Reservoir Dogs
The Episode: Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious .
What's Happening In Springfield? In Itchy And Scratchy's 'Reservoir Cats', guest director Quentin Tarantino gets his head chopped off while giving a lecture on movie violence.
Looks Familiar: Before QT's interruption, Itchy is doing his best Mr Blonde by tying Scratchy up and lopping off his ear.
Casablanca
The Episode: Natural Born Kissers .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart and Lisa find the reel of the lost alternative ending to Casablanca, in which Ilse parachutes back to earth to stop Hitler from shooting Rick.
Looks Familiar: Please, don't give the remake squad any ideas!
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror XII .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lord Montymort and pet snake Slithers attempt to take over Springwart's School of Magickry.
Looks Familiar: An odd one, as this premiered the same month as the film. However, one of the Simpsons' classmates is Harry himself, and could be modelled on Daniel Radcliffe if you squint hard enough.
Home Alone
The Episode: Homer Alone .
What's Happening In Springfield? With Marge relaxing at a spa, Homer is in charge of the kids… but has lost Maggie.
Looks Familiar: The shocked face that Homer pulls can only be called 'doing a Macauley Culkin.'
The Ten Commandments
The Episode: Homer Vs Lisa And The Eight Commandment .
What's Happening In Springfield? Moses appears to read out the Ten Commandments, "in no particular order." Bad news for Homer the thief, Azran the carver of craven images and Zoar the adulterer.
Looks Familiar: The lighting, camera angles and epic scale of Moses' appearance are straight out of the Cecil B. DeMille playbook.
Cabaret
The Episode: A Star Is Burns .
What's Happening In Springfield? Moe dons make-up to perform in his musical film, 'Moe Better Booze'.
Looks Familiar: Moe's look resembles that of Joel Grey's MC.
Catch Me If You Can
The Episode: Catch 'Em If You Can .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge and Homer try to enjoy a holiday on their own, but Bart and Lisa are in hot pursuit in a montage sequence.
Looks Familiar: Never mind the episode's title. This sequence is animated in the same style as the credits of Spielberg's film.
Wall-E
The Episode: The Burns And The Bees .
What's Happening In Springfield? Imagining a world without honey, a green robot turns Homer into a garbage cube.
Looks Familiar: Well, Wall-E's behaviour is consistent. Not sure why he's green, though.
The Fugitive
The Episode: Lisa's Rival .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Feds hunt Milhouse into a waterpipe after Bart mischievously adds his picture to America's Most Wanted list.
Looks Familiar: Milhouse's pursuer looks and sounds just like Tommy Lee Jones' Samuel Gerard.
Batman Begins
The Episode: Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Three Times .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart avenges his parents' death "in flamboyant, impractical fashion" by becoming Bartman.
Looks Familiar: OK, it's more of a general parody of the Batman universe, but the fact it's an origins story links it most closely to Nolan's film.
Rain Man
The Episode: $pringfield .
What's Happening In Springfield? Blackjack dealer Homer upsets an autistic man by forcing him to do his card-counting trick over and over.
Looks Familiar: That's blatantly Babbit brothers Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
The Seven Year Itch
The Episode: Rosebud .
What's Happening In Springfield? Smithers has a (presumably doctored) photo in which Mr Burns is wearing a billowing dress a la Marilyn.
Looks Familiar: Smithers has got a whole Marilyn thing going on, as he also imagines Burns popping out of a cake and singing 'Happy Birthday', like Monroe did for JFK.
Un Chien Andalou
The Episode: Yokel Chords .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lisa is tutoring Cletus' kids, so takes them to see Un Chien Andalou for a lesson in surrealist art.
Looks Familiar: Amazingly, The Simpsons got eyeball-slicing into primetime.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
The Episode: Eternal Moonshine Of The Simpson Mind .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer drinks a 'Forget-Me-Shot' and has to piece together the events of the past 24-hours with the help of Professor Frink.
