Prequels, Sequels, and Remakes Oh My! Quiz

Answer: Prequels

"Star Wars: Rogue One" is a prequel that takes place chronologically immediately before the original "Star Wars: A New Hope". The Rebels in "Rogue One" were able to acquire the blueprint for the new massive Empire weapon called the Death Star. This knowledge allowed Luke in "A New Hope" to know where to attack the Death Star to destroy it.

The film "Rogue One" is a one-off film and not technically part of the nine-part "Star Wars" epic. Felicity Jones does an excellent job playing the role of Jyn Erso, the main hero of the film.

Answer: Prequels

This may be a surprise, but "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is set in 1935 and is a prequel to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which takes place in 1936. In "Temple of Doom", Indiana Jones' plane crashes in a rural part of India where the village people ask for his help rescuing the town's children.

They also wish for Indy to find their stolen sacred stone which has helped protect the town and keep it thriving. The "Temple of Doom" was the highest-grossing film of 1984 but had mixed reviews from critics due to the amount of violence. Director Spielberg recommended the adoption of a new film rating which the Motion Picture Association of America did by creating the PG-13 rating.

Answer: Prequels

"Prometheus" is the prequel to the epic horror-sci-fi film "Alien" released in 1979. "Prometheus" is set in 2089 (33 years before the original "Alien" film) on a distant moon called LV-223. The film tells the story of an Earth crew going to LV-233 to unlock a mystery left on Earth. On the distant moon, the crew discovered an advanced group they call the engineers who will create the Xenomorphs which show up in the original "Alien" film.

While the engineers appear to already be dead, the analysis of the DNA surprisingly reveals they are human. "Prometheus" does an excellent job of building suspense and slowly tightening the noose around the crew.

Answer: Sequels

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is the first sequel to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The film covers the second year of the legendary Harry Potter at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry and his friend, Ron, have a rough start to the school year when they miss the train to school and drive a flying car instead...into the school's fully animated Whomping Willow! After almost being killed by the angry tree, they start the year off in deep trouble with the administration. Things only get worse during the year when students and even the cat, Mrs. Norris, end up in a petrified state. Since the adults are not capable of solving these mysteries themselves, it is up to Harry and his friends to save the day.

Answer: Sequels

"Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" was the sequel to "Star Trek: Space Seed". The setting is the year 2285 with Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew being sent to help the troubled ship "Regula I". Unfortunately for Kirk and crew, they are ambushed by their old nemesis Khan Singh who had been exiled to the planet Ceti Alpha V. Khan learns about a terraforming technology called the Genesis Device and wants it for himself.

The reception for "The Wrath of Khan" was better than it was for "Space Seed" and is probably a reason why more "Star Trek" films were made.

Answer: Sequels

"Thor: Ragnarok" is the second sequel taking place a few years after the original "Thor" film. The term Ragnarok refers to the Scandinavian myth of the end of the world when both gods and men are doomed. Thor and Loki discover that they have an older sister their father never told them about named Hela and, unfortunately, she is the Goddess of Death.

She does the unthinkable and destroys Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, and casts him into a prison world with no apparent escape. The film was popular with moviegoers, especially fans of the Marvel film series. Remarkably, "Ragnarok" was the 17th Marvel film released.

Answer: Sequels

"The Matrix Revolutions" is the second sequel to the original film "The Matrix" (1999). In the film, the machines are attempting to destroy the underground human city, Zion. The program Agent Smith has turned into a virus and is corrupting the entire Matrix system in his mission to destroy it, along with all the humans. Neo decides that maybe Zion can be saved if he teams up with the machines against Agent Smith.

The second and third films were created at the same time and were released in theaters only six months apart from each other.

Answer: Remakes

"Scarface" with Al Pacino is a remake of the 1932 film "Scarface: The Shame of the Nation". The original film is based on the 1929 novel titled "Armitage Trail" which was based on the life of Al Capone. Howard Hughes bought the rights to the book and had the script written for the 1932 film. Laws were much stricter in the 1930s and a prologue had to be added to condemn violence and add "The Shame of the Nation" to the title. The film is set in Chicago and even has a scene depicting the Valentine Massacre. Since many cities refused to show the film due to its violence, it disappeared in Howard Hughes' vault until his death.

The 1983 remake of "Scarface" is loosely based on the 1932 film but instead takes place in Miami and focuses on a Cuban refugee's rise to power. Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino, wants more than to be a dishwasher and finds his way into the local drug cartel. The film covers the ruthless rise of Montana as he becomes more powerful in the drug world. Despite being filmed 50 years later to a more receptive public, many critics still balked at the amount of violence and profanity in the remake. There was also concern expressed by the Cuban-American community about the negative depiction of their culture.

Answer: Remakes

In 1958 the original box office success, "The Fly", was released based on a short story by George Langelaan. The basic plot has scientist, Andre Delambre, developing a machine to teleport an object from one place to another. Delambre starts with inanimate objects and upon success moves up to living animals. Once he believes the machine is able to reproduce objects correctly he enters the machine himself. Unfortunately, so does a fly and when they are teleported their bodies morph. Delambre ends up with a fly head and arm and the fly ends up with his head and arm.

The also successful 1986 remake, "The Fly", follows a similar plot. In the remake, the scientist Seth Brundle also enters the machine along with a fly. Unlike the 1958 film, in the remake it is not at first obvious something went wrong with the experiment. It is not until Seth starts morphing into a fly that he realizes his mistake. In the 1986 remake, Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis won an Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Answer: Remakes

The original "Ocean's 11" was released in 1960 as a Rat Pack classic. The plot revolves around the character Danny Ocean who enlists 10 of his World War II buddies to simultaneously rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve. The plan is to knock out the power and cause all of the casino vaults to fail, allowing them to be robbed. The money is placed in the trash dumpsters allowing one of the 11 to pick it up in a garbage truck and safely get past the police.

The 2001 "Ocean's Eleven" remake has a similar plot of robbing a Las Vegas casino also in a clever way. At the beginning of the remake, Danny Ocean is on parole for a felony. He gathers 10 other criminal minds with the plan to rob the Bellagio on a night when the vault will be full of cash. In the remake, the criminals blackmail the Bellagio into giving them half of the money in the vault.