8 Iconic Movie Moments You Didn't Realise Were Taken From Other Films

2. The Train Crash In Super 8 Nabs Its Choreography From The Greatest Show On Earth

The Iconic Moment: It seems rather unnecessary to point out that J.J. Abrams was heavily inspired by Steven Spielberg with Super 8. The film is so overloaded with longing Americana and a pervasive love of suburbia that it's amazing there was even time to fit a monster into the mix. However, the blockbuster master isn't the only director he owes a big debt to. The turning point in Super 8 is a massive train crash, which almost kills our pre-teen protagonists and releases an Cloverfield-esque creature on the small, unsuspecting town. It's so large in scale and iconic in imagery that the action alone provided the crux of the early marketing - the first trailer didn't even include any reference to the kids, just a truck driving along the tracks before smashing into the locomotive and sending cargo trailers everywhere. The Film It's Taken From: Well of course it's iconic - the choreography of Super 8's crash is identical to that that of the one in The Greatest Show On Earth (minus a few minor details of other trains on the tracks); a car drives along, a train derails, trucks flip and a dangerous creature even escapes its confines (here a lion instead of an alien). Even though Cecil B. DeMille doesn't at first seem an obvious bedfellow to Steven Spielberg, there is a strong link between the two that explains why Abrams chose to homage the scene in his movie already bursting at the seams with homages; The Greatest Show On Earth was Spielberg's first (and most defining) cinematic experience.