Click on a picture to enlarge it

Lizards in Movies   The Mexican (2001)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   This is a dark crime comedy starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. "The Mexican" is a priceless antique pistol, hand made in Mexico, that has a complicated history, and is considered cursed. Several groups are trying to get it, including Pitt's character Jerry, whose mob boss tells him to go to Mexico to get the gun, or die. Jerry travels to somewhere in Mexico in an arid region, gets the gun, and puts it in the glove box of his rental car. Then someone steals the car with the gun in it and a dead guy in the trunk - the man who gave Jerry the gun who was accidentally shot in the head. When Jerry finds his car and the man who stole it, he takes him hostage and drives him through the desert to an isolated spot. The car thief tells Jerry he and his men have no use for a dead gringo. Then he tells Jerry to take a left. Then we see a large Heloderma in the forefront taking up about a third of the screen. As the car races by on the dirt road behind the lizard, it moves its head slightly to look at the car. The lizard is on the screen for less than a minute. Blink and you'll miss it. It's only there for a bit of local color and maybe an ominous indication of what's up the road for the car thief. I'm calling it a Gila Monster, but it's hard to tell what it is because the color is washed out and we cant tell what size it is. It might be the other species of Heloderma, also found in Mexico, the Mexican Beaded Lizard. Whatever it is, it's a live lizard, nicely posed for the shot, and its reaction is real, but subtle.