The 32 greatest movie sequels
May. 8, 2024Who says sequels aren’t as good as the originals? These movies prove otherwise
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Sequels are never better than the original. At least, that used to be conventional wisdom. In reality, sequels are sometimes as good, if not better, than their precursors. Maybe it’s time to finally consider what are some of the greatest sequels of all time.
In the history of motion pictures, the beginnings of sequels begin with two different movies: The Little Train Robbery, a sequel to the seminal short film The Great Train Robbery with an all-child cast performing on a miniature railroad and playhouse; and the 1916 feature-length film The Fall of a Nation, a lost sequel to D.W. Griffith’s technically revered but artistically ghastly historical epic The Birth of a Nation.
For so long, sequels have been perceived to be lesser and inferior to their respective originals. While it is true that many sequels fail to live up to expectations set by the first in their series, it’s also true that some sequels eclipse the movies they spawn from. With Hollywood more obsessed to sequel-ize movies more than ever, we collect 32 of the greatest sequels ever made.
When Taika Waititi took the reins of the Thor series, he lit up the Marvel franchise in ways even the God of Thunder could not. A tonal 180 from the more straightforward superhero blockbusters that preceded it, Thor: Ragnarok injects the most operatic Avenger with superhuman levels of humor, fostering the vibe of a cosmic rave atop the burnt ashes of Asgard’s apocalypse. Chris Hemsworth, having felt creatively limited in his role as Thor up to that point, lets his funny bone hang loose while still ensuring that his Thor stays mighty. Even Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett conjures up a few laughs as villainess sorceress (and Thor’s sister) Hela.
31. Clerks II (2006)
Never has a filthy stoner comedy felt so tender in the heart. Picking up more than 10 years after Kevin Smith’s era-defining ‘90s indie classic Clerks, Clerks II reunites audiences with slackers Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson), now thirty-somethings flipping burgers at a fast food joint. Set over yet another fateful day in their unambitious lives, Dante prepares to leave New Jersey and move to Florida with his fiancee, only for Randall to have some bright ideas about his going-away party. A touching movie about realizing it’s never too late to start the rest of your life, Clerks II shows there’s adventure behind and beyond the register.
Those well-versed in Jackie Chan’s storied career know the importance of his 1985 classic Police Story, but its second sequel Police Story 3: Supercop is so much bigger and better in nearly every way, it’s no wonder why the movie was released on its own in the U.S. (Under the simplified title Supercop.) Marking the first collaboration between Chan and director Stanley Tong, Chan reprises his heroic cop Ka-Kui (“Kevin” in English translations) and teams up with Beijing-based INTERPOL agent Yang, played by destined Oscar recipient and crossover actress Michelle Yeoh. Whereas the first two Police Story installments are clever crowd-pleasers with manageable scale, Supercop is nuclear-powered popcorn entertainment.
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
Regarded as one of the finest entries in the entire Star Trek media franchise, the solemn film sequel Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan brings back the scene-chewing Ricardo Montalbán as Khan, a genetically-engineered warlord from the original television series on a mission of revenge against Captain Kirk (William Shatner). Notably, the film ends on a horrific note for longtime fans, and pretty much anyone along for the ride, as it stands as a testament to the powers of friendship, the nobility of logical self-sacrifice, and all that it means to be human.
Way before moviegoers became too familiar with meta storytelling, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare set itself in our actual “real world,” and it chilled us to the bone. In Craven’s second directed feature in the series, Nightmare on Elm Street exists as a successful Hollywood franchise - and the only way of keeping the true evil of Freddy Krueger contained. Heather Langenkamp, who plays a fictionalized version of herself, finds her waking reality collapsing as Freddy menacingly creeps out of the screen and comes after her and her family. Through stunning direction by the master Wes Craven, his New Nightmare still plays like a terrifying dream.
No shade towards Evil Dead II, itself a classic sequel with its mixture of splatter horror and humor in ways that have yet to be replicated. But the final installment of the Evil Dead trilogy, 1992’s Army of Darkness, shows just how much fun can be had by discarding established formulas. Picking up from the ending of Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness follows Ash (Bruce Campbell) time displaced to the Middle Ages where he must battle legions of waking skeletons before returning to his proper time. While Army of Darkness (which once had the working title of Medieval Dead) is lighter in tone compared to its predecessors, it’s heavy on action and a lot more daring even just on paper, showing the virtues of refusing to rest on laurels. Why the Middle Ages? Well, why not?
