Corrupted Character Copies in Live-Action Films.
The following have their own pages:
- David from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant is this for Bishop from Aliens. Both are androids created by Weyland and serve as The Smart Guy for the protagonists who are fascinated by Xenomorphs. However whilst Bishop was a touchingly wholesome Benevolent A.I. who saved Ripley and Newt, David is a creepy A.I. Is a Crapshoot A God Am I android bastard who kills thousands of people including Shaw the heroine of Prometheus and experiments on her corpse and uses Covenant’s protagonists to breed the Xenomorphs.
- The Big Bad of Better Watch Out is an evil version of Kevin McAllister from the Home Alone films, taking the popular fan interpretation of him as a budding sociopath who thoroughly enjoys the pain he inflicts on the Wet Bandits and running with it. Like Kevin, Luke Lerner is a smart kid who sets a ton of traps in his house to fend off a home invasion around Christmas. Unlike Kevin, Luke staged the entire thing in order to seduce his cute babysitter Ashley, and when she finds out what's really going on, he has her Bound and Gagged and kills multiple people — one of them (Ashley's boyfriend Ricky) with the famous paint can trap from Home Alone, here depicted realistically as something that could kill someone.
- Blade Runner 2049 has two regarding characters from the 1982 film.
- Luv is this for Rachel. They’re both are dark haired female Replicants with a similar haircut and practically have the same introduction at the overarching organisation’s headquarters, forming an attachment to the investigating Blade Runners in the process. However whereas Rachel left Tyrell out of love for Deckard and never did anything violent beyond saving Deckard from Leon by gunning the latter down; Luv is extremely violent and needlessly cruel destroying Joi, K’s holographic love out of jealous spite after he rejected her earlier in the film. Luv also stays loyal to Wallace throughout, unlike Rachel with Tyrell.
- Wallace is this for Tyrell. While Tyrell was at worst an Anti-Villain being genuinely affable and caring to his Replicant creations. Wallace by comparison is Obviously Evil being sociopathic and cruel —killing a newborn Replicant with his own hands.
- In Brightburn, a childless couple (who really want a child) from Kansas finds a baby boy in a crashed spaceship near their farm one night. They adopt the boy, doing their best to raise him in a loving home. As he grows older, he begins to develop extraordinary powers, including invulnerability, flight, and super speed along with heat vision. He even takes to wearing a red blanket around his shoulders like a cape. Unfortunately, this kid also rapidly develops from a seemingly sweet-natured and loving kid into a psychopathic, violent predator who regards humans as prey, and the use of his powers against people is Played for Horror. A brutally straightforward example of this trope as applied to Superboy (and presumably eventually Superman). As The Stinger shows, there are also corrupt, murdering counterparts to Aquaman and Wonder Woman, and likely others.
- The Candy Shop (2010): The owner of the eponymous store is based on Willy Wonka and runs a candy business, but that is all they have in common. He lures in female children in order to make them into candy.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) has several of them:
- Björnson the Cheesemonger is a puppet wearing a cooking outfit and speaking in a mock-Scandinavian accent very much like the Swedish Chef. But while the latter is overall a pleasant, bungling fellow (his failed attempts to cook live animals aside), Björnson sells stinky cheese under the desk, with his shop functioning like an opium den for cartoon mice.
- Sweet Pete is an older version of Peter Pan from the Disney movie, a jaded Former Child Star who has become a crime lord, kidnapping his fellow toons and turning them into horrifying bootleg versions of themselves. Peter in the original movie was cocky, arrogant and technically did kidnap people, but he wouldn't do anything as horrifying as Sweet Pete does in this movie.
- Captain Putty is a claymation figure looking like a blue wad, just like the title character of Gumby, but instead of being a Cheerful Child he is also a gruff, hard-boiled detective who is secretly working for the villains.
- Cool World: Holli Would is a sexualized cartoon character who interacts with real humans, not unlike Jessica Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Jessica was a redhead with exaggerated features, Holli was drawn to heavily resemble her actress, Kim Basinger. While both are very attractive to humans and cartoon characters, their sense of morality and motives differ completely. Jessica genuinely loved Roger and all of her actions were to help him, and when the two are together they have nothing but affection for each other; Holli only manipulated Jack after a long list of humans she tried to bring to Cool World so that she could have sex with one to turn human and was willing to endanger both worlds if it meant she could keep living among humans. Ironically, Holli has more in common with Jessica's literary origins than her more well-known film depiction.
