The Movies That All Video Games Steal From
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VOICE OVER: Ashley Bowman
WRITTEN BY: Briana Lawrence
The Movies That All Video Games Steal FromIt's only when you go back and watch movies form the 80's and 90's you realize just how much video games borrow from cinema. From Aliens to Mad Max, these are the movies that have the biggest influence on video games.
The Movies That All Video Games Steal From
From their time of conception to present day, video games have really become an art form. The stunning graphics. The brilliant soundtracks. The stories that take us on interactive adventures unlike any other. There’s no denying it: gaming has become an integral part of entertainment — much like sitting in a theater for two hours to watch a movie. Video games and the film industry share a lot of parallels, and in a way, some of the biggest accomplishments in gaming is thanks to those big screen productions.
The most obvious examples are from games that, well, did exactly what the title of this video says. This ranges from easter eggs — like Travis Touchdown’s bizarrely cool weapon — to full-blown, in your face, this is obviously based on the Alien franchise moments... even if they come out of nowhere. Whether it’s mirroring iconic moments in cinema, to creature designs being remarkably similar, when you grab that controller you know you’re headed to a galaxy far, far away. Back when video games weren’t the award winning spectacles they are today, it made sense for developers to cling to movies so the audience would have something to relate to. “What is this space shooter I’m experiencing?” Ah... well... you like Star Wars, right? Think of it that way.
It’s not just the settings and plot threads that take after the movies. Some of gaming’s most memorable protagonists take after acclaimed movie characters. There’s a certain sunglass wearing, double pistol wielding heroine who’s been likened to one Indiana Jones, a now iconic selling point to one of gaming’s most iconic women. And years later? When we were introduced to the PS3? We got to know the snarkiness that is Nathan Drake. “What’s Uncharted like,” your non-gaming friend asks. Well... it’s like Indiana Jones. And don’t get us started on Hollywood actors, we probably wouldn’t have Mortal Kombat without Jean Claude Van Damme’s action-packed career.
This day and age there’s no doubt that some video games are an epic, cinematic experience. The stunning cutscenes. Hours of storytelling. Even if we’re playing a game, there’s moments where we feel like we’re watching a movie. It’s gotten so detailed that game trailers follow the same beats as movie previews — heavy on character interaction and swelling music to set the mood. But some video games have taken their relationship with movies to the next level by, well, playing like a movie. Telltale Games is known for their point and click adventures, where you watch your story unfold depending on the decisions you make. The same can be said about... well... anything David Cage touches. While you do have to pay attention to the reaction commands, there’s a bigger focus on story than gameplay. Then there’s games like Until Dawn, whose major selling point is the branching pathways, each chapter treated like “episodes” that are altered depending on your choices. Games like this work to create a movie going experience, only you’re in complete control of it.
While we have been focusing on the pages gaming has taken from movies, we’d be remiss not to discuss the reverse. We mentioned how video games took direct inspiration from movies, but there’s also been attempts to integrate movies into the world of gaming — and to bring gaming to Hollywood, buuuuuut we don’t need to talk about that. When it comes to movies becoming games... let’s just say it has not been met with the same amount of success. Where games try to tell stories that are influenced by the movies, movies generally get dumbed down in an attempt to make them playable. There are a handful of decent — even good — movie games, but for every NES Batman there’s a Back to the Future, Dick Tracy, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit where there was an attempt to inject gameplay where gameplay didn’t really fit. On the flip side, games like Terminator 2 were a step by step walkthrough of the movie, and really, what’s the point of playing it when you can watch a better version?
Movies that had been turned into games became notorious for lackluster content, while games continued to thrive from implementing their movie influences. Fortunately, there seems to be an improvement as the focus has shifted from making something that ties in with a movie to... making something good. The plan wasn’t to launch Tomb Raider or Uncharted around the release of an Indiana Jones movie, the plan was to take elements from those stories and make something fresh and new. As an example: Spider-Man’s foray onto the PS4 has nothing to do with Spider-man: Homecoming, but that movie did build up excitement for the wallcrawler. Instead of trying to release a Spider-man game in time with his solo film, they took the time to develop a proper adventure for him. The same can be said for the likes of the Arkham series, Ghostbusters, even the Lego games are an alternate, fun take on the stories we know and love.