Looks Familiar: Michel Gondry's film would have been a lot shorter if Lacuna's memory-erasing techniques were as instant as Moe's Forget-Me-Shot.
Full Metal Jacket
The Episode: Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadassss Song .
What's Happening In Springfield? Skinner becomes a drill instructor, but is scandalised by his troops' smutty jogging chants.
Looks Familiar: Except in Kubrick's film it's Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann (R. Lee Ermey) who provides the filthy lyrics.
The Gold Rush
The Episode: Lady Bouvier's Lover .
What's Happening In Springfield? Abe attempts to seduce Marge's mom by doing a dance with two potatoes on forks.
Looks Familiar: Charlie Chaplin does something similar with bread rolls. No wonder a lawyer turns up telling Abe to cease and desist.
A Chorus Line
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror V .
What's Happening In Springfield? A killer fog turns the Simpsons inside-out, and they proceed to do a musical number with their innards slopping about.
Looks Familiar: The tune is the musical's show-stopping number 'One'. However, the lyrics have been much improved: "Vital organs, they are what we're dressed in / The family dog is eyeing Bart's intestine."
The Lord Of The Rings
The Episode: Rome-old and Juli-eh .
What's Happening In Springfield? Delivery men attack the cardboard box fort in the Simpsons' garden where Bart and Lisa have made their home.
Looks Familiar: A compendium of various Middle Earth battles, although the score and the appearance of a fell beast links the scene most closely to The Return Of The King .
JFK
The Episode: Grandpa Vs Sexual Inadequacy .
What's Happening In Springfield? The ultimate conspiracy theory, courtesy of Milhouse: "The Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner."
Sounds Familiar: Milhouse's sign-off is the same as Garrison's (Kevin Costner) in the film: "We're through the looking glass, people."
Spider-man
The Episode: Simple Simpson .
What's Happening In Springfield? Masked superhero Pie Man (aka Homer) rescues Marge and they kiss.
Looks Familiar: The kiss' unique selling point - the fella is hanging upside-down.
Goodfellas
The Episode: Bart The Murderer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Having been adopted by the Springfield Mafia, Bart shocks Marge by rocking up in a custom-tailored suit.
Looks Familiar: Henry Hill is better at hiding his new career from his parents, largely because the postman has been ordered not to deliver any more letters from Henry's school.
A Nightmare On Elm Street
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror VI .
What's Happening In Springfield? Groundskeeper Willie returns from the dead as, amongst other things, a giant bagpipe spider, in order to kill Springfield's children in their dreams.
Looks Familiar: Everything's right except the backstory, as Freddy Krueger wasn't burned alive because of Homer's stupidity.
Total Recall
The Episode: Deep Space Homer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Employees are scanned via x-ray as they arrive at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. The guards recognise Homer from his Neanderthal appearance.
Looks Familiar: Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is caught wielding a weapon in the x-ray scanner, and has to smash his way out.
No Country For Old Men
The Episode: Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Simpsons have rented out an apartment to pretend the kids are in the catchment area for a posh school. The schools inspector hopes to catch them out by firing out the lock with a captive bolt pistol.
Looks Familiar: The inspector is a dead ringer for Anton Chigurh.
The Fly
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror VIII .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer buys a matter transmitter from Professor Frink, only for Bart to get spliced with a housefly.
Looks Familiar: This Treehouse segment is called 'Fly Vs Fly' for good reason, as it's a composite of the 1958 original (Bart-fly's appearance) and the 1986 remake (the design of the teleport pod).
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Episode: Realty Bites .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge gets a job as a realtor, where she meets nervy, inept estate agent Gil Gunderson.
Looks Familiar: Gil's mannerisms and appearance are based on Jack Lemmon's character, Shelley Levene. In a running gag, Gil became a regular character who turns out to be awful at every job he does.
Trainspotting
The Episode: The Regina Monologues .
What's Happening In Springfield? High on sugar, Bart and Lisa hallucinate Maggie crawling across the ceiling towards them.
