Plot 1: A widowed ex-preacher has lost his faith. Along with his son and daughter, he battles monsters using a surprising weapon...water. The climax involves our heroes having to survive an entire evening without leaving the building. The main character has a brother who is very different than him, but who he loves despite his faults.

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Plot 2: A loveable rogue who is a petty criminal infiltrates a criminal organization with the intent of taking it down from the inside. He is instantly befriended by the head of the evil organization and rises quickly to the top. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the honcho's girl. He is betrayed by somebody who he considers a friend...this former friend is then killed on the orders of the honcho. Honcho then tries to kill both the hero and the girl, but both escape. Eventually, the hero defeats the honcho.

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Well, there's only seven plots as there is in all of Hollywood... if you want to get picky about it:

Plot 3: Girl gets kidnapped by evil forces with supernatural powers. Naive young man must team up with crafty old veteran who may or may not be just out for his own personal gain in order to sail in, rescue the girl and save the day.

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I bet you can do that with virtually any movie.

You can do this with any movie. If you didn't like movies then you wouldn't be here. *Yawn moving to a smarter thread.

Yeah, there are basically the same plot devices used over and over again in all stories, whether they are books, movies, plays, etc.

As for Plot 1, I'd have to say you're talking about Signs because as far as I can remember Harvey Keitel didn't have a brother in Dusk til Dawn.

Boy, you took me down a notch. An intellectual such as yourself should have known better than to "slum" in this thread.

What I was trying to get at was not the basic plot of a movie ("Boy Meets Girl" etc). Rather, seemingly specific details about a movie that happens to match another film that at first glance is completely different.

renaldow, read my description for Plot 1 again. There's a reason I wrote "The main character has a brother..."

Doesn't Entertainment Weekly do this every so often in their magazine? Looks like the moviemakers aren't the only ones stealing ideas, eh Groucho?

They used to, although I haven't seen it for a while. They had a good one comparing When Harry Met Sally to Woody Allen movies.

Sorry, but I'm so used to your elitist sense of humor in other threads I wanted to shoot back when you were in the spotlight. I didn't mean much by it.

I knew I shouldn't have highlighted the second blacked out title. Damn me and my curisoity.

Seriously...this concept is impossible to execute without major spoilers happening. I think you should show the titles, then spoilerize the description. At least then we can avoid spoilers for movies we haven't seen (that water thing is a MAJOR spoiler, for instance).

Yea, I've seen the first film that that plot outlined, and kept thinking of where else it could have fit. Not a big deal.

Ah, me and my friend had a lot of fun doing these before. The one that came up the most often was Braveheart vs. The Patriot (wants to be an indifferent farmer, thrust into war when his loved ones are threatened, ragtag bunch flock to him, etc etc).

Lately, it's been 8 Mile and Bend It Like Beckham.

Or Debbie Does Dallas and The Terminator
Both arrive from a far-off place and then proceed to "do" everyone. And they both get theirs in the end.

A friend of mine gave me this one:

A plot to use clones which were rejected by the Council years ago. Engineering a crisis so that the Council would be forced to use the clone army. A villain used as the template for the clones. All of this engineered by someone the Council trusts but whom is really a villain in the background who is playing both sides.

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Whether there are 1, 3, 7, 20, 36, 37, or some other number of basic plots is a matter of conjecture and debate. I personally do not find these schemas to be useful. It’s a little like saying there are only three primary colors.

Of course there are more obvious ripoffs:

A CG movie about ants.

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A deadly comet/meteor hurtles through space directly at Earth.

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Without getting into plot details, how about Liberty Stands Still/Phone Booth or Overnight Delivery/Road Trip...

Alice Sweet Alice and Communion. They're surprisingly have a very similar plot. Wait....

There's more than three primary colors?

A deadly comet/meteor hurtles through space directly at Earth.

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Darn, I guessed

A man charged with strictly enforcing the law hunts down criminals whose only crime is wanting to live, only to become a fugitive himself.



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After his family is killed, the hero leads a ragtag group of men to fight a massive empire. His two best allies are a foreigner and a tall, strong man. He falls in love with a woman the enemy believes to be on their side.

Psycho and Horror Hotel(both 1960, i think)

Experienced with the ladies, one guy tries to teach his methods to a protege but finds out it's not the path to true happiness.