Not So Different Remark / Live-Action Films

Adversaries who are not so different in live-action movies.

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• Getting this from a Nazi is the setup to Gloves Donahue's Even Evil Has Standards moment in All Through the Night.
  Ebbing: It's a great pity, Mr. Donahue, that you and I should oppose each other. We have so much in common.
  Gloves: Yeah? How's that?
  Ebbing: You are a man of action. You take what you want, and so do we. You have no respect for democracy - neither do we. It's clear we should be allies.
  Gloves: It's clear you're screwy. I've been a registered Democrat ever since I could vote. I may not be Model Citizen Number One, but I pay my taxes, wait for traffic lights, and buy 24 tickets to the Policeman's Ball. Brother, don't get me mixed up in no league that rubs out innocent bakers.
• American History X:
  • Derek realizes his similarities to Lamont in prison, which helps to deprogram him.
  • Sweeney also says this is why he understands Derek so well. Sweeney actually successively hated white people, then all of society and finally God for all the bad things he saw happen to black people by a racist system. He eventually realized that hatred from whatever direction didn't solve anything, but only contributed to the problem.
• In the Apocalypse film series movie Tribulation, Franco Maccalusso's Digital Avatar tells Helen Hannah that, as Lucifer, he used to be God's chief angel until he realized he was just like God. Helen Hannah refutes it by saying God loved the world and died for His world while Lucifer (by extension of Maccalusso) wants people to die for him.
• Austin Powers: Occurs twice in the trilogy, between Doctor Evil and Austin (who, amusingly enough, are both played by Mike Myers); first in original movie near the end, and later in the third film:
  Doctor Evil: Remember when I said 'We're not so different, you and I'?
  Cuts back to the first film, with Austin aiming his gun at Doctor Evil.
  Doctor Evil: We're not so different, you and I.
  Flashback ends.
  Doctor Evil: See? I did say that.
  Austin: Yes, very nice. Now where's my father?
• In David Lynch's Blue Velvet, insane drug-addicted rapist Frank hisses "you're like me" at the story's young hero Jeffrey Beaument.
• A major theme in Bound (1996). In fact it's spelled out in the last line in the movie.
  Corky: You know what the difference is between you and me, Violet?
  Violet: No.
  Corky: Me neither.
• The HBO TV film Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, adapted from the book of the same name has Chief Sitting Bull and Colonel Nelson Miles arguing over "Lakota lands" with Colonel Miles making it clear that the Lakota are not guiltless in their own behavior of the past when compared to the "White Man".
• In Cinderella (2015), the narration points out that, like Ella, Lady Tremaine has gone through emotional trauma; unlike Ella, however, she let the experiences change her, eradicating any redeeming qualities that she had. It's implied that part of her desire to make Ella's life a living hell stems from how she can't stand Ella's ability to be kind in spite of all the latter has been through.
• In Circuitry Man androids are genetically and biologically engineered lifeforms, including both the villain "Plughead" and the hero Danner. Plughead spends every moment trying to kill Danner and get back his Maguffin. In a virtual reality world it comes to a head when Danner is going to kill Plughead. Plughead realizes he's outmatched and tries to save himself with a "you're just like me". Danner looks like he's going to turn away when he responds with "Yeah, maybe just a little" and stabs Plughead through the heart.
• Coalition: Has both Labour and the Conservatives trying to convince the Liberal Democrats of their similarities. On a personal level, Dave reckons he can work with Nick because "...Westminster School's not too different from Eton.". Many political commentators have highlighted this fact.
• At the end of The Crossing, Washington initially refuses to accept the dying Colonel Rall's surrender personally (a "courtesy of war") because the Hessians are mercenaries who fight for profit and have committed atrocities against his men. General Greene changes his mind by pointing out that their cause was founded in part to resist English taxation—so really, everyone is fighting for profit.
