Movies are an escape from everyday life for a lot of people. People love to cheer for superheroes, laugh with their favorite comedians, and cry watching the best dramas. But sometimes, Hollywood likes to get cute and throw a little meta-commentary about film production directly into the movies we watch. With this in mind, we've found the best fictional movies to appear within real movies on the big screen, including many real actors making cameos as their fake characters.

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Austinpussy - Austin Powers in Goldmember

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The Austin Powers franchise was always very upfront about the fact that it was a parody of James Bond, but they really hammered it home in the opening scene of Austin Powers in Goldmember. The movie opens with a classic Bond-esque action sequence, with Austin Powers (Mike Myers) dropping from the sky with a parachute.

But Myers isn't playing Powers, it's Tom Cruise! He delivers a “yeah, baby” and everything. The whole scene is just a fake movie being directed by Steven Spielberg – who cameos! – and co-stars Kevin Spacey as Dr. Evil, Danny Devito as Mini-Me, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Dixie Normous. At the end of Goldmember, Powers and Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé) go see Austinpussy together.

Pineapple Express 2: Blood Red - This is the End

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This is the End starred James Franco, Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, and a huge cast of Hollywood notables as...themselves. And in that movie, the rapture happens and the whole lot of them are left behind to deal with Armageddon. So how do they deal with it? Of course, by making a sequel to Pineapple Express. Rogan, Franco, and Danny McBride reprise their characters from the movie with Hill portraying Woody Harrelson.

They didn't make a high-budget version of Pineapple Express 2: Blood Red, but that was never the point. They did get Rogan and Franco back in their original costumes, however, and that was pretty cool. This is the End even used M.I.A.'s hit song "Paper Planes," which became popular in large part due to being featured in Pineapple Express.

Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

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The main plot of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is that two stoners have to go to Hollywood to stop a movie from being made about them. Simple enough, right? Toward the end, they arrive at Miramax Studios and find their way onto the set of Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as Jackie and Will, their characters from 1998's Good Will Hunting.

Scott William Winters reappears as Clark, once again having a battle of the minds with Will in a bar. But when Clark seemingly gets the last word, he pulls a shotgun from out of nowhere and proclaims it to be “Hunting Season.” Damon fires the prop gun and Winters is blown backward and off his feet, giving this Good Will Hunting sequel a comedic and rather unorthodox vibe.

Bluntman and Chronic - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

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Shortly after leaving the fake Good Will Hunting set, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) find themselves in costume and starring in Bluntman and Chronic, replacing Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek. The entire set is extremely campy and over-the-top, creating a mystique that was familiar but new. Jay delivers an impromptu “snootchie bootchies” before the villain, Mark Hamill, busts through a wall of fake bricks wearing a giant plastic fist.

Hamill is hilarious as “Cock Knocker,” bringing a bit of his history as the Joker to the character. He gets into a lightsaber battle with Jay and Bob, resulting in Jay cutting off his giant, fake fist. Hamill breaks the fourth wall, looking straight into the camera and saying, “not again!” in a nod to The Empire Strikes Back. Bluntman and Chronic predictably gets poor reviews, but later becomes a cult classic that is rebooted in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

Stab - Scream 2

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Scream is well-known for spoofing the horror genre by not taking itself too seriously. The series took this a step further in Scream 2, opening with a couple attending the premiere of Stab. It's a fictional horror movie, filled with plenty of horror tropes, based on the events of the Woodsboro murders as written by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox).

Stab's cast list included Heather Graham as Casey Becker, Tori Spelling as Sidney Prescott, and Luke Wilson as Billy Loomis. However, very little of Stab is actually seen in Scream 2. The content is limited to the opening scene with Graham replicating Drew Barrymore's performance from Scream and a clip that is later seen on a TV screen where Sidney and Billy talk at school.

Angels with Filthy Souls - Home Alone

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A lot of people wonder if the black-and-white film Angels with Filthy Souls is some long-lost gem that Chris Columbus featured in a scene in Home Alone. It's actually not a real movie. The scene was shot specifically for Kevin McCallister (McCauley Culkin) to watch, and cast actor Ralph Foody as Johnny the gangster.

Snakes (Michael Guido) arrives and is informed by Johnny that Acey, who is never seen on screen, is no longer in charge. In fact, he's upstairs taking a bath – likely a hint that Johnny killed Acey. Johnny famously gives Snakes to the count of 10 to leave, but then counts, “one, two, ten!” before opening fire on him. It scared Kevin at the time, but it didn't stop him from watching the sequel, Angels with Even Filthier Souls, in Home Alone 2.

Tropic Blunder - Tropic Thunder

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Image via Paramount Pictures

There are a lot of stars in Tropic Thunder making fun of movie stars like themselves, and also the way those stars behave while shooting movies. The main cast features Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. playing diva actors shooting a Vietnam War film. When real attacks start happening, the cast is left to fend for themselves despite initially believing it was all part of the movie they were filming.

The end result is Tropic Blunder, a movie made from the “real” footage of the characters and their misadventures. The fake movie is well-received by audiences and even won Stiller's character, Tugg Speedman, an Academy Award. Thunder isn't without its controversy, however, for both Stiller's jokes about the mentally handicapped and Downey's regrettable use of blackface.

Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ - Hail, Caesar!

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Hail, Caesar! is led by an all-star cast including George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, and several other notables. The movie takes place in 1951 and the plot is based around the star of the fictitious Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ being kidnapped by blacklisted screenwriters who were accused of being Communists. Hilarity ensues.

The movie is directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, presenting a social commentary on the “Red Scare” of the '50s and the transitional phase of Hollywood at that time. The point many take away from Hail, Caesar! is an honest look at the Golden Age of Hollywood and the many bad and forgettable films of the era. But it's easy to also see the reverence the Coen brothers have for those campy, old movies through their fake production of A Tale of the Christ.

Forrest Gump 2: Gump Again - Cecil B. Demented

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The legendary John Waters directs the absurd Cecil B. Demented, which revolves around a group of rogue filmmakers kidnapping a movie star for the purpose of forcing her to be in a film. Melanie Griffith stars as Honey Whitlock, with Stephen Dorff portraying the title character of this low-budget romp. Michael Shannon, Roseanne Barr, and Maggie Gyllenhaal also make appearances.

In the final act, the group storms the set of Forrest Gump 2: Gump Again, which stars Saturday Night Live alumni Kevin Nealon as Forrest Gump. The whole thing is very silly, and includes a repeat of the “life is like a box of chocolates” scene from the original, only with Nealon's Gump replacing the chocolates with a plate of crab cakes.