Prequels, Sequels, or the Original Trilogy Quiz

Answer: Prequel

"Red Dragon" was a prequel to "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) and "Hannibal" (2001). A fourth movie, "Hannibal Rising: (2007) was a prequel to "Red Dragon". All were based on Thomas Harris' novels of the same name, though Harris wrote "Hannibal" in response to the commercial success of "Silence of the Lambs". There was a fifth movie, actually the first movie shot, "Manhunter", released in 1986 which was also based on Harris' "Red Dragon" novel, but this was not a successful movie and remains almost forgotten. The success of Anthony Hopkins in the main role of "Silence of the Lambs" and the eponymous role in the sequel, facilitated him to be signed to "Red Dragon" (His third and last time in the role).

The plot concerned FBI Agent Will Graham consulting with forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins) to form a profile of a serial killer (who was Lecter himself). Lecter stabbed Graham. He lived but retired from the FBI. Another serial killer came on the streets and Graham was coerced into providing a profile. Graham needed Lecter's expertise...

The movie was a commercial success, and made over $200 million worldwide, with generally positive critical reviews.

Answer: Sequel

"Blade Runner 2049" (2017) was a neo-noir science fiction film and a sequel to "Blade Runner" (1982). Both became cult films.

Thirty years after Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunted down replicants, the world now had replicants as slaves. Ryan Gosling was K, a blade runner who was also a replicant. He found evidence that replicants could reproduce biologically, and then it all got tangled and led back to Deckard, played again by Harrison Ford. (Was K actually the biological son of Decker and Rachael?)

This sequel received critical acclaim in nearly all aspects of its production, not the least being its faithfulness to the original film. While it was considered one of the best films of 2017 it was not a financial success with its $268 Million in receipts offset against its budget of approximately $185 million. The movie won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.

Answer: Original Trilogy

"The Godfather" trilogy was a series of three movies made by Francis Ford Coppola based on Mario Puzo's 1969 novel "The Godfather".

The first movie "The Godfather" (1972) told the story of Don Vito Corleone, head of a New York organised crime family who refused to join in a mob narcotics business. He survived an assassination attempt and handed over the mob business to his third son Michael (Al Pacino).

Its second instalment, "The Godfather Part II" followed two years later. It is both a sequel and a prequel to the original. It has two storylines: Michael taking over the family business between 1958 and 1959; the other tells the early life story of his father, Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro), from childhood in Sicily at the turn of the 20th century to his establishing of the Corleone family business in New York City.

The third instalment "The Godfather Part III" was released in 1990. It was made under extraordinary circumstances: Coppola repeatedly told the media the complete Corleone saga had been written in two movies refusing many requests from Paramount to make a third instalment until severe personal financial difficulties forced him to produce the third part where Michael Corleone tries to "go legit".

The third movie was accepted as weaker than the first two parts (it was still nominated for the Best Movie Oscar). In 2020, the third part was recut and released as "The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone". In an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", Coppola stated the movie "is the version he and [Mario Puzo] had originally envisioned" and it now "vindicated" its status within the trilogy.

The three movies collectively were nominated for a total of 28 Academy Awards winning nine (Part I - three, Part II - Six and Part III - none). "The Godfather" was the first trilogy nominated for Best Picture ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was the only other series to achieve this in the next 50 years). It was the first movie series with two Best Picture winners. "The Godfather Part II" was the first sequel film to win Best Picture.

Answer: Prequel

"Monsters University" (2013) was an American computer-animated movie produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. It was the first time Pixar made a prequel, following the mega-successful 2001's "Monsters Inc".

This movie told the back story of how Mike and Sully worked their way up to being fully-fledged monsters we met at the start of the original movie. They met at university where they were bitter rivals but through their time at college studies, they became best friends. John Goodman and Billy Crystal reprised their roles as James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski.

The movie received moderate praise from the critics but it commercially grossed $US743 million against an estimated budget of $200 million making it more successful than the original.

Answer: Sequel

"Finding Dory" was the 2016 sequel to "Finding Nemo"(2003). It was a Pixar animated movie released by Walt Disney. It featured a character from the original film, Dory, a regal blue tang, with memory loss. She had a flashback about her parents from whom she was separated as a child. The film covered her journey back to California to try to find them, accompanied by Nemo and Marlin, the stars from the original film.

The movie was a critical and commercial success. Its animation was praised as was the humour, (voice) acting and positive outlook. It returned $1.03 billion at the box office, and was the third-highest-grossing movie of 2016 and at the time, the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Answer: Prequel

In 2000, Ridley Scott and director James Cameron developed ideas for a prequel to Scott's science-fiction horror movie "Alien" (1979). However, the making of "Alien vs. Predator" released in 2004 took precedence and it was not until 2009, that Scott could focus on his prequel concept. Scott rejected the direct prequel script that was written by the same scriptwriter as "Alien" and went in a more independent direction. Scott explained that while it "shares strands of Alien's DNA", and took place in the same universe, "Prometheus" explore[d] its mythology and ideas". (A sequel, "Alien: Covenant" (2017), demonstrated more direct links to the "Alien" franchise tying the film permanently to the "Alien" franchise and establishing "Prometheus" as a prequel to "Alien" once and for all).

"Prometheus" was the name of the spaceship used, in 2093, to follow a star map to determine the start of humanity. The parallels between the contemporaneous tale and the eponymous Titan of Ancient Greek mythology (who defied the gods and gave humanity fire, for which the Titan was eternally punished) were obvious and the outcome for the crew was foretold if one knew the ancient story.

