6 movie sequels that ripped off their originals
Hollywood loves sequels. And why shouldn’t they? In the past few years, almost all of the highest grossing movies worldwide were a sequel.
A sequel is in itself already a safe move, but sometimes they really, really, really want to make sure everything goes as well as the first time. The easiest way to do that is to do the same movie all over again and pretend it’s another at the expense of having stories that end up being comically far-fetched.
That’s precisely what happened in the sequels to the great movies featured in this article. If you don’t already hate them, hopefully you will now.
1. The Hangover Part I and II
The Hangover was such a surprising success that sequels were to be expected. However, anyone would assume they would take a route similar to Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up “sequel”. Now even though This is Forty didn’t really work out all that well, the idea of taking characters from one story and develop them in a totally different one was definitely interesting.
I’m not even saying that the movie shouldn’t be about a hangover. I’m just saying that it shouldn’t have been about the same Hangover, except in Bangkok instead of Las Vegas
… and with a monkey instead of a baby
…and with Stu having a tattoo on his face, instead of a missing tooth
… and with having them steal a monk, instead of a tiger
… and with Stu getting involved with a transsexual prostitute, instead of a stripper and
… you get the idea.
Both movies start with a scene in which people are relaxing in a paradisaic scenery waiting for a wedding that will take place in a few hours. Doug’s fiancée/wife answers a phone and Phil tells her that they “fucked up”.
Cut to a montage accompanied by a song by Danzig (that sounds almost exactly the same in both movies) and we go back a couple of days when everyone was happy.
In The Hangover, Doug’s getting married and Stu is treated like shit by his girlfriend.
In The Hangover Part II, Stu’s getting married and he’s treated like shit by his future father in law.
The guys decide to celebrate the upcoming wedding and have toast at night.
The next morning, they’re lying on the floor of a wrecked hotel room with no memory of the previous night.
A member of the group is missing: Doug (the groom) in The Hangover (H1) and Teddy (the bride’s brother) in The Hangover Part 2 (H2).
Stu has something different on his face.
After a while, they realize they happen to have a baby around in H1 and a monkey in H2, having no idea how either ended up with them.
At one point, they realize they kidnapped a tiger from Mike Tyson’s mansion in H1 and a monk from a Buddhist monastery in H2. They return them and learn more about the previous night.
Then, in H1, Alan pretends that the baby is masturbating. In H2 Alan pretends that the monkey is doing a blowjob to the monk.
“That’s wrong. You shouldn’t be doing that.” everyone says while laughing during a sweet moment of camaraderie.
Stu plays a funny song describing their situation.
Then…
- Alan admits having drugged everyone, thus explaining the fact that they didn’t remember anything.
- They have to make sure that a sum of money ends up in the hands of a criminal who allegedly is holding Doug/Teddy hostage.
- After succeeding, turns out the guy they gave the money to didn’t have their friend, after all.
- Phil calls Doug’s fiancée/wife (the scene described in the beginning) and Stu has a Dr. House moment when he realizes Doug/Teddy has been at the hotel this whole time. Doug’s on the roof and Teddy is stuck in an elevator. Doug has a sunburn all over him, and Teddy is missing a finger.
- They rush back to the wedding, where Stu confronts the person who was bullying him. His girlfriend in H1 and his future father in law in H2.
All is well and the guys relax together after the wedding.
One of the characters finds the camera they used that night. They all agree to delete the photos after watching them and promptly do some silly faces before cutting to the credits/photos sequence.
The photos include all sorts of shocking stuff including a lot of nudity, oral sex, people doing drugs, Carrot Top, and worst of all, Carrot Top doing drugs.
They did, however, try diverging the formula slightly with The Hangover Part 3 and that ended up being the least successful, both critically and commercially. But… good effort guys.
2. Home Alone 1 and 2
Home Alone is one of the most recognizable movies ever. Most of you watched it on Christmas unless Die Hard was on. With a budget of only 17 million, the movie became the highest grossing live-action comedy of all-time, making a total of over 533 million dollars.
