Best Classic Movie Inspired Gaming Missions

To say that every idea and level in gaming is wholly original would be telling lies, as game developers have been drawing influence from other media for the longest time. In fact, creating homages to other media you love is something frequently done across all forms of entertainment.

When game developers start drawing inspiration from movies, it leads to some excellent missions and levels as those homages to scenes, moments or even entire plotlines are merged with the game’s storyline. Here’s the best levels in gaming that should thank movies in their acceptance speech.

10

Spur Of The Moment – Far Cry 6

Inspired By: Alien

Far Cry 6 definitely isn’t the first video game out there to pay its respects to Alien, and it won’t be the last either, but the Spur Of The Moment side mission during the main story is certainly one of the more bizarre.

The rooster ruckus continues in a follow-up story, Over Easy, where you have to recover a rooster egg from a nearby town that’s been decimated by these feral fowl. Worse still, you can even find the vicious poultry roaming that area after you’ve finished the mission.

After being sent to investigate someone’s cockfighting bunker in the hopes of retrieving a chicken’s prized spurs, you instead find carnage caused by ravenous raging roosters. The last section of the bunker feels like Ripley’s walk into the Queen’s nest, complete with eggs everywhere, while your final escape will have you thinking the roosters are “coming out of the goddamn walls”.

9

Mile High Club – Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Inspired By: Airplane, Executive Decision

The Call of Duty series certainly isn’t one to shy away from its cinematic influences, and the legendary bonus mission of COD 4: Modern Warfare, Mile High Club, pulls from the slapstick comedy Airplane in its opening cutscene. Remember, “don’t call me Shirley”.

However, the concept of a highly trained military unit infiltrating a plane mid-flight to secure a target is lifted straight from Executive Decision, just without Steven Seagal abruptly exploding halfway into the mission. It’s not a 1:1 comparison, but there’s definitely enough similarity between Mile High Club and those films. The only thing missing from Mile High Club was a Passenger 57 reference.

8

Heat Street – Payday: The Heist

Inspired By: Heat

To say that Payday was inspired by Heat is to say that the sky is blue, and the sun is bright; you’re stating the obvious. Of course, the most iconic heist/action movie of all time would be one of the main inspirations for a co-op shooter about robbing banks, among other places.

Perhaps no other level in the Payday series is as much of a homage as Heat Street though, with the clue being in the name. Much like the movie it shows love to, Heat Street sees the Payday gang betrayed by an ex-member, before being forced into a prolonged gunfight with the police across the city streets. Now, where’s the De Niro and Pacino DLC for Payday 3?

7

The Squats – Sifu

Inspired By – The Raid, Oldboy

The influence of classic martial arts cinema is littered throughout the work of Sloclap’s Sifu, as their love letter to kung fu as a whole arguably wouldn’t exist without the Hong Kong action flicks of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Despite that, the game’s opening level, The Squats, gives its nod to more modern martial arts films.

The decrepit, gang-infested tenement buildings of The Squats evoke memories of The Raid, complete with a familiar drug lab section of the level reminiscent of a fight scene towards the climax of the film. However, it’s the hallway segment that’s most noticeable, with the camera switching to a side perspective in a clear reference to a legendary fight from Oldboy.

Sifu’s Arena mode, a free update added post-launch, dials the movie references to 11, with challenges based on the Matrix, Drive, Jet Li’s Unleashed and countless more.

6

The Zodiac Tournament – Sleeping Dogs

Inspired By – Enter The Dragon

On the whole, Sleeping Dogs was a homage to the modern martial arts films of the era, giving love to the works of Tony Jaa and Donnie Yen (shame about that Donnie Yen Sleeping Dogs film). Still, with the game’s Zodiac Tournament DLC, United Front Games gave their respect to the greatest of all time, Bruce Lee.

Not so much as inspired by Enter The Dragon as it is a flagrant yet loving rip-off, The Zodiac Tournament sees Wei Shen traveling to a remote island to participate in a deathmatch kumite at the behest of an old kung fu master. It’s silly, goofy fun, though somehow not as silly as the Halloween-themed DLC that saw Hong Kong invaded by the undead.

