Movies have regularly featured characters escaping death, whether it be the hero walking out of a towering inferno of flames, the villain managing to scrape out of their evil plans with their lives or New Yorkers who always manage to survive massive global catastrophes and alien invasions.
However, the longer a movie franchise runs the harder it is to keep audience members returning to the cinema, which is when previously dead characters find themselves inexplicably being brought back from the dead in all manner of silly and far fetched ways.
Here’s a list of some of the most ridiculous character resurrections in sequels.
1. Jason X (2001) – Jason
How did they die: In Jason’s previous instalment Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (apparently spoiler alerts weren’t a thing yet in 1993 and people had no problem giving away the end of their movie in the title) Mr. Voorhees finds himself literally being dragged into the depths of hell.
How did they come back: Jason finds himself in the hands of the American Government and is held at Crystal Lake Research facility in frozen stasis.
Why is it ridiculous: Aside from the fact that a movie titled The Final Friday managed another sequel, absolutely no explanation is given as to how the army got their hands on him. Maybe the army has day passes in to hell. Also, why would the army need Jason? The audience is told that army scientists are working on replicating his rapid cell regeneration, but surely there are easier ways to do that than to keep a homicidal, machete wielding, serial killer around.
In addition, the safety precautions responsible for keeping him locked up seem lax to say the least, which leads to him escaping and accidentally freezing himself again. Don’t worry though, he’s defrosted four hundred years later to continue slashing his way through the cast, this time in outer space of all places.
2. Alien Resurrection (1997) – Ellen Ripley
How did they die: Ripley discovers that the Alien Queen hitched a ride with her after the events of Aliens and has impregnated her. Ripley kills the Queen and vows to keep the embryo away from the Weyland-Yutani corporation. She throws herself into a furnace just as the little tyke starts to rip through her chest.
How did they come back: Two hundred years after the events of Alien 3, scientists aboard the spaceship USM Auriga create a clone of her using a mix of Ripley/Alien Queen DNA. An embryo grows inside her, which is extracted, raised and harvested for eggs.
Why is it ridiculous: Because of Ripley’s mixed DNA, she has increased strength, speed and reflexes. She has also been gifted with acidic blood and a psychic link with the Aliens, making her the Alien Whisperer, apparently. This is ridiculous on about five different levels. Firstly, Ripley appears to be exactly the same as her original counterpart even though she has none of original Ripley’s memories or experiences with the Aliens.
Secondly, there is absolutely no reason that Alien and human DNA would be remotely compatible enough to splice together into one being. Thirdly, the Aliens can grow inside any human, there is literally no reason to go through all the trouble of cloning Ripley and splicing in foreign DNA. Fourthly, not a single one of the other movies even remotely suggests that the Aliens possess any magical psychic abilities.
And lastly, if they already have Alien Queen DNA why not just clone the Alien Queen? It would be an endless supply of Alien eggs with no Ripley to set them all on fire. All of this makes Alien Resurrection one of the worst sequels of all time.
3. Terminator 3 (2003) – T800
How did they die: After defeating the bad guys, good old Arnie asks Sarah Connor to drop him into a huge vat of lava to prevent Terminator technology from hastening the apocalypse. The T800 gives the Connors one last thumbs up before melting.
How did they come back: The resistance sends back a similar model with the same appearance for the weak sauce reason that John apparently has a deep emotional connection to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face. Right.
Why is it ridiculous: The explanation as to why, in a future world populated with a whole ton of robots, the one the resistance sends back looks exactly the same as the previous two T800’s becomes even more flimsy as the movie progresses. It’s revealed that the future wife of John Connor reprogrammed the robot and sent it back in time after it murdered her husband
Just to quickly recap, she decides to send the murderbot who just assassinated the saviour of all humanity back in time to when he was a young man, because of some last minute reprogramming and an emotional connection to some face skin. At this point it’s not really a surprise that Skynet keeps winning.
4. Child’s Play 2 (1990) – Chucky
How did they die: Chucky was set on fire, had his arm, leg and head severed, before being shot in the heart. Which as ways to die go, that seems like it should be pretty final.
How did they come back: The ‘Good Guy’ doll company finds and rebuilds Chucky in an attempt to prove that the doll didn’t commit a whole host of murders and dispel all of their bad press. Good job guys!
Why is it ridiculous: The whole premise relies on the idea that people would actually believe in a murderous doll enough to damage ‘Good Guys’ sale figures. In Child’s Play 2, Andy Barclay’s mother has been institutionalized because of her stringent belief that Chucky committed the murders in the previous movie and Andy has been placed in the foster care system. This would indicate that no one believes the mother, instead everyone thinks Andy is lying to protect her.
Rather than just accuse the Barclay’s of being a bunch of crazies, ‘Good Guy’ still decide to go to all the trouble of fixing up the Chucky doll. They don’t even bother to address the fact that if sales had been impacted so badly by the negative press, who would even want to buy the new dolls?
5. Fast and Furious 6 (2013) – Letty Ortiz
How did they die: In Fast and Furious Letty was killed by a drug cartel minion whilst working as an undercover operative for the FBI. Her car was run off the road, where it exploded.
How did they come back: It’s revealed in Fast and Furious 6 that Letty was actually thrown from the car before the explosion.
Why is it ridiculous: After surviving being forcibly thrown from her car at some speed, it’s revealed that the reason she didn’t show up in Fast Five is because she came down with a case of convenient movie amnesia.
More convenient plot points include: the head bad guy, Owen Shaw from a rival gang, coincidentally finding her in the hospital and recruiting her for his crew, Letty managing to retain all of her driving skills and finally, her not blasting Dom’s brains out the first time they run across each other despite the fact that she has no idea who the hell he is, when Shaw’s gang has a strict shoot to kill policy.