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Court: Luc Besson's "Lockout" plagiarized John Carpenter's "Escape from New York".

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Haven't seen Lockout, so may be off base here. But from reading the summary it sounds like the main similarity is: VIP (President/daughter) gets accidentally captured or trapped in a prison in an odd location (Manhattan/space) and has to be busted out by a badass dude (Snake/Snow). I dunno, that sounds like the main plotlines are indeed broadly similar but still seems weird to award damages for. A lot of movies that are X meets Y are about that similar to their inspirations. *shrug* Maybe I'm missing other places where they directly copied stuff, since I haven't seen it.

Also I'm just going to leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1JYDmo19to

I agree. Mr. Robot shares a lot of it's themes and plot with Fight Club but I wouldn't say Mr. Robot plagiarizes it. It's taking the same concepts and applying it under a different context.

I've never seen Lockout or Escape from New York (Yes I know, shame on me) so maybe it's justifiable but like you said the plot is used for a lot of other movies nowadays.
 

jett

D-Member
Seems a bit much to me for a lawsuit.

Anyway, the only thing I remember about Lockout is the godawful CGI during a bike scene which has somehow become stuck in my brain. I don't like EFNY either though haha.
 

Oreiller

Member
Tbh, the court hasn't condemned Besson only because of the similarities in plot. They have also pointed out many similarities in secondary characters, framing, costumes, lighting and directing.

I haven't seen Lockout but it seems quite substantive.
 

platakul

Banned
Seems a bit much to me for a lawsuit.

Anyway, the only thing I remember about Lockout is the godawful CGI during a bike scene which has somehow become stuck in my brain. I don't like EFNY either though haha.
Lol that bike scene will stand the test of time as truly amazingly awful cgi
 

Bishop89

Member
Yeah, that was trending on French twitter yesterday.
I've never seen Lockout, is it really that close to Escape from New York?
Besson is a very lazy writer who writes incredibly basic stories but I don't know that he's a plagiarist. I assume Lockout has Guy Pearce save the president or somebody important from a prison?
Anyway, Besson might be a hack writer but I'm super excited for Valerian, I hope we see footage soon.
I didn't think once escape from ny when seeing it.. If anything I would be thinking of die hard.

Lockout was fun coz guy was fun to watch
 

Apt101

Member
The plot of Lockout did share some similarities, but I don't think it was so similar that it deserved this kind of judgement. Or anything close to it, really. It was a basic reluctant hero (or antihero) coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress. There are like 5,000 novels, comics, movies, plots of television shows, etc, like this - both before and after Escape From New York.
 
Copyright is ridiculous. Even if Lockout plagiarized Escape From New York, which it didn't, Escape was thirty years old when Lockout came out so nobody should care. Copyright harms creative iteration more than it protects it.
 
I haven't heard of this Lockout movie. The trailer looks alot of fun. The premise is great, it's the Taken daughter got stuck in a prison, are you bad enough dude to save her?

Does it have the cabbie character in it?

Lockout is great, Guy Pearce spends the entire movie making wisecracks while getting punched in the face. It's basically Die Hard meets Last Boy Scout (And Escape from New York apparently).

Lockout was shit, Besson's output these days breaks my heart.

Shame on you.
 

G-Fex

Member
I thought the supposed script for the cancelled Escape from Earth eventually turned into Lockout somehow through the years?
 

John Dunbar

correct about everything
I was about to say a joke about this very thing. But then I remembered Carpenter seems to be a bit of a fan and has played the games (and talked to Kojima and thought he was a 'nice guy').

so now that kojima is out he can sue konami without feeling guilty.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
I was about to say a joke about this very thing. But then I remembered Carpenter seems to be a bit of a fan and has played the games (and talked to Kojima and thought he was a 'nice guy').

Yeah, apparently people told Carpenter that he should sue Kojima but he refused since Kojima is nice.
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
Kojima actually wrote to Carpenter and asked for permission before creating MGS. There's almost nothing in common except the name and maybe looks. He never hid the source of his inspiration.

