Sci-fi is a genre ripe for sequelization. The success of franchises like Star Trek and Alien is proof that fans enjoy revisiting their favorite universes time and time again. Unfortunately, Hollywood has a tendency to milk a profitable film, whether it calls for a follow-up or not. The truth is, many of the classic sci-fi movies that spawned sequels were arguably better off as one-and-done stories. More than a few times, a futuristic fable has said all it had to say in one shot, making subsequent films in the series feel forced or unnecessary.
We’ve put together a list of seven sci-fi movies that didn’t need to be franchises. From cult classics to blockbusters, these films are all perfectly self-contained with no threads left dangling. We aren’t implying that all of the sequels based on these films are bad — in at least one case, the immediate sequel is considered by many to be superior — but in each instance, a strong case can be made that the movie should have remained a solo act. Without further ado, here are our picks for seven great sci-fi movies that should have stopped while they were ahead and never have had sequels.
1) The Matrix
The Matrix revolutionized the way movies looked by introducing audiences to new filming techniques like “bullet time” and that cool freezing in midair thing Trinity does right before she kicks someone. The post-Matrix cinema landscape was littered with rip-offs and copycats trying desperately to make their movies look a tenth as cool as the Wachowski sisters’ magnum opus. In other words, the movie was a very big deal.
Unfortunately, the Wachowskis followed up The Matrix with a string of disappointing sequels that never captured the same magic as the original. The Matrix was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement that frankly, should have stayed that way.
2) Highlander
There can be only one. It’s right there in the Highlander tagline. The original film ends with Connor MacLeod beating the last of the immortals, losing his own immortality, and living happily ever after. How do you make a franchise out of that? The answer is badly, very badly.
Highlander II does what no sequel should: retcons everything about the original and makes all the characters aliens. The other sequels, while not quite as ridiculous, aren’t much better. If most of the lore that was set up in the first movie needs to be changed for any sequels to work, then maybe there shouldn’t be any sequels.
3) Jurassic Park
There has been exactly one good Jurassic Park movie and that’s the original. Every sequel from The Lost World: Jurassic Park to Jurassic World Rebirth has been trying — and failing — to live up to the original. The scripts have become Mad libs where the writer just plugs in a new person/place/or thing looking to retrieve/rescue a different person/place/or thing from an island overrun by dinosaurs.
Universal should have learned its lesson from the Jaws franchise and let Jurassic Park go extinct after one movie.
4) RoboCop
RoboCop is a brilliant social satire of capitalism and ’80s corporate America that happens to tell its story using a cyborg. Unfortunately, Hollywood just saw a cool-looking robot man with a big gun and decided, “We can make a franchise out of this!” It happened all the time in the 1980s. A movie about PTSD in Vietnam vets, like First Blood gets stripped of all nuance and becomes Rambo: Musclebound Guy With Machine Gun Kills Foreigners.
We’ll admit, RoboCop II is a fairly decent watch, but with the exception of one or two scenes, it fails to capture the black comedy tone of the original and never quite justifies its existence. RoboCop works much better as a one-off.
5) Escape From New York
John Carpenter’s Escape From New York is a 1981 cult film with a small budget and a huge attitude. Kurt Russel is at his best as nihilistic mercenary Snake Plisken, and with a tight 99-minute run time, the depressing sci-fi dystopia on display in Escape From New York never overstays its welcome. That is, until 15 years later, when Carpenter would release Escape from L.A., a cookie-cutter redo of the first Escape with nothing new to say.
Escape from L.A. is more of a remake than a sequel, with Carpenter and Russell repeating every beat from the original with less interesting supporting characters and the worst CGI 1996 had available. Needless to say, the director should have left well enough alone.
6) Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers is another brilliant satire — this time of the fascism inherent in the military-industrial complex — whose sequels fail to deliver the same vibes as the original. Worse than RoboCop, all of the Starship Troopers sequels are low-budget made-for-video schlock. Seriously, RoboCop II is Citizen Kane compared to Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. Once again, somebody saw big guns and creepy bugs and thought “Franchise!” If you love the first Starship Troopers, do yourself a favor and don’t watch any of the sequels. They’ll only depress you.
7) Star Wars
Look, we know that this is a controversial take, but hear us out. The more the Star Wars franchise expands, the more Book of Boba Fett‘s and Young Jedi Adventures that get cranked out, the more the original Star Wars stands out as a perfect, self-contained adventure. As great as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is — and it is great, perhaps even better than the original — it couldn’t exist in a vacuum. The only piece of Star Wars media that can stand entirely on its own two legs is the 1977 original, and it does so proudly.
Before we had books explaining the backstories of everyone in the cantina, before we knew that Luke and Leia were twins or that Darth Vader was anyone’s dad, there was a simple fairytale of good vs evil set in outer space. All we’re saying is maybe it should have stayed that way?
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