Recycled in Space/Live-Action Films

• The Thing from Another World inspired movies (aside from the remake The Thing):
  • Alien is The Thing from Another World ON A SPACESHIP!
  • also its tagline was Jaws IN SPACE
  • Halloween is The Thing from Another World AS A SLASHER FILM!
• The Magnificent Seven is Seven Samurai IN THE OLD WEST!
  • Roger Corman's B-Movie Battle Beyond the Stars is The Magnificent Seven IN SPACE!
• Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is Basilisk meets X-Men and Romeo and Juliet WITH NINJAS!
• Porn loves to do this with Parallel Porn Titles like Star Whores and The Bare Wench Project. In fact, it's probably been done with every movie ever.
  • Lately they've gotten even lazier and started simply adding "An XXX Parody" on. Examples: Star Trek: The Next Generation An XXX Parody, Married, With Children: An XXX Parody, and so on. What's amazing is that the acting is actually good, there just happens to be rampant XXX activities sandwiched in between a plot...Or So I Heard.
  • Emmanuelle (video game)... IN SPACE! Heh.
• Taxi Driver is The Searchers IN THE 1970'S!
• Hardcore is The Searchers IN THE 1970'S PORN INDUSTRY!
• Dark Star is Waiting for Godot IN SPACE!
• IN SPACE! is frequently used in horror movies. There have been IN SPACE! versions of Friday the 13 th (Jason X) and Leprechaun (appropriately titled Leprechaun 4: In Space).
• Hellraiser Bloodline was Hellraiser in IN VICTORIAN FRANCE! and later IN SPACE!
• Common rumor is John Carpenter apparently once proposed Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers be, you guessed it, IN SPACE!
• Dracula 3000 is Dracula IN SPACE!
• Critters eventually went (back) to space too. In fact, almost any horror movie franchise will eventually head to the stars if it lasts long enough. Except for Aliens, which started out in space and ended up back in a normal Earth town for Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.
• The concept for Alien itself was apparently sold to the film company as "Jaws - IN SPACE!"
  • AlienS has also been described as a Vietnam movie IN SPACE!
• Predator on the other hand is The Most Dangerous Game IN SPACE!
• Bring It On: In It to Win It is West Side Story (see below) WITH CHEERLEADERS
• The 1985 film Fright Night is Rear Window WITH A VAMPIRE!
  • The 2006 B-Movie Abominable is Rear Window WITH BIGFOOT!
  • Mimic 3 is Rear Window WITH GIANT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HUMAN-MIMICKING BUGS!
  • Disturbia is Rear Window WITH SHIA LEBOUF!
  • Head Over Heels is Rear Window AS A Chick Flick!
• Zathura is Jumanji IN SPACE! Literally; in the story (by the same author) on which it is based, Zathura is the value-added bonus game on the reverse side of the Jumanji board (in the same way many checkerboards have a backgammon board on the back).
• Outland is High Noon IN SPACE!
• Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. In which Abbott and Costello go to Venus.
• Angels in the Endzone is Angels in the Outfield WITH FOOTBALL!
• Angels in the Infield is Angels in the Outfield IN THE INFIELD!
• This trope is parodied in the Mel Brooks film History of the World Part I, where one of the previews of Part II involve Jews... IN SPACE! (Not to be confused with the trope Space Jews, which is something else.) Also Adolf Hitler... ON ICE!
  • Spaceballs is Star Wars AS A PARODY AND WITH TWO SCTV ALUMNI!
    • Plotwise, however, Spaceballs is actually It Happened One Night IN SPACE!
    • Conceptually, it's Blazing Saddles IN SPACE!
• Star Trek: Insurrection is Lost Horizon IN SPACE!
• The 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Blonde and Blonder is Dumb and Dumber WITH DUMB BLONDES!
• Airplane! II: the Sequel is Airplane! IN SPACE! Ironically, it had a lot of Recycled Jokes. He's the Big Cheese, the Man In Charge...
  • Lampshaded when Elaine said "Ted, I have the feeling we've been through this exact thing before. "
• 1979 Disney film The Black Hole is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea IN SPACE!
• Rent is the opera La Boheme IN NEW YORK WITH AIDS AND EVERYONE IS GAY!
