The ‘80s delivered a treasure trove of timeless classics that remain pop culture staples in movies, television, video games, and music. The studios took chances on high-concept films without realizing how far they would reach. Surprise hits of the time, such as Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, and Predator, launched a plethora of sequels to expand their stories beyond a limited scope of characters. But not every ‘80s movie, regardless of box office or critical reception, received the sequel treatment.
In an era where Hollywood loves to tap into nostalgia for fresh blockbuster hits, the following list of ten iconic films from the decade of decadence has yet to receive the legacy sequel treatment. Some are beloved classics whose creators and stars simply saw no further chapters to be told. Others teased a promising franchise that never came to fruition, yet still became cult classics in the home video market.
10
‘Streets of Fire’
Streets of Fire had everything one would want in an ‘80s blockbuster. Writer/director Walter Hill (48 HRS., Deadwood) combined the early MTV craze with Western tropes, mixing 1950s and 1980s aesthetics, and a neo-noir vibe reminiscent of” his 1979 cult classic The Warriors. Described as “a rock and roll fable”, the dystopian world of Streets of Fire is seen largely from the perspective of ex-soldier-turned-loner Tom Cody (Michael Paré), who must rescue his rock star love interest, Ellen Aim (Diane Lane), from a gang of punk bikers on the other side of town led by Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe).
The character of Tom Cody was ripe for more adventures akin to the Mad Max franchise. The various personalities he encounters throughout Streets of Fire, including his tomboy mechanic sidekick McCoy (Amy Madigan), all had potential for spinoffs to expand on the limited backstories given. Though its soundtrack remains popular on radio stations today, Streets of Fire’s underperformance at the box office kept future stories in this MTV fantasy world from being told.
9
‘The Monster Squad’
Decades before Stranger Things re-popularized the era that Steven Spielberg helped define in cinema, Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad paved the way for cool kids to combat supernatural forces. In this case, the American suburbs serve as the backdrop for a group of Universal monster movie fanatics crossing paths with a vicious Dracula alongside The Mummy, The Wolf Man, and the Gill-man. Joining forces with a sympathetic Frankenstein (Tom Noonan), the Monster Squad has to stop Dracula from obtaining a mystical amulet before he rules the world.
Even with the charm of The Goonies and the fantastical comedy elements of Ghostbusters, The Monster Squad struggled to connect with audiences upon release in 1987. It was too juvenile for adults, while too edgy for young children, despite the Wolf Man getting kicked in the nards. Years of cable airings and reissues on home video gave The Monster Squad a new life with future generations of fans, to the point that Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes had developed a remake. Thankfully, it never got off the ground.
8
‘Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins’
Based on the long-running The Destroyer novels by Warren Murphy, Remo Williams introduced popular character actor Fred Ward as a wisecracking, newly “dead” government assassin trained by the eccentric Master of Sinanju Chiun (Joel Grey). Directed by veteran James Bond alum Guy Hamilton, Remo Williams blends martial arts, Cold War espionage, and broad comedy into something cheerfully ridiculous, yet franchise-worthy.
Ward and Grey’s chemistry is the secret weapon. Chiun alone could’ve powered multiple sequels, while Remo’s globe-trotting missions practically write themselves. However, Ward was hardly a draw with moviegoers, and Remo Williams’s adventures ended before they were really starting. Shane Black sought to revive the character with an adaptation of The Destroyer in 2014, and Breaking Bad’s Gordon Smith tried to develop a Remo Williams television series.
7
‘Running Scared’
Released in 1986, Running Scared was sandwiched between the blockbuster success of 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop and the next phase of the buddy cop genre with 1987’s Lethal Weapon. Starring then-Saturday Night Live funnyman Billy Crystal and legendary tap dancer Gregory Hines, Running Scared features the New York-born entertainers in rare turns as a pair of wisecracking detectives patrolling the incredibly cold streets of Chicago. Looking to retire to the good life in Key West, they have 30 days to bring down a Spanish drug lord (Jimmy Smits) before turning in their badges.
While Crystal and Hines were popular in their respective mediums, neither star was considered a box office draw at the time, causing Running Scared to get lost in a competitive summer box office led by Top Gun and Aliens. Plans for a London-set sequel were dropped due to a lack of interest from the stars and director Peter Hyams. Over time, however, the outside-the-box pairing of Crystal and Hines appealed to fans of the genre, which warrants another look at Running Scared.