Which is exactly what games have been doing when it comes to “stealing” from movies. Huh. Maybe a better word would be “borrow.”
From their time of conception to present day, video games have really become an art form. The stunning graphics. The brilliant soundtracks. The stories that take us on interactive adventures unlike any other. There’s no denying it: gaming has become an integral part of entertainment — much like sitting in a theater for two hours to watch a movie. Video games and the film industry share a lot of parallels, and in a way, some of the biggest accomplishments in gaming is thanks to those big screen productions.
The most obvious examples are from games that, well, did exactly what the title of this video says. This ranges from easter eggs — like Travis Touchdown’s bizarrely cool weapon — to full-blown, in your face, this is obviously based on the Alien franchise moments... even if they come out of nowhere. Whether it’s mirroring iconic moments in cinema, to creature designs being remarkably similar, when you grab that controller you know you’re headed to a galaxy far, far away. Back when video games weren’t the award winning spectacles they are today, it made sense for developers to cling to movies so the audience would have something to relate to. “What is this space shooter I’m experiencing?” Ah... well... you like Star Wars, right? Think of it that way.
It’s not just the settings and plot threads that take after the movies. Some of gaming’s most memorable protagonists take after acclaimed movie characters. There’s a certain sunglass wearing, double pistol wielding heroine who’s been likened to one Indiana Jones, a now iconic selling point to one of gaming’s most iconic women. And years later? When we were introduced to the PS3? We got to know the snarkiness that is Nathan Drake. “What’s Uncharted like,” your non-gaming friend asks. Well... it’s like Indiana Jones. And don’t get us started on Hollywood actors, we probably wouldn’t have Mortal Kombat without Jean Claude Van Damme’s action-packed career.
This day and age there’s no doubt that some video games are an epic, cinematic experience. The stunning cutscenes. Hours of storytelling. Even if we’re playing a game, there’s moments where we feel like we’re watching a movie. It’s gotten so detailed that game trailers follow the same beats as movie previews — heavy on character interaction and swelling music to set the mood. But some video games have taken their relationship with movies to the next level by, well, playing like a movie. Telltale Games is known for their point and click adventures, where you watch your story unfold depending on the decisions you make. The same can be said about... well... anything David Cage touches. While you do have to pay attention to the reaction commands, there’s a bigger focus on story than gameplay. Then there’s games like Until Dawn, whose major selling point is the branching pathways, each chapter treated like “episodes” that are altered depending on your choices. Games like this work to create a movie going experience, only you’re in complete control of it.
While we have been focusing on the pages gaming has taken from movies, we’d be remiss not to discuss the reverse. We mentioned how video games took direct inspiration from movies, but there’s also been attempts to integrate movies into the world of gaming — and to bring gaming to Hollywood, buuuuuut we don’t need to talk about that. When it comes to movies becoming games... let’s just say it has not been met with the same amount of success. Where games try to tell stories that are influenced by the movies, movies generally get dumbed down in an attempt to make them playable. There are a handful of decent — even good — movie games, but for every NES Batman there’s a Back to the Future, Dick Tracy, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit where there was an attempt to inject gameplay where gameplay didn’t really fit. On the flip side, games like Terminator 2 were a step by step walkthrough of the movie, and really, what’s the point of playing it when you can watch a better version?
Movies that had been turned into games became notorious for lackluster content, while games continued to thrive from implementing their movie influences. Fortunately, there seems to be an improvement as the focus has shifted from making something that ties in with a movie to... making something good. The plan wasn’t to launch Tomb Raider or Uncharted around the release of an Indiana Jones movie, the plan was to take elements from those stories and make something fresh and new. As an example: Spider-Man’s foray onto the PS4 has nothing to do with Spider-man: Homecoming, but that movie did build up excitement for the wallcrawler. Instead of trying to release a Spider-man game in time with his solo film, they took the time to develop a proper adventure for him. The same can be said for the likes of the Arkham series, Ghostbusters, even the Lego games are an alternate, fun take on the stories we know and love.
Which is exactly what games have been doing when it comes to “stealing” from movies. Huh. Maybe a better word would be “borrow.”