- Full Metal Jacket:
- On the surface, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman shares many similarities with Sergeant John Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima, as both are abrasive United States Marine Corps leaders who use harsh methods to force the men under their command to shape up in order to make them ready for combat. Stryker, however, was presented as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and A Father to His Men, somebody whose "tough love" methods were presented as necessary in order to turn the disorganized rabble before him into proper Marines, and he does learn to show a softer side to his men over the course of the film. Hartman, on the other hand, is the Trope Codifier for the Drill Sergeant Nasty, a foul-mouthed, bigoted jackass whose methods are shown to do more harm than good for his cadets, and a man whose own actor R. Lee Ermey (himself a former drill instructor who had initially been hired as a technical advisor on the film) has described as somebody who would be dismissed or even court martialed if he did half of what he did in the film in real life. Moreover, while Stryker dies a hero's death on the battlefield and is fondly remembered by his men, Hartman is ingloriously murdered by a cadet who snapped and went crazy in basic training thanks to his mistreatment of him, with his last words to the unhinged madman pointing a loaded rifle at him being yet more abuse.
- The entire story of the film, about a reluctant soldier who finds his courage in battle and leads his men to victory, is remarkably similar to that of The Red Badge of Courage. Except while Henry Fleming emerges from the battle (unnamed, but implied to be Chancellorsville) as a war hero after taking a level in badass, James T. "Joker" Davis and his platoon see their bravado melt away as they are pinned down by a lone sniper and unceremoniously picked off one by one. When the sniper is revealed to be just one woman, they gang up on her the same as they did Private Pyle in boot camp. Joker and his fellow Marines are not a noble band like Fleming and his comrades, but an unruly gang of thugs who joyously sing together as they do more killing. James A. Stevenson has gone so far as to refer
to Full Metal Jacket as a "twentieth-century parody" of The Red Badge of Courage for this reason.Although separated by almost a hundred years, the characters of Joker and Henry express two overwhelming similarities: they have braved their training and their battles, and they are still alive. The great dissimilarity between the messages which these two characters convey, however, is that Crane teaches us that war makes one a "man," while Kubrick teaches us that war makes one a "madman."
- In George of the Jungle 2, while George is away a lion named "Mean Lion" seizes control of the jungle. He is very clearly intended as a sendup of Mufasa and Simba from The Lion King (1994), completely with him making a speech to the other animals while standing on an outcropping that looks identical to Pride Rock.
- Godzilla vs. Kong introduces minor antagonist Ren Serizawa, son of the heroic Dr. Ishiro Serizawa. His role in the film is to pilot a Humongous Mecha designed to kill off towering monsters, one of which it was built from and the novelization shows his relationship with his father was not a pleasant one. He's basically Shinji Ikari, but instead of being a passive teen who resents being used as a pawn, he's an aggressive adult who enjoys his job.
- The Good Son: Henry Evans is essentially Kevin McCallister gone horribly wrong; both are Wise Beyond Their Years, able to outsmart and fool adults, and take pleasure from jerry-rigging painful homemade contraptions. Kevin is a good-hearted kid defending himself from robbers and his antics are Played for Laughs. Henry is The Sociopath perfectly willing to murder his own family and his crimes are Played for Horror. To drive the point home, they're played by the same boy.
- Hancock: Deconstructed. Hancock starts out as a pretty clear corruption of Superman, a lazy bum who drinks too much and causes needless collateral damage with his heroics. As he's taken in by a PR man who wants to help clean up his image, it's revealed Hancock has a pretty good Freudian Excuse for his behavior, having come to genuinely believe he's unworthy of affection. Getting over these issues and embracing his potential to be the Big Good is the point of the film and Hancock's own Character Development.
- Michael Myers of Halloween and Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th are both derived from Norman Bates of Psycho, the prototypical Slasher Film (Jason even echoing Norman’s Momma's Boy status). Laurie Strode is even played by Jamie Lee Curtis daughter of Janet Leigh who played Marion Crane. Except where Norman was a Tragic Villain having been horribly abused and twisted by his domineering mother until he developed a Split Personality, Michael and Jason are far more monstrous and rack up a far greater body count. Michael in particular, unlike Norman, has no Freudian Excuse for his disturbing nature being simply born evil.
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army: Nuada is this to Elric, of which Mike Mignola is a known fan. Like Elric, he's the albinistic scion of a Long-Lived race with a Vestigial Empire, who has an note incestuous love for a female relative, and seeks out a magical artifact that will allow him to overcome the limitations imposed upon him by fate. Unlike Elric, who was a Defector from Decadence towards his people, and ultimately pulled off a Genocide from the Inside in favor of the younger races, Nuada turns against his benign father and seeks to exterminate the humans outright as vengeance for their unjust actions towards his own people.
