Last summer, I took some time out to publish a breakdown of necessary rules Hollywood has inadvertently created to successfully pull off a remake. But there is another genre that many believe is a sign of the lack of creativity, and again, I argue it is a sign of real creativity and like the remake, there is a set of rules that need to be followed in order to make them work. I am of course talking about sequels.
Many people have gotten the idea in their heads that there are maybe five sequels that surpassed the originals, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: Godfather Part II, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Empire Strikes Back, The Dark Knight, Back to The Future: Part II, The Bourne Supremacy, From Russia With Love, Aliens, Evil Dead II, Spider-Man 2, and the list goes on. All of these sequels follow the “rules” to become successful and this is a breakdown of what to look for from now on.
Rule 1: Re-establish
The first thing you have to keep in mind with a sequel is that there are going to be people who have never heard of or seen the original film. So it is the job if the film maker to get everyone up to speed and explain the key points established in the first film. If people walk out of the sequel saying “you need to see the first to understand anything” then you have failed. Take James Cameron’s Aliens for example. Within the first few minutes of the film we see Ripley rescued and then brought in to explain what had happened to her. She recounts all the key points from the first film – she was the only survivor, an unknown creature attacked them, there was a crashed ship containing the creatures, etc…
These are all things people need to know if they didn’t see Ridley Scott’s film. An extremely poor example of this however, is The Matrix Reloaded. In Reloaded we start off with Trinity jumping out of a building being chased by an agent… Anyone who didn’t see The Matrix (they exist) has no clue who this person is, and, why they are running. Which, would be fine, except that no explanation is given throughout the film of who the agents are and why they are so dangerous. There is also no explanation as to why Neo is able to do what he does and why the war exists. If you don’t re-establish then you won’t be able to bring your audience in.
Rule 2: Don’t be afraid to mix things up
Not so much a rule but, rather advice. Don’t be afraid the throw your audience a curve ball. If you go into the sequel and plan on doing nothing more than go through the motions and redo whatever the first one did then you will fail. You need to add some creativity and make the sequel unique. Again I go back to Cameron (this must be Scream 2), Terminator 2: Judgment Day threw a huge curve ball at the audience by making the T-800 the hero and not the villain.
Why John Conner made this choice was left open to interpretation but by doing this, people who enjoyed the first film wouldn’t be walking out saying “yeah but it was just like the other one.” Instead people went “What… The… Fuck.” This (along with the ground breaking effects) helped establish T2 as an iconic piece of cinema.
Rule 3: New Is Good
Unlike Rule 2 which is just a piece of advice, this is a must. The audience NEEDS something new to make them want to see and enjoy the film. The audience hates the same thing over and over again. Even the SAW films, though they follow the same basic plot structure, they give the audience new deaths to enjoy which makes them want to see the film, perhaps the ultimate example of this rule is The Godfather Part II.
In Part II, not only do we see what happens to Michael Corleone (the expected part) we also get to see the rise of his father Vito Corleone. We also get to see all the parallels between Michael’s and Vito’s rise to power. A horrible example of this (and this also goes for rule 2) is Escape From L.A. Why? Because it’s the EXACT SAME MOVIE! Nothing in Escape From L.A. except for the fact that the city is L.A. and not N.Y. is different. The president is kidnapped, snake has been arrested, snake goes in to rescue him, and they even put in another blood sport scene. There is nothing different about Escape From L.A. to keep the audience interested.
Rule 4: Bigger doesn’t mean better:
Just because you have the resources and money to put more on screen, doesn’t mean you should. If having more things on screen doesn’t add to your story then utilize your extra resources in some other way. Perhaps one of the freshest examples of this is Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. While I am not one to criticize Bay for his story telling, there was simply too much in this film, too many robots, too many adventures, too many humans, too much of everything. There weren’t one or two major plot lines that the audience could latch on to.
The first film had three main stories, the government response, Sam and Mikaela’s adventure, and the story of the Autobots looking for the All Spark. Transformers 2 had individual plot lines for Sam, Mikaela, Lennox and his team, the Autobots, the Decepticons, Leo, and Simmons. There simply wasn’t enough screen time to give them all justice. In contrary, an example of a film that takes this rule to heart is Clerks 2. Kevin Smith had access to over 22x the amount of money he had on the first film. But he never lost sight of what Clerks 2 was about, 2 guys talking about their lives and working through their problems. Smith could have gone and filled Clerks 2 to the brim with nothing but stars and overloaded side characters, but instead he took that money and told the story he always wanted to tell (and in color).
Rule 5: Trilogies Are Tricky
A) There are two types of trilogies: the planned and the unplanned trilogy. The planned trilogy has the basic story mapped out, at the very least, by the start of the second film. The unplanned trilogy is when the second film is made with zero intention of doing a third. Some examples include The Blade Trilogy, The Mission Impossible Trilogy, The Transporter Trilogy, The American Pie Trilogy, these are all stories that only exist on a self contained level. In this case the standard sequel rules apply. There isn’t much to say other than be careful as usual.
B) If you have your trilogy mapped out from film 1 then you can’t make that blatantly clear. Take The Phantom Menace for example. Anyone who had already seen episodes 4-6 knew that episode 1 was the start of a new trilogy. But anyone who had never seen Star Wars before or wasn’t aware of it (again, these people exist) had no clue that Episode 1 was the start of a new trilogy. So by ending the film with a clear set up for a sequel you make the ending of the film meaningless, because everyone needs to know what happens and no one can enjoy the film on a self contained level – like they did with A New Hope.
C) If the 2nd film is when you begin planning on a trilogy then there are a few things to know. First, the same blatancy rule applies. Don’t make your second film a giant set up for the third film. The Matrix Reloaded, Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Attack of The Clones, they all make this mistake. If people know you are just setting up for a third film, then they get mad that they had to sit through the 2nd film. Like the first film, it makes the 2nd film meaningless (see the pattern?). Something else you need to keep in mind is that the third film needs to complete the story, so if you close to much out in the 2nd film then there will be nothing left to talk about in the third film. Take The Bourne Suprmecy and The Bourne Ultimatum in this case. Supremecy ends in a way that leaves people happy with the film on a self contained level but still leaves enough open so that we can jump right back into the third film with Bourne still looking for the people who hurt him.
Final Thoughts
Contrary to popular belief, sequels are a good thing. They let us go deeper into the stories of our favorite characters and discover new things that make us go wow. But there is a fine line in the sequel world and when it is crossed everything goes to hell. Follow these rules and you will be successful.
