Top Ten - Most Unique Sequels (Part one)

In the next month, or so, there will be a handful of sequels coming out, once again signalling the arrival of the summer movie season. You know the drill; walk into the theatre, watch the storyline from part one or two move ahead (following the same style as the previous film), and leave feeling pretty good about life (unless the sequel sucks). It's a tried and true test of making lots of money. So, I'm always intrigued when sequels take some risks, and create an entirely new viewing experience for the audience. Sometimes, these risks are organic; continuing the story from the previous movie in a new and unexpected way, and sometimes they are bold choices; tossing aside previous storylines to create something all together new. Either way, these are the top ten most unique sequels I have ever seen.

10. Out of Sight

Alright, it's not technically a sequel, and it wasn't advertised as one, but that's why it's so much fun when you find out...Out of Sight kind of is...to Jackie Brown. Out of Sight is based on a book by Elmore Leonard, and like many authors he writes fiction that sometimes takes place in the same world. So, one character from one book will enter into another book, often as a supporting character. It's very difficult to achieve this effect in a series of movies because, unlike a book, unless it's not a direct sequel or a movie by the same director, the creative team gets shuffled around, and the character is often played by another actor (note the constant, jarring cast changes in the Stephen King Castle Rock movies). Well, in Out of Sight, despite the fact that the creative team is completely different, Michael Keaton returns ever so briefly to play the same character he played in Jackie Brown, Ray Nicolette. It's not earth shattering, and Keaton's appearance is really just a cameo, but it's enough of a connective thread to establish that Jackie Brown and Out of Sight take place in the same world. It's the first time where I felt like the expansive world created in an author's books was fully realized on screen.

9. Dawn of the Dead

George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead was a huge hit, but the downbeat ending didn't make it an easy candidate for a sequel. The character arcs were complete, the political message commented on the tumultuous racial violence of the sixites, and everything seemed to wrap up...not nicely...but with some sense of closure. So, 1978 rolls around, and Romero decides to revisit the zombie film with Dawn of the Dead. Instead of following characters from the first film, Romero creates a new cast. This had been done before in sequels (Godzilla films and monster movies), but the best part of Dawn of the Dead, is that Romero takes the zombie infestation to another level (they've taken over most of America), and uses this in order to make a political comment about the 1970s. In Dawn of the Dead a group of survivors hole up in a shopping mall, create a mini-utopian society, and watch as it is threatened by a biker gang and zombies. While Night looked at racial intolerance, Dawn looks at America's love affair with commercialism. That's not to say these films are in-your-face with their politics (they are about scares and gore first and foremost), but with each new Dead film Romero uses the zombies as metaphorical devices to comment on an American issue.

8. Mission Impossible (spoilers below)

I suppose there have been sequels to television shows made before (The Nude Bomb as a sequel to Get Smart), so it's not a completely original idea. The reason why Mission Impossible is included on this list though is that it completely screws over fans of the show, using their knowledge of the television series to create one twist after another. You can almost hear director Brian De Palma laughing maniacally behind the scenes. I had followed the eighties' version of Mission Impossible, so I was aware of the format. A group of ragtag specialists, under the heroic leadership of Jim Phelps, complete a series of crazy missions against foreign enemies, often ending in success. Mission Impossible takes every series cliche and turns it 180 degrees. Those ragtag specialists, including big names like Emilio Estevez and Kirsten Scott Thomas: dead in the first twenty minutes. Successful missions: the first one fails colossally. Missions against foreign enemies: kind of, although the big setpiece in the movie has the heroes breaking into CIA headquarters and stealing top secret American codes. And the heroic Jim Phelps: well, here's where the movie probably pissed off most fans...Phelps is killed off, only to return at the end where it's revealed that he is the villain!!! That's right, the hero of two television series, spanning eight seasons across three decades is the cold blooded, out for a buck murderous villain. Mission Impossible knows what the audience is going to expect when they walk in the theatre, and does everything possible to throw them off course.

7. Back to the Future II (spoilers below)

For the first half of the movie, Back to the Future II seems like a pretty ordinary sequel. Picking up exactly where the first film left off, Marty and Doc Brown travel into the future to save Marty's kids. It's all kind of ho-hum to tell you the truth, but then Zemeckis and Bob Gale decide that it's best to make the last half of this sequel absolutely insane! So (try and follow along) Future Biff steals a sports almanac, takes it back to 1950s Biff, creating a rich, power mad 1985 Biff. Marty and Doc must go back to 1950 (the same day Marty just got back from in the first movie), steal the sports almanac from 1950s Biff, while ensuring that they don't encounter their past selves, which will mess up the entire time continuum. What follows is a sequel that exists literally overtop of the first movie. During the mission to recover the sports almanac Marty accidently puts his past self in jeopardy. So, while Past Marty is playing Johnny Be Good at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance (a scene from part one), Present Marty is trying to make sure 1950s Biff's henchmen don't interfere with the song. The second movie manages to end almost exactly where the first movie ended (minus five minutes). It's exhausting and hilarious how the two movies weave in and out from each other, and Zemeckis juggles the complicated plot with a sure foot.

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Billed as a remake of the 1950's classic science fiction film, Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers suddenly becomes an unexpected sequel about half an hour into the movie. By now, the ending (without the coda) of the first Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie is extremely famous. Kevin McCarthy slams against a car window screaming, "They're here already. You're next! You're next! You're Next..." In the "remake" Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams are driving down a busy San Fransisco Street. Suddenly, Kevin McCarthy hurtles himself into their car window screaming...you guessed it, "They're here already. You're Next! You're Next! You're Next...". Seconds later he's dead, and our new main characters start to understand the warnings of his statement. Sure, people can argue, that the scene isn't really the same as the one in the first movie at all (different time, city); that it's paying homage instead of continuing the storyline. But, the remake takes the horrors of the first movie, and shows what happens next; what happens when the invasion takes hold. In a way, the horrors implied in McCarthy's warning turn into the horrors unleashed upon humanity in this Invasion, and it's a brutal continuation. So for a remake, that manages to become a sequel (something hinted at in John Carpenter's The Thing as well), Invastion of the Body Snatchers rounds out part one of the most unique sequels list.

The second part of the list will be up shortly...