Same Story, Different Names: Difference between revisions

* Writer/director Kurt Wimmer admitted to rehashing many of the same concepts in ''[[Ultraviolet]]'' from his previous film ''[[Equilibrium]]''. Both are about a [[Boring Invincible Hero|superhuman killing machine]] in a future [[Dystopia]] who goes against a [[Knight Templar|quasi-religious]], fascist government that is built around fighting something (emotion/virus) that the hero possesses. The hero fights other superhuman enforcers in a number of [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomp Battles]]s to reach the #2 man, who turns out to {{spoiler|A: have the same prohibited thing as the hero, B: be the real leader of the government, and C: be the toughest opponent of all.}}

* The original ''[[The Little Shop of Horrors|Little Shop of Horrors]]'' by [[Roger Corman]] is a case of [[Same Story, Different Names]]-it's essentially Corman's ''A Bucket of Blood'' for botanists instead of artists. It's also a case of Same ''Score'' Different Names; Corman commissioned the score for both movies, and a later movie, ''The Wasp Woman'', from the same guy. The composer, in the finest traditions of not giving a shit, just handed over the score he wrote for A Bucket of Blood every time.

* [[Tyler Perry]] receives a lot of criticism for this -- justthis—just look at his page quote. His movies usually have a black woman in an abusive relationiship (or who was in one) who is a single mom. She will meet a nice working class man, and hate him at first because of that, but they will grow to like each other. Meanwhile, somebody will have a problem with their baby mama, somebody will be on drugs, Madea will discipline some children and there will be some incest involved. But at the end, there will be a church scene where everyone finds Jesus and all is well. His first movie, [[Diary of a Mad Black Woman]] actually received decent reviews, but his later movies have been poorly received by critics but made quite a bit of money.

* [[Dan Brown]]. Except for the settings and [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]]s of each story, they're all the same. ''[[The Da Vinci Code]], [[Angels & Demons]], [[Digital Fortress]], [[Deception Point]]'' -- all—all written by the same exact formula to a hundred details of specificity.

* Jack McDevitt: Some [[Adventurer Archaeologist|Adventurer Archaeologists]]s find a clue leading them to a lost location full of ancient knowledge. There's probably a government or corporation messing things up, whether [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|unintentionally]] or [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|malignantly]]. Someone WILL [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifice]] him or herself, either for their comrades or to protect the knowledge (Sometimes this is by way of [[Redemption Equals Death]] (see the next item). There will be a [[Face Heel Turn]] or a [[Heel Face Turn]]. One or two couples will develop - generally someone in one such will die, leaving their partner devastated. When they find the cache, some huge catastrophe will destroy all of what they find except when they can carry while running away, or they'll be an epoch too late. Either way, their discovery [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore|changes everything]].

* The critically/fan-acclaimed albums for Metallica tend to be down to an 8-9 song formula. Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice For All, and Death Magnetic all follow a similar structure to the music, with varying music lengths based on how advanced CD/LP technology is at the time. Each opens with a song that sounds like most of the rest of the album that also has an unusual intro (acoustic, fade-in, heartbeat) before the album's title track if it has one. Track four is generally lighter or slower ("One"<ref> ...And Justice For All</ref> and "The Day That Never Comes"<ref> Death Magnetic</ref> have identical song structures) and the peniltimate track is an instrumental.

** ''[[Metal Gear]] Ac!d'' and its sequel have very similar stories, events and setpieces to each other, too. (Snake infiltrates a laboratory performing experiments on children due to the urging of a general keeping information from him, gets a blond female [[Ms. Fanservice]] assistant, develops a rivalry with an enemy [[The Brute|Brute]] who is [[Worthy Opponent|actually a pretty]] [[Punch Clock Villain|nice guy]], is [[Stalker with a Crush|stalked somewhat homoerotically]] by the lead scientist in the base, is constantly plagued by the suspicion that his memories may be lies and he may just be the [[Tomato in the Mirror]], and ends up in the thrall of the manipulations of an extremely powerful little girl with the spirit of a dead person living on inside them.) The similarity between them is lampshaded in the story with a couple of obvious [[Nostalgia Level|Nostalgia Levels]]s, but not justified at all. They also both do callbacks to ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' with levels where you have to go out of your way to get sniper rifles.