Some films share titles, premises, or release dates so similar that even dedicated moviegoers mix them up. Here are 15 movies that are constantly mistaken for each other.
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15. The Godfather (1972)
Francis Ford Coppola almost lost the lead role entirely, since Paramount wanted Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas instead of Marlon Brando for Vito Corleone. The Godfather came out in 1972 and ran for three hours, built on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name. People lump it in with Goodfellas because both trace Italian-American crime families across decades. The Corleones deal in power and legacy, while Henry Hill's story is about chaos and getting caught. | © Paramount Pictures
14. Goodfellas (1990)
Henry Hill, the real informant Ray Liotta plays in Goodfellas, was paid a flat fee of $480,000 for his life rights. Martin Scorsese released the film in 1990, adapting Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy. The tracking shot through the Copacabana kitchen took eight takes to get right. Set that against The Godfather and the difference is tone, one is an opera, the other is a hangover. | © Warner Bros.
13. Platoon (1986)
A mistitling error has sent people searching for Platoon when they meant the 1970 biopic Patton, and the two share nothing but a few letters. Oliver Stone wrote and directed Platoon in 1986, drawing on his own tour with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Charlie Sheen plays a soldier caught between two sergeants, one decent and one rotten. George C. Scott's Patton is a different war and a different century of filmmaking entirely. | © Orion Pictures
12. Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
Billy Crystal improvised a huge chunk of his dialogue in Throw Momma from the Train, which Danny DeVito both directed and starred in back in 1987. The plot borrows its swapped-murder setup from Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, filtered through a comedy about a writer and his monstrous mother. People confuse it with Planes, Trains and Automobiles purely because both titles have "train" wedged into them. Owen the mother, played by Anne Ramsey, earned an Oscar nomination for a role built almost entirely on insults. | © Orion Pictures
11. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Steve Martin and John Candy spend the entirety of Planes, Trains and Automobiles trying to get home for Thanksgiving, and nothing about a train murder plot ever enters the picture. John Hughes wrote and directed it in 1987, reportedly shooting far more footage than the 93-minute runtime could hold. The confusion with Throw Momma from the Train seems to start and end with a shared word in the title. One film is about two strangers stuck together by bad luck, the other is about a plot to get rid of someone on purpose. | © Paramount Pictures
10. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Kathy Bates sits across from Jessica Tandy in a nursing home and asks to hear about Idgie and Ruth, and the whole movie unfolds from there. Fried Green Tomatoes came out in 1991 through Universal Pictures, two years after Steel Magnolias set the template for Southern women crying and laughing in the same scene. Fannie Flagg adapted her own novel for the screenplay. The murder mystery buried in the middle is the part most people forget they loved. | © Universal Pictures
9. Steel Magnolias (1989)
Six women cram into Truvy's beauty parlor and barely leave it for two hours, which is unusual for a film with this much plot. Steel Magnolias released in 1989 through TriStar Pictures, based on Robert Harling's play written after his own sister's death. Julia Roberts earned an Oscar nomination for Shelby, the role grounded in that loss. People confuse it with Fried Green Tomatoes constantly, but Harling wrote every line from something that actually happened to him. | © TriStar Pictures
8. K-9 (1989)
A Belgian Malinois named Jerry Lee got second billing in K-9, a 1989 Universal Pictures release starring James Belushi as a cop forced to partner with him. The dog eats evidence, wrecks a car, and somehow still closes the case. That same year, Tom Hanks played a cop with a different dog in Turner & Hooch, and the two films have been swapped in conversation ever since. Jerry Lee was reportedly difficult enough on set that trainers needed backup dogs just to finish shooting. | © Universal Pictures
7. Turner & Hooch (1989)
Hooch destroys Tom Hanks' entire house within the first act of Turner & Hooch, a 1989 Touchstone Pictures release, and that's before the dog becomes a witness to a murder. The role was played mostly by a dogue de Bordeaux named Beasley. Ending aside, it's a cop comedy with real teeth, since Hooch's handler ultimately dies partway through the film. People lump it in with K-9 because both pair a detective with an unmanageable dog in the same calendar year. | © Touchstone Pictures
6. Casino (1995)
Robert De Niro runs a Las Vegas casino for the mob in this 1995 Universal Pictures release, and the film is based on the real life of Frank Rosenthal. Martin Scorsese shot it with the same crew energy as Goodfellas, down to Joe Pesci playing another volatile enforcer. Sharon Stone plays Ginger, a role built on hustler Geri McGee, Rosenthal's actual wife. The two films get confused constantly, but Casino runs on greed and excess while Goodfellas runs on loyalty curdling into betrayal. | © Universal Pictures
5. Heat (1995)
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro share exactly one scene in Heat, a diner conversation that took Michael Mann weeks to schedule around both actors' calendars. The 1995 film gets lumped in with Casino constantly since both came out that year and both star De Niro opposite a sprawling cast. Heat is built around a bank robbery crew and the cop chasing them, not a casino skim operation in Las Vegas. The shootout on the streets of Los Angeles used real ammunition sound recordings, which is why it still rattles windows decades later. | © Warner Bros.
4. Victor/Victoria (1982)
Julie Andrews plays a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman in Victor/Victoria, which is a sentence that only makes sense once you've seen it. Blake Edwards directed the 1982 film, loosely based on a 1933 German movie called Viktor und Viktoria. People confuse it with Tootsie because both came out the same year and both hinge on disguise for survival. Andrews actually sings live in several numbers rather than lip-syncing, which was unusual for a musical comedy at the time. | © MGM
3. Tootsie (1982)
Dustin Hoffman wore heels for months before filming Tootsie just to learn how to walk convincingly as Dorothy Michaels. The 1982 film has him playing an unemployed actor who lands a soap opera role by posing as a woman. Its reputation gets tangled with Victor/Victoria, released the same year with a similar gender-swap setup. Hoffman has said in interviews that playing Dorothy made him understand how women get dismissed in rooms full of men. | © Columbia Pictures
2. White House Down (2013)
Channing Tatum spends most of White House Down trying to protect the president after the building gets overrun by a paramilitary squad. Roland Emmerich directed the 2013 film, and it hit theaters only a few months after a nearly identical premise beat it to screens. That earlier movie was Olympus Has Fallen, which also features the White House falling to armed attackers within the same calendar year. Emmerich reportedly leaned into the chaos with more visible destruction, including a tank battle on the South Lawn. | © Sony Pictures
1. Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Gerard Butler plays a disgraced Secret Service agent trapped inside a captured White House in Olympus Has Fallen, released in March of 2013. Antoine Fuqua directed it on a smaller budget than its rival, yet it beat that rival to theaters by several months. The competing film was White House Down, sharing not just the setting but the entire premise of a siege. Fuqua has said he aimed for something grittier and more grounded than the effects-heavy spectacle that followed it into release. | © FilmDistrictSome films share titles, premises, or release dates so similar that even dedicated moviegoers mix them up. Here are 15 movies that are constantly mistaken for each other.
