Weapons x Criminal Minds 'Hamelin'

Did Zach Cregger find inspiration in a 2019 episode of Criminal Minds?

While editing a season promo for 5USA, I noticed some visual parallels between the Criminal Minds episode 'Hamelin' and Cregger's latest feature, Weapons.

Both take the 'Pied Piper' folk tale and translate it into a modern suburban nightmare: children lured from their beds in the dead of night, walking into the void of their own free will.

It almost goes without saying, I am not saying Zach Cregger copied this (and then ran with it), nor equating them as equally good on any objective metric. 

Just an interesting parallel of the Pied Piper of Hamelin folk tale brought to life in modern media, with some striking similarities in these particular scenes/shots. 

Watch the side-by-side comparison above:

Criminal Minds: S14E12 'Hamelin' (2019)

Weapons: Directed by Zach Cregger (2026)

Dunkirk x One Battle After Another

I love both these films, and on a rewatch of Dunkirk, I was struck by how similar two specific shots were to the car chase sequence in One Battle After Another.
There are a variety of car chase sequences which have similar shots to OBAA, but I thought it would be a fun (difficult) challenge to cut a plane and car chase together. 

Dunkirk

Tom Hardy’s Spitfire struggles on its last remaining drops of fuel to take down a German bomber, taking a second pass at an already sinking ship with oil bleeding out of its belly. British soldiers naively swim through the slick, napalm in waiting. Soldiers pull their comrades from the grease into the small boats. They stare in panic at the Nazi plane rapidly approaching, as they connect the dots. As Zimmer’s score soars, the Spitfire appears behind the bomber and attacks its engines, forcing it to bail. It’s not enough, though, and the soldiers know it. It will ignite the oil and anyone in contact with it.  

One Battle After Another

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson, driving a purple Nissan Sentra, is desperately seeking Willa. His daughter was captured and is now on the run from biological Daddy Lockjaw and the Christmas Adventurers Club. As Willa speeds across the Californian River of Hills in a white knuckle Dodge Charger LD Interceptor, she’s being hunted by Tim Smith, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, in a Deep Impact Blue Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500. Willa’s escape turns to panic as she spots the Mustang in her mirrors. She’s also not aware that her actual father, Bob, is hot on their tail, so she has to save herself, using her own car as a weapon hidden behind a hill, laying a trap for Tim to smash into.

In addition to that specific moment (at 0.50 in my edit above) where Bob’s Nissan and Hardy’s Spitfire appear from the left of frame, (as we cut to behind their plane/car, as we witness their frantic chase to save the day), many other shots have direct or indirect parallels, which were a joy to discover when piecing it all together, it goes without saying that both sequences are not ‘as they come’ from their respective films. Timing/shot order have been tweaked.

It was a fascinating process cutting OBAA to Zimmer’s ‘The Oil’, the now infamous Shepard Tone heaps on another layer of nail-biting suspense to the OBAA material, and being able to time certain shots around sound effects from the two films, adds an additional dynamic to both. The roar of the cars as the planes move into position, or the soldiers in Dunkirk, almost egging on the Spitfire/Nissan/Charger really makes you rally for them.

I may have to do another edit comparing it to all the great cinematic car chases…

Star Wars x Top Gun: Maverick

If you haven’t noticed already (or missed the hundreds of mentions online about it),
Top Gun: Maverick takes on some elements similar to Star Wars (Episode IV). 

The canyon mission, especially, mirrors much of the trench run from Star Wars, in addition to talking to ghosts of the past, learning to feel, not think, and the hero’s journey are themes shared across the two films.

Dirty Harry x The Dark Knight

“Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. 



He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector.

A Dark Knight”
— Commissioner Gordon

I’m not the first to compare Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) with Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry (1971), but I thought the world needed an edit to put it to the test.

Obviously, they are not identical films, with The Dark Knight having many more characters and plot lines threading throughout, in addition to some of the best action sequences ever filmed. Dirty Harry is more down to earth, in that respect, but this doesn’t take away from some of those core similarities, in addition to specific scenes or shots that are remarkably similar. Whether by design or by accident, there are clear parallels with these two films. 

We all know Nolan has mentioned Mann’s HEAT (1995) as a distinct influence on The Dark Knight, that is felt in the tonal execution, the cinematography, and of course the opening bank heist by The Joker, (and William Fichtner). I can also see how Nolan took the idea of sharing a film between two leads and how De Niro’s Neil McCauley and Pacino’s Vincent Hannah get ported over to Ledger’s Joker and Bale’s Batman (or even Eckhart’s Dent). 

Coming back to Dirty Harry,  the themes of police corruption, morality, vigilantism, escalation and a psychopathic antagonist terrorising a city are shared between the two. 

Escalation is a theme that continues more deeply into Dirty Harry’s sequel, Magnum Force (1973), where a rogue police unit, seemingly inspired by Harry Callahan’s perceived approach to take the law into his own hands, decide to gun down any criminal (or cop) who’s inconvenient to their world view. Escalation is mentioned by Gary Oldman’s Lieutenant Gordon at the end of Batman Begins (2005), the fact that Batman exists almost gives birth to the Joker, much like how Scorpio is a reflection of Dirty Harry’s existence. 

It was so fun to edit two of my favourites, and each discovery of a parallel or similarity just made me love them more. So many shots couldn’t squeeze into 68 seconds, so I’ll upload some ‘deleted scenes’ as GIFs to my site.

“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
— Harvey Dent

Extra Scenes

Anora (2024) - Vibes

Sean Baker has spoken about some of his influences that went into the melting pot that became the Academy Award-winning Anora. I immediately felt the unbridled kinetic chaos of the Safdie’s Uncut Gems (2019), merged with the obvious plot similarities to Garry Marshall’s Pretty Woman (1990). I also felt that the middle section of Anora, with her capture by the Russians, had a pandemonium similar to the scene where Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare’s hoods kidnap Jean Lundegaard in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo (1996).

After watching Anora and doing my usual deep dive reading about it, post-watch, it was fascinating to hear Baker’s influences, from a range of incredible filmmakers. After watching those, and seeing some clear visual similarities, in addition to aspects of story, character and attitude, I wanted to create a short edit combining the influences Baker spoke of, in combination with ones I felt the film reflected, so more of a ‘vibe’ edit, than pure influences.

Set to The Weeknd’s The Morning, (taken from the club scene in Uncut Gems, where he performs the song live), the lyrics are a suitable conduit to Anora:

All that money, the money is the motive
All that money, the money is the motive
All that money, the money she be foldin'
Girl, put in work, girl, girl, put in work
Girl, put in work, girl, girl, put in work
Girl, put in work


Films featured:

Anora - Sean Baker (2024)
Nights of Cabiria - Federico Fellini (1957)
Le Mépris / Contempt - Jean-Luc Godard (1963)
The French Connection - William Friedkin (1971)
Vampiros Lesbos - Jesús Franco (1971)

Pretty Woman - Garry Marshall (1990)
Uncut Gems - Josh and Benny Safdie (2019)
Fargo - Joel and Ethan Coen (1996)