• The Devil Wears Prada: Near the end of the film, Miranda Priestly remarks that she sees a great deal of herself in Andy Sachs, in response to Andy's denial that she is ruthless trumping competition by replacing her senior, Emily Charlton, for the Paris event. The irony is that Miranda means it as a So Proud of You moment, but Andy views it as the moment that she has crossed the Moral Event Horizon, and promptly quits Runway the following day.
• In District 9, we have this scene when the main character, already in his alien form, is hiding in the nice alien's house. The nice alien kid likes the main character, because they're the same.
• Django Unchained: When Moguy, Candie's lawyer, comments that one could almost say he was raised to be Candie's lawyer, Django sardonically suggests that he may as well have been brought up in captivity, like a slave, with subtext suggesting that he is calling into question Moguy's feelings of superiority based on skin colour.
  Moguy: One could almost say I was raised to be Calvin's lawyer!
  Django: [Beat] One could almost say you's a nigga.
• Inverted in Dogma, when Bethany, the Last Scion, unknowingly has a conversation with fallen angel Bartleby, whom she's been recruited by Heaven to fight against. They talk about each other's problems, the frustrations of life and how much they have in common, and it's only near the end of the conversation that Bartleby realizes who she is. The stage seems set for Bartleby (who, so far, has been a reasonable and sympathetic foil to his more villainous partner Loki) to learn that we're all in this together and everyone has the same problems. Instead, he's infuriated that humans are oblivious to being favored by God over the angels, and their conversation leads him to try to Put Them All Out of My Misery.
• In The Elephant Man, Bytes does this to Treves ("You think you're better than me? You wanted the freak to show to those doctor chums of yours!"), which really shakes him up later on.
  "I think Mr. Bytes and I are very much alike."
• In Falling Down, an odious Neo-Nazi shopkeeper tries to use this kind of speech with the insane vigilante protagonist.
  Nick: I'm with you. We're the same, you and me. We're the same, don't you see?
  Foster: We are not the same. I'm an American, you're a sick asshole.
• Inverted in Galaxy Quest, where the villain forces the main character to explain how he's Not So Different from the villain... to an ally who hero-worships the main character. Once shown the "historical documents" Sarris is the only nonhuman character who actually realizes that he is dealing with actors who have been mistaken for real explorers. This also implies that unlike the Thermians, his own race produces entertainment. This creates a bit of Fridge Horror when you realize the Big Bad can empathize with humans more than the kind, gentle Thermians.
• A silent one at the end of The German: The titular character offers his foe, Red Leader, a cigarette as a peace gesture after both have been taken into internment by the neutral Irish authorities.
• Glorious: Ghat recognizes that he and Wes are both creatures of pure destruction, no matter what justification they might come up with.
• This exchange in The Godfather:
  Michael Corleone: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
  Kay Adams: Do you know how naïve you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed.
  Michael Corleone: Oh. Who's being naïve, Kay?
• In Hansel and Gretel, Lillith claims that she chose Gretel to take over The Gingerbread House because Gretel is just like her. The end of the movie suggests that she's right.
• Happy Together: Lai initially believes himself to be different from Ho in that he isn't promiscuous. However, after hitting an emotional low late in the film, he finds himself sleeping around and reflecting that he's just the same as Ho.
• This is a major theme in Heat, where despite Pacino being a cop and De Niro being a professional thief, the two realize that they're very similar people.
• In Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Pinhead gives Monroe a speech about how the way he derived pleasure from devouring the girl is no different from Monroe wooing her to have his way with her sexually and then throwing her out while mocking her. Monroe denies it violently.
• Indiana Jones
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark: Rival archaeologist Rene Belloq provides a definitive example of this trope when he taunts the protagonist, Indiana Jones.
    Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Dr. Elsa Schneider serves as the ambitious, female foil to Indiana. After she reveals her allegiance with the Nazis, she says to Indiana, "We both wanted the Grail. I would have done anything to get it. You would have done the same" to which he replies, "I'm sorry you think so." At the end of the film, their actions mirror each other. Elsa finds herself suspended over an abyss, with Indiana having caught her before she fell in. Rather than let him save her, she tries to reach for the grail underneath her. Indiana can't maintain his grip on her gloved hand, and she ultimately plummets to her death. Moments later, Indiana also tries reaching for the grail, despite what he had just witnessed. It took a You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious moment to break him free of the grail's allure.
• In My Country: De Jager tells Langston, who's horrified by the torture and murders he committed to defend Apartheid, that ANC fighters tortured one of his men to death, so badly his body was almost unrecognizable afterward.
• Possibly the sole saving grace (if any) in Irish Jam is the love interest's father giving such a speech to his fellow Irishmen over their racism toward the Black main character (they expected an Irish-American to own their bar) given how their countrymen were treated in America up to JFK.
• It's a Wonderful Life: Corrupt Corporate Executive Mr. Potter takes the opportune moment to throw George Bailey's words back in his face when the hero is facing bankruptcy and jail. Notably, the comparison insults both of them.
  Mr. Potter: Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me "a warped, frustrated, old man!" What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.
• James Bond
  • The Man with the Golden Gun: Scaramanga assumes Bond is a cold-blooded Professional Killer like him, but Bond won't have any of it and tells him that he is full of a certain bodily discharge.
    Bond: There's a useful four letter word, and you're full of it. When I kill, it's on the direct orders of my government. And the men I kill are themselves killers.
  • Likewise, the villains of GoldenEye, Dr. No, Die Another Day, and Spectre try to pull this on Bond one way or another, but 007 fires back with a Shut Up, Hannibal! response on their insanity.
  • Octopussy. Octopussy argues they are "two of a kind" (after all, it's in the title song) when trying to recruit Bond for her own criminal organisation. Bond doesn't take offense this time and even agrees with her—admittedly, Octopussy is hardly the amoral world-threatening supervillain who usually makes this remark. Plus he's trying to get into her pants.
• In Keep Off My Grass!, stuffy businessman Mr. Sherman tells the hippies that when he was their age, he wanted to destroy the establishment just like they do, and that he understands the hippies because he used to be just like them. It turns out he's right - by the end of the movie, the hippies have become respectable businessmen.
• A Knight's Tale: William poses as "Sir Ulrich" so he can joust despite being a commoner. Prince Edward poses as "Sir Thomas Colville" because nobody would risk harming the heir to the English throne. After learning Edward's identity William notes they're doing the same thing for the same reasons. When William's deception is exposed Prince Edward shows up to free him and further acknowledges their similarities.
  Prince Edward: What a pair we make, eh? Both trying to hide who we are, both unable to do so.
• Lucy McClane from Live Free or Die Hard, despite wanting nothing to do with her father at first, is essentially a younger female John. It's pointed out twice in the film:
  Lucy: Let's step outside just you and me; we'll see who hurts who.
  Gabriel: You really are his daughter.
  Lucy: Listen, will you just take a minute and dig deep for a bigger set of balls, 'cause you're gonna need 'em before we're through.
  Matt: I know that tone. I'm just not used to hearing it from someone with... hair.
• Legend (2015):
  • Played with. Detective Leonard "Nipper" Read says this of himself and Reggie, reminding him that they both came from poor backgrounds and started off in amateur youth boxing. However, he emphasises that these things didn't turn him into a thief. Reg shoots back by reminding him that the real difference is that he works for the cops, and therefore has rules. Then the twins drive the point home by forcing Nipper into a photo with them, which ruins his standing in the force and takes him off the case for a time.
  • Later played straight with Ronnie when Reggie goes off at him for being completely "mental" during one of the twins' darker more desperate moments when things have really started to fall for them both. Ronnie calmly tells Reggie that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and he's later proven right when Reggie snaps and murders Jack the Hat over a verbal slight that marks the final nail in the coffin of his downfall.