I haven't watched Lockout, maybe I should.
 

Kinyou

Member
Honestly this surprises me. Sure the premise is similar, but the rest was rather different. I don't recall anything that felt like a 1:1 copy
 

Khoryos

Member
Lockout really is hella similar, I'm not surprised at this outcome at all.

I mean, you have an ex-special forces badass, wanted by the law, facing death, given one chance to win his freedom by extracting a VIP from an isolated prison, with a time limit to hold his leash...

Of course, I loved them both.
 

RoyalFool

Banned
Kojima actually wrote to Carpenter and asked for permission before creating MGS. There's almost nothing in common except the name and maybe looks. He never hid the source of his inspiration.

I haven't watched Lockout, maybe I should.

Kojimas writing is so poor it would classify as a parody anyway, which is copyright exempt
 

Bleepey

Member
It was. And fuck this stupid lawsuit.

This. The Die Hard producers can get paid. I think it was the great Kadeem Hardison in the pal DVD commentary to his extremely underrated B-movie classic and Rush Hour spiritual prequel Drive that said: "it's homage when I do it, and rip off when done to me". Lockout is imo a homage .
Did Kurosawa sue for Magificent Seven, or Star Wars?

Think he did for the former
 
Lotta people in here condemning the action without seeing Lockout or comparing the similarities 🤔

This is the list of similarities given, though there may be more:

The heroes of both "got into the prison by flying in a glider/space shuttle, had to confront inmates led by a chief with a strange right arm, found hugely important briefcases and meet a former sidekick who then dies".

"And at the end (of both films the heroes) keep secret documents recovered during their mission," the judgement added.

If you've seen both of these films, then you will know that besides the obvious first one, all of them are used in very different ways, and that the last one is wrong.
 

Vic_Viper

Member
I had seen them both, and they are different movies. You cant legally own a concept.

You seriously cant see how they are the same? Cases like this never happen and when they do its rare that the court actually rules in favor of the original creator. This isnt like a Deep Impact/Armageddon similarity lol. They are basically the exact same movies.
 
Doomsday gets a pass because it is clearly a blender movie. Yes, the structure and set-up ape EfNY, but it is then overlaid with zombies, Mad Max, cannibals and knights. Also, protagonist is gender swapped and given surprise functionality to her cycloptic status.

In contrast, Lockout is pretty much beat-for-beat EfNY in space.
 
Disappointed we don't get to hear the exact reasoning for how the lawyers won. I would love to know that. Never seen Lockout, but I saw Lucy heh. I wish Besson brings the goods with Valeria but feel it will probably be a Jupiter Ascending.
 

Experien

Member
Any lawsuits for Episode IV going on?

That sucks. I actually thought Lockout was a little more like Die Hard in space minus the whole having to sneak into the space prison. I never thought once of Escape from New York. Sure they both were lawless lands with criminals everywhere but didn't seem nearly as organized sections as EfNY.
 
Wait until they watch Olympus Has Fallen. That's the biggest example of plagiarism I've seen in a movie. It's just Die Hard with a new coat of paint.
 

Cyan

Banned
Doomsday gets a pass because it is clearly a blender movie. Yes, the structure and set-up ape EfNY, but it is then overlaid with zombies, Mad Max, cannibals and knights. Also, protagonist is gender swapped and given surprise functionality to her cycloptic status.

In contrast, Lockout is pretty much beat-for-beat EfNY in space.

Ah, if this is the case this makes a lot more sense.
 

Kinyou

Member
Doomsday gets a pass because it is clearly a blender movie. Yes, the structure and set-up ape EfNY, but it is then overlaid with zombies, Mad Max, cannibals and knights. Also, protagonist is gender swapped and given surprise functionality to her cycloptic status.

In contrast, Lockout is pretty much beat-for-beat EfNY in space.
It's been a while since I saw it, but I remember it being more like a Die Hard in space once he got on the station.
 
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