Looks Familiar: Replace sugar with heroin, and you're pretty much there.
Speed
The Episode: The Springfield Files .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer plans to bunk off work early by rigging a looped video camera, a trick he learnt from a movie.
Sounds Familiar: "I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty. And if its speed dropped, the bus would explode! I think it was called... The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down."
The Lost Boys
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror IV .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lisa is disturbed when a vampiric Bart flies up to her bedroom window.
Looks Familiar: Exactly the same thing happens when Michael (Jason Patric) appears at his brother Sam's (Corey Haim) window.
All The President's Men
The Episode: Sideshow Bob Roberts .
What's Happening In Springfield? A shadowy whistleblower (actually Smithers) gives Lisa the lowdown on how Sideshow Bob rigged Springfield's mayoral election.
Looks Familiar: Deep Throat similarly met Woodward and Bernstein in a car park, albeit without Homer revealing his identity by switching on car headlamps.
The 400 Blows
The Episode: Any Given Sundance .
What's Happening In Springfield? Nelson Muntz shows his documentary, 'Life Blows Chunks', at Sundance. The film ends with an ambiguous freeze-frame on Nelson's face.
Looks Familiar: No American film would really include the caption, "Fin" at the end unless it was a deliberate nod to Truffaut.
Taxi Driver
The Episode: Burns' Heir .
What's Happening In Springfield? Burns shows Bart that he has all of Springfield under surveillance, and shows Moe talking to himself in the mirror and practising his holster action, badly.
Looks Familiar: Moe's no Travis Bickle, is he? Incidentally, the whole surveillance angle is itself a nod to Sliver , which Burns calls "a delightful romp."
Night Of The Living Dead
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror III .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart uses black magic to resurrect dead cat Snowball, but accidentally unleashes a zombie invasion.
Looks Familiar: The attack on the Simpsons' house borrows George Romero's skewed camera angles and zombie shuffle.
Aliens
The Episode: Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadassss Song .
What's Happening In Springfield? Skinner peeks his head into the air ducts, where he discovers Santa's Little Helper hiding. "Greased Scotsman" Groundskeeper Willie is sent in to capture the dog.
Sounds Familiar: When the Space Marines realise the aliens are stalking them from above, it's they who have to do a runner through the ventilation system.
Basic Instinct
The Episode: Who Shot Mr Burns? Part 2 .
What's Happening In Springfield? A kilt-wearing Groundskeeper Willy is interrogated by Springfield PD and distracts them by uncrossing his legs. "This is your last warning about that!" yells Eddie.
Looks Familiar: Nobody's warning Sharon Stone to stop flashing her bits.
Edward Scissorhands
The Episode: Cape Feare .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart is frightened when Ned Flanders appears wearing finger razors, only to find he's trimming his hedge into the shape of an angel.
Looks Familiar: Hedges were, of course, one of Scissorhands' many party tricks, although his designs weren't quite so Biblical.
The Karate Kid
The Episode: Dead Putting Society .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart trains for a miniature golf tournament by balance on a trash can in the crane position.
Looks Familiar: Those techniques make far more sense for martial arts, but who knows? Maybe this is how Tiger Woods trains.
The Omega Man
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror VIII .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer awakes to find he's the last man on Earth after a nuclear holocaust, and decides to enjoy himself watching a David Spade / Chris Farley movie with the corpses of the dead.
Looks Familiar: Chuck Heston didn't have quite as much fun dodging post-apocalyptic vampires. Nor did Will Smith in 2007 remake I Am Legend .
Saboteur
The Episode: Three Men And A Comic Book .
What's Happening In Springfield? After fighting over issue #1 of Radioactive Man, Bart saves Milhouse from falling out of his treehouse.
Looks Familiar: The camera angles mimic the Statue of Liberty climax of Hitchcock's thriller, but the outcome is more positive. In the film, saboteur Fry (Norman Lloyd) falls to his death.
Brokeback Mountain
The Episode: The Haw-Hawed Couple .
