A court in Paris insisted that Lockout had “massively borrowed key elements” of both Escape From New York and its sequel Escape From L.A. And even though this is a rare case of plagiarism between two films between proven in court (similarities are usually dismissed as homages or evidence is circumstantial), Luc Besson himself came out and insisted that “the judges have spoken and we will accept their judgement,” even though he admitted that he was “very surprised by the ruling.”
And now to top it all off, Luc Besson himself has been found guilty of plagiarising Escape From New York and ordered to pay $500,000 to John Carpenter as a result.
According to reports courtesy of Yahoo News, Luc Besson himself has always denied that The Lockout borrowed heavily from Carpenter’s 1981 classic.
2012’s Lockout has proven to be more hassle that it was worth for Luc Besson.