8 Sequels Ruined By Idiotic Changes To The Original Concept
1. Speed 2 Went To Sea
While there were many worthy challengers, no film series could be more deserving to top this list than the Speed franchise. The mind boggling blunder made for the sequel will quite possibly go down as the worst mistake in Hollywood history.
The original Speed was an action movie that was great campy fun with a deceptively clever premise. There was some brilliant dumb action and loveable dumb characters leading the way, but it was the ingenious concept that really made the film work. The idea of a bus not being able to slip below 50 miles per hour opened up so many possibilities and the screenwriters utilised it to perfection.
The idea of people being stuck on a vehicle that cannot stop and their efforts to get out of this predicament was a non-stop thrill ride that just worked.
Contrastingly, Speed 2: Cruise Control will go down as not just one of the worst sequels of all time, but quite simply one of the worst stories ever put to film. And the blame for this car crash (or in this case, two cruise liners brushing up against each other) of a movie? It is the nonsensical decision to change the original premise.
Why, oh why the producers chose to place an extremely slow Cruise liner in open seas, in place of an out of control bus weaving through the tight streets of LA, is hard to fathom.
The screenwriters for the sequel try to invent moments of tension and excitement, such as crashing the boat into a pier and, well not much else actually! The change in concept doomed the film from the start. A scene symptomatic of the mess this film was, sees William Dafoe’s villain successfully convincing the passengers to evacuate the ocean liner via life rafts so he can carry out a robbery.
This plan is then contradicted by the villain planting a bomb on those life rafts that makes everyone return. The complete lack of tension and conflict bleeds into this disastrous film and dooms the franchise to a dreary end. And what makes this really sad is that Speed 3: Airplane, would have been awesome.