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8 Famous Movies That Reused Footage From Older Films To Save Money

Even billionaire blockbuster studios have to cut corners somewhere, so if they spy an opportunity to save some money by reusing old footage on a new movie, then you can be darn sure they will. Check out eight examples of movies that recycle…

‘Robin Hood’ (1973) recycled footage from 'The Jungle Book’ (1967)

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In the olden days, Disney’s artists used real live-action footage as a visual basis for their animation, literally drawing over each frame to provide lifelike movement for their characters. This was time-consuming and expensive, however, and often one reference scene was as good as another, so they were reused and re-drawn. This is most noticeable in 'Robin Hood’, where the dance scene is an amalgamation of scenes nicked from 'The Jungle Book’, 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs’ and 'The Aristocats’. It was pretty common practice, back in the pre-home video days where nobody would notice; The Jungle Book even reused footage from Ichabod & Mr Toad and was copied again for 1977’s The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh’. Remember kids: tracing isn’t cool.

'Transformers’ (2007) recycled footage from 'Pearl Harbour’ (2001)

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Michael Bay gets his rocks off when filming military hardware, but it’s incredibly expensive and you sort of need to wait for the US Army to not be fighting any wars until you can use their stuff. Thus, the first 'Transformers’ movie (above) re-used a helicopter shot of an aircraft carrier that was originally filmed for 'Pearl Harbour’ six years earlier, albeit without the CG additions that removed the anachronisms. Bay is an ardent recycler: 'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ lifts almost an entire sequence from his own action movie 'The Island’, adding CG robots to a carnage-fuelled motorway chase sequence. (Bay probably wasn’t allowed back on the motorway after what he did to it the first time round).

'Jaws: The Revenge’ (1987) recycled footage from: 'Jaws’ (1975)

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Famously the movie that bought Michael Caine a very nice house, the fourth 'Jaws’ movie was a long way adrift from the Spielberg original, save for one thing: some cheeky recycled footage from the 1975 classic, spliced in to spice up an otherwise terrible ending. In the DVD edit of the movie (and there are many different versions), Ellen Brody rams her ship into the shark – which we feel we should remind you is somehow holding a grudge against her husband – and it EXPLODES, naturally, like any shark would. Eagle-eyed viewers among you might recognise the subsequent chum explosion as the climactic scene from the first 'Jaws’ movie, after Brody requests that sonofabitch smile. The shot of the headless shark sinking is also half-inched from the '75 version.

'Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones’ (2002) recycled footage from 'Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’ (1999)

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George Lucas used CG to cut all sorts of corners during the making of his 'Star Wars’ prequel trilogy – amazingly, he even morphed together different takes of Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker mid-scene and no one even noticed. Hilariously, when mopping up the digital work on 'Attack Of The Clones’, he found that certain members of the Jedi Council weren’t available to reprise their roles as 'Goofy guys who sit still in chairs wearing stupid clothes’, so he was forced to reuse footage shot for 'The Phantom Menace’. Either that or the actual Jedis were just pulling a fast one on the rest of the Council and had set up fake holograms for the conference call while they browsed Twitter or whatever.

'Game Of Death’ (1978) recycled footage from 'The Way Of The Dragon’ (1972)

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When the star of your movie dies part-way through filming, you have to say fair enough – some corners have to be cut. The unfortunately titled 'Game Of Death’, however, had more than just corners cut – after Bruce Lee dropped dead, the film was spliced and diced so much you couldn’t enjoy the film for focusing on the scars. Chuck Norris threatened a lawsuit due to footage of him from 'The Way Of The Dragon’ being dropped into the movie (note to filmmakers: always pay Chuck Norris – this shouldn’t need to be said), but there were far more distasteful methods of padding out the running time, including but not limited to using a cardboard cut-out of Bruce Lee in some scenes, and using actual footage from Lee’s real funeral.

'Star Trek: Generations’ (1994) recycled footage from 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ (1991)

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The early 'Star Trek’ productions were famously cheap, with papier mâché props and terrible alien makeup lending proceedings an unwanted 'school play’ look and feel. Later productions, like 1994’s movie/TV crossover 'Generations’, however, had no excuse. The fist-pumping shot of a Klingon Bird of Prey ship exploding was recycled and reused in full from 'Star Trek VI’, which was released just three years earlier. 'Star Trek’ fans are famously detail-oriented and you can bet there were more than a few furious letters written about that particular faux-pas.

'Blade Runner’ (1982) recycled footage from 'The Shining’ (1980)

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On the surface, Ridley Scott’s 'Blade Runner’ and Stanley Kubrick’s 'The Shining’ couldn’t be two more different films, but they did have something in common. The original theatrical ending of 'Blade Runner’ – the one unceremoniously dumped for the 'Director’s Cut’ that the director actually hated – saw Ford’s replicant hunter drive off into the distance on a twisty-turny mountain road. As it happens, that helicopter footage was filmed two years previously for Kubrick’s horror opus – the actual shot that appeared in 'Blade Runner’ never appeared in 'The Shining’ but it was from the same helicopter session. Hey, a freebie is still a freebie.

'Hitman’ (2007) recycled footage from 'Dark Angel’ (TV, 2000)

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Want to establish a cool and moody backstory about your lead character being born and raised as a child assassin, but can’t be bothered to film it yourself? Just raid the archives! Almost the entire opening sequence from 2007’s forgettable videogame movie 'Hitman’ was pilfered from Jessica Alba’s 2000 spy TV show 'Dark Angel’, although obviously all shots of Alba were removed (the movie isn’t that dumb). The show and the movie share a story about genetically-modified child killers, but really, there’s nothing here that couldn’t have been easily replicated with a camera and a bunch of school kids in bald caps.

Have you seen any more examples of movie studios re-hashing old footage? Let us know in the comments below…

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