- It's a Wonderful Life: Mr. Potter heavily resembles Ebenezer Scrooge, being the grouchy, uncaring town rich man who's loathed by the populace and whose death is likely to go unmourned, and who is heavily associated with Christmas. But Dickens demonstrates that Scrooge isn't entirely a hopeless cause; he's had a hard life and when he receives a chance to reform, he grabs hold of it wholeheartedly. It's a Wonderful Life never indicates that Potter had any tragic backstory to explain why he's so cruel to people and he never changes. Also, even at his worst, Scrooge was a Villainy-Free Villain Protagonist, Potter committed an actual crime when he pocketed the money Billy misplaced and another one when he falsely accused George of embezzlement. Furthermore, in a deleted scene, Clarence gives Potter a biting speech that's essentially a compressed version of Christmas Future's time with Scrooge. He drops dead of a heart attack rather than throwing himself on the messenger's mercy and begging for a second chance as Scrooge does.
- Murder by Death: Milo Perrier parodies Hercule Poirot, both of them being famed Belgian detectives. However, Perrier possesses far less self-control and politeness than his original and seems to be more of a Punch-Clock Hero than the highly principled Poirot.
- My Super Ex-Girlfriend: G-Girl is an expy of Supergirl (got her powers from an alien meteor instead of being an alien, has a Kryptonite Factor of the same meteor that empowered her, but otherwise the same basic Flying Brick). The film asks "What if Supergirl was an insecure, neurotic, overly-controlling woman with a fondness for Disproportionate Retribution?"
- Norbit turns The Nutty Professor's Sherman Klump on his head with Rasputia Latimore. The two are obese, insecure, and Love Hungry Eddie Murphy characters. Sherman's a gentleman, but Rasputia's a psychopath. Case in point, while Sherman risks body and mind to become his ideal self, Rasputia just beats and threatens everyone into giving her what she wants.
- Pearl (2022): In addition to the old, bitter version of Maxine that she became by the time X (which this film is a prequel to) takes place, the film's Villain Protagonist Pearl is also this to two other famous characters.
- First is Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz. Like Dorothy, Pearl lives on a farm with her family and longs to go someplace exciting and far away. However, she decidedly lacks Dorothy's sweet nature from the start and becomes increasingly comfortable with killing people who inconvenience her plans.
- Second is Carrie White from Carrie (1976).note Both are the beautiful titular main characters of their respective stories who live under the thumb of their oppressive mothers and dream of breaking free, a dream that ends in tragedy. Mia Goth does an excellent imitation of Sissy Spacek's Texas accent, and both films even have a pivotal scene where the main character hits her Rage Breaking Point after she's humiliated on stage while dressed in a rosy color (red for Pearl, pink for Carrie) during what she hoped would be the happiest moment of her life. However, Carrie was presented as a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold whose suffering was largely the fault of those around her, from her mother to her school's Alpha Bitch, and could've been accepted by her peers if not for them. Pearl, meanwhile, is presented as a psychotic, mentally disturbed young woman with an ego the size of Texas and no such Freudian Excuse who kills animals for fun and later moves up to people, making her a far more malicious villain.
- Hilary Faye from Saved! is the conniving, hypocritical version of the same religious female lead which made Mandy Moore famous in A Walk to Remember.
- Saw X: Cecilia Pederson and her father Finn are Eviler than Thou versions of the series' main villain, the Jigsaw killer John Kramer. While John kidnaps people he feels to be wasting their lives and forces them into Death Traps where they must make Life-or-Limb Decisions to survive, hopefully learning a harsh moral lesson in the process, Cecilia and Finn are phony doctors who offer false hope to people dying of cancer by shilling a "miracle" cure that doesn't actually work, taking their money and leaving them to die. Interestingly, they're initially portrayed as Virtuous Character Copies of John in the sense of them being people who use controversial methods to help others, with Cecilia and Finn claiming that they're being persecuted by Big Pharma before we learn exactly what they did that caused them to flee their home country of Norway and operate out of Mexico, which causes John to decide that Even Evil Has Standards and set Cecilia and her assistants up to die in his "games".
- Scary Movie:
- Doofus "Doofy" Gilmore is a parody of Dwight "Dewey" Riley from Scream. While Dewey is a dorky yet competent police officer, Doofy seems to be a mentally-impaired buffoon but is actually the true killer.
- Likewise, Gail Hailstorm is a parody of Gale Weathers. They're both Intrepid Reporters and Attention Whores who see the murder spree going on around them as a way to boost their own profile, but Gale is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who ultimately helps save the day and becomes nicer in the sequels, while Gail kills a student on live TV for being annoying, refuses to intervene in a murder happening in front of her because she wants to film it, and helps Doofy escape the police.
- Buffy Gilmore is a non-villainous version. While she's not a killer, she's still a snobby, promiscuous, self-centered, and generally catty caricature of the two characters she parodies, Tatum Riley from Scream and Helen Shivers from I Know What You Did Last Summer.
- Screamboat: Steamboat Willie looks like Mickey Mouse, particulary at his first appearance, but instead to be naughty but funny boy, he is a murderous psycho mutant mouse who commits massacre on the ship.
