Different movies with the same plots

"The Hidden Fortress" follows two Japanese peasants who, in their efforts to escape a war, agree to help a man and woman across enemy lines. The peasants are unaware that the man is a general and the woman is a princess. If that already sounds a bit familiar, George Lucas admitted that Akira Kurosawa's classic 1958 picture greatly inspired him in the making of 1977's "Star Wars," and many similarities can be found throughout. This includes the filmmaking techniques and scene transitions used; a slaveowner comparable to Jabba the Hutt; and the use of handmaidens, as seen in "The Phantom Menace." 

In an interview with the Criterion Collection, Lucas said the "strongest influence" that "The Hidden Fortress" had on "Star Wars" was Kurosawa's decision to depict a war between empires from the perspective of its most humble characters, peasants Matashichi and Tahei. "I decided that would be a nice way to tell the 'Star Wars' story, which is to take the lowliest characters, as Kurosawa did, and tell the story from their point of view," Lucas said, referring to R2-D2 and C-3PO. "In 'Star Wars'' case, it is the two droids."

Two films about men "born into unusual circumstances" chronicle their life and times in a similar fashion—in fact, they're both adapted from their respective source material by the same screenwriter. (Writer Eric Roth won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Forrest Gump" in 1995 and was nominated for "Benjamin Button" in 2009.) "Forrest Gump" follows a man with an intellectual disability and "Benjamin Button" follows a man born old who ages backward, both of whom end up being part of great historical moments. Both films chart the lives of men who are different from others, who have a lovesick romance with a woman from their childhood, and they even share similar themes of personal freedom.

These stylish, horror rock operas don't just happen to share genres. "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974) and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) also share plotlines so similar that they were actually billed as double features for a while. They both parody and are inspired by a slew of classic horror tropes, center on mad scientist creator pining after a love interest, and offer commentary on subversive gender roles, notwithstanding their similarly colorful aesthetics and art design. Though both are considered cult classics, fans of "Phantom of the Paradise" feel it is unjustly overshadowed in its legacy by "Rocky Horror" despite coming out a year earlier. Even 50 years after the movies came out, the camp of "Rocky Horror" versus the art of "Phantom of the Paradise" is still inspiring fierce debates online.

While these two "monster" films seem like they're on opposite ends of the spectrum, they draw more of a resemblance than one might think. In fact, an eagle-eyed YouTuber made a persuasive argument that 1984's "Gremlins" and 2007's "Transformers" are actually the same film, and created a video listing dozens of points to prove it. These include oddly similar plot details that include an old man discovering an alien creature, lead characters with similar family structures, and even each lead character receiving an alien instead of the car he expected. There are behind-the-scenes similarities too: both feature cameos from their directors (Joe Dante in "Gremlins" and Michael Bay in "Transformers") and both were executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

It should come as no surprise that two films in the same connected, cinematic universe ended up sharing similarities, notwithstanding the fact that Tony Stark actually becomes Doctor Strange in the comics. But fans of the origin story films—which came out in 2008 and 2016, respectively—have drawn comparisons between the general outline of the plots and the trajectory of Tony Stark and Doctor Stephen Strange: Two wealthy, arrogant men who sustain debilitating injuries seek out unorthodox treatments and end up utilizing their genius to become superheroes. Some even went as far as to dub "Doctor Strange" a "rebooted 'Iron Man.'" However, Marvel superfans argue that one main difference between the two characters is that Stephen Strange has never gotten the due he deserves and has been relegated to more of a plot device than a key player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Philip K. Dick's 1956 short sci-fi novella "Minority Report" loosely inspired Steven Spielberg's 2002 sci-fi drama of the same name. But even a casual viewer can't help but draw similarities to 1993's "The Fugitive," which stars Harrison Ford in a storyline borrowed from the true crime story of Sam Sheppard. Beyond both films being led by an action star who's on the run from the law, online sleuths and critics have found numerous other links: Both main characters are framed for crimes they didn't commit, spotted on subways by riders who saw them in newspapers, discover they were ultimately set up by colleagues, and change their appearances in order to hide. But in terms of that last point, "Minority Report" is definitely more tech-forward: While Harrison Ford's Richard Kimble dyes his hair and creates a fake ID in "The Fugitive," Tom Cruise's John Anderton has his eyes replaced in "Minority Report"—so they're not exactly created equal.

Horror director John Carpenter wanted to make a Western but lacked the required resources, so he fashioned the premise of the John Wayne classic "Rio Bravo" into the contemporary setting that was 1976's "Assault on Precinct 13." "Assault" is ultimately a far different film than the Howard Hawks Western—but both films follow an outnumbered group of hold-outs facing a last stand against a larger opposing threat; people unite in both movies in a time of crisis; and one the character Lee in "Assault" is a direct reference to a character in "Rio Bravo." Carpenter even acknowledged his homage to "Rio Bravo" by using the pseudonym John T. Chance as his film editor's credit, which was the name of Wayne's character in the 1959 Western.