What's Happening In Springfield? After becoming best friends with Nelson, Bart keeps Nelson's vest in his closet. Outside, Nelson spots this and laughs, "Haw haw, I touched your heart!"
Looks Familiar: Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) keeps a similar keepsake of dead lover Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). Oh, and the music score is the same.
North By Northwest
The Episode: Fear Of Flying .
What's Happening In Springfield? A psychiatrist coaxes a memory from Marge that explains why she might be afraid of flying - being hunted down by a bi-plane in a cornfield.
Looks Familiar: Interestingly, Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill never flies, either. Perhaps he's been scarred by his experiences, too?
Jurassic Park
The Episode: Itchy And Scratchy Land .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Simpsons travel to the Itchy & Scratchy Land island via helicopter.
Looks Familiar: The theme park's black skeleton-on-red circle logo is a giveaway. For bonus geek points, the same episode's killer robots are a nod to Westworld , Michael Crichton's earlier story about a theme park gone wrong.
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror IV .
What's Happening In Springfield? The Simpsons are invited to Burns' castle, where their host welcomes them resplendent in red robes and bouffant white hair.
Looks Familiar: Burns is channelling his best Gary Oldman look, in one of many nods to Coppola's film.
The Matrix
The Episode: Lisa the Tree Hugger .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart takes a job leafleting for a Thai restaurant, and amazes everyone with his ninja skills.
Looks Familiar: The animators go wild with a 360-degree 'bullet time' whirl, while the Propellerheads' Spybreak! provides a recognisable music cue.
This Is Spinal Tap
The Episode: The Otto Show .
What's Happening In Springfield? Spinal Tap play a gig in Springfield, which degenerates into a riot.
Looks Familiar: Unusual in that there's no direct movie reference; however, the band is treated as if they are real-life guest stars, which is true to the spirit of the original mockumentary.
The Exorcist
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror .
What's Happening In Springfield? Maggie's head spins around as the Simpsons realise their new home might not be all it's cracked up to be.
Looks Familiar: The entire 'Bad Dream House' segment is a horror movie Best Of, also riffing on The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist .
Village Of The Damned
The Episode: Wild Barts Can't Be Broken .
What's Happening In Springfield? Springfield's kids break curfew by going to watch horror movie 'The Bloodening' at the drive-in.
Looks Familiar: Those spooky British blonde killers are lifted straight from the 1960 classic.
Alien
The Episode: Deep Space Homer .
What's Happening In Springfield? In 'Scar Trek: The Next Laceration,' Itchy bursts out of Scratchy's stomach and throws the cat out of the airlock.
Looks Familiar: Once, the chestburster scene was regarded as a bar-raiser in screen horror. Now, it's part of a family cartoon.
Ace In The Hole
The Episode: Radio Bart .
What's Happening In Springfield? When Bart uses his radio to pretend a boy named Timmy O'Toole is trapped down a well, a media circus - and an actual circus - descend on the scene.
Looks Familiar: In Billy Wilder's film, there really is a guy trapped (albeit in a cave) but the media reaction is the same.
Saw
The Episode: Wedding For Disaster .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer is chained up and told the key is inside a lollipop, which turns out to be dipped in tongue-burning hot sauce.
Looks Familiar: The modus operandi is more or less the same as Jigsaw's, and Homer might even be locked up in the same room.
The Silence Of The Lambs
The Episode: Marge Vs The Monorail .
What's Happening In Springfield? Mr Burns is wheeled into court in restraints after being caught dumping nuclear waste in Springfield Park.
Looks Familiar: The face mask is the giveaway; presumably everyone thinks Monty will take a bite out of somebody, Hannibal Lecter-style.
Jaws
The Episode: Itchy and Scratchy Land .
What's Happening In Springfield? The family remembers a terrible holiday where Bart terrorises kids with a fake shark fin. Even Homer is tricked: "Aah! Shark boy!"
Looks Familiar: The same trick is pulled by a couple of kids, seconds before Bruce the Great White shows up for real.
