AlienAlien 3AliensArmy of DarknessBefore SunsetEvil Dead 2: Dead by DawnFrankensteinMad MaxMad Max Beyond ThunderdomeSpider-ManSpider-Man 2Spider-Man 3Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhanStar Trek: The Motion PictureStar Wars: The Empire Strikes BackSupermanSuperman IITerminator 2The Bride of FrankensteinThe Evil Dead (1981)The GodfatherThe Godfather: Part IIThe Road WarriorTerminatorX2X-MenX-Men Origins: WolverineX-Men: The Last Stand
Remember, this isn't a be-all, end-all list. We're fully aware that there are many other films that could've made the cut here -- and also, this is all about franchises where the second movie has outshone all the other flicks. Series with only one sequel need not apply (sorry Nolan Bat-fans).
These are just a few of our favorites, in no particular order. So read on, young Padawan, for a look back at some of the best number twos in movie history.
And when you're done here, don't forget to click over to our How Empire Changed Star Wars Forever story.
Mad Max was a cheap but effective B movie, the tale of a family man who is driven to the edge and beyond after his wife and child are murdered by savage bikers in a world that is on the verge of destruction. But Mad Max II, a.k.a. The Road Warrior, was that and so much more. Not only was the production more polished -- well, polished in punk-meets-doomsday kinda way -- but so was the entire world of the title character. Whatever semblance of civilization that remained in the first film is all but gone in part two, with Max a lone driver in a world gone mad. The film has an altogether more epic scope, culminating in a wild car chase that ranks up there with the best of them. And much like Empire's follow-up, Return of the Jedi, The Road Warrior's sequel, Beyond Thunderdome, would also turn out to be a piece of ice cream.
Strains of Empire: Chewie is Han Solo's best friend. Dog is Max's best friend. Both are as faithful as they come.
The first Spider-Man proved that a man could swing from a web (thanks to an army of computer animators). Spider-Man 2 proved that we could care about said web-slinger, even when he wasn't of the superhero variety. Sure, the original Sam Raimi film had its fair share of heart and humanity going on, but part two actually takes away Spidey's powers, and instead of making those scenes the ones that the viewer must sit through while waiting to get back to the action, the director instead infuses them with some of the most memorable bits. The awkward, geeky Peter Parker walking around the city to the tune of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"? The freeze-frame at the end of said scene? Priceless. And the stuff in the red and blue tights is also great too, with the subway fight and its denouement -- as the citizens hoist a stricken Spider-Man up above their heads -- being perhaps the highlight of the entire series. Again, the third film in the franchise would be another variation on Ewok central.
Strains of Empire: Han and Leia face an insurmountable separation; Peter and MJ face an insurmountable separation.
Possibly the best example of a movie that single-handedly redeemed -- and possibly saved -- an entire franchise, Wrath of Khan took everything that was wrong with the first Star Trek movie and righted it. Those neutral, bland costumes and production design? Gone, replaced by a lush, bold look that actually looked lived in. Of course Admiral Kirk and his crew would wear tunics that are more classical Navy than slumber party, threads that actually get blood on them when a young midshipman bites it. And the story of the film sought to build on the mythology of the TV series, returning to a storyline that was some 15 years old, while also adding a "next generation," as it were, to the cast that actually made the existing characters more human. Bold, exciting, and alive, Star Trek II has yet to be topped by the nine films that have followed it.
Strains of Empire: The loss of a dear friend and the promise of his return.
O.K., this one might be a bit of a cheat, just because Aliens is so very different from the original Ridley Scott film that started it all. Whereas Alien (singular!) was a horror picture at heart, albeit one that happened to be set on a spaceship, James Cameron's Aliens (plural!) was much more an action-adventure-war picture. But it broadened the scope of the franchise in such a way that there was simply no going back to the austere days onboard the Nostromo after it was released. Multiple aliens, huge action, an increasingly tormented Ellen Ripley -- these would become the hallmarks of the series after Cameron got done with it. And really, how long could you spend on just one ship yelling at Mother anyway? (Just for the record, the third Aliens film was mostly a loss, so this list has yet to encounter a franchise that actually got better from part two to part three Let's keep trying, though.)
Strains of Empire: Darth Vader to Luke: "I am your father." Newt to Ripley: "Mommy!"
