MovieChat Forums > Graceland (2013) Discussion > "Just...checking in..."

"Just...checking in..."

posted 9 years ago by Navihawk
2 replies | jump to latest

"...Dunston..."

Anyone know the significance of Ari saying that, other than the fact that the cigarettes he pulled out of his pocket as he said it were Dunstons? There's the movie from 1996, "Dunston Checks In", about a kid and his pet orangutan (never seen it myself), but I doubt someone like him would ever have seen a movie like that, so it's unlikely that he was referring to it.

I thought maybe it was an in-joke; I looked here on IMDb to see if anyone associated with Graceland (the creator, Jeff Eastin, the actor playing Briggs, Daniel Sunjata, or Ari, Rhys Coiro) had any connection to the movie, but it doesn't look like it. Maybe Eastin or one of the writers of the episode are a fan of the movie; but it's such an obscure reference to a movie that's hardly achieved the same pop-culture status as the likes of, say, "Star Wars" or something. I could at least understand a reference like that, if they had found a way to do it with a brand of cigarettes.

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else caught that and knew what it meant.

[–] Dobbsysugarmuffin 9 years ago

I think it is about that movie. Didn't he even follow it up with "you know, like the movie?" Ari has a weird and crazy personality. It would make sense to me that he would randomly watch that movie.

[–] Navihawk 9 years ago

Thanks so much for the reply, Dobbsy! And sorry for not posting back sooner; I didn't see yours until now. Anyway, I don't remember for sure, but I don't think Ari said anything like that, at least not in that episode; maybe he said it in an earlier one and I'd forgotten, and the Dunston reference in the finale was the long-setup payoff. I've long since deleted all the episodes from my DVR, but I could always find a way to download them somewhere if I wanted to watch any of them again and find out. But now that the series has been cancelled, we may never know if that was actually a reference to the movie or not. As for Ari referring to an old obscure movie, you're right: that is probably something he'd do...