10 years after George A. Romero basically invented the zombie horror genre with Night of the Living Dead, the filmmaker followed up his genius with an equally influential (albeit standalone) sequel: Dawn of the Dead. Set at the start of the zombie plague, Dawn of the Dead follows survivors taking refuge in a shopping mall. As if anticipating the economic prosperity that would characterize the 1980s - resulting in the sharp rise of suburban shopping centers - Romero’s movie cleverly satirizes the braindead behaviors of rampant consumerism and the death of community inside its concrete, sanitized interiors. Years later, the video game series Dead Rising would spiritually channel Romero’s movie, with players forced to survive three days inside a sprawling, zombie-infested shopping mall.
In 2009, James Cameron released his sci-fi epic Avatar, a magnificent blockbuster with themes of natural preservation and anti-colonialism while featuring immersion made possible by cutting-edge technology. After years in development, Cameron brought audiences back to Pandora with Avatar: The Way of Water, a note-perfect sequel with eye-popping visual effects that took moviegoers even further into the depths of his imagination. Avatar: The Way of Water proved that the proverbial “cultural footprint” some argue its predecessor never left has always been there, we were just too far deep to realize it.
In the thick of superhero movie domination, James Mangold and Hugh Jackman together said to hell with shared universes and delivered their neo-Western classic Logan. While loosely the third and final film in the Wolverine sub-trilogy (of the larger X-Men franchise), the R-rated Logan stands tall on its own as a transgressive finale in which heroic deeds go fully punished, but are still necessary to keep heroes alive. Set in a dark future with Wolverine (Jackman) as the last living X-Men member, the clawed anti-hero must bring along his genetic “daughter” Laura (Dafne Keen) on a daring cross-country mission to escape an evil science lab. Taking inspiration from films like Shane and Unforgiven, Logan acknowledges the superhero genre as the spiritual descendant of gunslinger Westerns, championing their worth even as the genre slowly marches towards uncertain doom.
In space, no one can hear you scream. But they can definitely hear you cheer out, “Hell yeah!” Several years after Ridley Scott spooked audiences with Alien, James Cameron picked up the baton with Aliens, an action-packed sequel where Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is reawakened after almost 60 years in stasis, and is asked by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to look into a colony that may or may not be overrun by Xenomorph eggs. While Aliens intentionally doesn’t have the same sort of anxious dread of Scott’s original film, Cameron’s sequel relishes in its adrenaline-fueled extermination.
When Sam Raimi returned to the Spider-Man franchise, superhero movies had a pretty solid track record of sequels. Superman II, Batman Returns, and even the year’s previous X2: X-Men United were all outstanding examples of superhero sequels being rather mighty. But Spider-Man 2 was and is something else. Besides Raimi going even more whole hog into his sensibilities (see the origins of Doc Ock, played by a textured Alfred Molina), Spider-Man 2 practically dispels the allure of superhero power fantasies, showing how much self-sacrifice and commitment it takes to keep a city safe. It may even cost Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) happily ever after.
As theaters still struggled to recover post-COVID-19, Tom Cruise came in on a jet and kept things flying high. While Cruise is no stranger to great sequels - just look at his handful of Mission: Impossibles - Top Gun: Maverick is a finely designed sequel of particular craftsmanship, a blockbuster that meditates on limits being suggestions rather than law. Though Cruise reprises his role of Captain Mitchell, the movie takes on a meta vibe with Cruise not only training a new generation of potential replacements (including Miles Teller and Glen Powell) but testing himself as a self-anointed vanguard for what artists, and mankind, can achieve.
In James Whale’s sequel to his 1931 horror hit Frankenstein, Boris Karloff and Colin Clive return as Dr. Frankenstein (Clive) is forced to animate a “bride” for his creation (Karloff). Thus introduces Elsa Lanchester as the titular Bride (also nicknamed Mary Shelley, in a nod to the original author). While the original Frankenstein is a classic that was made right by Shelley’s novel, Bride of Frankenstein expands on the story, proposing deeper dimensions with regards to sexuality, societal norms, and even romantic rejection. As the monster tragically puts it: “We belong dead.”
Sequels weren’t new in the 1980s. But they had an unsavory reputation for being derivative and lesser-than than their respective originals. No sequel of the 1980s proved evidence to the contrary than The Empire Strikes Back. Directed by Irvin Kershner, the movie continues the Rebellion and their efforts to topple the Empire, with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) going alone to train with the elusive Yoda to become a Jedi Knight. Bigger and better than Star Wars in every way, The Empire Strikes Back laid the foundation for what all sequels should do: Expand upon, and never imitate, the original.
Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he’s your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.
The next Evil Dead movie has an official title, and it sounds like it could be even more terrifying and intense than Evil Dead Rise
Dune 2 director Denis Villeneuve says a Zendaya scene was the moment he knew the film was working: “I did that shot and knew I had a movie”
Captain America star Chris Evans reportedly joins Robert Downey Jr. in MCU return for Avengers: Doomsday, but it’s not clear who he’s playing
