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Cinematography is over 100 years old, making it increasingly difficult for directors and screenwriters to come up with new stories. One way or another, but in any film you can find moments similar to another.
Sometimes the creators are so inspired by someone’s work that they almost completely copy the plot, although some then innocently try to convince everyone that they did not borrow anything.
10 Island | 2005
The plot of the painting by Michael Bay tells the story of a world in which a global catastrophe has occurred.
The survivors live in an isolated settlement, but everyone knows that somewhere there is an island paradise with clean air to breathe. There is only one way to get there – to win the lottery held by the leadership of the settlement.
The director probably didn’t know that this plot was an almost exact copy of the third-rate 1978 film Parts: Horror of the Clones, but the screenwriter definitely knew about it. The main difference between the films is the budget. The Island cost $130 million, but the film ultimately flopped, and the creators still had to pay a seven-figure sum to the authors of The Clone Horror due to obvious plagiarism.
9. Break through | 2012
The action movie starring Guy Pearce tells of a riot in an orbital space prison, where at the time of the uprising of prisoners the daughter of the President of the United States was on a humanitarian mission. Now she becomes a hostage and a former CIA agent, sentenced to 30 years, is brought in to free her.
This story strongly resembles the events of the movie “Escape from New York” by John Carpenter with Kurt Russell. There, too, the main character is outlawed and, for the sake of his freedom, frees the daughter of an official.
Carpenter sued the creators and won $80, but Luc Besson refused to pay and filed an appeal. The new court again recognized Naprolom as plagiarism and increased the amount of compensation to half a million.
8. Alien | 1979
The screenwriter of this cult film has never denied that the plot was not completely invented by him. He honestly admitted that he borrowed ideas from many fantastic works, but critics and viewers quickly noticed that Alien was very similar to the painting It! Horror from space.
The second-rate black-and-white thriller from 1958 tells a very similar story: a spaceship is infiltrated by an alien creature that moves through the ventilation and kills the crew members one by one.
7. Toy Story | 1995
Directed by John Lasseter, even before the filming of Toy Story, he wanted to direct the cartoon The Brave Little Toaster. It is about revived technology and electronics, which goes in search of the owner.
Disney did not want to give money for it, so the adventures of the toaster were filmed by another company in 1987. Lasseter, over time, became a prominent figure at Pixar and decided to return to his idea again, replacing electrical appliances with toys.
However, in both projects there are not just similar, but literally identical scenes that Lasseter clearly “ripped off”.
6. Fast & Furious | 2001
The first part of the adventures of Dominic Toretto and company is like two drops of water similar to the movie “Point Break” in 1990 with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in the lead roles.
The only difference is that in the Fast and the Furious there is a gang of street racers, and in the original a gang of surfers. In both action movies, the protagonist infiltrates the undercover group, starts a relationship with a girl, becomes friends with the leader, and gets a taste of it.
5. The Hunger Games | 2012
This is a special case, since here one can safely accuse not only the authors of the film, but also the writer Susan Collins, who wrote the book, of plagiarism.
The story of a bleak future and a group of teenagers participating in a deadly game – all this was shown in 2000 in the Japanese film “Royal Battle”, based on the book of the same name.
Collins claimed that she had never read the book, and the filmmakers that they had not watched the Japanese version. Nevertheless, plagiarism is evident, and not the most successful one.
There’s a lot of murder and gore in Battle Royale, which is what a death games movie should be, and Hollywood made a snotty melodrama for teens.
4. Reservoir Dogs | 1992
Tarantino borrowed the idea for his debut film from the 1987 Japanese action movie City on Fire. A raid on a jewelry store, an undercover cop, a gang member with an unstable mentality – all this was not invented by Quentin.
However, all the brilliant dialogues and staging of scenes are entirely his merit. This director often draws (or frankly steals ideas) inspiration from the works of his colleagues, but he reworks everything in such a way that he does not dare to accuse him of plagiarism.
3. Star Wars | 1977
When creating the legendary Star Wars universe, George Lucas was mainly inspired by 50s sci-fi series and books, but most of all he took not from them, but from Akira Kurosawa’s film “Three Scoundrels in a Hidden Fortress”.
The original script was so similar to Kurosawa’s work that Lucas seriously considered buying the rights to it, but then the story was slightly changed.
Nevertheless, there is a lot in common, although everything is presented in fantastic scenery.
2. For a fistful of dollars | 1964
The first part of the dollar trilogy by Sergio Leone tells about the shooter played by Clint Eastwood, who decides to earn extra money on the war of two gangs who settled in a small town.
With this western, Leone’s path to the title of king of the genre began, but the joy of victory overshadowed the lawsuit from Akira Kurosawa.
Leone’s film is a tracing-paper from Akira’s 1961 film The Bodyguard.
If George Lucas took a lot, but added a lot from himself, then Sergio Leone did not bother and simply replaced the samurai from the Japanese film with cowboys in his own. As a result, he had to fork out and give 15% of the box office.
1. The Lion King | 1994
The Lion King cartoon is still one of the best animated projects in history, bringing Disney a lot of money. The irony is that it was positioned as the first cartoon of the studio, filmed not on the basis of a fairy tale, but according to the original script.
This could be believed if it were not for the Japanese anime Kimba the White Lion, filmed in 1965.
Kimba is a little lion cub who will rule the jungle. He also loses his father, his spirit in the cloud appears to him, the throne of the king of the jungle is occupied by an evil lion with two hyenas on errands. A parrot, an eccentric baboon, a sweetheart – it’s all there in the anime.
When the creators of Kimba’s White Lion were asked why they didn’t sue Disney for such brazen plagiarism, they said they couldn’t compete with a multi-billion dollar corporation with hundreds of experienced lawyers on staff.