History Main / SamePlotSequel

So, a sequel to your favorite work has just come out. When you go see/watch/read/play it, you notice that [[ItsBeenDone the plot]] [[RecycledPlot is strangely similar to the first one.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' is particularly (in)famous for this. As the game progresses everything from the plot, to the characters, to the level design starts to bear an increasingly blatant resemblance to the first VideoGame/MetalGearSolid. [[note]]Which was itself basically a 3D remake of VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake, albeit less famously, thanks to a combination of SequelDisplacement and NoExportForYou.[[/note]] [[ItWasHissled Of course]], as revealed in its equally infamous [[MGS2Ending ending]], this was done deliberately as part of the game's postmodernist obliteration of everything. Whether or not it actually worked depends on who you ask. [[MindScrew Possibly]].

* Both ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}} games have the same basic plot; the empress is removed from her throne[[note]]Thankfully, Emily isn't killed like her mother was[[/note]], and the player finds and (potentially) kills everyone involved in the conspiracy. Taken UpToEleven as you can even play the second game as Corvo, the protagoist of the first game. The outsider even lampshades the similarity if you play as Corvo.

** ''The Jungle Book 2'', the sequel to ''Disney/TheJungleBook'', still revolves around the dilemma whether Mowgli belongs to the jungle or the man-village, and Baloo still wants him to live in the jungle with him. Meanwhile, Shere Khan still pursues Mowgli to kill him.

-> "[[LampshadeHanging Do the same thing as last time. Everyone's happy.]]"
-->-- '''Deputy Chief Hardy''', ''[[Film/TwentyTwoJumpStreet 22 Jump Street]]''

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' is particularly (in)famous for this. As the game progresses everything from the plot, to the characters, to the level design starts to bear an increasingly blatant resemblance to the first VideoGame/MetalGearSolid [[note]]Which was itself basically a 3D remake of VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake, albeit less famously, thanks to a combination of SequelDisplacement and NoExportForYou.[[/note]]. [[ItWasHissled Of course]], as revealed in its equally infamous [[MGS2Ending ending]], this was done deliberately as part of the game's postmodernist obliteration of everything. Whether or not it actually worked depends on who you ask. [[MindScrew Possibly]].

* ''Film/JurassicWorld'', taking place two decades after the original ''Film/JurassicPark'', borrows many elements from it. Two children visit a park of genetically engineered dinosaurs run by a relative of theirs, Due to an error in the security system, dangerous dinosaurs escape and attack people, and the children get lost. [[spoiler: The main antagonistic dinosaurs get defeated by the very same TyrannosaurusRex in both movies.]] Also, the general theme of human greed and interfering with nature is the same.

* ''Film/SupermanReturns'': Superman arrives from outer space, makes his debut saving Comicbook/LoisLane from a falling aircraft, spends his Out On Patrol Montage saving people and stopping petty crime, then tries to take on Lex Luthor only to be weakened by kryptonite, thrown in water and saved before drowning, fights to protect citizens from major disasters and earthquakes, and then foils Luthor's plan by performing a ludicrously impossible feat in outer space. If it weren't for the sub-plot about a possible son, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was just a remake of ''Film/{{Superman}}''.

* ''[[Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick Riddick]]'' creators David Twohy and Vin Diesel expressed in interviews that they specifically wanted to avoid this when they made ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' by not simply doing a remake of ''Film/PitchBlack'' only with bigger and meaner monsters. However, the sequel was then criticized for veering ''too far'' away from its premise by placing Riddick - a knife-happy criminal - in a ''Star Wars''-esque space epic as the last hope of saving the universe from the thrall of an evil empire. The next movie, simply titled ''Film/{{Riddick}}'', then played this straight. Once again Riddick is stranded on an uninhabited planet before nightfall arrives and the whole planet is swarmed with hostile aliens, requiring the humans to retrieve energy batteries to power a ship and escape.

** "Planet of the Daleks" is notoriously a near-remake of the first Dalek story "The Daleks": Thals versus Daleks on a planet full of random monsters, with the Daleks planning to do something that will make it inhospitable to everyone but them.
** "Revenge of the Cybermen" is a near-remake of "The Moonbase": Cybermen using a fake plague attack a human outpost somewhere in the solar system intending to use it as a base for an attack on another planet.
** In the new series, "Night Terrors" is extremely similar to "Fear Her": a kid with out-of-control reality warping powers becomes a threat to a working-class contemporary community when their phobias become real. The difference is that in "Fear Her" the powers come from an alien that has become emotionally attached to the child, while in "Night Terrors" the child is actually an alien himself.

