10 Times Movies Tried Way Too Hard to Set Up a Sequel

WatchMojo

"We're probably never going to resolve this cliffhanger..." Join us as we count down the most blatant sequel setups in films that never got follow-ups! These movies ended with shameless teases for future installments that audiences never got to see, leaving plot threads dangling forever in cinematic limbo.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the movie scenes blatantly

00:13made to set up a sequel.

00:15To be clear, we won't be including any movies that did get a sequel since the bait would

00:19have worked.

00:28Number 10 – A New Villain, The King's Man

00:41This prequel entry in The King's Man series is an entertaining enough historical action

00:45flick, blending fictional spy thrills with the relevance surrounding World War I and

00:49the lead up to it.

00:50The fledging Kingsman team appears to defeat the villainous flock organization, but one

00:54member continues their mission in a mid-credits scene.

00:57In it, he lays out his plans for Vladimir Lenin and introduces him to his new right wing

01:01compatriot, Adolf Hitler.

01:09Dropping Hitler in a credits scene like he's Thanos is a supremely confident bit of sequel

01:15bait.

01:16However, The King's Man bombed at the box office, making a follow-up to the prequel seem as unlikely

01:21as Lenin and Hitler working together in any capacity.

01:25Number 9 – The Predator, The King's Man

01:34So, this is his gift to humankind?

01:38While The Predator's modest box office and numerous script issues are large hurdles

01:43on their own, the biggest obstacle to it getting a sequel is that the franchise has moved in

01:48a new direction, with Dan Trettenberg at the helm instead of Shane Black.

01:52Clearly Black thought the film would be successful though, since it ends with the human characters

01:55gaining access to a high-tech suit with which to fight against the Predators.

02:01Trettenberg could still follow what Black's promise here, but we somehow doubt that Iron

02:09Predator is on his list to do.

02:11What the hell is that?

02:13That's my new suit, bubba.

02:15Hope they got into 42 long.

02:20Number 8 – Introducing Azula, The Last Airbender

02:22Our forces in the Northern Order tribe have failed to take the city.

02:27General Zhao was killed in battle, my brother has become a traitor, my son has proven himself

02:31a failure.

02:32Condensing an entire season of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar, The Last Airbender

02:36into one movie seems like a recipe for disaster.

02:39And it is.

02:40But when you add a divisive director like M. Night Shyamalan, poor 3D effects, wooden acting

02:45and laughably bad action scenes, and you've got an absolute catastrophe of filmmaking.

02:50So, are you the Avatar on?

02:54Nevertheless, the studio planned to do a trilogy of films, each based on one of the Avatar's

02:59three seasons.

03:00So, of course, the ending has to set up those doomed non-existent sequels by introducing the

03:05gang's next antagonist, Zuko's sister Azula, for all the good it did.

03:09I do, father.

03:15Number 7, Taking the Fight to them, Independence Day Resurgence.

03:22This movie may have been the sequel to a smash hit blockbuster, but it was more of a straight-up

03:31bust.

03:32Independence Day Resurgence went bigger with bigger alien ships and more effects as humanity

03:36began using alien tech against their attackers.

03:38Yet everything felt like it couldn't measure up to its predecessor, from its heart to its

03:43humor to its action.

03:44In the final moments of the film, Dr. Oakland reveals that the friendly alien sphere has

03:49invited humans to join the united front against the alien harvesters.

03:53Except, the movie bombed with everybody, so we don't expect to see them take the fight

04:05anywhere, much less to the aliens.

04:10Number 6, Team Name, Fantastic Four.

04:24Turning Marvel's first family into moody teens with no chemistry and putting them into

04:27a dull, mindering movie was a brilliant idea.

04:31No, wait.

04:32The opposite.

04:33The opposite of that.

04:34Fat Four Sticks satisfied basically nobody.

04:37From the studio that chopped it to bits, to the director, to the audiences, to critics.

04:42Everybody hated this movie.

04:43The cinematic slogfest concludes with the would-be teammates standing against a railing and trying

04:48to come up with different ideas for team names.

04:51Gotta say, it's fantastic.

04:55Reed has an apparently winning idea, but the movie ends before he can share it.

04:59There's probably some kind of irony to be found there, but honestly, who cares?

