Pathaan trailer reveals action set-pieces inspired by Marvel movies, Fast and Furious series, Mission Impossible franchise. See comparison

Aside-by-side comparison of John Abraham’s character in Pathaan, with Idris Elba’s villain from Hobbs and Shaw, and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier from the MCU. The first trailer for Pathaan teased an exciting creative pivot for Shah Rukh Khan but appeared to be a return to familiar territory for director Siddharth Anand. Like his previous blockbuster War, Pathaan also seems to be tipping its hat to some of the most popular action-spy movies around, including the Mission Impossible and James Bond franchises. While Pathaan isn’t lifted from Hollywood movies, the trailer makes it seem like a collection of popular moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Fast and Furious Saga, all filtered through the lens of Yash Raj Films. Certain action scenes appear to have been inspired heavily by similar sequences in the Marvel project, while the appearance of John Abraham’s villain is like a cross between the Winter Soldier and Idris Elba’s villainous character in Hobbs and Shaw.

The scene in which Pathaan performs a sky-dive and infiltrates a building from the roof is very similar to the famous sky-dive sequence from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The glass rooftop might remind audiences of the sky-dive sequence from Mission: Impossible – Fallout. A comparison of scenes from Pathaan, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This isn’t the only Tom Cruise homage in the trailer. A showdown between Pathaan and the villain is set in Dubai, and a quick shot in the trailer shows Shah Rukh and Deepika Padukone’s characters scaling a skyscraper. Cruise, as many might remember, famously scaled the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The key difference in most of these scenes is that while Cruise (and even the stuntmen in Transformers 3) pulled off the shots in-camera, Pathaan appears to have been filmed largely against a green screen. A comparison between a scene from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Pathaan.
The final icy chase sequence draws not only from Fast and Furious 8 (this is the scene in which Dwayne Johnson pushes a missile away with his bare arms) but also from War (this is the scene in which Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff’s characters exchange a loaded glance).

A comparison between scenes from Fast and Furious 8 and War. Now to the MCU comparisons. The jet-pack powered aerial chase is very clearly inspired by a similar action sequence in the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The canyon setting adds another layer of similarity. Additionally, not only does John’s character resemble the Winter Soldier physically — he also uses mysterious ball-looking weapons — Pathaan also seems to include a highway fight sequence in which he fires ammo at a car, which flips over — like that popular scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. A comparison between shots from Pathaan and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. John Abraham’s villain in Pathaan uses ball-like weapons, like The Winter Soldier. Pathaan’s snowy action scene has similarities to Inception and Spectre.

Visual homages aside, on a narrative level, Pathaan’s villain appears to be an amalgamation of Silva from Skyfall and Suniel Shetty’s character from Main Hoon Na. Rogue agents are a common trope in spy films, and they always make for engaging adversaries — this was something that Anand did in War, as well. In Pathaan, John’s character might have a connection with Dimple Kapadia’s M-adjacent chief. Pathaan is the year’s first major Bollywood movie, and it’ll be released in Tamil and Telugu as well as the original Hindi, on January 25. Shah Rukh will next be seen in Jawan, and then in Dunki.