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Looking at all the movie sequels soon to be upon us (another Die Hard?!?), I wonder about sequels for movies I really liked. This is a personal list, but here are some films I’d be excited to see a “Part II” to, with reasons noted after each film title.
1. Tron 2.0: I re-watched Tron not too long ago and my mind reels with what modern computer animation could do with the depicted computer world. So many technological advances have happened since the first film that could be used for plot ideas (Tron 1.0 world didn’t have the Internet). Just open up Techmeme for a month.
IMDB: Tron
Wikipedia: Tron
Rotten Tomatoes: Tron 75%
2. The Graduate 2 (Home School): I still wonder what happened to Benjamin and Elaine after they ran off together on that bus. I read that Charles Webb is writing a book called “Home School” which features the slightly anti-establishment couple ten years later with two children. Get the much older Dustin Hoffman to reprise his role, and have Paul Simon write some new songs. The Jennifer Aniston flick (Rumor Has It) wasn’t that great - other than providing some insights as to how entertaining The Graduate 2 could be.
IMDB: The Graduate
Wikipedia: The Graduate
Rotten Tomatoes: The Graduate 91%
3. Conan The Destroyer 2 (King Conan: Crown of Iron): At the end of Conan The Destroyer a pensive Arnold S. sits atop his throne making me wonder what the heck happened there. I guess there’s a movie called King Conan: Crown of Iron that has been in the works. Sounds like a perfect Arnie vehicle following his governatorship and heck, he already reprised the Terminator.
IMDB: Conan The Destroyer
Wikipedia: Conan the Destroyer
Rotten Tomatoes: Conan The Destroyer 31%
4. Pirates Of Silicon Valley 2.0: I want to see the second half of the Steve Jobs story - where he’s ousted from Apple, founds NeXT, and returns to save Apple by creating the iMac and the iPod. It’s an awesome redemption story just begging to be put on the screen. The Bill Gates story can be the domination of Windows, the battle with Netscape, and the anti-trust trials, basically a tragedy of epic proportions. Just cutting between these two plot lines sounds exciting to me. Use the same cast - Noah Wylie as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates.
IMDB: Pirates Of Silicon Valley
Wikipedia: Pirates Of Silicon Valley
Rotten Tomatoes: Pirates Of Silicon Valley 86%
5. Battlefield Earth 2: Okay, this is kind of a ridiculous desire, but I laughed so hard at the original Battlefield Earth I’d love to see some others of L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi writings brought to the big screen. How about an all Scientologist cast: Tom Cruise, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley?
IMDB: Battlefield Earth
Wikipedia: Battlefield Earth
Rotten Tomatoes: Battlefield Earth 3%
6. Monsters Inc. 2: Why does only Toy Story have a sequel? I think there’s more to be told of Sulley and Billy Crystal’s eyeball with legs Mike Wazowski.
IMDB: Monsters, Inc.
Wikipedia: Monsters, Inc.
Rotten Tomatoes: Monsters, Inc. 94%
7. The Hobbit: This one is almost too easy but it would be awesome to match up the exemplar Lord Of The Rings trilogy with the prequel, The Hobbit. Whomever makes this film really can’t go wrong unless they screw up the casting, as in Adam Sandler playing Bilbo.
IMDB: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
Rotten Tomatoes: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 94%
8. The Thing 2: If I remember correctly, the end to The Thing had the whole polar base in flames, and the two remaining survivors unsure if the other is the thing. It would be cool if they both made their way back to civilization and then all hell breaks loose. Maybe keep it suspenseful which character is the thing until halfway through the film. According to Wikipedia, a sequel was in the works at the Sci-Fi channel but it fell through, and now a remake is in the works with Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) writing the script. I’m liking it already.
IMDB: The Thing
Wikipedia: The Thing
Rotten Tomatoes: The Thing 83%
9. Office Space 2: This film became a true cult classic, but was ahead of its time. Some ideas for the sequel: the .com rise and the .com flame out, or outsourcing. Maybe have Lumbergh rise as CEO of some Enron-like company, showering fake riches on Peter, Michael, and Samir. Then yank it all out from under them.
