In his decades-long career, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been part of several iconic films, giving us pop culture moments that continue to be referenced even today. In 2023, he achieved a significant career milestone when he got the lead in FUBAR, marking his first leading television role.
However, FUBAR isn’t just some action comedy spy drama, instead, it has emerged as an unofficial True Lies sequel—reigniting an infamous plagiarism case. While the series does reference multiple Schwarzenegger roles and iconic film moments, there is one scene in the series that channels James Cameron’s action comedy quite brilliantly.
FUBAR continues on its path to be a ‘true’ True Lies sequel
FUBAR showrunner Nick Santora already knows there are going to be a lot of comparisons between the show and Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s past works. However, he also noted that one cannot duplicate a classic but make something original and new (via Netflix).
Well, the FUBAR showrunner isn’t wrong, as the season 2 of the series, which is often called a True Lies sequel, referenced the James Cameron classic in a way that not only pays homage to one of its iconic scenes but also makes it feel original and new.
Starring as the seasoned undercover CIA agent Luke Brunner, Schwarzenegger’s character comes face to face with one of his old loves, Carrie-Anne Moss’ Greta Nelso, a former East German spy. During episode three of the series, Tango and Smash, now forced to team up with the ‘wrong guys,’ Nelso kidnaps Brunner and takes him to their old safe house in Tallinn.
There, while Brunner is tied to the chair, Nelso starts to dance, a reference to the famous hotel room scene from True Lies, where Jamie Lee Kurtis performs a steamy dance for a mysterious figure, unaware that it is actually her husband undercover. While the one in FUBAR ends terribly wrong for Schwarzenegger’s character, it is nonetheless, a nice nod to the iconic feature that was once embroiled in a plagiarism controversy.
James Cameron’s True Lies led to a plagiarism drama
While FUBAR pays homage to True Lies, from its plot to its dialogues and scenes, we can’t help but recall the time when the iconic James Cameron feature ended up being caught in a lawsuit for plagiarism.
In 2000, it was claimed by a French screenwriter, Lucien Lambert, that True Lies and its source material (the French film La Totale!) were plagiarized from one of his unproduced screenplays from 1981. The screenplay, called Émilie, was about a con artist who fakes his identity as a spy just to seduce a woman.
In 2001, the court ruled against him, forcing him to appeal again. Eventually, in June 2004, the Court of Appeal of Paris ruled in favor of him. Lambert won the case and the writer-director of La Totale!, Claude Zidi, was ordered to pay him over $15 million, which was his share of the profit from the box office receipts of True Lies.
However, while Zidi was found liable, Cameron escaped unscathed as the court ruled he had purchased the rights of the film in good faith (via Variety).
While FUBAR is streaming on Netflix, True Lies can be streamed on Hulu.
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