14 Times A Real Historical Figure Is A Character In An Extremely Fictional Movie

The Historical Figure: The inventive electrical engineer/futurist played an important part in creating modern electricity. The workaholic claimed to sleep a scant two hours every night and had countless grand ideas like wireless energy and "thought cameras." His legacy has only grown in stature during the 21st century - and you've probably heard about the electric car manufacturer named after him. What Is He Doing In This Movie? Played by the irreplaceable David Bowie, Tesla is called upon by Hugh Jackman's Robert Angier to create a teleportation machine. Nothing in The Prestige is ever as it seems, and this movie's Tesla ends up instead creating a cloning machine by accident. When handing the machine over to Angier, Tesla offers a piece of free advice to the obsessive magician: "Destroy it. Drop it to the bottom of the deepest ocean. Such a thing will bring you only misery."

The Historical Figures: There is a stacked roster of famous figures in the 1989 sci-fi/comedy classic Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, Billy the Kid, Socrates, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Sigmund Freud all have a role to play in the film. It really is a "who's who" of high school history textbooks. What Are They Doing In This Movie? All these illustrious people are brought to 1988 San Dimas, CA, by Keanu Reeves's Ted "Theodore" Logan and Alex Winter's Bill S. Preston, Esq., via a time-traveling phone booth. You see, Bill and Ted are directly responsible for the future utopian state of the world... if, that is, they manage to pass their high school history class. The pair of vapid best buds round up this crew to help them pass their class. And much hootin' and hollerin' is had by all.

The Historical Figure: Edward Teach, better known as the infamous Blackbeard, was a pirate who operated in the West Indies during the early 1700s. While he only operated for a short period of time (because pirating was a dangerous profession, after all) and wasn't all that successful, his legend only grew in the centuries following his demise. A larger-than-life personality, Blackbeard loved to play up the theatricality of the pirating game, pretending to be more menacing than he actually was. What Is He Doing In This Movie? The Blackbeard of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is obviously just the historical figure in name only. Ian McShane is having a blast as the antagonist of the film, and the more magical nature of Disney's franchise makes its way into the actor's portrayal. It's doubtful that the real Blackbeard had a sword imbued with the power to make his ship come alive and attack his enemies. If he did have a sword like that, he probably would've lived much longer than he did.

The Historical Figure: Come on. It's Leonardo da Vinci. He painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He drew the Vitruvian Man. He was a renowned anatomist and engineer in addition to being one of the greatest artists who ever lived. Surely, you've heard of Leonardo da Vinci at some point in your life. What Is He Doing In This Movie? Ever After, the 1998 retelling of the Cinderella everybody knows, is set in 1500s France. Leonardo appears throughout the film as the court's resident artist, here portrayed as an older gentleman by Patrick Godfrey. A fun quirk of the film is that it uses one of his real paintings, La Scapigliata, as a depiction of Drew Barrymore's Danielle de Barbarac, the film's stand-in for Cinderella.

The Historical Figure: Frida Kahlo is the very definition of an artistic icon. The Mexican painter's existence was marked by various tragedies and tumult, with the legendary artist dealing with everything from polio to a tragic bus accident that left her in a wheelchair for the majority of her life. Though she was relatively unheralded during her life, Kahlo has become a celebrated figure in the decades since her 1954 passing. Thanks to her masterful self-portraits, Kahlo's reputation as an expert of her craft grows bigger and brighter with each passing year. What Is She Doing In This Movie? 2017's Coco is as much a celebration of Mexican culture as it is a family-friendly film from the creators at Pixar. And, since the young protagonist, Miguel, finds himself stuck in the Land of the Dead for most of the movie, it seems only fitting that the great Frida Kahlo would not only make an appearance but assist him, as well. She encourages Miguel to follow his artistic dreams and helps the boy's family in their quest to find Héctor's photograph and keep his memory alive.

The Historical Figures: With all due respect to Kurt Gödel and Boris Podolsky, their scientific legacy doesn't loom as large decades after their deaths as does that of Albert Einstein. The theoretical physicist's last name is known to pretty much every person who sets foot in a school in the Western world. The guy came up with "E = mc2," so... it comes as no surprise his name is basically equivalent to "genius" at this point. What Are They Doing In This Movie? The 1994 romantic comedy I.Q. sees Einstein and his scientist buddies scheme to try and get his niece, Catherine, to fall in love with a kind garage mechanic, Ed. Yes, the film is exactly as goofy and contrived as it sounds. No, Einstein did not have a niece by the name of Catherine. Alas, the lighthearted movie gives Walter Matthau a chance to shine as Einstein and serves as an inoffensive afternoon flick if you're ever in the mood for an easygoing adventure.

The Historical Figures: H.G. Wells is a famous 19th-century science fiction author responsible for some of the best-known novels of his era. The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, and The Island of Doctor Moreau all come from Wells's imagination. Jack the Ripper is the name given to the legendary unidentified serial killer from late-1880s London. We will probably never know the Ripper's true identity, even though media and fan obsession haven't abated in the 100+ years since his spree. What Are They Doing In This Movie? In what has to be one of the most original ideas ever to be released by a major film distributor, Time After Time sees a fictionalized H.G. Wells use a real-life version of the time machine from, yes, The Time Machine to chase Jack the Ripper to 1979 San Francisco. Karl Alexander, writer of the novel of the same name on which the film was based, really came up with a wholly original idea that sees two titans of late-1800s pop culture collide.

