It's more or less the rule that a sci-fi film that's even remotely successful will spawn at least one sequel, not all of which are stellar. In fact, some are deservedly forgotten and others, quite frankly, should have been.
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00:00It's more or less the rule that a sci-fi film that's even remotely successful will spawn
00:05at least one sequel, not all of which are stellar.
00:09In fact, some are deservedly forgotten, and others, quite frankly, should have been.
00:14While 1982's Tron was a much more on-the-nose look at what might happen if artificial intelligence
00:19got too powerful, War Games released the following year opted to take that premise in a more
00:24believable direction.
00:26Instead of the hero literally entering the computer world and physically battling tangible
00:29manifestations of digital evil, as happens in Disney's sci-fi classic, War Games sees
00:35teenaged hacker David sitting at a computer playing a text-based war simulation against
00:39that movie's AI.
00:40Or is it antagonist?
00:42Would you like to see some projected kill ratios?
00:48After a novelization and several video games, the War Games franchise went quiet for a couple
00:53decades.
00:54That is, until a direct-to-video sequel showed up in 2008 by the name of War Games' The
00:59Dead Code.
01:00The main character was a young hacker, but the similarities largely end there.
01:04"'Terror' is a filthy sewer filled with hatred and bile that threatens our shores."
01:10The film never seems to quite settle on whether it's trying to be a remake or a sequel, but
01:15the DVD packaging classifies it as the latter, so that's what we're calling it.
01:19Either way, The Dead Code was dead on arrival, met with dreadful reviews, and failed to be
01:23noticed by existing War Games fans or create new ones.
01:28Not all forgotten sci-fi sequels are shuttled directly to home media.
01:32Sometimes they get theatrical releases and might even receive a fair amount of attention
01:35when they do, but still fail to stay lodged in the public consciousness.
01:40Such is the case for 2010, the year we make contact, the 1984 theatrical sequel to Stanley
01:45Kubrick's 1968 classic 2001 A Space Odyssey, generally considered to be one of the best
01:52sci-fi movies of all time.
01:54Unlike 2001, which was developed simultaneously as a screenplay and novel by Kubrick and sci-fi
02:00writer Arthur C. Clarke, 2010 is based on a book by Clarke alone, 1982's 2010 Odyssey
02:072.
02:08However, Kubrick wasn't interested in doing the film version of 2010, and Clarke gave
02:12his blessing but didn't help with the script as he had for 2001.
02:16I can't do all of these things with no reason.
02:18I can't…
02:19Forget reason.
02:20There's no time to be reasonable.
02:22This left writer-director Peter Hyams to craft his own vision of Clarke's work, and critics
02:26were largely positive about the result.
02:28The film failed to topple its opening weekend competitor, Beverly Hills Cop, but bested
02:32Dune and Starman in the ensuing weeks.
02:35Over the years, however, 2010 failed to uphold the legacy of 2001, and if it's mentioned
02:41alongside the original at all, it's the briefest of footnotes.
02:45After making a name for himself with commercials and music videos, Tarsem Singh moved into
02:50the world of movies.
02:51His feature film directorial debut was 2000's The Cell, which was a perfect showcase for
02:56Tarsem's artistic vision, as large stretches of it took place inside a virtual reality
03:00program that allowed users to enter other people's dreams.
03:04The Cell was more of a cult classic, barely breaking the $100 million mark at the worldwide
03:08box office on the back of a $33 million budget.
03:12Reviews were mixed, with universal praise going to the dream sequences, but less so
03:16to the scenes that took place in the real world.
03:19There was nothing about The Cell that demanded or even deserved a sequel, but one was released
03:24nine years later anyway.
03:25Here, you wanna do this?
03:27The Cell 2, which Tarsem had zero involvement in, often feels more like a rejected script
03:32for a sci-fi-tinged Saw sequel than a follow-up to The Cell.
03:37"...they were on the trail of a madman."
03:39The film at least loosely resembles its namesake by having a psychic enter the mind of the
03:44movie's killer in an effort to stop him.
03:46Called one of the worst movies of 2009, The Cell 2 came and went with little fanfare.