Doctor Strangelove
The Episode: Homer The Vigilante .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer dreams of riding a nuclear bomb to oblivion, only to be reprimanded in reality by Herman for ignoring the "Do not ride the bomb" sign.
Looks Familiar: Homer is wearing a cowboy hat, just like Slim Pickens in the film. Yee-haw!
On The Town
The Episode: Boy-Scoutz N The Hood .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart and Milhouse try a Super Squishy and go crazy, Broadway-style as they sing, "Springfield, Springfield, it's a hell of a town."
Looks Familiar: Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra's sailors get excited about New York in much the same way. A sailor even shows up in Springfield, only to be told, "New York's that-a-way!"
Goldfinger
The Episode: You Only Move Twice .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer is too seduced by new boss Hank Scorpio to notice he's a super villain about to surgically remove James Bond's genitals with a laser.
Looks Familiar: A new twist on the film's most famous set-piece. However, this time when the villain expects Bond to die, he really means it.
A Beautiful Mind
The Episode: My Mother The Carjacker .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer scours the newspapers looking for a funny headline in order to win a T-shirt, but find a cryptic message from his fugitive mother.
Looks Familiar: John Nash (Russell Crowe) has the same ability to see letters jump out of newspapers.
Crocodile Dundee
The Episode: Boy-Scoutz N The Hood .
What's Happening In Springfield? Hans Moleman attempts to take down Moe with a giant knife, but it proves too heavy and he topples over.
Looks Familiar: Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) gets the balance between size and portability exactly right: that's a knife!
Rear Window
The Episode: Bart Of Darkness .
What's Happening In Springfield? Stuck in his bedroom with a broken leg and a telescope, Bart starts spying on the neighbourhood… and spots Jimmy Stewart doing exactly the same thing.
Looks Familiar: The episode's entire plot, revolving around Bart's suspicions of a murderous Ned Flanders, is a parody of Hitchcock.
Mary Poppins
The Episode: Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious .
What's Happening In Springfield? A stressed out Marge hires singing nanny Shary Bobbins to look after the kids, but she is eventually driven to drink by the Simpsons' behaviour.
Sounds Familiar: A full-on musical parody, of which the highlight is "A Spoonful of Sugar" rewrite "Cut Every Corner."
The Terminator
The Episode: Principal Charming .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer seeks out a boyfriend for Patty. Each eligible bachelor's pros and cons appear as computerised read-outs.
Looks Familiar: POV shots with graphical overlay? That's very Cyberdyne Systems.
Run Lola Run
The Episode: Trilogy Of Error .
What's Happening In Springfield? A day of disasters befalls Lisa as she races across town to hand in robot Linguo for the school science fair.
Looks Familiar: The motif of Lisa running, set to a techno soundtrack, is a blatant nod to Lola's three story strands, a structure this episode itself borrows.
Thelma And Louise
The Episode: Marge On The Lam .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge and Ruth Powers manage to stop their car just before reaching a chasm. No such luck for pursuers Chief Wiggum and Homer.
Looks Familiar: This episode-long parody of Ridley Scott's girls-on-the-run classic hits every beat until this twist; in the original it's the ladies who drive off the edge into freeze-frame glory.
Apocalypse Now
The Episode: Lisa The Beauty Queen .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lisa's appearance at Fort Springfield with Bob Hope causes a riot. as the boys are expecting a stripper ("First Tony Randall cancels, now this!"). She's whisked to safety by helicopter.
Looks Familiar: Captain Willard's boat takes a stop at a USO show takes a similar turn - except here the G.I.s are driven frisky by Playboy Bunnies.
Miracle On 34th St
The Episode: New Kid On The Block .
What's Happening In Springfield? A bunch of postmen arrive in court hauling sacks of mail addressed to Santa. Wrong courtroom!
Looks Familiar: Presumably, they should have delivered the letters to the trial where Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) must convince the authorities that he really is Father Christmas.
