VOTD: Here Are Six Big Movies That Recycled Footage From Other Movies

Did you know that not every single shot in a movie is overseen by any given film's primary director? There's an entire crew of people called the second unit whose responsibility it is to shoot supplementary footage such as establishing shots, stunts, inserts and cutaways. The director still has to approve that footage, but he's not on set to actually shoot it. It's not exactly a secret in Hollywood, even if most people outside of Hollywood don't know it.

However, what you may not be aware of is that there are instances when recycled movie footage is used to complete a movie. We're not just talking about a shot of a cityscape or mountainside, but very specific shots and scenes that were reused between two different movies. For example, did you know War and Peace footage can be seen in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure?

Here's a countdown of six movies that use footage from other films from ScreenRant:

I always wondered why the shot of the Jedi Council in Attack of the Clones looked almost identical to the same one in The Phantom Menace, and now I know. But beyond that, even some of the movements of the Jedi on the council are reused throughout both scenes. Honestly, I'm just surprised that George Lucas didn't recreate everything with visual effects instead.

Having just recently watched Blade Runner, I actually thought to myself that some of the landscapes in the final shot looked very similar to the countryside in The Shining, but merely assumed that there are plenty of areas that look like that around the world. It turns out that the helicopter footage (which some companies shoot specifically for it to be bought by studios for their movies) in Blade Runner was meant for The Shining.

How's that for some movie magic?