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** As the franchise progressed, the franchise's connection to the [[Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Disneyland ride of the same name]] became little more that an afterthought. The first movie is as close as an adaptation of the ride as a movie can possibly be while still telling his own story, with a major part of the plot points, set pieces, characters, visuals and jokes being directly based or inspired on elements of the ride. The sequels, on the other hand went on a different direction focused on telling their own story, so the attempts to "adapt the ride" are little more that a few {{Mythology Gag}}s here and there or {{Call Back}}s to references of the Ride back in the first movie. Perphaps the most significant reference in the sequels is the Waterfall sequence in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' but even that was [[RefittedForSequel a recycled concept from the first movie]].
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** As the franchise progressed, the franchise's connection to the [[Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Disneyland ride of the same name]] became little more that an afterthought. The first movie is as close as an adaptation of the ride as a movie can possibly be while still telling his own story, with a major part of the plot points, set pieces, characters, visuals and jokes being directly based or inspired on elements of the ride. The sequels, on the other hand went on a different direction focused on telling their own story, so the attempts to "adapt the ride" are little more that a few {{Mythology Gag}}s here and there or {{Call Back}}s to references of the Ride back in the first movie. Perphaps Perhaps the most significant reference in the sequels is the Waterfall sequence in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' but even that was [[RefittedForSequel a recycled concept from the first movie]].
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* ''Film/{{Angus}}'': In one point, Meg refers to the school Angus is applying to as "somewhere he can go where he won't have to account for who his parents are", this is a reference to his backstory in the original short story, where part of the reason Angus is bullied is because both of his parents are gay. In the proper movie, his father died of a heart attack before the events of the movie and we never see anything related to Meg that could lead her to cause social issues to Angus, so the line doesn't really have anything to do with everything else going on in the movie.
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* ''Film/{{Angus}}'': In At one point, Meg refers to the school Angus is applying to as "somewhere he can go where he won't have to account for who his parents are", this is a reference to his backstory in the original short story, where part of the reason Angus is bullied is because both of his parents are gay. In the proper movie, his father died of a heart attack before the events of the movie and we never see anything related to Meg that could lead her to cause social issues to Angus, so the line doesn't really have anything to do with everything else going on in the movie. Meg is also briefly mentioned to have passed for an unelaborated issue and Ivan refers to her as "very brave" because of it.
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* ''Film/{{Angus}}'': In one point, Meg refers to the school Angus is applying to as "somewhere he can go where he won't have to account for who his parents are", this is a reference to his backstory in the original short story, where part of the reason Angus is bullied is because both of his parents are gay. In the proper movie, his father died of a heart attack before the events of the movie and we never see anything related to Meg that could lead her to cause social issues to Angus, so the line doesn't really have anything to do with everything else going on in the movie.
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* The writers of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' were stuck with the fact they had put Marty's girlfriend in the car with Doc at the end of the first movie, thus forcing them to write her into the {{sequel}}. They said that, if they had actually planned on a sequel, they never would have put her in there. However, they managed to make her the viewpoint character in the Future-Marty-home sequence, and then write her back out again until the end of ''Part III''.
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* The writers of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' were stuck with the fact they had put Marty's girlfriend in the car with Doc at the end of the [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 first movie, movie]], thus forcing them to write her into the {{sequel}}. They said that, if they had actually planned on a sequel, they never would have put her in there. However, they managed to make her the viewpoint character in the Future-Marty-home sequence, and then write her back out again until the end of ''Part III''.''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII Part III]]''.
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* The ''Film/{{Predator}}'' films always include a noticable decompressing sound when the titular aliens remove their [[CoolMask face-masks]], sometimes coupled with unhitching what look like air tubes. The first two film seemed to have intended this to be because Predators come from a different kind of atmosphere than humans and thus can't breath very well on Earth in an aversion of NoBiochemicalBarriers; the first film's Jungle Hunter takes off his mask to [[WorthyOpponent give himself a disadvantage and even the odds for Dutch]], while the second film's City Hunter visibly freaks out after losing his mask and begins breathing raggedly, even breaking out a small device resembling an emergency oxygen mask that he takes periodic huffs from for the remainder of his fight with Harrigan. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness This element was largely dropped from later entries]], however, with the sequels and ExpandedUniverse both never really depicting Predators as needing their masks to function on Earth or elsewhere and indicating their only purpose is for ceremonial armor and the vision settings. ''Film/Prey2022'' in particular would have the Feral Predator's mask not even cover it's full face like most prior ones, meaning the Predator walks about the entire film without an artificial "air supply" and clearly has no need of such a thing. Despite all this, the decompressing sound remains, playing everytime a Predator removes their helm even though this no longer has any apparent significance.
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* The ''Film/{{Predator}}'' ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' films always include a noticable noticeable decompressing sound when the titular aliens remove their [[CoolMask face-masks]], sometimes coupled with unhitching what look like air tubes. The first two film seemed to have intended this to be because Predators come from a different kind of atmosphere than humans and thus can't breath very well on Earth in an aversion of NoBiochemicalBarriers; [[Film/{{Predator}} the first film's film]]'s Jungle Hunter takes off his mask to [[WorthyOpponent give himself a disadvantage and even the odds for Dutch]], while [[Film/Predator2 the second film's film]]'s City Hunter visibly freaks out after losing his mask and begins breathing raggedly, even breaking out a small device resembling an emergency oxygen mask that he takes periodic huffs from for the remainder of his fight with Harrigan. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness This element was largely dropped from later entries]], however, with the sequels and ExpandedUniverse both never really depicting Predators as needing their masks to function on Earth or elsewhere and indicating their only purpose is for ceremonial armor and the vision settings. ''Film/Prey2022'' in particular would have the Feral Predator's mask not even cover it's its full face like most prior ones, meaning the Predator walks about the entire film without an artificial "air supply" and clearly has no need of such a thing. Despite all this, the decompressing sound remains, playing everytime every time a Predator removes their helm even though this no longer has any apparent significance.
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* Kevin was the second lead of the film ''Film/AmericanPie'' after Jim, but thanks to the breakout characters of Finch and, particularly, Stifler, by the time the third film (''American Wedding'') rolled around there was really nothing for him to do, especially since his love interest Tara Reid wasn't even in the movie. But because he was Jim's best friend it would've been strange for him not to be in the wedding party so he was basically just around to stand there and hardly say anything.
* The writers of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' were stuck with the fact they had put Marty's girlfriend in the car with Doc at the end of the first movie, thus forcing them to write her into the {{sequel}}. They said that, if they had actually planned on a sequel, they never would have put her in there. However, they managed to make her the viewpoint character in the Future-Marty-home sequence, and then write her back out again until the end of ''Part III''.
* There is no real need for Andromeda to appear in the 2010 remake of ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|2010}}'' given she has [[DemotedToExtra lost her role as love interest to Perseus]] and her city has already done more than enough to anger the gods even without her mother's hubris in proclaiming her beauty. She only seems to have been retained at all because Perseus rescuing Andromeda is such a big part of the original myth. Andromeda is shown handing out food to the poor people in the city, so at least she is useful in-universe. It's also worth noting that she ''was'' Perseus's love interest in the original cut of the film (with Io and Perseus simply being LikeBrotherAndSister) and had much more screen time which ended up being cut as a result of ExecutiveMeddling. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1pW_71h3rk this alternate ending]]. The sequel pairs them romantically at last.
* Doug in ''Film/TheHangover''. In the original film, he's a central character who plays an important role in the plot--since the film revolves around his bachelor party, and the three leads spend most of the movie [[LivingMacguffin looking for him]] after he mysteriously goes missing. But since he spends most of the movie offscreen, he doesn't really ''do'' much of anything, leaving him as the least developed main character, and the only one who doesn't really participate in the story's comedic hijinks. As a result, the two sequels have very little use for him, mostly just bringing him back because it would have been strange if he weren't around (after all: he's Alan's brother-in-law, and Phil and Stu are his best friends). Tellingly, both sequels come up with excuses to get him out of the way so that they can focus on the main trio.