Pulp Fiction
The Episode: 22 Short Films About Springfield .
What's Happening In Springfield? Lou and Chief Wiggum discuss the differences between Krusty Burger and McDonalds. "Do they have Krusty partially gelatinated non-dairy gum-based beverages?" "They call 'em shakes." "Huh? Don't know what you're getting?"
Looks Familiar: One of many scenes lifted from Tarantino's masterpiece in an episode inspired by the 1990s trend towards anthology movies.
Beauty And The Beast
The Episode: Two Dozen And One Greyhounds .
What's Happening In Springfield? Burns sings about his plan to make coats of greyhound fur: "See my vest, see my vest, made from real gorilla chest."
Looks Familiar: In an episode riffing on One Hundred And One Dalmatians , the highlight borrows the tune of 'Be My Guest' from Beauty And The Beast .
Ben-Hur
The Episode: Saturdays Of Thunder .
What's Happening In Springfield? Nelson plays dirty during the soapbox derby by trying to destroy Bart's racer with spikes that come out of his own car.
Looks Familiar: Nelson has clearly taken inspiration from Messala's (Stephen Boyd) 'beaked chariot' during the film's famous chariot race.
Saturday Night Fever
The Episode: Bart's Girlfriend .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart gets a date with bad girl Jessica Lovejoy. "There's only one thing to do at a time like this - strut!"
Looks Familiar: Bart unleashes his inner Travolta, with close-ups of his footwork and Stayin' Alive on the soundtrack.
Lady And The Tramp
The Episode: The Last Temptation Of Homer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer and temptress colleague Mindy get closer when they share a chilli dog.
Looks Familiar: Like Disney's dogs, they end up meeting in the middle… but they're too embarrassed to snog.
Midnight Express
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror II .
What's Happening In Springfield? After buying a cursed monkey's paw in Morocco, Homer is stopped by the police.
Looks Familiar: Like Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), Homer has the paw strapped to his stomach. Unlike Billy, Homer gets away with a two dollar fine.
It's A Wonderful Life
The Episode: Simpson And Delilah .
What's Happening In Springfield? After taking Dimoxinil, Homer wakes up with a full head of hair and runs through Springfield, happily greeting everybody he meets.
Looks Familiar: It's a new lease of life for Homer, just as it when George Bailey (James Stewart) is brought back to the real world from the parallel universe where he never existed.
Fantasia
The Episode: Itchy and Scratchy Land .
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart and Lisa see a clip from 'Scratchtasia', in which Scratchy axes Itchy into millions of pieces…but when he inhales the dust, Itchy kills him from the inside.
Looks Familiar: A pitch-perfect recreation of 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice,' with music by Dukas and Scratchy dressed a la Mickey Mouse.
Big
The Episode: Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy .
What's Happening In Springfield? On a trip to a toy shop, Homer spies a giant keyboard and proceeds to play Rock Around The Clock , badly, until he busts the piano.
Looks Familiar: Tom Hanks is lighter on his feet... and in tune, too.
The Last Emperor
The Episode: Homer The Great .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer is crowned as the Chosen One of the Stonecutters, in a ceremony of such opulence Homer is reduced to a giggling child.
Looks Familiar: At least when Puyi becomes Emperor of China, he actually is a child.
The Untouchables
The Episode: Homer Goes To College .
What's Happening In Springfield? When Mr Burns discovers that Homer needs a college diploma to do his job, he attempts to coerce the board with a baseball bat.
Looks Familiar: Robert De Niro's Al Capone is altogether more lethal with the bat than puny Monty Burns.
The Great Escape
The Episode: A Streetcar Named Marge .
What's Happening In Springfield? Daycare nurse Ms Sinclair punishes Maggie for trying to free the babies' dummies by throwing her into the playpen; the nonchalant prisoner simply starts bouncing a ball against the side.
Looks Familiar: Maggie's been learning her ice-cool moves from Steve McQueen's Virgil Hilts.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
The Episode: So It's Come To This, A Simpsons Clip Show .