IMDB: Office Space
Wikipedia: Office Space
Rotten Tomatoes: Office Space 78%
10. Hoop Dreams 2: Hoop Dreams was a documentary following two young basketball-loving boys, William Gates and Arthur Agee, and their dream of playing professional basketball. The plot was better than any fictional script starting with that premise would have been. Now that reality television and documentaries has proved accessible to mainstream audiences, Hoop Dreams 2 might be worth a shot.
IMDB: Hoop Dreams
Wikipedia: Hoop Dreams
Rotten Tomatoes: Hoop Dreams 97%
11. Spinal Tap II: I think the story of the heavy metal rock band still has some tales to tell, as the original film missed all the hair metal stuff in the late eighties. I don’t think The Return of Spinal Tap counts as it was mostly a live performance. Maybe the Spinal Tap sequel could be told flashback style with an Axl Rose cameo. Recently, an Earth Day short came out that had the oldster Tap members in a “where are they now?” situation. But just note what position this film is in my list to see how serious I am about this idea.
IMDB: Spinal Tap
Wikipedia: Spinal Tap
Rotten Tomatoes: Spinal Tap 97%
Anyhow, that’s my list. Any sequels you’d like to see?
Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.
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Damn this is a good list.
You have a typo in the pirates of silicon valley blurb (”remption” should be “redemption”)
Also, I believe Battlefield Earth (the movie) didn’t actually cover the entire book and that Travolta had planned to do a sequel. Of course, the critical reception and disastrous box office take pretty much destroyed any hope of more Battlefield Earth.
Yeah I seem to recall there were a lot more Battlefield Earth books and a sequel was in the works but it died. I really think Tom Cruise would be a cool addition though especially after he did Minority Report and War of The Worlds. I think Travolta should pull some strings…
Oh thanks… I just found a lot of typos in that article that are now fixed… gotta remember to do that spell check!
There was just one Battlefield Earth book. It was just really long. I remember reading it in my teen-years. I seem to remember the Psychlo planet getting nuked maybe 2/3 of the way into the book. And the last few hundred pages dealt with the humans trying to figure out the weird Psychlo math. Apparently the Psychlo mathematical system was totally whacked and the humans were stumped, until someone realized that the Psychlos had 11 fingers (one of the hands had an extra thumb or something). Once they realized that, they concluded that the Psychlos were using a base-11 mathematical system and they were able to tap into world of Psychlo technology (like platform shoes, spy cameras and teleportation devices that don’t screen for explosive materials).
Poor Psychlos, so much history and civilization only to get punked by a bunch of humans living in caves using harrier jets. p0wnd!
Ah yeah, you’re right (as usual). I was confused by this “Mission Earth” series, some ten part series of books that was also written by L. Ron. Hubbard. Sounds like more of the same sci-fi nonsense.
Wikipedia Quote: “It is frequently cited within science fiction circles as one of the worst science fiction novels of all time. More forgiving literary critics usually cite Battlefield Earth as Hubbard’s best work…”
Yikes, worse than Battlefield Earth?
It might not be a sequel of Tron but for a movie that would be phenomenal given today’s technology is John Brunner’s “Shockwave Rider”
Hi Steven, I haven’t heard of that film - I’ll add it to my Netflix queue.
Jason … hate to break it to ya
but I did qualify it by saying “would be a great movie” — regardless the book is worth adding to any reading list you might have.
Well I do need to read more, and I’m hitting the library today…
A sequel to Tron would be fantastic. I saw that movie quite a few times when I was a lot younger and the effects at the time were amazing. I’d settle for a remake of this movie aswell.
let me know what you think of the book. Considering it was writen well before the advent of the Internet it is pretty amazing book and one that has stuck in my head since first reading it some 20 years ago
I’d love to see a Tron sequel too! And I’ll second the vote for an Office Space 2.
My wife is itchin’ for follow-ups to Birdcage & Beaches.
Steven, well I just borrowed it from the library. I’m going into it knowing nothing about it (well, except that Engtech Twittered it was really good) - which is the way I like to start reading books sometimes.
I wholeheartedly agree with that “Shockwave Rider” would be great to see in film. I remember reading the book the first time some thirty years ago and have re-read it every decade since. Extremely Prescient.
BTW, “Earth Abides” by George Stewart–a 1947 classic–could make a much much more believable post-trauma series (or mini-series) than that junk called “Jericho”.
How about “Rambo 3:2″ where he goes back to Afghanistan and clobbers the ‘freedom fighters’ this time?