5

Rising From The Shadows – Yakuza Kiwami 2

Inspired By: Ring

The Yakuza/Like A Dragon games are pretty wacky at the best of times, but the main story of every game is usually tethered to some kind of reality. The substories and side quests have little to no restraint in that regard though, which is most evident in the substory Rising From The Shadows from Yakuza Kiwami 2.

In a very clear nod to the events of Ring, Kazuma Kiryu watches a supposedly cursed videotape, in which a creepy woman appears on-screen to spook Kiryu and the player. Your first thought is that this is likely a hoax or con, as are most substories in this series, until the woman mysteriously appears next to the person who sold Kiryu the tape. Spooky.

This isn’t the series’ only dive into the paranormal. Saejima in Yakuza 4 encountered a kappa, while in Like A Dragon Gaiden, Kiryu is thanked by the ghost of a murder victim for catching that person’s killer. Ghosts are real in the Yakuzaverse, folks.

4

Keep Your Friends Close – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Inspired By: Scarface

It’s not breaking new ground to say that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City shares more than just a passing resemblance to the classic film Scarface. GTA has always lifted from crime dramas like The Godfather, Goodfellas and even Heat, but the clearest parallel has always been between Scarface and Vice City.

From the sun-soaked streets of Vice City drawing clear inspiration from 80s Miami, to the chainsaw weapon referencing an iconic scene in the film, there’s a lot to pull from, but the finale is arguably the most blatant. Both stories culminate in a violent gunfight in the protagonist’s mansion, with both Tony Montana and Tommy Vercetti shooting everyone that dares approach. At least the mansion siege ended better for Tommy than it did Tony.

Scarface: The World Is Yours, the GTA inspired spin-off game from 2005, changed the ending of the movie so Tony lived, with you controlling the drug lord as he makes his second ascension through the criminal underworld. What an underrated bit of fun it was.

3

Pouring Forth Oil Part 4 – Red Dead Redemption 2

Inspired By: The Assassination Of Jesse James

Much like the Grand Theft Auto series wouldn’t be where it is today without decades of crime thrillers to pull from, the original Red Dead Revolver was a love letter to spaghetti westerns. While follow-up games might have lost some of that spaghetti western influence, it doesn’t mean Red Dead Redemption 2 wasn’t pulling from other Western media.

Take the mission Pouring Forth Oil Part 4 for instance, where Dutch’s gang robs a train in the dead of night. The method, cinematography and everything else about this mission brings to mind a similar scene in The Assassination Of Jesse James, where the gang robs a train using the same “stop on the tracks” method. It’s a cool mission regardless, but for those who’ve seen the film, it feels extra special.

2

The Lost Patrol – Fallout 4

Inspired By: The Lost Patrol

Science fiction has been borrowing ideas from itself and other sources for a long time now, and it’ll likely continue until the machines rise up and take over. While it’s not a direct lift from the source material, Fallout 4’s The Lost Patrol shares plenty in common with a 1934 film of the same name.

The Lost Patrol film follows a WW1 regiment trapped in the desert, behind enemy lines as they’re slowly picked off, one by one, before the lone survivor is finally rescued. The Lost Patrol quest in Fallout 4 plays out in the same way, except you’re playing the rescuer, following the patrol’s trail in order to see if anyone actually managed to survive in the nuclear wasteland.

1

He Lives – Saints Row 4

Inspired By: They Live

When you’re playing a game like Saints Row, you should probably expect a few jokes, gags and references. Saints Row 4 was no exception in that regard, with the whole game playing out like an extended Matrix parody, complete with weird ships and a full-blown simulation of Steelport, the city from the previous game.

Where the movie references really peak comes with your in-game partner, the actual Keith David. Keith briefly sides with the villainous Zinyak, before regretting his decision and fleeing. You give chase, only to find yourself in that legendary street fight scene from They Live, complete with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper teaming up with you to knock some sense into Keith David. God bless you Hotrod.