The 10 craziest coincidences in cinema history
What goes down behind-the-scenes making films can be weirder than what happens on the big screen.
Hollywood is filled with tall tales and urban legends regarding the absurd coincidences that were involved in the creation of classic movies. The creation and authorship of Citizen Kane has been so well-documented that there have been several films made about it, and the legendarily disastrous production of Star Wars has itself become a mythology due to the strange media perception of George Lucas.
Some film shoots have been ripe for so much speculation that they’ve gone down different rabbit holes and inspired absurd conspiracies; ask someone about the “real” meaning of The Wizard of Oz, and answers might point to Judy Garland’s addiction issues, the myth of a suicidal Munchkin extra, experimental drug testing, and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
It’s an odd business that attracts unusual people, which might be why so many great directors are inspired to make a film about Hollywood itself; Robert Altman had The Player, Billy Wilder had Sunset Boulevard, Steven Spielberg had The Fabelmans, Clint Eastwood had White Hunter, Black Heart, David Fincher had Mank, and Quentin Tarantino had Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
There’s tremendous potential in analysing the artistic process that filmmakers go through in order to make the perfect creative decisions, but often it comes down to sheer luck and coincidence. The myth of “nothing happens by accident” is abundantly true in the case of the film industry, which makes cinematic coincidences an object of obsession for anyone who has spent a lifetime at the movies.
The 10 craziest coincidences in cinema history
Twin Movies
Hollywood is often criticised for not having enough original ideas, but there have been several instances in which two studios began to latch on to a similar concept at the same time. Given how stubborn executives and filmmakers tend to be, these “twin films” won’t back down, resulting in two very similar releases within a short period of time.
2011 saw two “casual sex” comedies with No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits, 1998 saw two science fiction asteroid strike epics with Armageddon and Deep Impact, 2006 had two 18th century magician mystery romances with The Prestige and The Illusionist, 1998 had two insect-lead family animated films with A Bug’s Life and Antz, 2013 had two “Die Hard in the White House” films with Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. These are only sometimes explainable, such as DC Studios rushing to make Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice after learning that Marvel Studios was planning Captain America: Civil War.
The “Superman Curse”
The Superman franchise has been so linked with misfortune that it’s gained the reputation of being “cursed.” The original television Superman, George Reeves, dealt with severe depression and career consequences because of his involvement in the show, and died by suicide in an event that has provoked some conspiracies of murder. Christopher Reeve, who was of no relation, suffered a severe horseback riding injury that left him paralysed in an accident that occurred less than a week after he played a paralysed police detective in the HBO thriller Above Suspicion.
While their consequences were less life-altering, Brandon Routh had his career destroyed after the failure of Superman Returns, and Henry Cavill suffered the embarrassment of quitting The Witcher in order to reprise his role as Superman in the DCEU, only for the company to change directions and hire a new actor for a reboot.
‘The China Syndrome’ predicted a real disaster
Jane Fonda gave one of the greatest performances of the ‘70s in The China Syndrome, an ecological thriller in which she plays a journalist who investigates safety coverups at a nuclear power plant, where the shift supervisor (Jack Lemmon) learns the superintendent did not follow through with proper regulations.
The film was praised for its realistic depiction of how a nuclear meltdown would occur and what the consequences were, but it hit theatres only twelve days before an actual nuclear incident in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, which became a major national news story. The events in Pennsylvania were very similar to the plot of The China Syndrome, and they were credited with drumming up ticket sales for the film; however, the comparisons became so glaring that Columbia Pictures began to pull back its marketing out of fear of taking advantage of a tragic situation.
Stephen Sondheim dies during his biggest film year
Stephen Sondheim is responsible for writing many classic musicals and lyrics that had a tremendous impact on the film industry, but 2021 marked an apex for Hollywood’s appreciation of him. Steven Spielberg directed a remake of West Side Story that was even better than the original, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut, Tick, Tick… Boom! featured Sondheim as a character portrayed by Bradley Whitford, and Sondheim made a cameo as himself in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
Sondheim died in November, a week after Tick, Tick… Boom! debuted on Netflix, and the film included a real copy of a voicemail that he had left for Jonathan Larson, the lyricist portrayed by Andrew Garfield. Sondheim’s death occurred after Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery had performed better at the box office than any previous Netflix release, but before it was made available on the service.
