentally unleashes a zombie invasion.
Looks Familiar: The attack on the Simpsons' house borrows George Romero's skewed camera angles and zombie shuffle.
Aliens
The Episode: Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadassss Song .
What's Happening In Springfield? Skinner peeks his head into the air ducts, where he discovers Santa's Little Helper hiding. "Greased Scotsman" Groundskeeper Willie is sent in to capture the dog.
Sounds Familiar: When the Space Marines realise the aliens are stalking them from above, it's they who have to do a runner through the ventilation system.
Basic Instinct
The Episode: Who Shot Mr Burns? Part 2 .
What's Happening In Springfield? A kilt-wearing Groundskeeper Willy is interrogated by Springfield PD and distracts them by uncrossing his legs. "This is your last warning about that!" yells Eddie.
Looks Familiar: Nobody's warning Sharon Stone to stop flashing her bits.
Edward Scissorhands
The Episode: Cape Feare .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart is frightened when Ned Flanders appears wearing finger razors, only to find he's trimming his hedge into the shape of an angel.
Looks Familiar: Hedges were, of course, one of Scissorhands' many party tricks, although his designs weren't quite so Biblical.
The Karate Kid
The Episode: Dead Putting Society .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart trains for a miniature golf tournament by balance on a trash can in the crane position.
Looks Familiar: Those techniques make far more sense for martial arts, but who knows? Maybe this is how Tiger Woods trains.
The Omega Man
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror VIII .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer awakes to find he's the last man on Earth after a nuclear holocaust, and decides to enjoy himself watching a David Spade / Chris Farley movie with the corpses of the dead.
Looks Familiar: Chuck Heston didn't have quite as much fun dodging post-apocalyptic vampires. Nor did Will Smith in 2007 remake I Am Legend .
Saboteur
The Episode: Three Men And A Comic Book .
What's Happening In Springfield? After fighting over issue #1 of Radioactive Man, Bart saves Milhouse from falling out of his treehouse.
Looks Familiar: The camera angles mimic the Statue of Liberty climax of Hitchcock's thriller, but the outcome is more positive. In the film, saboteur Fry (Norman Lloyd) falls to his death.
Brokeback Mountain
The Episode: The Haw-Hawed Couple .
What's Happening In Springfield? After becoming best friends with Nelson, Bart keeps Nelson's vest in his closet. Outside, Nelson spots this and laughs, "Haw haw, I touched your heart!"
Looks Familiar: Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) keeps a similar keepsake of dead lover Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). Oh, and the music score is the same.
North By Northwest
The Episode: Fear Of Flying .
What's Happening In Springfield? A psychiatrist coaxes a memory from Marge that explains why she might be afraid of flying - being hunted down by a bi-plane in a cornfield.
Looks Familiar: Interestingly, Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill never flies, either. Perhaps he's been scarred by his experiences, too?
Jurassic Park
The Episode: Itchy And Scratchy Land .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Simpsons travel to the Itchy & Scratchy Land island via helicopter.
Looks Familiar: The theme park's black skeleton-on-red circle logo is a giveaway. For bonus geek points, the same episode's killer robots are a nod to Westworld , Michael Crichton's earlier story about a theme park gone wrong.
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror IV .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Simpsons are invited to Burns' castle, where their host welcomes them resplendent in red robes and bouffant white hair.
Looks Familiar: Burns is channelling his best Gary Oldman look, in one of many nods to Coppola's film.
The Matrix
The Episode: Lisa the Tree Hugger .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart takes a job leafleting for a Thai restaurant, and amazes everyone with his ninja skills.
Looks Familiar: The animators go wild with a 360-degree 'bullet time' whirl, while the Propellerheads' Spybreak! provides a recognisable music cue.
This Is Spinal Tap
The Episode: The Otto Show .
What's Happening In Springfield? Spinal Tap play a gig in Springfield, which degenerates into a riot.
Looks Familiar: Unusual in that there's no direct movie reference; however, the band is treated as if they are real-life guest stars, which is true to the spirit of the original mockumentary.