Are the Mario Brothers named after characters from "The Wages Of Fear"?

November 23, 2008 9:25 PM

Are the Mario Brothers named after characters from "The Wages Of Fear"?

I recently watched Le Salaire De La Peur/The Wages Of Fear and was struck by the fact that two of the main characters are called Mario and Luigi, and Luigi looks very like the game character.

Googling shows that a couple of bloggers have made the same observation, but nothing apart from that.

I was just wondering if anyone actually had a definitive answer. It could just be a weird coincidence, but if you think about it, there is a small similarity between the game and the movie i.e. action/adventure, explosives.

posted by AmbroseChapel to media & arts (4 comments total)

Everything I've ever read says that Mario got his name from a landlord. Wikipedia seems to back that up. Not sure about Luigi.
posted by danb at 9:34 PM on November 23, 2008

Wikipedia Luigi says Luigi was named Luigi because of a pizza place by NoA named 'Mario & Luigi's'.
posted by traco at 10:02 PM on November 23, 2008

Well, the evolution of the game -- from Donkey Kong (Mario is called Jumpman there is no Luigi), to Donkey Kong Jr. and then Mario Bros -- was more organic than that. I've never seen anything to connect the game to the movie, and there are plenty that contradict that hypothesis.

I vote coincidence.
posted by dhartung at 10:54 PM on November 23, 2008

They are two of the most common Italian names. Coincidence.
posted by languagehat at 7:30 AM on November 24, 2008