* The infamous ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'' keeps the Immortals's rule of not fighting in Holy Ground, this made perfect sense in the original movie given Immortals didn't know where they came from, but the sequel reveals that the Immortals are actually a race of alien political exiles, leading into question why aliens are so respectful of human religions.
* Jessica Andrews in ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII''. She was originally conceived as the movie's GirlOfTheWeek but Creator/RalphMacchio wasn't confortable with the considerable age gap between Creator/RobynLively and himself (11 years, meaning Lively was underage at the time) so the romance was discarded and the relationship was made platonic. You can tell that deletion of the romantic subplot left the writers questioning what to do with the character, as she mostly just serves as the one that accompanies Daniel for a few scenes and then she's PutOnABus halfway through the movie.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** Arwen notably becomes this in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'' and ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]''. She wasn't a particularly prominent character in the books, appearing in just two scenes (her significance to the story is largely explained in the appendices), but the filmmakers chose to expand her role significantly for the film adaptation of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]''--partly because she was played by [[Creator/LivTyler a high-profile actress]], and partly because she was one of the few major female characters. As a result, she gets several additional scenes that weren't in the books, becoming something of a CompositeCharacter with Glorfindel.[[note]] Creator/RalphBakshi's [[WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings animated film adaptation]] made a similar change, combining Glorfindel's role in the story with that of Legolas.[[/note]] But in the two sequels, Arwen's role is scaled back significantly--partly because the films' numerous subplots already occupied more than enough screen-time on their own, and partly because Arwen's planned subplot in ''The Two Towers'' was cut out. As a result, her appearances in the sequels are essentially cameos, and she mostly just pops up for a handful of scenes without much of anything to ''do''.
** Arwen's reduced role in the latter two films also resulted in Haldir and the elves at the Hornburg becoming an Artifact in their own right. In keeping with Arwen's expanded role in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', she was originally supposed to get her own subplot in ''The Two Towers'' that would have seen her defying her father to lead a group of elf soldiers to aid Théoden's forces in the defense of Helm's Deep, and [[ActionGirl personally taking part in the battle herself]] (essentially assuming the role her brothers did in the original story, who arrived after the battle with a force of rangers). But when test audience reception to that subplot ended up being rather unfavorable, Arwen was cut from the Battle of Helm's Deep and replaced by Haldir (turning him into an AscendedExtra). This means that the elves showing up at the Hornburg no longer has a real purpose in the story (if anything, it somewhat undermines the tension of the battle and leads to [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse the elves just kind of vanishing from the film after Haldir's death]]), but they couldn't be removed from the film without reshooting the whole battle, which was already one of the costliest shoots in the whole production.
** The same principle happened to Cate Blanchett's Galadriel, but to a lesser degree because she is already way more prominent than Arwen. Apart from the Lothlórien chapters (which take up a sizable chunk of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]''), Galadriel gets mentioned again from time to time, and she shows up at the very end. The appendices give more information about her, including an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome where she (and her husband) led an elven army to destroy one of Sauron's main fortresses in the North while the main characters were fighting their own battles to the East. For the films, Blanchett was given more lines and scenes throughout the trilogy.
** Legolas and Gimli ended up as this by the time of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]''. They don't really have anything much to do in the narrative aside from being Aragorn's retainers, and they're the only wood-elf or dwarf among the cast, which leaves them even less chance to shine. While all the other members of the Fellowship get at least some kind of arc, their only real plot is the two of them developing into BashBrothers of each other. But because Legolas and Gimli were founding members of the Fellowship, they got to stick around, even if their only purpose was representing other Middle-Earth races and murdering lots and lots of orcs. (Even Tolkien himself mused in ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' that Legolas probably accomplished the least of any given member of the Fellowship.)
* Although the film of ''Film/RunawayJury'' involves gun politics, the original novel was about a tobacco company on trial. Nevertheless, the movie still contains a number of references to the pros and cons of smoking (e.g. TheProtagonist telling a neighbor that he should quit), which are a leftover from the source material.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** C-3PO was hit badly with this in films after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Already something of a humorous [[TheLoad Load]] in the original trilogy, his limited versatility to the plot increased even further in the prequels and sequels, where his roles as a translator (which never happens to be needed when he's around), comic relief (a job now shared with other characters), and a companion to R2-D2 (who is frequently separated from him) are utterly sidestepped. For the most part, his role in each film from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' to ''Film/TheLastJedi'' has been mostly to stand around and make a few comments on events, yet he keeps being brought back, since he is one of the franchise's most recognizable characters, one of the only few who can easily be brought back no matter how long has passed in-universe (being that he's a droid), and the only one to be played by the same actor in every movie (Anthony Daniels). He finally had a meatier role again in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', where his knowledge of obscure languages and emotional connection to the main characters are utilized once more.
** [[TheFool Jar Jar Binks]], one of the main characters of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', was relegated to a background role in the second two films of the prequel trilogy, speaking only a few lines and clearly only present because it would be strange if he was completely missing, in a case of ShooOutTheNewGuy.
** General Grievous's design originated from a period when George Lucas was still thinking over what his character should be, with the only initial idea being that he was some manner of cyborg working for the villains to serve as a foreshadowing of Vader. Both the character designers and the other creators at the time ran with the idea, making him a HeroKiller TragicVillain and giving him a highly intimidating look. Lucas, however, famously ran with the exact opposite idea, making Grievous a much more [[BoisterousWeakling incompetent]], [[DirtyCoward cowardly,]] and [[EvilIsHammy borderline comical]] villain whose attitude is mostly one of [[SmugSnake inflated ego]]. At this point, though, Grievous had appeared too often in Clone Wars-era projects to change his design, leading to a borderline DastardlyWhiplash character who still has the appearance of a nightmarish mecha-skeleton monster.
** Creator/GeorgeLucas deliberately averted this with Obi-Wan Kenobi in ''Film/ANewHope''. He was originally going to ''survive'' his encounter with [[TheDragon Darth Vader]] on the Death Star, but with crippling injuries, and spend the rest of the film as an invalid, giving advice from the sidelines. However, he realized that this would just slow the action down and get in the way, and at the suggestion of his wife and editor Marcia, rewrote the script to kill Obi-Wan off, not that long before the fight sequence was due to be shot. This would lead to the creation of Yoda as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute to help Luke with his training in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and it may also be where the "force ghost" concept came from -- as [[SpiritAdvisor an alternative method of dispensing advice]].
** In the [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion Special Edition]] rerelease of [[Film/ANewHope the original]] ''Franchise/StarWars'', Lucas (somewhat infamously) used CGI to re-insert a previously deleted scene of Han Solo meeting with Jabba the Hutt in the Mos Eisley Cantina, which was cut from the original theatrical cut of the film. The dialogue in that scene includes the line "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being!", which was pretty clearly a holdover from an early version of the film where Jabba was a human gangster played by actor Declan Mulholland. Since he says it with [[SarcasmMode a sarcastic tone]], it's easy to handwave it as a wisecrack on Han's part. Also, the addition of this scene rendered redundant a couple of lines from it that had been dubbed into the previous Greedo scene for the theatrical version ("Even I get boarded sometimes. You think I had a choice?") and were kept in the newer versions..
** To a certain extent, Han Solo became the artifact in ''Return of the Jedi'', hence the reason that he doesn't really do much after he's been freed from the carbonite. Creator/HarrisonFord took note of this and proposed that Han should be killed off in ''Jedi'', arguing that his story was over anyway and that his death would up the stakes. Lucas, of course, elected to keep Han around, but Ford would later get his wish in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''.
* In the 90's ''Film/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1990}}'' trilogy, which is PG, they couldn't exactly show the Ninja Turtles slicing and dicing their opponents. However, Leonardo's katanas are so iconic to him that he can't have any other weapon. For that reason, he uses his swords only for {{Flynning}} and actually hits his opponents with his hands and feet.
* Vesper Lynd's name in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. Her name is [[PunnyName a play on "West Berlin"]], as her loyalties were split down the middle like how Berlin was split by the Soviet-built wall in much of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.
