Did The Marvels Rip Off... Spaceballs?
Contains spoilers for "The Marvels"
What if someone came and stole all the air? What would happen if the seas were suddenly taken away? How could mankind cope if the sun would suddenly go out? "The Marvels" antagonist Supremor Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) does her level best to answer all these questions.
Somewhat understandably, Dar-Benn isn't happy with the fact that Captain Marvel's (Brie Larson) decision to destroy the Supreme Intelligence has plunged the Kree homeworld Hala into an incredibly destructive civil war that strips the planet of its natural resources. Less understandably, the Kree leader chooses to deal with the situation by plundering other planets, going as far as trying to steal the Earth's sun.
Dar-Benn begins her mission by pilfering the atmosphere of the Skrull refugee planet Tarnax, using a jump point to suck it to Hala. As the air from Tarnax starts flowing away, a viewer who's familiar with the works of Mel Brooks might find the situation familiar. A villainous plan to steal air from one planet to another is also a key plot element in Brooks' 1987 space opera comedy "Spaceballs," in which the leaders of the planet Spaceball scheme to acquire the air from their peaceful neighbor, Druidia.
Did "The Marvels" somehow choose to rip off this plot? That's very unlikely, but it's a fun coincidence that the villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie just so happens to use the same plan as a movie that specifically parodies fellow Disney mega-franchise "Star Wars."
There's only so many supervillain plots you can film before hitting a Mel Brooks movie
"Spaceballs" famously parodies the original "Star Wars" trilogy with a plot that features Bill Pullman as Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) expy Lone Starr, John Candy as a Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) parody called Barf, and Rick Moranis as a very familiar-looking, black-clad villain known as Dark Helmet. Much of the film revolves around how the main antagonist, President Skroob (Mel Brooks), has squandered his planet's atmosphere and set his sights on another planet's air.
Parody elements and the way the "Spaceballs" version of the Death Star turns into a giant maid with a vacuum cleaner aside, the air theft angle is indeed oddly similar to what happens in "The Marvels." Of course, it's worth noting that Brooks is a highly influential filmmaker who's spoofed a great many genres, with dozens of projects under his belt. His "History of the World, Part I" alone has inspired other writers, and several of his works appear on our list of best comedy movies of all time.
With the sheer enormity of Brooks' output, it was only to be expected that one major movie or another would eventually end up hitting some of the beats the comedy legend has already covered. As such, there's every reason to think that the similarity between "Spaceballs" and "The Marvels" is coincidental. Unfortunately, this also means it's unlikely that this trend will continue with Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine re-enacting the "Puttin' on the Ritz" dance scene of "Young Frankenstein" in "Deadpool 3" ... though one can always live in hope.