One of the main rules for a sequel in the Hollywood Rulebook of Sequels (note - probably not a real publication) is that it must be more expensive. 22 Jump Street seems to love this idea, as it adheres to it while pointing it out. About halfway through the run time, Ice Cube's Captain Dickson berates the pair for spending too much of the "operation budget" already - he even points out it's gone on expensive shoes he's wearing which they (Jenko and Schmidt as well as the audience) can't even see - and they must therefore make the rest of their investigation less expensive. Ten minutes later, Jenko and Schmidt are involved in a car chase with their Helmet-mobile versus a big baddie jeep. They careen around the campus (look out for the "Benjamin Hill Center Of Film Studies"), "accidentally" driving through the gardens of sculptures, they wince about how needlessly expensive the carnage is as they crash into artwork and through buildings - Jenko even comments that a crash "looks cool but unnecessary." The fact the bigger budget is a plot point at all is a thinly veiled reference to the Hollywood's sequelitis and odd economic system - because, as Deputy Chief Hardy sarcastically says, "two times the budget means two times the profit, right?"
