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Check This Out: Empire's Cryptic Canvas 50 Movie Painting

by Alex Billington
May 24, 2009
Source: Empire

Tomorrow is Memorial Day so it's a rather slow news weekend. On top of that, I'm spending the next 36 hours traveling from Cannes to Paris back to Los Angeles since Cannes has wrapped up. So to keep you occupied on this lazy weekend, Empire has launched the Cryptic Canvas, a time-wasting movie game involving a painting that contains 50 movie references. It's a nod to a painting that was put out a few years ago containing rock band names (if anyone knows where I can find that, let me know). You'll get the idea once you take a closer look at the painting, although there are some instructions on the site anyway.

The only clue Empire gives is that the movies hidden in the painting are from the last 20 years. I found a few right off the bat that weren't that hard and are quite obvious, but there are others that I just have no clue about. I'm not going to list all the answers for the sake of allowing a few of you to spend some time actually going through this (without cheating). The game on the site keeps track of how many you have answered correctly and dims out the images that you've already answered. Just head over to Empire right now to check it out. I'm sure within a few days you can check the comments below to find all 50 of the movies.

Explore tags: Cool Stuff, Hype

Boris Van Der Ree

Roughly from left to Right: Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Swimming with Sharks, The Fisher King, Eagle Eye, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Flags of Our Fathers, Zodiac, Pi, The Matrix, Liar Liar, Monsters Inc., Anchorman, Iron Man, Scream, Ice Age, Snakes on a Plane, Traffic, Moulin Rouge, Signs, The Dark Knight, Chocolat, Milk, Million Dollar Baby, The Pianist, The Thin Red Line, Trainspotting, Happy Feet, Saw, Bolt, Interview with the Vampire, No Country for Old Men, Iris, and The Crow. Thats 34 of the 50
Accordion27

Some that the other guy hadn't found, Hook (on the water tank) Stardust (in the warehouse) Little Children (the three smaller kids) Attack of the Clones (the cheerleaders, don't think that is a great clue...) Walk the Line (next to the train)
Accordion27

Crash (Plane crash)
Accordion27

Green Mile (sign with 5280 ft on it)
Thelastcineaste

Cloverfield(Next to bolt) Last King of Scotland(tombstone on bottom right) Pirates of the caribbean(two pirates by pool) Brick(Next to Lord of the rings clue)
Byron

Found three more: Pirates of the Caribbean (Two Pirates next to the water tank) Enter the Dragon (Dragon on the Hill) Brick (girl dropping the brick from top of the tower) But i still have no idea about the two guys caring the old English flag, the women shredding books and the three C's on the building. But including those three that leave me with 49/50. So one of the three I just mentioned has two parts to it.
Jeff

I give... 49/50... the only one I don't have is Iris, and I can't find it anywhere in the canvas! Help
Jeff

Byron, The english patient pulp fiction 300
Dave

The one with the English Flag is the "English Patient". Iris is the flower that "the crow" is holding.
Jeff

got it! I looked at that damn thing a million times!
Thelastcineaste

Those three are confusing me also. Ice Age (the 20yrs sign) Children of Men(family next to Little Children clue)
Jay

what are the two guys and the kids?
Matt

The two Dad's flag, the woman shredding books and the windmill are the only three I don't know. I got a few answers from this page after googling out of frustration.
Adam

There are actually 51. Enter the dragon is a bonus bc it came out in 1973.
don

no one has said "Gladiator" the guy standing near the camera... 50/50
Burt

The Complete List- I was wrong. There are only 50 1. Eagle Eye 2. Diving Bell and the Butterfly 3. Two Towers 4. Swimming with Sharks 5. Fisher King 6. Pi 7. Matrix 8. Zodiac 9. Liar Liar 10. Pirates of the Carribean 11. Monsters inc 12. English Patient 13. Scream 14. Anchorman 15. Iron Man 16. Pulp Fiction 17. Million Dollar Baby 18. Little Children 19. Children of Men 20. Stardust 21. The Dark Knight 22. Chocolat 23. Milk 24. Gladiator 25. Attack of the Clones 26. Happy Feet 27. Cloverfield 28. Saw 29. Bolt 30. Last King of Scotland 31. Interview with the Vampire 32. Crash 33. Trainspotting 34. Walk the Line 35. Thin Red Line 36. 300 37. The Pianist 38. Green Mile 39. No Country for Old Men 40. Traffic 41. Ice Age 42. Signs 43. Moulin Rouge 44. Flags of Our Fathers 45. Snakes on a Plane 46. Iris 47. The Crow 48. Brick 49. Hook 50. Enter The Dragon- Came out in 1973. The canvas is only supposed to have movies from the last 20 years. They tried to trick us!
Adrian

