Minding my own business, I was. Scrolling through clickbait we used to call news feeds. Subject to pitfalls and rabbit holes. And la, in the style of Movie Master John Floyd, a film collection article slid into view titled,
Different Movies with the Same Plot
Writer Brianna Zigler explains:
“Many plots in modern-day stories—even across continents, time periods, planets, and dimensions—echo each other's plot arcs. Typically, even the most original works of art nowadays owe credit to others that came before, sometimes dating back to ancient myth. … In film, scripts of one studio [can be picked] up while another takes the same idea and gives it a slight spin … Art imitates art.”
My simplistic definition: Different Titles, Same Plot. In other words, we’re not including remakes, do-overs with the same titles (although some remakes take off in wildly varying directions).
Titles began to pair in my head and within a minute, ten had come to mind. I couldn’t resist checking where she ranked them and, to my surprise, not one of mine made her list. Not one.
Okay, no person can watch every movie ever. Blowup/Blowout are a bit obscure not to mention opaque, but surely most people have heard of John Travolta, Charton Heston, Sean Connery, or are we experiencing Baby Boomer irrelevance? Bond, James Bond. Who?
Zigler goes on to pair thirty four movies (after two updates). I dug into the Web to garner additional opinions, which are included in the table. Some pairings seem tenuous and specious at best: Forest Gump v Benjamin Button? I Robot v Roger Rabbit? The Matrix v The Lego Movie? Fugitive v Minority Report v every individualist ever taking on dystopian society?
Defending My Selections
- Blowup v Blowout
- Why a studio thought a redo was a good idea mystifies the most avid whodunit fan. Travolta’s Blowout closely follows the impenetrable plot of Blowup (1966). The major distinction is sight versus sound, video versus audio. Picking up the faintest clue of what’s going on requires sitting through the final couple of minutes, which many hippies weren’t willing to do.
- Thunderball v Never Say Never Again
- Some actors grow so full of themselves, they can’t bear another moment of the series that made them rich and famous. Then, when the world moves on without them, they panic. Leonard Nimoy felt the sting of abandoning his iconic Spock rôle. Likewise Sean Connery. When he realized he was aging out of the sexy spy women adored, he rushed back to grab a script… which happened to be a Thunderball reprise.
- Seven Samurai v Magnificent Seven v Battle Beyond the Stars
- Hollywood adapted the Japanese classic initially as a damn good Western and later a decent space adventure. Or, one might argue Akira Kurosawa wrote a classic anti-bullying Western that spread across genres. Or, simply turn off the brain and enjoy any of them.
- Last Man on Earth v I am Legend v The Omega Man
- Vampires. A struggle to survive. Chomp, chomp. Slurp, slurp. Futility. What sets Omega Man apart is his heroism carries a hint of hope missing from the other movies. Further, if you sit through the end scene, you’ll witness Heston reenact a religious iconic scene.
- Lawnmower Man v Frankenstein
- To be clear, Lawnmower Man the movie shares no plot points with Stephen King’s short story. (Frankly, the story is not one of my King favorites, so please, Mr King, don’t sic Langoliers, Tommyknockers, or clown spiders on me.) The movie wasn’t bad, but as we walked out of the theatre, I realized I’d seen a remake of Frankenstein. What do you think?
The List
The following list includes opinions garnered from internet sites, beginning with my own notions: 68 movies, 32 plots.
- Blowup ⇔ Blowout
- Thunderball ⇔ Never Say Never Again
- Seven Samurai ⇔ Magnificent Seven ⇔ Battle Beyond the Stars
- Last Man on Earth ⇔ I am Legend ⇔ The Omega Man
- Lawnmower Man ⇔ Frankenstein
- Rear Window ⇔ Disturbia ⇔ Woman in the Window
- Antz ⇔ A Bugs Life
- Armageddon ⇔ Deep Impact
- Canine ⇔ Tuner and Hooch
- Dances With Wolves ⇔ Avatar
- Forrest Gump ⇔ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Gremlins ⇔ Transformers
- Gumball Rally ⇔ Cannonball
- Iron Man ⇔ Doctor Strange
- It’s a Wonderful Life ⇔ Click
- Mall Cop ⇔ Observe and Report
- Megamind ⇔ Despicable Me
- Mirror, Mirror ⇔ Snow White and The Huntsman
- No Strings Attached ⇔ Friends With Benefits
- Phantom of the Paradise ⇔ Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Point Break ⇔ The Fast and the Furious
- Rio Bravo ⇔ Assault on Precinct 13
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day ⇔ Looper
- The Fugitive ⇔ Minority Report
- The Great Race ⇔ Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
- The Hidden Fortress ⇔ Star Wars
- The Matrix ⇔ The Lego Movie
- The Prestige ⇔ The Illusionist
- The Prince of Egypt ⇔ Thor
- Top Gun ⇔ Days of Thunder ⇔ Iron Eagle
- Volcano ⇔ Dante’s Peak
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit ⇔ I, Robot
Which movies would you add?
The Glass Key (which I disliked) and Miller's Crossing (which I adore)
ReplyDeleteThanks for settling something I long suspected (Antz and Bug's Life). I THOUGHT so when my daughter was small, but chalked it up to toddler-parent brain fry.
ReplyDeleteFun post, Leigh. I seldom watch films now, but I know enough of these to appreciate the point. It's true of books, too.
ReplyDelete"A man disappears for years, then returns with unexplained wealth to win the woman who spurned him" applies to both Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby.
It just reinforces the truth that there are only so many plots.
ReplyDeleteOy vey, Leigh, so we now have TWO SleuthSayers who watch too many movies? And here we think it's the bad guys who have a cunning plan to destroy the fine art of reading books until it's gone forever.
ReplyDelete