One of the biggest, most daunting experiences in life is
change. That’s a general statement, I
know, but it’s true. Change can be the
source of great anxiety and stress as you jump from something comfortable,
something routine, and move into a new adventure. It can be as big as a death that leaves
emptiness in your life, or a new job halfway across the world. It can also be as small as Pepsi
discontinuing the Pepsi Blue drink (I miss that drink), or a stump being
removed from a backyard. Changes come
from all directions.
Movies can be the same way, particularly when it comes to
franchise filmmaking. There are some
long lasting franchises out there, and every once in a while, they bring a
change around. Reboots and remakes are
one way that it happens. If a franchise
is getting old in the bones, new life is brought to it by resetting the
storyline. That’s why there have been
three series of Spider-Man movies,
and why the Halloween franchise has
three timelines, a reboot series, and Season
of the Witch.
One of the other big ways of continuing a franchise is
through the lead actor handoff. This is
a little different than simply replacing the lead actor. The James
Bond movies have successfully replaced their lead actors multiple times. The actor handoff is another beast. It involves bringing a new character into the
franchise to continue the story that the main character had started, either
picking up where they left off or being handed the mantle with that character a
part of the new character’s story.
The Marine 6: Close
Quarters involved a passing of the baton from one character to
another. It was the first film in The Marine franchise to have a full-on
change of lead with the story continuing from what came before. The first film, the John Cena one, had no
connection to the direct-to-video sequels that would follow. The
Marine 2 had Ted DiBiase Jr. His
character and that story would never again be mentioned in the franchise. When Mike Mizanin took the lead role in The Marine 3, nobody could have expected
that he would steer the franchise through to the sixth installment.
The Marine 6: Close
Quarters saw Jake Carter (Mike Mizanin) joined by his old squadmate Luke
Trapper (Shawn Michaels). They were
checking out a seemingly abandoned building when they came upon a gang led by Maddy
Hayes (Becky Lynch) that had kidnapped Sarah Dillon (Louisa Connolly-Burnham),
the daughter of a jury member who was being used to keep a criminal out of
prison. The two former marines worked
together to save the girl and make it out alive.
The characters of Jake Carter and Luke Trapper shared the
lead role duties in The Marine 6: Close
Quarters. They were together at
almost all times, kicking ass and taking names.
They would beat the gang, move to a different part of the abandoned
building, and do it all over again. It
was a flee and fight kind of movie, much like The Marine 5: Battleground.
But, unlike The Marine 5:
Battleground, it was Mike Mizanin passing the lead role off to Shawn
Michaels.
Overall, if this was how the audience was going to say
goodbye to Jake Carter, it was an alright way to go. There was a buddy cop film kind of attitude between
Carter and Trapper that endeared the audience to the new character so that,
when he took over the lead role, they could pull for him to come out
victorious. It was okay for the
franchise to pass the baton to this new character because the old character
vouched for him. We were included in the
change, and that made it better.
Handoffs don’t usually work as well as this one,
though. Audiences become used to the
lead actor and main character to the point where handing a franchise off to
someone new can feel like a betrayal.
That’s why so many franchises that attempt the handoff either die out at
that moment or revert to what came before.
The handoff ends up being for nothing and the franchise manages to keep
going the way it was always going.
This franchise comes up once in a while when I write about franchises,
but the Mission: Impossible franchise
was one that went through a handoff stage only to return to what had made it
popular in the first place. The fourth
entry, Mission: Impossible – Ghost
Protocol, introduced a new character played by Jeremy Renner. This character was an intelligence agent
helping Ethan through his current mission.
Jeremy Renner was poised to take the lead role in the franchise once Tom
Cruise decided to leave. We all know how
that worked out, two movies later.
The selling point of the Mission:
Impossible franchise has been Tom Cruise’s dedication to doing whatever it
takes to perform an entertaining stunt.
Whether that stunt is climbing the side of a cliff, hanging from the
side of a plane as it lifts off, or a HALO jump, Cruise knows that putting
himself in the stunts will be more thrilling than stunt people or CGI. And audiences eat it up. I’m always making sure to check out the
newest Mission: Impossible
movie. How much farther can Cruise take
the stunts?