03:52Sometimes it takes movie sequels decades to get off the ground.
03:55In the case of the pioneering sci-fi film It Came From Outer Space, there was a 43-year
04:00gap between the original and its 1996 made-for-TV sequel.
04:04A popular misconception is that the original movie was based on an existing book by sci-fi
04:09author Ray Bradbury, when in fact it was a story he wrote specifically to be made into
04:13a film.
04:14While technically a remake, the 1996 movie was titled as a sequel, perhaps owing to the
04:19powers-that-be's lack of faith in its ability to pay homage to the original, which at that
04:23point had become a certified classic.
04:25"...What was it?
04:26Where did it come from?
04:27Who were the all-powerful creatures it brought from outer space?"
04:33Both movies are about a small town where an alien spacecraft touches down, in the effects
04:37the visitors have on the area and its residents.
04:39But while the first movie was groundbreaking for its day, particularly in its early use
04:44of 3D, It Came From Outer Space 2 looked like a cheaply made mid-'90s TV movie.
04:50Aside from a small VHS print run, it's all but dropped off the face of the Earth.
04:55Though marketed as a Stephen King adaptation, the 1992 sci-fi thriller The Lawnmower Man
05:00shares very little with King's story of the same name.
05:03Adapting King's tale proved a tough nut to crack, so the title and some vague elements
05:07of the story were grafted onto an original screenplay called Cyber-God.
05:10"...Yeah, Cyber-Man, he came to see me."
05:15The resulting movie was critically panned and is considered among the worst Stephen
05:19King films, but it became a cult classic due in large part to its cutting-edge use of computer
05:24animation, telling the story of a gardener named Job Smith who becomes a fully digital
05:28being and begins killing people via cyberspace.
05:31The Lawnmower Man would have likely been forgotten in and of itself if it weren't for its visuals
05:35and the publicity it received when Stephen King sued the film's producers for using the
05:39name of one of his works to sell a seemingly unrelated product.
05:43So the fact that it has a forgotten sequel isn't surprising.
05:46Actor Jeff Fahey was replaced in the role of Job by Matt Frewer, and, true to its title,
05:50Lawnmower Man 2 Beyond Cyberspace sees Job's reach extend to more of the real world, with
05:56his appearance no longer being entirely digital.
05:59While likely done for budgetary reasons, the decision robbed the sequel of most of the
06:03charm of the original, and it was a massive box office flop.
06:08Cocoon was as heartwarming as it was family-friendly.
06:11The story followed the residence of a retirement home who discover a way to stop aging, a nearby
06:15swimming pool that a group of aliens are using to recharge their own life force.
06:19"...I feel tremendous!
06:21I'm ready to take all the world!
06:25Ow!"
06:26The series meet the aliens, who offer to take them back to their home planet with the promise
06:29of immortality.
06:31Cocoon was a big hit as well as critically acclaimed, going on to win Oscars for both
06:34visual effects and supporting actor Don Amici.
06:37Three years later, Cocoon the Return was released to theaters.
06:40The aliens return to Earth, bringing the humans they took to their planet back with them.
06:45Honey, what's the rush?
06:46Don't you want your entree?
06:47No, Jack.
06:48I want to share myself with you right now.
06:52Cocoon the Return saw neither the critical praise nor the box office success of the first
06:56movie, nor did it have the second life that the original did on television.
07:01Not that many people are revisiting the original Cocoon these days, but those that do certainly
07:05aren't making it a double feature.
07:07Angelina Jolie's big screen debut came via a small role on dad John Voight's 1982 comedy
07:12Looking to Get Out, when she was just seven years old.
07:16But she'd make a more official Hollywood debut a little over a decade later, when she played
07:20the female lead in Cyborg 2.
07:22The fact that more people aren't aware of Jolie starring in an action flick alongside
07:26Elias Kotius, Jack Palins, and Billy Drago speaks to how obscure Cyborg 2 is.
07:32The original Cyborg was a scrappy 1989 vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme, playing a bodyguard
07:37named Gibson tasked with protecting a woman named Pearl against a mercenary group led
07:41by a villain named Fender.