The two guys with the kids is two - the tiny kids are Little Children and the men are Children of Men. I just got all 50, so will post a list on my blog adoubleyou.blogspot.com shortly.
roger

i just can figure out wich one is iris,the thing below the Pi number ,an the numbers next to the zodiac circule
roger

i´d find the damn hook
http://digaphobia.com Mark

If anyone is interested, the aforementioned Rock and Roll game can be found here: http://digaphobia.com/virginbands-large.jpg 150 names if I remember correctly.
James S

For some reason Pirates of the carribean is not accepted/recognised. could it not be right? help? i'm on 49/50 (without 'pirates).
James S

because I was spelling Caribbean wrong (see above). DUH! sorry guys. 50/50!
Micheal B

wot is the lady at the bottom of the screen shredding books??...
Simon

23 - wot is the lady at the bottom of the screen shredding books??… pulp fiction
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

I got 40 some on my own and then came on here. Where the hell is Iris at?
ben

whats the tombstone?
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

#26- The Last King of Scotland
roger

where is iris and the numbers next to the zodiac symbol
Kevin

Iris is in the mouth of the crow in the upper right corner. The numbers are a matrix.
roger

thanks bro
Wurst

Funny painting! Found Attack of the Clones, Pulp Fiction, 300 ans Scream very difficult to find or not very logical IMO.
Robert

Attack of the Clones is ridiculous. Iris and Scream I couldn't figure out at all. About 45 to 40 were somewhat easy, and 7 to 10 were hard but once I figured out that some things are literal I was able to guess at the answer.
http://jimmahdigital.com James

Similar game from a couple of years ago from M&Ms... http://us.mms.com/us/dark/dark_game.jsp
ivica

where is Cloverfield
http://www.dudagueiros.wordpress.com Duda

where's cloverfield? (2)
pq

next to bolt
RM

I dont get why the 2 instrument things are Liar Liar. Anyone?
aw

lyre lyre.. was too literal for me
Tink

Can't get Pi to work................????
Lukas

great game. i only knew a few
Jane

What are the 3 C's for?
Rhy

The three c's are 300 in roman numerals
SiMo Sol

"Found Attack of the Clones, Pulp Fiction, 300 ans Scream very difficult to find or not very logical IMO." Scream is the Name of the paiting, made by norwegian PaArtist Edward Munch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream 300: CCC is 300 in old Roman numerals (C is 100 -> CCC is 300) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numbers Attack of the Clones and Pulp Fiction need some fantasy. But the rest is lack of general knowledge.
Sineman

@17 Well there are 51 clues... wonder why mark it as 50
vader

anyone know what the thing is between the cheerleaders and the grave?
http://www.google.co.uk lean_go

@45 someone who has been attacked by the clones?
Andrea

I didnt find scream anywhere ont he canvas, and when i realized the iris in the crows mouth wasnt black i typed it and got 50. are there 50 or 51?
Andrea

NVM read post above mine. Knew the paiting was scream was thinking of the movie thx!
Ash

