History Expy / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/SaveYourselves'': The pouffes bear a heavy resemblance to larger versions of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''' tribbles, being aliens that look like fluffy balls and serve an antagonistic role in the story. In contrast, however, the pouffes are shown deliberately causing harm to people, unlike the tribbles, which were only a threat due to being ''very'' ExplosiveBreeders.

* ''Film/RioBravo'': Pat Wheeler, played by Ward Bond. At the time the movie was made, the No. 2 show on television was ''Series/WagonTrain'' starring, Ward Bond. Pat Wheeler rides into town, naturally, leading a Wagon Train. He's essentially playing a variation on wagon master Major Adams, down to using a variation of his famous "Wagons Ho!" catchphrase (in ''Rio Bravo'', Bond just uses "Ho! to command the wagons)

** Their grey coloration, lack of facial features apart from monochromatic eyes and adaptability also evoke the version of Amazo from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited.''

* ''Film/TheFlyII'' tells the tale of the SpinOffspring of the lovers from ''Film/TheFly1986''. As such, its protagonists, Martin Brundle and Beth Logan, are ''very'' obvious expies of Seth Brundle and Veronica Quaife respectively, mainly distinguished from their forbears by being in their early 20s rather than 30s due to an AudienceShift towards teens. Martin is just as brilliant and socially awkward as his doomed father was, while Beth is snarky but devoted (and bears a passing resemblance to Veronica physically). Their romantic relationship is similarly intertwined with Martin figuring out how to make his father's telepods functional again, and once he begins mutating, there are a lot of verbal and visual callbacks to similar scenes between them in the first film ("Help me. Please, help me." is the most obvious). Beth even gets a scene where she tells off Stathis, the third corner of the first film's LoveTriangle. The big difference between the two couples is that [[spoiler: the youngsters get a happy ending]].

** Qui-Gon Jin is TheMentor TO Obi-Wan Kenobi, and is an expy of his own apprentice basically.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eras_legends_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Darth Caedus: Cool sword bro''.]]

* In the Creator/MarxBrothers film, each brother plays a character with a different name but the same personality as the character he played in the other films. As do some of the recurring supporting actors, most notably Margaret Dumont.

** In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', you have Officers Stephens and Ramirez, who are Expys for Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, with the exception being that [[spoiler: Ramirez is actually a traitor]]. Stevens on the other hand is Bullock right down to the toothpick-chewing but his name was probably changed so the film wouldn't have two characters named Harvey. (It's rumored that Ramirez was supposed to be Montoya, but was changed to an original character because [[spoiler: of the revelation that she was actually a [[AdaptationalVillainy crooked cop]].]])

* With Terry Gilliam directing and Michael Palin in a supporting role, ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' featured expies of the rest of Creator/MontyPython, all seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B61_5sRoBI&feature=fvwrel here]]:

** Spoor and Dowser (Bob Hoskins and Derrick O'Connor), the bumbling, comic-relief repairmen => Terry Jones and Eric Idle.

* ''Bushwhacked'' was originally conceived as a spinoff from the first two ''Film/HomeAlone'' movies, centering around a now-reformed Marv. They ultimately changed the character's name to Max, but kept his characterization and his backstory as a bungling ex-criminal, and cast the same actor, Daniel Stern.

* George Sanders' ''The Falcon'' was a expy of George Sanders' ''The Saint''. ''The Saint''[='s=] author even brought suit against RKO over the issue.

** In the 1968 Spaghetti Western ''Ace High'', Cacopoulos is obviously an Expy of Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, both played by Eli Wallach, both wearing silver rings on their left hands, and both carrying their guns the same way. Cacopoulos is more mellow, more playful and slightly smarter, but he's still goofy and overzealous.

** Let's see: a mysterious, nameless gunslinger; a villain who is nominally working for someone else, but has his own agenda and is way more dangerous than his employer; and a ruthless but sympathetic {{Bandito}}. Now are we talking about ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' or ''OnceUponATimeInTheWest''?

