Match cut
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A match cut or raccord is a cut in film editing from one scene to another, in which the two camera shots are linked visually or thematically. It can be used to underline a connection between two separate elements, or for purely visual reasons. In a match cut, an object or action shown in the first shot is repeated in some fashion in the second shot; the objects may be the same, be similar, or have similar shapes or uses.
One of the most famous match cuts is in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Inspired by a mysterious black monolith, a primitive ape discovers the use of bones as weapons and throws a bone into the air after killing another ape. When the bone reaches its highest point, the shot cuts to that of a similarly-shaped space craft—an orbital nuclear weapons platform, as is made explicit in the book—floating through space. In highlighting their formal similarities, the match cut helps draw a connection between the two objects as exemplars of primitive and advanced tools respectively, and weapons at that.
A notable double match cut occurs at the end of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. As Cary Grant pulls Eva Marie Saint up from Mount Rushmore, the cut then goes to him pulling her up to his bunk on the train. The match cut here skips over the courting, the marriage proposal, and the actual marriage of the two characters who had for much of the film been adversaries. The second match cut is sexual innuendo, showing a locomotive penetrating a tunnel as Cary's character gets ready to tuck in with his attractive wife. (This is mockingly reprised in the second "Naked Gun" film, where a whole series of visual cues are substituted - a rocket lift-off, locomotive entering a tunnel, champagne jetting out of a bottle, etc. - to "hint at" the occurrence of sexual relations between two main protagonists). As with 2001: A Space Odyssey, because the sequential shots are linked visually they serve to meld together two scenes that would otherwise seem incongruous.
Near the beginning of James Cameron's Aliens, a shot of a glass pod that Sigourney Weaver is sleeping in is cut together with a shot of a planet taken from space. The curvature of her face is mirrored in the curvature of the planet. This technique was used in the Exorcist III when a mysterious figure - draped in a blanket and holding out a pair of amputation shears - strides after a nurse, ready to slice off her head. Immediately, the film jumps to a beheaded statue of Christ. Another example of the technique is seen in the ending scene of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, as each character is juxtaposed in similar positions - rolling onto their sides. It enforces the common theme of each character's downfall: all three have reached their descent by way of drugs. Yet another film in which match cuts are used extensively is Sleepless in Seattle. There are several match cuts that shift the story from Sam in Seattle to Annie in Baltimore (or vice-versa) by matching a person opening a door, closing a door, or climbing up stairs. Much of the 2004 film L4YER CAKE contains match cuts, notably the transition of Mr. XXXX in his bathroom at night after carrying out a hit-job to Mr. XXXX in the morning, ready for work.
The movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark has a match cut at the beginning of the movie. Where the logo from Paramount Pictures in matched to a mountain in the wilderness, which is shaped identically like the logo.
