On this period of sequels and prequels, there are many complicated movie franchises. Some, just like the X-Males motion pictures, have impossible-to-follow continuity, however the ones that annoy me probably the most are the franchises the place the titles of the person movies are a part of the issue. I’m speaking franchises which might be solely numbered half of the time, or they’ve subtitles that recommend they’re the tip of the franchise after they aren’t.
Listed here are the 5 franchises which have probably the most complicated title schemes ever. Making sense of them is extra unattainable than any of Ethan Hunt’s missions.
Like stand-up comedy the place each single factor is humorous and would not waste your time? Observe Cracked Comedy Membership on Instagram and YouTube for precisely that.
Noticed
Many movie franchises begin out as numbered, after which, when the numbers get too excessive, change to having subtitles as a substitute. That’s annoying, however solely mildly complicated. What’s manner worse is when a franchise pivots away from numbered sequels, then decides to return to them in a while. Living proof: the Noticed movies.
The primary six Noticed motion pictures went Noticed, Noticed II, Noticed III, Noticed IV, Noticed V and Noticed VI, however for the seventh installment, they deserted Roman numerals in favor of calling the movie Noticed 3D (I’m sorry, but when a part of your franchise goes to be in 3D, it may well solely be the third movie; in any other case I’m fucking misplaced). It was additionally clearly marketed as “The Ultimate Chapter” by way of taglines — particularly on house video, the place it was basically retitled Noticed: The Ultimate Chapter in order to not scare away these with out 3D tv units.
The eighth movie, Jigsaw, was half prequel, half sequel because it takes place after Noticed 3D however flashes again to occasions earlier than Noticed. Then got here Spiral: From the E book of Noticed, the ninth movie. Lastly, final 12 months, we obtained Noticed X which is certainly the tenth film within the collection. But when reverting again to Roman numerals wasn’t complicated sufficient, Noticed X takes place in between Noticed and Noticed II.
Truthfully, following the Noticed chronology looks like a Jigsaw lure unto itself.
Rambo
The Rambo titles are so fucking dumb. After First Blood was a success, the second movie was named Rambo: First Blood Half II. Clumsy, sure, however you possibly can see how they tried to cowl their bases. Then got here 1988’s Rambo III, which was a superbly acceptable title. However after Sylvester Stallone had a lot success with the sixth Rocky movie — elegantly named Rocky Balboa — the fourth Rambo tried one thing comparable by simply being referred to as Rambo. The issue is, everybody thinks First Blood is Rambo, so calling one other film Rambo appeared nearly malicious.
Making issues worse was 2019’s Rambo: Final Blood, an try and hyperlink it to the unique and announce that it’s the ultimate movie within the franchise. Nevertheless, Stallone has repeatedly talked about making a sixth Rambo movie, which can doubtless complicate issues even additional.
Mission: Not possible
The primary three Mission: Not possible movies are numbered; after that, they’ve names. That may not sound too confounding, however the franchise has finished some goofy shit through the years to make it tougher than it must be. When Mission: Not possible 2 got here out, the posters represented it as M:I-2. That was okay — the usage of a splash helped to ensure it didn’t appear to be a M:12. However when the third movie got here out, the posters listed it as M:i:III. The studio and Tom Cruise in all probability thought it seemed cool, however two colons and 4 I’s is insanity.
They kinda fastened it with the fourth movie, Mission: Not possible — Ghost Protocol, dropping the numbers in favor of subtitles and utilizing dashes in order to not have two colons once more, a technique they repeated for the fifth and sixth movies as effectively. However then they went and ruined it with the seventh installment, Mission: Not possible – Useless Reckoning Half One. Working out of punctuation marks, they opted for no separation between “Reckoning” and “Half.” It’s fairly perplexing to have the seventh movie be “Seven, Half One,” and the eighth movie, which comes out subsequent 12 months, to be “Seven, Half Two.”
Equally horrible are the generic motion film non-words they’ve used for subtitles — Fallout, Rogue Nation, Ghost Protocol and Useless Reckoning — that say nothing in anyway in regards to the movie. With out trying up the discharge dates, I defy you to put these movies in chronological order. That’s a mission I personally refuse to simply accept.
The Quick and the Livid
The primary Quick and the Livid title was easy sufficient: The Quick and the Livid. Then, the second was 2 Quick 2 Livid, which isn’t unhealthy as a result of you understand it’s half two. Half three was The Quick and the Livid: Tokyo Drift, which really takes place later within the franchise, similtaneously half six. The fourth movie was simply referred to as Quick & Livid — making it very simple to confuse with the primary movie — and clearly telegraphed that they had been gonna begin to confuse the shit out of us with these titles.
For movies 5, six and 7, they gave us numbered titles — Quick 5, Quick & Livid 6 and Livid 7 — however the franchise identify saved altering, which is bizarre. For the eighth movie, they included a phrase that rhymes with eight, The Destiny of the Livid, however not really the quantity eight (although posters normally had “F8” on them).
From there, it’s roughly simply been the letter F and a quantity — the ninth movie being F9 and the tenth being Quick X. (There was additionally Quick & Livid Presents: Hobbs & Shaw between the eighth and ninth movies, nevertheless it’s a spin-off and designed to be its personal factor.) In case you had all these titles in entrance of you, you in all probability may get it largely so as, however with out Google, I defy anybody — even Vin Diesel — to recall which F-word was used with every movie (trace: it ain’t household).
Halloween
The Halloween movies have each a migraine-inducing chronology and title scheme. First, there was Halloween, adopted by Halloween II — to date, so good. Then there was Halloween III: Season of the Witch, an anthology movie sans Michael Myers. When the fourth movie got here alongside, they wished to announce that Michael Myers was again, so that they referred to as it Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. I don’t love that they switched from Roman numerals to Arabic numbers, however no matter. Up subsequent was Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, aka the ultimate time any of this was clear. The sixth movie — the final within the first of 4 main continuities— was simply referred to as Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, with no quantity within the title.
Talking of which, simply three years after The Curse of Michael Myers, the franchise was kinda, sorta rebooted with 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. In addition to being a dumb title that has the quantity 20 in there twice, H20 was a direct sequel to Halloween II, ignoring all the things that got here after it. Then, 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection was a direct sequel to H20. After that, Rob Zombie did a full reboot together with his personal Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009).
The fourth timeline was established in 2018 with one more film simply referred to as Halloween, a sequel to the very first movie, making it a direct sequel to a film with the very same title. From there, you could have Halloween Kills in 2021 and Halloween Ends in 2022, each of which had been sequels to the 2018 Halloween movie (in addition to to the 1978 unique).
However even Halloween Ends isn’t the tip as a result of they’re at the moment creating a Halloween TV collection that follows the primary movie and ignores actually all the things else.
At this level, for those who requested me to make any sense out of the Halloween movies or their titles, I’d ask that Michael Myers plunge his knife deep into my neck as a substitute.