• Forbidden Planet (1956) is The Tempest IN SPACE!
• Fire Birds is Top Gun WITH HELICOPTERS!
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was the original Home Alone IN NEW YORK CITY!
• Air Bud: Golden Receiver is Air Bud PLAYING FOOTBALL!
  • Air Bud: World Pup is Air Bud PLAYING SOCCER!
  • Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch is Air Bud PLAYING BASEBALL!
  • Air Bud: Spikes Back is Air Bud PLAYING VOLLEYBALL!
  • Air Buddies is Air Bud WITH A LARGE AMOUNT OF ADORABLE PUPPIES!
    • Snow Buddies is Air Buddies IN THE ARCTIC WILDERNESS!
    • Space Buddies is Air Buddies IN SPACE!
    • Santa Buddies is Air Buddies AT THE NORTH POLE! Saving Christmas!
    • Spooky Buddies is Air Buddies IN A HAUNTED HOUSE!
    • Treasure Buddies is Air Buddies ON A TREASURE ADVENTURE!
• Star Wars is the myth Sword Of The Empire IN SPACE!
  • Star Wars -- A New Hope is also, by word of George Lucas, The Hidden Fortress IN SPACE!
  • The Trench Run sequence in A New Hope is the climax of The Dam Busters IN SPACE!
    • Also, 633 Squadron IN SPACE!
  • The pod-racing scene in The Phantom Menace is Ben-Hur A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY! Oh, and ON A DESERT PLANET!
  • The Jedi are Samurai IN SPACE!
  • And the Empire is Nazis IN SPACE!
  • Gammoreans are clearly orcs IN SPACE!
  • Star Wars is Mozart's The Magic Flute IN SPACE! Sadly there is no singing.
  • The Clone Wars is The American Civil War IN SPACE! Right down to the rebels calling themselves a confederacy and the Republic's army being called the Grand Army of the Republic
• Revenger's Tragedy (2003) is The Revenger's Tragedy IN POST-APOCALYPTIC LIVERPOOL! And WITH THE DOCTOR AND THE MASTER AS THE HERO AND VILLAIN, ALTHOUGH THEY DIDN'T KNOW THAT AT THE TIME!
• Satan Met A Lady is The Maltese Falcon AS A COMEDY WITH BETTE DAVIS!
• Little Shop of Horrors is Faust... WITH A SINGING PLANT THAT EATS PEOPLE!
  • Roger Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors is Faust WITH A TALKING PLANT THAT EATS PEOPLE!
• Moonraker is The Spy Who Loved Me... IN SPACE!
• High School Musical (the first one) is Grease IN A MODERN DISNEYFIED VERSION OF HIGH SCHOOL!
• On that note, "West Side Story" is Romeo and Juliet WITH MUSICAL NUMBERS! IN GANGLAND!
• The Mask of Zorro is The Count of Monte Cristo SET IN THE Zorro UNIVERSE!
• Three Amigos is The Seven Samurai WITH ACTORS PRETENDING TO BE HEROES! IN MEXICO!
  • Galaxy Quest is Three Amigos IN SPACE!
  • Tropic Thunder is Three Amigos IN VIETNAM!
  • A Bugs Life is Three Amigos WITH CGI BUGS!
• The 1985 film Enemy Mine is 1968's Hell in the Pacific IN SPACE!, of course.
• Disturbing Behaviour is The Stepford Wives IN HIGH SCHOOL!
• Three O'Clock High is High Noon IN HIGH SCHOOL!
• Apocalypse Now is Heart of Darkness IN VIETNAM!
• Loser is The Apartment IN COLLEGE!
• Cadet Kelly is Private Benjamin AS A TEENAGER!
• Barb Wire is Casablanca IN THE POST-APOCALYPTIC FUTURE! WITH BOOBIES!
• 12 Rounds is Die Hard With a Vengeance IN NEW ORLEANS! (It was even directed by Renny Harlin, the director of Die Hard 2.)
• Escape From LA is Escape from New York IN L.A!
  • Lockout is a movie about a convicted ex-government agent who is offered a pardon if he can save the President's daughter from a prison colony... in space.
