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28 Movies That Were Inspired By Unexpected Things

Turns out, Patrick Bateman was partially based on Tom Cruise

28 Movies That Were Inspired By Unexpected Things

September 23, 2023

Have you ever wondered how come we’ve never really seen Tom Cruise and Christian Bale work together? Might have something to do with Bale admitting he partly based Patrick Bateman from American Psycho on Cruise. More on that and 27 other bizarre inspirations behind famous movies and TV shows below…

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Bong Joon-Ho based Parasite on his days as a private math tutor. The family he worked for was super-rich, just like the one in the movie, and he got the job through his girlfriend (now his wife), who was working for them as an English tutor - - she recommended him. CRACKED.COM — The Hollywood Reporter

27

An American B-movie inspired Godzilla. The movie was The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, about an ancient dinosaur awoken by a nuclear explosion who heads towards New York City -- Japanese producer Tomoyuki Tanaka just mashed that up with then-current hydrogen bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll, creating Godzilla. CRACKED.COM — FilmSchoolRejects

26

A region of Middle-earth was partly inspired by WWI battlefields. Tolkien, who was in WWI, said that the Dead Marshes (on the path to Mordor) owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Tim Burton grew up in ever-sunny Burbank, CA, where pretty much only holiday decorations changed with the seasons. Burton would notice Christmas and Halloween decorations getting mixed up, and would sneak Halloween decorations among Christmas tree ornaments. Years later, that gave him the idea for A Nightmare Before Christmas. CRACKED.COM — 22 Eyebrow-Arching Ways Creators' Lives Influenced Their Work

24

H.P. Lovecraft

CRACKED.COM H. P. LOVECRAFT was afraid of a laundry list of stuff (including foreigners) - --but something recurring in his work is people losing their minds. That might be related to the fact that his father was committed to a psychiatric hospital, and Lovecraft feared what this might mean for his own sanity. — HeadStuff

23

There'd be no Millennium Falcon without the WWII bomber that bombed Hiroshima. The B-29 Superfortress, used in Germany and Japan, had a greenhouse-like cockpit that pretty clearly inspired the Millennium Falcon. CRACKED.COM — StarWars.com

22

The Hunt Brothers

The Dukes' failed attempt to corner a market in Trading Places actually happened. The Hunt brothers created a silver shortage by hoarding the precious metal, eventually leading to a price plunge. The collapse cost the pair $1.7 billion and they were banned from future trading. Co-writer Herschel Weingrod CRACKED.COM cites the Hunts' silver fiasco as an inspiration for the story, but said frozen orange juice was much more funny. — 22 Real-Life Inspirations For Your Favorite Movie & TV Moments

21

American Psycho

Christian Bale based Patrick Bateman's gaze in American Psycho on Tom Cruise's eyes. Specifically, a David Letterman interview of Tom Cruise where Bale noticed Tom Cruise's intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes. CRACKED.COM — 5 Bizarre Inspirations Behind Famous Movie Scenes

20

Dwayne Johnson based his Moana character on someone from his family. In a tweet, he explained that my character Maui was partly inspired by my late grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia of Samoa. CRACKED.COM — CinemaBlend

19

The Manson girls really scavenged through dumpsters for food to eat. It wasn't made up for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood-the whole Manson family relied pretty much 100% on the girls dumpster diving for food. CRACKED.COM — Rolling Stone

18

CRACKED.COM Alice in Wonderland The Dodo is Lewis Carroll. A lot of the animals in the book represent people the real-life Alice knew, with the dodo as the author himself. It was a play on Dodgson, his real name- as he was a stutterer, he'd sometimes introduce himself as Dodo-Dodgson. — Live Science

17

Lady Bird According to Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird's quirky movements are based on the film's director, Greta Gerwig. CRACKED.COM — Characters Based On Celebs, Really

16

MeeT Kenny KRAMER. Не gives reality tours of his life for $37.50 a pop-just like his Seinfeld counterpart Cosmo Kramer. Не also enjoys cigars, golf, and trying to make money in ridiculous ways. UST SEE FOR SEINFELD FANS! Seinfans take Kramer's U Solufans take Kramer's Rosely Four KITCHEN Reality Tour ٠٨ MUST SEE FOR SEINFELD FANS! FANT RESTRURRING RESTAURANT Experience Kromer's DE World Tomous New York City Tour under of your Norre! DE In Kenny, the Freel Kromer tells the stories behind the stories from the world of Seinfujit PLUS - tour of NYC sites DVD mode domous by the show — 8 Characters You Won't Believe Are Based on Real People

