I was just watching a bit of **What About Bob? ** and realized that Bill Murray saves a choking victim by performing the Heimlich maneuver in two different movies- this one and Groundhog Day.
When we watched Lucky Number Slevin, I pointed out that this is the second movie where Ben Kingsley (I guess I better use the spoiler box)
dies via asphyxiation with a plastic bag over his head just like he did in House of Sand and Fog. Now how many actors can claim THAT distinction?
Not including parodies nor type-cast actors who are always doing the same thing in their films, what other actors are caught in a similar scene in two totally unrelated movies?
A similar scene in two classics from the early 80s:
In the “Illusion” episode of “Manimal,” an actor named “Talbot Simons” plays a cab driver. I don’t remember the exact details, but something bad is about to happen, like he knows the (parked) cab is about to explode and is trying to bail out, leaving the hapless occupant to go up in flames.
Two months later, in “The Great Pretender” episode of “Automan,” he reprised this role in exactly the same situation.
Well, maybe. These two series were done by the same production company, and they probably just cribbed the earlier scene (whichever it was originally filmed for). It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them, and I don’t have anything to compare to be sure.
John Hurt has an alien burst out of his chest in Alien and parofies the scene in Spaceballs (“Oh, no! Not Again!”)
Not the actor, but the director – Ridley Scott seems to love using the same weird scene setup. He has The Gang of IOriental Kids on Bicycles riding Past the Hero in Bladerunner and in [B’Black Rain**
He also has The Villain Being Sucked into a Void and Just Barely Holding On By His Fingernails Before Finally Being Sucked Out in Alien and in Legend.
Robert Vaughn plays basically the same gunslinger character in Battle Beyond the Stars as in ** The Magnificent Seven**, with many similar scenes.
Jennifer Connelly has an indentical scene where she walks out alone onto the end of pier surrounded by water at the end of both Dark City and Requiem for a Dream. The scenes are 99% identical, yet the plagiarist director of Requiem claims he had not seen Dark City and it was total coincidence. He’s a liar.
Mel Gibson’s loved one is summarily executed by a cruel English authority figure, whereupon Mel goes on a rampage in the service of a war for independence. Throughout the war, Mel carries a sentimental reminder of his lost loved one.
Given the way that Hollywood works, the director of Dark City probably ‘plagerized’ the scene from an earlier director. Is Brian DePalma a plagerist for his homage to the famous Odessa Steps scene in The Untouchables?
Actually my wording was a bit strong- Dark City itself is full of “homages” to previous films. My problem is not that the scene is identical, but that the director pretends it is a coincidence, when obviously it is an exact copy. Just admit you liked the shot (it is a great shot) and wanted to use it in your film, and move on. But do give credit where credit is due.
Harrison Ford, in Star Wars trying to pilot a damaged Millenium Falcon, and in Air Force One, piloting a damaged Air Force One. I kept waiting for him to say “Come on baby, hold together.”
James Earl Jones saying “I was never here.”
I know he says it inThe Hunt for Red October, almost certain he says it in a few other movies,although I can’t think of them.
Terri Garr in Oh, God! and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Basically, her character spends most of the movie moping and wailing about how weird her hubby is suddenly acting because he’s obsessed with something no one else believes is possible.
Ed Harris plays a character wearing a headset in all of these movies:
The Right Stuff
The Abyss
Apollo 13
The Truman Show
The Rock
Tom Cruise has a scene where he runs really fast down the middle of a street or corridor in nearly every movie he’s in. These for sure off the top of my noggin:
The Firm
Jerry Maguire
Minority Report
Mission Impossible
Vanilla Sky
Far and Away
Collateral