Since no one expected such success, the producers figured they should redo the same thing and hope it works. The repetition of so many sequences from the first movie should have made some of the characters wonder if they weren’t living in a broken simulation.
Both movies start with everyone getting pissed at Kevin after he gets in trouble.
Then, Kevin gets sent to the attic, where he tells his mother he wished his family disappeared/had his own vacation alone. She tells him that he may get what he wishes for.
The next morning, both parents wake up late and end up rushing to the airport, leaving Kevin behind in the process.
During the flight, Kevin’s mother asks her husband if they aren’t forgetting something. He assures her they aren’t and shortly after, she realizes what happened.
In both movies, Kevin then proceeds to have the greatest time of his life, including watching a made up classic noir movie while enjoying a nice bowl of ice cream.
Meanwhile he’s afraid of a weird creepy person who is actually harmless.
Later, he has fun using the noir films to scare the shit out of some poor saps…
…and starts to realize that he misses his family.
Meanwhile, the Wet Bandits are planning a robbery (houses that are empty for the holidays in Home Alone 1 and a toy store in Home Alone 2).
Kevin realizes that the scary character is actually a nice person and during a brief conversation with old dude/bird lady he learns how important families are.
Kevin then proceeds to prepare a bunch of traps to torture and humiliate the Wet Bandits.
Despite his heroic attempts, the Wet Bandits outsmart Kevin and finally catch him.
In the first movie, they intend to bite his fingers off (Jesus Christ!).
In the second one, they figure they should go a step further and actually shoot him in the head in the middle of NY, cause why not, right?
All of the sudden, the previously scary character comes out of nowhere, saves the day and the bad guys go to jail.
Kevin ends up getting back together with his mom.
In the end, old man solves his personal problems. Lady covered in bird poop stays covered in bird poop but gets a turtle dove from Kevin.
Finally, the movie ends with someone off screen yelling at Kevin. He then runs away.
3. Ghostbusters 1 & 2
The first Ghostbusters was a refreshing comedy that used a very unusual mix of laughs and special effects. It also involved some of the biggest comedy legends of the past few decades (Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray in his most notorious role). It’s no surprise that it almost made 10 times its budget making it the highest grossing movie of 1984.
In the case of Home Alone, it didn’t really make much sense to write a sequel to such a specific plot. But a Ghostbusters sequel made perfect sense. There were so many different ways to develop new stories within that universe. With all the myths, folklore, mystical creatures and religious texts, they could come up with all kinds of crazy stuff in all kinds of new locations.
Both movies start with the Ghostbusters facing financial problems.
In the first one they get fired from the university and ask the bank for a loan to finance their paranormal extermination service, a perfectly reasonable set up. In a desperate attempt at repeating the same arc in the second movie, the Ghostbusters are broke again because:
1 — They were sued for the property damage they caused in the first movie
2 — Got barred from investigating the supernatural
Take a moment to appreciate how in the second movie everyone still thinks they are a fraud, even though the entire city saw an army of ghosts and a giant walking marshmallow in the middle of New York a few years back.
So anyway, in the first stages of both movies, they save the day by capturing a ghost (In a hotel in GB1 and in a courtroom in GB2) launching them into stardom.
We are then presented with a classic 80s montage of the Ghostbusters being popular and needed.
A woman named Dana, whose favorite pastime is avoiding horny dorks…
…has been facing a particular supernatural problem that intrigues the Ghostbusters.
Peter Venkman then proceeds to play the cool member of the team whose job includes hitting on the pretty girl.
Then, some annoying asshole in a suit tries to shut them down.
The Ghostbusters also try to convince the mayor about the incoming dangers, but the mayor is pretty skeptical. Again, this happens in both movies. It’s still the same mayor!
Eventually, the douche bag gets them arrested.
