Sequels That Went to Space

When a franchise runs out of Earth, it does not stop. It launches.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A single acorn floating inside a frosted flying saucer cockpit, a large asteroid filling the windshield.

    10. Ice Age: Collision Course

    Mike Thurmeier · 2016

    Scrat chases his acorn into a buried flying saucer and sends an asteroid at Earth. Neil deGrasse Tyson voices a weasel astronomer. It made $408 million and 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus called it unoriginal. Rude.

  2. Five tiny dog-sized space helmets lined up on the floor of a rocket capsule, a tennis ball floating in zero gravity above them, the Moon in the window.

    09. Space Buddies

    Robert Vince · 2009

    Five golden retriever puppies stow away on a rocket to the Moon and end up saving the mission. The third Air Bud spin-off Buddies film, straight to DVD. Amy Sedaris voices a ferret. Mission control takes it well.

  3. A round furry ball with tiny teeth marks on a sealed escape pod hatch inside a dim metal space station, red emergency light flashing.

    08. Critters 4

    Rupert Harvey · 1992

    The furry carnivores leave Earth for a space station in 2045 and turn darker about it. Angela Bassett and Brad Dourif are aboard. Shot back-to-back with Critters 3 and sent straight to video. Bassett got an Oscar nomination soon after, for something else.

  4. A single gold coin and a buckled green hat floating inside a cramped spaceship cockpit, a rainbow refracting off the control panel.

    07. Leprechaun 4: In Space

    Brian Trenchard-Smith · 1996

    In 2096 Warwick Davis's leprechaun courts an alien princess, gets killed by space marines and keeps coming back. A scientist becomes a half-spider. The A.V. Club called the space setting a desperate ploy. Correct, and also a leprechaun in space.

  5. A gold puzzle cube floating in the window of a steel space station, hooked chains drifting in zero gravity around it.

    06. Hellraiser: Bloodline

    Alan Smithee · 1996

    Spans 1796 Paris, 1996 Manhattan and a space station in 2127, because the puzzle box needed new scenery. The director took his name off it after studio changes, so it's credited to Alan Smithee. The last Hellraiser in theaters. The next stop was video.

  6. A lunar module standing on grey moon dust beside an enormous crashed metal ship half-buried in a crater, Earth hanging in the black sky.

    05. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

    Michael Bay · 2011

    Reveals Apollo 11 was secretly about an alien ship crashed on the far side of the Moon. Buzz Aldrin appears as himself. Leonard Nimoy voices the traitor. It made $1.12 billion, which is how you know the Moon landing was worth it.

  7. A rocky purple alien planet surface under a dark sky, giant three-toed footprints in the dust leading toward a small flying saucer.

    04. Invasion of Astro-Monster

    Ishirō Honda · 1965

    Aliens from Planet X ask to borrow Godzilla and Rodan to fight King Ghidorah, then betray everyone. Nick Adams co-stars. On the alien planet Godzilla does a little victory dance that some of its creators found humiliating. Space changes a monster.

  8. A hockey mask made of chrome floating in a spaceship corridor, a holographic lakeside campsite glowing at the end of the hall.

    03. Jason X

    James Isaac · 2002

    Set in 2455, when Earth is uninhabitable and Jason is aboard a spaceship, rebuilt by nanites into a cyborg the crew nicknamed Uber Jason. David Cronenberg cameos and rewrote his own lines. A holographic Crystal Lake is used as bait. It works.

  9. A small rocket-powered car with taped-on boosters drifting in Earth orbit, a satellite ahead of it and a garage wrench floating alongside.

    02. F9

    Justin Lin · 2021

    Roman and Tej strap rockets to a Pontiac Fiero and drive it into orbit to wreck a satellite. It made $726 million. The franchise about family and street racing has now left the street, the family, and the atmosphere.

  10. A tuxedo jacket floating in zero gravity inside a white space station, a laser rifle and a champagne glass drifting beside it, Earth in the window.

    01. Moonraker

    Lewis Gilbert · 1979

    After Star Wars, the producers bumped For Your Eyes Only and sent Bond to orbit. It ends with a laser battle on a space station, Jaws falls in love, and it was the top-grossing Bond until GoldenEye. Space paid. It usually does, once.

Honorable mentions

  • A tin wind-up board game with a spinning dial on a living-room rug, the window behind it showing stars and a ringed planet.

    Zathura: A Space Adventure

    Jon Favreau · 2005

    Favreau insisted it wasn't a Jumanji sequel, but it's the second film in the franchise and Chris Van Allsburg wrote both books. A board game sends a house into space. Favreau used real spaceships, a real robot and Stan Winston aliens. Board games are dangerous.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A nuclear missile tied with a red ribbon drifting toward the sun, a torn red cape floating in the black space nearby.

    Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

    Sidney J. Furie · 1987

    Cannon cut the budget from $36 million to $17 million, and it shows. Superman throws the world's nukes into the sun, which creates Nuclear Man, who fights him in space. Christopher Reeve co-wrote the story. The series stayed grounded for 19 years.

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