15

CRACKED.COM MARY POPPINS is (unwittingly) P.L. Travers' aunt. Travers had been penning Mary Poppins books for years, when she realized she was unconsciously writing about her great-aunt, Ellie (Helen Morehead Christina Saraset). — Bibliology

14

Alan Moore's Constantine was based on Sting. The artists who worked with Moore on Swamp Thing asked him to come up with a character based on Sting for the comic, so he obliged, and created a warlock who looked, well, just like Sting. CRACKED.COM — 9 Iconic Superheroes Who Were Based On Real People

13

75 infor A running joke in Harry Potter was inspired by This Is Spinal Tap. In that mockumentary, Spinal Tap keeps having to replace their drummer (each new one dies of things like choking on vomit, a bizarre gardening accident, or spontaneous combustion). J.K. Rowling liked that, so she made Hogwarts have to replace its Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher every year. CRACKED.COM — 6 Nerdy References Hidden In Favorite Movies And Shows

12

RoboCop

The idea for Robocop was born at around 3 AM on the Blade Runner set. Ed Neumeier started working in the art department for Blade Runner. One night at around three in the morning, after four days of double shifts making garbage, he saw on the set a vision of a policeman who was also a robot, and the title RoboCop clearly came into his head. CRACKED.COM — GamesRadar & The Dissolve

11

Oregon

Springfield THE SIMPSONS SPRINGFIELD CRACKED COM Matt Groening confirmed it's supposed to be set in Springfield, Oregon and liked how the name was so common. — NPR

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10

Ren Kylo's helmet in The Rise of Skywalker drew on a Japanese practice. It's called kintsugi, and it involves repairing any cracks with visible material (like gold or silver), so that the cracks become part of the object's history and not a defect. CRACKED.COM — Inverse

9

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and many others) M в INCEPTION STARTIREK ПТО DARKNESS Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is a moment of Kantian self-reflection. It's not clear what movie heroes are reflecting on, but they certainly like to strike the pose. CRACKED.COM — The Paris Review & Tor.com

8

Luca

Pixar's Luca was actually inspired by the style of Hayao Miyazaki movies. The village where the movie takes place, Portorosso, is even an homage to a Miyazaki movie - Porco Rosso. CRACKED. .COM — Source

7

WALL-E

WALL-E's premise was inspired by director Andrew Stanton's online shopping experience. Не said, I just went with kinda what was happening around me. We were having anywhere from two to a dozen boxes from Amazon show up at my doorstep every other day. ... I just started to think, like, where does all this S**t go? CRACKED.COM — The Hollywood Reporter

6

Double Fantasy

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Double Fantasy was inspired by a random nightclub song. John Lennon Double Fantasy Yoko Ono Lennon heard Rock Lobster by The B-52s in a nightclub in Bermuda, while on vacation, and thought it sounded just like Yoko's music - so he said to himself It's time to get out the old ax and wake the wife up!' CRACKED.COM — Rolling Stone

5

Stephen King got the inspiration for Carrie from an old job he used to do. Не worked as a high school janitor while in college, and much later, he remembered a detail from the girls' locker room. Carrie grew out of that memory. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Starfox is a game series about anthropomorphic animals who fly futuristic jets under arches. SHIELD LOOK, LOOK!! Creator Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired by the arches of Kyoto's Fushimi Inari shrine, near where he lives. Ever since he was a kid, he felt a relationship with that shrine and saw it as his guardian angel. CRACKED.COM — 22 Eyebrow-Arching Ways Creators' Lives Influenced Their Work

3

Season 3 of Stranger Things was inspired by a semi-obscure '80s movie. It's Fletch, a film about a reporter who's paid to kill a millionaire for a small fortune -- thinking he's about to die anyway - and trouble ensues. CRACKED.COM — Vulture

2

Steel Maquolias is based on a play written by then-struggling actor ROBERT HARLING, who needed an outlet to help himself deal with the death of his 32-year-old sister. In the movie, Julia Roberts plays Harling's dying sister, Shelby, with Sally Field as his mother M'Lynn. CRACKED.COM — 22 Real-Life Inspirations For Your Favorite Movie & TV Moments

1

Andy Muschietti

While growing up, ANDY MUSCHIETTI was terrified of an Amedeo Modigliani print hanging at home. The thought of meeting an incarnation of the woman in it would drive me crazy, he said- and that happens in his version of It. CRACKED.COM — Bloody Disgusting

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