10 Pairs Of Movies That Have Almost Identical Storylines (According To IMDb)

Hollywood finds itself retreading familiar territory a little too often! According to IMDb, these ten movies have storylines identical to other films.

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Social media is always abuzz with interesting discussions concerning oddities in the world of film. One particularly intriguing thread that developed on Twitter (thanks to user @KrisTosAplSauce) concerns the realization that multiple films released in the same year wind up with eerily similar storylines.

Of course, it begs a burning question. How many more movies fall under the same category? It makes you wonder how Hollywood let it happen, or if it was intentional from the start. Taking the inquiry further into the internet, IMDb has a list of films that have similar storylines. Let’s take a look at ten of the most recognizable pairs.

10 The Illusionist (2006)/ The Prestige (2006)

Both films were released the same year, with The Prestige debuting in October and The Illusionist in August. In earnest, fans have noted the similarities between these films more than once over the years.

At first, they don’t seem to have much in common with each other. Both involve the use of magic as a central theme, but The Illusionist involves a magician in Vienna trying to win the love of his life back from a brutal prince. The Prestige also uses magic as a plot device but involves the rivalry of two magicians after a trick goes horribly wrong causing a fatality. However, both films do also deal heavily with the theme of love lost.

9 White House Down (2013)/ Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Maybe at first, you had no idea both these films weren’t part of the same franchise, given how remarkably similar they are. White House Down starred Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. John Cale (Tatum) is a police officer who is now tasked with saving the president (Foxx) when terrorists infiltrate the White House.

Olympus Has Fallen follows the same storyline with some minor twists. Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) was a former Secret Service agent who now has to return to duty when the president is held hostage by North Korean terrorists at the White House.

8 Mission To Mars (2000)/ Red Planet (2000)

Both films have an abundantly obvious overarching theme here — we have a group of astronauts and scientists traveling to Mars. But it does go a bit further than that.

Each film deals with an extraterrestrial or outer space entity that they have never seen before, but each has different purposes. There are also numerous, smaller similarities, like how certain people are killed off and the fate of humanity at the end of each film.

7 Dante’s Peak (1997)/ Volcano (1997)

It’s been a while since audiences have seen a film about volcanic destruction, but in 1997 there were two films that tackled the subject. Volcano involved Michael “Mike” Roark (Tommy Lee Jones), an O.E.M. Director who falters in taking action when high heat occurrences cause fatalities. It is soon proven that a volcano was forming under the city and will erupt at any moment.

In Dante’s Peak, the same occurs when Geologist Dr. Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) is unable to convince local authorities of a possible volcano eruption after witnessing various heat-related deaths. They are too late in warning the town when the volcano erupts.

6 The Thin Red Line (1998)/ Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Saving Private Ryan is a film classic, but who knew it had a twin? The Thin Red Line also involves a story of war much like Saving Private Ryan. Both take place during World War II, but at different locales and battlefields. In Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks played Captain John H. Miller who must return Private Ryan (Matt Damon) back home after his brothers are killed in the war.

The Thin Red Line doesn’t center around bringing someone back, but focuses on AWOL soldier Private Witt (Jim Caviezel) who can’t escape the battlefield. Both films deal with the gruesome reality of war, death, heightened emotions, and human relationships.

5 Powder (1995)/ Phenomenon (1996)

IMDb claims the twin film of Powder is Phenomenon, starring John Travolta. Besides obvious physical differences, both center around a main character who possesses telekinetic and paranormal powers.

In Powder, Jeremy “Powder” Reed (Sean Patrick Flanery) is an albino teen with high intellect and a powerful electromagnetic charge that causes electrical objects to go haywire. Travolta’s character, George Malley, witnesses a bright light that increases his intellect and causes him to develop psychokinetic powers.

4 Infamous (2006)/ Capote (2005)

Infamous and Capote were released almost a year apart but are about the exact same person. Infamous covers the time between the ’50s to the ’60s when Truman Capote (Toby Jones) was writing and researching his bestseller. The similarities are baffling.

In Capote, the same storyline applies as Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) travels to Kansas to interview the killers of the Clutter family. He becomes emotionally attached to one of them and starts to investigate. As the killers are convicted, Capote starts to derail mentally from the case and trial.

3 Turner & Hooch (1989)/ K-9 (1989)

It’s hard to not have heard about Turner & Hooch, but that same year the film K-9 was released. Both were buddy-cop films. Tom Hanks played Scott Turner who becomes the owner of Hooch, the dog of his murdered long time friend. Hooch becomes Turner’s companion as they solve the murder of his friend and take down a seafood magnate.

K-9 follows the same idea when a hot-tempered cop named Michael Dooley (James Belushi) is given a K-9 sniffing dog named Jerry Lee. Dooley has been tagged for execution by an international drug dealer. With the help of Jerry Lee, they plan to put the criminal behind bars.

2 After Earth (2013)/ Oblivion (2013)

After Earth was where Will Smith and his son, Jaden Smith, co-played the main roles in a post-apocalyptic action film. Taking place years into the future, Earth has been abandoned and is uninhabitable due to an alien race. General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son, Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) crash during a spaceflight onto a hostile planet and must find a way to survive.

Oblivion followed the same idea but was the more adult version starring Tom Cruise as Luke Harper. Devastated by war with aliens, humans left Earth to a new planet. Harper is sent back to Earth but witnesses a crash, rescues a survivor, and must now defend himself against an alien threat.

1 The Cave (2005)/ The Descent (2005)

The basis of both storylines involves a group of explorers getting trapped in a dark cave and their lives being threatened by deadly creatures. The Cave takes place in Romania after a group of plunderers gets trapped in a forgotten abbey. They follow the cave system, which has winged demons depicted on the floor, and then find themselves trying to survive against evil creatures.

In The Descent, a family and some friends go exploring a cave when the passage collapses behind them. The only way out is forward but as they venture further they meet a dangerous monster called a “crawler.”

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/movies-have-identical-storylines-imdb/