** Also the recipe given for the "Vesper Martini" in the film is the one from the book. However, several of the ingredients have been reformulated in the decades since. Using that recipe would result in a different taste today. Alternate recipes exist to recapture the original flavor.
** Bond himself would make an incredibly terrible spy today. However, when he was introduced in 1952, British spies were notoriously heavy partiers. Ian Fleming himself based Bond's actions on himself and people he'd worked with. The only reason why Bond's eccentricity remains is it is such a large part of the draw of the character. Removing it would essentially render the character one note.
* ''Film/{{Star Trek|2009}}'' has an interesting meta-example with Chekhov's portrayal. In [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]], Creator/WalterKoenig's [[NarmCharm hilariously bad Russian accent]] ("Keptin! Enemy wessel approaching!") was one of the most memorable things about his performance, and it rapidly became the character's trademark. In the 2009 version, Chekhov is played by the Russian-born Creator/AntonYelchin, who actually speaks fluent Russian, and is fully capable of speaking in a convincing Russian accent. He ''doesn't'', of course, since everybody knows that [[RuleOfFunny Chekhov just wouldn't be Chekhov without that cheesy accent]].[[note]]He even pronounces the "V" sound as "W" ("Ensign authorization code: nine five Wictor Wictor two!"), despite knowing full well that the Russian language has a "V" sound, out of respect to Koenig.[[/note]]
** The film also reimagines/explains away Dr. "Bones" [=McCoy's=] nickname as due to something he said when he and Kirk first met. Originally the audience was expected to understand that "sawbones" was a term for a doctor/surgeon, but it was already old-fashioned then and has since fallen out of use.
* Joyce in the film adaptation of ''Literature/{{Arrowsmith}}''. In the book she's his second wife, and her high-society lifestyle distracts Martin Arrowsmith from his research. The film did not include that storyline, so in the movie, Joyce is just kind of there in the last third of the film, not doing anything to affect the plot.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** The 1998 ''Film/{{Godzilla|1998}}'' gives an example of trying to maintain an iconic element of the franchise that simply ends up looking half-assed. Godzilla's fire breath has gone through many iterations, from a vaporous spray to a plasma beam, but has always been present. But in this film, in an attempt to make it look more grounded, the monster roars at some cars that explode and briefly make it look like it's breathing fire. This ended up being just another of the fans' many complaints about how the film is InNameOnly in the ''Godzilla'' franchise.
** In a number of Japanese films, mainly those from the late '60s and early '70s, as Godzilla became a popular and at times even heroic brand mascot, his origin and thematic ties to nuclear weaponry and war were reduced to mere holdovers from his heyday. He turned into more of a giant dragon-like creature with unique powers rather than a reminder of humanity's hubris and misused science. His rugged skin texture (a reference to the scars seen on the bodies of radiation victims) and breath ability (a nod to atomic energy) are so strongly tied to him that they keep getting adapted even into media that give him different origins. For instance, his atomic breath can be depicted as mere fire or an electromagnetic discharge. His original [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suit]] design is also so iconic, even films utilizing CGI have kept elements of it.
* ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' is a weird example. Creator/MeganFox played Mikaela Banes, the female human deuteragonist of the first two movies. She's skilled with cars and mechanics, and this would be her defining part of her personality. However, Fox was fired from the movies after comparing Creator/MichaelBay to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler in an interview. In her place was Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Sam's ReplacementGoldfish, Carly Brooks-Spencer. Despite being a completely different character, aspects of Mikaela were integrated into her role. Namely, she works at a car dealership, and holds a very high position despite the fact that there is ''nothing'' indicating that she's good with cars. This is because Mikaela was originally supposed to return, with her removal and Carly's addition being a very late re-write to the script, so the writers had no choice but to keep her job the same as Mikaela's. If Mikaela had the job, it would've made perfect sense. With Carly, the only justification is that her [[CorruptCorporateExecutive boss]] likes her.
* Movies in ''Film/TheViewAskewniverse'' often end with a SequelHook stating "Jay and Silent Bob will return." In ''Film/{{Clerks}}'', the next movie is said to be ''Film/{{Dogma}}''. ''Film/ChasingAmy'' ends with "Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Dogma" ... (promise)", as ''Dogma'' ended up being the third sequel. ''Dogma'' ends with "Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin'", which ended up being released after ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'', and was simply titled ''Film/ClerksII''.
* When ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' came out in 2011, it made perfect sense to make it a {{period piece}} set in [[TheSixties the 1960s]], since the movie was explicitly meant as a {{prequel}} to the original ''Film/XMen1''. Ditto for its sequel ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', which was a [[TheSeventies 1970s]] period piece. However, considering ''Days of Future Past'' ended with [[spoiler: Wolverine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong changing the past to prevent the Sentinels' rise]] and [[AlternateContinuity undoing the events of the first three movies]]]], it can seem a bit odd that ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' was a [[TheEighties 1980s]] period piece, considering it was effectively [[spoiler: a prequel to a movie that never happened]]. By that point, it seems that the filmmakers just kept up the retro setting because the previous two films had it, rather than because it made narrative sense, even featuring teenage characters who would have originally been infants or young children at that time. The problems of the retro setting are ''really'' obvious by the time of ''Film/DarkPhoenix'', which is intended to take place in the 90s despite the characters in no way looking like they'd aged thirty years between then and ''First Class'', much less like they'd resemble the cast of ''X-Men'' in about a decade.
* ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' keeps the Christening scene from the original ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' intact, with Maleficent interrupting the ceremony before the third fairy can grant Aurora a blessing. In the original, the Christening was an important plot point: since Maleficent put a curse on Aurora before the third fairy blessed her, the fairy was able to use her blessing to soften the curse so that Aurora would fall into a deep sleep instead of dying. But in ''Maleficent'', the curse is intended to lull Aurora into a deep sleep from the beginning, and it never gets softened -- so the Christening effectively serves no purpose in the story.
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''
** As the franchise progressed, the franchise's connection to the [[Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Disneyland ride of the same name]] became little more that an afterthought. The first movie is as close as an adaptation of the ride as a movie can possibly be while still telling his own story, with a major part of the plot points, set pieces, characters, visuals and jokes being directly based or inspired on elements of the ride. The sequels, on the other hand went on a different direction focused on telling their own story, so the attempts to "adapt the ride" are little more that a few {{Mythology Gag}}s here and there or {{Call Back}}s to references of the Ride back in the first movie. Perphaps the most significant reference in the sequels is the Waterfall sequence in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' but even that was [[RefittedForSequel a recycled concept from the first movie]].
** Will Turner. He was the proper protagonist for ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' as originally written, but then Creator/JohnnyDepp (appropriately) hijacked the show and turned it into a rollicking pirate yarn full of plenty of zany antics and double-crossing. The problem is that this left the clean-cut protagonist without any particular role in the film except as a LivingMacGuffin and as the guy who gets the girl. In the followup movies, he's given a personal connection with Davy Jones through his father, and... that's about it. He is ultimately dropped entirely from the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides fourth film]], but the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales fifth]] is able to rework him by making him fill the role his father Bootstrap Bill did before, with Will's son Henry aiming to free his father.
** The final cuts of ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' and ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' keep the plot point of Weatherby being forced to work with Beckett for Elizabeth's protection. This was originally part of a slightly larger subplot where he will discover about the sinking of the Black Pearl and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge will try to kill Davy Jones in a fit of rage]] which would end up causing Beckett to decide he has outlived his usefulness and Norrington to start doubting where his loyalty rised. Pretty much everything about the subplot didn't make it to the final movie besides the fact that Weatherby allying with Beckett still happens.