I have them all, as well as their locations: 1. Ice Age - the 20 years sign 2. Flags of our Fathers - the flags with 'Dad's' written on them 3. The Two Towers - click on one of the big two towers and they will black out once you type it in 4. Brick - yhe falling brick from the tower 5. Traffic - the cars which are against eachother on the road. That's one hell of a jam! 6. Trainspotting - the train or the guy about to jump onto the rail tracks 7. Walk the Line - the guy who is sidestepping along the line next to the train 8. Signs - Any of the signs (500m, no smoking) 9. Stardust - The guy putting up the huge star. Where's the stardust? 10. The English Patient - The coffin with the England flag over it 11. The Fisher King - The King who is fishing by the tub full of sharks 12. Swimming with Sharks - The woman swimming in the tub of sharks or the water 13. Scream - The guys holding up the painting - one seems the be screaming, but this is a tricky one 14. The Dark Knight - The knight next to the building wearing dark armour 15. Milk - The milk bottle next to the chocolate 16. Chocolat - The chocolate! This was tricky as you couldn't have written 'chocolate' 17. Gladiator - The gladiator standing by the field of clovers 18. Cloverfield - The clovers on the field - just below the happy feet 19. Happy Feet - The feet with smiley faces on them 20. Bolt - The bolt (or nail, if you think it is) next to the clovers in the bottom right corner 21. Monsters Inc - Frankenstien with the hounds by the truck 22. Little Children - The shortest children in what seems to be a family (hand size) 23. Childen of Men - click on the man pushing the pram 24. Million Dollar Baby - the baby with the $1,000,000 tag on it - child slavery! 25. Pulp Fiction - the woman shredding the books (fiction) into pulp - by the shredder 26. Iron Man - this is more like an ironing machine, talking to the anchor 27. Anchorman - the anchor with the hat talking to the Iron Man 28. Pirates of the Caribbean - watch out for the spelling. The pirate next to the guy with the suitcase 29. 300 - The three Cs. this was somewhat hard. Think that C in Latin means a hundred 30. The Pianist - the woman playing the piano on the building 31. The Thin Red Line - the bright red vertical line next to the tracks 32. Interview with the vampire - we don't see Brad Pitt, but there is the girl talking to the vampire 33. Attack of the Clones - you obviously have some cheerleaders attacking and they look alike 34. Crash - the plane-crash site. Another great movie 35. No Country for Old Men - the sign with a cross running through the old men - right hand side 36. Saw - the saw next to the 'happy feet' 37. The Last King of Scotland - the grave saying 'HRH' with the Scottish flag 38. Hook - the clothes peg below the numbers '3.14159' 39. Pi - The numbers '3.14159265358975' - pi to fourteen decimal places 40. The Green Mile - the green plaque to the right side of the drawing saying 5280fb 41. Moulin Rouge - the red windmill. If you know your Paris landmarks this will be easy 42. The Matrix - the columns of numbers in a sequence, specifically a 'matrix' 43. Eagle Eye - the eagle to the top left carrying the 'I' 44. Snakes on a plane - The plane on the top middle. You can see that there are snakes on it 45. Zodiac - the zodiac circle, to the bottom far right 46. Liar Liar - the two wierdly-shaped string instruments to the bottom right, leaning against the tub 47. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - the butterfly is tied to the bell, which is on the diving board 48. The Crow - the crow flying in the sky 49. Iris - the flower held in the crow's beak. It is purple coloured 50. Enter the Dragon - This was unfair, as it was made in 1973, but, nevertheless, it is included. It is the red car going into the dragon's mouth. So overall, the canvas was moderately hard.
http://www.myspace.com/movie_dearest Movie_Dearest

"Enter the Dragon" was re-released in 1997.
shiva

Ash, regarding Stardust, the guy isn't hanging the star, he's dusting it.
shiva

also, the painting the guys are holding is titles "the Scream" and the guy on the train isn't trying to jump off, he's painting spots on the train...
Ash

Sorry if there were some errors, but the main purpose of that post was to simply tell people where the things are, not the very specifics. I had heard that Enter the Dragon was released in 1970 from somewhere, but I was clearly mistaken. Concerning Trainspotting, I wasn't looking very clearly, but now I can see the spots.
Kari

WTF? Moulin Rouge???????????? I've been stuck on that for days. Been looking online for every reference to windmills, red, wind, breeze, dutch, etc. I still can't believe it!
Arlan

Most were pretty easy. Some I have never even heard of, so even though I figured it out, I didn't know it was right like The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. What kinda title is that? A few of the movies were just too obscure. The person who created this should be congratulated for creating something rather clever, and then promptly smacked.
Dirk Diggler

Arlan Diving Bell and The Butterfly is an incredible movie worth seeing (and so is every other movie )it was nominated for Oscars in Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published and Kari in England note that Empire is British Moulin Rouge is a huge sightseeing thing
Tony88

@45 If you look in really closely at the thing hunched in front of the cheerleaders it sorta looks like an old man with white hair and a curved weapon sorta like Dooku's lying next to him