The Historical Figure: Ruth Handler is one of the original co-founders of the American toy giant Mattel and served as the company's first president for thirty years, from 1945 to 1974. She also invented the original Barbie doll back in 1959 and named the two headlining dolls after her children (Barbara and Kenneth). Unfortunately for Handler, she ended up resigning from Mattel amid a fraudulent financial report scandal which somewhat mars her considerable legacy. What Is She Doing In This Movie? Cheers legend Rhea Perlman plays the ghost of Handler who lives in a bizarre old-timey kitchen in Mattel headquarters. Yep, Greta Gerwig's Barbie is appropriately meta. Perlman's Handler comes to the aid of Margot Robbie's “stereotypical” Barbie and helps her discover her happiness at the very end of the movie.

The Historical Figures: There are almost too many to list concisely. It's a lot. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dalí, Gertrude Stein, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, T.S. Eliot, and many others make at least a momentary appearance in Midnight in Paris. It really does make 1920s France seem like it was the place to be. What Are They Doing In This Movie? This Woody Allen film sees Owen Wilson's Gil Pender travel back in time every night at midnight. Leaving the disaffected relationship with his fiancée behind, Gil finds himself embracing the wild lives of the aforementioned renowned icons more and more. Oh, and Adrien Brody's Salvador Dalí is a lot of fun to watch.

The Historical Figure: Andy Warhol has proven to be one of the most famous and lasting American artists of the 1960s. His name is synonymous with the pop art movement, he worked in all kinds of artistic mediums including painting and films, and his works sell for millions of dollars in today's art collecting world. What Is He Doing In This Movie? Warhol gave off a pretty eccentric vibe, at least for the 1950s and 1960s. In light of this, the team behind Men in Black 3 used the man as an undercover agent for the MiB. The film posits that Warhol's whole thing was a put-on and that "Agent W" was desperate to leave his undercover gig behind and return to base. Bill Hader also wears some pretty convincing facial prothestics to make him look more like Warhol.

The Historical Figure: Oh, you know... it's just Elvis freaking Presley. The "King of Rock and Roll?" The guy is only a musical superstar, Hollywood icon, and one of the most unstoppable sex symbols in the history of American popular culture (before he really let himself go and started wearing bejeweled jumpsuits, that is). What Is He Doing In This Movie? How does one describe cult hit Bubba Ho-Tep? Well, this 2002 horror-comedy sees the real Elvis living out the rest of his days in a retirement home after having switched places with an impersonator back in the 1970s. So far, so normal (kind of). Bruce Campbell's Elvis spends the film teamed with his best friend - a Black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy with his skin dyed - as they fight an Egyptian mummy named "Bubba Ho-Tep." It is as ridiculous as it sounds, and that is only a good thing.

The Historical Figure: Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, and it's pretty much a toss-up between him and George Washington for the title of "most famous United States president in history." Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and led the Union through the Civil War. He wrote and recited the iconic Gettysburg Address. He is also on both the penny and the five-dollar bill, so, yeah. Abraham Lincoln is a pretty big deal. What Is He Doing In This Movie? Well, um, it's in the title... he's hunting vampires. It is essentially an entire retelling of Lincoln's life as if he were secretly a vampire hunter from a very early age. Vampires even end up as a vital part of the Confederate Army, causing the Union to mass-produce silver weapons to take them on. It's precisely the kind of big, dumb fun you'd expect it to be.

The Historical Figure: The most famous of non-Shakespeare Elizabethan-era writers, Christopher Marlowe has long been a figure of historical intrigue thanks to his mysterious demise and the unknown aspects of his life. Everything about the man is shrouded in mystique. He might've been a spy. He might've been an atheist. He might've been gay. He might've been none of those things. What Is He Doing In This Movie? Jim Jarmusch's 2013 vampire-romance film Only Lovers Left Alive features the late, great John Hurt as Marlowe. This version of the real man didn't perish in 1593, but was turned into a vampire instead. It is a fun use of the historical figure and it goes so far as to entertain the conspiracy theory that Marlowe actually wrote the majority of Shakespeare's plays.

The Historical Figures: Charles Darwin is one of the most notable scientists in all of history, having published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and bringing the theory of evolution to the masses. Queen Victoria served as monarch of the United Kingdom for an astonishing 63 years, having taken the crown at the young age of 18. Could you imagine taking the reins of an empire at the age of a high school senior? What Are They Doing In This Movie? The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (or, as it is known in the US, The Pirates! Band of Misfits) is, well, about pirates. Specifically, pirates in the mid-1800s, which opens up the possibility of these two historical figures joining the fray. Darwin ends up being an ally to the titular pirates, while Queen Victoria serves as the story's antagonist, what with her persnickety attitude and hatred of all things pirate.