** The Zombies from ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]''.They were [[Literature/OnStrangerTides in the novel]] on which this movie was vaguely based, and they acted like you would expect a zombies to act (as mindless walking corpses). In the original script of the movie, they also had a thematic connection to the movie's storyline, with Blackbeard granting immortality through a FateWorseThanDeath to the crewmembers that behaved poorly so he could control them, which is one of the things that leads to Jack Sparrow [[WhoWantsToLiveForever having second thoughts about becoming immortal]]. Also, the original [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/0/01/ZombieCook.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110806185555 designs]] [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/c/c8/Krispy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110807073748 were]] [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/8/82/Ringo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110807074946 more]] [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/0/05/OSTZombieArt3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110310235104 monstrous]] to drive the point home. None of these concepts made it into the final cut, however, so now the fact that some of the members of Blackbeard's crew are zombies has no relevance in the story, nor do they fill any role in the story that couldn't be filled by regular living crewmembers.
** Henry Turner from ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]'' was in the early stages of the story, a different character called Henry Maddox, a Royal Navy sailor who decided to search for the Trident of Poseidon in an attempt to free Olivia Cole, his love interest ghost that was trapped in the Devil's Triangle and originally had no connection with the Turners. Then ''Creator/OrlandoBloom'' was hired for a small role, and Henry was re-imagined as a CompositeCharacter with Will and Elizabeth's son. With that said, some aspects of the original character were left in the finished movie. He was still a sailor of the British Navy despite the fact that he's now established as the son of two notable pirates, and his quest for Jack Sparrow and the Trident of Poseidon are still kickstarted by third parties (one being a ghost in the Devil's Triangle and the other being his love interest), despite the fact that his backstory now connects him with both since a young age.
* The film adaptation of Creator/AgathaChristie's Literature/HerculePoirot novel ''Appointment with Death'' retains the famous opening sentence, "You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" but because the rest of the plot is so drastically different from the book, it becomes largely irrelevant.
* In ''Film/MarkOfTheVampire'', Count Mora the vampire is observed to have a ghastly wound on his right temple. This is never explained. The explanation is that in the backstory he shot himself, which is how he became a vampire. That bit was in the 20 minutes cut from the film before the theatrical release, so in the movie Creator/BelaLugosi goes around with a huge bloodstain on the side of his head for no reason.
* ''Film/HowlingIIStirbaWerewolfBitch'': There's some strong evidence that the movie was originally going to be a vampire movie due to all the traditional vampire-killing methods being applied to werewolves, their leader being a woman who stays alive by sucking the youth out of people, it taking place in Transylvania and so on.
* ''Film/TheNewAdventuresOfTarzan'': The original story for this FilmSerial was a spy plot with Ula Vale being a secret agent code-named "Operator No. 17" who was seeking the formula for the explosive. The series was extensively re-written after production had already started, and the spy plot was dropped, but Vale is still seen in disguise a couple of times, and the last episode is still titled "Operator No. 17".
* ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'':
** In the Creator/SamRaimi films, Peter Parker's web-shooting abilities are reimagined as an inherent part of his superpowers, unlike in the comics. But whenever he fires his webs, he still presses his middle and ring finger to his palm to activate them. In the comics, he did that because the triggers for his wrist-mounted "web-shooters" were concealed in the palms of his gloves. Some people might wonder why he still does it in the movies, since his webbing is a bodily function that should come as naturally as breathing or blinking. Presumably, the filmmakers figured that it just wouldn't be a ComicBook/SpiderMan film without the iconic "Spider-Man" hand gesture.
** Similarly: Peter's interest in science carries over from the comics, despite not being a central part of the premise anymore. In the comics, he was depicted as a brilliant inventor and chemist, and he [[GadgeteerGenius fought crime with homemade gadgets]]--most notably his homemade "web-shooters", which were fueled by a "web fluid" that he synthesized in his home laboratory--in addition to having superpowers. For simplicity's sake, the movie depicts web-shooting as one of Peter's powers, leaving his interest in science as a random character trait that never really affects the plot (other than giving him a plausible reason to bond with Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius before their transformations). Most glaringly: he's depicted as a science major at his university, but he never makes any effort to get a ''job'' in a scientific field, and only ever works as a newspaper photographer and a pizza deliveryman.
* When ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' was adapted into [[Film/{{RENT}} a feature film]] in 2005, director Creator/ChrisColumbus chose to put the play's SignatureSong "Seasons of Love" in the very first scene, presumably because it was an iconic tune that most people in the audience would recognize. This also meant that the song effectively served no purpose anymore: the lyrics explicitly reference the passing of a single year (hence ''"525,600 minutes..."'') because the song was originally performed after intermission, and referred to the year-long TimeSkip between the first and second acts. In the movie, only a week passes between acts--from Christmas Eve/Day to New Year's--while the second act spans the entire year that follows. This means that technically, the only appropriate place to put the song is at the very ''end'' of the film.
* ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' changes the graphic novel's TwistEnding so that the {{Big Bad}}'s plot involves [[spoiler: destroying the world's major cities with a series of explosions]] instead of [[spoiler: creating a genetically engineered monster to wreak havoc in New York]]. But the movie keeps Ozymandias' pet Bubastis, a bizarre-looking feline creature who clearly wasn't born through natural means. The book explains that Bubastis is a genetically engineered hybrid species of lynx tailor-made by Ozymandias himself, and she serves as {{Foreshadowing}} for TheReveal that [[spoiler: Veidt has cracked the secrets of genetic engineering, and can create his own artificial hybrid creatures]]. But since this plot point doesn't come up in the movie, Bubastis has no real reason to exist, and she seems oddly incongruous amidst the movie's (mostly) grounded realism.
* ''Film/{{Dumbo|2019}}'' (2019) turns the famous "Pink Elephants on Parade" musical number into this, as many critics noted. While it's best known as an [[MushroomSamba extended hallucination sequence]], it was also an important plot point in [[WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}} the original]]; it occurs after Dumbo and Timothy [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidentally get drunk on champagne]], leading to Dumbo waking up in a tree and discovering that he has the ability to fly. In the remake, Dumbo takes his first flight relatively early in the movie (instead of in [[ItWasHisSled the climactic final scene]]), and the climax instead revolves around Dumbo's friends rescuing him from a rival circus. But the filmmakers apparently felt that "Pink Elephants on Parade" was much too iconic to cut, so they reimagined it as a real act put on by the circus performers -- and they [[{{Bowdlerization}} cut all references to alcohol]].
* ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|2020}}'':
** There's a brief bit where something sticky gets stuck to Sonic's glove. [[IdiotBall No-one thinks of just taking the glove off]], suggesting it's a remnant from the time his design was still bare-handed.
** Compared to the stylized, game-accurate designs of Sonic, the Echidnas, and [[spoiler:Tails]], Longclaw looks like a realistic owl, suggesting that this design was meant to coincide with Sonic's original look.
* ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}'' (2015) has Johnny flippantly refer to Dr. Doom with "check out Dr. Doom over here", and has Dr. Doom later correct Sue that "[[ThatManIsDead There is no Victor, only Doom]]". These lines seem a little strange because that is in fact his name, but make sense when you know the film was originally going to call him Victor Domashev. Likely Johnny was giving him a mocking nickname because of his pessimism and he took it as an AppropriatedAppelation, but when they changed his name to the comic version due to fan backlash these lines became awkward remnants of a previous script that no-one ended up removing.
* ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' has the rather odd "Zombie Kill of the Week" gag, which, while not an outright continuity error, has a very different style to most of the rest of the film (it's the only scene to have an omniscient narrator, for one, despite being narrated by the main character), and certainly ''feels'' like it should be a RunningGag, but isn't. Turns out ''Zombieland'' started life as a pitch for a PilotMovie that would be turned into a TV series, and "Zombie Kill of the Week" would have been its OncePerEpisode gag.
* Natalie in ''Film/HomeAlone4TakingBackTheHouse'' ended up as this in the final product. She plays as the RichBitch marrying Kevin's father, Peter, which gets in the way of Kevin's estranged mother, Kate, getting back together with him. The thing that throws this off is that unlike the typical "getting rid of the evil step-parent" cliche, Natalie isn't really all that much of a RichBitch and actually treats Kevin as a proper stepmother, but throughout the movie looks like she gets [[UnintentionallySympathetic constantly screwed over for no justified reason]][[invoked]]. That's because in the original script, Peter actually ended up with Natalie in the end, but was changed at the last second for him to get back together with Kate. The result is the movie's writing making it look like Natalie would actually be the perfect mother for the family as this was what the film was originally intending, yet it gets completely flipped on its head in the end due to the rewrite.