- Spaghettiman (2016):
- Clark/Spaghettiman is this to Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Both are ordinary everydudes who randomly acquired superpowers one day. However, while Peter Parker conducts himself with morals and believes that it is his responsibility to keep the neighborhood happy, Clark is more greedy and apathetic, only saving people as long as he can nab a payment from them in the end, and ignores requests for help on Craigslist if the rates are too low. He goes as far as to demand money from a woman who's boyfriend had just been held hostage by drug dealers moments earlier. He is called out for his selfishness, many times, by his roommate and the journalist following him around.
- Anthony Banner can be considered this to Lois Lane. He often follows around Spaghettiman to sell his footage to news companies, which isn't too different from her habit of covering Superman. However, while Lois was a journalist for the passion for it and carried herself with integrity, Anthony only cares about making money (this unsympathetic tendency is alleviated by him having to provide for his pregnant wife) and is fully aware what kind of person Spaghetti Man is—it's just beneficial for him to paint him in a positive light.
- Small Soldiers: The Commando Elite living toys are a parody of G.I. Joe: military badasses fighting freakish enemies. The Joes contend with Cobra, a terrorist organization. The Commandos' rivals are the Gorgonites, borderline pacifists note . The army mens' programming makes them hostile to any Gorgonites (or human allies) they see.
- Star Wars:
- Being derived from The Hidden Fortress, Darth Vader's character most strongly parallels Hyoe Tadokoro, The Heavy of the evil faction who has a We Used to Be Friends relationship with the Old Soldier Master Swordsman general of the film (Rokurota Makabe — Obi-Wan). Except where Hyoe Tadokoro was a true Anti-Villain and Noble Demon who didn't hurt any of the heroes and pulled a Heel–Face Turn to the good guys' side by the end of the movie, Anakin, by contrast, was The Dreaded Hero Killer who didn't turn back to the light until his final moments.
- Emperor Sheev Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious, has many similarities to Emperor Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon (with Lucas admitting Star Wars is inspired by the 1930s/1940s serials), as both are powerful and sinister cloaked Evil Overlords of their respective empires who are frequently seen in a Slouch of Villainy on their cool thrones. However, whereas Ming at least has some redeeming traits such as genuinely caring for his daughter Aura and having Villain Respect for Flash, Palpatine is an utter sadist to the core with no qualms trying to kill his own family such as his granddaughter.
- Rogue One, being a gritty deconstruction of the franchise's formula and archetypes, has a fair amount of this.
- Cassian Andor is this for Han Solo. Both are cool crack shot rogues who wear vests, have a Cool Spaceship, and have The Big Guy (Chewie — K-2SO) as their partner and co-pilot. However, whereas Han was a outwardly charismatic Jerk with a Heart of Gold who never took things too far, Cassian, by contrast, was a Byronic Hero, willing to kill unarmed men in cold blood or shoot them in the back to ensure he could get out alive. Cassian's prequel series furthers the dichotomy, as the titular protagonist takes Han's Only in It for the Money motivation to an even greater extent where he abandons the Rebellion completely rather than willingly come back Just in Time like Han does and it's only through a twist of fate does he join the Rebels again. Cassian really represents what Han would be without the comfortable Lovable Rogue aspects that make up his character.
- K-2SO is this for C-3PO. Both are sleek and sassy humanoid droids who provide comic relief throughout the story. Except where Threepio is generally harmless and is always polite as possible towards his human masters, K-2SO, being a reprogrammed Imperial Enforcer droid, is incredibly brutal and even downright threatening to the point he scared the crap out of Jyn during his first scene where he subdues her. He's simultaneously more capable and darker than Threepio ever was.
- Jyn Erso herself is this for Princess Leia. Like Leia, Jyn is the short brunette Action Girl daughter of a powerful political figure (Bail Organa — Galen Erso), who has to watch helplessly as her father is killed and in the continuity of the films both pull a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of their journeys. However, while Leia was always devoted to the Rebellion, Jyn for the most part wasn't, seeing it as futile to stop the Empire and was content to accept Imperial domination for the sake of surviving. It takes seeing her father's Forced into Evil plight and sabotage of the Death Star as a final act of defiance for Jyn to become a true believer of the Rebellion.
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: Scourge, the Big Bad and The Heavy, bears some similarities to the Silver Surfer from Marvel Comics. They are residents of a planet their respective masters targeted for consumption. But whereas Norrin Radd became the herald of Galactus in exchange for his planet's salvation, Scourge sold out his planet to Unicron in exchange for becoming his herald for the sake of power. Silver Surfer underwent a Heel–Face Turn after being defeated and treated with kindness, leading him to stop Galactus from consuming Earth, whereas Scourge here remains irredeemably evil and loyal to Unicron to the bitter end, even going so far as to stop the heroes from averting Unicron's arrival even when it's guaranteed he's going to die.