While they’re locked away, we’re presented with another 80s montage, this time showing a lot of freaky shit happening in the city. It’s like a Rocky Montage, but with evil spirits.
So whaddayaknow, they were right. The mayor asks them for help, and they go save the day in a final boss fight…
…that involves Dana and the dork who’s been hitting on her. Louis in GB1 became under the control of an evil doggy thing. Janosz in GB2 became under the control of Viggo, the main antagonist.
Both battles escalate to some kind of a Megazord creature, albeit playing on opposite sides in each movie.
The movies end with the Ghostbusters succeeding. Venkman gets the girl and they’re lauded as heroes under the sound of some fine 80s power tunes.
4. The Fugitive & U.S. Marshalls
The Fugitive managed to be both critically acclaimed and a box office success and once again it’s a story that doesn’t leave much room for sequels. Or does it? Hollywood says it does, so I guess it does.
The thing is, they wanted to bring back Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Samuel Gerard. He even got an Oscar for it. But it seems that the writers felt that what people liked about him, wasn’t his wittiness. It was, of course, his tendency to keep finding himself chasing innocent people who are trying to do the job people like him should have done in the first place. So that’s what we got.
The movies are so similar that naming the sequel “U.S. Marshalls”, turned out to be the most surprising thing about it.
Both movies start with a sequence of blurry confusing images scored by an eerie soundtrack showing the murders.
Then Kimble (Harrison Ford) and Sheridan (Wesley Snipes) are brought to questioning where they are implicitly accused of murder.
After accusations are made, they are transported to another prison, Kimble by bus and Sheridan by plane. They both look backward, cause they’re realizing something fishy is going on.
Some prisoners try to escape in The Fugitive, and some prisoner tries to kill Sheridan in U.S. Marshalls. Shots are fired and the bus/plane crashes…
Kimble helps a wounded guard escape the bus before a train hits them.
Sheridan helps Gerard rescue people before the plane submerges.
Gerard takes over the pursuit from an incompetent sheriff.
After a while, Kimble finds himself by a ledge, held at gunpoint by Gerard. This also happens in U.S. Marshalls, except it’s a bit closer to the ending.
Both jump and survive (obviously).
They escape every time Gerard catches up and use several payphones to ask friends for help.
For some reason, they also both rent a room specifically from eastern European landlords that Gerard later finds about.
The movie’s villain, who turns out to be a dirty cop in U.S. Marshalls and a dirty ex-cop in The Fugitive, shoot an honest cop, making everyone assume that the fugitive is also a cop killer.
After the bad guys get defeated, Gerard and the fugitive become friends and are all like “eh… water under the bridge”.
Also, here’s a picture of Tommy Lee Jones dressed like a chicken in U.S. Marshalls.
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones is a character mostly known for his famous archeology method:
1 — Find objects of great archaeological value
2 — Be captured by the bad guys while doing so
3 — Escape and lead them to said objects, until they die by themselves in the end
Both movies start with an intro in which Indy showcases his skills to find something that is taken by the main antagonist.
Both Belloq and Spalko are intelligent people hired by two of the most terrible people in history, but are also personally interested in what they were hired to find.
Indy then barely escapes. And goes back home, I guess.
He then returns to his old regular life as a teacher, when Marcus Brody, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a character obviously created to fill in Marcus’ void, Jim Broadbent in Crystal Skull, interrupt him. See, Denholm Elliott, the actor who played Marcus originally, died in 1992. It would be a shame to let that prevent writers from following the formula.
At one point, Marcus Brody and Marcus’ replacement enjoy a conversation at Indy’s place while he packs.
Anyway, in Raiders two Army Intelligence agents tell Indy that the bad guys (Nazis) are interested in Abner Ravenwood.
In Crystal Skull, Shia LaBeouf tells Indy that the bad guys (Russians) are interested in Harold Oxley.
