When tracing the origins of the two most famous directors ever to come from the same family (apologies to the Coens and the Farrelys), one can see a military family from a coastal, industrial town in England that spawned two brothers: Tony and Ridley Scott. Ridley, the elder brother, attended the Royal College of Art in London and became an advertising commercial director in the UK, paving a similar path for his younger brother Tony. From his impressive commercial resume Ridley parlayed his way into his feature-length directorial debut, The Duellists, in 1977. The film wasn't a hit, but garnered enough notice for Ridley's breakthrough film, Alien, one of the most visionary sci-fi films of the 1970s.

Similarly, Tony Scott got a start in commercials under the tutelage of his older brother, making an impressive commercial for Saab using fighter aircraft, which would later lead to his own breakthrough film, Top Gun, in 1985. By that point Ridley had already made another revolutionary sci-fi film, Blade Runner, and it would have been a foregone conclusion that he was destined for a better career than his brother. Still, the next ten years seemed to tip the balance back in Tony's favor, as the younger Scott become a more commercially successful director with Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and Crimson Tide.

Ridley seemed more determined to make more creatively challenging films than his brother during this time, but saw a major career downturn and lower quality of films, save for Thelma and Louise, which garnered an Oscar nomination for Ridley. From then on, the brothers traded commercial and critical success until Tony Scott's untimely suicide in 2012. While there was no question that Ridley had made more landmark films, Tony may have been the better director in terms of pure entertainment. For argument's sake, let us dive deeper into their careers to settle this debate.

Both Brothers Had Early Commercial Success

Alien
20th Century Fox

Ridley's visionary ambition to innovate the sci-fi genre certainly wedged the door to showbiz open for his younger brother, after the elder brother used the influence of Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey to motivate his own ambitions to project his storytelling into the future. His first major success in this realm was Alien, a film that successfully married horror and sci-fi to the tune of a $187 million box office gross and spawning one of the most successful action franchises in history. His adaptation of Swiss artist H.R. Giger's haunting visions of a predatory alien into a terrifying motion picture forever changed our notion of what a sci-fi film could be.

Related: Why Alien is Still the Greatest Sci-Fi Horror Film of All Time

Similarly, Tony Scott saw success early in his career — though his first film, The Hunger, was a critical and commercial failure. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer saw something in Tony's slick vampire film and his advertising work, later asking him to direct Top Gun in 1985, a smash hit that suddenly made him the more studio-friendly of the two brothers. Bruckheimer and Tony Scott's partnership continued on the same course, with films that, while critically derided, earned huge sums at the gate. Beverly Hills Cop II grossed nearly $300 million and Days of Thunder had similar success. Both brothers were now set in their ways — one the more artistic, content-driven filmmaker, while the other the more entertaining and commercially viable.

Mid-Career, Ridley Continued to Experiment While Tony Went Full-On Action

Christian Slater - True Romance
Warner Bros.

In the 90s, Tony Scott continued to impress with films that eschewed high-brow subject matter for all-out entertainment. The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, and Crimson Tide maintained Tony's penchant for hard-boiled action and electrified audiences, in the process giving Quentin Tarantino his first big break (he wrote the script for True Romance) and introducing the world to the talents of James Gandolfini in the same film.

Meanwhile, Ridley Scott saw a major career downturn. With the exception of Thelma and Louise, Ridley's '90s films all underperformed at the gate, with films like 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, and G.I. Jane leaving critics scratching their heads. Would he ever return to the glory of his early career? Indeed, he would —right at the turn of the century with Gladiator winning five Oscars including Best Picture.

Related: Russell Crowe Talks Scrapped Fantastical Idea for Gladiator 2

Tony Scott's brilliance hadn't wavered, however, and he kept pace with his older brother through his superb collaborations with Denzel Washington on four films: Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable. After his death in 2010, Washington mused to E! News, "[Tony] had a tremendous passion for life and for the art of filmmaking and was able to share this passion with all of us through his cinematic brilliance." High praise from possibly the greatest actor of a generation, and one who had worked with countless other talented directors, including brother Ridley on American Gangster. He clearly preferred working with the younger Scott, who could coax a side of Washington that brought him a step above his work elsewhere.

Settling the Debate

Matt Damon as Dr. Mark Watney
20th Century Fox

While it is difficult to say, definitively, whether Tony Scott would have continued his remarkable pace of directing high-earning films after his tragic suicide in 2010, he gave every indication in his last film, Unstoppable, that he planned only to continue the type of crowd-pleasing films that stoked his passion for movie-making. That said, it would be difficult for Tony Scott or any director on the planet to compare to Ridley Scott's enormous breadth of work. While he never claimed that elusive Best Director Oscar, he created films that defined genres and defied them, continuing his impressive output into his eighties with award-winning films like The Martian.

While such a debate must inevitably be left to the subjective opinions of their audiences, you'd be hard-pressed to say that Ridley Scott has played second-fiddle to any filmmaker, much less one that grew up in the same house South Shields, England, all those years before.