12 Movie Fragments That Pay Tribute to Famous Movie Scenes

Have you ever had a feeling of déjà vu when watching a movie? That is, have you ever felt that a scene or even a character has already appeared in another production? This phenomenon is quite common, after all cinema feeds back on many references, and directors often decide to recreate famous scenes from other past successes to pay homage to them or even to parody them.

Thinking about it, the incredible.club separated 12 movie scenes that were inspired by other movie successes. Let’s see if you had caught these references.

The famous scene from the movie Back to the Future in which Dr. Emmett “Doc” Bronw, character played by Christopher Lloyd, is trapped at the top of the clock tower, it seems to reproduce a scene from The Fly Man, one of the most important films by comedian Harold Lloyd. Although they have the same last name, the actors are not related in real life.

George Lucas is famous for honoring other films in his productions. In the Star Wars saga, more precisely in Episode I — The Phantom Menace, the race of podracers starring Anakin is a clear reference to a scene from the movie Ben-Hur. The whole situation, and even the angles and shots used by the cameras, look a lot like the classic 1959 movie.

Pixar’s animations are also full of references to other films. But we couldn’t pass up the scene from Toy Story 3 where Woody falls out of the tree and is pinned millimeters from the ground. It is a clear tribute to one of the most impressive scenes in Mission: Impossible, a hit starring Tom Cruise.

The baby carriage that rolls down the stairs of the “Union Station” in Chicago is one of the most emblematic scenes of The Intouchables, a 1987 success directed by Brian de Palma; in reality, the scene pays homage to a 1925 Russian film called The Battleship Potemkin, which has a very similar episode on the stairs of Odessa.

In Pulp Fiction, when Butch Coolidge, a character played by Bruce Willis, meets Marsellus Wallace at an intersection, Tarantino repeats a scene from the film Psycho, one of Hitchcock’s greatest successes. In addition to imitating the shots, he also repeats the gestures and movements of actress Janet Leigh, but with a completely different ending.

The famous scene where Indiana Jones escapes the trap in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark has been parodied several times in films and television series. In a scene from Chicken Run, Ginger escapes from the oven and goes back to get her hat just as the door is about to close, the same as Indiana Jones does with his whip.

In addition to altering Stephen King’s original plot, Stanley Kubrick also had the luxury of recreating a scene from the silent film The Ghost Chariot. The scene is one of the most famous in The Shining and perhaps in all of film history. In it, the highly awarded Jack Nicholson leaves the spectator scared to death and releases the famous phrase: “Here’s Johnny”.

In Do the Right Thing, Radio Raheem explains that the rings with the words “love” and “hate” are an homage to the speech of the character played by Robert Mitchum in The Devil’s Messenger. In the film, the words are tattooed on his hands.

The entire sequence where we learn about the superhero’s downfall in The Incredibles is presented in black and white; public opinion is against him and this is shown by the headlines of the newspapers and the bright advertisements on the facades of buildings. The scene is a direct reference to a cinematic masterpiece: Citizen Kane. In this film, Orson Welles uses the press as an ellipse to show the passage of time.

The entire Scream saga is an absolute parody of great thrillers and horror movies. However, in the final scene we see a tribute to the movie The Shawshank Redemption. In it, the protagonist opens her arms to the heavens in the middle of the street while the camera moves away, the same as Andy Dufresne, character played by Tim Robbins, does in the original.

Love and death are rarely compared in romantic comedies, but (500) Days of Summer isn’t exactly a perfect model of a romantic comedy. In the cinema scene, the protagonist plays a game of chess against Cupid. It is a tribute to the film The Seventh Seal, by Ingmar Bergman, in which a knight plays a game of chess with death.

In Zootopia — This City is the Beast, there is a scene in which Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are in the territory of Mr.Big, a small rodent that looks a lot like the actor Marlon Brando in The Godfather. The moment looks a lot like the opening scene of the movie, with Mr. Big making offers the other animals can’t refuse; besides, he has a daughter who is getting married and is waiting for him to dance.

Do you think that parodying or honoring great movie scenes is something original or is it just the opposite, a lack of creativity? Leave your opinion in the comments.