8 Movie Sequels That Ruined A Perfect Franchise Ending

In 1986, when James Cameron delivered Aliens, he did the unthinkable. He had taken Ridley Scott's thematically-loaded slice of science-fiction horror cinema and delivered a sequel that completely changed the tone, pace, and even genre of the franchise, while all still maintaining the heart and soul of what made the original so wonderful.

It was and is a genuinely impressive accomplishment, especially in how Cameron's script expanded upon and fleshed-out the character of Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley (who is so good in this that she was nominated for a motherf*cking Academy Award for the role). Seeing her go on this journey throughout the film and ultimately find her place acting as Newt's maternal figure is this incredibly fitting arc for the character, so the final shot of her Newt, Hicks, and Bishop all sailing off towards home as a surrogate family of sorts is a pretty spot-on final moment.

But Aliens made approximately a metric sh*t ton of money at the box office, so of course, they made a sequel to it.

And look, the bones of Alien 3 absolutely deserve props. David Fincher and co. were clearly trying for something completely different from either of the prior two films that would have probably been amazing had they been allowed to see it through.

Instead, Fox booted Fincher from the project mid-edit, did a bunch of reshoots, and the resulting film is an absolute mess that undoes all of the narrative finality of Aliens immediately by killing Newt, Hicks, and Bishop off-screen before the film even begins.