Philosophy of Film

strange coincidences

Do you ever get into that weird situation where you watch a bunch of movies in a row and they all seem to have something in common that you didn't anticipate.  Like you watch three movies in a row and they all have a quirky scene involving some particular situation that you've never seen in any other movies besides these three.  Or you some character says the same thing in all of them.  Or maybe you didn't realize it before renting the movies but they all three have the same supporting actor.

I just watched the anime series Death Note, the movie The Man of the Year, and am currently watching the anime series Witch Hunter Robin.  All of these deal with normal people who get roped into a situation where they killing or eliminating "bad" people for the betterment of socieity.  There is of course usually an arguement between different parties as to whether the person doing the killing is any better or if it is justifiable.  Maybe this a more common theme than not, but I think it's kind of specific here.

Also another shared theme.  The same time I was watching Death Note, I was reading the Sherlock Holmes novel Sign of Four.  Both feature detective characters who are so experienced and intellegent that they can often deduce the thought patterns and characteristics and next plan of action of people they have never met merely based on what would otherwise seem to be unimporant clues.

Is the fact that we sometimes end up watching a series of movies one right after another with such similarities without planning on it a coincidence?  Are the chances against this happening a lot lower than we realize so we think it's amazing?  Are there so many possible factors of things that could be similar that the possibility that one of the factors is similar between all of the movies that it discounts for the high improbability of any single factor?

Or might it have something to do with the fact that something subconcious is leading us to chose to watch movies that have some relavent theme in them to our lives?

Probably not but it's a fun thought.

Re: strange coincidences

Well I might be talking about strange coincidences between movies and life, if somehow our life is influencing us to watch certain movies.

But I don't find it that fascinating that someone would have written a scenario that forshadowed 9/11.  The fact that they were able to pull it off may have been a surprise.  Terrorism is nothing new and anyone aware of the situations around the world could have conceived of the scenario.  The trade center had just been bombed a few years earlier as well.

I also remember the same time The Matrix came out there was a movie called The Thirteenth Floor.  I've never seen it but I remember thinking it looked almost identical in theme as well.  Might have been a lot more well known if The Matrix didn't have the impressive bullet time effects to draw people in.

But it's not all that surprising to me that movies of the exact same type come out at the same time either.  Usually companies are aware of eachother's projects and trying to outdo each other anyways.  But even when they aren't aware someone else is doing the exact same type of project, I think they just have a lot of people who are paid to know what the culture is most likely going to be interested in that time for whatever particular weird reason.

I remember a lot of summers that had the exact same type of movies come out at the same time.

There was asteroids in 1998 -  Armageddon / Deep Impact

African American comedians in fat women suits in 2000 - Nutty Professor II: The Klumps / Big Momma's House

Quartets of famous aging actors playing a group of aging professionals coming together to do one last job in 2000 also - Space Cowboys / The Crew / and I thought there was another one

I'm sure there are plenty more examples as well, but these are three examples that seemed too specific to not forget.

But really I just find it strange when I watch like three two or three movies in a row from different eras, different countries, different genres and they will all have some similar specific theme or a scene that incorporates the same sequence of events.  I wish I could give more specifics but I swear it's happend enough times to find it odd.

Re:Re: strange coincidences

Just remembered Mission to Mars and Red Planet both came out the same year.

And I'm not sure if this one fits as well with the other two, but just a year later Ghosts of Mars

Re:Re:Re: strange coincidences

ok, now this is really weird. not only did i have a major film coincidence last night, but this thread promptly popped up the next day.

SPOILER ALERT FOR "PERFECT STRANGER."

i finished two movies last night, Perfect Stranger and Witness for the Prosecution. made 50 years apart, one a classic, the other a little cheesy, nothing in common to speak of, but they have the exact same climactic moment at the end, as if the director of Perfect Stranger saw the other movie and copied that moment. i just sat there wondering what the chances of that were, happening randomly like that. 

Re:Re: strange coincidences

Risselada:

a movie called The Thirteenth Floor.  I've never seen it but I remember thinking it looked almost identical in theme as well.  Might have been a lot more well known if The Matrix didn't have the impressive bullet time effects to draw people in.

This is a bit off topic, but oh well. Craig Bierko, who is awesome and stars in crap like the Thirteenth Floor way too often, said when discussing this movie on Conan; 'The marketing people told me to describe this movie on press junkets as The Matrix without the special effects. Which of course is like a root canal without the novocaine.'

Re:Re:Re: strange coincidences

TheWorkingDead:

This is a bit off topic, but oh well. Craig Bierko, who is awesome and stars in crap like the Thirteenth Floor way too often, said when discussing this movie on Conan; 'The marketing people told me to describe this movie on press junkets as The Matrix without the special effects. Which of course is like a root canal without the novocaine.'

Wow, that actually makes me want to see The Thirteenth Floor even more.  I never actually looked into it so I didn't realize Bierko was involved.  I enjoy his performances quite a bit as well.

Re: strange coincidences

So we got two big movies this year titled "Nine".

One spelled out in words and one is just the number

Also there's a movie called District 9.

Just a coincidence??