The movie industry doesn’t stand still and releases hundreds of flicks annually. It would be naive to suppose that there won’t be similar works among them. Sometimes creators strive to repeat the success of a certain film and copy the plot. Other times, identical movies come to be almost at the same time, as a response to what was trending at the time. In the second case, it’s hard to understand whether one scriptwriter was peeking at the script of the second one or whether they had similar ideas accidentally.
We at Bright Side recalled movies that were released with a small-time gap and that look like 2 peas in a pod.
The year 2012 released 2 movies about the famous Snow White princess: Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror Mirror. In both cases, viewers were shown an alternative version of the famous fairytale where Snow White has a strong personality and doesn’t need to be rescued by a prince. It is noteworthy that the stepmother queen in each of these flicks has an overwhelming charisma and almost overshadows the main character.
The movie It Takes Two was released in 1995 and 3 years later, in 1998, audiences saw a flick called The Parent Trap. The plots of both movies tell about 2 girls who meet each other accidentally and who turn out to be identically looking. They start their game by setting up the personal life of their parents and foster parents.
The main character of the movies The Butterfly Effect (2004) and Mr. Nobody (2009) is a person who possesses a special ability. He can foresee how his future life will go if he makes this or that decision. And though the guys’ abilities are explained differently, in both cases they analyze their past actions and try to find the way that will bring them happiness.
At the time of creating EDtv (1999), the movie’s director Ron Howard was well aware that a flick with the same plot called The Truman Show (1998) was about to be released. In both cases, the plot revolves around a man whose real life is broadcast on TV. Howard was sure that the project with Jim Carrey had no chances for success. But he was wrong because The Truman Show astonished everyone and made it onto various lists of cult movies, which can’t be said about EDtv.
In 2016, the fans of movies about superheroes rejoiced because 2 of their beloved cinema universes released new episodes almost simultaneously. It is known that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War were created by different people, but viewers noticed that the flicks looked very much alike with how both stories begin, end, and even in the battle scenes.
The movies Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached were released in 2011 and narrated the same story to the audience. A young girl and a guy agree to start a relationship without any burdens and obligations, where there is no place for serious feelings. However, over time they get to know each other better and it becomes hard for them to fulfill their initial agreement.
In 2000, filmmakers decided to please the fans of sci-fi movies by releasing 2 movies on the topic of space — Red Planet and Mission to Mars. The flicks created the feeling that the directors had some kind of agreement because they show a similar plot — in both flicks, astronauts are investigating Mars and facing an unexplored world.
Perhaps there aren’t any more touching flicks than the ones about the friendship between a human and a dog. In 1989, at least 2 movies on this topic made the audience shed tears — K-9 and Turner & Hooch. The main characters, who work as police, accidentally get a 4-legged friend who helps them in their uneasy line of work.
Both The Hunger Games (2012) and Divergent (2014) are based on books by different authors, but still, viewers found them to be quite similar. Both flicks show dystopian worlds that have a strict division of their social strata. The main character, a young girl with a strong personality, will have to fight the system.
2 movies on the topic of what happens post-apocalypse were released in 2013 — Oblivion with Tom Cruise and After Earth with Will Smith. The events take place in the distant future. The main characters are fighting for survival on an abandoned planet that had been conquered by aliens.
The world of animation also has cartoons with similar plots. For example, Madagascar (2005) and The Wild (2006) demonstrate, to young viewers, the jolly adventures of animals who’ve escaped from the zoo. However, in this case, the cartoon that was released later was heavily criticized for being wildly derivative.
The horror movie, A Quiet Place, which did well at the box office was released in 2018 and The Silence, which turned out to be less successful was released one year later. Of course, many people were reproaching the second flick for plagiarism, however, its creators had been working on it even before the first movie was released. According to the plots of both movies, the main characters have to keep silent because loud noises attract mutants.
Which similar movies have you watched? Which one did you like more?
After watching both of the Snow White movies mentioned in #1, I felt like they should have swapped the characters, as the Evil Queen of one with the Snow White of the other. I decided neither were enough to make them a favorite movie as I didn’t feel like they were the right character fits for their counterpart.
Okay- so the ORIGINAL The Parent Trap (1961) plot: “The Parent Trap is a story about teenage twins on a quest to reunite their divorced parents.” Quite possibly both of the modern ones mentioned were inspired by Disney’s movie in 1961. Also- as we know, the Olsen Twins were actually twins with a large following (1990s my best friend was in the fan club and I just watched everything they starred in) and did plenty of things about being twins after playing a single character on Full House (starting as babies of course.) On occasion I forget that authors of articles can in fact be younger than I am and still be old enough to be successful- not sarcasm just saying I forget what generations are actually adults now, while I am 33.
As a lover of sci-fi/fantasy (and what stems from an idea of human nature in the future that begs the questions of population control, survival instincts, those in power finding ways to “nudge” society to do their dirty work for them.. etc.) I definitely agree with the criticism of these genres having many of the same plots- it almost feels as if they use the same “laws” and are not always an “original” seeming set of aliens, planets, cultures, technology, etc. It’s almost to say that we may have a limit to what we think humans can digest/what motivates or angers them/ or what we have been conditioned to feel either may be plausible or what surely could never happen. (Ethics may come into play, it definitely does to me and there are a handful of concepts I cannot stomach and never wish on the human race- i.e Hunger Games, Alien, or any negative/dangerous encounters with anything outside of our atmosphere) I happen to like Aliens (the movie) and do not like Hunger Games. These future-based movies definitely make me never want to go to space or encounter any form of monster. I also enjoy Doctor Who but care too much about my loved ones to ever hope the character exists- what follows is so much pain. I do like the seemingly unpopular idea that we have the choice (decency even) to learn about new places and creatures before jumping to conclusions- while having the discernment to know what is truly evil and cannot infect us.
what can i say except plagirsm?
I got surprised after watching that hunger games girl pic transformation.
She is so beautiful 🥰
