MovieChat Forums > Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989) Discussion > The Game (spoilers)

The Game (spoilers)

posted 18 years ago by jiitee3
4 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS AHEAD

Has anybody noticed the similarities between this movie and the 1997 film The Game, directed by David Fincher?

The whole premise is kind of similar in both movies, with the thriller plot revealed as being just a prank at the end. But in the end of both films there are scenes that are very much alike.

In Penn & Teller Get Killed, Penn enters the apartment room with a funny hat and a wine bottle, saying "surprise" only to get accidentally shot by Teller.

In The Game, well, just replace Penn with ...Sean Penn (funny, I didn't even realize they had similar names when I started writing this message; the whole thing just got weirder ) and Teller with Michael Douglas.

I like both films and I'm not saying that the writers of The Game have copied P & T, but watch those scenes and think about it...

[–] LinkTGF 18 years ago

funny thing, before I read this message I was just getting done watching the movie and was thinking that in the first few scenes where we see the crazy fan he looks like Sean Penn (but that just may be me... spooky...) O_o

[–] Simon_Callahan 17 years ago

Another funny connection is that this movie (Penn & Teller Get Killed, I mean) was directed by Arthur Penn, Sean Penn's father.

[–] Warhol_Superstar_no_5 17 years ago

Man, I thought exactly the same thing when Teller shot Penn in the party hat! My jaw dropped and I thought, "Hey haven't I watched this before?" The premise was exactly the same as The Game... only this time it was Penn's girlfriend who jumped off a building instead of Micheal Douglas.

I laughed out loud at Penn's voice over saying they weren't doing a cop-out plot twist by letting one of the characters wake up and find it was all a joke/ or a dream and they weren't going to heaven etc. ... Ironic because it seemed as if they were referring to the neatly resolved ending of the Game, which was filmed after this movie!

LMAO talk about deliberately f ucking with the audience's head... both movies are absolute mind-f ucks only Penn and Teller do it in a more "self-aware" way, they seem to take pride in deliberately irritating the average audience who expect a cut-and-dried hollywood ending.

(P.S. I'm a fan of David Fincher as well ass Penn and Teller, I'm not putting down The Game, it's a great movie in its own right)

[–] televiper54 16 years ago

I've always believed that The Game would have been a superior movie if they simply faded to black in the middle of Douglas' swan dive. That, IMHO, would have been a very dramatic and shocking end to the film. Or, any happy ending that would have been fathomable (then I wouldn't have hated it).

P&T Get Killed constantly messes with the audience to the point where everybody waking up and saying "ha ha it's a joke" would have been perfectly expected. After Teller shoots himself you're left wondering if Penn's going to get up and play some dramatic Romeo and Juliet scene. Until Penn's girlfriend jumps out the window you're not really sure where the joke ends and the tragedy begins.