Throughout the history of cinema, there have been many noteworthy movies that have reached important milestones and changed movies forever. 1927's The Jazz Singer was the first movie to feature someone talking. Jaws became the first movie to gross $100 million at the box office in 1975. And Wings became the first movie to win Best Picture in 1929.
However, there are also some forgotten trailblazing movies that made a more obscure mark on the world of filmmaking. While these milestones might not seem as glamorous or important, they managed to start trends that are still upheld in movies to this day.
First Sequel - Fall Of The Nation (1916)
Birth of a Nation remains one of the most controversial movies ever made. Though it was influential in its own right for its epic scale and use of editing, it is now regarded as a violently racist movie. However, thanks to its popularity and acclaim in 1915, the filmmakers made the unprecedented move to make a follow-up.
While the first movie was set during the Civil War, Fall of the Nation was said to focus on a European nation invading America and installing its own emperor. The movie was a commercial failure and is considered lost. But it did plant the seed of sequels.
First Remake - The Great Train Robbery (1905)
Along with sequels, many people complain that the constant remakes nowadays are a sign of the lack of creativity in modern Hollywood. However, remakes have actually been around since the very early beginnings of movies with The Great Train Robbery considered to be the first.
The original movie is a silent picture from 1903 that is regarded as one of the most influential movies of all time. It was so popular, another production company made a shot-for-shot remake of it in 1905 as the copyright laws were still murky at the time.
First PG-13 Movie - Red Dawn (1984)
There was a time before the 1980s where mainstream movies were categorized with only three MPAA ratings: G, PG, or R. However, Steven Spielberg changed all of that following the outcry from parents about the content in his PG-rated movies Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins.
Speilberg brought the matter to the MPAA and convinced them there needed to be a rating to bridge the gap between PG and R. Thus the PG-13 rating was created and the action-adventure movie Red Dawn was the first movie to bear it.
First Motion Post-Credit Scene – The Silencers (1966)
Thanks to the MCU, post-credit scenes are not just a regular thing in big blockbusters, but they are widely expected from fans. Some of these scenes simply offer one last joke as audiences exit the theater and some of them tease further adventures to come.
While the movie The Silencers might not mean much to most people, it was bold enough to offer the first post-credit scene. The movie is a spoof of spy adventures like James Bond and once the credits roll, the hero agent Matt Helm is seen with a group of beautiful women with the promise he'll return for more adventures.
First Use Of The Wilhelm Scream – Distant Drums (1951)
While some fans might not have really thought about it, most people have likely heard the "Wilhelm scream" in movies before. The sound is a now-famous stock sound effect usually used for when a character is shot or falls from a great height.
The scream was first recorded for the movie Distant Drums when a character is eaten by an alligator. After being added to the Warner Bros. stock sound library, it was used in the 1953 Western The Charge at Feather River, in which a character named Wilhelm is shot, thus earning the scream its name.
First Movie Shown On A Plane – The Lost World (1925)
Nowadays, airplanes off a variety of entertainment options to the point where passengers are bringing their own movies in case they don't like the in-flight options. However, there was a time when the concept of enjoying a movie while flying through the skies was unthinkable.
There were shorts and cartoons shown on airplanes previous to this, but The Lost World was the first feature-length movie to be screened for passengers. This occurred on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris in 1925.
First Movie To Have A Website – Stargate (1994)
Social media has become the main avenue of advertising for movies these days with just about every movie claiming its own Twitter and Instagram accounts. But during the early days of the internet, a movie website was a novel idea.
Stargate was a sci-fi adventure movie starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. The movie went on to start a franchise of movies and television shows, but its longest-lasting impact was ushering in the new era of movie websites.
First Use Of The F-Word – I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967)
Recent movies like The Wolf of Wall Street and Uncut Gems rank high on the list of movies with the most uses of the f-word. It is certainly a popular and versatile word for just about any type of genre. So it's strange to think its first use in movies came 40 years after the first talking movie.
The satire movie I'll Never Forget What's'isname gets the distinct honor of being the first movie to use that powerful word, doing so with the phrase, "Get out of here, you f***ing bastard!"
First Toilet Seen Flushing – Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is one of the most critically acclaimed thrillers of all time and a hugely influential movie. But with its brilliant directing style and the shocking plot twists, its significant movie milestone is quite surprising.
The movie is regarded as the first American movie to show a toilet flushing. Reportedly, screenwriter Joseph Stefano was adamant in showing this to add realism to the movie but Hitchcock stated it must be needed in the script. Stefano then wrote the scene in which Marion Crane flushes evidence down the toilet.
First Fart Joke In Hollywood – Blazing Saddles (1974)
Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles is one of those movies that has so many hilarious jokes that it's hard to remember all of the funniest parts. One sequence that stands out the most is the campfire scene in which a tough posse are eating beans and commence to farting.
The movie is still pretty funny today, but it's hard to imagine the reaction it would have gotten at the time as it was the first time a fart joke was ever used in a Hollywood movie up to that point. Although such jokes had been introduced in movies outside of America, Blazing Saddles helped make farting a cornerstone of comedy movies.