6
‘They Live’
John Carpenter’s politically charged sci-fi action satire is more relevant today than it was in 1988. It’s an out-of-the-box choice for the star: WWE Hall of Famer Roddy Piper as a drifter named “Nada” who discovers that a pair of sunglasses reveal wealthy people as aliens controlling society. Joining forces with a working-class construction worker (Keith David), the resilient loner plans to expose the truth to the world.
Though Piper and David’s characters meet a tragic fate in the climax, their success in revealing the alien plot ends the picture abruptly. Audiences are left guessing the consequences for the rest of humanity and how they respond to the threat that’s been there all this time. That is exactly why They Live works as a stand-alone story.
They Live is Carpenter’s statement—a wake-up call to the public about what lies behind the powerful.
5
‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension’
Few movies feel more like the pilot episode of a multi-season television series than Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension. A pre-Robocop Peter Weller plays the aforementioned rock-star neurosurgeon and physicist who battles interdimensionalaliens led by John Lithgow’s Dr. Lizardo. Along for the ride are Banzai’s band of misfits, who include Jeff Goldblum and Clancy Brown. The film is dense with lore, offhand references, and characters who feel like they have walked in from other stories.
The film even promises sequels, teasing Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League—but box-office failure cut those plans short. While today’s content-driven industry might embrace Buckaroo’s genre-blending style, in 1984, the film’s strangeness proved insurmountable.
4
‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
Matthew Broderick’s charismatic teenager embodied the life that young people desire in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Fearless in his pursuit of the perfect day, he’s joined by his beautiful girlfriend (Mia Sara) and his socially inept best friend (Alan Ruck) to play the ultimate game of hooky in director John Hughes’s familiar Chicago setting. The only people looking to stop the fun are Ferris’s principal (Jeffrey Jones) and his uptight sister (Jennifer Grey).
Paramount could not ignore Ferris Bueller’s $70 million box office gross in the US. Broderick and Hughes tossed sequel ideas such as following him to college or into his first job. But nothing hits home more than the once-in-a-lifetime moment of being a teenager, as “life moves pretty fast.” Not even a short-lived television series or the aborted plans for a spinoff movie could ever recapture the magic of one of Hughes’s signature hits.
“We thought about a sequel to Ferris Bueller, where he’d be in college or at his first job, and the same kind of things would happen again. But neither of us found a very exciting hook to that. The movie is about a singular time in your life.”
3
‘Big Trouble in Little China’
Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is one of cinema’s greatest accidental heroes. Loud, overconfident, and almost always wrong, Burton stumbles through a supernatural war beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown—and survives mostly through dumb luck. John Carpenter’s martial arts action fantasy flips the cinematic hero myth inside out, turning the sidekick into the protagonist.
Big Trouble in Little China‘s cliffhanger ending—Jack drives off on the Pork Chop Express, radio blaring—practically begs for a sequel. Jack drives off, radio blaring, unaware that chaos follows him. You could drop Burton into New Orleans, Las Vegas, or any city with hidden mythologies, and the formula still works. The world is vast, weird, and endlessly expandable. That we never got More Big Trouble feels like a cosmic injustice.
2
‘The Last Starfighter’
The Last Starfighter may be the most obvious missed franchise. Cashing in on the video game craze of the early ‘80s, the film follows a teenager named Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) who gets recruited via an arcade game to fight in an interstellar war. Mixing space opera and fantasy wish fulfillment, The Last Starfighter could have been the new Star Wars for the decade.
Though sequels had been discussed in the years since its release, The Last Starfighter got a new lease on life when Steven Spielberg and Seth Rogen pursued the rights to produce a remake of the 1984 cult classic. Additionally, Rogue One’s Gary Whitta conceived a sequel concept to bring back Guest’s titular character. Sadly, legal issues have kept Starfighter from booting up after 42 years.
1
‘The Goonies’
The popularity of Stranger Things, Stephen King’s It, and the recent Ghostbusters installments can all be traced back to Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner’s 1985 kid adventure epic. It is a timeless story most ‘80s babies know by heart: A group of Oregon kids on a quest to find pirate treasure on an abandoned ship within their town. Along the way, they have to avoid deadly traps and a family of criminals who are also after the treasure.
Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment has given us follow-ups to the decade’s classics such as Gremlins and Back to the Future. Yet, The Goonies never sailed past that magical 1985 film. A legacy sequel has been in development for years, and a video game was made just two years after the original film’s release. However, nothing has come close enough for Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Ke Huy Quan, and the rest of the gang to relive that magical time in their careers.
- Release Date
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June 7, 1985
- Runtime
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114 minutes
- Director
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Richard Donner
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