Name two completely unrelated films with the same basic main plot device

[semicko82]

Dave and Head of State

 

[semicko82]

Beverly Hills Cop and Cobra

 

[My Girl is Bow Legged]

I'll do three dark knight, law abiding citizen and skyfall

getting caught is part of the villain's master plan

 

[Atsym Sknyfs]

I would also say The Dark Knight and Heat in a way. While the plot is different, there are some elements that are similar...

• Starts off with a Daylight Robbery
• Provides narratives not just for Batman, but also for the Criminals and the Legal Side (Harvey Dent/Gordan); Heat provides narratives for the Cops and the Criminals.
  
• The build-up leads to an exciting 3rd Act when all of the shyt pops off; Batman trying to stop Joker, along with the ferry bombs while Pacino's group gets into a intense shootout with De Niro.
  
• Also it breaths life into the city itself. Now just for the characters, but it makes it feel like the city itself is alive.

Dark Knight needed a scene where Batman and Joker have a nice conversation over a cup of coffee in a diner.

nolan said that was his inspiration so it doesn't really count .... does i?

 

[semicko82]

American Graffiti, Boyz N The Hood, Dazed and Confused

 

[Ziggiy]

The Inkwell and The Wood


Young black boy ends up in an unfamiliar new setting, falls in love with the popular girl, and has adventures with his much cooler group of friends that help him transition from boyhood to manhood

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

My mind was randomly wandering and I realized that "Signs" and "Mystery Men" have the same basic premise.

In both movies a group of loveable misfits with weird traits are trying to overcome some all-powerful existential evil. The entire movie their traits are emphasized as useless and almost counterproductive, but the movie climaxes when each of their weird traits surprisingly work together in an unexpected way to defeat the bad guy.


Heroes:

Graham's family
Weak-ass superheroes


Useless traits:

asthma, water phobia, swings hard but always strikes out
throwing forks, invisible when no one is looking, useless rage, etc.


Existential evil:

Aliens
Casanova Frankenstein


Final battle:

Kill the last alien, surviving due to asthma, water, and bat-swinging
Kill Casanova, surviving due to fork-throwing, invisibility, rage, etc.



But one is a superhero comedy and the other is a sci-fi thriller and no one would ever think of comparing them.

Think of any other examples where two movies from completely different genres are based on the same premise?

 

[storyteller]

Saw and Anger Management

 

[theflyest]

Jason Borne is basically Wolverine

 

[Peter Popoff]

Hunger games/Battle Royale
X-Men/Street fighter with Jean claude van dam

 

[jackswstd]

Predator & Home Alone; Both Protagonists have to use booby traps and smarts to fight off a physically stronger enemy.

 

[MushroomX]

Home Alone: "COME AND GET ME!" Kevin taunted from the Treehouse, trying to lure them into a trap.
Predator: C'MON KILL ME! DO IT! DO IT NOW! Dutch trying to lure the Predator into a trap.

Also Dutch and Kevin make use of a Log/Bar

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Jason Borne is basically Wolverine

Predator & Home Alone; Both Protagonists have to use booby traps and smarts to fight off a physically stronger enemy.

The Lion King and Black Panther

Back to the Future 2 and It’s a Wonderful Life

malcolm x & an american werewolf in london..

both main character's transforms into powerful extreme beings that shook up white folks..

I would also say The Dark Knight and Heat in a way. While the plot is different, there are some elements that are similar...

• Starts off with a Daylight Robbery
• Provides narratives not just for Batman, but also for the Criminals and the Legal Side (Harvey Dent/Gordan); Heat provides narratives for the Cops and the Criminals.
  
• The build-up leads to an exciting 3rd Act when all of the shyt pops off; Batman trying to stop Joker, along with the ferry bombs while Pacino's group gets into a intense shootout with De Niro.
  
• Also it breaths life into the city itself. Now just for the characters, but it makes it feel like the city itself is alive.

some of these are just two studios doing similar movies to compete, and others are just genre tropes that have been around forever.

Point Break and The Fast & Furious is a great one, but Point Break can't be the first inception of the kind of protagonist falling under the spell of a criminal mastermind, plus a separate hetereosexual love story, and the kind of moral reckoning at the end.

Finding Nemo and Taken.

Dad in search of lost child.

The Babadook and Home Alone, both trouble family relationships that end with large Rube-Goldberg style booby traps.

These are all money.

(others in the thread are probably good too but there are a lot of movies I haven't seen

 

[re'up]

Predator and Hone Alone probably go back to biblical stories like David and Goliath and other myths/folk tales. The trickster character outwitting the physically stronger character.

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

Blow is like offbrand, bag of cereal version of Goodfellas