Critics are always saying Hollywood can’t come up with one original idea. That’s why to make up for it the studios have two of the same idea, often in the same year, in the hopes that if you didn’t like the story the first time around maybe paying to see it with a different cast will win you over…
“G.I. Joe: Retaliation”/”Olympus Has Fallen” (2013)
Shared Plot: Enemy assumes control of the White House.
Description: Washington DC gets attacked by ludicrous villains twice, first by Cobra Command and then again by the even more cartoony North Korea. In “G.I. Joe” moviegoers spend a good 110 minutes wishing the film had actually be done with the 3 3/4” action figures from the 1980’s, if only because then you could have them fight it out across Lego play sets while piloting toy X-Wing fighters. “Olympus,” meanwhile, proves yet again that even if he isn’t actual playing the President in a movie Morgan Freeman should always be in charge of the country, all the while as Gerard Butler takes one last stab at thrillers before going back to romantic comedies and just becoming the testosterone Katherine Heigl.
“Deep Impact”/”Armageddon” (1998)
Shared Plot: A giant comet/asteroid is on a collision course with earth, threatening mass extinction.
Description: As the recent meteorite impact proved, the only real way we can ever detect incoming space debris is by way of Russian dashboard camera videos uploaded on YouTube. But barring that we have two lesser options, both involving sending crews into space. In “Deep Impact” the crew consist of military professionals, who immediately screw up and cause millions to die. In “Armageddon” the crew consists of blue collar oil drillers, who both save the day and make Liv Tyler cry so that everyone can wave American flags to an Aerosmith song.
“Antz”/”A Bug’s Life” (1998)
Shared Plot: An independent-minded ant saves his colony from other insects.
Description: These two films were so similar that a very public feud broke out between Dreamworks (“Antz”) and Pixar (“A Bug’s Life”) over who had the idea first (that would be Pixar). In fact, the only real difference was that one featured New Yorker Woody Allen (without an on-screen girlfriend fifty years his junior) and the other featured Canadian Dave Foley (for all those five-year-olds who couldn’t get enough of “The Kids in the Hall”). The cartoons also came out a mere one month apart and both proved very successful, thus setting the stage for future “different movies, same plot” competitions like Pixar releasing “Cars 3” and Dreamworks just filming a kid playing with his Hot Wheels while making screeching and crash noises with his mouth.
“Mission to Mars”/”Red Planet” (2000)
Shared Plot: A manned mission to Mars goes to hell.
Description: Taking place in a world where NASA’s budget hasn’t been so severely cut that all their missions have to rely on Estes model rockets, both movies reach the same conclusion: We made it alive to the Moon, so let’s not get cocky and try any harder. That’s because in “Mission to Mars” the ship’s crew makes the jarring discovery that humans are actually descendant of Martians, which would mean that “War of the Worlds” was apparently just us shooting ourselves in the foot. But in “Red Planet” we experience an alternate timeline in which Val Kilmer could actually have top billing in a movie, although one that was a huge bomb because unlike “Mission to Mars” it wasn’t based on a Magic Kingdom attraction.
“Dante’s Peak”/”Volcano” (1997)
Shared Plot: A volcano on the west coast threatens to destroy a town/city.
Description: Together, these two volcanic eruption movies asked viewers to choose between wanting to save a small town in the state of Washington or prevent Los Angeles from being submerged under hot lava. Naturally, moviegoers flocked to the Northwestern town, thereby sending Hollywood a message that maybe turning their city into the next Pompeii wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen. This despite the fact that the tagline for the unsuccessful “Volcano” was “The coast is toast,” which no doubt promised a serious, well-researched, scientific approach to natural disasters that could have only been stressed more if the slogan were “The ultimate burn” or “Melt with you” instead.
“Mirror Mirror”/”Snow White and the Huntsman”
Shared Plot: A certain fairy tale.
Description: One is a comedy. The other is laughable. But although they tell the same tale these two films couldn’t be more different. In “Mirror Mirror” the film’s tone is so light and carefree it makes Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” cartoon look like a searing documentary on the blood diamond trade by comparison. “Snow White and the Huntsman,” on the other hand, is an action-packed, sword-wielding, bloody blah blah bah blah it stars Kristen Stewart, so in short you just spend the entire movie wondering why KStew always looks like either she smells something awful or is having a conversation with her lower lip.
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