Giant Cameos in Upcoming Flicks

Did you notice how big the robot Gort has become in that trailer for the remake The Day the Earth Stood Still (US-2008; dir. Scott Derrickson)?

It seems to be de rigueur to include a large-scale monster of some kind in your big-budget blockbuster these days, even though you may not be making an actual giant monster movie. This is the sort of monster who turns up during the climax or at a key point along the way to give the protagonists (and the SFX guys) something spectacular to do. There have been many such brief appearances over the years — and a fair number are listed here.

Recently Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Spiderman 3 and even Ironman have all offered up a bit of giant monster action despite the fact that the Big Thing is not a central focus (though in the case of 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, at least, Galactus is anticipated throughout and does motivate the action).

Anyway, I refer to this as an excuse to post a couple of trailers for upcoming blockbusters in which a Big Thing seems to be set to make a walk-on appearance.

The much-anticipated and inevitably controversial (at least amongst the most avid of the Trekkie fans) prequel, Star Trek (US-2009; dir. J.J. Abrams) has a Big Something-or-other if you glue your eyes to the screen:

If you watch very closely there’s a suggestion of something big in the live-action graphic novel translation The Watchmen (US-2009; dir. Zack Snyder):

And then there’s the extremely giant robots that will be appearing in the new sequel, Terminator: Salvation (US-2009; dir. McG). Though they’re not in this trailer, you can see them in a featurette that snuck into the Backbrain a while back.

• Thanks to Avery for The Day The Earth Stood Still heads-up