John Carpenter Sues Luc Besson for Plagiarism, Actually Wins

[gorfias]

Does that mean George Lucas can sue because Age of Ultron has at least as many bullet points in common with Empire Strikes Back?

My thoughts exactly. I've heard it said it has all been done before by Shakespeare, the rest are just variations of a theme. I want people's creative works protected but this is ridiculous.

I've seen both of these films and did not think of Escape from New York once while viewing it. I thought the main character of that somewhat cliched. And he's no Snake Pliskin. What's next? John Carter of Mars starts suing every super hero and sci fi movie... ever? Might help them recoup some costs.

 

[mtarzaim02]

Does that mean the classic "badass action hero in jail" trope is already at its limits?

Besson should have been smarter if he took an anti-hero for MC. Gregory House in the House in Jail episode, or the super-psycho guy from "Con Air" would make a more enjoyable type of rescuer, while being more realistic in a carceral environment (survival is less about strength and more about social manipulations).

 

[Metalrocks]

reminded me of my favorite band "nightwish" when tuhomas was accused as well from a finish musician for stealing his song. nightswishs title was EVA and tuhomas said he has never heard of this guy and his music. luckily the case was dropped and that guy who accused tuhomas was pretty much given the finger because there was practically no similarity to his crappy song.

lockout was a bad movie. very generic and forgettable. but yes, it did remind me of the far better movie escape from new york. so i give john credit for that. but the newer version on the other hand does not sound so good.

 

[Pyrian]

...the differences in Escape and Lockout are miniscule.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. The similarities are miniscule, and for that matter, any similarities you CAN mention are common tropes.

Sharing a genre is not grounds for claiming plagiarism.

 

[Frezzato]

Weird. And here I always felt bad for Besson because of the abomination that was the movie Point of No Return, which was based on La Femme Nikita.

 

[ThinRedLine]

...the differences in Escape and Lockout are miniscule.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. The similarities are miniscule, and for that matter, any similarities you CAN mention are common tropes.

Sharing a genre is not grounds for claiming plagiarism.

But it was Escape in LA that created this "trope". Jesus, I don't want to argue with anyone using the word trope unironically, good day.

 

[elvor0]

So should we expect a lawsuit between Konami/Kojima and Carpenter soon? I mean as much as I love the MGS series, there's no denying the similarties between the twin Snakes(ho ho ho). MGS1 and EfNY even bare quite a few similar plot elements themselves.

 

[Cekil1]

...the differences in Escape and Lockout are miniscule.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. The similarities are miniscule, and for that matter, any similarities you CAN mention are common tropes.

Clearly the courts disagreed.

To quote "Training Day": It's not what you know. It's what you can prove.

I never thought Det. Alonzo Harris was right until I got older and started to see the evidence all around me.

 

[Starke]

...the differences in Escape and Lockout are miniscule.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. The similarities are miniscule, and for that matter, any similarities you CAN mention are common tropes.

Sharing a genre is not grounds for claiming plagiarism.

Yeah, that's just what we're seeing in this article. For the court to actually agree, there has to have been a lot more similarities than that.

I mean, on one hand, I'm kinda curious, because these, "they stole my idea and filed the serial numbers off" cases are pretty common. But, seeing one actually find for the plaintiff is not. Not quite curious enough to actually look up Lockout or read up on the case, but almost.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Wait, in "Lockout" they send Guy Pearce in to rescue the President's Daughter, doesn't that mean it has way more in common with "Escape from LA" than "Escape from New York"? Unless I have them backwards, Escape from LA was the one where Snake Plisskin went in to get the president's daughter, and in Escape from New York it was when he went in to get the actual president.

Ok, done being a giant geek.

 

[Seracen]

I'm sorry, but the plot to both these films is the same as half the movies that came out in the 80's and 90's. Sure, my friends and I all called it "Die Hard in space," but a lawsuit...really? What a waste of time.

Incidentally, I actually enjoyed Lockout, and would certainly enjoy seeing another "Escape" movie, if they did it well enough! Also more Luc Besson sci-fi, however derivative, is always welcome!

 

[hermes]

This sets an unfortunate precedent.

As someone that frequents TVTropes can say, 99% of the things are hardly original, with most of the fiction works being inspired/paying homage/ripping off some other thing, and them doing it in turn for yet another. And if Carpenter claims the "action hero rescue hostage by infiltrating hostile environment" is his creation, I hope he has big enough pockets to paying royalties to a lot of people, starting with John Wayne and Steve McQueen, and following with A New Hope...

 

[Starke]

Wait, in "Lockout" they send Guy Pearce in to rescue the President's Daughter, doesn't that mean it has way more in common with "Escape from LA" than "Escape from New York"? Unless I have them backwards, Escape from LA was the one where Snake Plisskin went in to get the president's daughter, and in Escape from New York it was when he went in to get the actual president.

Ok, done being a giant geek.

There's some inconsistency in the reporting over, if they're talking about Escape from LA or New York. So... *shrugs*

 

[XT6Wagon]

I'm sorry, but the plot to both these films is the same as half the movies that came out in the 80's and 90's. Sure, my friends and I all called it "Die Hard in space," but a lawsuit...really? What a waste of time.

Incidentally, I actually enjoyed Lockout, and would certainly enjoy seeing another "Escape" movie, if they did it well enough! Also more Luc Besson sci-fi, however derivative, is always welcome!

Die Hard in Space is 5th Element.

 

[Seracen]

I'm sorry, but the plot to both these films is the same as half the movies that came out in the 80's and 90's. Sure, my friends and I all called it "Die Hard in space," but a lawsuit...really? What a waste of time.

Incidentally, I actually enjoyed Lockout, and would certainly enjoy seeing another "Escape" movie, if they did it well enough! Also more Luc Besson sci-fi, however derivative, is always welcome!

Die Hard in Space is 5th Element.

I suppose so, although we called it "Blade Runner Part Deux." HAHA!

 

[camazotz]

Maybe Lucas can sue the makers of Eragon now for the shocking plot point similarities between that movie and the original Star Wars.

This probably says more about French courts than it does about how precisely similar the films are. I saw and liked Lockdown but it's been better than fifteen years since the last time I saw EFNY and I really didn't like EFLA so I did not notice any similarities. That said.....when I watched Eragon I was about midway through when I suddenly realized this was effectively the point-by-point plot of Star Wars transposed in fantasy land.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Can the makers of "Event Horizon" sue the makers of "Ghost Ship"? The similarities are there - salvage crew find derelict ship thought destroyed, led by a person with ulterior motives who tries to kill the crew by the end. The salvage ship is destroyed with the ships mechanic on board. Then there's the whole "sending souls to hell" bit. At the end the ship is destroyed at least partially using explosives and the sole female crewmember has a catatonic breakdown when she's haunted by the ghosts of her crew and being carted away by medics.

That reminded me, I'm actually surprised Games Workshop hasn't sued the creators of Event Horizon for clearly making a Warhammer 40k movie without their consent.

 

[pandastirfry]

I don't want to argue with anyone using the word trope unironically, good day.

you are aware that the word trope means : "a word, phrase, or image used in a new and different way in order to create an artistic effect"?... comes from the Latin Tropus meaning manner or style and the first known use of Trope is 1533... right?

TvTropes and fanfiction.net are not the first to ever use the word. By the way..Meme is older than you think too.