Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as a new idea.” Everything takes inspiration from something else. Even Star Wars was heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s legendary film The Hidden Fortress, which itself took inspiration from Japanese history. Even movies copy movies sometimes.
But, there is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism. Some borrow aspects from a source but then run with that idea in a new direction, others copy products wholesale. It’s the difference between making Star Wars’ lightsabers more realistic (mostly) in No More Heroes and completely remaking Super Mario Bros and replacing Mario and Luigi with a girl named Giana. While some games take inspiration from movies, others just straight up copy them. The following will look at games that either take inspiration from movies or outright copy them. Just a bit of warning, though: every one of these entries will include spoilers.
Spec Ops: The Line – Apocalypse Now
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
When Spec Ops: The Line was in development, studio Yager Development stated it took inspiration from the movie Apocalypse Now, which was based on the novel Heart of Darkness. But, if you examine the story beats and themes, you’ll see Spec Ops was more than just inspired by Apocalypse Now.
Both Spec Ops and Apocalypse Now revolve around soldiers who search for an ex-officer who became insane and led his own band of mercenaries. As each mission continues, tensions rise, your sanity is questioned, and the villain makes the age-old (and clichéd) claim that he and the hero are not so different. Except in the game and movie, the the hero and the villain really aren’t different, especially in Spec Ops when the villain turns out to be nothing more than a hallucination. Both Spec Ops and Apocalypse Now force audiences to wonder what really is the difference between a good and evil.
Uncharted/Tomb Raider – Indiana Jones
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
Everyone dreams about wandering forgotten ruins, discovering ancient treasure, and escaping impossible death traps. Movies like Indiana Jones capture that childhood dream perfectly, as do several video games. What better way to make gamers feel like they’re actual treasure hunters than to copy someone else’s work?
The stories of Uncharted, Tomb Raider, and Indiana Jones might not overlap much, but they all circle the same general plot points. A tough but likable/lovable protagonist in a mundane world goes on an adventure to find an artifact with supposedly magical properties. He or she discovers clues, solves puzzles, and dodges traps in the process. The protagonist wants to retrieve the artifact for fame and glory while an evil organization wants to use the treasure’s magic to take over the world.
In the end, the ground falls apart as the hero or heroine discovers that stories of the artifact’s powers weren’t exaggerations. Each movie and game brings something new to the table, but I just described the basic premise to every Uncharted and Tomb Raider game, as well as each Indiana Jones movie, ever.
Dead Rising – Dawn of the Dead
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
There are only so many ways to tell a zombie story and only so many settings to frame that story. The best locations provide a sense of paranoia and twist comforting areas into terrifying parodies. Add a dash of claustrophobia and some obvious jabs at modern culture, and you have a recipe for excellence. George Romero did just that when he chose a shopping mall as the backdrop for Dawn of the Dead, and then Capcom just decided to rip off that idea with Dead Rising.
Of course, Dead Rising didn’t copy Dawn of the Dead wholesale. The movie didn’t exactly star a freelance photographer who voluntarily jumped into a mall from a helicopter to get an exclusive scoop on the world’s first zombie outbreak, let alone discover the conspiracy behind the outbreak. But, Dead Rising’s setting, NPCs who only want to escape, boss enemies who treat the ordeal as an excuse to go insane, and underlying critiques are more than just similar to many aspects from Dawn of the Dead. There’s coincidence, and then there’s Dead Rising.
Silent Hill – Jacob’s Ladder
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
Insanity isn’t easy to portray. Well, maybe it’s easy when you’re on the outside looking in, but what about when you want to portray a world from the perspective of the insane? That’s what Jacob’s Ladder did with near surgical precision, so it’s no wonder many games treat that movie like a blueprint.
The entire Silent Hill franchise is covered in the fingerprints of Jacob’s Ladder. From the monsters that convulse wildly, to the first game’s bad ending where everything is revealed to have been the ramblings of the dying brain of protagonist Harry Mason —you can’t go anywhere in Silent Hill without seeing it wear its inspiration on its sleeve like a coat made of human skin.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Scarface
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
What is it with entertainment and glorifying organized crime? Are the people who create movies, television, and video games envious of mafiosos who break the law on a daily basis and flaunt the riches they reap? Regardless, these producers have managed to transform movies like Scarface into beloved classics. And you know what they say about beloved classics: someone’s always trying to make the next one.
Scarface received a kinda sequel in 2006 with the video game Scarface: The World is Yours, but Rockstar North made its own Scarface-like game in 2002 with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Both Scarface and Vice City star an ex-convict who, after arriving in a Floridian city, makes his way up the local mafia’s chain of command to become a cocaine kingpin. Both protagonists create empires with their drug money, and after walking through a web of betrayals, end their stories in shootouts with rival gangs in large, lavish mansions. When you copy someone else’s material, you might as well copy the best.
Metal Gear Solid – Escape from New York
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
It’s no secret Hideo Kojima loves Escape from New York. Every chance he gets, the man references the protagonist of the movie, Snake, through his own breakout stealth-action hero Solid Snake. Not only are the codenames almost identical, but when Solid Snake goes undercover in Metal Gear Solid 2, he disguises himself as Iroquois Pliskin, an obvious reference to Snake’s real name, Pliskin. But, the similarities don’t end there. They don’t end there by a nanomachine-powered mile.
