Directed by Steven Soderbergh, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Out of Sight is completely unrelated to Quentin Tarantino‘s Jackie Brown. Made by two different production companies, the ‘90s movies both told independent stories. Out of Sight followed bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney), whose life of crime became derailed after falling in love with Federal Agent Karen Sisco. Meanwhile, Jackie Brown follows a drug smuggler flight attendant (played by Pam Grier) who goes undercover with the cops in order to take down her dealer boss.
In case you have forgotten, Batman actor Michael Keaton played an FBI agent in both of these thriller movies — but in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he explained that this choice was more than just a coincidence.
“I’m a huge Steven Soderbergh fan, and the script was so good,” he said of Out of Sight. “I said, ‘I’ll do this on one condition. [My character] has to have at least most of his same exact wardrobe, the same haircut, the same look, so you go, ‘Oh, that guy.’ The notion that a character shows up again in a whole other movie, whole other studio, whole other director, that’s the fun of all this stuff for me.”
In both movies, he is credited as Jackie Ray — and this character appears in the original Out of Sight and Jackie Brown novels which, as it happens, are written by the same person and are part of an ongoing series.
Now, head down memory lane and watch all the Batman movies in order.