Sign Language has become part of the cinematographic language in recent years as it has been posted several times in Unusualverse. The world of cinema and TV series have understood the enormous communicative potential of Sign Language and many times it has been used very ingeniously as in the film A Quiet Place or in The Shape of Water. The first became a blockbuster and the second won two Oscars.
But sometimes Sign Language has an anecdotal look, so brief that you'll have to pay a lot of attention. These are some of those anecdotal looks. Do you know any more?
Sudden Death (1995)
The famous martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme says it several times and is a key emotional piece throughout the film. Will Van Damme remember how I Love You is said in American Sign Language 25 years after the shooting of the film?
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger see a deaf man say to a woman: "You complete me". If you missed it or don't remember it, here it is:
Friends (2001)
Ross' character comes into the famous Central Perk coffee shop of the TV series in episode 17 of season 8. He wears a T-shirt with a blue symbol of hands and no one, until 18 years later, had noticed that the T-shirt represents the sign of friends in American Sign Language:
This is an Easter egg discovered in 2019 by a Friends fan and he posted it on the social network Reddit (an Easter egg is a hidden message in a movie, series or video game). As you can see, this is how you say "friend" in American Sign Language:
Terminator: Salvation (2009)
In the first 25 minutes of the film, Kyle Reese's character (played by Anton Yelchin) asks a little girl to kill a terminator. He told her with a series of gestures and then tells Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) that the girl doesn't speak. Does she say it in sign language?
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Actress Aryana Engineer, deaf in real life, plays little Becky in this film. Becky's role was not initially intended for a deaf girl but Aryana liked the casting so much that she was given the role and probably it was for aesthetic purposes for the film, as the appearances are really short and so off framed that it is hard to understand what she is saying.
Downsizing (2017)
About an hour and 17 minutes of footage, in the film you can see two Deaf people communicating in sign language. It's only two seconds, perhaps to show that deaf people are on the marginal side of that little artificial world Matt Damon has just arrived at.