07:43And no, the musical equipment-based names don't stop there.
07:47If you want to dine with the devil, you'll need a long spoon.
07:54Cyborg wasn't a monster hit, but it did well considering its modest budget and was
07:57deemed worthy of a theatrical sequel, with a third direct-to-video installment completing
08:01the Cyborg trilogy.
08:03Van Damme didn't return for either sequel, nor did Jolie come back for Cyborg 3, The
08:07Recycler.
08:08After spending a few years doing the rom-com rounds, Ashton Kutcher entered into dramatic
08:13territory with 2004's sci-fi thriller The Butterfly Effect.
08:16Kutcher plays Evan, a college student who discovers that his frequent blackouts enable
08:29him to time travel within his own past.
08:32True to the title, named after the theory that an action as seemingly inconsequential
08:36as a butterfly flapping its wings can eventually snowball into something as significant as
08:40a tornado or a hurricane, Evan tries to change things in his past for noble reasons, but
08:44faces the unintended negative consequences of those changes.
08:48Critics were unimpressed by both the movie and Kutcher's acting, but The Butterfly Effect
08:52was a hit at the box office.
08:53A sequel came out just two years later with an entirely new cast, but The Butterfly Effect
08:582 was abysmal.
08:59In fact, it didn't get a theatrical release in the United States, nor did it break $1
09:04million at the worldwide box office.
09:11The film still somehow managed nearly $3 million in DVD sales despite very little marketing,
09:18which was enough to commission another entry, The Butterfly Effect 3 Revelations in 2009.
09:24But within a few years, The Butterfly Effect trilogy was all but forgotten.
09:28This one might not seem especially surprising given the prevalence of Disney direct-to-video
09:33sequels, but those are typically reserved for movies that did well initially.
09:37In Atlantis, The Lost Empire most definitely did not.
09:48While a worldwide box office tally of $186 million for a 2001 release might not seem
09:54like anything to be ashamed of, it's disappointing for a movie with a production budget of $120
09:59million.
10:01Even considering marketing costs and the like, Atlantis definitely lost a fair amount of
10:05money.
10:13Disney had big plans for Atlantis as a franchise, including an animated series and ambitious
10:17attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, all of which were canceled in the wake
10:21of the movie underperforming.
10:23But the company tried to at least recoup some of the cash that had already been sunk into
10:27those projects by turning three episodes of the planned series into the direct-to-video
10:31film Atlantis, Milo's Return in 2003.
10:34A straight-to-DVD follow-up to a movie that was already a flop, not released until two
10:39years after the fact, all but doomed Milo's Return to capsize.
10:44Not to mention that it got lost in the shuffle during a particularly prolific era for direct-to-video
10:48Disney follow-ups, which saw even legendary properties suffer the fate of spawning unknown
10:53Disney movie sequels.
11:03Starship Troopers is one of those movies that a lot of people didn't get when it was first
11:06released.
11:07It was directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier, who previously teamed
11:10on Robocop, another movie that was initially misunderstood but eventually re-evaluated
11:15when people began to take a closer look at the satirical subtext.
11:19Nevertheless, many people still took Starship Troopers at face value as a straight sci-fi
11:24action film and were disappointed as a result.
11:26Yet, as with Robocop, it was eventually seen as intended, as a satire meant to skewer fascism
11:32in the militarization of society rather than celebrating them and is now rightfully considered
11:37a cult classic.
11:38Unfortunately, the sequel seemed to miss the memo, and instead decided to be a more straight-up
11:43action movie about soldiers fighting giant alien bugs.
11:46The fact that Neumeier also wrote Starship Troopers 2, Hero of the Federation, makes
11:50one wonder if it was more Verhoeven's direction that steered the first movie into satirical
11:54territory, with Neumeier wanting to play it straight all along.
11:58But playing it straight didn't pan out, and Starship Troopers 2 was blasted by critics.
12:02Starship Troopers 3 Marauder tried to bring back the satire, but the damage had already
12:06been done by the second film.