05:03Yes, it is.

05:04Yes, it is.

05:05Guys, I got it.

05:06Ready?

05:07Yeah?

05:08Yeah.

05:09Number 5, Abraham Lincoln, Planet of the Apes.

05:12CDC, Don, Identified Aircraft, do you copy or copy that?

05:18Despite being arguably a low point in the Planet of the Apes franchise, this 2001 reboot has

05:23some decent action, great makeup and effects, and an excellent cast.

05:27It's basically high-quality schlock, but sometimes that's all you need.

05:31However, the baffling ending twist may have helped push the studio into rebooting it again.

05:36Astronaut Leo Davison escapes the world of apes and returns to the same storm that brought

05:40him there.

05:41He crash lands in Washington, DC, only to find that the Lincoln Memorial now depicts a villainous

05:45general Thade.

05:52Yeah, okay, we get that it was Earth all along again, just like the original movie, but why

06:00would the apes create monuments that look just like real-world DC?

06:10Number 4, Let the Games Begin, Dracula Untold.

06:17Speaking of schlock, Dracula Untold takes this classic horror character and rewrites his origin

06:23story to make him more sympathetic and basically another action hero.

06:26The film was one of many aborted attempts by Universal to jumpstart their own shared cinematic

06:31universe.

06:32However, the fact that it never managed to do so only makes the conclusion seem even more

06:37desperate.

06:38We see Vlad in the modern day meeting the famous Mina Harker as the vampire who turned

06:42him looks on having survived too.

06:53While the elder bloodsucker may deliver a cryptic remark on the game's beginning, this ended up

06:58being more like game over.

07:05Number 3, Hatching Plans, Godzilla.

07:17Bringing a foreign IP to America is always a risky business, particularly when it's as

07:26well established as Godzilla.

07:28And that risk did not pay off for this movie.

07:30A pale imitation of the Japanese original, Godzilla felt like a cash grab in the wake of

07:35Jurassic Park success.

07:36While commercially successful, it still wasn't the big hit of the year.

07:39The obvious setup of yet another baby Godzilla hatching didn't amount to much.

07:44Well, except a surprisingly decent animated series.

07:47But that doesn't make this bait smell any less fishy.

07:49Number 2, you won't believe it, Super Mario Brothers.

08:02There are many unbelievable things about this video game adaptation.

08:10But between the nightmarish production, awful box office performance, and critical lambasting,

08:14the most shocking thing of all is that its creators thought it would get a sequel.

08:18And yet, after the Mario Brothers save Dino Hatton and everything appears well at home in New

08:23York, Princess Daisy arrives with one of the most click-baity sequel teases of all time.

08:27Luigi!

08:28Mario!

08:29Daisy!

08:30You gotta come with me.

08:31I need your help.

08:32She's locked and loaded and tells Mario and Luigi they won't believe it.

08:36Won't believe what?

08:37We all ask as kids.

08:38Now that we're adults though, and have seen dozens of social media articles pull the same

08:43trick, we're over it.

08:45I believe it.

08:46You do?

08:48I believe.

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09:051.

09:06Sinister Mix Up

09:09Morbius

09:10Hope the food's better in this joint.

09:12Sony's entire Spider-Man list Spider-Man franchise is full of bad sequel-bait conclusions.

09:18But as bad as stuff like Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter are, they still pale before the

09:23king of cringe, Morbius.

09:25The laughably terrible film concludes with Adrian Toomes, the vulture from the MCU, finding

09:30himself transported to Morbius' reality.

09:32After getting out of jail since he's not from this world, Toomes has some strange priorities.

09:37After rebuilding his vulture suit, he decides to pay Dr. Michael Morbius a visit in the

09:42middle of nowhere to discuss a team up.

09:44I've been reading about you.

09:46I'm listening.

09:47I'm not sure how I got here.

09:49It has to do with Spider-Man, I think.

09:52Stop trying to make the Sinister Six happen, Sony.

09:54It's never gonna happen.

09:56Well, not without Spider-Man at least.

09:58Is there a terrible sequel setup you'd like to have seen on our list?

10:10Don't leave us hanging.

10:11Let us know in the comments down below.

10:12And don't forget to like and subscribe for more WatchMojo videos.

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