I don't get it when people insist that things are just things, and don't mean anything. I refer specifically here to movie references to other movies. For example, Rocky Balboa was loaded with references to previous movies. In the first movie, Rocky said that he had never broken his nose before. Then in the first two rounds of the Creed fight, Rocky cracked that he couldn't believe that Creed broke his nose twice. I consider the shot of the nose bleed to be a reference. There are also more obvious ones, such as the run up the museum steps, which is in many of the movies. There's also "Yo Adrian, we did it", which ends the saga, where the first movie ends with "Yo Adrian, I did it." The shot of Marie running through the crowd at the end is the mirror of Adrian running through the crowd in the first movie. The fights in the first and last movies were both not about Rocky winning or trying to win, but to survive fifteen rounds without being knocked out, in order to recover his self-confidence.

And now, I rewatch the Runaway Bride, and I crack up at the negotiating scene, which is a beautiful rehash of the one in Pretty Woman, with the Gere and Roberts roles reversed in terms of physical position and monetary position, albeit retaining the direction of flow of cash. Then there's the dress shop, where Gere sticks up for Roberts' right to spend a lot of money on clothes. And of course, finishing on a balcony.