** In particular, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', (officially a direct prequel) reuses and fleshes out a lot of plot elements that were introduced in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link To the Past]]''. After a great war the Triforce was lost to another realm. Lately an evil priest/foreign king has gained the favor of the King of Hyrule and is using his position to manipulate events in order to steal the Triforce. Link goes on an adventure to acquire three CosmicKeystones so he can retrieve the Master Sword, which ends up locking him in another dimension. After master the different dimensions Link rescues and awakens the Wise Men/Sages and their power combined forces the evil manipulator to reveal himself as Ganon. In the final battle Link seals Ganon away. Several sidequest characters even had appropriate counterparts.

* ''[[Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick Riddick]]'' creators David Twohy and Vin Diesel expressed in interviews that they specifically wanted to avoid this when they made ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' by not simply doing a remake of ''Film/PitchBlack'' only with bigger and meaner monsters. However, the sequel was then criticized for veering ''too far'' away from its premise by placing Riddick - a knife-happy criminal - in a ''Star Wars''-esque space epic as the last hope of saving the universe from thrall of an evil empire. The next movie, simply titled ''Film/{{Riddick}}'', then played this straight. Once again Riddick is stranded on an uninhabited planet before nightfall arrives and the whole planet is swarmed with hostile aliens, requiring the humans to retrieve energy batteries to power a ship and escape.

Contrast with SpiritualSuccessor and InNameOnly. Compare MissionPackSequel.

* ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'': The Stork carrying Baby Mario and Baby Luigi (and potentially more babys) is attacked by Kamek. Kamek kidnaps Luigi, but Mario is accidentally dropped and falls onto an Island of Yoshis. The Yoshis bands together to defeat Baby Bowser and deliver the child to their parents.

* ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', the seventh installment in the ''Film/StarWars'' film series, has been criticized for having practically the same plot as the original trilogy, particularly ''Film/ANewHope''. An evil [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-esque]] army, led by a sinister figure in black, constructs a space weapon that can destroy planets. A resistance member hides some information the villains also want in the memory of a droid, who gets stranded on a desert planet and found by an orphan with affinity to the Force. They escape the villains and encounter and old mentor figure who fought in the previous war [[spoiler: and has a connection with the main villain]]. They go to the villains' base, [[spoiler: the mentor confronts the villain and gets killed by him. Then an AcePilot of the resistance group destroys the base]].

* ''Film/HomeAlone 2'' is basically the first film again. Complete with traps, MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold and so on.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': Has a whole series of archetypes that recur between games but are typically played with and subverted. However Roy's game [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Binding Blade]] arranges them like Marth's [[FireEmblemAkaneia first title]] and plays out like am mix of ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem.''

You've just encountered the Same Plot Sequel. It may feel like a traditional {{Remake}}, except it's still in the same canon as the original work, and [[SerialNumbersFiledOff has only a few minor details tweaked]]. Oftentimes this is done because [[PanderingToTheBase studios wish to appeal]] [[NostalgiaFilter to nostalgic fans]], or because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt they're too afraid to actually hit the reboot button]], or that [[PopCulturalOsmosis the original is so iconic or omnipresent]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks that a remake would hurt the franchise as a whole]], or just because [[MoneyDearBoy they want to make]] [[TheyJustDidntCare a quick buck]]. [[TropesAreTools Note that this is not exclusively good or bad.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Star Fox Zero}}'': May land here. While there's overwhelming of evidence that it's full on reboot, [[WordOfGod Nintendo's official stance]] [[SuspeciouslySpecificDenial is that it's not]]. They prefer the term re-imagining. The plot is basically a more fleshed out version of ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', right down to recycling some dialogue.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': Has a whole series of archetypes that recur between games but are typically played with and subverted. However Roy's game [[FireEmblemElibe Binding Blade]] arranges them like Marth's [[FireEmblemAkaenia first title]] and plays out like am mix of ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem.''
* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'': You are a young adult moving out and you arrive in a village where you are the TokenHuman. You don't have enough money to pay for a house but are allowed to pay your debt little-by-little. ''New Leaf'' changes up the plot.

** Boswer invades the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnaps Peach, so Mario has to travel around the country/island/world/galaxy to save her. In most scrolling games he just has to get from point A to point B. In most 3D games he has to collect about 70 [[MacGuffin MacGuffins]] of power to find Bowser's true hiding spot, and can keep going to collect all 120 for 100 completion.

* ''Film/SupermanReturns'': Superman arrives from outer space, makes his debut saving Comicbook/LoisLane from a falling aircraft, spends his OutOnPatrolMontage saving people and stopping petty crime, then tries to take on Lex Luthor only to be weakened by kryptonite, thrown in water and saved before drowning, fights to protect citizens from major disasters and earthquakes, and then foils Luthor's plan by performing a ludicrously impossible feat in outer space. If it weren't for the sub-plot about a possible son, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was just a remake of ''Film/{{Superman}}''.