So, this is somewhat off-topic, but I don't think it's worthy of it's own thread and there are a lot of FF7 fans (I presume) that pop in here and I've gotta finally get some closure on this because it's driven me a lil bit crazy that I never see anyone reference it.
I'm referring to the cinematic that happens between the big final boss fight of FF7 and the, uh, final showdown that happens right after? Context in the video below (SPOILERS FOR FF7):
(skip to 11:50 if the timecode doesn't work)
So we have this interesting tunnel journey of sorts that results in that final showdown at the end of it. What has been driving me crazy for so long is that I'm pretty sure that this is reference or inspiration to a pretty similar scene near the end of the
hit 1992 Emilio Estevez vehicle Freejack (SPOILERS FOR EMILIO ESTEVEZ'S FREEJACK):
They are both very similar in length and feature a similar interlude segment halfway through which ends with the discovery of some kinda node to continue said tunnel journey. They both end with arrival at a barren looking environment wherein they meet the final boss. After that... they differ. Emilio Estevez did not know how to perform Omnislash, for instance.
But... am I crazy? These are pretty similar, right? Beyond that there is at least precedence of this kind of inspiration found in game music (see
https://retronauts.com/article/24/its-retronauts-pocket-episode-1) which kind of leads me to believe if there were musicians taking inspiration and influence from music elsewhere in the world, perhaps the same happened in the visual effects department.
But wait, there's more! This happens again with the 1997 roller-coaster thrill-ride/ heartfelt adaptation of Carl Sagan's "Contact", also in the final leg of the story, albeit with a lot more grandeur and length (OK TO GO FOR SPOILERS OF CONTACT):
Of course this came out after FF7, so I'm not saying someone at squaresoft traveled forward in time or something crazy. No.
HOWEVER
Is it possible that someone working on 1997's Contact just played a japanese import copy of Final Fantasy 7 and created that scene in less than six months? *shakes head emphatically yes* Wait what do you mean "NO"? OK OK I concede. But... maybe they TOO took inspiration from Freejack. Anyway, it's pretty crazy how close all three of these magic tunnel journeys seem to come to each other. I have no idea if there is some classic, common underlying theme here that I'm missing. I'm just glad that I was finally able to get it out there.
The defense rests, your honor.