• High Society is The Philadelphia Story AS A MUSICAL!
• Flight Plan is The Lady Vanishes ON A PLANE!
• Speed 2 is Speed, only instead of being on bus, it's ON A BOAT!
• In reverse chronological order: Last Man Standing is A Fistful of Dollars WITH MOBSTERS!
  • A Fistful of Dollars is Yojimbo WITH COWBOYS!
  • Yojimbo is Red Harvest WITH SAMURAI!
  • Red Harvest is Red Harvest WITH PINKERTONS!
• Cruel Intentions is Dangerous Liaisons IN NEW YORK'S UPPER EAST SIDE!
• Clueless is Emma IN BEVERLY HILLS!
• The Last Samurai is Dances with Wolves IN MEIJI JAPAN!
  • Disney's Pocahontas is Dances with Wolves FOR KIDS!
  • James Cameron's Avatar is Dances with Wolves IN SPACE WITH BLUE ALIENS
  • Alternatively, Pocahontas IN SPACE WITH BLUE ALIENS.
    • Actually, Avatar is Dances with Wolves on Pern, complete with obligatory dragon riders.
      • • Actually, while there are elements of both, there are actually quite a few elements that are far closer to an older film called The Mission. Of particular note is the build up to the final battle complete with a Kill'Em All Ending, not to mention the idea of a soldier changing sides (while not given as much focus Trudy's role is somewhat similar to that of Robert De Niro's Captain Mendoza, granted she doesn't start off as a slave driver but she is still a soldier who ends up turning against her own people), and there is mention of a school that was established by Grace Augustine. (essentially a mission of sorts). In fact, even the basic set-up is the same- a group of people are sent to live among an indigenous population to gain their trust for the benefit of their superiors, only here the role of the Church is replaced by a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
  • Dances with Wolves itself has been described as Lawrence of Arabia IN AMERICA!
• The Good, the Bad, the Weird is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly IN 1930s MANCHURIA!
• 10 Things I Hate About You is The Taming of the Shrew IN HIGH SCHOOL!
• District 9 is the story of apartheid-era District 6 in Johannesburg ...WITH ALIENS! Alternatively: "Watermelon Man... WITH TENTACLES!" or "The Metamorphosis... WITH EXPLOSIONS!"
• Akira Kurosawa's films Throne of Blood and Ran are Macbeth and King Lear, respectively, IN FEUDAL JAPAN!
  • Ikiru is Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich IN MODERN JAPAN!
• '90s Fox miniseries White Dwarf is an almost scene-by-scene remake of Kurosawa's Red Beard, with an added conspiracy subplot, IN SPACE.
• The plot of John Tucker Must Die is Mean Girls with A TWO-TIMING Jerk Jock ANTAGONIST IN PLACE OF REGINA GEORGE!
• Road to Perdition is Lone Wolf and Cub IN 1930 MOB ERA ILLINOIS!
• Bride and Prejudice is Pride and Prejudice IN INDIA! AND AS A MUSICAL!
• Airheads is Dog Day Afternoon IN LOS ANGELES! AT A RADIO STATION! WITH The Power of Rock!
• The Spierig Brothers are remaking Captain Blood. IN SPACE!
• Paradise (a 1982 film most remembered for being Phoebe Cates' first film and for showing her naked at every opportunity) is The Blue Lagoon IN THE DESERT!... WITH A MONKEY!
• Teaching Mrs. Tingle is 9 to 5 IN HIGH SCHOOL!
• The Pallbearer is The Graduate WITH GEN Xers!
• Sidewalks of New York is Husbands & Wives WITH GEN Xers!
  • Husbands & Wives is Scenes from a Marriage BY Woody Allen!
• The Core is Armageddon IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!
• The Wiz is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz WITH BLACK PEOPLE!
• Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie is Mr. Bean IN AMERICA! Likewise, Mr. Bean's Holiday is Mr. Bean IN FRANCE!
• Old School is Fight Club AS A COMEDY!
• Equilibrium is 1984 WITH SHOOTOUTS AND SWORDS!
• Tremors is Jaws IN THE DESERT! WITH SAND WORMS!
