Article: How My Book Became a Prop in Marvel’s Avengers Endgame

As I've noted in several posts, I love seeing books used as props in movies or shows, especially when it's clear some thought went into what book was going to be in the frame. Here's an interesting story on how an unpublished book was used as a prop in Avengers: Endgame.

When the man who made Thor’s hammer asks if you want your book to be in the next Avengers movie, you say yes, even if your book is not yet a book.

Yes. Yes you do.

(Picture from the Brevity post)

A Furious Sound

Last night my son was watching Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage while I was fixing dinner. At one point I asked him to repeat a scene: "Did I just see Geddy Lee reading Faulkner?" Yes. Yes I did.

Update: A few blogs I found that feature books on the screen

• Cinematic Literature
• People reading in movies
• Fictional Characters Reading Books

Reading in 1957's movie "The Enemy Below"

Since I love seeing books used in shows and movies, I thought I'd share a few screenshots from 1957's movie The Enemy Below. The story follows a cat-and-mouse game between an American destroyer and a German U-Boat during World War II (and is currently available on Netflix). The following screenshots take place about an hour into the movie. The U-Boat is resting on the ocean floor, at 1,000 feet depth, while the destroyer is directly over it. Both vessels are trying to remain completely silent. The camera pans through the American destroyer first and we see one of the sailors engaged in some serious reading.

The camera keeps moving and we another sailor enjoying something a little less weighty.

The references keep coming...meanwhile on the deck of the destroyer, an officer is quoting from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ("a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean"). It's not quite as painful on the screen as it is in print here.

A minute later the focus is on the sailors in the U-boat. First up we see a sailor enjoying some lighter fare.

As the camera continues, we see the German equivalent of the more serious book...easy to guess what it will be...

Steve Rogers' bookshelf

Adding to the continuing series of books in movies...

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve Rogers' climbs in through the window of his apartment after realizing someone has broken in. There are two shelves you see him pass by on his way to see who's in his apartment. He passes by the second one so fast the titles are illegible (although I hope to one day get a good screen-capture of it). The lighting on the first shelf is bad, but I've played with it some to make out the titles better. Here's what I can discern. If you can fill in any of the books or correct what I have, let me know in the comments!

Standing books, left:

Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom by Lieutenant General William G. Boykin

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

(Not completely certain on this) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

Three books I can't identify, although one may be Dispatches by Michael Herr

The fifth book from the left is probably The Catcher in the Rye (see comments)

Next to it is Steinbeck in Vietnam (see comments)

Stacked books:

Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling by Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis

George H.W. Bush by Timothy Naftali

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

The Night Stalkers: Top Secret Missions of the US Army’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment by Michael J. Durant, Steven Hartov, and Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Johnson

Standing books, right:

The Second World War: An Illustrated History of WWII, Sir John Hammerton (editor)—two volumes out of the ten-volume series published by Trident Press (1999-2000)—I'm not sure which two volumes, though

What I like about the book choices is that it fits in with one of the running gags in the movie about Rogers trying to catch up on everything he missed from World War II to when he was discovered. These books show he was definitely focusing on history (which is why I'm uncertain on the Hemingway), at least on this shelf.

Whacha readin'? (screen edition)

Last night I was watching 2013's movie Now You See Me, a film about four magicians/illusionists who pull scams for the benefit of their audiences. After the first job (what appears to be a bank heist), the FBI comes to the illusionists' suite to arrest them. The character played by Woody Harrelson is on the couch reading Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives. The novel's plot about the search for Cesárea Tinajero by two aspiring poets dovetails nicely with one of the movie's subplots: is there a mastermind behind the four illusionists' heists and, if so, who is it? Someone had to have put some thought into what book to put in Harrelson's hands, brief though the shot may be.

I obviously love looking for things like this in movies, additionally so for anything book related. One of my favorite inclusion of a book as a prop comes from an episode of The X-Files television series. "The Goldberg Variations" episode opens with a novice poker player winning big against a Chicago mob boss. The player, Henry Weems, miraculously survives being thrown from the top of a 29-story building by the mobsters. FBI agents interview Weems in his apartment after the incident. As they scan across the Rube Goldberg-like contraptions Weems has created, his bookcase comes into view. A hardcover copy of Michael Lewis' Liars Poker is clearly visible. The subject of the book has little relevance to the story other than the inclusion of "poker" in the title, but the fact that someone had to have thought about putting that book in the shot delights me.

I'm always interested in hearing about book inclusions like this from the screen, large or small, so if you have a favorite let me know!

Willie Garson as Henry Weems in The X-Files episode "The Goldberg Variations
(Approximately 13:30 into the episode)
Click picture for more detail

Creepiest book moment

A break from regular posting...

So a while back (OK, over 20 years) I had the day off for jury duty. As I’m heading out the door, I grab a book I recently bought at a used bookstore to have something to read during the wait. No jury was empaneled that day so I went home. Bagdad Cafe was on one of the movie channels so I decided to watch it while I finished reading the book I had taken to jury duty. 43 minutes into the movie I see the scene above...

Not only was I reading the same book, I was reading the same edition of the paperback Debby (actress Christine Kaufmann, probably best known in the U.S. as Tony Curtis’ second wife) is holding. A shiver ran down my spine and I glanced behind the chair, looking for…hell if I know. Allen Funt? Without a doubt, it was the eeriest moment I have ever had involving a book.

Addendum: I guess I should follow up with one of the funniest moments I've had with a book, although it sounds too much like a joke. So David Byrne walks into a bar/laundromat and sees me reading from a Library of America volume of Melville and says...yeah, too much like a bad joke...