8 Movies You Won't Believe Are Set In The Same Universe

6. Coming To America & Trading Places

In the late seventies and eighties, the king of the comedy movie, in terms of directing, was John Landis. His CV boasted the likes of Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Three Amigos, as well as a comedy-horror turn with the cult classic, An American Werewolf In London. In short, if you wanted a comedy done correctly, you probably wanted Landis to direct it. One of Landis' early eighties success was the Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd-driven prince to pauper comedy Trading Places, wherein our heroes have their lives switched for the amusement of the extremely wealthy Duke brothers. Murphy, a homeless man is bailed out of jail after an altercation with the rich Aykroyd, who eventually attempts suicide. Upon learning of the Dukes' scheme, Murphy and Aykroyd unite to bring down the brothers in a fraud set-up which ultimately costs the Dukes $394 million, ruining them. Jump ahead then to Landis' 1988 movie, Coming To America, also starring Eddie Murphy, although this time as an African prince who has journeyed to America in order to experience a more genuine lifestyle, rather than the royal life at home. A key plot piece in the movie is that Prince Akeem (Murphy) gives away the enormous amount of spending money issued to him by his father, in the name of living like a normal person. Akeem gives his money to two homeless men he encounters, and quickly leaves with little thought given to the act. However, once Akeem leaves, one of the men looks up and exclaims: "Mortimer...we're back!" Of Course, the two men are Randolph and Mortimer Duke, with the roles reprised by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy, suggesting that the Duke brothers had been homeless for the previous six years. Whilst we only see the two men once more, briefly thanking Akeem, it would have been amazing to have seen another movie following the antics of the pair as they attempted to get themselves back to the pinnacle of their wealthy hay days.