• Gamer is The Running Man WITH THOSE DAMN VIDJA GAMES THE KIDS LOVE SO MUCH!
• Mac & Me is ET the Extraterrestrial as a LONG MCDONALD'S COMMERCIAL!
  • Likewise, Super 8 is ET done with CLOVER AS THE ALIEN!
• The Last Castle is Cool Hand Luke IN A MILITARY PRISON!
• Fortress 2: Re-entry is Fortress IN SPACE!
• Steel Dawn is Shane WITH A Cool Sword!
• The Rutger Hauer vehicle Blind Fury is Zatoichi IN MODERN DAY AMERICA!
• The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington could be called Fallout: The Movie WITH A BLACK GUY!
  • It's also Zatoichi IN POST APOCALYPTIC AMERICA!
• Sydney White is "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs"...WITH Usagi Yojimbo, FANGORIA AND MEDAL--ER, GURKIN OF HONOR!
• Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past is A Christmas Carol AS A ROMANTIC COMEDY! WITHOUT CHRISTMAS!
• Girls Beware is Boys Beware WITH EVEN MORE PARANOIA AND VALUES DISSONANCE!
• Malaysia does this quite a bit. A particularly egregious example is I Know What You Did Last Raya IS- well you know. Not to mention Evolusi: KL Drfit.
• Taken is 24 IN PARIS!
• The Warriors is Anabasis IN 1970S GANGLAND NEW YORK!
• Moon is literally The Island IN SPACE!
• The Muppet Christmas Carol is A Christmas Carol WITH Muppets!
  • Muppet Treasure Island is Treasure Island WITH Muppets!
  • The Muppet's Wizard of Oz is The Wizard of Oz WITH Muppets!
• The Bounty Hunter is 'Midnight Run AS A ROMANTIC COMEDY!
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is Chinatown WITH TOONS!
• The Killers is Citizen Kane WITH GANGSTERS!
• Jurassic Park is creator Michael Crichton's earlier story Westworld WITH DINOSAURS!
  • or Westworld could be Jurassic Park WITH ROBOTS!
• Adventureland is Garden State IN PITTSBURGH!
• Kohlhiesels Töchter is The Taming of the Shrew IN GERMANY (OR SWITZERLAND)!
• Banlieue 13: Ultimatum is Blue Thunder WITHOUT THE HELICOPTER! IN PARIS!
• Mystery Team is Encyclopedia Brown IN REAL LIFE
• The Help is The Blind Side WITH MAIDS!
• Disney's John Carter sure looks like Atlantis: The Lost Empire IN SPACE, LIVE-ACTION, AND A REVERSED COLOR PALETTE!^[1]
  • Or Atlantis: The Lost Empire is John Carter IN ATLANTIS, since A Princess of Mars introduced book-readers to John Carter about a hundred years ago
• The 2012 remake of The Seven Samurai is Seven Samurai IN MALAYSIA, WITH MERCENARIES!
• Judging from trailers, Apollo 18 appears to be The Blair Witch Project IN... WELL, SPACE!
  • Actually, it's more like Paranormal Activity IN... well you know.
• My Girl is Bridge to Terabithia WITH Gender Flip
• The Human Centipede is Hostel Part II...WITH EVEN MORE SQUICK!
• One For The Money is The Bounty Hunter...WITH A GIRL!
• The Fast and the Furious is Point Break...WITH CARS!
• Harpoon: Reykjavík Whale Watching Massacre is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ON A WHALER!
• Tyler Perry's Good Deeds is The Pursuit of Happyness WITH TYLER PERRY!
• Eagle vs. Shark is Napoleon Dynamite IN NEW ZEALAND!
• Space Cowboys is not, surprisingly enough, Cowboys IN SPACE!, but Armageddon WITH OLD GUYS!
• Red Tails is Glory WITH AIRPLANES, IN WORLD WAR II!
• An American Carol is A Christmas Carol ABOUT POLITICS!
• The 2012 movie Lockout is Escape from New York, Escape From LA, Air Force One and Die Hard ... IN SPACE!
• The 2005 horror film, "Isolation", is essentially Alien BUT WITH COWS!. Also the cast are Irish.

1. ↑ Atlantis is blue and white, Mars is red and black