* In ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'', some have pointed out that Bloodsport is way too similar to Deadshot from the [[Film/SuicideSquad2016 previous film]]; having strikingly similar skills with guns, and even the same background motivation regarding a daughter that they want to take care of. This is because the original plan was for Creator/IdrisElba to just flat out replace Creator/WillSmith as the actor for Deadshot. However, it was decided midway through development that Elba will be his own new character just to leave the door open in case Smith ever decides that he wants to return. Despite the change, many of Deadshot's character traits remained on Bloodsport.
* Creator/TommyWiseau's ''Film/TheRoom2003'' got its title because it was originally written as a stage play set entirely in a single room in Johnny and Lisa's apartment (a fairly common technique in theatre that eliminates the need for scene changes). When Wiseau chose to make it a feature film instead, he broadened the setting considerably, with scenes taking place in ''numerous'' rooms in the apartment (as well as an alleyway, a rooftop, a café, a park...), none of them portrayed as particularly significant. This left many viewers scratching their heads wondering which "room" was supposed to be the one in the title.[[note]] After the movie unexpectedly became a CultClassic, Wiseau eventually resurrected his earlier plan by making a stage adaptation of the film, where the title made a bit more sense.[[/note]]
* The original theatrical cut of ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'' includes a moment where Evan's mother mentions having two stillbirths before Evan was born. This line is a holdover from an earlier cut of the film, where it was supposed to [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadow]] the ending--where [[spoiler:Evan goes back in time to commit suicide in his mother's womb]] (the implication being that [[spoiler:his two stillborn siblings did the same]]). But when the ending was changed, the line was rendered meaningless. The DirectorsCut restored the original ending, putting the line back in its original context.
* The ''Film/{{Predator}}'' films always include a noticable decompressing sound when the titular aliens remove their [[CoolMask face-masks]], sometimes coupled with unhitching what look like air tubes. The first two film seemed to have intended this to be because Predators come from a different kind of atmosphere than humans and thus can't breath very well on Earth in an aversion of NoBiochemicalBarriers; the first film's Jungle Hunter takes off his mask to [[WorthyOpponent give himself a disadvantage and even the odds for Dutch]], while the second film's City Hunter visibly freaks out after losing his mask and begins breathing raggedly, even breaking out a small device resembling an emergency oxygen mask that he takes periodic huffs from for the remainder of his fight with Harrigan. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness This element was largely dropped from later entries]], however, with the sequels and ExpandedUniverse both never really depicting Predators as needing their masks to function on Earth or elsewhere and indicating their only purpose is for ceremonial armor and the vision settings. ''Film/Prey2022'' in particular would have the Feral Predator's mask not even cover it's full face like most prior ones, meaning the Predator walks about the entire film without an artificial "air supply" and clearly has no need of such a thing. Despite all this, the decompressing sound remains, playing everytime a Predator removes their helm even though this no longer has any apparent significance.
----
* The writers of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' were stuck with the fact they had put Marty's girlfriend in the car with Doc at the end of the first movie, thus forcing them to write her into the {{sequel}}. They said that, if they had actually planned on a sequel, they never would have put her in there. However, they managed to make her the viewpoint character in the Future-Marty-home sequence, and then write her back out again until the end of ''Part III''.
* There is no real need for Andromeda to appear in the 2010 remake of ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|2010}}'' given she has [[DemotedToExtra lost her role as love interest to Perseus]] and her city has already done more than enough to anger the gods even without her mother's hubris in proclaiming her beauty. She only seems to have been retained at all because Perseus rescuing Andromeda is such a big part of the original myth. Andromeda is shown handing out food to the poor people in the city, so at least she is useful in-universe. It's also worth noting that she ''was'' Perseus's love interest in the original cut of the film (with Io and Perseus simply being LikeBrotherAndSister) and had much more screen time which ended up being cut as a result of ExecutiveMeddling. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1pW_71h3rk this alternate ending]]. The sequel pairs them romantically at last.
* Doug in ''Film/TheHangover''. In the original film, he's a central character who plays an important role in the plot--since the film revolves around his bachelor party, and the three leads spend most of the movie [[LivingMacguffin looking for him]] after he mysteriously goes missing. But since he spends most of the movie offscreen, he doesn't really ''do'' much of anything, leaving him as the least developed main character, and the only one who doesn't really participate in the story's comedic hijinks. As a result, the two sequels have very little use for him, mostly just bringing him back because it would have been strange if he weren't around (after all: he's Alan's brother-in-law, and Phil and Stu are his best friends). Tellingly, both sequels come up with excuses to get him out of the way so that they can focus on the main trio.
* The infamous ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'' keeps the Immortals's rule of not fighting in Holy Ground, this made perfect sense in the original movie given Immortals didn't know where they came from, but the sequel reveals that the Immortals are actually a race of alien political exiles, leading into question why aliens are so respectful of human religions.
* Jessica Andrews in ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII''. She was originally conceived as the movie's GirlOfTheWeek but Creator/RalphMacchio wasn't confortable with the considerable age gap between Creator/RobynLively and himself (11 years, meaning Lively was underage at the time) so the romance was discarded and the relationship was made platonic. You can tell that deletion of the romantic subplot left the writers questioning what to do with the character, as she mostly just serves as the one that accompanies Daniel for a few scenes and then she's PutOnABus halfway through the movie.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** Arwen notably becomes this in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'' and ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]''. She wasn't a particularly prominent character in the books, appearing in just two scenes (her significance to the story is largely explained in the appendices), but the filmmakers chose to expand her role significantly for the film adaptation of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]''--partly because she was played by [[Creator/LivTyler a high-profile actress]], and partly because she was one of the few major female characters. As a result, she gets several additional scenes that weren't in the books, becoming something of a CompositeCharacter with Glorfindel.[[note]] Creator/RalphBakshi's [[WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings animated film adaptation]] made a similar change, combining Glorfindel's role in the story with that of Legolas.[[/note]] But in the two sequels, Arwen's role is scaled back significantly--partly because the films' numerous subplots already occupied more than enough screen-time on their own, and partly because Arwen's planned subplot in ''The Two Towers'' was cut out. As a result, her appearances in the sequels are essentially cameos, and she mostly just pops up for a handful of scenes without much of anything to ''do''.
** Arwen's reduced role in the latter two films also resulted in Haldir and the elves at the Hornburg becoming an Artifact in their own right. In keeping with Arwen's expanded role in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', she was originally supposed to get her own subplot in ''The Two Towers'' that would have seen her defying her father to lead a group of elf soldiers to aid Théoden's forces in the defense of Helm's Deep, and [[ActionGirl personally taking part in the battle herself]] (essentially assuming the role her brothers did in the original story, who arrived after the battle with a force of rangers). But when test audience reception to that subplot ended up being rather unfavorable, Arwen was cut from the Battle of Helm's Deep and replaced by Haldir (turning him into an AscendedExtra). This means that the elves showing up at the Hornburg no longer has a real purpose in the story (if anything, it somewhat undermines the tension of the battle and leads to [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse the elves just kind of vanishing from the film after Haldir's death]]), but they couldn't be removed from the film without reshooting the whole battle, which was already one of the costliest shoots in the whole production.
** The same principle happened to Cate Blanchett's Galadriel, but to a lesser degree because she is already way more prominent than Arwen. Apart from the Lothlórien chapters (which take up a sizable chunk of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]''), Galadriel gets mentioned again from time to time, and she shows up at the very end. The appendices give more information about her, including an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome where she (and her husband) led an elven army to destroy one of Sauron's main fortresses in the North while the main characters were fighting their own battles to the East. For the films, Blanchett was given more lines and scenes throughout the trilogy.