• In The Lone Ranger Cavendish pretty much says this word for word when He discovers the Ranger is actually John. He says they're both men that have to wear masks, implying that he's had to maintain the secrecy of things he's done.
• Love Hard: When the truth is revealed, Tag comments that for all Natalie had disparaged Josh's catfishing, she was also pretending to be someone she wasn't when trying to snag him.
• The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob: Pivert remarks that Salomon, a Jew, and Slimane, an Arab, are not so different from each other and asks if they're cousins. Salomon looks offended at this but brushes it off and Slimane explains that they're distantly related, and they share a handshake and part on good terms. The film itself came out during the Yom Kippur War, so director Gérard Oury, himself a Jew, deliberately wrote in this part in order to make a point about reconciliation.
• Manhunter. Hannibal Lecter informs Will Graham of this.
  Lecter: You want the scent? Smell yourself.
• Mortal Engines:
  • Valentine says that Hester's determination to kill him regardless is no different from his own determination to achieve his own goals. He implies this is a case of Like Parent, Like Child. The two are even introduced similarly, staring through a telescope at the other's traction city as London starts pursuing Salzhaken.
  • Valentine derides Magnus Crome as being a dinosaur stuck in the past. Crome indicates the MEDUSA and asks, "What are you then?" Valentine replies, "The meteor", and kills him.
• Mr Malcolm's List: At the masquerade ball Cassie gently tells his cousin Julia that she although she wants revenge on Jeremy for how his pickiness resulted in her humiliation, Julia is quite picky about her suitors herself.
• The Night Flier: The vampire, Dwight Renfield, says that Dees's interest in blood is not so different from his own. He then goes out of his way not to kill Dees.
• No Name on the Bullet: Professional Killer John Gant believes he and Frontier Doctor Luke Cantrell are not so different...being the only honest men in town.
• In Outlander, Kainan sought revenge against the Moorwen for killing his family, but he acknowledges the creature is intelligent and wants revenge on him for helping commit genocide on its race. When he finally kills it, he looks into its eyes with pity. He also points out at one point that his people are no different from the Vikings: everybody is greedy for territory.
• In The Quick and the Dead, Herod reveals to Lady that Cort use to be just as much of a coldblooded murderer as himself. So much so, that there was a time the two were looked at as the same. When Lady asked him if it was true, Cort said: "Yes."
• Reap the Wild Wind: When Drusilla insists that her lover Dan is different from his criminal brother, Loxi replies that they merely have different first names. Dan does have some standards that King lacks, but is indeed nearly as ruthless as his brother until he realizes that their actions wrecked a ship Drusilla was on.
• In Safe House Tobin Frost sees himself in the CIA Agent Matt Weston, back when he was a naïve CIA Agent himself.
• In SAS: Rise of the Black Swan the hero, SAS operator Tom Buckingham, and the villain, mercenary Grace Lewis, are both high functioning psychopaths, so this trope inevitably comes up during a Mexican Standoff. Grace is holding a gun to the head of Tom's girlfriend Sophie, while Tom is holding a gun to the head of Grace's brother.
  Tom: Let her go! Once she's gone, so am I.
  Grace: It's not in our nature. We're more alike than you know.
  Tom: I don't recall torching any villages.
  Grace: How many people have you killed?
  Tom: I don't think about it.
  Grace: Neither do I. Don't think about it, don't dream about it. (whispers in Sophie's ear) So he switches on and kills people, and then he switches off and takes you to Paris.
• In Scanners, Cameron tells Revok that he's not so different from the now-dead mentor Paul Ruth, specifically to piss him off. Neither of them have much respect for Dr. Ruth, by this point.
  Revok: No. Not like him. Like REVOK! DARRYL REVOK!
  Cameron: You sound exactly like him. It's as though he's been reincarnated in you.
• The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne does this accidentally when he tells the corrupt Warden Norton that he's as guilty as the Warden is for handling the Warden's money laundering, so he won't say a word about it if he's released. As the Warden maintains a hypocritical veneer of religious piety, he's furious at the idea that he's the same as an inmate and has Any thrown into solitary confinement.
