Expy/Film: Difference between revisions

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* John Cusack's [[Hitman with a Heart]] in ''War Inc.'' is an expy of his character in the earlier film ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'', and almost every other character in the new film has an equivalent in the previous one.

* Alex from ''[[Home Alone]] 3'' is the expy of Kevin from the previous two movies.

* Daniel Jackson (''[[Stargate]]'') vs. Milo Thatch (''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]''). An awkward, orphaned, linguist who becomes a laughing stock among his peers. Using his skills with language, he translates something that allows him to actually go to the place that proves his theories were correct. The team of people with him dislike him, but he slowly gains their respect. In the end, he decides to stay with the hot chick he met in Atlantis/Abydos.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'', a lot of the characters from the Prequel Trilogy are Expies of characters from the Original Trilogy (Even if both characters are actually in the original trilogy)

** Anakin Skywalker in episodes II and III is basically an Expy of his own son, even though he was also [[The Dragon]] in episodes IV, V, VI and even the end of III.

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*** Don't forget [[Knights of the Old Republic|Darth Malak]], possibly the most obvious Darth Vader expy, and [[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Cad Bane]], an (unfortunately much more talkative) expy of Boba Fett.

* In ''[[Gremlins|Gremlins 2: The New Batch]]'', one Mogwai looks and acts very similarly to Stripe from ''[[Gremlins]]''. The music sting, the way the camera zooms in and Gizmo's reaction all make it abuldantly clear to everyone including Gizmo that, for all intents and purposes, Stripe has been reborn. (Technically, both characters are brothers, as they both popped out of Gizmo's back after he got wet, and the New Stripe has black and white fur rather than blue and white, and after he becomes a gremlin, he has a reptilian frill rather than a Mohawk. But still undeniably an expy of Stripe.)

* ''[[wikipedia:Terminator salvation|Terminator Salvation]]'' {{spoiler|Marcus, in several ways, is an Expy of Arnold/the T-800, especialy in ''Terminator 2'', and to a lesser extent, Kyle Reese in the first Terminator movie. Marcus is basically a Prototype for the T-800, as he actually has a metal endo skelton and his outsides are living tissue. Unlike the T-800, however, he still has a human brain and thinks he's human. There's numerous little bits of action that remind you of Arnold, he kind of looks like a younger, skinnier Arnold, at his execution you actually EXPECT him to say "I'll Be Back" as his last words because they were just talking about bring him back to life the the VERY PREVIOUS SCENE (Instead, he just shrugs when asked for any last words) and, amusingly, when the humans chain him up after discovering his metal skeleton, his wrists are chained to a barbell.}} But even WITHOUT {{spoiler|Marcus}}, the movie has numerous little homages to the previous movies.

* The villains in each of the direct sequels to ''[[Highlander]]'' -- Katana in ''[[Highlander II the Quickening]]'', and Kane in ''[[Highlander III the Sorcerer]]'' -- were pale imitations of the Kurgan, the awesomely memorable villain from the original. Kane even had the same deep, rough Dr. Claw voice as the Kurgan.

** Likewise, the villain from the [[Highlander (TV series)|TV series]]' pilot "The Gathering", Slan Quince, was also a Kurgan expy.

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** As do some of the recurring supporting actors, most notably Margaret Dumont.

* ''[[Transformers]] II Revenge of the Fallen''; {{spoiler|In ''Transformers 1'', of course, they couldn't have a giant robot turn into outdated '80s technology so they had an expy of Soundwave by taking one of Soundwave's tapes (Frenzy) and turning him into a CD player. In ''Revenge of the Fallen'', they turn Soundwave himself into a satellite, and he sends another one of his tapes, Ravage, to Earth to spy on the humans. The whole Expy thing becomes a bit Meta, because Ravage spews a bunch of little metal balls which come together and form another character who is an expy of Movie 1's Frenzy!}}

** Ravage also has a compartment in his chest open to release The Doctor, just as the old Soundwave used to release cassette-Ravage.

** Not to mention the fact that Blackout in the first movie was an Expy of Soundwave. His role was originally meant to be filled by Soundwave, down to the symbiotic animal partner.

** There's also {{spoiler|Wheelie}}. He has some similarities to both Frenzy and Rattrap from Beast Wars.

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* Both ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'' and ''[[Mirror Mask]]'' are about a dark haired, odd, creative girl, who discover a strange fantasy world that is ruled by an [[Evil Counterpart]] of the girl's mother who wants to take over the girl's mind in a manner that turns her eyes black. Although {{spoiler|''[[Mirror Mask]]'' is a bit more complicated. There are a total of THREE versions of Helena's mother, TWO of them are in a coma, while in ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', the Antagonist is the Other Mother, the Dark Queen in ''[[Mirror Mask]]'' is really just worried about where her daughter is. The REAL antagonist is the [[Evil Counterpart]] of Helena, and the two are never even in the same universe at the same time!}}

* Del Preston from ''[[Wayne's World|Waynes World 2]]'' is Danny from ''[[Withnail and I]]'', and is even played by the same actor. This could be considered a [[Shout-Out]].

* [[The Professional|Léon]] is Victor from ''Nikita''. Same actor, and they even share an euphemism for their job, "cleaner".

* [[Léon: The Professional|Léon]] is Victor from ''Nikita''. Same actor, and they even share an euphemism for their job, "cleaner".

** Luc Besson has said that they're basically cousins.

** Winston Wolf, "the cleaner" from ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', is an Expy of the character played by Harvey Keitel in ''The Point of No Return'' -- which was itself a remake of ''Nikita'', thus tying all of these fellas together.

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* [http://www.mwctoys.com/images/review_cb2_1a.jpg Victor] from ''[[Corpse Bride]]'' looks too much like grown-up [http://www.helderdarocha.com.br/blog/tim_burton_vincent.jpg Vincent], what was one of [[Tim Burton]]'s first projects. The resemblance is even lampshated in the film when Mr Everglot acidentally calls him Vincent.

** Victor also looks like what [[The Nightmare Before Christmas|Jack Skellington]] would look like if the latter was alive, albeit with a tear-drop-shaped head rather than a round skull.

* The Filipino superhero Captain Barbell is quite similar to [[Captain Marvel]], except that he has no lightning power and that his wimpy alter ego has to lift a barbell over his head to transform.

* Sort of a type-casting example with Paul Bettany. He recently was in a biopic on [[Charles Darwin]], and some reviews noted his previous role as [[Master and Commander|Stephen Maturin]] in film ''Master and Commander'' who comes across as somewhat similar to Darwin in his time on the ''Beagle'' (intellectual naturalist on a ship, interacts with giant tortoises at one point).

** Not any giant tortoises. The giant tortoises ''of the Galpagos Islands'', just like Darwin!

* ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]: [[The Movie]]'', a mild [[Cult Classic]] movie version of the classic song, has a few of these. Clarice is replaced with Zoey, who was supposed to be named "Clarice" but they couldn't get the copyrights. Rudolph's [[The Rival|rival]] Arrow looks very much like Fireball.

* Michael Cera basically plays the same character over and over. His characters in ''[[Superbad]]'', ''[[Juno]]'', ''[[Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist]]'' and ''[[Youth in Revolt]]'' all are essentially all Expies of each other.

** Ditto for Jesse Eisenberg, whose appearance has been compared to Cera by some. His character in ''[[Adventureland]]'' is basically like the guy from ''[[The Squid And The Whale]]'' growing up and graduating college. ''[[Zombieland]]'' is what'd happen if either one was stuck in a [[Zombie Apocalypse]].