Revis asked: If you could make a sequel to any movie that doesn’t already have one, what would it be, and what would it be about?
I spent a whole lot more time pondering these questions than I thought I would. With the vast catalog of movies constantly rumbling around in my brain I thought it would be super easy to pick one where the ending had begged for a sequel that had never been delivered.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with the mind of a jester, I went straight to joke answers. For example: There should definitely be a sequel to Spiderman 2 (there was, of course, but the third movie was so terrible that I refuse to recognize it.) Or, there should definitely be a sequel to The Return of the Jedi (while these haven’t been made yet, the rights have been purchased and it is only a matter of time before the next trilogy gets rolled out). Or, they should definitely make Dragons of Winter Night into a movie… That one probably means a lot less to most of you, but those who watched the terrible Dragons of Autumn Twilight Movie understand that it really wouldn’t have been good for them to make the sequel – they would need to just start the whole thing over – either with better animators, or with a live action cast. The story deserves better.
So… you see, my mind tumbled from one joke answer to the next, which did nothing to help me come up with how to actually respond to Revis’ prompt.
Currently my mind is spinning around all the movies where the ending felt unfinished, hanging, and where I was furious that they had ended the way they did. Often this happens in most of the anime series I watch – I never like the endings, because they don’t “end” but then they also don’t have any new episodes to continue the story line, leaving me feeling incomplete. “What happens next?!” I felt the same way at the end of the Harry Potter series (more the books than the movies), okay great (spoiler alert) the good guys win, but then what? What adventures does he have after the fact? I want more!
Still, I think I can do better than that. I’m going to cut myself off from superhero movies altogether, and movies based on books, and anything that is part of a series already. Where does that leave me? What genre should I pick? Would we want a sequel to So I Married An Axe Murderer? Would we want a sequel to Contact? Or Signs? Or Sixth Sense for that matter? How about learning what happens after The Day After Tomorrow? Would we want to know if the love stories worked out in the end with sequels for Notting Hill or Love Actually? What would the next chapters in Lost in Translation or The Royal Tenenbaums look like? So many movies, so many unanswered questions, so many story lines that could be.
And now this is getting a bit long so I need to wrap it up… make a choice… get it down and explain it away… I better reread the prompt:
If you could make a sequel to any movie that doesn’t already have one, what would it be, and what would it be about?
If I could make a sequel to any movie that doesn’t already have one, I would write the next scenes after the final credits rolled on Wall-E. The movie would tell a tale of Wall-E and EVA helping the humans figure out how to survive on Earth. The first half would consist of trying to wean people off the ships automated food services as they waited for plants to grow, relinquishing their chairs and getting healthy working in the soil under the sun, and relearning how to communicate face to face, resolve issues, fall in love, etc… The second half of the movie the characters would face the major problem of having to protect their crops from the raging dust storms, and ward off an attempted mutiny by some of the passengers who didn’t trust that they could survive on Earth and tried to figure out how to get the ship up and fully operational again (including turning AUTO back on). There would be laughs, and drama, and tears, and a cockroach that never gets squished.
What sequel would you make? (Make sure you link back to Revis’ post when you answer.)
The Matticus Kingdom 