** Creator/LaurenceFishburne based his Perry White on 60 Minutes member Ed Bradley. Both even have a pierced ear.

* Sort of a type-casting example with Paul Bettany. He was in a biopic on UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, and some reviews noted his previous role as Stephen Maturin in film ''Film/MasterAndCommander'' who comes across as somewhat similar to Darwin in his time on the ''Beagle'' (intellectual naturalist on a ship, interacts with giant tortoises at one point).
* David Lynch wrote ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' as a television pilot, and some believe a potential sequel to ''Twin Peaks''. Lynch enthusiasts argue that the character of Betty/Diane in ''Mulholland Drive'' is an Expy of Audrey Horne on ''Twin Peaks''.
* ''Film/TheProfessional'': Léon is Victor from ''Nikita''. Same actor, and they even share an euphemism for their job, "cleaner". Luc Besson has said that they're basically cousins. (In Victor's case it's not a euphemism: his job is cleaning up after killers, not killing like Léon.)
* Winston Wolf, "the cleaner" from ''Film/PulpFiction'', is an Expy of the character played by Harvey Keitel in ''The Point of No Return'' -- which was itself a remake of ''Nikita'', thus tying all of these fellas together.

** Snoke and Kylo Ren in ''The Force Awakens'' are this to the Emperor and Vader in the original trilogy. Kylo Ren is also a pretty close analogue of [[spoiler: Jacen Solo / Darth Caedus]] from the Legends continuity.
** Rey, Finn, and Poe from ''The Force Awakens'' are all expies of Luke Skywalker from the original ''A New Hope''. Rey is the desert native who is destined for greatness, Finn is the everyman who is proficient with both a blaster and lightsaber, and Poe is the AcePilot who [[spoiler: destroys the Empire's superweapon]]. Poe himself is also an expy of Han Solo, sharing much of Han's dry humor and roguish charm.

* John Cusack's HitmanWithAHeart in ''Film/WarInc'' is an expy of his character in the earlier film ''Film/GrossePointeBlank'', and almost every other character in the new film has an equivalent in the previous one.

* The Mutos from ''Film/{{Godzilla|2014}}'', presumably of the Meganulon and Meganula from ''Film/{{Rodan}}'' and ''Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus''. Some speculate [[Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah Destoroyah]] as another possible inspiration. They also bear a striking resemblence to the monster from ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}''. Gareth Edwards states he was inspired by the Bugs from ''Franchise/StarshipTroopers'' and the Xenomorphs from ''Franchise/{{ALIEN}}''. The male Muto has often been mistaken for Rodan itself. Some also compare it to the Heisei version of the [[Franchise/{{Gamera}} Gyaos]]. Its face looks a lot like Orga. Femuto's face closely resembles Burtannus from the [[Creator/DarkHorseComics Dark Horse]] Godzilla series. There's some Gigan there, too. Note the red [[Franchise/BattlestarGalactica Cylon]] eyes and the hook-like appendages.

** Creator/TimBurton didn't want to use Harvey Bullock in the 1989 ''Film/{{Batman}}'' movie, so he created the overweight, gruff, corrupt Lt. Eckhardt.

* Despite the use of many other characters from the comics, the Batman movies also have {{Expy}}s for some characters:

* Abigail Whistler from ''Film/BladeTrinity'' was a created as a stand-in for Rachel van Helsing from the comic book ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula''.

** Let's see: a mysterious, nameless gunslinger; a villain who is nominally working for someone else, but has his own agenda and is way more dangerous than his employer; and a ruthless but sympathetic {{Bandito}}. Now are we talking about ''TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' or ''OnceUponATimeInTheWest''?

* General Hager from ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' was originally supposed to be ComicBook/NickFury, but this had to be changed at the last minute due to [[ExiledFromContinuity rights issues]] ([[TwentiethCenturyFox Fox]] owns film rights to the ''FF'', while [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel Studios]] has rights to Fury). It's especially obvious since one of Hager's conversations with Mr. Fantastic is taken almost word-for-word from a conversation between Mr. Fantastic and Nick Fury in ''[[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Extinction]]''.

* The Mutos from ''Film/{{Godzilla|2014}}'', presumably of the Meganulon and Meganula from ''Film/{{Rodan}}'' and ''Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus''. Some speculate [[Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah Destoroyah]] as another possible inspiration. They also bear a striking resemblence to the monster from ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}''. Gareth Edwards states he was inspired by the Bugs from ''Franchise/StarshipTroopers'' and the Xenomorphs from ''Franchise/{{ALIEN}}''. The male Muto has often been mistaken for Rodan itself. Some also compare it to the Heisei version of the [[Franchise/{{Gamera}} Gyaos]]. Its face looks a lot like Orga. Femuto's face closely resembles Burtannus from the [[Creator/DarkHorseComics Dark Horse]] Godzilla series. There's some Gigan there, too. Note the red [[Franchise/BattlestarGalactica Cylon]] eyes and the hooklike appendages.

