10 Third Movie Sequels Better Than Anyone Expected

9. The First Purge

Mad max Fury Road Tom Hardy
Universal

The first three Purge films always winked at current political and social issues, but the third film concluded in what seemed like a hopeful closure for the series, wherein America elected a compassionate woman for President against a cadre of rich old white men who had kept the country subjugated.

Then, Donald Trump was elected, and the series decided to stop winking and start shouting. That's where The First Purge found its legs, not in artificially continuing on from the false happy ending of the third film, but by going back to the first event and exposing the secret machinations that brought it about to begin with.

Equally a sci-fi/horror film and a street-level action movie, the fourth film in the entry not only doubled down on the political commentary, it gave the series of stronger and clearer direction moving forward as a movie franchise and a TV series spinoff.

Contributor
Contributor

Chris Vander Kaay knows the hidden secrets of the world, but he frequently forgets them. He has them written on a piece of paper along with his passwords, but he seems to have misplaced that as well.