The film featured an ensemble cast: Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, and Marshall-Green.

The critics were not as enamoured with this movie as the "Alien" movies. Nevertheless. it earned over $US400 million at the box office, making it a commercial success.

Answer: Sequel

American novelist Walter Tevis wrote the sequel to his 1959 novel, "The Hustler" in 1984 and called it "The Color of Money". The first novel was made into a movie which had the same title also in 1959. It starred Paul Newman as a pool hall hustler and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. "The Color of Money" was adapted into a screenplay for Paul Newman to reprise his role as Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson. Martin Scorsese directed this movie in 1986. However, Tevis' sequel was only loosely used in the screenplay. Martin Scorsese, novelist Richard Price and Newman wrote a screenplay featuring Vincent (played by Tom Cruise) without the Minnesota Fats character.

The story concerns Fast Eddie recognising the much younger Vincent as a talented pool player and grooms him and his girlfriend Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) to be pool hustlers leading up to a major tournament where big money can be made. Vincent's ego struggles with 'throwing' games when required so they go their separate ways. Eddie decides to enter the tournament himself and the two foes are due to face off in a semi-final. Eddie has the choice of trying to beat Vincent or throwing the match to win big money.

The "Color of Money" was a modest commercial success earning $58 million at the box office and received a positive critical response, despite that some critics thought that the film was a poor follow-up to "The Hustler". However, the movie was a successful one as it earned Paul Newman his single Academy Award for Best Actor.

Answer: Original Trilogy

The 'Before' trilogy consists of three American dramas directed by Richard Linklater. The first was "Before Sunrise" (1995), which was meant as a stand-alone movie. However, it was so successful it spawned two sequels each shot nine years after the other: "Before Sunset" (2004) and "Before Midnight" (2013). What was interesting was the storylines also took place in 'real-time' nine years between each episode.

The first movie took place on a single night in Vienna where American Jesse met French Celine on a train in Austria travelling to Paris. They walked through Vienna and fell in love. They both went their pre-determined ways and agreed to meet again.

The second movie starts nine years later. Jesse was a married father living in the US and a successful author (He wrote a novel about his meeting with Celine nine years later). Celine met him at his book signing in Paris and they spent the afternoon catching up, wandering through Paris, lamenting the fact they never reunited. At the end of the day at Celine's apartment, Jesse decided to stay and miss his flight home.

The third movie picked up, yes nine years later, in Greece where the now-married couple have twin daughters and in the course of a single day (on a holiday), they argued about relocating to Chicago to further Jesse's writing career or staying in Paris where Celine has a career advancement opportunity working for the French government.

What is really interesting is that the time elapsed in each story is the run time of the film. The action consists of Jesse and Celine talking: monologues and casual conversation with long takes of extended dialogue with themes of time and space, self-discovery, grief and loss, getting older and being a parent. As such the trilogy is viewed as an exposition of postmodern romance.

The first movie was written by director Richard Linklater and writer Kim Kazan. Hawke and Delpy added their own dialogue some improvised during takes, bringing romance into the plot. In the second and third movies, Hawke and Delpy were given writing credits. Linklater directed all three movies.

The movie franchise was both a critical and commercial success. They were nominated for two writing Academy Awards and Ms Delpy was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for "Before Midnight".

In 2021 eight years after the last instalment, Ms Delpy announced there would be no fourth chapter, telling "Indiewire" that the three writers "agreed we couldn't come up with something good for a fourth one...[so] that was the end of it".

Answer: Original Trilogy

"Back To The Future" was a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It tells the story of Marty McFly (Micael J Fox), a teenager sent back 30 years by his scientist friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). In 1955 he accidentally prevented his parents from falling in love, thereby threatening his own existence, fixed things to reconcile his future parents and then returned to the present (in the DeLorean of course) to find his family is now in a much more comfortable way of life. The lead actors were praised for their acting, the scriptwriters for their clever comedic writing, and the director and producers for their overall production. It was the highest-grossing movie of 1985, it won an Academy Award and the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The movie was meant to be a one-off but its success facilitated two sequels featuring the same stars and the time travel theme. "Back To The Future Part II" (1989) featured travel to 2015 and "Back To The Future Part III" (1990) included time travel back to 1885. Neither film was considered as good as the original. The second movie grossed more than the original but was considered inferior to the original. "Part III" was considered to be a critical return to form but was not as successful commercially.

Answer: Sequel

"Top Gun: Maverick" was a 2022 sequel to 1986's "Top Gun" both featuring Tom Cruise in his role as a naval aviator with the call sign Maverick. The sequel also featured a cameo of Val Kilmer (at Cruise's insistence) who was suffering from cancer at the time. The plot was written for a 'stock' Cruise character, a renegade who proves he is the best at what he does.

In this movie, Cruise is still 35 years later a captain due to insubordination whose job it is to train young aviators. In this case, it is a near-impossible mission that needs successful completion. And because this is a Tom Cruise movie, the young wannabes don't do well and Cruise's Maverick has to come in and save the day. But we did not care. We flocked to the cinema in a just-out-of-COVID lockdowns period in droves to see Cruise/Maverick thumb his nose at authority and also to see fast planes perform impossible stunts. The critics loved it too, giving it a five-minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The fans loved it as the movie grossed $1.4 billion at the box office. In June 2022, the movie became the highest-grossing film of Cruise's career.