That’s why the Jeremy Renner thing never really stuck. He worked as part of the ensemble. It was fun seeing his character play off
Luther, a mainstay of the franchise. But
Jeremy Renner was never going to go all out in the same way as Tom Cruise, so,
even though they were setting up for a handoff, it wouldn’t end up
happening. Renner’s character wasn’t
even in last year’s Mission: Impossible –
Fallout.
Mission: Impossible –
Fallout wasn’t even the only time that Jeremy Renner was being positioned
to take over a franchise. The Bourne franchise handed him the reigns
for The Borne Legacy, then
immediately backtracked by releasing Jason
Bourne, with Matt Damon back in the starring position. The
Borne Legacy followed Aaron Cross as he experienced something similar to
Jason Bourne while Bourne was out there doing his thing. It was a continuation of the same story, but
with some new characters interacting with one another.
The reason I’m considering this more of a handoff than an
actor replacement is that the characters were swapped between movies. It wasn’t a new actor playing the same
character. A new character was
introduced to the franchise in The Bourne
Legacy. He was meant to continue the
story that The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum had begun. He was taking what had been set up with the
character of Jason Bourne and pushing it forward into new territory while
Bourne himself took a back seat. Again,
audiences weren’t liking this idea and Matt Damon was brought back on for the
next film.
Another one that can’t be forgotten when discussing lead
role handoffs is Indiana Jones. The fourth film in the franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull saw the introduction of Mutt Williams, the son of Indiana Jones. Bringing Shia LaBeouf’s new, younger
character into the fold seemed like a clear passing of the torch between
Harrison Ford and a new generation. This
even included a touch at the end where Mutt picked up Indiana’s hat only for
his father to tell him he couldn’t have it.
They were clearly setting Mutt up to be the new star of the franchise.
The goofy nature of the movie was half the reason that it
didn’t move forward with Mutt at the center.
Audiences thought that the story was ridiculous, with the whole fridge
thing at the beginning, the monkeys in the middle, and the aliens at the
end. They wouldn’t get behind it. Shia LaBeouf didn’t help matters much. After being Spielberg’s boy for a few years,
he turned on the movies that made him popular.
He trash talked mainstream filmmaking and the franchises that he was a
part of. Then he did some insane things
like the bag on his head that said “I am not famous anymore.” The guy went off the deep end, sabotaging his
career and ending any chances of a franchise handoff.
There were other franchises out there that attempted to pass
off the starring role to another actor.
Few of them have actually succeeded.
If The Marine 7 ever happens,
they’ll surely continue with Shawn Michaels in the lead role. The
Marine 6: Close Quarters set that up pretty well, and felt like one of the
most successful lead role handoffs in action movie history. The movie itself was a mid-range Marine outing. It did succeed at sending off Jake Carter and
welcoming in Luke Trapper.
In a world of reboots, remakes, and dead in the water
franchises, it is interesting to see the times that a lead actor handoff has
been attempted. It’s fun when a franchise
attempts to pass the lead from one character to another. Most of the time, it doesn’t work. The few times where it does, it’s
magical. The audience allows
change. It’s a natural progression from
one star to another. And change is good
sometimes. It’s necessary,
sometimes. It’s something that we have
to live with.
We also have to live with these stats:
- The Marine 6: Close Quarters was the fifth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance for Mike ‘The Miz’ Mizanin. He was previously in The Marine 3: Homefront (week 30), The Marine 4: Moving Target (week 154), The Marine 5: Battleground (week 237), and Santa’s Little Helper (week 315).
- Terence Maynard showed up in The Marine 6: Close Quarters as one of the villains. He was also in Chasing Liberty (week 155) and Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy (week 311).
- Have you seen The Marine 6: Close Quarters? Have you seen any of The Marine movies? How do you feel about franchises that are handed off like this? Are there any that you think work? Mention them in the comments.
- The comments, as well as Twitter, are good places to suggest movies that I should be checking out as part of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’m always on the lookout for movies I might not know. Hit me up. Let me know.
- There’s an Instagram for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. I use it to post about the movies I watch and the posts I write. Check that out.
- I also have a Snapchat. It’s not for the blog. It’s just mine. Check that out if you want to see clips from things I’m watching.
- Now we can move onto the next week, which involves an interesting movie. High Desert is coming up, a movie about a biker gang that attacks people when those people beat them at pool. It’s something, and that something will have its own post next Sunday. See you then.
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