Movies that share genre conventions or storytelling tropes aren't anything new, nor are they inherently bad. That said, there are some strange cases where a movie has so many similarities to another picture that it goes beyond being just homage or tribute. Some commonalities are so glaring that it's impossible to dismiss them as coincidence.

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Pixar's Cars was accused of plagiarizing Doc Hollywood, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice had a near-identical plot to Captain America: Civil War. Whether it was intentional or not, certain films might as well be rip-offs with how much they have in common with other movies. Some were even officially declared as rip-offs by the courts!

Updated on May 17, 2023: It's hard to deny that nothing is truly "original" these days. Every movie takes some form of inspiration from an older work, and some even proudly show their influences by remaking a scene or two. We've updated this list with even more examples of films that cross over from innocent inspiration to uninspired copying.

10 Deep Impact (1998) & Greenland (2020)

Deep Impact

A lot has been said about how Armageddon and Deep Impact are practically the same. Although there are definitely parallels, Armageddon was an energetic disaster movie focused on the destruction, while Deep Impact was a grounded drama about a similar cataclysm. Instead, a better comparison to Deep Impact would be Greenland.

Greenland

Greenland focused on the Garrity family's escape to a bunker as a world-ending comet hurtled towards Earth. Leo Beiderman and his family went through this in Deep Impact, right down to the lottery and emotional turmoil it caused among neighbors. Both movies ended with the families surviving and living to see a post-comet world.

9 Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016) & Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Batman V. Superman

2016 was a big year for the superhero genre. The DCEU and MCU released their biggest crossovers at the time in the same year. By pure coincidence, Batman v. Superman and Civil War were about their respective cinematic universe's heroes fighting each other. What's more, the ways and reasons why they fought were strikingly similar.

Civil War

In both films, the superheroes accidentally cause a catastrophe, the U.S. government demands accountability, and a shadowy, superpower-hating villain uses the chaos to sow infighting among the heroes and ruin their reputations. The biggest difference was that the incredibly ill-advised Batman v. Superman ended with Superman's death, while none of the Avengers died in Civil War.

8 Ocean's Eleven (2001) & Ocean's 8 (2018)

Ocean's Eleven

After ending with Ocean's Thirteen, Steven Soderbergh's star-studded Ocean's trilogy was revived with Gary Ross' spin-off Ocean's 8. Here, Danny Ocean's younger sister, con artist Debbie Ocean, pulls off the perfect heist with her team. That said, Debbie's con was a remake of her brother's and it wasn't just because of the base premise.

Ocean's 8

Ocean's 8 retreaded Ocean's Eleven by repeating specifics like a heist worth at least $150 million, the opening parole hearing, and even the snappy editing. The most egregious imitation was Debbie and Lou's dynamic, which repeated Danny and Rusty's. Like the latter, Debbie and Lou almost fell out when Debbie revealed the heist was a matter of revenge.

7 Casablanca (1942) & Barb Wire (1996)

Casablanca

Casablanca is one of those classic movies every filmmaker wishes they thought of first. This was probably why Barb Wire even exists. On the surface, David Hogan's comic book movie was just an edgy action vehicle for Pamela Anderson Lee. In truth, Barb Wire was a gender-flipped Casablanca set in a war-torn America instead of 1941 Morocco.

Barb Wire

Barb Wire was a beat-for-beat copy of Casablanca. In Casablanca, the jaded club owner Rick rejects his cynicism to help his old flame and her lover escape the Nazis. Barb (also a barkeep and part-time mercenary) does the same thing in Barb Wire. The only difference was that she shot her enemies instead of outwitting them.

6 High Noon (1952) & Outland (1981)

High Noon

A common way to adapt an older story for a contemporary audience is to set it in space. This is what writer/director Peter Hyams did for High Noon. Instead of remaking the classic Western, Hyams transplanted the story of an aging lawman defending an apathetic town from the old American West to a space station.

Outland

Hyams' Outland barely toed the line between homaging and plagiarizing High Noon by tweaking certain details and subplots. This included replacing the outlaws with a mine's corrupt enforcers and switching the central romance with a familial relationship. Depending on the viewer, Outland is either a great example of homage or just pure lazy writing.

5 Zero Hour! (1957) & Airplane (1980)

Zero Hour!

Broadly speaking, Airplane! was a parodic pastiche of the countless airplane-themed disaster movies from the '50s, but it took direct inspiration from Zero Hour! This wasn't just because both films were about wartime pilots saving planes after the crew succumbs to food poisoning, but because Airplane! was almost literally Zero Hour! with punchlines.

Airplane

The story went that writers/directors Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers caught Zero Hour! on TV and riffed on it for fun. Airplane! lifted so many conversations and scenes from Zero Hour! that the trio felt obligated to legally secure the latter's rights. For $2,500 (roughly $9,000 today), they were allowed to remake Zero Hour!, resulting in one of the most iconic deadpan comedies of all time.

4 Escape From New York (1981) & Lockout (2012)

Escape From New York

Escape from New York, and its polarizing sequel Escape from LA, are two of the most influential cult action movies of all time. Their impact on the genre can still be felt today. Snake's influence endured so much that it inspired directors Stephen Saint Leger and James Mather to remake it in Lockout. Unfortunately, they did this without legal permission.

Lockout

Lockout's Marion Snow imitated Snake's personality and his begrudging rescue mission in a supermax prison. This even included specific beats like saving the president's daughter. A French court sided with director John Carpenter when he sued Lockout for plagiarizing his Plissken films. Carpenter and writer Nick Castle were financially compensated, further driving home just how similar these films were to the Plissken originals.

3 Yojimbo (1961) & A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)

Yojimbo

It goes without saying that Akira Kurosawa made some of the most influential movies of all time. This includes Yojimbo, the story of a wanderer who saves a town by playing both sides of the local gang war. Yojimbo was so famous that it had many legal and illegal remakes. A Fistful Of Dollars was its most famous bootleg.

A Fistful of Dollars

Sergio Leone's iconic spaghetti Western followed Yojimbo's story to the last letter. Kurosawa and the studio Toho successfully sued Leone for plagiarism over Fistful of Dollars. Kurosawa wasn't opposed to international remakes of his films, as proven by his praise for The Magnificent Seven, but he wanted to be appropriately credited for his work.

2 Doc Hollywood (1991) & Cars (2006)

Cars

All of Pixar's Cars movies take notes from older films. For example, Cars 2 was an homage to James Bond's campier adventures, while Cars 3 was a mash-up of sports movies, especially the beloved underdog Rocky series. The sequels were collages, but the original was an almost scene-for-scene Doc Hollywood clone.

Doc Hollywood

In Doc Hollywood, the arrogant big city surgeon Ben finds himself trapped in a small town after he causes an accident. While serving out his community service, Ben learns the value of small-town life and the emptiness of celebrity. Lightning McQueen went through the same realization, the only difference being that he was a racer and a talking car.

1 Perfect Blue (1997) & Black Swan (2010)

Perfect Blue

Black Swan isn't just Darren Aronofsky's most well-known movie, it is likely his most controversial as well. The surreal movie focuses on a ballerina's struggle with pressure and her loss of innocence as she throws herself into her chosen art scene. This was exactly the same story as Satoshi Kon's classic anime movie, Perfect Blue.

Black Swarn

From the way scenes were blocked to the story's flow, Black Swan could pass for a live-action Perfect Blue adaptation. This also happened with Aronofsky's previous movie, Requiem for a Dream, which lifted many scenes from Perfect Blue as well. Aronofsky acknowledged the similarities but excused them as homage, which didn't sit right with Kon's admirers and anime fans.

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