What's Happening In Springfield? A comatose Homer is in hospital from beercan-related injuries. A distraught Barney attempts to smother him with a pillow, before breaking out of the building by chucking a water fountain through the window.
Looks Familiar: Chief (Will Sampson) is more successful in suffocating Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson).
King Kong
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror III .
What's Happening In Springfield? Giant ape King Homer breaks free from captivity, but struggles to carry Marge to the top of the Empire State Building because he's overweight.
Looks Familiar: By this point, The Simpsons crew was so assured that they could run an entire 6-minute segment in black and white, a la the original film.
The Graduate
The Episode: Lisa's Substitute .
What's Happening In Springfield? Mrs Krabappel shows a bit of thigh to substitute teacher Mr Bergstrom: "Mrs Krabappel, you're trying to seduce me!"
Looks Familiar: The line, the camera angle, the star (Dustin Hoffman, credited under the pseudonym Sam Etic).
Citizen Kane
The Episode: Marge Gets A Job .
What's Happening In Springfield? At a party supposedly celebrating Jack Marley's retirement, Smithers sings a song in praise of Monty Burns.
Looks Familiar: The entire number appropriates the tune and the staging of a song performed in honour of Charles Foster Kane.
Gone With The Wind
The Episode: Bart's Inner Child .
What's Happening In Springfield? After opening up Homer's new trampoline to the neighbourhood kids, Marge discovers that everybody is lying injured in the Simpsons' garden.
Looks Familiar: The same camera angle is used as Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) tends to injured soldiers at Atlanta's train station.
A Clockwork Orange
The Episode: Dog Of Death .
What's Happening In Springfield? Mr Burns turns Santa's Little Helper into a vicious attack dog by brainwashing him with images of dogs being assaulted by humans.
Looks Familiar: This is a textbook example of the Ludovico technique: eyelids wired open, drops for blindness prevention, and Beethoven on the soundtrack.
An Officer And A Gentleman
The Episode: Life On The Fast Lane .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge and Homer reunite at the power plant, where he whisks her off her feet for some backseat loving: "I won't be back for ten minutes."
Looks Familiar: The genders are reversed - it's uniformed Richard Gere who arrives at Debra Winger's workplace - but the effect is the same.
Risky Business
The Episode: Homer The Heretic .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer refuses to go to church, and instead enjoys the best morning of his life - including the chance to dance around the house in his underwear.
Looks Familiar: Joel Goodson (Tom Cruises) makes the most of his parents going away by dancing to Old Time Rock And Roll .
Scarface
The Episode: Lisa's Rival .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer takes possession of a truck load of sugar, and plans his fortune: "First you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women."
Sounds Familiar: The accent is pure Pacino. Substitute "sugar" for "cocaine," and the quote's a straight lift, too.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Episode: Homer Loves Flanders .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer's man-crush on Ned takes a disturbing turn as he hauls himself onto the Flanders' car with hockey sticks in his hands.
Looks Familiar: The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) doesn't need sporting goods to attach himself; he can grow hooks from his liquid metal hands.
The Sound Of Music
The Episode: Bart Gets An Elephant .
What's Happening In Springfield? Arriving at the tar pits, Homer crashes into a deer statue: "D'oh!" A shocked Lisa yells, "A deer!" Marge helpfully clarifies: "A female deer!"
Sounds Familiar: Contrary to Maria's (Julie Andrews) advice in the film, this isn't the start of a music lesson.
Batman
The Episode: Last Exit To Springfield .
What's Happening In Springfield? A back-street dentist provides Lisa with her new braces. Shocked by her reflection, she cackles maniacally and smashes the mirror.
Looks Familiar: That's Jack Nicholson's response as the Joker on seeing his acid-scarred face.
The Godfather
The Episode: Mr Plow .
What's Happening In Springfield? It's snowing, allowing the kids from school to ambush Bart and pelt him with snowballs.
Looks Familiar: Bart's writhing figure resembles Sonny Corleone's (James Caan) tollbooth assassination.