** Legolas and Gimli ended up as this by the time of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]''. They don't really have anything much to do in the narrative aside from being Aragorn's retainers, and they're the only wood-elf or dwarf among the cast, which leaves them even less chance to shine. While all the other members of the Fellowship get at least some kind of arc, their only real plot is the two of them developing into BashBrothers of each other. But because Legolas and Gimli were founding members of the Fellowship, they got to stick around, even if their only purpose was representing other Middle-Earth races and murdering lots and lots of orcs. (Even Tolkien himself mused in ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' that Legolas probably accomplished the least of any given member of the Fellowship.)
* Although the film of ''Film/RunawayJury'' involves gun politics, the original novel was about a tobacco company on trial. Nevertheless, the movie still contains a number of references to the pros and cons of smoking (e.g. TheProtagonist telling a neighbor that he should quit), which are a leftover from the source material.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** C-3PO was hit badly with this in films after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Already something of a humorous [[TheLoad Load]] in the original trilogy, his limited versatility to the plot increased even further in the prequels and sequels, where his roles as a translator (which never happens to be needed when he's around), comic relief (a job now shared with other characters), and a companion to R2-D2 (who is frequently separated from him) are utterly sidestepped. For the most part, his role in each film from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' to ''Film/TheLastJedi'' has been mostly to stand around and make a few comments on events, yet he keeps being brought back, since he is one of the franchise's most recognizable characters, one of the only few who can easily be brought back no matter how long has passed in-universe (being that he's a droid), and the only one to be played by the same actor in every movie (Anthony Daniels). He finally had a meatier role again in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', where his knowledge of obscure languages and emotional connection to the main characters are utilized once more.
** [[TheFool Jar Jar Binks]], one of the main characters of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', was relegated to a background role in the second two films of the prequel trilogy, speaking only a few lines and clearly only present because it would be strange if he was completely missing, in a case of ShooOutTheNewGuy.
** General Grievous's design originated from a period when George Lucas was still thinking over what his character should be, with the only initial idea being that he was some manner of cyborg working for the villains to serve as a foreshadowing of Vader. Both the character designers and the other creators at the time ran with the idea, making him a HeroKiller TragicVillain and giving him a highly intimidating look. Lucas, however, famously ran with the exact opposite idea, making Grievous a much more [[BoisterousWeakling incompetent]], [[DirtyCoward cowardly,]] and [[EvilIsHammy borderline comical]] villain whose attitude is mostly one of [[SmugSnake inflated ego]]. At this point, though, Grievous had appeared too often in Clone Wars-era projects to change his design, leading to a borderline DastardlyWhiplash character who still has the appearance of a nightmarish mecha-skeleton monster.
** Creator/GeorgeLucas deliberately averted this with Obi-Wan Kenobi in ''Film/ANewHope''. He was originally going to ''survive'' his encounter with [[TheDragon Darth Vader]] on the Death Star, but with crippling injuries, and spend the rest of the film as an invalid, giving advice from the sidelines. However, he realized that this would just slow the action down and get in the way, and at the suggestion of his wife and editor Marcia, rewrote the script to kill Obi-Wan off, not that long before the fight sequence was due to be shot. This would lead to the creation of Yoda as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute to help Luke with his training in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and it may also be where the "force ghost" concept came from -- as [[SpiritAdvisor an alternative method of dispensing advice]].
** In the [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion Special Edition]] rerelease of [[Film/ANewHope the original]] ''Franchise/StarWars'', Lucas (somewhat infamously) used CGI to re-insert a previously deleted scene of Han Solo meeting with Jabba the Hutt in the Mos Eisley Cantina, which was cut from the original theatrical cut of the film. The dialogue in that scene includes the line "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being!", which was pretty clearly a holdover from an early version of the film where Jabba was a human gangster played by actor Declan Mulholland. Since he says it with [[SarcasmMode a sarcastic tone]], it's easy to handwave it as a wisecrack on Han's part. Also, the addition of this scene rendered redundant a couple of lines from it that had been dubbed into the previous Greedo scene for the theatrical version ("Even I get boarded sometimes. You think I had a choice?") and were kept in the newer versions..
** To a certain extent, Han Solo became the artifact in ''Return of the Jedi'', hence the reason that he doesn't really do much after he's been freed from the carbonite. Creator/HarrisonFord took note of this and proposed that Han should be killed off in ''Jedi'', arguing that his story was over anyway and that his death would up the stakes. Lucas, of course, elected to keep Han around, but Ford would later get his wish in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''.
* In the 90's ''Film/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1990}}'' trilogy, which is PG, they couldn't exactly show the Ninja Turtles slicing and dicing their opponents. However, Leonardo's katanas are so iconic to him that he can't have any other weapon. For that reason, he uses his swords only for {{Flynning}} and actually hits his opponents with his hands and feet.
* Vesper Lynd's name in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. Her name is [[PunnyName a play on "West Berlin"]], as her loyalties were split down the middle like how Berlin was split by the Soviet-built wall in much of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.
** Also the recipe given for the "Vesper Martini" in the film is the one from the book. However, several of the ingredients have been reformulated in the decades since. Using that recipe would result in a different taste today. Alternate recipes exist to recapture the original flavor.
** Bond himself would make an incredibly terrible spy today. However, when he was introduced in 1952, British spies were notoriously heavy partiers. Ian Fleming himself based Bond's actions on himself and people he'd worked with. The only reason why Bond's eccentricity remains is it is such a large part of the draw of the character. Removing it would essentially render the character one note.
* ''Film/{{Star Trek|2009}}'' has an interesting meta-example with Chekhov's portrayal. In [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]], Creator/WalterKoenig's [[NarmCharm hilariously bad Russian accent]] ("Keptin! Enemy wessel approaching!") was one of the most memorable things about his performance, and it rapidly became the character's trademark. In the 2009 version, Chekhov is played by the Russian-born Creator/AntonYelchin, who actually speaks fluent Russian, and is fully capable of speaking in a convincing Russian accent. He ''doesn't'', of course, since everybody knows that [[RuleOfFunny Chekhov just wouldn't be Chekhov without that cheesy accent]].[[note]]He even pronounces the "V" sound as "W" ("Ensign authorization code: nine five Wictor Wictor two!"), despite knowing full well that the Russian language has a "V" sound, out of respect to Koenig.[[/note]]
** The film also reimagines/explains away Dr. "Bones" [=McCoy's=] nickname as due to something he said when he and Kirk first met. Originally the audience was expected to understand that "sawbones" was a term for a doctor/surgeon, but it was already old-fashioned then and has since fallen out of use.
* Joyce in the film adaptation of ''Literature/{{Arrowsmith}}''. In the book she's his second wife, and her high-society lifestyle distracts Martin Arrowsmith from his research. The film did not include that storyline, so in the movie, Joyce is just kind of there in the last third of the film, not doing anything to affect the plot.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** The 1998 ''Film/{{Godzilla|1998}}'' gives an example of trying to maintain an iconic element of the franchise that simply ends up looking half-assed. Godzilla's fire breath has gone through many iterations, from a vaporous spray to a plasma beam, but has always been present. But in this film, in an attempt to make it look more grounded, the monster roars at some cars that explode and briefly make it look like it's breathing fire. This ended up being just another of the fans' many complaints about how the film is InNameOnly in the ''Godzilla'' franchise.
** In a number of Japanese films, mainly those from the late '60s and early '70s, as Godzilla became a popular and at times even heroic brand mascot, his origin and thematic ties to nuclear weaponry and war were reduced to mere holdovers from his heyday. He turned into more of a giant dragon-like creature with unique powers rather than a reminder of humanity's hubris and misused science. His rugged skin texture (a reference to the scars seen on the bodies of radiation victims) and breath ability (a nod to atomic energy) are so strongly tied to him that they keep getting adapted even into media that give him different origins. For instance, his atomic breath can be depicted as mere fire or an electromagnetic discharge. His original [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suit]] design is also so iconic, even films utilizing CGI have kept elements of it.
* ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' is a weird example. Creator/MeganFox played Mikaela Banes, the female human deuteragonist of the first two movies. She's skilled with cars and mechanics, and this would be her defining part of her personality. However, Fox was fired from the movies after comparing Creator/MichaelBay to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler in an interview. In her place was Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Sam's ReplacementGoldfish, Carly Brooks-Spencer. Despite being a completely different character, aspects of Mikaela were integrated into her role. Namely, she works at a car dealership, and holds a very high position despite the fact that there is ''nothing'' indicating that she's good with cars. This is because Mikaela was originally supposed to return, with her removal and Carly's addition being a very late re-write to the script, so the writers had no choice but to keep her job the same as Mikaela's. If Mikaela had the job, it would've made perfect sense. With Carly, the only justification is that her [[CorruptCorporateExecutive boss]] likes her.
* Movies in ''Film/TheViewAskewniverse'' often end with a SequelHook stating "Jay and Silent Bob will return." In ''Film/{{Clerks}}'', the next movie is said to be ''Film/{{Dogma}}''. ''Film/ChasingAmy'' ends with "Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Dogma" ... (promise)", as ''Dogma'' ended up being the third sequel. ''Dogma'' ends with "Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin'", which ended up being released after ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'', and was simply titled ''Film/ClerksII''.
* When ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' came out in 2011, it made perfect sense to make it a {{period piece}} set in [[TheSixties the 1960s]], since the movie was explicitly meant as a {{prequel}} to the original ''Film/XMen1''. Ditto for its sequel ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', which was a [[TheSeventies 1970s]] period piece. However, considering ''Days of Future Past'' ended with [[spoiler: Wolverine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong changing the past to prevent the Sentinels' rise]] and [[AlternateContinuity undoing the events of the first three movies]]]], it can seem a bit odd that ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' was a [[TheEighties 1980s]] period piece, considering it was effectively [[spoiler: a prequel to a movie that never happened]]. By that point, it seems that the filmmakers just kept up the retro setting because the previous two films had it, rather than because it made narrative sense, even featuring teenage characters who would have originally been infants or young children at that time. The problems of the retro setting are ''really'' obvious by the time of ''Film/DarkPhoenix'', which is intended to take place in the 90s despite the characters in no way looking like they'd aged thirty years between then and ''First Class'', much less like they'd resemble the cast of ''X-Men'' in about a decade.
* ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' keeps the Christening scene from the original ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' intact, with Maleficent interrupting the ceremony before the third fairy can grant Aurora a blessing. In the original, the Christening was an important plot point: since Maleficent put a curse on Aurora before the third fairy blessed her, the fairy was able to use her blessing to soften the curse so that Aurora would fall into a deep sleep instead of dying. But in ''Maleficent'', the curse is intended to lull Aurora into a deep sleep from the beginning, and it never gets softened -- so the Christening effectively serves no purpose in the story.
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''
** As the franchise progressed, the franchise's connection to the [[Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Disneyland ride of the same name]] became little more that an afterthought. The first movie is as close as an adaptation of the ride as a movie can possibly be while still telling his own story, with a major part of the plot points, set pieces, characters, visuals and jokes being directly based or inspired on elements of the ride. The sequels, on the other hand went on a different direction focused on telling their own story, so the attempts to "adapt the ride" are little more that a few {{Mythology Gag}}s here and there or {{Call Back}}s to references of the Ride back in the first movie. Perphaps the most significant reference in the sequels is the Waterfall sequence in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' but even that was [[RefittedForSequel a recycled concept from the first movie]].
** Will Turner. He was the proper protagonist for ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' as originally written, but then Creator/JohnnyDepp (appropriately) hijacked the show and turned it into a rollicking pirate yarn full of plenty of zany antics and double-crossing. The problem is that this left the clean-cut protagonist without any particular role in the film except as a LivingMacGuffin and as the guy who gets the girl. In the followup movies, he's given a personal connection with Davy Jones through his father, and... that's about it. He is ultimately dropped entirely from the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides fourth film]], but the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales fifth]] is able to rework him by making him fill the role his father Bootstrap Bill did before, with Will's son Henry aiming to free his father.
** The final cuts of ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' and ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' keep the plot point of Weatherby being forced to work with Beckett for Elizabeth's protection. This was originally part of a slightly larger subplot where he will discover about the sinking of the Black Pearl and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge will try to kill Davy Jones in a fit of rage]] which would end up causing Beckett to decide he has outlived his usefulness and Norrington to start doubting where his loyalty rised. Pretty much everything about the subplot didn't make it to the final movie besides the fact that Weatherby allying with Beckett still happens.
** The Zombies from ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]''.They were [[Literature/OnStrangerTides in the novel]] on which this movie was vaguely based, and they acted like you would expect a zombies to act (as mindless walking corpses). In the original script of the movie, they also had a thematic connection to the movie's storyline, with Blackbeard granting immortality through a FateWorseThanDeath to the crewmembers that behaved poorly so he could control them, which is one of the things that leads to Jack Sparrow [[WhoWantsToLiveForever having second thoughts about becoming immortal]]. Also, the original [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/0/01/ZombieCook.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110806185555 designs]] [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/c/c8/Krispy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110807073748 were]] [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/8/82/Ringo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110807074946 more]] [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pirates/images/0/05/OSTZombieArt3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110310235104 monstrous]] to drive the point home. None of these concepts made it into the final cut, however, so now the fact that some of the members of Blackbeard's crew are zombies has no relevance in the story, nor do they fill any role in the story that couldn't be filled by regular living crewmembers.
** Henry Turner from ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]'' was in the early stages of the story, a different character called Henry Maddox, a Royal Navy sailor who decided to search for the Trident of Poseidon in an attempt to free Olivia Cole, his love interest ghost that was trapped in the Devil's Triangle and originally had no connection with the Turners. Then ''Creator/OrlandoBloom'' was hired for a small role, and Henry was re-imagined as a CompositeCharacter with Will and Elizabeth's son. With that said, some aspects of the original character were left in the finished movie. He was still a sailor of the British Navy despite the fact that he's now established as the son of two notable pirates, and his quest for Jack Sparrow and the Trident of Poseidon are still kickstarted by third parties (one being a ghost in the Devil's Triangle and the other being his love interest), despite the fact that his backstory now connects him with both since a young age.
* The film adaptation of Creator/AgathaChristie's Literature/HerculePoirot novel ''Appointment with Death'' retains the famous opening sentence, "You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" but because the rest of the plot is so drastically different from the book, it becomes largely irrelevant.
* In ''Film/MarkOfTheVampire'', Count Mora the vampire is observed to have a ghastly wound on his right temple. This is never explained. The explanation is that in the backstory he shot himself, which is how he became a vampire. That bit was in the 20 minutes cut from the film before the theatrical release, so in the movie Creator/BelaLugosi goes around with a huge bloodstain on the side of his head for no reason.
* ''Film/HowlingIIStirbaWerewolfBitch'': There's some strong evidence that the movie was originally going to be a vampire movie due to all the traditional vampire-killing methods being applied to werewolves, their leader being a woman who stays alive by sucking the youth out of people, it taking place in Transylvania and so on.
* ''Film/TheNewAdventuresOfTarzan'': The original story for this FilmSerial was a spy plot with Ula Vale being a secret agent code-named "Operator No. 17" who was seeking the formula for the explosive. The series was extensively re-written after production had already started, and the spy plot was dropped, but Vale is still seen in disguise a couple of times, and the last episode is still titled "Operator No. 17".
* ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'':
** In the Creator/SamRaimi films, Peter Parker's web-shooting abilities are reimagined as an inherent part of his superpowers, unlike in the comics. But whenever he fires his webs, he still presses his middle and ring finger to his palm to activate them. In the comics, he did that because the triggers for his wrist-mounted "web-shooters" were concealed in the palms of his gloves. Some people might wonder why he still does it in the movies, since his webbing is a bodily function that should come as naturally as breathing or blinking. Presumably, the filmmakers figured that it just wouldn't be a ComicBook/SpiderMan film without the iconic "Spider-Man" hand gesture.
