9 Movie Franchises That Literally Do The Same Thing Repeatedly

It's an indisputable fact that films are formulaic - and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Three act structure, the hero's journey, the myths of spring, summer, fall and winter are proven formulas that provide an audience with escalations of tension, rising stakes and rewarding character arcs. These storytelling models precluded cinema, dating back centuries or even millennia, to Greek Antiquity and even the Bronze Age. Even the most subversive works of fiction at least recognise these formulas as something to be turned inside out.

However, there's a difference between adhering to age-old narrative models and just repeating yourself on a moment-to-moment basis. There's nothing wrong with the odd catchphrase or clever reuse of a technique from an earlier entry in a media franchise, but when the same plot devices and character attributes are wheeled out en masse, things get real tiresome real fast.

That's not to say that every entry on this list is lazy or detrimental to its respective film series - some are simply recurring gags that will raise a well-deserved chuckle, and some may even be central to their characters' portrayals. But be they endearing, lazy or even problematic, they are certainly ubiquitous within the series in which they appear. So let's decry repetitive narrative tropes and examine a few things movie franchises just can't being themselves to move on from.

"Dirty" Harry Callahan, presumably named for his habitual aroma of stale cigarettes and sweat, codified the "cowboy cop" archetype. He's a loose-cannon who lets his gun do the talking, unconcerned with things like constitutional rights or due process, but he's the best they've got, dammit! After his first outing was (rightly) called out for its borderline-fascist undertones, the sequels had Harry chase down a broad array of criminals, including renegade cops who had formed their own vigilante death squad.

One thing the films just can't help though is Harry's uncanny ability to stumble upon robberies when chowing down on a hotdog or ordering a crap cup of coffee. The first occurrence of this, in 1971's Dirty Harry, culminates in Eastwood's now legendary "do you feel lucky?" monologue. Magnum Force sees Harry take on an unexpected stick-up crew when on an unrelated stakeout. Harry just so happens to be in the neighbourhood so he can defuse a hostage situation (violently) in The Enforcer, by driving his car through a storefront. In Sudden Impact, Harry straight-up murders 4 robbers in a cafe, and finally in The Dead Pool appears to be the only cop in Chinatown available to shoot a bunch more dudes holding up a Chinese restaurant.

We get it, Eastwood, every single cop in the city apart from you is an ineffectual goofball.