2. Inception
As soon as Nolan made Inception he must have known that every single science fiction film to come after it would somehow be compared to it and would also want to at least in part imitate its success somehow. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, like Star Wars, like E.T and like The Matrix... these great science fiction films including Inception really set new boundaries for their genre and have created many imitations since their releases. In all credit to Johnson, the film Looper isn't exactly all that similar to Inception but the only reason I have included it is for one very obvious reason. Not only is Joseph Gordon Levitt a major player in both of these great science fiction films but the scene in which Levitt is most well known from Inception is the scene in which he fights a man in anti-gravity. It is arguably the most iconic and best scene from that entire movie. I just thinks it is funny then that Johnson would decide to include anti-gravity scenes which mirror Nolan's quite obviously in Looper considering Levitt is the lead in this film. Though there is obviously the attraction of making a film that will appeal to Inception fans and Johnson may have included similarities purposely for this very reason to make sure a lot of people see this wonderful movie, if I were him I would have wanted to distance myself somewhat from Inception, and to really try to make Looper stand on it's own feet and be as unique as you could possibly make it. I would also have thought that Levitt would have wanted to distance himself a little from Inception also. All this said however, Inception clearly copied large elements from the last really groundbreaking science fiction film to come before it, The Matrix (being plugged into dream worlds), so Looper, which is arguably the next groundbreaking science fiction film to come after Inception can be more easily forgiven for copying elements of this film. Maybe it is science fiction's way of passing on the crown from one great film to another.