Why Gene Hackman accused James Bond of ripping him off: “We knew it”
It can be hard not to imitate the work of other people when creating a film – all storylines and characters can be described as being similar to others that exist, with many being directly influenced by other works and incorporating them into their own films.
Whether it be the blatant references within Quentin Tarantino’s filmography or many secret Easter eggs in Barbie, directors have always been some of the most creative thieves on the planet, cutting and pasting from other works and embedding their favourite scenes into the ones they’ve created.
But for some, this can be exceptionally frustrating when the reference isn’t made clear and people think it is an original piece of work, despite being a copy of something else that they might not have heard of. This was certainly the case for Gene Hackman and one of his lesser-known films, with the actor claiming that one huge franchise had ripped off the stunts from their key action sequence.
There are few people in the business who have forged reputations based on their ability to perform stunts, with Tom Cruise, Daniel Craig and Jackie Chan sitting at the top of the list after blood-curdling stunts that make you want to watch through your fingers. From the moment when Cruise breaks his ankle after jumping off a building, to the dangerous fight scenes that take place atop a train roof or elevator shaft, each of these actors reached notoriety through their ability to defy death itself by doing brave (or stupid?) stunts.
But while they are widely praised, Hackman was a little miffed at a stunt in his 1985 film Target that was ripped off by the makers of the James Bond franchise, with the 1985 film A View To Kill being released shortly beforehand and copying one of their stunts.
When discussing this, Hackman said, “They did those stunts and then the last James Bond film came out and suddenly there our stunts are. And we actually did our film before they did, but theirs was released first, and I talked to Arthur [Penn] about it and he was really mad because he felt like they had plagiarised our stunts. Of course, there’s no way you can actually enforce that, but we knew it, that some of the stunts were similar, but no one else would recognise it”.
It’s a tricky dilemma if only the creative team behind Target knew that this had been copied, and made all the more difficult to deal with, given that it was a very small production in comparison to the Roger Moore picture.
While Hackman laughed it off, perhaps there were other crew members who held a grudge against the James Bond creators, with many bigger films ripping off the ideas of lesser-known projects and passing them off as their own. It’s not fair, but then again, neither is show business, and this ruthless copy only reflects the dog-eat-dog nature of the industry and how, if you aren’t quick enough, someone else might get there first.