• Signature Move: Zaynab and Alma both note that their cultures have a lot in common. Both Pakistanis (Zaynab) and Mexicans (Alma) emphasize deference toward parents, traditional gender roles, straight marriage, etc.
• Spoofed in a deleted scene from Small Soldiers when the protagonist's slightly obnoxious neighbor and his family is being held hostage by sentient toys:
  Phil: You know, we're not so different you and I. I have been accused of being plastic all my life!
  • Also inverted:
    Major Chip Hazard: You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like! [attacks Archer]
    Archer: They're wires and metal, the same as yours.
    Major Chip Hazard: We're nothing alike. You are programmed to lose.
• Snow White & the Huntsman: Ravenna says this to Snow White during their final fight. Snow responds in a befittingly badass way:
  "I'm everything you're not."
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022): When Knuckles corners Sonic at the mountain and starts ranting about his Dark and Troubled Past and how he lost his entire clan and family in the last battle against the Owls when he was very young, Sonic shows sympathy and tells him that perhaps they're not so different after all. Knuckles is taken aback, but before he can ask what Sonic means, Robotnik interrupts the scene. They finally get to talk properly later in the movie, and Sonic says that he also lost his only family when he was very young and was on his own for many years, just like Knuckles.
• Star Trek
  • Shinzon hits Picard with this repeatedly in Star Trek: Nemesis. Seeing as he genetically is Picard, but with a vastly different life, it's understandable that the idea unsettles him something fierce. However, the movie is notable for how once he gets a handle it, Picard makes a game attempt to turn it around on Shinzon: Rather than stressing how far removed he is from villainy, he tries to show how Shinzon could cross the "not so different" gap for the better. It doesn't work. Shinzon's nuts.
  • John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness noticed Kirk's love for his crew and presented his own love for his crew as a point of similarity between them. Not to mention how both of them are willing to go great lengths to protect and save their crew. Also, throughout the movie, Kirk and Harrison have the desire to avenge their loved ones, Harrison against Admiral Marcus for supposedly killing his crew and Kirk against Harrison for killing his mentor Pike. But whereas Kirk, with the influence of his crew, learned that he shouldn't let revenge cloud his judgement and refused to kill or even stun Admiral Marcus since his daughter was watching, Harrison let his hatred for Starfleet fester and didn't care if innocents got caught in the crossfire.
• Star Wars:
  • Luke Skywalker gets his "not-so-different" moment when he cuts off his father's artificial hand. Luke sees that he has just repaid Vader's violence in kind, but also sees his own prosthetic hand as symbolizing the possibility that he's becoming like his father. This was foreshadowed earlier in The Empire Strikes Back, when Yoda sends Luke into a cave to be attacked by a masked warrior brandishing a lightsaber, looking much like Darth Vader. Luke quickly defeats the warrior, decapitating it. The warrior's mask falls off, and its face is exactly like Luke's. Yoda pointed out before Luke went in that the cave only contains what you take into it (i.e. it shows you yourself, and your weaknesses) in fact telling Luke he won't need his weapons. Luke completely ignored him, leading to that sequence. It's also symbolized by the fact that while in A New Hope he wore an all-white farmer's outfit and in The Empire Strikes Back he wore an Alliance fighter pilot's uniform (either the orange pilot suit or the khaki jumpsuit), in Return of the Jedi he wears a solid black jumpsuit and cloak, much like how Vader always wears black armor and cape. Additionally, Luke's actions when he enters Jabba's palace earlier in the film (Force Choking the guards at the gate, though he stops short of killing them, and using the Jedi Mind Trick to completely dominate Bib Fortuna's mind rather than just implanting a single suggestion) imply that he's skirting dangerously close to The Dark Side. This, however, allows Luke to prove that he and Vader are Not So Similar — while Vader (as Anakin Skywalker) executed a disarmed and helpless Dooku in a similar situation, Luke tosses away his lightsaber and declares himself a Jedi.
