WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Red Notice, now playing in select theaters and on Netflix.
In Red Notice, the biggest nod to pop culture seems to occur midway through the film when the diminutive Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) and stoic Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) end up on a botched heist in Valencia, Spain. As they’re left trying to steal a Cleopatra egg, the duo’s imprisoned, only to escape into a bull arena where Booth utters lines from the Jurassic Park franchise to keep his partner calm. However, while this is indeed a funny chain of events, the best movie reference is made earlier on to Titanic.
We all love a good Jurassic Park Easter egg, especially as Hartley and Booth wax poetic on Jeff Goldblum and how Booth has no clue what he’s doing. But it’s the subtle Titanic moment that flies under the radar that has deep humor and meaning to it in terms of the narrative that’s ongoing — and the one to come.
It comes in the opening act after Booth pulls off a heist in an Italian museum, stealing the first of three eggs. It leads to a brutal chase where Hartley, an FBI agent, tries to work with Interpol’s Inspector Das and the cops to catch the thief, only for the wise-cracking and surprisingly action-oriented Booth to evade them.
They’re left with egg on their faces as Booth moseys off on a Vespa, but it’s when he secrets away to his base in Bali that we see the nod to the James Cameron blockbuster from 1997. The little skiff he takes to shore is named “We’re Gonna Make It, Rose,” which is painted on its bow in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. It fits Booth’s sense of comedy, considering what happened in Titanic to its lead.
This is the line Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) keeps repeating to his beloved Rose (Kate Winslet) throughout the movie as the boat begins sinking after hitting the iceberg. He also says it as her husband, Cal, and his goons hunt them down, and even when they end up in the frozen water trying to survive. Sadly, Jack didn’t make it, but Rose did, which foreshadows what happens to Booth. He also loses at his game, with the villain of the story, the Bishop, taking the eggs and getting the payday, leaving Booth empty handed and in Das’ grip as a criminal who failed the biggest art theft of his career.
Luckily, his journey isn’t as dead as Jack, as Booth concocts a new job and seemingly his own revenge scheme to show everyone his reputation hasn’t been placed on ice. Ultimately, it would have been nice for Booth to riff off this some more as he and Hartley have such an antagonistic friendship, but the fleeting scene is indeed a memorable one for those who were rooting for Jack.
See how Red Notice pays homage to Titanic as the film plays in select theaters and streams on Netflix.
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