** Similarly: Peter's interest in science carries over from the comics, despite not being a central part of the premise anymore. In the comics, he was depicted as a brilliant inventor and chemist, and he [[GadgeteerGenius fought crime with homemade gadgets]]--most notably his homemade "web-shooters", which were fueled by a "web fluid" that he synthesized in his home laboratory--in addition to having superpowers. For simplicity's sake, the movie depicts web-shooting as one of Peter's powers, leaving his interest in science as a random character trait that never really affects the plot (other than giving him a plausible reason to bond with Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius before their transformations). Most glaringly: he's depicted as a science major at his university, but he never makes any effort to get a ''job'' in a scientific field, and only ever works as a newspaper photographer and a pizza deliveryman.
* When ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' was adapted into [[Film/{{RENT}} a feature film]] in 2005, director Creator/ChrisColumbus chose to put the play's SignatureSong "Seasons of Love" in the very first scene, presumably because it was an iconic tune that most people in the audience would recognize. This also meant that the song effectively served no purpose anymore: the lyrics explicitly reference the passing of a single year (hence ''"525,600 minutes..."'') because the song was originally performed after intermission, and referred to the year-long TimeSkip between the first and second acts. In the movie, only a week passes between acts--from Christmas Eve/Day to New Year's--while the second act spans the entire year that follows. This means that technically, the only appropriate place to put the song is at the very ''end'' of the film.
* ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' changes the graphic novel's TwistEnding so that the {{Big Bad}}'s plot involves [[spoiler: destroying the world's major cities with a series of explosions]] instead of [[spoiler: creating a genetically engineered monster to wreak havoc in New York]]. But the movie keeps Ozymandias' pet Bubastis, a bizarre-looking feline creature who clearly wasn't born through natural means. The book explains that Bubastis is a genetically engineered hybrid species of lynx tailor-made by Ozymandias himself, and she serves as {{Foreshadowing}} for TheReveal that [[spoiler: Veidt has cracked the secrets of genetic engineering, and can create his own artificial hybrid creatures]]. But since this plot point doesn't come up in the movie, Bubastis has no real reason to exist, and she seems oddly incongruous amidst the movie's (mostly) grounded realism.
* ''Film/{{Dumbo|2019}}'' (2019) turns the famous "Pink Elephants on Parade" musical number into this, as many critics noted. While it's best known as an [[MushroomSamba extended hallucination sequence]], it was also an important plot point in [[WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}} the original]]; it occurs after Dumbo and Timothy [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidentally get drunk on champagne]], leading to Dumbo waking up in a tree and discovering that he has the ability to fly. In the remake, Dumbo takes his first flight relatively early in the movie (instead of in [[ItWasHisSled the climactic final scene]]), and the climax instead revolves around Dumbo's friends rescuing him from a rival circus. But the filmmakers apparently felt that "Pink Elephants on Parade" was much too iconic to cut, so they reimagined it as a real act put on by the circus performers -- and they [[{{Bowdlerization}} cut all references to alcohol]].
* ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|2020}}'':
** There's a brief bit where something sticky gets stuck to Sonic's glove. [[IdiotBall No-one thinks of just taking the glove off]], suggesting it's a remnant from the time his design was still bare-handed.
** Compared to the stylized, game-accurate designs of Sonic, the Echidnas, and [[spoiler:Tails]], Longclaw looks like a realistic owl, suggesting that this design was meant to coincide with Sonic's original look.
* ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}'' (2015) has Johnny flippantly refer to Dr. Doom with "check out Dr. Doom over here", and has Dr. Doom later correct Sue that "[[ThatManIsDead There is no Victor, only Doom]]". These lines seem a little strange because that is in fact his name, but make sense when you know the film was originally going to call him Victor Domashev. Likely Johnny was giving him a mocking nickname because of his pessimism and he took it as an AppropriatedAppelation, but when they changed his name to the comic version due to fan backlash these lines became awkward remnants of a previous script that no-one ended up removing.
* ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' has the rather odd "Zombie Kill of the Week" gag, which, while not an outright continuity error, has a very different style to most of the rest of the film (it's the only scene to have an omniscient narrator, for one, despite being narrated by the main character), and certainly ''feels'' like it should be a RunningGag, but isn't. Turns out ''Zombieland'' started life as a pitch for a PilotMovie that would be turned into a TV series, and "Zombie Kill of the Week" would have been its OncePerEpisode gag.
* Natalie in ''Film/HomeAlone4TakingBackTheHouse'' ended up as this in the final product. She plays as the RichBitch marrying Kevin's father, Peter, which gets in the way of Kevin's estranged mother, Kate, getting back together with him. The thing that throws this off is that unlike the typical "getting rid of the evil step-parent" cliche, Natalie isn't really all that much of a RichBitch and actually treats Kevin as a proper stepmother, but throughout the movie looks like she gets [[UnintentionallySympathetic constantly screwed over for no justified reason]][[invoked]]. That's because in the original script, Peter actually ended up with Natalie in the end, but was changed at the last second for him to get back together with Kate. The result is the movie's writing making it look like Natalie would actually be the perfect mother for the family as this was what the film was originally intending, yet it gets completely flipped on its head in the end due to the rewrite.
* In ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'', some have pointed out that Bloodsport is way too similar to Deadshot from the [[Film/SuicideSquad2016 previous film]]; having strikingly similar skills with guns, and even the same background motivation regarding a daughter that they want to take care of. This is because the original plan was for Creator/IdrisElba to just flat out replace Creator/WillSmith as the actor for Deadshot. However, it was decided midway through development that Elba will be his own new character just to leave the door open in case Smith ever decides that he wants to return. Despite the change, many of Deadshot's character traits remained on Bloodsport.
* Creator/TommyWiseau's ''Film/TheRoom2003'' got its title because it was originally written as a stage play set entirely in a single room in Johnny and Lisa's apartment (a fairly common technique in theatre that eliminates the need for scene changes). When Wiseau chose to make it a feature film instead, he broadened the setting considerably, with scenes taking place in ''numerous'' rooms in the apartment (as well as an alleyway, a rooftop, a café, a park...), none of them portrayed as particularly significant. This left many viewers scratching their heads wondering which "room" was supposed to be the one in the title.[[note]] After the movie unexpectedly became a CultClassic, Wiseau eventually resurrected his earlier plan by making a stage adaptation of the film, where the title made a bit more sense.[[/note]]
* The original theatrical cut of ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'' includes a moment where Evan's mother mentions having two stillbirths before Evan was born. This line is a holdover from an earlier cut of the film, where it was supposed to [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadow]] the ending--where [[spoiler:Evan goes back in time to commit suicide in his mother's womb]] (the implication being that [[spoiler:his two stillborn siblings did the same]]). But when the ending was changed, the line was rendered meaningless. The DirectorsCut restored the original ending, putting the line back in its original context.
* The ''Film/{{Predator}}'' films always include a noticable decompressing sound when the titular aliens remove their [[CoolMask face-masks]], sometimes coupled with unhitching what look like air tubes. The first two film seemed to have intended this to be because Predators come from a different kind of atmosphere than humans and thus can't breath very well on Earth in an aversion of NoBiochemicalBarriers; the first film's Jungle Hunter takes off his mask to [[WorthyOpponent give himself a disadvantage and even the odds for Dutch]], while the second film's City Hunter visibly freaks out after losing his mask and begins breathing raggedly, even breaking out a small device resembling an emergency oxygen mask that he takes periodic huffs from for the remainder of his fight with Harrigan. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness This element was largely dropped from later entries]], however, with the sequels and ExpandedUniverse both never really depicting Predators as needing their masks to function on Earth or elsewhere and indicating their only purpose is for ceremonial armor and the vision settings. ''Film/Prey2022'' in particular would have the Feral Predator's mask not even cover it's full face like most prior ones, meaning the Predator walks about the entire film without an artificial "air supply" and clearly has no need of such a thing. Despite all this, the decompressing sound remains, playing everytime a Predator removes their helm even though this no longer has any apparent significance.
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