Requiem For A Dream
The Episode: I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer tries the Ribwich, the latest taste sensation from Krusty Burger, and is instantly hooked.
Looks Familiar: The rapid montage of close-ups used to illustrate Homer's seduction by burger is exactly the same technique used by Darren Aronofsky to convey drug addiction, right down to the dilated pupils.
Planet Of The Apes
The Episode: A Fish Called Selma .
What's Happening In Springfield? Troy McClure makes his comeback starring in a musical called "Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off." Sample lyric: "I hate every ape I see, from Chimpan A to chimpanzee."
Looks Familiar: The musical's plot is a direct steal, down to the show-stopping finale: "Oh my god I was wrong, it was Earth all along. You've finally made a monkey out of me."
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
The Episode: Homie The Clown .
What's Happening In Springfield? After seeing an advertisement for clown college, Homer is so obsessed he makes a big top out of mashed potato.
Looks Familiar: A distracted Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) pulls the same dinnertime trick, carving his meal into the Devil's Tower.
The Wizard Of Oz
The Episode: The Last Temptation Of Homer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Burns discovers that Homer is charging room service to the power plant, so releases winged monkeys to stop him. Said monkeys can't fly. "Continue the research!"
Looks Familiar: Flying monkeys are the guards used by the Wicked Witch of the West to capture Dorothy.
The Birds
The Episode: A Streetcar Named Marge .
What's Happening In Springfield? Homer, Bart and Lisa pick up Maggie from daycare, as dozens of dummy-sucking babies stare them out.
Looks Familiar: A riff on the final scene of the film, as Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) flees a house under bird surveillance. In case you didn't get the reference, Alfred Hitchcock walks past the family walking two dogs - the exact same cameo he has in the film.
Rashomon
The Episode: Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo .
What's Happening In Springfield? En route to Japan, Homer insists he doesn't like the country. "You liked Rashomon ," Marge reminds him. "That's not how I remember it," Homer replies sulkily.
Sounds Familiar: Given that the film's plot revolves around unreliable memory, it seems Akira Kurosawa was right!
Cape Fear
The Episode: Cape Feare .
What's Happening In Springfield? Sideshow Bob straps himself to the undercarriage of the Simpsons' car, only to be repeatedly injured, first by speed bumps, and then by nine rakes.
Looks Familiar: Where do we start? The entire episode is effectively a third version of the story filmed by J. Lee Thompson in 1962 and by Martin Scorsese in 1991. Even the Bernard Herrmann score is reused.
The Shining
The Episode: Treehouse Of Horror V .
What's Happening In Springfield? Marge discovers what insane writer Homer has been writing: "No TV and no beer make Homer something something." "Go crazy?" suggests Marge. "Don't mind if I do!" replies Homer, going crazy.
Looks Familiar: The piece de resistance of Treehouse Of Horror , 'The Shinning' ("Shh, you want to get sued?") retells Kubrick's entire film in just six minutes.
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Episode: Deep Space Homer .
What's Happening In Springfield? Amateur astronaut Homer accidentally opens a bag of crisps and has to eat them all in zero-gravity.
Looks Familiar: Kubrick's Blue Danube space ballet revisited, with Homer playing the spaceship. He's never been so graceful…until he crashes into the shuttle circuitry.
Psycho
The Episode: Itchy And Scratchy And Marge .
What's Happening In Springfield? Maggie brains Homer with a mallet after seeing Itchy and Scratchy .
Looks Familiar: This Season 2 sequence raised the bar for movie parodies - a shot-for-shot recreation that cleverly uses red paint in place of blood.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
The Episode: Bart's Friend Falls In Love.
What's Happening In Springfield? Bart attempts to steal a jar of pennies and is pursued by the human ball that is Homer.
Looks Familiar: This is the big one - the greatest movie gag The Simpsons ever did. It misses nothing, and makes it impossible to watch Indy chased by a rolling ball without thinking of Bart and Homer.