** Max Lozoya from ''Don't Turn the Other Cheek'' is a more blatant take on the character; again slightly smarter, but still rather shady and aggressive, again played by the same actor. He has a few differring quirks, for example he can't swim and HatesBeingTouched on the posterior. He tones down nearly to Caco's level in the last half of the film, however, when he finds that [[spoiler:his sister and nephew are killed]].

* The AdventurerArchaeologist protagonists of ''Film/SkyPirates'', ''Film/KingSolomonsMines,'' and the remake of ''Film/TheMummy1999'' are basically clones of Franchise/IndianaJones. That said, Jones himself is an amalgam of [[GeorgeLucasThrowback any number of characters from adventure movies and novels]] - including Allen Quatermain, the protagonist of [[Literature/KingSolomonsMines the book]] upon which ''King Solomon's Mines'' [[LostInImitation was based]].

* The gifted athlete Nanu (who just so happens to come from Africa) from ''Film/TheWorldsGreatestAthlete'' is an obvious ShotOut to Franchise/{{Tarzan}}.

** Juan in ''Film/AFistfulofDynamite'' was written as an expansion on the character.

* In ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', one Mogwai looks and acts very similarly to Stripe from ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''. The music sting, the way the camera zooms in and Gizmo's reaction all make it abuldantly clear to everyone including Gizmo that, for all intents and purposes, Stripe has been reborn. (Technically, both characters are brothers, as they both popped out of Gizmo's back after he got wet, and the New Stripe has black and white fur rather than brown and white, and after he becomes a gremlin, he has a reptilian frill rather than a Mohawk. But still undeniably an expy of Stripe.)

** Aldrich Killian from ''Film/IronMan3'' has almost nothing in common with his comic book counterpart, and has much more in common with Mallen, the [[SuperSerum Extremis]]-powered terrorist from Creator/WarrenEllis' ''Comicbook/IronMan'' run. [[spoiler: More significantly, he's an expy of the modern incarnation of the Mandarin; a suit-wearing criminal mastermind with dragon tattoos]].

* Creator/WilliamGibson's recurring character Molly Millions was present in the original short story ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'', but was replaced with a similar ActionGirl named Jane in the film. The rumour is that this change was made because of some arguments about the film rights for Gibson's novel ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'', in which Molly also appears.

* ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'': In the comics, adamantium is a man made metal that was created in a laboratory. The movie instead establishes that adamantium comes from a meteorite that crashed in a small African nation, where the locals worship it as a sacred treasure. That's pretty much ''exactly'' like vibranium, the Wakandan metal from the ''Comicbook/BlackPanther'' and ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'' comics.

* ''Film/TheGoodTheBadandtheUgly'':

** Tae-goo in ''Film/TheGoodtheBadtheWeird'' is another one.

*** Let's see: a mysterious, nameless gunslinger; a villain who is nominally working for someone else, but has his own agenda and is way more dangerous than his employer; and a ruthless but sympathetic {{Bandito}}. Now are we talking about TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly or OnceUponATimeInTheWest?

* The AdventurerArchaeologist protagonists of ''Film/SkyPirates'', ''Film/KingSolomonsMines,'' and the remake of ''Film/TheMummy1999'' are basically clones of Franchise/IndianaJones.

* The main characters in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension'' are all Expies of Franchise/DocSavage and his boys. Likewise, Buckaroo's unseen nemesis, Hanoi Xan, is an Expy of another pulp literary character, Franchise/FuManchu.

* For the hit movie ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'', the Beast contains an appearance and personality {{Expy}} of Stranger from VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}.

* The AdventurerArchaeologist protagonists of ''Film/SkyPirates'', ''Film/KingSolomonsMines,'' and the remake of ''Film/TheMummy1999'' are basically clones of Franchise/IndianaJones.
* Missy of ''Film/BringItOn'' is introduced wearing a fake tattoo before pulling off superhuman athletic prowess. Now given who plays her does this remind you of anyone? No one? Maybe a couple of shout outs with her in it might give a clue...it's [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Faith.]]