If you examine Escape from New York and the first Metal Gear Solid game, you will notice the story beats are eerily similar. Both Snake and Solid Snake have to rescue government officials with nuclear secrets (nuclear fusion in Escape from New York and nuclear launch codes in Metal Gear Solid) from terrorists. Both characters, while searching, first come across a decoy. Snake and Solid Snake also both find unlikely allies, are eventually captured and tortured, and end everything with a high-speed chase that involves the big bad. The similarities were so tangible Kojima was almost sued. The only thing that saved him from a legal battle was John Carpenter’s claim that “he’s a nice guy.”
Twisted Metal/Carmageddon – Death Race 2000
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
If you haven’t heard of Death Race 2000, here’s your figurative and literal crash course. The United States has transformed into a totalitarian dystopia, and the government keeps the population happy and entertained with the Transcontinental Road Race. Part Mad Max, part Wacky Races, and part The Purge, this titular death race is as dangerous for the participants as it is the innocent pedestrians who are run over for bonus points, double if they’re elderly or disabled.
The concept of vehicular combat was too good of a concept to pass up in the 90s, since every piece of entertainment back then had to be dark and edgy, and it spawned the games Twisted Metal and Carmageddon. The former game takes the tournament backdrop and eccentric/certifiable character concepts but transforms everything into a demolition derby where the winner receives a special prize: a magical wish that is twisted and corrupted monkey paw-style.
As for Carmageddon, it tries to remain more faithful to Death Race 2000, complete with literal points for running over bystanders. Although, is it fair to say Carmageddon was inspired by Death Race 2000 when the game, unlike the other entries on this list, started life as an adaptation of the movie?
Binary Domain – Blade Runner
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
There seem to only be two kinds of robot stories: robots either want to be more human or supplant humanity as the dominant species. Even the extraterrestrial robots known as the Geth check both boxes, but we’re not here to talk about Mass Effect. No, we’re here to discuss the most iconic robot story ever, the one that planted the idea of robots passing as humans in our minds: Blade Runner. Oh, and the game that copies it a little too much.
On the surface, Sega’s third-person shooter Binary Domain borrows more from Terminator than it does from Blade Runner. After all, the game is swarming with (humanoid) robots that crawl towards you even after you’ve blasted off their legs, just like the Terminator did at the end of the first movie. But, for all of Binary Domain’s kill-bots, its story revolves around androids that think they’re human, not unlike some replicant androids from Blade Runner. While playing the game, your every instinct will tell you the protagonist is a robot himself, much like Blade Runner’s main character Deckard (at least according to several different cuts of the movie). But, instead that honor lies with one of Binary Domain’s squad members. I love games that use their inspirations to trick the audience.
Mortal Kombat – Big Trouble in Little China
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
Big Trouble in Little China is the definition of a movie that’s so dumb it’s brilliant. It features an ancient Chinese warlock (played by the irreplaceable James Hong) who wants to escape an underworld and conquer Earth by marrying a green-eyed woman. The only two people who can stop him are a Chinese martial artist and his air-headed Caucasian trucker friend. Oh, and did I mention the movie includes elemental warriors and an orange monster with giant, needle-like teeth? Even if you haven’t watched the movie, a lot of this probably sounds awfully familiar.
You might be distracted by the pixelated blood and guts, but Mortal Kombat features a story. It’s not a deep story, but it provides some context as to why a thunder god is fighting a living pincushion made out of bone and savagery. This story also takes more than a few cues from Big Trouble in Little China. A vaguely Chinese warlock wants to conquer Earth, but to do so he and his champions must win a fighting tournament.
As it turns out, the only people who can stop him are an air-headed Caucasian actor and a Chinese martial artist, as well as some other fighters. Oh, and let’s not forget all the elemental ninjas, some of whom are cyborgs. Mortal Kombat is the closest you can get to a Big Trouble in Little China video game without having it licensed.
Brutal Legend – Heavy Metal
Games That Were Heavily Inspired by (Or Ripped Off) Movies
The movie Heavy Metal is a piece of underappreciated art. The film is an anthology of various stories adapted from the Heavy Metal magazine, a publication known for its adult-oriented content and covers that look like they belong on a Meat Loaf album. Each segment of the Heavy Metal movie tells a different story, from a future New York City cab driver who gets involved with an ancient and powerful artifact to a World War II bomber pilot who fights off his zombified allies while still flying his plane.
But one story, Den, shares more than a few similarities with Tim Schafer’s Brutal Legend.
You might wonder what a story about a geek who transforms into a bald barbarian has in common with a game about the world’s greatest roadie. Well, both are accidentally transported to ancient fantasy worlds that feature vistas inspired by heavy metal album covers; they narrowly escape cultists performing a ritual, meet a love interest, and fight against an evil man/demon who wants to enslave mankind with an ancient and evil power. However, Brutal Legend forgoes Den’s sex scenes and replaces them with cameos by every heavy metal musician under the screaming sun, including the late great Lemmy Kilmister. Still, the game wouldn’t exist without Heavy Metal, both the music genre and the movie.
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