  • This is also part of one of Palpatine's speeches in Revenge of the Sith towards Anakin, whom he is trying to recruit as his new student, claiming that "The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way... including their quest for greater power". Of course, Palpatine is a rather unreliable source on the matter, but he's probably closer to the truth than the Jedi themselves might like to admit.
• Tales from the Hood: Crazy K is shown a montage of pictures showing members of The Klan torturing or killing black men or standing over their corpses and dramatized shots of black gang members killing each other. He's then essentially asked "How are you any better than them?"
• The rapist/serial killer in the Clint Eastwood movie Tightrope pitches this line constantly to the detective hunting him. We find out why when he's revealed to be a former policeman who was arrested by the protagonist after he raped two women. Ultimately averted because while Clint's character does have issues with women, sleeping with prostitutes and only having sex with women while they're handcuffed, he's not some sexually abusive Killer Cop.
• In the climax for Time Cop, when McComb, the corrupt politician, mentions that Max Walker's attempts at stopping McComb (who in the process of going back in time to ensure he won the Presidential elections, also arranged for the murder of Walker's wife) made him as bad as himself. Walker contradicts him, however, stating that he was actually attempting to set the timeline right.
• An exchange from the 2007 Transformers movie:
  Ironhide: Why are we fighting to save the humans? They are a primitive and violent race.
  Optimus Prime: Were we so different?
• In Transporter 2, Gianni Chellini claims he and Frank are the same.
  Frank Martin: You really think killing all these politicians is gonna make things easier for them?
  Gianni: That's not my problem. I was hired to do a job. I did the job, like you. Just... my pay is better. My hair and my suit, too.
• Reverend Mother in The Trouble with Angels says it's one of the reasons she decided at the last minute not to expel troublemaker Mary: both are strong willed, and Reverend Mother says she can't be less tolerant of Mary than the Church has been of her.
• Ulzana's Raid: McIntosh needles DeBuin after several of his men try to mutilate the corpse of Ulzana's son.
  McIntosh: What bothers you, Lieutenant, is you don't like to think of white men behaving like Indians. It kind of confuses the issue, don't it?
• Turned on its head in Under Siege, when hero-protagonist Ryback gives this speech to villain-antagonist Strannix:
  Ryback: All of your ridiculous, pitiful antics aren't going to change a thing. You and I? We're puppets in the same sick play. We serve the same master, and he's a lunatic, and he's ungrateful, and there's nothing we can do about it. You and I? We're the same.
• This is brought up in War for the Planet of the Apes, when Caesar finds a human who he truly hates and begins a quest to kill him at any cost, even putting the safety of his fellow apes at risk, similar to what Koba did in Dawn. Maurice even tells him that he's beginning to act like Koba, something that he eventually accepts when his moment of vengeance is finally at hand. In the end, it's subverted, as his hatred was limited to one human, and when he sees how pathetic he is at the end, Caesar takes pity on him, and leaves the man to kill himself. Afterwards, he puts all of his focus into rescuing his fellow apes, at the cost of his life.
• Wilt: Murder suspect, whose wife is missing, and the investigating detective:
  Inspector Flint: I'm depressed. I'm frustrated. My marriage is going nowhere, and nor is my career.
  Dave: True, but you mustn't let it get you down, sir.
  Inspector Flint: I'm not talking about me. I'm putting myself in the mind of Henry Wilt.
• Zen Noir contains a non-villainous example. The story concerns a private detective investigating a death at a Buddhist temple. At one point the detective insists to the oldest monk that he is completely different from the monks and doesn't understand them at all. The monk interrupts to ask for the detective's fedora. Eventually the detective gives it to him, revealing that the detective is almost entirely bald under the hat. "Not so different" says the old monk with the shaved head... who then puts on the fedora and sets it at a stylish angle.

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