Brad Pitt pulled his “Achilles Tendon”
Over 20 years before Christopher Nolan embarked on his adaptation of The Odyssey, Wolfgang Petersen helmed an ambitious adaptation of The Iliad, the Greek poem that takes place right before it. Although The Odyssey has been subjected to significant backlash from racist critics over its casting choices, Peterson’s film Troy didn’t earn very much controversy for the casting of non-Greek actors, including Brad Pitt in the role of Achilles.
Pitt was the perfect casting choice to play the most legendary of Ancient Greece’s heroes, and he proved himself worthy of the honour by doing many of his own stunts. However, Pitt made the mistake of getting a bit too into character when he pulled his “Achilles tendon” during a major battle scene, which forced filming on Troy to be delayed for several weeks. It felt like a moment of destiny prophesied by the Greek gods.
The ‘Poltergeist’ curse
While there continues to be disputes over whether Tobe Hooper was really the director responsible for Poltergeist or if Steven Spielberg was the one calling the shots, it is without a doubt one of the scariest films of the ‘80s.
The terror didn’t stop when the film was released, as “the curse” of Poltergeist started to feel real after the actor Dominique Dunne was strangled by her boyfriend to death at the age of 22, the child star Heather O’Rourke died at age 12 after experiencing mysterious stomach cramps, and Poltergeist II: The Other Side actor Will Sampson attempted to perform an exorcism on himself to be rid of the curse, only to die a year later because of complications from a kidney transplant. The “curse” is sometimes linked to the film’s production, which included real skeletons instead of props in a major scene because they were cheaper.
“Never Tell Me The Odds!” in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’
The life of George Lucas is strange enough that the creation of Star Wars is a minor miracle; Lucas wouldn’t have become a filmmaker if he hadn’t survived a nearly fatal car accident shortly before his high school graduation, leading him to abandon plans of being a racecar driver and begin studying before a friend convinced him to go to film school.
However, the most spooky coincidence in the Star Wars franchise occurs in The Empire Strikes Back, which was directed by Lucas’ former University of Southern California professor, Irvin Kershner. During the asteroid chase, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) complains to Han Solo (Harrison Ford) that their odds of survival are “3, 720 to 1″. This line occurs at the 37:21 minute mark into the film, and is followed up by Ford’s iconic delivery of the line “never tell me the odds!”
‘The Omen’ curse
Richard Donner’s The Omen was another classic horror film that has been seemingly haunted by spooky coincidences. Screenwriter David Seltzer began writing the script after witnessing strange coincidences whilst on a trip in Rome, and it was shortly before the production that the film’s crew took a plane that changed course and crashed, killing them all. Gregory Peck was nearly struck by lightning, and he also flew on a dangerous flight while travelling to England.
Special effects supervisor John Richardson died in a car accident that also claimed the life of his assistant, Liz Moore, which occurred near a sign pointing to the town of “Omenn.” To make it even creepier, the crash resembled a very similar scene in the film. The production was also involved in a terrifying incident using real baboons after the animal trainer hired died only days before the shooting was intended to begin.
‘Wag the Dog’ predicted the Bill Clinton scandal
Wag the Dog was a satirical political farce in which Dustin Hoffman plays a Hollywood spin doctor hired to assist the White House with creating a fake war after the President of the United States is caught in the middle of a sex scandal. While it was based on a 1993 novel, Wag the Dog hit theatres just one month before the news media picked up on the scandal involving President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
That the film implied that a war could be used as cover became even more eerie eight months later during the Clinton administration’s bombing of the Sudan, and when the attacks on Iraq were used by the Democratic Party to dominate headlines during the midst of the impeachment proceedings. Interestingly enough, the following year saw the release of Mike Nichols’ Primary Colors, which was directly inspired by Clinton’s 1992 campaign.
‘Southland Tales’ predicted…everything
Richard Kelly was given the opportunity to make a much more ambitious second feature after his debut film Donnie Darko became an independent sensation and immediate cult classic, but Southland Tales had a disastrous premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, which forced it to sit on a shelf for over a year and go through re-editing. Southland Tales was an absurdist satire that presented an alternate vision of the 2008 election, but many of the plot points in the film have made their way into reality.
Southland Tales predicated the surveillance of American citizens under the PATRIOT Act, the war in Iran, the rise of influencers and OnlyFans, the legal precedent for corporations being people, the emergence of legitimate Neo-Marxist advocates in America, the privatisation of military contracts, and even the political aspirations of its star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
