9 movie scenes that definitely inspired Game of Thrones
George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is like a mega-mix of all of the greatest fantasy stories of all time, spliced with some of the most astonishing events from real-world history.
But when it comes to inspiration, there seems to be a lot of great movies in the mix too – something that's reflected by the telly adaptation, whether it's in the show's fight choreography, scripts or production design.
Here's our favourite Game of Thrones scenes that felt like they were ripped straight from the big screen.
1. Lord of the Rings - Helm's Deep / Battle of the Bastards
All seems lost. Then, out of nowhere, a cavalry charge from a nearby slope comes to save the day.
The only real difference between the outcome of the battle of Helm's Deep and the 'Battle of the Bastards' is that one rescue army is led by a wonderful wizard – Gandalf – and the other's been organised by a calculating creep – Littlefinger.
The scenes are so similar, someone's done the hard work for us and shoved The Two Towers' soundtrack onto the Game of Thrones footage, which makes our job so much easier.
2. Frankenstein - The monster's resurrection / Qyburn's lab
A self-confessed fan of the Universal monster movies, George RR Martin clearly took some... um... inspiration from the story of a mad scientist who creates a hulk from hunks of dead flesh for the way his Mountain plotline panned out.
The Game of Thrones team took it a step further, incorporating production design elements from the original Frankenstein to create Qyburn's lab.
3. The Princess Bride - Sword-fight / Arya's training
Two sword-fighters, one with a Mediterranean accent, the other speaking the Queen's English. Both are quick, quippy and smart. Both are super-cool. Both survive their encounter.
The only (fairly major) difference is that in The Princess Bride, the protagonists are having a proper fight, while in Game of Thrones, Arya and Syrio are simply practising. The other surface similarities mean this still totally counts, though.
4. Ladyhawke - Hawk and wolf / animal warging
Okay, so this one's a bit of a stretch, but we know George has seen Ladyhawke, as he described it as follows: "Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer starred as the star-crossed lovers, cursed so they can only share a few brief moments together at dawn and dusk; she turns into a hawk during the day, and he transforms into a wolf by night."
While there's nothing exactly like that on the show, we do wonder if Ladyhawke sowed the seeds of inspiration for the scene in which a human warging into an eagle fights a man who can warg into a wolf. Feels too close to be a coincidence.
5. Dragonslayer - Dragon design / Dany's dragons
Compare the above to the below, and it's hard to tell the two dragons apart – rare when dealing with a species that's been portrayed in so many different ways on screen.
But Dragonslayer's influence on Game of Thrones goes further than just the dragon design.
"Caitlin Clarke spends most of the film pretending to be a boy, a bit of gender-bending one would never have expected from Disney," George RR Martin said about Dragonslayer. "The film's bad guys are painted in shades of gray; from where they sit, they're the heroes, doing what has to be done to save the land."
Any of that sound familiar to you?
6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail - The Black Knight / Hound vs Brienne fight
We're probably being a bit silly with this one, but the extreme (and protracted) fight between Brienne and The Hound totally reminded us of the Black Knight scene from Monty Python – a skirmish seemingly without end, no matter how injured the participants got.
And the bit where The Hound grabs Brienne's sword, grins and says "I'm not a knight" feels like exactly the sort of contrary behaviour that made the Black Knight so special.
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Davy Jones / Euron Greyjoy
Euron Greyjoy and Davy Jones have more in common than you might think. No, really.
Both love Krakens (Euron styles his ship / axe after one; Davy Jones controls one) and both enjoy incorporating the crews of the ships they've plundered into their own gangs.
Look, all we're saying is that if Euron develops a massive squid face at some point in the next couple of seasons, don't say we didn't warn you.
8. Braveheart - Battle of Stirling / Battle of the Bastards
If you got a sense of deja vu when watching arguably the best episode of Game of Thrones ever, that's because someone on the fight choreography team appears to have been heavily inspired by one of the best Mel Gibson films ever.
Yep, Braveheart and the 'Battle of the Bastards' share so many moments, we have no idea why they didn't just slap some blue woad onto Jon Snow's face and be done with it. Some clever soul has cut together the two battles (above) so we can see just how similar they really are.
9. Cold Mountain - Civil War / Battle of the Bastards (again)
Okay, one more from the 'Battle of the Bastards', as it's clear the Game of Thrones gang watched a lot of movies before shooting this episode. Compare the above scene to the one below, and tell us you don't see it...
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