Indy hadn’t seen Ravenwood in 10 years and Oxley in 20 years. Since Ravenwood is actually dead, he ends up meeting his daughter, Marion, who he hadn’t seen in several years, too.
He deduces that the Nazis/Russians are interested in the Ark of the Covenant/Crystal Skulls in order to use its power as a weapon.
So Indy starts looking for the coveted object before the bad guys find it, which is pretty ironic because that’s precisely the only reason the bad guys manage to get their hands on the Ark/Skull in the first place. They just take it from him.
It was mentioned above that Indy finds Marion Ravenwood in Raiders. Well, that also happens in Crystal Skull. It’s funny how in Raiders, she is mad at Indy for having left, and guess what, in Crystal Skull, she is also mad at Indy for having left.
So eventually, a convoy led by the villains is transporting the coveted object. Indy does what he has to do to retrieve it.
He kicks people out of the trucks, kills a few and destroys everything until he gets the object back, clearly taking the whole “it belongs in a museum” thing a bit too seriously.
After all that hard work, the bad guys catch up and take control.
Eventually, the villain performs a ritual to learn about the power of the Ark/Skulls and Indy heroically lets everyone die by themselves.
After being fascinated at first, the villains quickly become scared, yell horrified and end up disintegrated in flames. Just like anyone who watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull in the theaters.
In the end, the good guys contemplate the area where the epic finale occurred.
By the way. a lot of Crystal Skull’s plot points were also already present in the third movie of the series, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade:
- A traitor who wasn’t all that bad, but still dies at the end (Elsa/Mac)
- A group of people interested in protecting the coveted objects (Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword/a bunch of Amazon natives)
- The long chase involving trucks
- The fact that the bad guys kill themselves and everything falls apart in the end
So what makes Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull different is basically the refrigerator scene and Mutt Williams. So… yeah.
6. Star Wars: Episode IV and Star Wars: Episode VII
Episode VII came out to the great delight of both fans and critics. Unlike the other entries in this list, this is a sequel that I liked a lot. It’s a pretty good movie. Too bad it had already been made. Sure, that was partly deliberate given that there was a whole new generation of viewers, but still…
They start with the good guys getting attacked by a bunch of stormtroopers.
In the midst of the chaos, Leia in NH and Poe in TFA, store vital info in a droid and send it away.
The masked, voice distorted, dark dressed villain, makes a grand entrance.
After the battle ends, we learn he’s looking for the info that was sent away with the droid. Leia/Poe get captured.
Meanwhile, the droid finds itself lost in an arid planet…
Until the hero finds it.
Leia/Poe gets interrogated…
…while the good guys meet an older experienced character, Obi-Wan in NH and Han Solo in TFA, with whom they see the contents of the crucial information that was stored in the droid.
While we’re presented with a bunch of shenanigans involving money owing, daring escapes and canteen musicians (pretty much Han Solo stuff)…
…we learn that the bad guys seem to forget they’re not in a cartoon and decide to create the most ridiculously powerful weapon they can think of: the Death Star in NH and the Starkiller in TFA.
Their purpose? Blow up planets!
Good guys don’t like that kind of thing and end up infiltrating the bases…
…helping the strong female character who had been held prisoner…
…and getting the Mentor Dude killed by the Bad Guy in the process.
Hero does an impression of crying Tobey McGuire.
Good guys plan assault on Evil Base/Giant-Planet-Destroying-Weapon.
Leia oversees the thing.
Heroes make use of the bases’ vulnerabilities to destroy them to bits.
Then they all get together and celebrate the victory. The end.
It’s most heartbreaking when it’s clearly just money and not creative motivation that drives the development of a sequel to a good first movie. That was obviously the case with at least some of these entries. And sure, it’s certainly hard to develop a compelling story without falling into the temptation of repeating what we already know worked. But in most of these sequels, logic had to be absurdly stretched so they could repeat the same tropes by inserting either extremely unlikely circumstances or bizarre character behavior. And we already have plenty of that in real life.
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