I just saw the movie last night and thought it was a fun romp. But I remembered reading everyone comparing it to the DaVinci Code and other Dan Brown works. But from the start, I had a different take on its inspirations: The movie reminded me a lot more of the Dirk Pitt novels than anything else.
- Prologue from the past showing that something significant was hidden
- Long lost ship turns out to be where that something was hidden (and usually in artic or antartic waters)
- Charismatic lead who knows too much
- Sharp-witted sidekick who’s a bit shorter than the lead, but they work really well together
- Female who gets involved that the lead gets, while the sidekick gets nothing
- And, at the very end, the beginning of an amazing car collection
Of course, it’s been several years since I read a Dirk Pitt novel (they all started to sound the same after a while), so I could be fuzzy on some of the details, or have forgotten other similarities.