Bladerunner 2049 hit cinemas around the world this week to resounding acclaim. It is a sequel that no one thought would ever get made, further exploring the world that reached the pinnacle of excellence in its first outing. In celebration of this cinematic masterpiece, we consider science fiction standalone movies that would be perfect for a sequel.
Inception
Christopher Nolan was hot off the heels of the success of his Batman Trilogy when making inception. The big budget cinematography and themes presented in the film made viewers question what was really reality and what was a dream. What makes this film deserving of a sequel is the climactic ending. At the end of the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb uses his totem the spinning top, his one link to reality, to test to see whether he is dreaming or in reality. We as the audience are left guessing the outcome and it would be great to pick up where this scene ends to further explore the incepting concept and the implications it had for Dom and the rest of the crew. Were they actually awake at the end of a movie or all in someone else’s dreamscape? The possibilities for story points are limitless and would be great to see the direction Nolan or another director could take the story.
District 9
District 9 was an interesting movie that was well received at the box office. The concept was interesting, showing how extra terrestrials can integrate with society. The extrateresstrials or “Prawns” are placed in a camp and segregated from society. One of the humans in the film, Wikus ends up becoming mutated due to a canister of liquid and fully mutates into an alien by the end of the film along with one of the aliens. Another alien Christopher escapes the camp after discovering that the humans are conducting illegal experiments to the aliens and heading back to their mother ship. There is speculation at the end of the film that Christopher could return and along with the aliens being moved to District 10 at the end of the film, certainly leaves open the possibility of a sequel exploring the implications of human behaviour to the treatment of the aliens along with blended DNA.
Dredd
There is a Judge Dredd television series in the works but that still does not excuse the fact that Karl Urban’s Dredd deserves a sequel. This movie was the perfect dystoptian world, Mega City One’s visuals and aesthetics were perfect, the action was amazing and Dredd has so much lore to explore that there are countless possibilities for a sequel. That and Karl Urban was simple perfectly cast. The best thing about Judge Dredd from the comics is that he ages naturally, even if a sequel was to take years to eventuate, having an older Dredd would still feel appropriate and even more grizzled. I think a movie would be more fitting than a television series, plus a bigger budget mean better visuals.
Looper
Looper was a perfect blend of action and sci-fi elements, under the helm of Rian Johnson. The film introduces a time travel element by a crime syndicate who sends a person back into the past where a hitman or “looper” is waiting to eliminate them. To close the loop of a hitman, the final hit must be on their older selves. The concept is told through the tale of young and old Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis respectively. While the loop was closed in the film, with Gordon-Levitt committing suicide preventing his older counterpart existing to prevent a greater evil, the concept could easily be adapted for a sequel using another character. Further, other time travel elements could be explored to bring to light the implications of an action occurring in the past and the effect it has on the future.
The Fifth Element
Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman and Milla Jovovich stand out in this movie about an evil power coming to destroy earth and only the combined use of the four elemental stones and a fifth element which is embodied in the celestial humanoid Leeloo can stop it. The film built up the ultimate good verses evil battle, and developed a fantastic futuristic world involving aliens and humans. This world could easily continue to be explored without the core cast, particularly given that Leeloo was seemingly a celestial being, more of these beings could be the focus of a sequel on other planets within the universe telling their own stories. A future sequel could explore Leeloo’s purpose now that the evil that threatened the earth has been defeated.
Serenity
Does anything more need to be said really? Firefly was one of the best television shows in 2000, being unceremoniously cancelled by silly 20th Century Fox executives. Joss Whedon‘s universe was sprawling with potential. This eventually led to the series being turned into a movie, Serenity several years later, reuniting the crew of the ship to tell one last tale. While there were some major casualties in the movie, Serenity still left us clamouring for more of Mal (Nathan Fillion) and his crew and their adventures to overturn the Alliance. The Unification War between the Alliance and Independent nations are the backbone of the series and it seems sad that the story should be left without more exploration and breaking down of the Alliance’s authoritarian governance in the universe.
Do you agree that these sci-fi hits deserve a sequel? Should they be left to be standalone films? Do you think other movies need a sequel? Let us know in the comments on our Facebook page and don’t forget to subscribe to Movie Nerds on our Youtube channel.