Flipping the bird is a time-honored expression of anger, rage, and disdain in our culture. Who would expect that the simple act of extending a single finger could cause such a ruckus, but if you want a reminder of just how nuts people go when you flip them off, next time you’re driving, point your middle finger towards the sky, show it to the person next to you, and watch them flip out. This is obviously a gesture that is used quite often in film, and this new supercut features some quite memorable moments, including a few from our favorite superheroes, like Wolverine and Star-Lord.
To this day, even 29 years later, the incident from Top Gun, where Maverick and Goose hover upside down above the MiG and flip off the Russian pilot, may very well be my favorite instance of this in all of movie history. But that’s not to say there aren’t countless other wonderful occurrences scattered throughout the annals cinema, and this video collects just about all of them you can think of. I’m sure there are more that didn’t make it, but this video from Supercutonline is fairly thorough.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine kind of cheats, using his razor sharp claws instead of fingers, but the gesture gets the point across (sorry, had to do it), and there’s the added bonus of it being less likely to piss off the censors. In Guardians of the Galaxy, when Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill/Star-Lord "accidentally" ratchets up his middle digit, not only is it super funny, but it’s also super immature, which is totally in keeping with his character’s stunted man-child personality. And while he wasn’t part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2001—hell, the MCU was just a glint in the comic book giant’s eyes all those years ago—future Ant-Man star Paul Rudd delivers a fantastic addition to this video in Wet Hot American Summer. (I can’t wait for Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp to drop next month. Why can’t it be July 31 already?)
As many fantastic examples as there are, someone getting flipped off is never quiet as funny as when it comes from an unexpected source, a fact this video also drives home quite well. You never expect a prim, proper society lady like Rose from Titanic to flip the bird, but here she is. The gesture is also both crude and adorable when it comes from the likes of small children, old ladies, or even orangutans (which happens twice in this video, because of course the first thing you should teach your ape sidekick is how to flip someone off). Hell, even a werewolf gets in on the action, proving that this as near a universal gesture as you can find, crossing all boundaries you can imagine.