Fans of the animated film "The Prince of Egypt" have spotted multiple uncanny parallels between this 1998 Dreamworks retelling of "The Book of Exodus" and the first "Thor" film in 2011. Sure, both stories center on brothers from noble families at odds with one another over their claims to the throne. But audiences have also noted similarities in dialogue between the two films as well as the first "Avengers" installment, leading some to believe the arc of Marvel's Thor character was directly inspired by "The Prince of Egypt." "Thor" seemingly has some Biblical beginnings—the Marvel movie has also been compared to the classic 1956 film "The Ten Commandments."

The resemblance between these two voyeuristic films was so prominent that one of them was taken to court over it. In 2008, the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust, which owns the rights to Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "Rear Window" upon which Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film was based, sued "Disturbia" executive producer Steven Spielberg, production company DreamWorks, and distributor Paramount Pictures. The case was dismissed in 2010 due to the similarities simply being too general. While a judge determined that 2007's "Disturbia" did not steal from the classic Hitchcock thriller and the short story it was based on, both films are about men confined to their homes who begin a hobby as a peeping Tom and who end up convinced that their neighbor is a murderer. 2021's "Woman in the Window," based on the 2018 novel of the same name, is another, more recent iteration of the same concept.

One's about fast cars, the other's about fast surfers, but people have noticed some striking parallels between "Point Break" and "The Fast and the Furious." They both track an undercover FBI agent infiltrating a group of sportsmen for criminal activity, both agents fall in love with waitresses affiliated with the criminals; and both films even feature scenes in which the agent and head criminal bond over shrimp at the beach. An extremely funny and helpful guide posits that they're not just similar, but exactly the same film—save for Vin Diesel's inclusion, of course. 

On a sadder note, both films featured actors who died tragically: "Point Break" star Patrick Swayze of pancreatic cancer at age 57 in 2009 and "Fast and Furious'" leading man Paul Walker in a 2013 fatal car accident at just 40 years old.

James Cameron has actually gone on record to admit that the 1990 movie "Dances with Wolves" was a reference point for his 2009 sci-fi film "Avatar," which is why many people have noticed that the two are practically the same film. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cameron admitted: "There was some beautiful stuff in that film. I just gathered all this stuff in and then you look at it through the lens of science fiction and it comes out looking very different but is still recognizable in a universal story way … The idea [is] that you feel like you are in a classic story."

In each movie, the leading men leave their own worlds behind for new worlds, both of them have leg injuries, become assimilated with the native peoples, fall in love, and eventually go to battle. Despite how technically groundbreaking it was, "Avatar" still felt like a movie we'd seen before.

The similarities are so strong with these two films that some people argue "Days of Thunder" is secretly just "Top Gun 2." The former followed the latter by four years with the same director and producers on board, telling another story about a reckless young man trying to escape the shadow of his father, who releases his rage by helming a huge machine—this time, trading in planes for race cars. Both men also fall in love with a woman who doesn't put up with his garbage and are up against a more level-headed antagonist.

Nearly 40 years after the movies came out, "Top Gun" in 1986 and "Days of Thunder" in 1990, the debate about them continues to rage on. While "Top Gun" is certainly more famous—especially thanks to its massively successful 2022 sequel "Top Gun: Maverick"—some argue that "Days of Thunder" is actually the superior movie.

It's hard to not at least take some cues from as influential a time-travel series as the 1984 film "The Terminator," let alone its 1991 sequel. Many time-travel action movies have, but 2012's "Looper" is known as one of the best.

In the latter movie, we're thrown into a future world where mobsters can send targets back into the past to be killed by a hitman. One such hitman, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is eventually tasked with killing his future self. Similarly, in "Terminator 2," John Connor (Michael Edwards) is targeted by a future Terminator robot and protected by one from the past. The character of Joe in "Looper" ends up aligned with both John Connor and the two versions of the Terminator, as well.

It's become something of a well-worn joke that, in the same year, we managed to get two romantic comedies about sleeping with your friend and attempting to keep things casual, in which one of the leads from one film even went on to marry one of the leads from the other film. Both films follow the same arc, touting a progressive approach to casual, platonic sex, then see their star couple eventually fall into a standard, monogamous relationship. However, it's a documented phenomenon of films with similar plots being released within a very close timeframe.

What's particularly funny about this pair of movies, which were released in 2011, is that they each star half of a famous Hollywood couple: Ashton Kutcher stars opposite Natalie Portman in "No Strings Attached" and his wife, Mila Kunis, is featured in "Friends With Benefits" with Justin Timberlake.

You may also like: 10 times strikingly similar movies came out in the same year.

The 1988 movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is based on the 1981 fantasy mystery novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf; 2004's "I, Robot" is loosely based on Isaac Asimov's 1950 collection of short stories. Since the source material for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" came out 30 years after the short stories that inspired "I, Robot," it's highly unlikely that the Will-Smith-led sci-fi film ripped off the partly animated comedy noir.

Still, it's indisputable that both films share some common threads. Both take place in a world in which humans and non-humans must co-exist, and one in which the detective protagonist doesn't trust these non-humans while being thrown into an investigation that involves them. Eventually, the sinister plot is found to have been orchestrated by one such non-human in order to throw the rest of them under the bus.