If the first Godfather is a delicious dish of baked ziti, the second is a full-on Sunday ragu dinner like Grandma used to make that is, if your Grandma was the type who ordered the executions of multiple mob bosses all at the same time, along with her dear, mentally slow brother. Francis Ford Coppola's second chapter in the saga of the Corleone family is mesmerizing, the kind of film that you just never tire of no matter how many times you've seen it. Part of the reason for that is the labyrinthine plot which continues to befuddle all but the fully immersed in the mythology of the world, but then there's also the central character of Michael who just becomes harder and colder and more successful the further his story goes (well, up until the third film, but that's a different story). The parallels between him and the flashbacks of his dad Vito's rise from orphaned immigrant to young mafia chief are remarkable both for how similar the characters can be, and yet how perverted Vito's dreams for his family have become by Michael's acts of murder and self-isolation.
Strains of Empire: Hyman Roth = Lando Calrissian. Only Lando didn't get what was coming to him like Roth did.
Bride of Frankenstein
The baroque horror of the original James Whale classic makes way for a dark humor in the belated sequel, which Whale returned to helm. Clearly already bored by the genre he'd help create, the director gave us an even more sympathetic Monster than in the first film as well as an extensive stable of often amusing secondary characters -- the wonderfully evil and effete Doctor Pretorius, the blind hermit, Una O'Connor's shrieking maid, the titular Bride, and even Mary Shelley and Lord Byron themselves. Balancing scares, humor, and pathos while never losing his eye for the black & white beauty inherent in it all, Whale made the greatest monster movie of them all with Bride.
Strains of Empire: Imagine if Yoda totally f#@ked with Luke? That's the relationship between the mentor Dr. Pretorius and the pupil Dr. Frankenstein. Twisted and evil.
While Bryan Singer's original X-Men was a good enough adaptation of the beloved Marvel comic, there was no denying that the picture was bursting at the seams a bit. There's a certain cheapness to the proceedings, particularly the final confrontation at the Statue of Liberty, that seems more like a Heroes episode than a feature film. That's certainly not the case with the second picture in the series, which expanded the reach of the series in several ways. First off, all of humankind (and mutant-kind) was at stake in this film, but more importantly the actors all had more room to work with their characters. Hence the Phoenix storyline, so hoped for by fans, was fully set up here (and totally demolished in X-Men 3), Wolverine's origin was explored (when it was still interesting), and even new X-Men were introduced (Nightcrawler!). The potential of the first film was fully realized in this one, but alas hasn't been in either of the subsequent sequels/spin-offs.
Strains of Empire: Cliffhanger!
Part screwy remake, part sequel, Sam Raimi's second outing with the supremely dumb Ash (Bruce Campbell) is the stuff that movie geeks dream of. More Three Stooges than horror, it's one of the great genre mash-ups that in a way became its own genre. Insane camera work, bloody hijinks, and a hero who takes a seriously licking but keeps on barely ticking are the hallmarks of the film, Evil Dead II is by far the most memorable entry in this series (which, once again, features a weaker third film in Army of Darkness). Chainsaw appendages, flying, howling Raimi-esque Deadites, and Bruce Campbell's ridiculously large chin are all horror cliches now, thanks to this movie. And we wouldn't have it any other way.
Strains of Empire: Two hands enter. One hand leaves.
The Terminator is in many ways a simple little tale of boy meets girl, boy fights off fearsome cyborg, boy dies, girl goes to live in the desert. But James Cameron's sequel to his original hit takes that set-up and runs with it, adding in that Cameron spectacle that we all know and love today. The resulting picture is a much less thoughtful exercise than the first, but it's also more expertly made and imaginative, introducing a whole new breed of Terminator to the mix while also finding a way to make Arnold Schwarzenegger's character into a good guy this time around. Linda Hamilton, too, transforms her Sarah Connor from a moped-riding wallflower to a mercenary with a killer instinct. Like Aliens before it, T2 takes the kernel of the original idea and just expands on it without marring what has come before.
Strains of Empire: The bond between a man/machine and his "son" -- plus the necessary sacrifice of a character to save the ones he loves (Han into carbonite/Terminator into molten lead).
We very nearly went with Before Sunset for our last pick here -- the film is just fantastic and everything a sequel should be -- but we couldn't quite convince ourselves that it was better than the original (plus there's no third film yet). That, and we didn't want to hear the hate mail from you this early in the week. So we're going with the second Superman film, which has perhaps not surprisingly predicted how many of the modern superhero franchises would shake out. There's something simultaneously great and limiting about the origin tale of a comic-book hero, which means that by the time we get to part two we're really ready to be wowed, hopefully by baddies who are truly capable of giving our hero a run for his money. Enter General Zod and company, the baddest muther this side of Krypton's red sun who can chew on scenery as easily as he can on Superman. 'Nuff said.
Strains of Empire: Supes to Lois: "You can't always have what you want." Vader to everyone: "You can't always have what you want."
And don't forget to click over to our How Empire Changed Star Wars Forever story.
